Yearly Archives: 2012

Landscape Contest

Running from August 10th to September 10th, Flickr member Bruno is hosting a contest focused on building landscapes as opposed to vehicles and/or buildings.

DETAILS
Presented to you by Bruno and coupons provided by Brick Takeover
Imagine a peacefull landscape, green trees, flower fields, bunnies hopping around… AND OH MY GOD IS THAT A MANIAC WITH A FLAMETHROWER BURNING EVERYTHING TO SHREDS?!
So far this introduction, I’ll now tell you what the actual meaning of this contest is. You’ve all seen countless builds of apocalyptic wastefields, magnificent castle landscapes and so on. This contest focuses not on the minifigures dwelling in the landscapes, but on the landscapes itself. The goal is to create whatever landscape you like, be it a swamp, a volcanic island, a nuclear fallout landscape and so on.

RULES AND REQUIREMENTS.
-The build can be microscale, a vignette, a diorama or a scene, choose whatever floats your boat.
-You cannot enter previous builds THAT WERE POSTED ONLINE.
-The minimum size for it should be 20×20
-Maximum 2 entries per person
-No height restrictions
-YOU MUST HAVE A BRICKLINK ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO RECEIVE YOUR PRICE
-Minifigures are allowed, but should be kept under 3.
-Third Party accesoires such as Brickforge, Brickarms are allowed.
-Painting isn’t allowed, cutting stickers, flextube or whatever is.
-Don’t have any ideas? here are some themes: Apocalyptic, Castle, Prehistoric, Medieval (not necessarily Castle), Roman/Greek, futuristic/Sci-fi, Steam Punk, Sea-life, Natural.
-Judging is done by me, Eturior and Andreas.

PRIZES.
The prizes are split up into coupons for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The coupons are funded by me and provided by Brick Takeover’s excellent shop. 1st place will receive a coupon of 30 euros, the 2nd place for 20 euros and the 3rd place for 10 euros. Again, the prizes are funded by myself with my hard-earned money so keep in mind that I can’t really afford any fancy price.

LINKS
Discussion Thread
Entry Thread

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Up to 30% off LEGO Star Wars sets from Amazon.com

LEGO Star Wars sets are usually excluded from sales at brick-and-mortar stores, so sales at Amazon.com and other online retailers are always a pleasant surprise.

All of the following sets are 30% off:

Save $36 on 7964 Republic Frigate
Save $21 on 7961 Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator
Save $18 on 7931 T-6 Jedi Shuttle
Save $15 on 7930 Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship

7962 Anakin’s & Sebulba’s Podracers is also discounted by 22%, saving you $20 on a $90 set

These deals tend to be pretty dynamic, so if you’ve been waiting for these sets to go on sale, now’s the time to act.

As always, The Brothers Brick receives a percentage of the sales when you click through from here, and we use that money to pay for server costs (not insubstantial with a global audience), buy prizes to give away during BrickCon and other events, and generally give back to the community.

Signs of life

Chris (Ironsniper) has built a lovely, contemplative mecha that incorporates old-style hinges — since replaced by “click hinges” — and printed tiles for some lovely spot color. What grabbed my attention though, is the story that the model tells.

Chris’ minifig-scale “BFG Suit” gets an upgrade as well, with an impressive gun that incorporates studs wonderfully into the design.

GP-1 Blackjack “Ground Pounder” walker

Jeff Churill (Cooper Works 70) mixes great shaping in LEGO with custom stickers and BrickArms to create this imposing walker that looks like it emerged from the military-industrial complex of World War II.

Buttoned up for combat, this is one walking tank I wouldn’t want to face on a dark battlefield. The feet and legs are definitely the highlight for me on this mech.

Lenticular Lego mosaic of Batman and the Joker

If you liked Arthur Gugick‘s Anakin-Vader lenticular mosaic, then you’ll love his recent one that depicts Batman and the Joker.

Do minifigs need haircuts?

Well, if they do, there’s a lovely barber shop on the ground floor of this terraced apartment building by Christer Nyberg.

The building has a complete interior, so don’t miss all Christer’s photos on Flickr.

Via Brick Town Talk.

London 2012 – a retrospective Olympic roundup in LEGO

I’ve generally avoided news about the 2012 Olympics in London in order to preserve some measure of surprise as I watch the much-delayed — and rightly much-maligned — TV coverage on NBC here in the States. That’s meant that we haven’t really featured much in the way of LEGO Olympics models here over the last couple of weeks. Let’s correct that, as I watch the closing ceremonies, in one fell swoop.

Her Majesty the Bloody Queen stole the show at the opening ceremonies, but didn’t look especially entertained during what was actually quite an amazing show. Iain Heath captures the Queen’s look when she visited the Athletes’ Village the next day.

Warren Elsmore spent 250 hours and 300,000 bricks building a 1:500 scale model of many recognizable Olympic buildings.

The Guardian commissioned a series of brick-by-brick stop-motion videos by Fabian Moritz, showcasing important moments during the Olympics. My favorite was Michael Phelps’ 16th gold medal.

Finally, don’t miss McKayla Maroney’s disapproval in the post right below this one.

To celebrate the Closing Ceremonies... a disapproving McKayla Maroney in LEGO

I would like to award a Silver medal to Iain Heath for artfully capturing an iconic image from the 30th Olympiad, summarizing the fair sportsmanship and teamwork we associate with those dedicated athletes who give their all.

Also, it’s hysterical.

In all seriousness, congratulations to all of the athletes for their hard work, and safe travels.

A Snazzy Space Fighter

This little fighter by Jeffrey Matthews sports an awesomely fishy color scheme, and some pretty cool details, like power cores and removable armaments. The lime green highlights are an unusual choice, but they end up working excellently.

LEGO Mars Curiosity Rover powered by MINDSTORMS NXT (not plutonium)

We’re generally not as quick to blog Technic and MINDSTORMS models here, so with apologies to our readers who’ve already seen this (but in the interest of completeness): Will Gorman and Doug Moran recently built a fairly functional version of the Mars Curiosity Rover, with four of six working wheels, robotic arm, and mast.

According to the builders, “The Curiosity Rover was created with 7 NXT Bricks, 13 NXT Motors, 2 Power Function Motors, and over 1000+ LEGO Bricks. The software was developed using leJOS NXJ.”

The LEGO Group provided all the LEGO, and the rover was featured at LEGO and NASA’s Build the Future in Space event at Kennedy Space Center.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I’m sometimes pleased most by the overall impression that a LEGO photo leaves, but examining the details in this scene from Hugo by Gabe Umland is equally rewarding. I love the black & white, and the clockwork behind Hugo is fantastic.

Gabe’s scene was inspired by the interior of the wonderful French Cafe by Carson Hart we featured here a couple weeks ago.

LEGO Argonath guards the borders of Gondor

Noah McClung (Glory_Forever) tackles one of the most awe-inspiring scenes from The Lord of the Rings, when the Fellowship passes beneath the gaze of the Argonath, or the Pillars of the Kings, into the much-diminished lands of Gondor.

The smooth statue stands in contrast to the rough-and-tumble rocks of the cliff. Here’s hoping Noah adds Isildur’s statue on the other side of the river Anduin, joining Anárion to face down Gondor’s northern enemies.

Via FBTB.