The Brothers Brick

The denizens of the Ice Planet have grown a little more technologically advanced in the past decade, now employing mecha as they patrol their frozen landscapes.

Ice Planet 2002 is probably my favorite Space theme, even though it’s completely outlandish. Can you believe it’s been 10 years since the fictional future in which Ice Planet was set? Although I never had much of it as a kid, its profuse bright neon-orange is forever burned in memory as a unique brand of nostalgic awesomeness.

So for my latest creation I wanted to return to this theme that I haven’t built a model for since I was a kid. Inspired by Brian Kescenovitz’s stunning NAILHEAD mecha, I set about building a cold-blooded mecha fit for the Ice Planet. I’ve also been talking a lot with other fans about how much photography affects a model, so I figured I should put my photos where my mouth was. This was probably one of the more fun builds I’ve done in a while, and I hope you enjoy it.

I’m a sucker for anything with, well, suckers. A while back, Chris blogged an amazing marble maze project on LEGO CUUSOO by Jason Allemann (True Dimensions). To celebrate the fact that his project recently reached 2,500 supporters, Jason posted a version customized with a nautical theme.

This is one of the things I love about this project (and why I featured it in my list of 5 LEGO CUUSOO projects that need your support) — the basic structure of the LEGO mechanism supports customization and expansion.

You can help this project become an official LEGO set by voting for it on LEGO CUUSOO.

I was looking through flickr user’s Sydag’s new aircraft models earlier, and was shocked to discover that we’ve never featured any of his stunning airplanes here before. Sydag has been building some of the best small aircraft to be found, including this latest pair of Hawker Sea Furies, decked out for the Reno Air Races. Be sure to check out the other photos of them, as Sydag’s included lots of terrific details like folding wings and a de-cowled version.

While I’d love to highlight all of his planes, this lovely version of Porco Rosso’s plane from Miyazaki’s film grabbed my attention in particular. It looks spot on, and the display is wonderful.

Josh Hanlon from Beyond The Brick posted videos of displays and interviews at Brickworld Ft. Wayne, which took place about a month ago. Check out the YouTube playlist for all the videos from the event.

We first featured this sleek Spinner from Blade Runner by Gorazd Vahen (Kaitimar) more than five years ago. In the intervening years, Gorazd has tweaked his model and added some excellent virtual decals.

The most notable improvements are the police lights, as well as a sleeker and smoother rear behind the cab. It’s always interesting to see how builders continually improve their work, and for those who hadn’t seen it before, I hope you like Gorazd’s Spinner as much as I do.

I love just about everything Bruce Lowell builds, but his latest creation goes beyond the wonderfully realistic and artistic models we’ve come to expect, into the real of the truly adorable.

Bruce’s red-eyed tree frog is certainly cute, but so is the ill-fated fly.

Following his awe-inspiring Arc Hammer earlier this summer, Pierre E Fieschi has posted another massive, ground-based vehicle. Standing at over a meter tall, Pierre’s shipyard gantry has all the intricate detail of a Fieschi masterpiece, combined with a truly impressive size for a microscale LEGO model.

The model’s large photo is worth exploring. Can you spot the tiny LEGO man?

Jameson built a thing. Or rather, inspired by cheap dice on Bricklink, he built himself a Rubik’s Cube. Given the amount of variations on the cube in general, I thought it was a real one from the thumbnail on Flickr. Impressive!

I want to see more creations using those dice pieces. They’ve got some amazing potential applications.

Continuing our coverage of great LEGO models debuted at BrickCon 2012, Paul Hetherington just posted his FUN HAUS! building, which won “Best in Town.” (Paul has a serious winning streak going — he also won Town trophies in 2010 and 2011, and won our “Best Apocafied Building” prize during Zombie Apocafest 2009 for his Turns at Midnight carousel.)

Paul’s funhouse was inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) celebrations, as well as the work of artist Pooch. The building features moving cars as well as letters, so the video is well worth a watch.

In less than a month the 2012 Memphis Comic and Fantasy Convention will take place featuring a section dedicated to Lego where you can see and and display creations. In addition there will be Lego vendors, brickfilm showings, and discussion panels. Click on the poster below for more info.

A new episode of Joshua Hanlon and Matthew Kay’s Beyond the Brick podcast was just released, featuring an interview with yours truly. I openly acknowledge that this is a shameless self-plug, but I’m not recommending their show simply because I was on it, but rather because they do terrific work. They’ve featured tons of awesome people in the LEGO community, many of whom will be familiar to readers of this blog, such as castlers extraordinaire Sean and Steph Mayo, LEGO Community representative Kevin Hinkle, steampunk demigod Guy Himber, and cheese-slope master Katie Walker. So go check out their podcast, and hear what some fellow Adult Fans of LEGO have to say in their own words.

The first high-res photos of upcoming LEGO Star Wars sets for 2013 have been posted by Jeroen_K. Good news if you like dark red. :)

This transparent castle by Ivan Angeli is quite eye-catching. I’ve seen all-transparent castles before but the shapes and contours of this one are unique and the lighting is very well-done.

We’re not even close to being done featuring all the awesome LEGO models debuted at BrickCon 2012 earlier this month. I had the privilege of hanging out with Catsy as he assembled his LEGO Halo ringworld for the first time right there at the con — it was simply too huge to fully assemble at home!

Nearly three years in the making, Catsy’s ring is built from more than 11,000 bricks and spans just under 5 feet. Catsy tells us that it’s 1,467 mm wide, to be precise.

The construction techniques Catsy used to build this took some serious engineering prowess. Here’s Catsy in his own words:

The outer ring (hull) consists of eight more or less identical segments (with minor variations in texture or the use of old gray for contrast), each 72 studs long. The inner ring (landscape) floats freely within the outer ring and stays in place purely by friction and tension.

The photo above shows off the overall detail really nicely, but I just love this next view.

Looking over their photostream, I think we’ve blogged everything Sean & Steph Mayo have built over the past several months, so why stop now? This is the smallest NASA Space shuttle built from LEGO that I’ve run across, but it may be my favorite.

The LEGO Castle helmet standing in for the top of the External Tank is pure genius.