Monthly Archives: April 2012

Who says a castle has to be grey?

Because grey castles are so 2003.

I kid, I kid. But this little red number by Lukasz W (LL) really caught my attention. It’s simple, but avoids some typical castle-trappings like boring walls and such. I like the vibrant color, and the white makes everything “pop” just a little bit more.

Microscale Burj Al Arab

The Eurobricks Architecture contest seems to be drawing out quite a few fantastic entries, including this notable depiction by Spencer R of one of the world’s most high-class hotels, the Burj Al Arab. With a design inspired by a ship’s billowing sails, the seventy floor Burj Al Arab is located in Dubai, which is also home to the real-life counterpart of an official LEGO Architecture set, the Burj Khalifa.

LEGO Burj Al Arab

Banksy

Hans Dendauw (Tigmon74) built this excellent pair of buildings for a VirtuaLUG collaboration at Bricks by the Bay 2012.

VirtuaLUG Layout2

Replicating graffiti in LEGO is tough enough, but Hans has LEGO-ized one of the most recognizable designs by one of the most recognized graffiti artists on the planet.

The Banksy wall certainly caught my eye, but Hans’s corner building is the real artistic triumph.

VirtuaLUG Layout

Via Brick Town Talk.

Sail away to your new home aboard the North Central Positronics Colonial Fleet

Mike Yoder has his own corporate entity reminiscent of Black Mesa from the Half-Life universe and Weyland-Yutani from the Alien franchise. North Central Positronics is a shadowy, semi-military organization with heavily defended bases on earth and a full-fledged fleet in space. Mike’s latest addition includes a pair of cargo barges, a pilot ship, and several heavy fighters.

NCP Colonial Fleet

Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir el-Bahari

When I visited Deir el-Bahari, our Egyptian guide told us an easy way to remember the name of the pharaoh who had the colonnaded temple built for herself near the Valley of the Kings and Luxor. “Hot sheep suit,” he said. “You know, hot, like the sun, with a suit made from sheep.” The weather forecast placard in the hotel lobby had informed us it was going to be 45° C (113° F) that day. Standing there in the blazing desert sun, it was hard to imagine wearing a wool suit. And today, it’s hard to forget how to pronounce Queen Hatshepsut’s name.

Similarly unforgettable was her mortuary temple, here recreated wonderfully in LEGO by Harald P. (HP Mohnroth).

lego_architecture_deir el bahari

See many other wonderful LEGO models of historical structures in Harald’s LEGO Architecture set on Flickr.

Via GodBricks, so you can’t blame me for necro-posting — which is sorta appropriate for an Egyptian model, I guess.

Jolly Roger Contest Deadline Approaching [News]

The deadline for Forbidden Cove‘s Jolly Roger Contest is quickly approaching. Head on over to see the Prizes, Categories, and Contest Rules.

The deadline is April 30. Just as a reminder, in order to enter, you must be a member of Forbidden Cove, and you do need to be at least 16.

LEGO Alien Conquest 25% off

While we wait patiently for LEGO to release the Marvel Super Heroes sets soon, they’re clearing space by discounting all Alien Conquest sets 25% (or more) through April 8.

New LEGO stores opening soon – celebrate with exclusive model [News]

The LEGO Group is opening 10 new stores in North America this year — including one I’m especially excited about just north of Seattle in Lynnwood, Washington. LEGO will be making a model of a LEGO store — 3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store — available exclusively during grand opening celebrations

3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store (1)

Here’s the complete press release:

3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store

Ages 7+ 280 pieces

New LEGO Stores are opening soon!

Celebrate the opening of a brand new LEGO Store in your area with the new, exclusive LEGO Brand Retail Store model! Not available for purchase, this set is only given out to a select number of customers with a qualifying purchase during the Grand Opening Celebration. We are proud to announce 10 new locations in North America opening in 2012:

  • Nashville, TN
  • Victor, NY
  • Vancouver, BC; Canada
  • Wauwatosa, WI
  • The Woodlands, TX
  • Peabody, MA
  • Overland Park, KS
  • Elizabeth, NJ
  • Seattle [Lynnwood], WA
  • Alpharetta, GA

Stay tuned for details on the Grand Opening Celebrations, featuring the new exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Brand Retail Store set and T-Shirts! For more information, please visit stores.LEGO.com.

