The Brothers Brick

3 of the new Hobbit sets have shown up on Amazon, keep your eyes peeled for the rest to make their way for sale soon. The list includes: LEGO The Hobbit An Unexpected Gathering, LEGO The Hobbit Escape from Mirkwood Spiders, and LEGO The Hobbit Riddles for The Ring.

Flickr user OliveSeon has built some of the most impressive large town dioramas I’ve seen. There are lots of people building cityscapes using official sets mixed in with their own creations and landscaping, but rarely are the official sets so well integrated. Additionally, he’s packed them both chock full of terrific details of his own, like a giant gazebo, full depth swimming pool and surf pool, a large factory, and lots of other fantastic stuff.

Here’s the first:

But just building a placid town wasn’t cool enough. No, on his second diorama, OliveSeon has gone for full-out apocalyptic anarchy, old-school style, with Godzilla battling a Gundam across the seaside city, turning what was already a stunning diorama into pure awesomeness. The flame effects are particularly awesome, and very reminiscent of their on-screen special effects counterparts.

Be sure to check out both of OliveSeon’s other dioramas as well, each of which are worthy of their own posts: though untitled, I believe they are Disneyland and San Francisco. A thorough perusal of all the photos will be rewarded, as there are brilliant details to be discovered in every picture.

I’ve been a fan of BrickArms ever since Will Chapman won me over during a talk at BrickCon way back in 2006. Since then, Will has expanded his business to a new dedicated location, released more new designs than we can keep up with, and been featured in numerous publications and media outlets.

The latest coverage of BrickArms was on NPR today. Will explains how his son’s interest in World War II inspired him to create BrickArms, and the story covers a bit of the process Will uses to design his minifigs and accessories. You can listen to the full story on NPR.org.

Following the feature Chris Anderson wrote for WIRED magazine a couple years ago, he expanded the piece into a full-length book titled Makers: The New Industrial Revolution.

I haven’t read the book yet, but we’re told that BrickArms features prominently in the longer work as well, providing an example of how individuals and small business can incubate innovation and deliver interesting new products, without the staff and apparatus of traditional corporations.

If you’ve read the book yourself already, let us know what you think in the comments.

I always enjoy when a LEGO builder surprises me. As much as I love all of the mecha, sky-fi, and Vic Vipers that Fredoichi builds, he’s actually quite a diverse builder who’s been dabbling recently in medium-scale sculptures. His latest is an interesting bust of Captain America.

Fredo accomplishes some of the detail with stickers, and says, “Stickering took more time than the actual build.” If the result looks this great, who am I to quibble with such non-purist ways?

Amazon currently has the LEGO Star Wars Super Star Destroyer 10221 on sale at $319.97. Other notable sales include LEGO Creator Maersk Train 10219, LEGO Star Wars 10225 R2D2, and LEGO Star Wars 9515 The Malevolence.

My favorite quote from H.P. Lovecraft inspired this surrealist work. The quote goes like this: “the blind cosmos grinds aimlessly on from nothing to something and from something back to nothing again, neither heeding nor knowing the wishes or existence of the minds that flicker for a second now and then in the darkness.”

You can buy this creation from Creations for Charity, and there’s only 5 days left before the store closes for this year!

This Lego westie by ccy_8086 is one of the most adorable creations I’ve seen. The multitude of slopes worked out really well as opposed to a traditional bricks and plates approach.

Many are familiar with the tale of the Pied Piper, the unpaid man with the magical flute by which he deprived a town of their children after they attempted to thank him for public service rather than pay him his due.

Cyrille (TheBrickAvenger) has illustrated the first bit of this tale quite exquisitely. There are a lot of little details I like here, with tiles as part of the stone walls and Tyler‘s roof design. I like how the eye is drawn to the center, too, with the Pied Piper and his rats behind him.

After Ma.Ktober, we’ve given mecha a bit of a rest, but this walker by Curtis Collins (curtydc) from the upcoming game Hawken is too cool to pass up.

My favorite detail? Curtis found a bent LEGO antenna in his parts bin and incorporated it into his model.

