Aaron Andrews (Darkspawn) has returned to building a massive castle creation after an almost yearlong respite. This tower sits on one of the most massive floating rocks I’ve seen, inhabited by a group of magical figures. One of my favorite details is the dragon transport; I could only dream of riding one of those.
Legoland’s master builder and all-around great LEGO community guy Gary McIntire has helped out the Mythbusters crew with a LEGO related myth. Check out the press release:
LEGOLAND® California Model Builder Helps “Mythbusters” Dispell Myth!
Popular Discovery Channel Show Highlights Family Theme Park in Upcoming Episode
CARLSBAD, Calif. (April 28, 2009) – “Mythbusters” reached out to a Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND® California to help dispel a myth regarding a giant LEGO® ball on an upcoming episode of the popular international show airing April 29, 2009 on the Discovery Channel.
“It was an honor to be included in the project,” said LEGOLAND Master Model Builder Gary McIntire. “I have always been a huge fan of the show so for them to come and ask for my help was really a proud moment in my career!”
Show hosts Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara trekked down to Carlsbad, California from the show’s home base in San Francisco to use McIntire’s expertise on how to build a nearly 10-foot LEGO sphere.
The myth originated with a YouTube video in which Indiana Jones fans reenacted the famous boulder chase scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with the “boulder” being made of five-million LEGO bricks. The boulder is rolled down a steep street in San Francisco, crashes into a car, and remains somewhat intact. The “Mythbusters” team set out to discover if a boulder of that size could really be made entirely of LEGO bricks and still roll so smoothly down a steep hill without breaking apart into millions of pieces. In order to debunk the myth, McIntire and 20 others worked on building the ball using nearly one million LEGO bricks over the course of nearly two weeks.
“We have more than 15,000 LEGO models here at LEGOLAND California,” said McIntire, “and this is by far the singularly largest creation I’ve ever helped to build!”
The “Mythbusters” team spent a day at LEGOLAND California researching models similar to the one they needed to build studying sphere shapes such as the head of the giant 17-foot-tall pharaoh in the Park’s newest area, Land of Adventure and the dome of the Griffith Observatory in Miniland U.S.A.
To discover the results, tune into the Discovery Channel April 29, 2009. Please consult your local TV guide for channel and times in your area.
I was hanging out with Gary this weekend (all this travel has been keeping me from blogging) and he’s really excited about this episode. He said to keep an eye out for a time-lapse video of his hands building the Mythbusters logo. I’ll definitely be tuning in tonight to watch.
Veteran Classic Castle member, Micah Brown, has been drawing forum avatars for some time and they have quickly become sought-after favorites.
Affectionately known as Lord DOOM, Micah is all metal and heart. But besides being a great guy, his Lego-inspired artwork just keeps getting better and better.
He also does commissions, if you want your own custom avatar!
The Dynamic Duo of Lego fans collaborate once again on this sweet little display.
Ralph Savelsberg built the super-accurate Mitsubishi Evo X, while Ed Diment supplied the sveldt driver.
April Fool’s Day may be over, but that doesn’t stop the shenanigans in the LEGO fan community. The recent announcement of LEGO Rock Band is already inspiring spoofs like this one from Dave Shaddix.
Click through to check out Dave’s hilarious description of who made the band.
Andrew Summersgill (Doctor Sinister) has posted a very timely swine flu pandemic vignette that perfectly captures the mood in the news over the last few days.
I woke up this morning to this lovely hotel by Kris Kelvin. Its a beautiful scene and I really like those cars!
Registration is now open for BrickCon 2009! BrickCon is a private convention and public exhibition for adult fans of LEGO, and will be held October 1-4, 2009 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.
BrickCon is the longest continuously running LEGO fan convention in the US. Last year’s convention drew more than 250 attendees from all over North America and Europe, with a significant contingent from Billund, Denmark.
As in years past, I’ll encourage those of you who haven’t been to a LEGO convention (or BrickCon specifically) to check out our past coverage of Brickcon here on The Brothers Brick and look through the photos in the BrickCon group pool on Flickr.
Highlights of last year’s BrickCon included the ChiefLUG BSG Viper Fly-In, the announcement of 10193 Medieval Market Village, and our very own Zombie Apocafest 2008.
For me, BrickCon is all about the people. Even though we’d been blogging together for nearly a year, I met Josh in person for the first time at BrickCon 2006. Similarly, Nannan and I met for the first time at BrickCon 2008.
LEGO conventions are also a good place to learn that LEGO fans don’t all look like their sig-figs in real life.
With an emphasis on a relaxed fan convention experience, BrickCon is a great way to sit back and get to know all those fellow LEGO fans you’ve only met online — an opportunity to talk about something other than LEGO, in some cases. That’s not to say that the public exhibition isn’t an awe-inspiring spectacle. BrickCon 2008 drew over 7,000 visitors in the 8 hours open to the public on Saturday and Sunday!
This year’s theme is “Imagination in Motion!” and looks to be even bigger and cooler. So, what’re you waiting for? Register today!
This steampunk hovercraft by Chase Lewis (Vid) may appear too small to carry any eels, but that won’t stop me from making a ridiculous Monty Python reference.
I suspect I will never get tired of referencing that sketch when I post a LEGO hovercraft, so y’all just better get used to it. Ha!
Even though LEGO has released ship hulls in other colors, it’s unusual to see fan-made LEGO sailing ships that aren’t brown. Haung (rack911) combines red hulls with light gray to create a battleship evocative of warships of the early 20th century.
The round cannon doors, LEGO Castle minifigs, and the tall statue ahead of the ship also lend an air of fantasy to the scene. See more photos on MOCpages and Brickshelf.
Dirk VH (dm_meister) has created a large-scale sculpture of Strong Bad from Homestar Runner.
Dirk even added details like the lacing on the back of Strong Bad’s luchador mask, along with photos of the internal structure that keeps LEGO Strong Bad…strong.
See more photos of Strong Bad in Dirk’s photostream on Flickr.
Chis Wunz built this incredible rose as a present for his wife, Erin.
Way to go, Chris, now Rachel wants to know why I haven’t built one for her…thanks a lot. ;)