Tag Archives: Valve

“I’ve really let the place go since you killed me, by the way. Thanks for that.”

We could fill pages and pages here on The Brothers brick with excellent LEGO models inspired by the Portal universe. In fact, we have. Joining the ranks of wonderful LEGO Portal builders is Gabe Umland, whose dilapidated Portal 2 test chamber includes some excellent technological decay — something hard to do well in LEGO.

Dilapidation

Speaking of GLaDOS, I quite enjoyed seeing Pacific Rim last week, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more LEGO creations inspired by giant robots fighting giant sea monsters from another dimension…

“How are you holding up? Because I’m a potato.”

Alex Kobbs of Kooberz Studios posted his LEGO Portal video back in December, but it looks like we only featured the behind-the scenes video. I recently finished Portal 2 again, and Alex posted about the video on Flickr, so now seems as good a time as any to highlight the main video.

Since this is Part 1, I wonder when Part 2 will be out. Can’t wait!

Portal 2 Stop Motion

Alex Kobbs (Kooberz) is no stranger to LEGO stop motion films. His works have been featured here in the past. His latest film based on the Portal 2 video game has just become public.

If you like it, be sure to cast your vote in the Machinima Interactive Film Festival.

Be sure to check out his Youtube Channel for his other films.

Masked Arsonist Gets Bricked

Matt De Lanoy’s latest mosaic shows off the infamous flamethrower from Team Fortress 2 and his delightfully insane Pyrovision, where he lives in a world quite his own.

Pyrovision

Portal on CUUSOO

I have seen a lot of discussion with respect to CUUSOO, in particular in terms of licenced themes, but generally about feasability of the entire program. Everyone obvioulsy has their own opinions, but personally I think the program is brilliant. We have to keep in mind that this is all in Beta right now and obvioulsy the kinks will be worked out over time. I think the true success of CUUSOO will be through highly thought out projects that are designed with the program in mind…just throwing any given LEGO model on there won’t work in most cases.

Now with all that being said, Team Jigsaw, made up of Five X Five, Brickthing, Lego Junkie, and Arkov have just published a new project based on the hugely popular Portal video game series. I have to be honest, I have never played the games, but I am familiar with the design and aesthetic of it, and one thing is very clear with this project…these guys put a tonne of thought and effort into all aspects of the design!

Well here we go again!

The thing that really stands out with this for me, is that they have really designed it with different types of possible sets in mind. This wouldn’t be restricted to just a simple building set. One of my favourites is the LEGO boardgame version.

Portal Board Game (Cuusoo)

Be sure to check out all the details and ideas. If nothing else, these guys deserve a pat on the back for their planning and development. I think they have set the bar rather high for the design effort of future projects. This had previously been denied by the CUUSOO team, but their perseverance got it reconsidered and approved for voting.

Well done guys!! I really do think that this is a project that could be a huge success!

CUUSOO PROJECT

Portal 2 test chambers in Lego

These two recent Portal 2 test chambers by Haypro (above) and [LJ] (below) shows off the dilapidated testing environment that many players of the game found memorable.

Portal 2: Rotten Test Chamber

Portal 2.

Top 10 most popular LEGO models of 2011

We’ve taken a look at the top LEGO news stories of 2011, but The Brothers Brick is really about the great LEGO creations built by LEGO fans all over the world. Let’s take a look back at the ones that proved most popular over the course of the year.

  1. Plum B’s LEGO Gears of War Lancer assault rifle with firing action and motorized saw blade

LEGO Gears of War Lancer assault rifle with firing action and motorized saw blade

  1. Nick Jensen’s life-sized LEGO Halo sniper rifle
  2. Hannes Tscharner’s (aka Marshal Banana) 10,000 piece LEGO Star Wars Jawa Sandcrawler

diorama

  1. Will Page’s Portal turret
  2. Michael Thomas’s LEGO Settlers of Catan design
  3. ShoBrick’s post-apocalyptic stormtroopers
  4. Nathaniel Shields’s LEGO Halo grunt
  5. OneLug’s 7-foot LEGO Tower of Orthanc from Lord of the Rings

The Last March of the Ents

  1. Ben Caulkins’s life-size LEGO Halo Master Chief armor
  2. Chris Malloy’s LEGO Minecraft diorama

Portal 2’s Chell and companion cube in Lego

Tyler (Legohaulic) built Chell and a companion cube from Portal 2 to go along with his Lego Atlas and P-Body.

Team Fortress 2 Lego characters

Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin) built the Red Team lineup from Valve’s Team Fortress 2. You can see more pictures of the individual characters on Flickr.

Team Fortress 2 - Red Team

Still Alive

Obvious Portal references aside, I was drawn to this ship by Jack McKeen (madLEGOman), because of the interesting shapes I saw in a thumbnail. The cockpit shape is really quite beautiful, even if it can’t actually fit a fig inside. It reminds me of a compound eye, as it’s covered in various facets. The angular engine pods contrast with the bulbous cockpit for an interesting build overall.

Even after you're dead...

The cake also looks great, so delicious and moist.

Half-Life 2 Combine Strider by thire5

While most of us have been busy playing Portal 2, Martin Latta (thire5) isn’t one to leave a great Valve game like Half-Life 2 behind!

Martin’s Combine Strider is sure to strike fear into every Resistance fighter, even if they’re armed with rocket launchers.

Half-Life 2 Combine Strider

I’m going to work on the assumption that you’re still alive

Chris McVeigh (powerpig) joins the Portal 2 fun with his take on Wheatley, everyone’s favorite talking ball on a track, wonderfully voiced by Stephen Merchant.

Wheatley

(For the record, it’s hard picking a good Wheatley quote that isn’t a spoiler.)

UPDATE: Chris has posted an instructions file compatible with LEGO Digital Designer, along with a helpful cross-section of Wheatley in his setup photostream:

LEGO Portal 2 Wheatley cross-section