The Brothers Brick

Mark Stafford (lego_nabii) has just posted a photo of an awesome model, built by one of his fellow designers at LEGO, Luis Castenada. Luis built an awesome custom Marine from StarCraft. Obviously, the head is not an authentic Lego piece, and a few parts have been painted, but that doesn’t stop this from being amazing. Here’s hoping that LEGO will wrest the license away from Mega, and release some sets like this.

Tyler (legohaulic) brings us a fantastic WWII fantasy creation. Turret Man punches you in the face with awesome! I’m a huge fan of this style of alternate history/science. I even managed to sit through Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, for the vehicle design, Tyler does a great job of capturing that 40s vision of what the future could hold. Check out his concept sketch for the model, too.

A. Yates (A. Yates Industrial) brings us a robot that helps prove that there’s no bad color in the Lego palette. Plenty of builders out there leave colors like pink only for deliberately “girly” creations, rather than making widespread use. Here, we can clearly see that pink has a place, beyond just ships and mecha with female minifigs at the controls.

I just received word from LEGO direct that they unveiled this new set in Portugal, yesterday. I’ve looked through the official photos, and I have to say, it looks pretty cool to me. There seems to be a lot of detail, and the brick-built Ent is a great addition. I also know that I, for one, am pretty excited about the shields and armor with white hand-prints on them, though I also must confess that I don’t actually know if they’re new for this set. Here’s the press release from LEGO:

10237 Tower of Orthanc

Ages 14+. 2,359 pieces.
Build the The Lord of the Rings™ trilogy must-have model!
US $199.99 CA $249.99 DE 199.99€ UK 169.99 £ DK 1699.00 DKK

Finally, collect one of the most instantly recognizable and iconic buildings of The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Tower of Orthanc! Build all 6 highly detailed floors filled with fascinating movie-related details including the attic, library, alchemy room, Saruman’s throne room, entrance hall and dungeon. This exclusive model stars in some of the most iconic scenes from The Lord of the Rings movies. Swoop down with the Great Eagle and rescue stranded Gandalf the Grey from his tower-top prison after his defeat at the hands of the white wizard, Saruman. Build the powerful, tree-like Ent, with poseable limbs and cool swinging arm function, then attack the Uruk-hai and Orc Pitmaster while Saruman and his servant Grima Wormtongue take refuge high in the tower. The Tower of Orthanc is a must-have model for any The Lord of the Rings collection! Includes a Great Eagle, buildable Ent figure and 5 minifigures with weapons: Saruman with kirtle outfit, Grima Wormtongue, Gandalf the Grey, an Uruk-hai and the Orc Pitmaster.

• Includes a Great Eagle, buildable Ent figure and 5 minifigures with weapons: Saruman with kirtle outfit, Grima Wormtongue, Gandalf™ the Grey, an Uruk-hai™ and the Orc Pitmaster
• Features 6 highly detailed floors with lots of functions, including a folding staircase, LEGO® light brick palantir, opening entrance doors and a trap door
• Weapons include 5 staffs, knife, sword, shield and a long axe
• The attic features a folding staircase, the 3 staffs of the missing wizards, the 2 keys of the Two Towers, 2 maps and an Uruk-hai helmet, shield and sword
• The library features 2 books, 2 torches, 2 maps and 2 skulls
• The alchemy room features 2 torches, a bomb (being produced for the Battle of Helm’s Deep™), 2 potions, bottle, skull, gunpowder keg, pot, cauldron and a long axe
• Saruman’s throne room features lamps, 2 bookcases with 3 potions, map, letter and the powerful palantir with a LEGO light brick
• The entrance hall features opening doors, trap door, 2 large banners, chandelier, statue and 2 axes
• The creepy dungeon features a chain, 2 bones, 2 skulls and a rat
• Buildable Ent features poseable limbs for holding a minifigure and a cool swinging arm function
• Attack the tower with the cool buildable and poseable Ent!
• Swoop to the rescue with the Great Eagle!
• Activate the LEGO light brick and make the palantir glow!
• Set the trap door and banish unwanted guests to the dungeon!
• Prepare the bomb for the Battle of Helm’s DeepTM!
• Swing the Ent’s arms to smash or grab things with the poseable fingers!
• Measures over 28″ (73cm) high, 8″ (21cm) wide and 6″ (16cm) deep
• Ent stands over 9″ (23cm) tall

Available for sale directly through LEGO® beginning July 2013

Here’s the designer interview video:

Finally, if you like this 2-foot-tall official set, don’t miss the fan-built 7-foot-tall LEGO Orthanc.

