The Brothers Brick

Bruce Lowell (aka Bruceywan) is at it again, making more uncannily accurate models of familiar real-life objects. The latest thing he’s turned his hand to is that classic ubiquitous red wagon, the Radio Flyer, and it’s so crazily accurate, at a glance it just looks like a photo of the real thing.

This lovely diorama by flickr user Burning Brick has lots of great little details to pore over. While the lattice work windows in the front tower may not do much to aid the tower’s ability to withstand a siege, they are certainly picturesque. And the knobbly tree in front is quite imaginative, and is an excellent departure from the sort of trees we usually see in LEGO form.

Eurobricks member Anio‘s Naboo Royal Starship has fewer than 300 bricks, but who cares when they are custom chromed? Anio says he got the chrome parts from Chrome Block City, one of the two Bricklink stores with an extensive selection of custom chrome parts (the other one being Chrome Bricks).

LEGO Cuusoo is really picking up speed lately, breaking 88 miles per hour moments ago! Masashi Togami’s DeLorean project on Cuusoo achieved the 10,000 vote threshold tonight, meriting it an official review by the LEGO Company, and if all goes well, development into an official LEGO set.

The good people at LEGO have asked us to spread the word about a customer survey they’re running. It’s targeted towards the adult and teen fan communities, and you have to be at least 13 years old to respond. As a fan, I’m happy to have my voice heard by folks inside the LEGO company, responding to the survey seems worth the time. Here’s the word from LEGO, followed by links to the survey in various languages.

Dear LEGO fan,

The LEGO fan community is important to us. To improve and support the LEGO fan community we have partnered with Aarhus University, Denmark, and DePaul University, Chicago, to carry out this survey. The survey is part of a large ongoing research project aimed at better understanding user activities and interactions in communities.

We would greatly appreciate if you would complete the questionnaire (see link below). It will take you approx. 20-30 minutes. Please note that you must be at least 13 years old to take this survey.

The survey ends by May, 17, 2012 (midnight GMT). All responses are strictly confidential. We will share the top line findings (in English) with you once we have analyzed the data (approximately end of June 2012) through the LEGO Ambassadors.

Thank you very much for your help!

Kind regards,
Jan Beyer, Community Operations Manager EU/Asia
James Foulds, Community Operations Senior Manager, Americas/Australia
Tormod Askildsen, Head of the LEGO Community Events & Engagement team

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_German
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_English
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_Spanish
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_Korean

There are just a few more days left in Forbidden Cove‘s Jolly Roger Contest, with entries due April 30. Walter is raising the bar just a bit with this gorgeous lighthouse. The light shines–and spins!

You can see some of the lovely little details in his flickr gallery.

There are many animal styles of Kung Fu, each of which was represented by a character in the movie Kung Fu Panda. Jack McKeen (madLEGOman) has built almost all of those characters out of his bricks. I think he’s done a fantastic job of creating expressive faces for all the mammals. The mantis model also captures its subject quite well.

Of the models in the photo, the tiger is my favorite, but I can’t wait to see what Jack does for the red panda, Master Shifu.

David Pagano of Paganomation launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise money for his upcoming video project called “Little Guys… In Space!” If you are unfamiliar with David’s videos, you should check out the original “Little Guys!” and his commissioned works. Learn more about the project from the video below and visit the campaign page to show your support.

When LEGO fan Greg (aka Yatkuu) achieved 10,000 votes for his Cuusoo project based on the R-rated film Shaun of the Dead, we were all incredibly curious to see how LEGO would react. They’ve given it full consideration, and have determined that they will not further pursue turning this project into a set. This marks the first time that a Cuusoo project has reached the proper number of votes, but failed the review process. The official statement is below.

The LEGO Jury has completed the review of the Winchester – Shaun of the Dead project that hit 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO on March 31, 2012.

LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity to submit product ideas, however all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content appropriate for our core audience. With this in mind we have decided that – good though the model is – the film Shaun of the Dead contains content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.

