It’s that time of year again! Well, at least it is in Japan, where it’s already December 1st. I’ve been hoping MisaQa will start a new advent calendar as she did last year.
She doesn’t disappoint this year, with a “Dressy Dolls” theme. MisaQa’s first stylish lady has a bustle, and some serious curves:
Keep an eye on her Web site, STUD&TUBE, or her gallery on Brickshelf for daily updates between now and Christmas Eve. Thanks for doing this again, MisaQa!
LEGO is certainly in the news these days. A week ago I blogged a story on CNET (English link this time), there have been stories in The New York Times, and now there’s an interesting photo feature in Business Week about how LEGO bricks are manufactured.
(Via pretty much everywhere at this point, but Dan Sabath gets the credit for posting it to the SEALUG e-mail list before I saw it anywhere else.)
Do you know what this is?
I can honestly say that I have no clue. Steve Vargo does, though – he claims that it is a species from a Star Wars expanded universe called Vong. No matter what though, his lego rendition of it just blew my mind. Just take a look at the imposing stature, the horns, and the snake-thing he’s holding!
Steve has got a total of 1, 2, 3, 4 pictures up at his flickr account – go check them all out!
Update: Steve now has uploaded a full brickshelf folder with lots more pictures. I’ve also been informed that these are really called Yuuzhan Vong, and were created as an enemy for the Jedi’s in the Star Wars expanded universe. The model was based on a frame made by the now dissapeared (and almost legendary in the mecha community) japanese builder Gla Gla. And I still think Steve’s LEGO rendition is excellent ;-)
Here’s what things are like in Seattle right now:
…and in Bellevue, and Redmond, and Kirkland, and Mount Vernon, and Everett, and Sedro Woolley, and Shoreline, and — you get the picture.
Excellent minifig/mini-vig, Caylin!
It’s apparently going to be 18 degrees here in the city tonight — and that’s the warmest spot in the area. For a part of the country that doesn’t handle cold weather very well, this is very bad indeed.
I think I’ll start something new: Every so often, highlighting a blog I like.
Since I just blogged custom minifigs (the humanity!), it seems only natural that I highlight Xeuren’s American Comics Lego Archive. Back in December, I highlighted Xeuren’s blog on Pan-Pacific Bricks. And I quote:
You’ll never see modified minifigs on my other blog, but in the interest of objectivity, I absolutely must highlight Xueren’s American Comics Lego Archive blog.
Well, both Josh and I have blogged custom minifigs at this point, so that first bit no longer applies.
Xeuren updates his Brickshelf gallery irregularly, but if you want a near-daily dose of comic book-inspired custom minifigs, check out his blog.
Cool enough to blog on a purist LEGO blog, customizer NickGreat’s “Colors of the Samurai” project is fantastic indeed.
Here’s Nick’s latest, the Black Samurai. I love all the kanji characters, the mask (a chopped-up Green Goblin mask), and the naginata spear:
Since I’m blogging his newest, I might as well blog his previous two samurai. Nick’s White Samurai has a shoulder decoration that also uses the Green Goblin head, and an excellent double-sword carrier thingie for her back:
Nick’s first color samurai was Red. I can’t get enough of that mask:
Bruce was one of the first LEGO bloggers, when he created VignetteBricks over a year ago. Now he’s back with a brand-new blog, MicroBricks, a blog highlighting the best LEGO Microscale creations out there. Congrats on the new blog, Bruce!
I picked up a couple of Racers sets yesterday morning, planning on testing my own in-bag building skills. After Thanksgiving dinner today, I pulled them out and told my dad he could build one of the sets, and he insisted on trying an in-bag build himself. How cool is that?
Here we are with our completed in-bag builds:
A close-up of our amazing accomplishment:
My stepmom was kind enough to play photojournalist for this special family event, so check out the full set of pics on Flickr.
CNET Japan has a brief story (in Japanese) on how LEGO gets from the factory to our homes (via I Love Cute LEGO). The story’s not especially enlightening, but I thought this picture was pretty cool:
Obviously, the picture’s pretty old (Wolfpack is a theme from the early to mid-1990’s), but I hadn’t seen this before.
Allan Bedford over at his Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog reports that Time magazine has named LEGO one of the best inventions from Europe in the last sixty years.
Well, duh. :-)
Link (not on Time.com, where I can’t find it).
I don’t blog each one he posts, but it seems Sugegasa builds and uploads a new mecha just about every week — all based on a frame he designed himself. But when Izzo posts an “examination” of Izzo’s frame, combining the talents of two great mecha builders, I’ve got to post that (link, via Builder’s Block v2):
(Click for full gallery, with break-apart pictures from Izzo you can use to build your own Sugegasa mecha.)
Among many striking landmarks in the town of Springfield, (immortalized in The Simpsons) is The Tire Fire. Its hauntingly beautiful, ethereal plumes are visible as far away as neighboring Shelbyville. Adrian Drake immortalizes this Modern Marvel in plastic form:
