Luke Hutchinson (aka Derfel Cadarn) has been continuing to build some of the best Castle structures around, but his latest subject matter particularly caught my eye. Based on my favorite game of 2011, Skyrim, Luke’s diorama shows the intrepid Dovahkiin assaulting an encampment of Stormcloak soldiers.

Until now, the LEGO Minecraft project has been undergoing the standard review process that all projects coming out Cuusoo will have. However, LEGO has now officially decided that the Minecraft project has what it takes to be a viable set. You can read the press release here.
The set seems to be picking up a lot of interest outside of the normal LEGO fan circles, even getting a nod in this week’s Penny Arcade comic (strong language).

Guy Himber built a robot to get the Onyx Active Reload medal in Gears of War 3 (watch him get the medal).

Meanwhile, Justin built his own robot to max out his restoration level to 100 in Skyrim.

What do you think? Fair play or hax0rs?

LEGO Universe to close in 2012

Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.

November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.

In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.

“The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”

Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.

“The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy,” said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, LEGO Group. “We have more than 20 million visitors on www.LEGO.com every month, and LEGO video games are among the bestselling children’s video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running LEGO Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area.”

As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.

EDIT: Added Rich M’s name. Missed that it was a collaboration.

How It Started

The graphics of Halo: Reach blew me away when I first played it. Textures, environments, and character designs all impressed me, but as a LEGO gun builder, I was most impressed with the detail of all the guns. Since then, I built the pistol and combat knife from Halo: Reach. I wanted to build more weapons from Halo: Reach and I was debating between the shotgun and the sniper rifle. I had the parts and money to make one of them. I went with the shotgun but got really frustrated when I couldn’t find a way to make the pump slide back and forth in the front. So I gave up and started the sniper rifle.

I captured many close-up screenshots of the sniper rifle in Halo: Reach’s theater mode, looked up information about the gun on halopedian.com, used the Halo: Reach action figures from McFarlane, and looked at Perry B.’s version as references. I wanted to include as many details as I possibly can squeeze in. I wanted the final MOC to be perfect.

The Build Process

One of the first things I worried about when I decided on building the sniper rifle was the length. It seemed that I would never build something that was going to be 5.5ft long. I thought about the project from another perspective: building the sniper rifle is like building the assault rifle but with a really long barrel. Breaking the project down into three simple parts (body, barrel, and scope) really eased some doubts I had. The sniper rifle in Halo: Reach is approximately 5.5ft long, so a tape measure locked at 5.5ft was always around for reference. I built the body of the sniper the same way I built the assault rifle, SMG, and pistol: Start from the front and build my way to the back. The barrel was easy and I had a plan in mind from the start. I would cover a supporting rod with 2×2 quarter cylinder bricks. So the only difficult tasks were the body and scope.

Problems

I did drop the gun once during the WIP stage. I got impatient and wanted to hold it as if it were finished, and it fell to the ground. There was another time later on where the front grip collapsed because of its weight.

Facts

Length: 63 inches (1.6 meters)
Weight: Approximately 10.5 pounds
Non-LEGO used: dowel rod, custom waterslide decals
Features: Removable magazine, sliding bolt, moving safety
Time spent building: about 4 months
Piece count: uhh…?

More pictures

I’ve somehow managed to go through my entire life never playing the much loved Mega Man. Drill Man is apparently one of the bosses. I reckon Bruce Lowell’s (Bruceywan) version is pretty boss.

Via The Living Brick. Iain suggests that these little robots could become the next LEGO building fad. I certainly wouldn’t object.

It’s hard to miss Marcus’ Hammer of Dawn taking out the Corpser, but watch for some cool details like aiming the frag grenade and a Retro Lancer execution.

The making-of film itself has some excellent stop-motion sequences:

Relating a story about taking his son to work one day during a time when his wife felt he was spending too much time at work, his son says that Dad “plays with Legos all day.”

I can imagine little scenes like this one by David McNeely scattered around Kojima’s design studio…

Read more on Joystiq (via Kotaku).