Yearly Archives: 2009

Rubber ducky, you’re the one . . .

Like Dan, I picked up a bug at BrickCon, but unlike him I dont’ have the good sense to avoid blogging while sick.

While (or “whilst,” if I want to be contextually appropriate) BrickCon was the big event on this side of the Atlantic last weekend, builders in the UK geared up quite successfully for The Great Western LEGO Show (Oct 3-4) at the STEAM Museum in Swindon, England. They have a lot to brag about, both individually and collectively, but this sculpture of Bert and Ernie by James Shields (LostCarPark) is what caught my feverish and sentimental eye.

As Ralph Savelsberg said in the comments for the picture “Is anybody our age not a fan of these two?”

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The return of Galidor, aka the Ben 10 figs [News]

A lot of fans were skeptical when LEGO announced upcoming Ben 10 sets, and they were right. We now have pictures of the upcoming Ben 10 big figs from Amazon.com available for pre-order. If it’s not already obvious by the discussion on Flickr, these new sets look like a rehash of the failed Galidor line. Perhaps these products may appeal to some kids and fans of the cartoon, but at $18 each, sales are going to be very limited.

Pictures from Mr. Mandalorian

Remote Armor Team

I was lucky enough to catch a foul and evil virus while at BrickCon last weekend. I was sick all week, but I’m finally feeling well enough to do some blogging. Several of the things that caught my eye during my illness have already been covered by other contributors here, but at least one is still unblogged. Tyler Clites’s (legohaulic) Remote Armor Team.

Some people (like Tyler himself) may think that I like this just because of my well-known soft spot for the combination of tan and dark gray. While that’s certainly a part of it, the hover tank has a great look to it. In fact, it reminds me of some concept art that I’ve been wanting to build for months. Whether or not the same inspiration was there, I’m glad someone has built a hovertank in this style.

Doctor Who visits BrickCon 2009

Through a fortunate series of events, Alan McMorran was in Seattle last weekend and dropped by BrickCon for a day. When he wasn’t hanging out with the zombie overlords, he was taking a really cool set of pictures featuring his Doctor Who minifig and LEGO TARDIS.

Here, the good Doctor manages to avoid Josh’s motorized dragon in a cave, part of a massive LEGO Castle display with a 2,000-minifig battle.

Check out all of Alan’s Doctor Who adventure photos on Flickr.

(And in case you’ve missed it, I’ve updated my BrickCon 2009 wrap-up post with more links.)

LEGO Atlantis – first high-res pics of 2010 sets [News]

Though the new 2010 LEGO Atlantis sets were briefly revealed at a LEGO fan event in Russia, we didn’t have high-resolution pictures until now.

Dano has the full set, but here are a few highlights.

The minifigs are especially intriguing, with new aqua helmets for humans and intriguing creatures who live in the deep.

FHF S07 Ujio Ground Type mecha by Fredoichi

Fredo Houben (Fredoichi) builds his biggest mecha yet, and successfully channels some of the best Japanese mecha builders.

Fredo says he’s more than happy with the result. We are too.

CubeDudes of the Verse

Chris Doyle joins the CubeDude revolution with an awesome batch inspired by characters from Firefly and Serenity.

Don’t miss all of Chris’s CubeDudes on Reasonably Clever, as well as the growing number of adorable little guys in the Flickr group.

Candy coloured clown

It’s no secret that I’m fond of Pakistani trucks and it’s a love I share with Adam Grabowski (misterzumbi). Let’s face it, Adam does it better than me.

And for any doubters the bags are duplo sleeping bags.

A deeper look at the LEGO building experience

Have you ever contemplated LEGO as a profound life experience? For the intellectuals out there, you can pick up a copy of Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon‘s recent book Manhood for Amateurs where you’ll find an essay dedicated to a stimulating discussion of the author’s experiences with LEGO and how they have progressed through various stages of evolution.

Adult fan of LEGO and college professor Roy T. Cook has read the essay and gave us an academic summary below:

In “To The LEGOland Station”, the seventh essay in Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son (2009, Harper Collins), Michael Chabon briefly relates his own experiences with LEGO bricks: First, there was the “limited repertoire of shapes and the absolute, even cruel, set of axioms that governed they could and couldn’t be arranged” (p. 53) that characterized his own childhood exposure to LEGO. Second are the experiences he had building more contemporary sets – in particular, licensed sets – with his children, an experience he describes as having “far more in common with puzzle-solving, a process of moving incrementally toward an ideal, pre-established, and above all, a provided solution.” (p. 55) Apparently viewing this emphasis on building official models as depicted on the box-front as the sole credo of the ‘new’ LEGO, Chabon reports that he “resented the authoritarian nature of the new LEGO.” (p. 55). The third stage of his evolution is when he observes his children (eventually) disassembling their official sets and recombining them, resulting in models of impressive complexity and creativity. Unfortunately, Chabon characterizes this final, creative revolution as a rebellion, on the part of his children, against the “realism” and “quirks and limitations” of the LEGO system.” (p. 56), instead of recognizing that the passage from building-as-rote-instruction to building-as-original-creation is a transition that was, and is, intended, encouraged, and accounted for in the design of the system by LEGO all along. Thus, Chabon mistakenly characterizes his children’s passage through these stages as a sort of transgressive rejection of LEGO’s “structure of control and implied obedience to the norms of the instruction manual” (p. 55).

