Monthly Archives: October 2006

News: LEGO Shortage at Christmas?

The Associated Press is reporting that retailers may face shortages of LEGO during the upcoming holiday shopping season.

“Many of our most popular products are sold out,” Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said. “As part of efforts to restructure the company and focus on our core business, we had to make some cuts and the company has not had time to readjust its production.”

While having strong demand for your product might be a good thing, the article continues:

Boersen, Denmark’s leading financial newspaper, estimated that Lego could lose 750 million kroner ($127 million) because of lost Christmas sales.

EDIT (11/1/06): News of LEGO shortages were apparently greatly exaggerated, as Steve Witt has posted on his blog:

The media reports of a LEGO shortage this holiday season stem from an interview given in Denmark with regard to a supply issue in Scandinavia, but remarks were misconstrued to represent a global issue. We are not experiencing a shortage of LEGO sets in the U.S. or Canada this holiday season. All of our key retailers are well stocked with what we believe will be the most popular LEGO sets, and have indicated they too are satisfied with their stock. It’s always best to get out early to be sure you get what you’re hoping to find.

Kinda sucks if you live in Scandinavia (sorry Linus!), but for those of us here in the States, this is great news!

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Technorati tags:

Moko and Katsuhiro Otomo’s FREEDOM Project

Moko recently posted a cool little vehicle Lukas called “bike-ish”:

What’s not in Moko’s Brickshelf caption is that this is based on a hover-bike currently featured in a Nissin Cup Noodles ad (in Japan, of course) that uses footage from a new project called FREEDOM by Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo. Here’s a six-minute clip from YouTube:

You can also watch more footage on the official FREEDOM site.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Happy Halloween 2006!

Zombie Andrew, Zombie Josh, pumpkin-head Eddie (aka the disembodied head of Linus Bohman), and Necromancer Nathan join classic monsters to wish all of our readers a very happy Halloween! Be safe, and have fun!

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Daniel Major’s microscale helicarrier

Got some time over? Then take a look at Daniel Major’s (ApophisV to most) very cool microscale helicarrier:

Now, as awesome as that is, I almost think I like the fleet it carries more. He says that he is planning on making minifig versions of some or all of these – and I just can’t wait to see that!

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

FoxPrimus’ Habrok

FoxPrimus, who goes under the name of Todd in real life, brings us a fantastic craft by the name of Habrok. (Habrok was essentially the king of crows in norse mythology, and played various minor roles.)

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

News: Colossal Castle Contest IV announced!

The Colossal Castle Contest IV has been announced on Classic-Castle.com! Looks like there are great categories and excellent prizes.

Check out the Announcement thread on CC.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

News: Bosch Releases “LEGO Edition” Dishwasher

So how do you deal with dirty LEGO? German appliance maker Bosch has a solution — a special cycle in their new “LEGO Edition” dishwasher that gently cleans your plastic toys at 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit).

No, I’m not joking:

Link via Engadget, with thanks to Ben Ellerman for posting this on Classic-Castle.com.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Technorati tags:

Cows by Izzo

Izzo recently posted these cows on Brickshelf and I love ’em. Check out the alien attack too!

Check out the whole bovine gallery here!

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Gas Mask

I’m not entirely sure I like to blog my own stuff, but here it goes anyway. This is Gas Mask, a tactical smoke screen deployer:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Newblood: Tony

Lcwtony on flickr has only recently begun posting models, but those that are up are quite stunning – he can obviously build both mecha and other futuristic stuff. With a stunning presentation to boot, you’ve got a winner! Here is his F430 Spider:

Make sure to click on over and look at the rest of his stuff and comment.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Contest: Junker bandits build off!

And while we’re on the subject of contests, Mike Yoder (fantastic builder, by the way) has recently announced that he is hosting a contest: to build your very own junker ship! The full thing can be read in a post on flickr, but here is the gist to get you hooked:

Nomadic thieves steal parts from unattended spacecraft in far-off spaceports to piece together their fighters. They scavange battle fields in deep space for debris to integrate into their fleet. Their ships are lumpy, mismatched, rusty, and lethal! Don’t be fooled by the chewing gum and paperclips that appear to hold them together! They prove to be more than a worthy adversary in battle, having pirated the best technologies of all the races and factions that explore space. If you see them in the skies above you, know that you are in the wrong part of town!

So get your mind set on junker bandits, and build people! The contest deadline is January the 2nd 2007, so you have plenty of time to make sure YOUR entry is the awesomest of all! :-)

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It

Concept car contest results and contestants of awesomeness

Just because I’m away people don’t stop building awesome space stuff! There has been a contest running over at classic-space (held by the by now familiar Lukas) that has just ended. It produced some spectacular models – check out Bram Lambrecht’s winning entry for instance:

First runner up, my fellow countryman Joel Larsson’s car, is also very interesting:

Make sure you see all the entrants and read the full story in the contest thread on classic-space!

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg It | Furl It