The Supreme Court of Canada building was designed by architect Ernest Cormier and opened in 1946, after Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) laid the cornerstone in 1939. For Christmas 2011, -greenglo- built a LEGO version of this important Canadian building for his wife, who works for the Department of Justice. The LEGO model now decorates her office.
Jean-Phillippe Lajoie Dorval (zwiti) was inspired to build this can by the comic book “Les cercles du pouvoir,” which also inspired the film, The Fifth Element. It looks like they didn’t change the style much for the movie, because this is a great likeness of the cabs in the movie. It looks accurate right down to a door with a hinge on top.
Nathaniel Brill (aka Shuppiluliumas) puts the new Friends line to great use with his delightfully retro scouting plane for Mia, complete with nose art and an adorable sidekick aviator hedgehog. The plane itself is quite a nice build, and the concept is great fun.
And it looks like tiberium_blue has seen fit to build Sleepy Oak Bed and Breakfast that will fit the bill. Someplace snowy, where there’s a lovely fireplace to curl up and read by. I’m rather impressed by the details in the rooms, like the aquarium up above. That’s not even to say the fabulous visual impact of the stonework itself. There’s a wonderful shot of the technique here.
Thanks for the tip, Walter!
This vivid scene by flickr user Mark of Falworth portrays the fictional Hellenistic city of Tiylis being assaulted by medieval troops. Mark’s techniques for the palm trees and rocks are worth noting, and it’s always good to see some ancient architecture outside of the northern/western European styles, but it is Mark’s water technique that really stands out here. He’s used plain bricks in several shades, jumbled in a thin layer, to produce a quite fascinating style that appears vaguely painterly.
Rod Gillies built this great TV to showcase his new LEGO Superman minifig. The TV cabinet is lovely, and the background includes excellent details like little puffy clouds and microscale, forced-perspective buildings.
But it gets even better. The background behind Superman scrolls!
What can I say to add to the experience of viewing this amazingly bizarre creation by halfbeak? It does make interesting use of some parts (like car doors on the arms), but that’s certainly not what caught my eye. This is an engaging character, and that’s why I like it.
After trying on stripes for some spaceships inspired by Chris Foss I turned my eye to the less garish but no less colorful aesthetic of the Homeworld games (in turn inspired by Peter Elson). I can’t say that this ended up fitting any particular Homeworld race or ship class, but my Pit Viper fuel tanker is easily one of my personal favorite micro ships. In nature, venomous animals use color to warn off predators. This tanker does the same as it transports the U.E.F. fleet‘s poisonous sources of interstellar fuel.
Graffiti covers the underside of the central tank. After all, the lower surface is where planet-bound delinquents would be able to reach when the Pit Viper lands, right? Both the fore and aft sections use old X-Pod parts, for a “greeble sandwich” effect.
Via twee affect. ;-)
Hi there. I’m Caylin, and I am an AFFOL—a female adult fan of LEGO. And I might just have a new infatuation with the LEGO Friends line. It looks serious.
As a kid, I grew up with the typical “girl” toys like Barbie. Oh, I had plenty of Barbies—and my favorite was the ballerina. I had a Joey doll, too, from NKOTB. I played with Kenner’s original Littlest Pet Shop, I had My Little Ponies. And I had LEGO. Now, granted, I taught myself to tie a noose with my Barbies and my Littlest Pet Shop iguana went head to head against the Jurassic Park velociraptors. So my play habits might not have been fully in line with maybe the norm.
But oh, the Friends line. My inner child is laughing with sheer glee.
I built 3315 Olivia’s House. I really quite enjoyed the build. I’m impressed on a number of levels with the model itself. It’s not parts intensive, of course, like the Café Corner and comparable sets. But thankfully it’s NOT Belville. The walls are some of the larger pieces, but I think that’s okay. I wouldn’t be buying this line for the bricks, anyway.
The accessory builds are pretty nifty, too. I love the blender design, and the barbeque gets the point across without getting too overly bulky. The shower door is simply but effective.
What I liked most about this particular set is that it’s modular. Each room is a completely separate build. And they’re quite detailed, too. I do, however, want a word with whoever is the interior designer of this house because purple furniture is terrible, and the resale value has to be in the hole with that lime-green kitchen. But again, my inner child is squealing with glee over the fun colors. So I’m torn.
The adult me, however, is asking who sleeps where because there’s only one double-occupancy bed for a family of three. I can’t say I understand why you’d sunbath on the roof, but that I think is a question for the architect of the house.
This house is completely designed for interaction and customization, and certainly not with the silly levers and numerous catapults from some of the other lines. There’s nothing to pull to make a mini-figure drop, and nothing to fling. And it’s totally fine. I don’t miss any of that. I’d describe it best as a “build your own dollhouse” with the LEGO edge to it. It is definitely ALL LEGO, though. I think the best description I’ve seen is that the Friends line is most definitely a “gateway” line. Some of the other lines are definitely marketed towards boys, which is fine. But this line is for their sisters, which is ultimately bad news for the brothers, since now there’s competition for available brick during playtime.
Now, I get that this line has caused something of an uproar with certain groups. I’m going to tell you that I do not feel marginalized or stereotyped at all by this line. I am offended that the color choice for the bed is blue and yellow, which are not complementary colors and one is a warm color and the other is a cool color — NOT the fact that there’s pink and purple and lime green and whatever other color the set designers put in the sets. It’s a complete non-issue for me that the mini-dolls made more of an attempt at a general human design rather than a flat block. The vibrant colors are for accent, but the bulk of the build is white and tan. I’m 26 years old and I sat down and played with the set after I built it. And once I was done, I made alterations to it. Because it’s LEGO and that’s what you’re supposed to do.
LEGO has released this hilarious video introducing all the new minifigs in the sixth Series of Collectible Minifigs, set up as a parody of some well-known American TV shows. I enjoyed it, and I think you will too.
Minifig customizer and friend of the blog Catsy shared a write-up about attempting some customizations on the new LEGO Friends mini-dolls on the SEALUG mailing list, and he graciously agreed to let us share it here as well.
This is the result of about half an hour or so of experimenting with the mini-dolls from the new Lego “Friends” line, and introducing them to my good friends Hobby Knife, Razor Saw, and Pin Vise.
Some findings, in no particular order (not all of which is new information):
Thanks, Catsy! Mike Yoder has also taken a crack at customizing these new figs, with some pretty badass results.