You can download Roy’s full synopsis here.

Zombie Apocafest 2009: After-Action Review

Zombie Apocafest 2009 has come and gone. The undead have been blown up, shot up, and mulched to oblivion. The humans stand victorious among the ruins of their civilization. Fortunately, that civilization was, by good fortune, built from LEGO, and it can be rebuilt, brick by little plastic brick.

Check out the full gallery of Zombie Apocafest 2009 photos in Thanel’s photostream on Flickr.

The display this year was more than double the size of last year’s, with 17 tables covered in all manner of buildings and vehicles, ranging from little mini-tanks to a fig-scale tanker. Once again, we had the organizational genius of LEGOLAND Master Model Maker Gary McIntire laying out the city, with major contributions from other LEGOLAND staffers, including Ryan Wood (Port ChiefLUG) and Joel Baker (awesome zombie head).

As announced before BrickCon, we had four prize categories. Here are the winners:

Best Original Vehicle: Lino’s Zombie Killin’ Gay Pride Float
Best Apocafied LEGO Vehicle: Tommy Williamson’s motorized 7636 Combine
Best Original Building: Abandoned factory by Justin Pratt
Best Apocafied LEGO Building: Paul Hetherington’s Dark Carousel (hard to believe it’s an undead 10196 Grand Carousel!)

A huge “Thank you!” to BrickArms for their awesome contributor’s weapons packs, and to Valve for a batch of wicked Left 4 Dead 2 T-shirts!

So, how do these things work? What does it take to pull together a collaborative LEGO layout that covers a couple hundred square feet of display space? What have we learned after running a display at a LEGO convention for two years? Off we go…

It’s not as easy as it looks

Soliciting “cornerstone” LEGO creations, recruiting lots of good builders, and working with sponsors and partners is hard work. Similarly, planning for enough space with convention organizers takes time.

Know your audience

Despite my rather chirpy online persona, I have a subversive streak a mile wide. This manifests itself in my political vignettes and the occasional snarky comment. Before BrickCon 2008, a large-scale collaborative display of undead LEGO minifigs overrunning a Cafe Corner city, built by the adults who read The Brothers Brick, seemed like a reasonably subversive idea. I think last year’s display worked so well because that’s precisely what it was.

As cool as I think this year’s display turned out to be, it was a little spread out, and it was rather heavy on the small vehicles with spikes and ladders. The world really needs to be a nicer place than the purely ironic perspective some espouse, but really, some measure of self-referential irony would’ve been welcome.

I’m not a parent, and I don’t judge others’ parenting styles (okay, I do, but only a little bit). But it’s hard for me to imagine encouraging interest in the hyper-violent world of flesh-eating zombies and brain-smashing survivors. The subversive and ironic aspects of a zombie apocalypse built out of LEGO are likely lost on the 11-14 set.

A good idea is better than free stuff

Let’s be honest: The kiddies like the BrickArms, and will do just about anything for prototypes.

We’re big fans of the high-quality custom accessories produced by Will Chapman and his team, and can’t believe how generous they are. Will donated 35 packs of weapons for contributors, including hand-produced cricket bats at our request. Wow.

Nevertheless, we’ve all seen the “wil U trad wit me? kthxby” mentality on display in recent months, and I have to admit that the display this year seemed to attract a bit more interest from the 11-14 set than I’d anticipated.

In fact, there were at least two kids who leaned over the barricades during the public hours, asked to put one minifig on the display and asked for a contributor’s pack. Seriously, kids? The answer to both questions was — and will remain — a firm “No.” (I did let them take a picture of their figs on the display. I’m not a total jerk.)

Overall, I’m happy about how things went with Zombie Apocafest 2009, but it will be the last Zombie Apocafest, and I don’t plan for us to repeat themes from year to year. I’m even happier to report that we’re changing things up for next year. We’ve run our BrickCon 2010 display idea by a few attendees, and we’ll be announcing next year’s theme shortly. Plans are already underway…

It’s odd

Brickshelfer Scouzy treat us to a strange mecha with rather poky legs that have some cool details under them.

Thanks for the tip, Dablackcat!

LEGO Kids Tech Challenge

LEGO are inviting people to help contribute ideas to their KIDS Tech Conference in Northern Spring next year. Read more on the two pages linked to below.

NB. The title is a little misleading. It is for adults to submit ideas for Kids Tech, not kids to submit ideas for Tech.

Links taken from lego-adam.