First, an short introduction. I’m Nathan, and I’m a LEGOholic. I won’t cover the nitty-gitty details, since Andrew covered those a few posts down, so I’ll get right down it. I’m not usually into microscale creations, but these tiny Formula 1 racers by Brickshelf user and LUGNETer Peer Kreuger are awesome. Makes me want to get on my hands and knees and push them around the floor while making engine noises.
Special thanks to our reader Marc for providing more infomation on the builder!
It’s been a while since I created any historical people, so I was pleased earlier this weekend while throwing together pieces when Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec popped up in the palm of my hand:
Naturally, that inspired me to keep building this morning, ending up with a full complement of Impressionists, including Claude Monet (you know, of waterlilly fame):
I wasn’t happy with earlier versions of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Dali, so I rebuilt and re-photographed them. Here’s Vincent van Gogh:
I made several more, so check ’em out on Flickr:
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Try as I might, I can’t think of a better way to build Princess Mononoke minifigs than the way Moko did. With San and Ashitaka out of our reach, the rest of us mere mortals are stuck building minor characters, as Andrew Horvatits does:
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Okay, a quick post to highlight some of the creations I saw at the SEALUG meeting yesterday.
First up, Todd Kubo’s skull inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean:
(C’mon Todd, post new pictures with your wicked awesome voodoo charms!)
Next, Justin Pratt’s tank with urban survivability package:
Finally, Mark Neumann’s mecha inspired by Soren and Tim’s instructions:
Thomas Garrison graciously took photos of the meeting, and you can see a few more creations in his gallery. Here I am talking to Dan Sabath and Caylin Feiring:
That’s me in the green shirt. No, our faces aren’t intentionally blurred out — we just all happend to be moving our heads at the same time I guess!
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One thing I really liked about my previous job was that the company was full of board game geeks, and at least twice a week we gathered around a table in the kitchen and played games. Suzanne Rich has recreated The Settlers of Catan in LEGO:
(Thanks for the great photo from Brickfest, Josh Crockett!)
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Phew! I finally registered for NWBrickCon, the annual west-coast LEGO convention held here in Seattle. This year it’s at Seattle Center on October 6, 7, and 8. I’m not sure what I’ll be building for the convention, but time is running short, so I better go on it.
For being the “smaller” convention (compared to the recently concluded BrickFest), it sounds like this year’s NWBrickCon will be a great success. Looking at the list of potential attendees (you can register on the site without making a commitment to attend, thus “potential”), I’m seeing many familiar names. Conference registration for all three days is $44.
There are also times when the show floor is open to the public, for a very reasonable $5. (For those of you reading this in Redmond, stop by my office for a coupon that’ll get you in the door for $4.)
I’ve worked in the neighborhood where the conference is held until recently, so I know all the best places to hang out and grab a bite to eat. I’d love to get together with our readers. See you all in October!
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My wife picked up a copy of LEGO Star Wars for PlayStation 2 the other day (can you believe I haven’t played it yet?!). I’m already looking forward to the sequel, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Triology — hey what a second, that’s not right!
(Via the always entertaining Destructoid!)
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“Mostly purist” minifigs are encouraged. Contest deadline is September 13. Click the banner for details:
(Thanks for the e-mail, Matt Zitron!)
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Still playing catch up. The often blogged Legohaulic has gone on a steampunk building spree lately. He has invented an inventor named Bartholomew Crank. First up is Crank’s personal airship, the Boistrous Maiden. Note the patchy balloon!
And to his mailman, Mr. Basil, Bartholomew Crank built the aptly named Postal Gyro:
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Since Andrew has had precious little time lately, it seems he had a backlog of creations to post. Now that I’m on board, he very comfortably shifts all of those things over to me so that he can sit still and do nothing ;-). To start with, here is Niels Bugge’s space version of the Lamborghini Countach:
After meeting him in person, I can attest that Niels is a very technical builder, often thinking in great detail about how to best do certain things. His semi-recently posted Z-fighter 2 is also proof of that – it is essentially a refinement of a previous model.
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A week or so ago Jon Walker, or psyop on Brickshelf, presented an impressive microscale creation named T93 Solaris. Despite being micro, it is still bigger than most other creations:
Later on he posted a batch of updates to it as well as some construction shots, all documented in this lugnet post. A very impressive creation for sure!
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Heh heh, I think you’d have to be blind and/or illiterate not to have noticed a few recent changes to The Brothers Brick. It’s taken a few days to get everything lined up, and there may be a few more changes in store, but without further ado, I’m pleased to welcome Linus Bohman and Nathan Wells to the Brotherhood of the Brick!
As he says in his own introduction, Linus joins us from Classic-Space Forums and From Bricks to Bothans. In his non-LEGO life (hey, we do have lives outside LEGO; more on that below), Linus is a student in Sweden and blogs his thoughts and photographs at Picturing the World. I’ve featured Linus’ creations here on TBB many times, and look forward to his coverage of all things sci-fi and the world of tomorrow — Space, Star Wars, steampunk, and so on.
Nathan Wells joins us from Classic-Castle Forums, Brickfilms, the wonderful Unique Brique Techniques, and his own blog, Behind the Redwood Curtain. Nathan and I have seen eye-to-eye on what makes a good LEGO creation for quite some time, competing and stealing liberally from each other. I expect Nathan will continue to highlight interesting building techniques on UBT, but I’m also overjoyed to have him taking on a role here, where he’ll be handling all things fantastical and real — Castle, Town, etc. One area of the LEGO world underrepresented here on TBB is LEGO-based animation, so I hope to see lots of brickfilms from Nathan (including his own).
I also hope Josh will be able to begin blogging here on TBB again soon, but real life (such as a new baby) is always the highest priority.
Which makes an appropriate transition to me. One reason I’m recruiting new contributors is that I’ve been neglecting the sort of Japanese-themed creations and overseas events that I had been blogging on Pan-Pacific Bricks. I have quite the backlog of interesting news and creations, but that takes much more time than posting the latest minifigs or mecha (which I’ll continue handling myself here on TBB). Handing off themes like Space and Castle — as much as I love them — will enable me to be a better bridge between English-speaking LEGO fans and our compatriots across the Pacific.
Unfortunately, I’ve also been neglecting my creative writing. Regular readers should know by now that I’m passionate about writing and literature, and a few of you may already know that some of my poetry has been accepted by a major literary journal (I’m sure I’ll find an excuse to let you know when it’s actually been published). As much as it pains me to say so, time spent blogging about LEGO has made it more difficult to take full advantage of that huge break. I need to spend more time writing poetry and to do a better job managing my creative writing career. All of you out there have been very loyal readers, and I thought you deserved to know one of the primary non-LEGO reasons I’m making these changes.
So, enough about the people. Back to the LEGO!
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