Schneider Cheung celebrates the Year of the Dragon with the most wonderfully sculpted Chinese dragon I’ve ever seen.

Meanwhile, rack911 celebrates with a depiction of Cai Shen, the God of Wealth, complete with a golden dragon and a bowl for treasure.

(And since we get at least one comment about this every year, Japan celebrates New Year’s on January 1st every year. Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, the exact date varies by year, and is celebrated by many other Asian cultures. Just not Japan.)

Luckily Mike doesn’t.

And now maxvf1 doesn’t

The scale varies within the scene, and is wildly incorrect for the Micropolis standard I used as the base, but my tiny Tokyo has everything I remember from the time I spent there in the 70′s and 80′s — old-style bullet trains and neon-hued commuter trains, brightly colored advertising cubes atop buildings in Ginza and Shinjuku, the ever-expanding industry around Tokyo Harbor, Meiji Shrine, the National Diet, and the iconic red and white of Tokyo Tower.

Anu provides a bit of background:

This is an Ancient Temple from India. This is the Nagara style of Architecture which was fully developed in the 10th century. Such Temples exist till date and are very much in use as a place of worship and pilgrimage. In Hinduism the devotee offers flowers and fruit to the ‘deity’ as a form of worship. Therefore we always see stalls selling garlands, flowers and fruit outside a temple. A visit to the Temple is not a sombre event, and could be and evening outing for the family or a ‘picnic’ Therefore one finds a ‘fair’ like atmosphere around the entrance.

Her beautiful diorama deservedly won “Best Architectural Style” at BrickCon.

If you’re ever at Kyomizu-dera, it’s worth grabbing a snack at the little stand just inside the southwest entrance. Tea, mochi dango and kitsune udon.

The third and most exciting section is a display of 17 famous world landmarks and icons such as the Grand Palace in Thailand by Vincent Cheung, a pyramid from Egypt by ArzLan, the Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Russia by Schneider Cheung, and Tiananmen in China by Andy Hung. Some early pictures taken by Joey Kwok have been uploaded on Flickr. I’ll update this post as more pictures of the event show up.

Via twee affect, which has a nice discussion of the various interesting techniques that Michael inevitably applies to his LEGO creations.

You may have noticed that all of the advertising banners on the site have been replaced by links to donate to the Red Cross. That’s a start, and we certainly encourage everyone to do so. In addition, though, we’re auctioning off LEGO creations to raise more money for this important cause. If you’d like to contribute a creation to be auctioned off, please use the form on the Creations for Charity website.

If you’re interested in seeing what’s available right now, see the active auctions. More are to come!

For the past six months, I’ve been living and working in Mainland, China. With my Lego collection still in America, I’ve been going through ABS withdrawal. Thankfully, Hong Kong has a relatively large AFOL base and, as fate would have it, one of their exhibitions (Bricks Adventure 2011) coincided with my vacation. Having never been to an international event before, I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was that the Hong Kong Lego fans were very welcoming and organized a wonderful show, filled with wonderful creations. While there, I definitely got my Lego fix and then some.

With this being its second year running, Bricks Adventure is an annual Lego exhibition run by the AFOL group, Legend Bricks. Unlike American events, which are usually four day affairs, Bricks Adventure was held over a whopping ten day period (down from a 17 day period last year), and the show was open to the public every day. In 2010, the exhibition drew in 13,000 visitors, while 11,500 showed up this year. Considering that the event was seven days shorter, this year’s attendance was actually stronger than 2010’s.

With thirty-five participants, Bricks Adventure was run on a relatively smaller scale than many events in Western countries. However, don’t let the seemingly small numbers fool you. Truth be told, this dedicated group of AFOLs churned out a slew of awe-inspiring MOCS and, clearly, the emphasis was on quality over quantity.

A wide variety of themes were represented, which kept things fresh and held one’s interest. A personal favorite of mine was the collaborative Japanese train layout by Andy Bear, William Wong, Alynn, and Schneider Cheung. They did a fantastic job of making a cohesive display, filled with tons of detail. There was also another wonderful collaborative train layout, featuring European inspired buildings. One particularly interesting building was the Paradisa hotel, which made excellent use of curves.

Other fantastic collaborative displays consisted of the themes of World War II, castle, and pirates. The techniques employed in crafting the hull and masts of Arzlan’s Chinese junk made it a MOC worth drooling over. The castle display was also fun to look at, especially with its splashes of humor here and there, such as the girl tossing a pig to a swarm of hungry gators in the castle moat.

Mechs were well represented. For example, Icedpluscoffee had impressive renderings of the “twins” from Transformers, as well as an APU from The Matrix Reloaded. Although he wasn’t present at the exhibition, one builder from Taiwan (Tsan-Nien) still shipped two of his mechs over to Hong Kong for display. Now that’s dedication!

A word also needs to be said about Schneider Cheung, who can crank out awesome studs-out sculptures in what seems like no time. For me, his most memorable pieces were a Chinese New Year lion head and seated Buddha, which was placed within the Japanese display. He also had some MOCs that looked good enough to eat…literally!

Overall, being able to attend Bricks Adventure was a more than memorable experience. For many Hong Kong AFOLs, this was the first time they were able to see their displays set up, and it was an honor for me to share in their enthusiasm. Without a doubt, Hong Kong’s Lego fans are as lively as the city itself, making an event like Bricks Adventure well worth visiting.