I’ll always remember Catoblepas as a big horned beast in various Final Fantasy games over the years, but Shamisenfred puts an entirely different image to the name with his strange starfighter, “the bounty hunter Assa-Rak’s personal ship.” The four hover-pods make the ship look a bit like a race car, and the purple pods from the new Galaxy Squad sets make an excellent … whatever that is.
I’m reading paleontologist Richard Fortey’s Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms
Bart’s big bug is of course thoroughly modern, lovingly mounted for display in his cabinet of curiosities.
Unsatisfied with your LEGO Wii? Kooberz has the answer.
(Pssst… All you need is a bunch more LEGO and an iPad. Easy!)
Many of you may have noticed some recent creations featuring leaves in colors that Lego doesn’t produce. They come from a custom vendor called altBricks, who sent me a sample of their products to review. The parts are inexpensive and are sold in bulk, but their reduced quality may be of concern to some. Check out the video review to see what I mean.
Although it’s unlikely I’ll be able to contribute to this latest LEGO bandwagon, I’ve certainly enjoyed watching the new models come out of the GARC craze. Built in my favorite color, VolumeX‘s TEAM G-Hornet46 includes some really interesting parts usage under all those stickers — especially the light & sound brick from the Insectoids sets of the late ’90s.
Photographing very large LEGO models can be a real challenge. I’d bookmarked this gorgeous diorama by Gabriel Thomson (qi_tah) when he first posted it last week, but wasn’t sure I’d blog it because the lighting was a bit dark, and he’d been forced to use a sheet for the backdrop that didn’t completely cover the room behind the model. But looking over my queue again today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kyle Collard had worked some Photoshop GIMP magic on Gabriel’s photo, making it really pop.
The model itself is of course wonderful, and it won “Best in Show” at BrickVention in Melbourne this past weekend, with both a crashed ship and an oared caravel, as well as a lighthouse and large-scale landscaping — as the name implies, the island itself is shaped like a turtle.
Just goes to show what a difference excellent presentation — and a little help from a friend — can make to a LEGO model.
I made mention in my post of Peter’s mecha that I really appreciate all the great minifig head designs that LEGO has been putting out. Well that sentiment can be taken one step further with respect to minifig parts in general. And I can’t think of anyone that makes that any more obvious than Hammerstein NWC.
I know some people tend to look down on fig-only creations, but I think minifigs can be great fun to fiddle with, and also challenging to come up with unique combinations. By mixing and matching the vast assortment of both official minifig pieces and the odd third-party accessory, he truly creates some fantastic characters with a tonne of personality. I am always impressed by the unique choices he makes. I have told him that he needs to build vehicles to go along with them, but even if he doesn’t listen to me, I am still happy to look at just the figs.
Paul Vermeesch created a model of his local Charlevoix Public Library to be permanently displayed at the library. I very much like the combination of colors including the subtle usage of medium blue and dark orange.
This compilation of side views makes the model look like it fits in with the Lego Architecture kits.
Nick Tatar (tater-tots) built an ornate cuckoo clock with moving features, which you can see the mechanism in this photo. No doubt this would make a great conversation piece if hung in someone’s home.
This week’s builder is a crony of mine going back to 2007 where I met him in a smoke-filled hotel room in Seattle, on the first night of BrickCon. I can’t quite recall everything that happened that night, or the rest of the weekend, but we ended up with matching tattoos and invitations from Seattle’s court system to come back in a few weeks for another visit. You probably know Andrew Lee from his kick-ass models posted on Flickr and his many appearances on TBB, either as a solo act or with his band RoninLUG. Part of what drew me to Andrew online and was later reinforced in person was his irreverence and cutting sense of humor. If you’re throwing an AFOL party, you need Andrew Lee on the list. I sat down with Andrew for some carne asada at his beachfront apartment in Los Angeles, California. We talked about Burning Chrome, Oakenfold vs. Tiesto and CR-Z meets. We also talked about LEGO.
The Brothers Brick is a blog by and for adult fans of LEGO. Occasionally, the people we interview talk about adult beverages and use adult language. This is one such case.-ed.
KG: Many builders have OCD when it comes to their collections. Do you have any of these traits, and what traits have you seen in others?
