The fight between the white and black space ninja continues in Shannon Young‘s third diorama of the battle (you can see the previous ones here). This time, it takes place in a factory powerplant with dangerous cliffs. This large diorama measures 109 studs wide by 36 deep and rises 60 studs high, that’s planty of space for backflips, walljumps, and other sweet ninja moves.
Since I’m running an older Mac here at home (too old to dual-boot or run VPC), my knowledge of Portal is limited — and reinterpreted — by the many LEGO creations the game has inspired.
Nevertheless, I recognize a good Weighted Companion Cube when I see one. Le’pena uses mainly Technic and Bionicle pieces to achieve the necessary effect:
Those of use with a love of pulp science fiction know exactly how the Solar System should have been. It should have been filled with strange aliens, unique animals, forests and rivers.
To remedy this Soren Roberts has ensured we can populate our LEGO universe with weird and wonderful intra-system aliens. My favourite is the Martian (more later) but they’re all terribly cute.
Having seen the Martian I couldn’t escape the thought that he desperately needed a pseudoyak and cart. My heavily overtired brain took surprisingly little time to come up with this little diorama. That’s every sand-red piece I own right there.
Alex Eylar‘s longing to escape the reality of “the worst college quarter yet” takes him to look towards Disneyland, where this creation took inspiration from the Grizzly River Run ride, depicting “a ridge somewhere in the northern California wilderness, complete with tumbling waterfall and quasi-hippie river guides.”
Hey. You’re reading a series of posts were we’re looking at LEGO models as messages, not just pretty sculptures. I’d recommend reading the introduction and the first part before diving into this one. It’s worth it.
Last time we looked at how the label we give a message affects it. The conclusion? That you put pictures in the minds of your audience already when you say “look at my fantastic alien sculpture!”
Today we’ll peek at how different audiences perceive things differently. After all, knowing what you want to say isn’t enough to be able to say it; you also have to have someone to say it to. And hey, if you do – why not analyze the audience and customize the message so that you’ll make a good impression on them?
I believe that all builders at one point or another must ask themselves for whom they build. Who will see this MOC, and how? Why will they see it? Do I care what they think? What do I have to do to make an impact on them? What kind of people are they?
Designers, writers and communicators world wide define their target groups. This is arguably the most important thing to do before you construct a message. They jot down traits that define their target group – they learn the demographics of that group. Age, sex, education, hair colour, skills, language, dominating hand, married, single, job… anything you can think of are potentially important demographic traits.
Whoah. Easy there, big guy. Too. Much. Information.
Yeah, absolutely. Demographic data is important, but it’s incredibly hard to know which differences that matter. But here’s the good news: you probably already know most of the things you should about your target group. You just have to keep in mind that those are the ones you’re wanting to awe. Or annoy. Or whatever your goal is.
Let’s make an experiment. Have a look at this picture of Peter Reid’s gorgeus LL-142 and write down the five first things that pop in your head. If it takes more than 20 seconds, you’re thinking about it too much.
My thoughts were:
I’m a 23 year old male Swede, semi-blond, both parents alive, adult fan of LEGO for six years.
I asked my friend to do the same. Here’s what she got:
She’s a 22 year old female Swede, dark hair, lost her mother when she was eight, likes LEGO but last touched a brick when she was twelve.
Which of the demographic traits I listed best explain our different results? Pretty obvious, isn’t it?
One could make a mind map to properly layout this information, but remembering this second point in case takes you pretty far: different audiences expect and appreciate different things depending on their background. Keep this in mind, use your gut feeling for your target group and do some trial and error, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find out how you should express yourself.
Next Monday we’re finally opening the toolbox. It’s time to look at some of the design and build choices that you can use to get your message across to your audience.
It’s been a while since I built a mecha and it was jolly good fun to get back to joints and posing. Out of all themes I think that mecha tends to have the most post-build appeal.
Before you look at the pretty picture:
Q: Is this set for sale?
A: This is not an official set from LEGO, and no, it’s not for sale.
Minific customization master Nick (NickGreat) recently built the Kame House from Dragonball Z in a pseudo LEGO set style. Unfortunately this is the only picture I can find:
But meanwhile, check out Nick’s selection of the highest quality custom Dragonball Z character minifigs:
Christophe Bongay presents a comical diorama of the last seconds of Yamato combining a few of his previous creations. There are many unique aspects of this creation ranging from the block shark to the disproportional ship, which was originally built as a Metal Slug vehicle.
I woke up this morning to find out from YouTube user kidrobotcp that The Daily Telegraph has featured an article about brickfilmers. You can read the article here.
Also check out the brickfilms mentioned in the article:
The Letter by James Maduzia
The Crucible – Trailer & Night of the Tater by Nikolas Jaeger
Unsound by Nathan Wells
Also check out my Making Unsound Documentary, also mentioned in the article:
That was Part 1. Check out the rest of the series on YouTube:
Well, this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Its time to actually vote on who will possibly represent The Brothers Brick readership community as a LEGO Ambassador. So come out of your dens, caves, lairs, or cubbyholes and vote! Reserve those future complaining rights and vote now! Because if you don’t vote now, you can’t complain later. :)
Remember, any given community group can nominate up to three people, so we’ve set up the poll so you can vote for up to three people. We will be sending the names of the top three to LEGO, along with the number of votes that each one got.
UPDATE (5/24/08): Voting is now closed. I’m replacing the poll with a screen shot of the results.
Make sure LEGO hears your voice. Stand up and be counted!
Of course, this isn’t the only nomination and voting process going on in the broader LEGO fan community. Make sure you participate in the nomination/voting process in other communities you also belong to:
The cave racers fad started by Tim Gould is sweeping the community like a superfast swoosh. There are countless versions of these small crafts made by many builders and in all kinds of styles. While we have attempted to blog some in the past. It’s nearly impossible to keep up, but the majority of the racers can be found in the cave racers flickr pool. Meanwhile, here’s a roundup of my recent contributions to the genre.
Brian Kescenovitz (Mondaynoodle) modeled the Apache Longbow helicopter in an accurate and detailed miniature creation. Check out the accurate resemblance to the real life model. To be able to craft this 1:64 scale model truely reflects proficient skills with the brick.