Offers will be available during the Grand Opening Celebration only, while supplies last.
Phone orders will not be accepted, to qualify purchase must be made at store location.

Bricks by the Bay 2012 wrap-up [Guest Post]

Since The Brothers Brick contributors can’t be everywhere all the time, we’re going to try being more consistent about bringing you coverage of important LEGO events from guest contributors. To start things off, here’s Carl Merriam to cover the recent Bricks by the Bay!

It’s been a little over a week since the doors closed at Bricks By the Bay 2012. It feels so much longer. Getting back into the flow of real life is always difficult after such a fun and rewarding convention. This year BBtB had more floor space, full use of the convention center theater and breakout rooms and quite a few more attendees and visiting public.

At the opening ceremonies we enjoyed some playful banter from LEGO Company representatives Kevin Hinkle, Jim Foulds, Steven Canvin, and Jenn Wagner. Hinkle also unveiled the new R2-D2 UCS set. I played with it myself and it does have some very nifty features, including folding computer interface and buzzsaw arms, as well as a “retractable third leg”.

BBTB 2012: Opening Ceremony: Kevin Hinkle and R2-D2 3

There were plenty of great MOCs. Some of my favorites included The Last March of the Ents by The OneLUG, Bill Ward’s Rainbow Connection: Kermit the Frog with Banjo, Benjamin Newitt’s fully transforming Megatron, Tim Inman’s Heron Building, Kevin Smith’s T.A.R.D.I.S., Bruce Lowell’s prolific replicas, Remi’s Technic Dinosaurs, Norbert Labuguen’s Hero Factory Octopus (made from 10 of the new Joker sets), Chad Mealey’s pair of zoetropes, Brandon Griffith’s simply perfect Soylent Green, and, of course, my own miniland scale Pier.

BBTB 2012: Kermit

On Saturday night the fire alarm in the hotel went off and everyone had to leave the exhibit hall. Most groups of people would have been frustrated. We took it as kind of an impromptu meet and greet. Talking about all things LEGO and getting to know the new people who were nearby, the time passed quickly. It turns out that the fire alarms were malfunctioning.

Attendees may have noticed BLARE Media running around all over the convention, filming scenes for the upcoming feature film Brick Madness. Justin McAleece, the film’s director, was kind enough to put together this brand new mashup of some scenes shot at BBtB 2012 for us to enjoy:

BBTB 2012/ Brick MADNESS clips from Justin McAleece on Vimeo.

My only complaints about this year’s BBtB were the absence of both the Bricks of Character category (Iain, you know LEGO is more important than that work nonsense you’re always going on about) and the Nova Albion steampunk convention that we all so enjoyed cross-pollinating with last year. However, their absence was totally circumstantial and not controlled by BBtB. I wore my commemorative bricks for both all weekend in memorandum.

The Local ABC affiliate did its own wrap-up:

Photos of everything can be seen here:

Pinky & The Brain Mosaic + a Back to the Future bonus...Narf!

I recently finished these two mosaics and was able to display them at Emerald City Comic Con this last weekend. They are my first mosaics but won’t be my last, as they were much more fun than I was expecting. I guess there is something to be said for building outside your comfort zone, eh?

Pinky & The Brain

Doctor Emmett Brown

I was also able to meet Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, the voice talent behind Pinky & The Brain, and get them to sign the mosaic. Unfortunately, Christopher Lloyd had to cancel or I would have snagged his autograph too. Oh well…you can’t win them all!

The Great Wall Made Small

Flickr user lisqr has built this wonderful microscale model of one of the most impressive architectural feats in mankind’s history, the Great Wall of China. While the real Great Wall was several thousand miles long, lisqr employs a nifty series of connected vignettes to capture the wall’s serpentine path.

100_1888
The Great Wall

Strike a pose

The best trick to make a mecha model look really great, is to ensure it’s got as close to ‘human’ movement as is possible. Nate Descatro has achieved this in a very compact and very stylish design. It looks highly adaptable too.

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