Monthly Archives: April 2006

Get off me cheese!

MisaQa builds wonderful little animals, but I never expected a recent batch of fantastic Wallace & Gromit creations. What’s so great about these is that they totally capture the unique, instantly recognizable sensibility of the original clay sculptures by Aardman Animations.

Here are the two title characters:

Here’s Wallace with a chicken/penguin:

And a pair of sheep:

Josh Wedin’s Castley Minifigs

Classic Castler Josh Wedin has posted some additions to his minifig gallery.

Here’s his new Dark Knight (I have to get a couple Batman sets now):

An old woman:

And a war wizard (go, fighting monkeys, go!!!):

WBC & LEGO-themed Cellphone Wallpapers

I think I like LEGO graphic art as much as I like actual LEGO creations. Japanese blogger kazzen is a master of LEGO-themed graphic art populated by our favorite little plastic friends.

A month or so ago, he uploaded two cellphone wallpapers featuring a minifig decked out in World Baseball Classic gear:

How you get to these images and download them to your phone will probably vary by phone and by plan, but you can access both of them on this page.

Black Jack Minifigs

Black Jack (「ブラックジャック」) is an animated series aired on TV in Japan between 2004 and 2005. The title character is a mysterious doctor with white and black hair. Naturally, after getting her hands on the new Two-Face minifig from the Batman theme, mumu’s wife saw the similarity and made Jack, along with his sidekick, Pinoko:

You can find more info on Black Jack on Anime News Network.

Why So Few Updates on Pan-Pacific Bricks?

No, I haven’t been neglecting this blog (well, maybe just a little — I do have a small backlog).

The reason there haven’t been that many posts recently here on PPB is that there haven’t been any major holidays being celebrated by Japanese builders, nor have there been any significant product launches that resulted in extensive discussions like there was with Exo-Force.

Ideally, I’d like to post at least twice a week (compared with a couple times a day over on my other LEGO blog), but there just hasn’t been enough subject matter. I guess it’s time for me to fill the gap myself with historical minifigs or something… ;-)

If you’d like to help me by pointing out Japanese or Asian-themed LEGO creations that I might have missed, just leave a comment (I’ll be notified by e-mail) or send me a message at dunechaser AT gmail DOT com.

Sushi!

From 9-year-old “nonn35817,” we have some tasty, tasty sushi:

That’s tuna (maguro), shrimp (ebi), and cucumber rolls (kappa maki).

Technorati tags:

Baby Robot Space Cow!

That just seemed like it warranted an exclamation point. Anyway, Brickshelf user element42 has posted an adorable little “Baby Robot Space Cow“:

All Hail Microsoft!

Just got back from Redmond earlier this evening. My job search may be over. w00t!

Bill Gates

Moko’s Little Sister Gets in on the Action

Apparently, great minifig-building runs in Moko’s family. Here’s a little “Demon Child” Moko’s little sister put together:

Oh, and check out this cool gun Moko himself made recently:

Both of these show great uses for the new pieces in the Batman sets.

Izzo’s Power Suits

Izzo doesn’t just build great vignettes — he’s also quite the mecha builder. Lately he’s been on a power-suit-building kick:

Here’s my favorite, a Batsuit:

(By the way, in addition to his legostyle Web site, Izzo has a new blog, legostyle-LOG. If you want automatic updates of his latest creations, be sure to subscribe to his feed.)

Minifig Arm Swap How-To from Darth Zamma

I expect the “great builders” of the world to provide the rest of us with innovative building techniques now and then. But it’s also nice to find interesting techniques in unexpected places. “Darth Zamma” is a new LEGO blogger who sent me a link to his blog a little while ago, along with a link to his friend “Darth Malum’s” blog.

Here’s a minifig Darth Zamma posted recently:

Responding to one of his e-mails, I asked Darth Zamma how he attached that Exo-Force robot arm to the regular minifig torso, and he kindly posted a short pictorial how-to. It’s an interesting technique. Here’s a preview:

Hidaka Tickles the Ivories

I made an electric piano last summer that I thought was pretty original, though it turned out Brickshelf user lcon21 had posted a grand piano design that used the same technique. Great minds think alike?

Anyway, another Brickshelf user, hidaka, has posted an even more realistic piano:

Not a big deal so far, right? Well, look a little closer: