For his latest LEGO Indiana Jones creation, Brian Williams looks for inspiration to The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .
The five-foot-long diorama features dozens of awesome mini-scenes and techniques, including gunrunners, leaf springs on the locomotive, proper horseback riders’ legs, and lovely sand-green cacti. Check out the full photoset on Flickr.
Thanks for the tip, Austin!
Flickr and Classic-Castle member TooMuchCaffeine has posted this gorgeous entry for Classic-Castle’s Mini Castle Contest:
The micro-castle itself is rather lovely, but what really caught my eye was the presentation. Building his castle to fit inside the chest was ingenious!
Like years past, BrickCon 2009 was both exhausting and exhilarating. Bear with us as we travel home, sort through photos, and put our thoughts in writing. I’ll update this post over the next couple of days, along with a full write-up of Zombie Apocafest 2009.
In the meantime, please enjoy the photos we’ve all been uploading. I dropped my camera on its lens first thing this morning (Khaaan!), so Thanel has kindly given me permission to upload a few of the photos we took together of the zombie layout.
Thanel acted as The Brothers Brick’s official photographer for the weekend, and has pictures of just about everything.
The BrickCon pool on Flickr is the best way to find all our event pics in one place.
As much fun as running the zombie layout was, the highlight of the weekend for me was winning “Best of Microscale” for my micro Battlestar Galactica hangar. My look of surprise was both genuine and absolutely ridiculous.
Here’s a quick roundup of BrickCon follow-ups from around the Web:
We recently posted about a store where you can buy custom chromed LEGO elements. Here is a review of products from ChromeBricks.com.
To put things simply, the quality of the chrome elements are what you’d expect from LEGO’s chrome parts. The layer of chrome is the result of a procedure that industrially evaporates metal onto the brick, resulting in a very thin coating that doesn’t hinder the fit with other LEGO pieces. The chrome surfaces also resist scratching, which means they can handle a moderate amount of play while remaining in their pristine condition.
ChromeBricks currently offers three colors of chrome including gold, silver, and a new copper chrome. Consistency of color among the parts is flawless. When compared with chrome LEGO elements, the silver is also an exact match while the gold is darker than LEGO’s chrome gold (LEGO does not currently produce chrome copper bricks). The richer chrome gold color results from actual gold being used to coat the bricks!
On the flip side, ChromeBricks differs from LEGO bricks where most of the parts from the former are not coated on the interior or underside. This should not be a concern since the uncoated sections will not be visible in a LEGO creation.
Overall, I recommend ChromeBricks for their high quality of parts. The price of each piece can be on the expensive side, but the cost is justified (you can ask other custom vendors who have tried to chrome LEGO bricks). Shipping is relatively inexpensive and very fast (about a week to the US) while the parts are individually packed in separate baggies. If you want to make a few minifigs with chrome accessories, this is definitely the store for you. For those interested in customizing a car model with chrome bricks, you probably need more money than pocket change.
UPDATE: As of January 1, 2010, 10210 Imperial Flagship is now available from the LEGO Shop online.
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A new LEGO Shop exclusive set, LEGO Pirates 10210 Imperial Flagship, was announced at BrickCon 2009 earlier this evening.
Here’s the full announcement from LEGO:
10210 Imperial Flagship
Ages 14+. 1,664 pieces.
US $179.99 CA $229.99 UK £ 139.99 DE € 149.99Build an incredible classic sailing ship!
All hands on deck! This amazingly detailed and realistic historical ship has three removable sections. The main hull contains 4 firing cannons, ammunition crates, muskets, torches, cannonballs, a prison with a rat, a fully-equipped ship’s kitchen, working anchor, moving rudder and a saw shark figurehead. The front deck has an opening door to the inside of the ship and sails with masts and rigging. The back house deck has opening doors to the captain’s chambers containing a map, poison bottle, organ and a treasure chest full of jewels and gold. The Imperial Flagship has 6 opening windows, a telescope and sextant and 3 deck lanterns. Includes 9 minifigures: the ship’s captain, his daughter, a pirate captain prisoner with shackles, the ship’s cook, a lieutenant, and 4 soldiers. Measures 29.5” (75 cm) long and 23.6” (60 cm) tall. Ages 14+. 1,664 pieces
- Includes 9 minifigures: the ship’s captain, his daughter, a pirate captain prisoner with shackles, the ship’s cook, a lieutenant, and 4 soldiers!
- Amazingly detailed and realistic ship features 3 removable sections!
- Main hull contains 4 firing cannons, ammunition crates, muskets, torches, cannonballs, prison with a rat, saw shark figurehead, a moving rudder and a fully-equipped ship’s kitchen with fish, turkey legs and a carrot!
- Raise and lower the working anchor!
- Open the front deck’s working doors and play inside!
- Imperial Flagship is equipped with masts and rigging!
- Open the back house deck’s doors to reveal the captain’s chambers complete with a map, poison bottle, organ and even a treasure chest filled with jewels and gold!
- Features 6 opening windows, a telescope and sextant as well as 3 deck lanterns!
- Measures 29.5” (75 cm) long and 23.6” (60 cm) tall!
I’ve uploaded a full gallery of high-res photos to Flickr.
Chris Giddens (Fazoom) has managed to get back on the horse and build something in his PCS theme. This science vessel has a really cool concept. Each of the colored pods on the sides is a different interchangeable science module. I like modularity, and this is a well thought out concept. I also can’t say no to trilateral symmetry, like this ship’s engines.
With much relief, I’m pleased to announce that 10199 Winter Toy Shop is now available from the LEGO Shop online.
For $60, you get 7 minifigs and 815 pieces. The set also has some great microscale detailing inside the shop.
No luck yet on 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar, but rest assured we’ll be talking to the team from LEGO about this at BrickCon this weekend.
Andrew, Thanel, Caylin, Dan, and myself are all heading to BrickCon. Therefore, you probably won’t hear us much over the next couple of days, other than brief updates.
Have fun and we will be thinking of you!
