The Brothers Brick

For his local (Cologne) LEGO brand store recently, Joe Klang (-derjoe-) built a scene from Gran Torino. What I find particularly attractive about this scene is how inorganic it feels, while reflecting the movie so well. It almost feels like a platform game version of the film with the straight lines, diagonal grid and textural elements. And the neat suburban lawn feels even more sterile than in real life.

Thanks to Alex Jones for the heads up

2012 Batman and Superman sets are out a couple weeks early from LEGO Shop online. The new sets include 6864 The Batmobile and the Two-Face Chase, which goes for $50 and includes five minifigs.

So far, the Man of Steel is only available in 6862 Superman vs. Power Armor Lex, which also includes Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman.

(And no, I haven’t forgotten about our giveaway of the SDCC 2011 exclusive minifigs. It’s just taken forever to scrub the comment data so I can properly — and fairly — randomize the entries. Apologies for the delay, especially now that you can buy your own Batman, but the person who wins him will still be getting the minifig on a card that was exclusive to Comic-Con, so hope you can forgive me…)

Remember, free shipping is now available for orders of $49, with guaranteed delivery by Christmas on all orders placed before December 18.

I would never have guessed that combining a first class compartment coach with a dynamometer was a real idea. But I trust Carl Greatrix (bricktrix) to have done his homework. Although I’m not blogging it for its unusualness but for its lovely looks. There a few touches that purists may not like but it’s a gorgeous old wagon however you look at it.

PS. And no, speedometers are not the same as dynamometers. But the concept is much the same.

We’ve featured a gorgeously curved Porsche 935/78 by Malte Dorowski here before, but Malte is a talented car builder whose LEGO models extend well beyond that one iconic German automaker. That said, I have a soft spot for Porsches, so here’s another great one — the new 911 GT3 RSR.

Also, lime is always awesome, and this Porsche looks like it could talk.

With books about LEGO starting to fill up the shelves in one’s hobby room, how does the discerning LEGO reader choose which books to buy and read? John Baichtal and Joe Meno’s The Cult of LEGO is an easy choice for inclusion in your LEGO library.

When the book arrived from No Starch Press back in October (yes, I’m that backlogged), I was pleasantly surprised at how hefty it was — an unexpected contrast to the paperback Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide. For a book featuring hundreds of LEGO photos, I’m glad they released a hardback book with full-color, glossy printing.

John & Joe provide a solid overview of the LEGO hobby, from Bionicle and Technic to SYSTEM and Mindstorms, with sections dedicated to ApocaLEGO (including an appearance by Zombie Apocafest 2008), Steampunk, LEGO graffiti, and more. You’ll see a lot of the iconic LEGO creations that made the rounds of the ‘net a few years back — Henry Lim’s MC Escher LEGO, Sean Kenney’s Yankee Stadium, big LEGO battleships, the “No Real Than You Are” minifig, Hannes Tscharmer’s Jawa sandcrawler, and more.

As long-time LEGO fans and readers of this blog might infer themselves, the lists in that last paragraph support the justified critiques Nannan had about the book in his own mini-review.

Many of the featured models are the ones that merely happened to go viral on the web, not necessarily what we might consider “the best” of a particular genre. And with the exception of the sandcrawler (posted this past June, just a few months before the book’s release), nearly all of the LEGO creations in the book date to 2009 or earlier.

It’s also odd to see Brickshelf and LUGNET featured as two of the primary websites under “LEGO on the Web.” Yes, Brickshelf and LUGNET. In 2011. (And yes, TBB does make the list under “LEGO Fan Resources” later in the book.)

But I’m willing to forgive all these flaws in the face of lead times for printed books and the daunting task of making a niche subject like ours much more widely appealing. It was really lovely to see The Cult of LEGO on the Seattle Times’ front-page banner and included in Powell’s Books Black Friday deals as I shopped in Portland after Thanksgiving with my mom.

And for me, it’s those local, personal connections to the book that make it a must-have — seeing pictures from BrickCon, reading profiles of my friends, and thinking back to fun times with Lewis & Clark on the Pacific Coast (the late, great Mr. Pugsly even makes an appearance).

Despite all the pretty photos, John & Joe manage to weave a thread of humanity throughout The Cult of LEGO, so that in reading it you can step into this tight-knit yet simultaneously open-armed world of builders and bloggers, brick artists and LEGO engineers.

Whether you’re a casual LEGO fan or a hardcore builder, The Cult of LEGO has a lot to offer. The book isn’t so much about the unattributed pictures of viral LEGO models you’ve been sent a hundred times by relatives and coworkers as it is the diversity of real people and the community behind them.

My verdict: Find room on your LEGO shelf for The Cult of LEGO.

Forbidden Cove, to help get you in the groove of the season, has announced a contest! The rules are pretty simple: create your own Pirate-type Santa, and build him a setting in which to celebrate the season. The prize is a $50 LEGO Shop-at-Home gift card!

