If one can say that a weapon reflects the personality of its wielder, then I need not say a word about this hardsuit by Cam M. For those who prefer more agile combat tactics, you may prefer the version with the dual-blades.
Monthly Archives: January 2012
Regaining the Pale: Skyrim in Lego
Luke Hutchinson (aka Derfel Cadarn) has been continuing to build some of the best Castle structures around, but his latest subject matter particularly caught my eye. Based on my favorite game of 2011, Skyrim, Luke’s diorama shows the intrepid Dovahkiin assaulting an encampment of Stormcloak soldiers.
NYC back in 4-wide
I’ve made no secret of my love for Jonathan Lopes’ urban landscapes and was a little sad to hear he’d destroyed his latest town. Luckily he’s back with a new project which promises to be very interesting: starting a new town in a sub-minifig scale. By my guess this is about half to 2/3rds the size of a regular train layout but so far seems to have most of the details I’ve always loved. I’m very excited.
Exploring the depths of Saturn’s moons
Sometimes, you start building one thing and it ends up as something else.
I’ve been having great fun building micro for the last few months, and got out my bins of orange and medium-blue (yes, I sort some of my LEGO by color) because, well, they’re complementary and I hadn’t built anything with them yet.
I loved my tiny science vessel (right), but wanted to do something slightly bigger, in the same scale.
Instead, what came together was a futuristic submersible, which I’ve decided is an Underwater Autonomous Vehicle like ENDURANCE, designed to explore the icy depths of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. In honor of the composer-astronomer who discovered this moon (as well as the planet Uranus) and the explorer who discovered Antarctica, I’m calling it Herschel-Lazerev.
LEGO Minecraft Set Officially Announced
Until now, the LEGO Minecraft project has been undergoing the standard review process that all projects coming out Cuusoo will have. However, LEGO has now officially decided that the Minecraft project has what it takes to be a viable set. You can read the press release here.
The set seems to be picking up a lot of interest outside of the normal LEGO fan circles, even getting a nod in this week’s Penny Arcade comic (strong language).
Official LEGO Moleskine notebooks coming in March 2012 [News]
For the past decade or so, I’ve done all of my writing in nothing but Moleskine notebooks. Moleskines have never been more than an arm’s length away, accompanying me on trips to England, New Zealand, and Ireland, capturing details and inspiration for my life on the literary fringe. Occasionally, I’d jot down ideas for LEGO builds.
With the upcoming release of officially licensed LEGO Moleskine notebooks, I’ll have a dedicated place to put my lists of micro-space ship classes, World War II vehicles, plans for next year’s collaborative display, and sketches of interstellar refueling depots.
All four are available for pre-order on Amazon.com:
- Moleskine Lego Yellow Green Brick Pocket Plain Black
- Moleskine Lego Black Brick Ruled Large Black
- Moleskine Lego Yellow Brick Pocket Ruled Black
- Moleskine Lego Red Brick Plain Large Black
I’ve ordered all four, and I’ll let you know what I think when they arrive.
LEGO Elmore in 1972
At this year’s Brickvention I once again had the pleasure to team up with the very talented Mike Pianta (scruffulous) for a town/train diorama. Like last year’s Ararat we went for a rural Australian town theme, and again set it in 1972 to maximise our building fun. This time we chose Elmore for its distinctive train station.
You can find many more pictures by some wonderful photographers at the convention in the layout’s flickr group.
While we’d learnt a lot from the previous year this one presented new challenges. Not least for me how to bring large buildings in my aeroplane luggage. And for Mike how to assemble large base segments without ever getting a chance to see them all together. Luckily we were able to overcome the challenges and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Apparently the TLG judges were too as we were honoured to be awarded Best in Show.
Brickvention 2012 round-up
I’ve just returned from Melbourne where I attended my third (maybe fourth…) Brickvention. Each year this convention gets bigger and, more importantly, better. A huge thanks to the organisers for making it such a great event.
For those who could not attend here’s a selection of some of the great creations that were on display. Or of course you can find your own by wading through the tags or Brickvention group. And if you took photos please remember to add “Brickvention” and “2012” to your tags and submit it to the group.
Mark Curnow (Brickton) brought this utterly amazing version of Bumblebee from the new Transformers movies. This thing was incredible, both for size and detail. It was funny coming up to it from behind where it looked like a jumbled bionicle creation (with no offense to the great bionicle builders out there) but from the front you realised the jumbling was 100% truth to the source material.
With full stands and an incredible minifig selection, Jennie Sasson bent walls to capture the geometry and activity of a Quidditch tournament. Her use of 3D for the players gave the tournament a wonderful feeling of action.
The Canberra LUG brought along this wonderful rollercoaster using the old blue track. Watching it zip around the track was a pleasure. I know David Boddy has some great videos of the show too.
I have to admit I missed Travis Matheson’s ‘Nova’ ships at the actual event, but having spotted the pictures now I really regret it. Some excellent microscale love.
And of course these are merely a few of the many great models and displays that the 10,000 audience members got to see. We’ve already seen Ryan’s rocket and I’ll blog Mike Pianta‘s and my creation later.
PS. Excuse the messy pictures. WordPress hates this sort of layout for some reason. And I hate taking too much space or boring you with excess words to fill space.
Weird is good
I’ve been enjoying halfbeak‘s LEGO creations for a while now, but it seems I hadn’t managed to blog any yet, so I’m glad he posted this strange little micro-ship. Halfbeak is also great at writing very tiny stories to go with his very tiny ships — backstories that don’t overwhelm the model and actually add something.
While we’re at it, he posted a great pair of “colonial ark” ships back in December. Click through for the excellent micro-story.
Batman as you’ve never seen him
Shannon Sproule (Shannon Ocean) has a very odd interpretation of the Batman in 2025. It’s for the LUGNuts 51st Build Challenge: Batmobile 2025.
Teens send Lego minifig into space
Two 17-year-olds from Toronto made a balloon to fly a minifig and camera 24 kilometers into the air. Check out the news article for photos and a video of this amazing feat.
Via Toys N Bricks
Stunning in Red
This spindly mech by Kahan Dare (aka tadashistate) brings a bold look and a bit of flair as it poses cheekily. Kahan also proves his style with a spot of lovely photography using a simple background that accentuates his model.
