The Brothers Brick

G4′s Attack of the Show featured a segment called “Rad Jobs With LEGO” featuring Erik Varszegi.

Whether you are familiar with Lego podcasts, they provide unique knowledge about the hobby. LAML Radio and A Look At Lego Podcast are two sources I’m aware of that regularly post new episodes and interviews.

I want to highlight the most recent show from LAML Radio containing interviews with Andy Hung and Schneider Cheung, two of the most well known AFOLs in Hong Kong whose works are also familiar to many of our readers. Even though our interactions with the active and talented Hong Kong AFOL community are limited by the language barrier, we seldom cease to appreciate their works in the instances they were featured on the blog.

Click on the image below to download the episode of the podcast.

This microscale combat cruiser by Jon B. (Heiwa71) has a solid balance of colors and details to satisfy a spacer’s cravings for a SHIP (which I have not seen many original concepts as of late). The hangar bays are my favorite spots on this creation. The full gallery can be found on MOCpages.

Thorsten (Xenomurphy) captures the action from an explosive battle between Spider Man and the Green Goblin. What may be more impressive is the construction of the building, which in addition to the graffiti on both sides, also features tiles used in place of plates to create the texture of a real brick wall. Visit MOCpages for close up views and the technique for the brick wall.

If I learned nothing else at Emerald City Comicon last weekend (post to follow shortly), it’s that I’m much more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. So I’m a lot more excited by the official release today of the LEGO Marvel sets than I was about the DC sets a few months back.

Wolverine is looking pretty awesome with his claws and bike, but Captain America is who I’m happiest to see in LEGO minifig form:

Each set includes a unique combination of minifigs that I’m sure was designed to encourage collectors to buy them all:

• Captain America’s” Avenging Cycle: Includes Captain America and a couple guys who must be from the upcoming movie (or a comic book I haven’t read)
• Wolverine’s” Chopper Showdown: Includes Wolverine, Magneto, and Deadpool.
• Loki’s” Cosmic Cube Escape: Includes Iron Man, Loki, and Hawkeye.
• Hulk’s” Helicarrier Breakout: Includes Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, and Loki.
• Quinjet Aerial Battle: Includes Thor, Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson, Loki, and one of those “foot soldier” dudes.

Our US readers can see the complete product listing by clicking through the following banner:

In other good news, TBB readers in the UK and Canada can now help support the site by clicking through from TBB when buying LEGO from the LEGO Shop online. I’ll set up the ads on the left to link differently depending on where you are shortly, but in the meantime, you can use the banners below (apologies for the visual repetition — it hurts my eyes, too):

Canada:

United Kingdom:

Nick Jensen has used Lego to build most of the human weapons from Halo. His latest LEGO Halo model is the M45 Tactical Shotgun, which took almost 2 months to make. In addition to its realistic looks, the model also has working features such as a sliding pump and ejecting shells, which you can see on YouTube.

Because grey castles are so 2003.

I kid, I kid. But this little red number by Lukasz W (LL) really caught my attention. It’s simple, but avoids some typical castle-trappings like boring walls and such. I like the vibrant color, and the white makes everything “pop” just a little bit more.

The Eurobricks Architecture contest seems to be drawing out quite a few fantastic entries, including this notable depiction by Spencer R of one of the world’s most high-class hotels, the Burj Al Arab. With a design inspired by a ship’s billowing sails, the seventy floor Burj Al Arab is located in Dubai, which is also home to the real-life counterpart of an official LEGO Architecture set, the Burj Khalifa.

Hans Dendauw (Tigmon74) built this excellent pair of buildings for a VirtuaLUG collaboration at Bricks by the Bay 2012.

Replicating graffiti in LEGO is tough enough, but Hans has LEGO-ized one of the most recognizable designs by one of the most recognized graffiti artists on the planet.

The Banksy wall certainly caught my eye, but Hans’s corner building is the real artistic triumph.

Via Brick Town Talk.

Mike Yoder has his own corporate entity reminiscent of Black Mesa from the Half-Life universe and Weyland-Yutani from the Alien franchise. North Central Positronics is a shadowy, semi-military organization with heavily defended bases on earth and a full-fledged fleet in space. Mike’s latest addition includes a pair of cargo barges, a pilot ship, and several heavy fighters.

When I visited Deir el-Bahari, our Egyptian guide told us an easy way to remember the name of the pharaoh who had the colonnaded temple built for herself near the Valley of the Kings and Luxor. “Hot sheep suit,” he said. “You know, hot, like the sun, with a suit made from sheep.” The weather forecast placard in the hotel lobby had informed us it was going to be 45° C (113° F) that day. Standing there in the blazing desert sun, it was hard to imagine wearing a wool suit. And today, it’s hard to forget how to pronounce Queen Hatshepsut’s name.

