The recent Beijing Olympics — and NBC’s coverage of them here in the U.S. — painted a picture of the People’s Republic of China as a veritable utopia of modernism in harmonious balance with ancient tradition.
In this vignette depicting alleged organ-harvesting of Falun Gong detainees, Rocko suggests that the truth may not be so pleasant:
You [...]
Newcomer Crimson Wolf, winner of the Small Category of the recent Picking Up The Pieces ApocaLEGO Contest with his Mine/Cave Hideout, has just posted pictures of another great creation, a Dragon Temple to “honor a lesser dragon god.” The temple is beautiful, with many great details, but my favorite part is the dragon itself.
LEGO Ambassador Chiukeung won the Hong Kong Scene Building contest with his lighted model of Hong Kong’s Clock Tower and Cultural Centre. The entire scene measures 3′x3′x2′ and is wired with colorful lights. So what does the builder receive for his hard work and creativity? Two roundtrip tickets to LEGOLAND Billund. Enjoy your trip Chiukeung!
As a continuation to his tea house, Nathan has posted a lovely Zen garden.
The beauty of the leaning tree is likely to distract those seeking to clear their minds, while the perfect torii evokes thoughts of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism — but we won’t go there. ;-)
And now for something completely different. A Wells, Fargo & [...]
20+ years ago in Japan, my brother and I stared in amazement every time we saw a dekotora (from “decorated truck”). Of course, like their teamsters brethren here in the States, the Japanese truckers who drove these “art trucks” weren’t always the most savory of characters. Today, dekotora are apparently more popular than ever. There’s [...]
With cherry blossoms, a waterfall, serene pond, and simple, elegant architecture, Nathan’s Japanese tea house is an excellent example of the Japanese aesthetic ideal:
The tea house also has a lovely interior:
Nelson Yrizarry’s Chinese Lion from the culture classic lion dance is easily recognizable as an iconic symbol of the Chinese culture. But I have to say that it look rather cute in its LEGO version and resembles candy, mmm sweet.
I must be feeling homesick for the land of my childhood tonight. I’ll wrap up this round of Japanese-themed posts with this great troll swordsman by Hamilton Scott:
And in case you haven’t been paying attention, LEGO trolls are the new cave racer.
Jordan Schwartz is one of those builders we’d like to blog more often, but with new creations just about every day, we’re not quite ready to turn The Brothers Brick into the Sir Nadroj Show. ;-)
Jordan’s latest is an adorable Fabuland scene (aren’t they all?) depicting a pair of Fabuland characters squaring off in a [...]
Minifigs.net member ArzLan is a customizer I hadn’t encountered until I saw this gorgeous samurai on Brickshelf:
Poking around, I found even more great custom samurai minifigs:
Don’t miss lots of other great creations in ArzLan’s Brickshelf gallery.
I know this because I’ve chatted with Nelson about sushi over instant messaging several times. And also because he’s posted this wonderful platter of LEGO sushi:
If you frequently browse Brickshelf, then you’ve probably seen the works of Tiger (tiger0207). To those who only know him by his works, Tiger is reputed as a LEGO comic artist who is skilled in producing comics and artistic LEGO graphics in Chinese. Those who’ve inquired a bit further into his works may have stumbled [...]
Harrison, aka “Corran101″, recently posted a sweet vignette, depicting Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay as they reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This deceptively simple scene is packed with details. The figs are pretty awesome, but that rope makes this perfect.
Long before the Power Rangers leapt across the Pacific onto American TV screens, Japanese TV was dominated by series after series of superhero shows, not least of which was Kamen (Masked) Rider.
Moko goes retro with his latest creation, an homage to the very first Kamen Rider:
From 1971 through today, Kamen Rider, his motorcycles, and [...]
Almost exactly two years ago, we highlighted the Piece of Peace exhibit in Japan, featuring UNESCO World Heritage sites built from LEGO by Japanese Master Builder Kazuyoshi Naoe (photo by SkylineGTR).
Now, a second exhibit (complete with an official blog) has been opened at the Parco shopping complex in Shibuya (an area of Tokyo), and [...]
Japanese LEGO store clickbrick holds an annual contest, in which creations are limited to 16 cm x 16 cm x 30 cm. We covered last year’s contest here, and winners have just been announced for this year’s contest.
Like last year, Sachiko Akinaga of Let’s LEGO has complete coverage of the contest in Tokyo in her [...]
I’m sorry to say that I really only look for LEGO pictures on Brickshelf and Flickr, so it was wonderful to find Horace Cheng on Flickr earlier today. (Remember his awesome Flappters?)
Anyway, Horace doesn’t live in Hong Kong, but he’s captured a couple iconic vehicles I remember from my visit there in 1989 — a [...]
I look forward to New Years every year for all the great New Years-themed creations from Japanese LEGO fans. Many of the creations are in the form of New Years cards, or nengajou, which I wrote about back in 2006 (check out the 2007 roundup as well).
For 2008 — the Year of the Rat [...]