AL: I personally believe OCD like many mental illnesses is present in all people but in varying degrees. AFOLs just tend to have it manifest in a much more visible fashion. I definitely suffer from a mild to severe case of OCD – depending on how you look at it. My collection for the most part is fully sorted by part and/or color. For me it’s an efficiency thing. Builds go quicker starting from a sorted collection and I’m able to store more bricks if they’re sorted. I tend to recycle my builds quickly and keeping everything in order helps that process as well.
I’ve seen the whole spectrum of OCD in other builders. I know people who keep their new and old grays separate (a mild case) and I know people who have museum like displays of every part ever made (an extreme case).
KG: How did you build your collection? Did you have a strategy in mind and do you ever feel like you have too much LEGO? Have you ever had any weird interactions with people in the LEGO section of your local store?
AL: I, like many others, have built my collection in an organic fashion. Sets from my childhood are mixed in with pick-a-brick purchases, cracklink orders, retail deals, LUGbulk scores, comfort purchases, and secret supplier hook-ups. From a macro perspective there’s very little strategy for growth. I tend to buy parts for whatever current project I’ve got going on or am wooed by the latest additions to the parts palette. You can never have too much Lego if it’s properly managed. The tell-tale sign of having too much Lego is if it’s easier to buy a new set for a part you already own. I’m looking at you DanR.
I try to not interact with people in retail stores period. I did however almost have a throw down with a weird collector dude over a Ninja Turtle action figure once but that’s another story . . .
KG: Do you ever build in an altered state? We both enjoy a good bowl of soup from time to time, do you think it enhances the building experience, and if so, how?
AL: I build all the time in an altered state.
Caffeine, alcohol, and loud music are all frequent contributors to my building process. I really don’t think you can quantify the risks or rewards of building in different mind states except through personal experience.
That being said I notice that I am more creative and free with the bricks when I’m chilled out.
As for soup I’d recommend going with the chicken tortilla with a healthy dose of fresh cilantro to get that mojo brewing.
KG: You are a founding member of RoninLUG. How did this LUG come to exist, describe its membership, and how does it differ from traditional LUGs. What happened with the famous “stickering incident” in SF?
AL: RoninLUG came to exist because of a common love of mecha, samurai, and cold beer. The core founding members are myself, Paul Meissner, and Fradel Gonzales who years ago started kicking it at each other’s pads and messing around with each other’s bricks. One fateful night fueled by cheap beer and cheap Exo-Force sets we formalized RoninLUG as the name of our informal brotherhood. Paul and Fradel even lived in the same place for a period of time which became the default headquarters — imagine the Ninja Turtles’ sewer lair with slightly less pizza and a ton of Lego.
We differ from traditional LUGs in that we just do our own thing. There are no official meetings, no formal organization, and definitely no rules. Our membership has grown rapidly and organically since those early days but everyone involved gets the common vibe. It’s a special thing to be a Ronin.
Ah the “stickering incident of 2010” — well, let’s just say some of our younger members got a little overzealous with expanding our epic cyber city layout. It didn’t help that they stickered some crotchety train dude’s MOC with a Shepard Fairey sticker who then proceeded to throw a huge tantrum. To be honest I wasn’t even really involved in the incident itself or the resolution — I think I was out in the parking lot with a bunch of hooligans at the time.
Dateline: Wroclaw, Poland. Bartosz Kacprzyk, better known as the oneman asks the eternal question: “Is it possible to imagine a greater loneliness, than the loneliness of a weak old, despot?.
I think I know the answer, but as always dear reader, you control the action.
We had some intermittent downtime this evening, and I used Facebook and Twitter to communicate with our readers about our status.
That reminded me that it’s been a long time since we let everyone know out there who isn’t already a subscriber on either of those other services that you can get notifications about new posts here on The Brothers Brick without ever leaving Facebook or Twitter.
Both of these are great ways to get in touch with us if you’re having trouble with our (sadly all-too-often buggy) contact page. We also hope to have a mobile-optimized site online sometime soon, making it even easier to stay current with TBB when you’re on the go.
While we’re at it, I’ll highlight a few more ways to get your TBB fix beyond Brothers-Brick.com.
Finally, I’ll mention our Google+ page. Unfortunately (the last time I checked), Google hasn’t released an API that lets sites like Brothers-Brick.com post updates to G+ pages, so it’s just a placeholder for now. We know that we have readers at Google, so *nudge nudge*