Similarly unforgettable was her mortuary temple, here recreated wonderfully in LEGO by Harald P. (HP Mohnroth).

See many other wonderful LEGO models of historical structures in Harald’s LEGO Architecture set on Flickr.

Via GodBricks, so you can’t blame me for necro-posting — which is sorta appropriate for an Egyptian model, I guess.

The deadline for Forbidden Cove‘s Jolly Roger Contest is quickly approaching. Head on over to see the Prizes, Categories, and Contest Rules.

The deadline is April 30. Just as a reminder, in order to enter, you must be a member of Forbidden Cove, and you do need to be at least 16.

While we wait patiently for LEGO to release the Marvel Super Heroes sets soon, they’re clearing space by discounting all Alien Conquest sets 25% (or more) through April 8.

The LEGO Group is opening 10 new stores in North America this year — including one I’m especially excited about just north of Seattle in Lynnwood, Washington. LEGO will be making a model of a LEGO store — 3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store — available exclusively during grand opening celebrations

Here’s the complete press release:

3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store

Ages 7+ 280 pieces

New LEGO Stores are opening soon!

Celebrate the opening of a brand new LEGO Store in your area with the new, exclusive LEGO Brand Retail Store model! Not available for purchase, this set is only given out to a select number of customers with a qualifying purchase during the Grand Opening Celebration. We are proud to announce 10 new locations in North America opening in 2012:

• Nashville, TN
• Victor, NY
• Vancouver, BC; Canada
• Wauwatosa, WI
• The Woodlands, TX
• Peabody, MA
• Overland Park, KS
• Elizabeth, NJ
• Seattle [Lynnwood], WA
• Alpharetta, GA

Stay tuned for details on the Grand Opening Celebrations, featuring the new exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Brand Retail Store set and T-Shirts! For more information, please visit stores.LEGO.com.

Offers will be available during the Grand Opening Celebration only, while supplies last.
Phone orders will not be accepted, to qualify purchase must be made at store location.

Since The Brothers Brick contributors can’t be everywhere all the time, we’re going to try being more consistent about bringing you coverage of important LEGO events from guest contributors. To start things off, here’s Carl Merriam to cover the recent Bricks by the Bay!

It’s been a little over a week since the doors closed at Bricks By the Bay 2012. It feels so much longer. Getting back into the flow of real life is always difficult after such a fun and rewarding convention. This year BBtB had more floor space, full use of the convention center theater and breakout rooms and quite a few more attendees and visiting public.

At the opening ceremonies we enjoyed some playful banter from LEGO Company representatives Kevin Hinkle, Jim Foulds, Steven Canvin, and Jenn Wagner. Hinkle also unveiled the new R2-D2 UCS set. I played with it myself and it does have some very nifty features, including folding computer interface and buzzsaw arms, as well as a “retractable third leg”.

There were plenty of great MOCs. Some of my favorites included The Last March of the Ents by The OneLUG, Bill Ward’s Rainbow Connection: Kermit the Frog with Banjo, Benjamin Newitt’s fully transforming Megatron, Tim Inman’s Heron Building, Kevin Smith’s T.A.R.D.I.S., Bruce Lowell’s prolific replicas, Remi’s Technic Dinosaurs, Norbert Labuguen’s Hero Factory Octopus (made from 10 of the new Joker sets), Chad Mealey’s pair of zoetropes, Brandon Griffith’s simply perfect Soylent Green, and, of course, my own miniland scale Pier.

On Saturday night the fire alarm in the hotel went off and everyone had to leave the exhibit hall. Most groups of people would have been frustrated. We took it as kind of an impromptu meet and greet. Talking about all things LEGO and getting to know the new people who were nearby, the time passed quickly. It turns out that the fire alarms were malfunctioning.

Attendees may have noticed BLARE Media running around all over the convention, filming scenes for the upcoming feature film Brick Madness. Justin McAleece, the film’s director, was kind enough to put together this brand new mashup of some scenes shot at BBtB 2012 for us to enjoy:

BBTB 2012/ Brick MADNESS clips from Justin McAleece on Vimeo.

My only complaints about this year’s BBtB were the absence of both the Bricks of Character category (Iain, you know LEGO is more important than that work nonsense you’re always going on about) and the Nova Albion steampunk convention that we all so enjoyed cross-pollinating with last year. However, their absence was totally circumstantial and not controlled by BBtB. I wore my commemorative bricks for both all weekend in memorandum.

The Local ABC affiliate did its own wrap-up:

Photos of everything can be seen here:

• BBTB 2012 & BBTB2012 tags
• Bricks by the Bay group
• Bricks by the Bay 2012 group