Long before the Winchester received mainstream media attention, Greg (Yatkuu) contacted us in earnest to see if his project was acceptable. We recognized the potential conflict, but didn’t see a reason to remove the project. The model was presented tastefully and we thought it deserved fair consideration. With 10,000 supporters, the Winchester earned the opportunity to receive the full LEGO Review.

Greg has been a pleasure to work with throughout this process. We’re impressed by his model, grateful for his constructive approach with us, and we are sad to disappoint such a devoted LEGO fan.

We appreciate the passion exhibited for new product ideas on LEGO CUUSOO. Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. This is the first time we’ve felt that we should turn a LEGO CUUSOO idea down, but we’re grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Winchester and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.

Since Peer Kreuger (mahjqa) first went CUUSSO I’ve been waiting for the right time to blog about it, and I think that time is now! Sure we already blogged the model but, with 3000 votes already down, I feel it’s time to call the readers of TBB to support it on LEGO CUUSSOO.

This rover by Luke Hutchinson (Derfal Cadarn) was deliberately designed to be purposeless. The description mentions that it doesn’t have steering, and was built by Fool-Trons. It does however, feature tons of interesting greebles, and a very impressive diorama display.

An entry for the ongoing Jolly Roger Contest III over at Forbidden Cove, Matthew Hurt’s wrecked ship is one of the best wooden derelicts I’ve seen.

We may have missed our opportunity to blog this when Alex Sandek first posted it a few weeks ago, but this temple is too good to stay lost. The overhanging rocks and waterfall are a creative way of masking the vignette base, and the white temple atop the dark tan crags is beautiful in its seeming simplicity.

Barney Main’s (SlyOwl) latest diorama convinced me that he has perfected the historical Lego genre. While the two ships are stand-alone marvels, the unique gray sea base brings it all together and creates a dynamic sense of action.

Lego’s Architecture sets seem to be coming in rapid succession lately, with the Sydney Opera House announced just back in February. Now Lego has announced their latest set, 21013 Big Ben, giving some well-deserved microscale attention to a famous landmark previously only seen in the cartoonized world of Cars 2.

Big Ben, one of the UK’s most recognizable buildings and a global symbol of Victorian London and the Gothic Revival style, has been recreated as the latest set in the LEGO® Architecture series.

Big Ben, officially known as the Clock Tower, has stood at the north-eastern corner of the Palace of Westminster in London for more than 150 years. It was designed by the unlikely team of Classical architect Charles Barry and Gothic Revival pioneer Augustus Pugin and completed in 1859.

Big Ben is the fourteenth model in the LEGO Architecture range, which uses the LEGO brick to interpret the designs of iconic architecture around the world. It is the first model to be designed by Rok Zgalin Kobe from Slovenia who joins Adam Reed-Tucker as a LEGO architect.

“The most challenging in creating this model was representing the richness of 19th century Gothic Revival architecture in a scale usually more appropriate for modern or contemporary architecture of smooth surfaces and clean lines,” said Rok Zgalin Kobe.

Charles Barry won the competition to build the new Palace of Westminster in January 1836. His initial designs were without the clock tower that would become known as Big Ben. As his own style was more Classical than the increasingly popular Gothic Revival, Barry asked for assistance from Augustus Pugin, a leading light of the movement that left its indelible mark on the Victorian era around the world. The design of the interior of the palace and the clock tower are thought to be his work.

LEGO Architecture products features well-known buildings, and the work of important architects Aimed at inspiring future architects, engineers and designers as well as architecture fans around the world, the range contains a booklet featuring step-by-step building instructions that is prefaced by exclusive, archival history, information and photographs of each iconic building, its design origin, its architect and its architectural features.

The LEGO 21013 Big Ben is available for purchase from June 1 in LEGO brand retail stores, LEGOLAND Stores and online at http://shop.lego.com/. The product is designed for ages 12+ and includes a booklet with facts and history about Big Ben. Recommended retail price is $29.99 or €29.99.

For more information about LEGO Architecture visit http://architecture.lego.com/