The Brothers Brick

Brickshelf user icare‘s microscale model of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris captures its vibrant architecture. Even though I’m not familiar with the actual museum, this creation is still a treat for the eyes.

Jared (Freedom01) has chosen not to grant this space ship a name, but he’s given it lots else. The spindly neck joining rear engines to a forward control area is reminiscent of larger ship designs, and it’s refreshing to see it used on a fighter. The fins at the rear help spice things up, while the large gun-turret slightly off-center provides an interesting break in the symmetry.

I was unable to track down the name of Stefan1987 so if anyone can help me there I’d be grateful. Stefan Schindler (brainbikerider) presents the SF-30 Sparrowhawk, an unusual, elegant and beautiful bird.

PS. And no thanks to flickr for dumping him as a contact of mine… I’m so sick of that happening.

It’s no secret that Alex Jones né Schranz (Orion Pax) is a big sneaker fan. So his Sneaker Freaker van came as no surprise. These new mini vans are even more adorable than the big one.

Here’s the official press release from Lego:

BILLUND, Denmark – A project backed by Minecraft developer Mojang has become the first user-sponsored project to reach the 10,000 vote threshold on the new global version of LEGO® CUUSOO, opening the way for a LEGO set featuring Minecraft to become a reality.

It took the project only 48 hours to gather votes from 10,000 fans of the project from around the world.

“We’re really excited to see the fantastic enthusiasm of the Minecraft community. This is what LEGO CUUSOO is all about, connecting people’s passion to the LEGO brick,” says Paal Smith-Meyer, Head of the LEGO New Business Group. “It is still too early to say whether a Minecraft play set will become a LEGO product as it still needs to go through a review and approval process to ensure it meets our usual LEGO standards, but it is certainly a lot closer.”

A go/no-go decision should be reached within the next few weeks. Assuming it is given a “go,” then development on any new sets will begin. During this time, LEGO model designers refine the product, while packaging, instructions, and marketing are developed ready for a production run. This will take several months.

LEGO CUUSOO is an idea collection system that asks the Danish toy manufacturers’ consumers to submit and vote for their favourite ideas for new LEGO products. It can be found at http://lego.cuusoo.com . The site is currently in “open beta” and has been well received by fans and niche interest groups eager to see their ideas become official LEGO products.

CUUSOO, which means ‘imagination’ or sometimes ‘wish’ in Japanese, has been developed with CUUSOO SYSTEM, a subsidiary of Japan-based Elephant Design that has worked with open innovation and crowd sourcing for more than 10 years.
The LEGO Group has worked with CUUSOO since 2008 on a Japanese site that has attracted hundreds of ideas and seen thousands of votes cast by a 35,000-strong community. Now the time has come to test the concept internationally.

The first Japanese product, the Shinkai 6500 submersible, went on sale in Japan in February 2011. The next Japanese LEGO CUUSOO model will be the Hayabusa unmanned spacecraft launched in the first quarter of next year.

It took the Shinkai 6500, 420 days to reach 1,000 votes in Japan. Hayabusa took 57 days to 1,000. With the launch of the LEGO CUUSOO worldwide site the threshold was raised to 10,000 to reflect the larger audience.

On LEGO CUUSOO, ideas that are supported by enough votes will be examined by a LEGO jury that will check that the models meet LEGO standards of safety and playability and support the LEGO brand. Consumers who have their ideas chosen for production will earn 1% of the total net sales of the product.

In the case of the Minecraft project, Mojang and the collaborators have offered the 1% CUUSOO royalty to a charity of Mojang’s choice.

Joshua Morris (I Scream Clone) built a ruined maze that has a convincing look achieved without advanced techniques. All that’s needed are some variations of earth colors, differently textured stone bricks, and diverse flora.

LEGO is running a charity toy drive this year at LEGOSantaYoda.com. All you have to do is send an e-greeting and LEGO will donate a toy to Toys for Tots. You can send as many e-cards as you want, and LEGO donate a toy for every message you send.

To make things less annoying for your friends and relations, our compatriots over at FBTB have set up a special e-mail account where you can send the messages.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to LEGOSantaYoda.com
2. Select a greeting card.
3. Fill in the form with your name and email address. Enter FBTB for recipient and [email protected] as the address. Enter a message of “For the Tots!”
4. Hit send.
5. Hit the back button on your browser.
6. The information you entered should still be there. Hit send again!
7. Go to step 5

FBTB assures us that every message will be opened so that it counts, and LEGO says that they’ll honor every message sent to this FBTB address. I’d love to see the LEGO fan community get together and collectively enable a million donated toys this holiday season!

But wait, there’s more! LEGO fan sites are also putting up fabulous prizes, not least of which is every single promotional LEGO Star Wars minifigure ever released (donated by FBTB).

Oh yes, you read that right. So, what’re you waiting for? Get clicking!

Steampunk impresario Guy Himber is hosting the “Steampunk Rock and Roll” contest, with categories for floating rocks and steampunk trains.

There are lots of prizes to be won:

The contest is already underway, and runs through January 8 — plenty of time to build with all that holiday LEGO loot!

Check out the announcement thread on Flickr for details, and watch the entry thread as the LEGO steampunk models *ahem* roll in.

Karwik is no stranger to two-wheel creations but I think these latest scooters are some of his cutest. The use of the hollow 1×2 slope brick is the cleverness that makes these work.

Ralph Savelsberg (Mad Physicist) has packed in the action on his latest iteration of the EA-6B Prowler of VAQ-141 Shadowhawks. I’m especially keen on the opening brick built cockpits but the rest of Ralph’s impressive bag of tricks are all on show.

Legodrome‘s 190-stud long Bistouri spaceship comes from the Metabaron comics. Did I mention that it’s 5 feet long? The size of the ship is deceptive due to the large triangular fins that could be easily replicated on a smaller scale. The brick-built skull design from a close-up view should convince you of the true size of the model.

Or possibly just war machines in camouflage. The hardsuit in this crack team of desert warriors is a true beauty. And much more to scale with minifigs than most I’ve seen. Thanks Chris (Ironsniper) for this compact delight.

Bruce Lowell uses the Lowell sphere design he invented 10 years ago to complete the creation that the technique was originally intended for.

Until today I was unfamiliar with the LEGO mecha made by G P (gdido2k10), but I hope to remedy this soon by checking out his back catalogue. His GN-008 Seravee Gundam is a highly impressive creation and great rendition of the original.

Novvember is the month of the Vic Viper, and the tradition lives even stronger than the previous year. Here is the fighter map by Pascal of the 255 Vic Vipers by 135 builders.