As you’re doing your holiday shopping, please think about buying something from Creations for Charity to help the kids. There is only 1 week left in this year’s fundraiser and all the items from the store are reduced to minimum price. Over $6,000 have been raised so far. If for some reason you’ve been holding out on buying a creation, now’s the time to act!

“Brick Friday” is back at the LEGO Shop Online. The sale starts at midnight EST / 9 PM PST tonight and lasts through November 26 (aka “Cyber Monday”).

• Free shipping on orders over $49.
• Free exclusive holiday set on orders over $99.
• 10% off all orders over $149.

In addition, LEGO has discounted over sixty products between 5% and 50%. Highlights include this year’s LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar at 50% off.

The other items discounted by 50% are:

• Collectible Minifigures, Series 7
• Collectible Minifigures, Series 8
• Minifigure Presentation Boxes
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World

Highlights from items discounted by 20% include:

• 10230 Mini Modulars
• 3677 Red Cargo Train
• 7962 Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba’s Podracers

Link for U.S. readers

Link for Canadian readers

Link for U.K. readers

Here is a scan of the upcoming Lego Galaxy Squad pictures courtesy of Cupishalfempty, who purchased a set from a Toys R Us in Canada. He has also posted pictures of the set including a parts list. I am eagerly looking forward to the purple cocoons.

Via Brickset

I’ve got a little time this evening so figured I might as well post some old things from my bloglist.

First up is Caleb Randolph’s Swedish Class B. As though packing in the details wasn’t enough, Caleb has gone where others fear tread and added sound. As for the model itself: I’m particularly impressed by the running gear (the bars that move hypnotically on the wheels) as it’s nice and thin.

Secondly there is Cale Leiphart’s “K4s”. This pair of beauties are SNOTtastic in their details, in particular using panels to obtain a nice thin board next to the boiler (the big round bit).

And last but not least is Peter Norman’s (swoofty) Hiawatha Beaver tail wagon. In case you’ve never noticed I do like me some streamline moderne design.

Speaking of the inimitable Mr. Iain Heath of The Living Brick, it’s been nearly six years since his Miniland Stephen Hawking began taking the Internet by storm. Iain’s latest experiment in cloning little plastic cosmologists has been successful, and you can own your own LEGO Stephen Hawking with The Standard Model.

Iain surprised me with a copy of his custom set yesterday, so here’s a quick review. (No photos of my own, since the whole point of a custom kit made by a fan is the parts list and their personal design.)

One of the reasons Iain’s LEGO version of Professor Hawking has stayed viral for so long is that it evokes the man himself so well. I had the privilege of hearing Stephen Hawking give a lecture on M-theory here in Seattle this summer, and Iain has captured the nuance’s of his appearance wonderfully, from the angle of his head to the computer he uses to communicate.

The instructions are clear and easy to follow, printed on nice glossy paper. It’s always interesting building someone else’s design, since it gives you a view into their thinking process. Iain’s model is full of one-stud connections and bricks attached at odd angles — this isn’t a model to give your six-year-old to play with on the floor.

At $39.99, you’re not buying this model to use the parts in your own LEGO creations. Iain has only produced a limited run of 100, and you’d be buying it because you think it’s awesome (like I do) — or because you know it’d make a perfect gift for that LEGO fan who has everything. “The Standard Model” will make an excellent display model on the desk or mantle of any fan of the universe, Stephen Hawking, and little plastic bricks.

You can pick up your own copy of The Standard Model from Amazon.com. If you can’t find the link later, just remember TheStandardModel.info (which’ll take you to Amazon).

UPDATE: Iain is running a bit of a Black Friday sale of his own. Enter the promo code “BROBRICK” at checkout and you’ll get $10 off. Combined with free shipping from Amazon, that makes this a pretty sweet deal for a custom LEGO kit. The sale starts at 6 AM PST on Wednesday (Nov 21) and runs through midnight on Sunday.

This one’s a year old, but we missed it last year and Iain just blogged it over on The Living Brick, so I say it’s fair game. Joe Klang (-derjoe-) built the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from National Lampoon’s Vacation.

I’d seen all the other National Lampoon vacation movies, but somehow managed to avoid the first one until recently. This is a beautifully rendered LEGO version of a very ugly car, but for those who’ve seen the movie, that black bundle on the roof is a wonderful touch…