Yearly Archives: 2008

We’re gonna need a bigger cave racer...

The title of Brent “thwaak” Wolke‘s entry for the Reasonably Clever Pigs on the Wing contest was too perfect not to *ahem* borrow for my own post title here. ;-)

Brent’s Jaws-inspired fishing boat/cave racer manages to hit all the rules while still being completely unlike any other cave racer we’ve featured or that appears in the increasingly crowded group pool on Flickr.

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Hunkering down with legomocs

Flickrite legomocs enters the Picking up the Pieces contest with this great scene featuring a group of survivors building a bunker:

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Enter the Pantheon of Eternal Solitude

Capturing the lines of Classical Greek architecture at minifig scale is challenging enough, but Mastergongfu has done so quite nicely at microscale:

Thanks for the e-mail, mastergongfu!

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ImpreSariO takes flight in his Tin Goose

Reader John Rudy sends word of a great Ford Trimotor airplane from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by ImpreSariO

Don’t miss ImpreSariO’s other entries in the Klocki Indiana Jones Contest, including this great scene from The Last Crusade:

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A horse by any other name...

…wouldn’t be as cool as this one.

Check out this incredible pegasus by edulyoung

Many thanks to Bruce of VignetteBricks for pointing this out on Classic Castle

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Light-up Iron Man minifig by Brickmodder

This isn’t a Photoshop job:

That’s right, Brickmodder has added 7 LEDs to a custom Iron Man minifig. (Custom decals by Jared “Kaminoan” Burks and Chris “Uubergeek” C.)

Here’s Mr. Stark in action (with weapons by BrickArms):

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Exploring cryptozoology and exobiology with Mike Stimpson

I just love Mike Stimpson‘s work. His LEGO photography is unparalleled, and my favorites are of course the classic photographs he’s recreated.

His latest photos are inspired by the mysterious life-forms that may or may not exist around and above us:

In a more serious vein (as many of Mike’s photos are), Mike has recreated the photo of a South Vietnamese monk lighting himself on fire:

For those who’ve not noticed, Mike has a whole separate Flickr account where he shows exactly how he set up each shot in his amazing series. Definitely worth checking out.

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Where can Paul Lee’s 800-pound Gorilla go?

Answer: Wherever it wants to, of course. Also, I suspect Paul Lee‘s hard suits weigh a bit more than 800 pounds.

Here’s Paul’s Gorilla Hard Suit in an urban combat environment:

And here it is on Mars:

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Transforming mecha by squieu

One of the several Japanese mecha masters, squieu has a mecha building style characterized by a coarse look achieved with using small parts all over (see a prime example in his recent work Chu Chu). Here we highlight his recent transformer mecha; check photos in his gallery for more pictures on the transformation.


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This doll packs a punch

Brian Kescenovitz‘s newest creation is a combat hardsuit called the War Doll. For a small model, this deadly machine has details all over, with the most impressive one being the opening mechanism of the control center, which nests a pilot minifigure. Way cool

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The Dragon heats up the cold void of space

Brickshelf user czekoladowyboss‘s newest build is a massive microscale space battle-ship called the Dragon. In addition to the bold red and black coloring, some other distinguishing features include the ribbed patterns and the docking bays for its smaller companion vessels. Check out the full gallery for some more great details.

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LEGO Indiana Jones video game almost redeems Crystal Skull movie [Review]

We blog a lot of video game LEGO on The Brothers Brick, but I think this may be our first LEGO video game review — and the reason I haven’t blogged as much the last few days, heh heh!

After playing both the LEGO Star Wars games, I was really looking forward to LEGO Indiana Jones, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The same can’t be said for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I really enjoyed the first time through, but didn’t hold up the second time I saw it. Oh well. Fortunately, George Lucas didn’t write the video game. ;-)

The basic mechanics of LEGO Indiana Jones aren’t that different from LEGO Star Wars: In story mode, you play as one or more characters with specific skills, destroying things in the game environment to earn points (studs) and uncover piles of LEGO bricks, which you can build to progress the plot or find treasure.

However, instead of a lightsaber, you’re armed with Indy’s whip and fists of plastic. Indy can also pick up items, such as weapons and tools, to perform other actions — dig stuff up, fix things, turn clockwork, and so on. While you’re in story mode, you might not have all the necessary skills to find everything hidden throughout the level.

In free play mode, you’re assigned a random collection of characters that give you all of the tools and skills you need, and it’s your skill that determines whether you find all the treasure, including subcomponents of the level model.

I played the game on my Nintendo Wii, so I had the option of swinging my remote to flick Indy’s whip and shaking the remote and nunchuk to build things. Call me old-fashioned (I prefer “old school”), but I chose to use the buttons assigned to these actions instead, and was grateful for that choice.

My favorite thing about the recent LEGO video games from TT Games (formerly Traveller’s tales) is the developers’ humorous take on the Indiana Jones story. I won’t spoil the laugh-out-loud moments for you, but rest assured there are plenty in the game.

In terms of value, there are 18 main levels in the game, and it took me about 30-45 minutes to complete each level in story mode (being fairly thorough along the way; I only failed to get “True Adventurer” status on one). That works out to a fairly short game for someone like me who prefers 100-hour RPGs like Final Fantasy VII, but that’s not counting free play mode, which at least doubles the value. I’ve only started free play, but I’ve already unlocked all but two of the playable characters, and I’m starting to work my way through the extras.

Overall, I’m very pleased with LEGO Indiana Jones, and would recommend it not just to those of you who’ve played LEGO Star Wars. There’s a lot of value in the game, and more importantly, it’s really really fun to play!

LEGO Indiana Jones is available for the following platforms:

Apologies for the lack of visuals in this post. I don’t have a way to take screen shots on my Wii, and I figured a picture of me slumped on the couch in my sweats wasn’t something you’d want to see. ;-)

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