I spotted this a week ago, and failed to get a post published until now. I still think this creation by Nick V (brickthing) is worth sharing, though. I’ve been seeing a lot of Disney/Star Wars mashups, since the announcement that Disney was acquiring Lucasfilm, but this is the first I’ve seen in LEGO. Darth Vader meets Mickey, I love it!

CK Tsang (Chiukeung) has made a great little model of the Ironman Mark One Armor, with HK Lug. It’s a pretty great rendition of the first Ironman suit, at minifig scale. But that’s not all! He’s also made instructions, so you can build your own!

Sometimes, a creation just jumps out at me as an ideal contribution to a theme. This ship by Chris (ironsniper), is an example of just such a creation. The color scheme is sharp, and has the right among of pop. The shape has tons of compound angles, curves, and even protrusions, it’s just lovely.

This model of Flo, from Pixar’s Cars, is just fantastic.  Peter Blackert (lego911) has managed to capture the iconic Cars look perfectly.  I especially love the way he’s used an upside-down fender piece for the bottom lip.  Also, the fact that he brick-built the eyes, rather than using a sticker, really puts it over the top.  I’d love to see this built from real bricks, rather than as a render, but I doubt most of the parts are available in this color.  If you’re a Cars fan, or a fan of cars, take a look through Peter’s Flickr gallery, it’s chock full of great models.

Is this space ship model built by Legolize it Man. I barely feel any urge to slap it at all. The shape certainly evokes the insect it’s named for, but, moreover, it’s a pretty cool space ship. The bulbous cockpit area provides a great contrast to the angled and spindly landing gear. The background color for this photo is also a perfect allusion to a blood-sucker.

I’ve been seeing a lot of these drums around town, as the Cherry Blossom Festival gets going. Thanks to Gilcelio Chagas, on Flickr, now I can build my own from Lego.

If you’d like to build your own, check out his instructional video (purist warning, involves cutting capes).

Apparently, these custom minifigs were made (rendered?) by someone named Gregos Thomas. Trying to trace back through various blog posts hasn’t helped me find the artist, though. I’d love to find this guy, so I can tell him that these are awesome.

Via Toys Are Evil.

UPDATE: UnderScoopFire has a couple more images provided by Gregos (both presumably renders):

This little ship by Mack Crawford caught my eye this morning. In particular, the white parts creating a subtly different curved area in the center. The color scheme is one that’s new to me, and I think it looks good. With better lighting for the photo, I suspect the colors might even pop a bit.

Or, at least, it has the number “11″ on the side… Unless those are Ls. Regardless, this ship by Nate Daly makes an impression. It’s his first attempt at build a space ship in the coveted 100+ stud class, and I think he’s done a great job.

There are plenty of nice details throughout, and the color blocking is well done. My favorite thing about it, though, is the crew. Many builders, when building a ship this long, declare it to be a battleship, or drednaught, or something else with a huge crew. Not Nate, though, he calls it a frigate, and gives it a tiny crew. Bravo, Nate.

At least, that’s how I remember the adage. Halfbeak has posted a creation on Flickr that makes fantastic use of stickers to add contrast and detail. I’m always a fan of checker patterns, and the stripe on the helmet is a great touch. The aesthetic reminds me of THX-1138, while the name (Koma Police) has gotten a song stuck in my head.

Imagine built this little scene for the ongoing Mocathalon competition. He says it’s for the “not so lame excuse” category of the competition, but that’s probably because there’s no “horrific nightmare” category. This little scene does a grea job of expressing motion, as well as a state of mind.