Yearly Archives: 2008

LAML Radio lets me ramble on even further

The second part of my conversation with James Wadsworth is up on Radio.LAML.org.

In this episode, James and I chat about some of the current trends in the LEGO “blogosphere,” including the blogs I can’t live without (including VignetteBricks, MicroBricks, How Many Studs to LEGOLAND, Klocki Lego dla dorosłych, and Young Spacers Association Blog) and this past month’s seeming explosion of LEGO-related posts on non-LEGO blogs (including personal faves Boing Boing Gadgets, Gizmodo, and Neatorama).

Check it out on Radio.LAML.org, and be sure to subscribe via iTunes, Zune Marketplace, or whatever floats your boat. Brick on!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

“Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears,” by Heidi W. Durrow

It’s always a pleasure when I encounter a connection between two of my great interests — LEGO and literature. Remember Norman Mailer and Douglas Coupland?

Writer Heidi W. Durrow contacted the blog this morning with a link to her beautiful, touching story Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears. Here’s an excerpt:

“You be Pocahantas,” Jimmy says. “I’ll be the cowboy on the horse.”

The horses come in shades of brown and black. Jimmy’s horse is black like me. His cowboy’s Lego yellow. He’s white like Jimmy is.

Read the rest of Heidi W. Durrow’s story online in SmokeLong Quarterly, along with an insightful interview about ethnicity and The Brick.

Mark Kelso’s Texas Ranger

Using leftovers from his last creation, Mark Kelso creates a fine walker mech, it’s his first mecha so he says, but it look to me like he’s been at it for years. Keep the MOCs comin’ Mark!

Ultimate LEGO Castle Chess Set [News]

UPDATE: The LEGO Castle Giant Chess Set
will be available for pre-order from the LEGO Shop on July 1. No release date has been announced yet.

Some people know where to look for leaked pictures of upcoming sets, and many times great treasures are dug up in lego.com’s cache (the specific procedures are still a mystery to me, but I think it involves manipulating image url’s). Check out the upcoming castle chess set, complete with just about everything and probably including a big price tag too.

Izzo’s back

Seems like forever since we’ve featured a new mecha by Izzo, but I suppose it’s only been a month and a half or so. Still, let’s get our Izzo fix.

Something gray:

Something white:

Michael Jasper hunts a white whale and plays a toy piano

New(ish) minifigs from Michael Jasper. Need I say more?

Check out his Characters gallery on Brickshelf for more, including Günter Grass and Fidel Castro.

Mark Kelso takes a break

For reasons that should be fairly obvious, artists seem to make great LEGO builders. Mark Kelso is certainly no exception.

While building his Invisible Hand (previously on TBB), Mark says he took a “break” to build Mian Situ.

What’s so cool about Mian Situ is that it appears to be much bigger than it actually is. The closer you look, you see more and more elements that indicate that this isn’t really very big at all. And that’s pretty cool.

(Via Klocki.)

LAML Radio humors my opinions

James Wadsworth invited me to join him for the latest LAML Radio podcast. We shoot the breeze about the week’s news, including the new Indy pics, the 50th birthday of the brick, and other topics.

It should come as no surprise to longtime TBB readers (1447 of my own posts and counting) that I have a lot to say (some would argue too much, heh heh), so LAML Radio #17 is part 1 of my conversation with James.

Check it out on Radio.LAML.org.

Nnenn’s Pannax fighter

I’m starting to consider Nnenn‘s starfighters as the apotheosis of minifig-scale and microscale spaceships. When the masterful use of color, shape, and photography cumulate in an all-in-one presentation, you get a perfect Nnenn starfighter.

LEGO Castle battle packs in 2008 [News]

LEGO is catching on to the success of battle packs and are in turn making castle fans happy as well. Check out the upcoming castle army boosters:

UPDATE: Both the Knights Battle Pack and the Skeletons Battle Pack are now available from the LEGO Shop.

RogueBantha’s micro fanboy mathematics

Remember Adrian Florea’s beautiful Natai Ugly? It was a combination of the Naboo starfighter and TIE/d for the FBTB Uglies contest.

RogueBantha combines micro versions of both source vehicles to create a fanboy cover version of Adrian’s Natai:

Genius! If you haven’t checked them out before, don’t miss the rest of RogueBantha’s amazing microscale creations on Flickr.

(Via YSAB.)

Mike Yoder is his own fanboy

Mike Yoder has been working on a rather impressive cargo SHIP, but he took a break to build a microscale version of his own creation. Mike’s also running the Fanboy Cover Contest, in which builders create microscale versions of another builder’s much larger creation (my favorite so far, the oMICROn Weekend, one post below).

Does that make Mike his own fanboy? Heh heh… :-D