Monthly Archives: May 2009

One week left to register for BrickWorld!

BrickWorld, one of the largest fan-run LEGO conventions in the US taking place in Chicago from June 18-21, is approaching in less than a month. There are only 7 days left to register for the event to join thousands of LEGO fans of all ages and see more than 20,000 square feet of LEGO display in the luxurious Westin Hotel.

In addition to meeting LEGO fans and seeing their creations, there’ll be much more including contests, presentations, raffles, exclusive items for sale, large discounts on LEGO, sneak peeks at the upcoming LEGO sets and chances to meet with representatives and designers from LEGO! Most interesting of all, the premier World of Lights display promises a spectacle as LEGO creations are lit up with lights of all sorts on Saturday night.

Once again, I will bring you daily coverage of the convention from the creations to announcements from LEGO. Oh yea, and I won’t forget the people as well :)

For lots more pictures from the previous years of BrickWorld, visit BrickWorld on Flickr.

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Rocko goes round and round

And he says it’s not even finished….

Biscuit made me blog this

From beetles to snails, we’ve enjoyed the encounters that Geppelin‘s minifigs have had with animals over the years, but none are cuter than this kitten meeting a ninja.

Thanks for the link, little bro! Hope I didn’t make Tsunami too jealous.

Thomas Oechsner’s May Neo-Classic Space project

The end of March didn’t mean the end of great Neo-Classic Space LEGO creations. LEGO fans have continued building some great models, not least of which is Thomas Oechsner‘s latest project — a new Neo-Classic Space model just about every day so far this month.

See all of Thomas’s Neo-Classic Space models on Flickr.

Bring on the Waterworks

Chase Lewis (Vid’) has posted his largest LEGO diorama to date, featuring a band of survivors holding out against a well-armed apoca-boat.

Check out the full photoset on Flickr.

Neo-Blacktron gears up for invasion

The Ugokin aliens may have been forced back to the fringes of known space by the Neo-Classic Space fleet, but there are other powers rising in the void.

Andrew Lee (onosendai2600/Wintermute) and Fradel Gonzalez (Slice151) have kicked off what is sure to be the next building craze — Neo-Blacktron.

Here’s Andrew’s Heavy Fighter:

And Fradel’s Eliminator:

Check out all of Andrew’s Neo-Blacktron creations, Fradel’s NBT, and the new Neo-Blacktron group pool.

Space marine light assault vehicle and instructions

Tyler Clites has built the space marine light assault vehicles (SMLAV) inspired by the Warthog from Halo. By popular demand, Tyler created a set of quality instructions available for purchase at a very reasonable price of $5. Having built the SMLAV from his instructions, I can say that parts for the model are easy to acquire and the model itself is very solid.

Check out these fun variations of the SMLAV and military variants.

Angus forges a new kind of ship...

Angus MacLane trots out his latest Space Dwarves creation. It’s also rather dear to my own heart, because of my other hobby.

And just to make it painfully obvious to any people of extraordinary gullibility, this is not really a set…. ;)

Rod has a blue cat

Steampunk master, Rod Gillies, just posted a very sleek airship, which he has christened The Blue Cat. I really like that hull design…

LEGO store grand opening in Frisco, Texas sets record in sales

This past weekend at the grand opening of LEGO’s newest store in Frisco, Texas, massive crowds of kids and adults visited the first ever LEGO store in North Texas. Sales from Friday until Sunday topped over $130,000, setting a new record for sales at the grand opening of a LEGO store and surpassing the previous record of $110,000 held by the LEGO store in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Greg Anway, the manager of the Frisco store, jokingly commented “from now on we’ll just refer to them as Prussia.”

Indeed, the grand opening of a LEGO store marks a spectacular event. In addition to an extensive seleciton of LEGO sets and Pick-a-Brick wall, the store also gives away a promotional set, t-shirt, and collectable Duplo brick to customers. Shoppers lined up for hours throughout the day just to get into the store (video)! Employees in turn were constantly restocking the shelves.

In addition, the grand opening features a building event where kids can help build an 8-ft. tall R2-D2 model with Master Model Builder Dan. Over the weekend, kids made thousands of giant bricks that were four times the dimensions of an ordinary LEGO brick. The bricks were then put together by Dan using a smaller version of R2 as reference.

More photos

For more upcoming LEGO store openings, click here.

Halo Turtle transport

What happens when you combine a Warthog from Halo with arctic sno-cats? Why, this “Turtle” transport by Kurt (Lemon_Boy), of course!

The four tracks in place of the tires and the gun are especially cool.

Izzo’s back – for now...

It’s been more than six months since Izzo has posted anything on his blog or to his Brickshelf gallery. For his return, Izzo put a lot of effort into his mecha, and it shows.

The mecha itself is awesome, with powerful shoulders and boost-jets on the legs, but I think the human story is more interesting here.

Izzo runs an art gallery, and his work has taken nearly all his time in the last six months. Even though the urge to build something with LEGO kept nagging at the back of his mind, he never found the time. Work even took him to Denmark, but his schedule precluded a pilgrimage to LEGOLAND.

When he began this mecha, Izzo’s “muscle memory” helped him build, but he couldn’t remember where he’d stashed all the parts he needed. Now, Izzo’s not sure when he’ll be able to post something next.

We hope Izzo will find time to post more LEGO creations again soon, but his story is a good reminder that LEGO — as much enjoyment as we have with it — is just a hobby, after all, not real life. Our commitment is to our families, our work, and our real-life communities.