The Brothers Brick

Bruno Todd has an amazing collection of vintage LEGO toys from before the era of interlocking plastic bricks in his L Gauge Museum photostream. Longtime LEGO fans have probably seen the iconic wooden duck, but have you ever seen a wooden LEGO machine gun?

For a trip into LEGO’s past, check out the rest of Michael’s photos on Flickr.

You can see the L Gauge Museum’s collection of wooden LEGO trains at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum now through mid-January.

You might think that stop-motion animation is just a matter of taking lots of sequential photos, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Kevin Ulrich shares his experience creating the popular Hobbit and Lord of the Rings shorts we’ve featured here over the past few months.

Like all movies and TV, I would argue myself that what actually makes the BrotherhoodWorkshop shorts so great is excellent writing. Can’t wait to see what they post next!

I don’t often blog “modular houses” as I find them a little dime-a-dozen. However Richard “lafabrick” enticed me to break this habit as he has made such an impressive reproduction of a house in the Fives to Lille neighbourhood in France. This house is so cleverly made it’s probably the first (and likely the only) time I’ve ever allowed four examples of techniques from a single model into the LEGO Techniques group.

Hippotam‘s vignettes are always fascinating to look at. His latest shows off the barber’s new hair dryer along with a clever use of the Friends hairpieces.

In contrast to the helicopter I just posted, Bartosz Kacprzyk (the oneman) has posted a Vic Viper for Novvember that’s so unusual it almost feels plausible. Those weird wings just have to be for something important.

I’m a big fan of fictional, yet plausible models. And this ‘Shadow Stealth’ helicopter by Simon T. James is a fine example. Usually compound curves look a little odd to me, but here they perfectly convey the choppy lines of real world stealth vehicles. I dig this.

ShareburG‘s entry for the Colossal Castle Contest over at Classic Castle makes me smile. So many of the details just stand out to me. I like the rounded tower; the little cart with barrels is pretty fabulous, too.

Ralph (Mad Physicist) is assembling a fleet of British vehicles for displays he contributes to as part of the Brickish Association in the UK. His latest is a Miniland-scale Routemaster, better known as the double-decker London bus. Ralph captures the iconic curves wonderfully.

I never got the opportunity to take a ride on one while I was in London a few years ago, but oddly, there’s one that a local garden center uses as a greenhouse up the road here in Seattle…

Airships with houses on them are just plain fun — implying a life of endless adventure among the clouds. Luis Baixinho has created this delightful vessel for his own OutroMundo theme. I love the nets tying down the cargo, but my favorite detail is the tile roof of the cabin.

Luis has been creating the people, places, and vehicles of OutroMundo since 2004, so be sure to check out lots more good stuff on Flickr.

In news that proves again that taking your life-size LEGO guns outdoors isn’t such a great idea, a sheriff’s deputy in Woodinville, Washington (near Seattle) fired on a man waving what appeared to be a gun.

Here’s the AP story in its entirety:

King County Sheriff Steve Strachan says he’s grateful a deputy did not injure a man who waved a gun made of Lego toy building bricks.

The deputy had responded to a report of a man waving a gun at passing cars Thursday in Woodinville. The man raised what appeared to be a gun at the deputy who fired several shots.

The suspect dropped to the ground unhurt. Deputies discovered the gun was a toy and the man was a resident of a nearby home for developmentally disabled adults.

Via The Seattle Times.

Another Times story adds, “The man, who deputies have encountered before, has a ‘fascination with guns’ and had made the handgun out of black Lego blocks.”

Thankfully, this story ended without injury, but this type of situation is why the Seattle Police Department influenced the absence of realistic LEGO guns at BrickCon…

UPDATE: Local TV station KOMO has an updated story with pictures of the gun.

Photo by King County Sheriff’s Office

Today only, members of the LEGO VIP Program get early access to “Brick Friday” sales.

• The free shipping amount has been lowered to $49.
• At $99, you get this year’s exclusive holiday set for free (which can’t be purchased separately).
• At $149, you get 10% off your whole order.

And since we haven’t mentioned it yet, the LEGO Shop now has a Retiring Soon page that highlights LEGO sets for which production runs will not be renewed, and so whatever LEGO currently has in stock is all that’s left.

Chief among these is the classic LEGO Castle set 10193 Medieval Market Village, unveiled at BrickCon 2009.

Don’t miss the rest of the Retiring Soon sets on LEGO.com.

Back in 2009, the Internet marveled at Japanese builder talapz‘s mind-boggling pop-up Kinkaku-ji pavilion. Now, he’s at it again! This time, he’s built Todai-ji, a temple in Nara, Japan that houses the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha.

Nara was one of Japan’s first capitol cities, before Kyoto and Tokyo. Todai-ji and the Giant Buddha (Daibutsu) are part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, encompassing treasures from the period of ancient Japan (AD 710-794) that shares the city’s name.

For those of you inclined to try building your own pop-up Todai-ji, there is hope! In the second half of the video, talapz provides step-by-step instructions (449 steps) to build your own pop-up Todai-ji temple from a parts list — complete with Bricklink IDs — of 8816 LEGO elements. Good luck!

Since BrickCon 2010, we’ve been treated to Hillel Cooperman‘s hilarious opinions about the world of LEGO fandom. This year’s keynote address is now online, and gives you a flavor of what it’s like to get in a room and laugh together with 500 of your closest friends. This year, Hillel shares a lovely retrospective of the first 10 years of the longest-running LEGO convention.

Warning: This is an uncensored video at a convention for adult LEGO fans. Expect the occasional four-letter word…

I came on to write this post and had to laugh when I saw what Chris had just posted…it would seem that SPARKART! had a similar stroke of creative genius as Gilcelio :D

When it comes to using odd parts like the faces from the Cars sets, Gilcelio Chagas is certainly a heavy-lifter. This awesome strongman may look a little wobbly in the knees, but he knows how to heft the weight when it counts.