Click the picture for all of the rules and details!

Just under three weeks remain for Classic-Castle‘s Colossal Castle Contest. Check out Classic-Castle for the rules, categories, and prizes!

This wonderful vintage plane has been recreated by Nick Dean (aka -NickD-). The Boeing 314 is one of the beautiful airplanes from an era when flying still had a romantic flair, and the world was shrinking due to the incoming rapidity of long-distance travel. Nick’s model is of a specific Boeing 314, the “Yankee Clipper” which flew for Pan-Am starting in 1939.

Tim Goddard’s (aka Rogue Bantha) horse sculpture really shows just how organic a shape can be achieved with bricks. The gorgeous posing and deft sculpting of the equine form lend the statue great beauty and elegance.

Since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged anything I’m cutting myself some picture quality slack and putting this one up here on the blog. I’ve been jealous of those with the time to play this, from all accounts excellent, game.

It’s been a very long while since Brian Kescenovitz (mondayn00dle) has brought us one of his dieselpunk mecha but it’s definitely been worth the wait. His “Badger” Combat Walker features some very, very nice part use and lots of delightful plausible details like pistons and armour plating.

The LEGO Shop online has extended its free shipping (with guaranteed delivery before Christmas) several more days, through December 18. They’ve also reduced the minimum purchase from $99 to $49.

And since I missed it earlier, NinjaGo gets a refresh in 2012 with a bunch of funky sets, which are all out a few weeks early.

In news that should surprise nobody, Arkansas-based warehouse store Sam’s Club (Walmart’s version of Costco) has pulled copies of Brendan Powell Smith‘s new book The Brick Bible from its shelves, citing the book’s “mature content.” Walmart and Sam’s Club have a long history of corporate censorship (yes, that link is from 1997!), but it’s sad to see them throw their weight around against one of our own.

CNET News has the details, and Bruce over at GodBricks has an excellent opinion piece that approaches the issue from a religious perspective.

Brendan’s publisher Skyhorse sent The Brothers Brick a copy of The Brick Bible a while ago, and I finally found the time to sit down with it over Thanksgiving. The book is a large-format paperback, like a graphic novel. Some of the photos are a bit dark and/or grainy, but given that they span ten years of digital photography, I suspect the lower-quality ones are the earliest (the ones I know are his most recent all show off Brendan’s stellar presentation skills).

In terms of subject matter, The Brick Bible is no more a children’s book than the Bible. In that sense, Sam’s Club isn’t wrong — yes, indeed, the Bible is rampant with “mature content.” And Brendan’s version doesn’t shirk from the difficult stories compiled by the Deuteronomist in books like Judges that rarely make the sanitized Sunday School curriculum. Yes, Brendan’s LEGO version of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 20) is tough to read, but so is the original. Don’t like the way Brandon shows God repeatedly making the Israelites stone their neighbors who’ve committed minor sins (a la the Taliban)? Too bad, it’s in the Bible. Think it’s a bit odd that God and Satan use Job as a plaything in their cosmic game? Read the book.

Oddly, though, The Brick Bible is just as thought-provoking and works just as well regardless of your religious or philosophical persuasion (as Bruce says). For the non-religious, the book confirms why some of us have set aside the belief system illustrated so well in Brendan’s book. For believers, The Brick Bible is an accurate (if incomplete) representation of the Old Testament. If your belief doesn’t come through stronger after seeing exactly what’s in the source material, don’t blame Brendan Powell Smith. But for all of you out there reading this (presumably LEGO fans) who might not see yourself so clearly on one side or the other of the religious divide, it’s a great collection of LEGO art with interesting building techniques and (generally) excellent LEGO photography.

My recommendation? Buy it. I’ll give you three reasons: First, because it’s a rip-roaring read that has all the crazy shenanigans in the ancient original. Second, to show support for a fellow member of the LEGO building community. Third, because buying this banned book makes a statement about corporate censorship in the face of the likes of Sam’s Club/Walmart. Sure, most of us live in countries where our governments don’t have the right to censor the art and literature we choose to consume, but corporations do have ever-increasing power over what we can and can’t read, watch, or listen to. I’d love to hear about a campaign to have the Bible banned from Sam’s Club on exactly the same grounds they used to ban Brendon’s illustrated LEGO Bible. Think of the children! Anyway, buy the book. Don’t let Sam’s Club/Walmart win.

Capturing liquid forms is hard to do in LEGO, but great water features keep cropping up in this year’s Colossal Castle Contest entries. This wonderful waterfall diorama by Sean and Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral) includes lots of little scenes that add up to a great story.

You might miss the water nymph, so here’s a close-up:

Thanks for the tip, Blake!

I don’t have much to say about this new creation by Peter Reid (legoloverman) except that it’s just great. The use of minifig sextants to build a cube is brilliant, and makes a perfect micro scale Borg cube. It’s hard to think of a more ridiculously single purpose-part, and yet it works quite well to add detail at this tiny scale.