LEGO Chima Cragger Command Ship 70006
Monthly Archives: January 2013
BrickArms on Evening Magazine [News]
Will Chapman over at BrickArms was featured on yesterday’s episode of Evening Magazine here in Seattle. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, everyone else in the world can now watch the segment, in which Will talks about the origins of his business and his creative process, and shows off some of the equipment he uses in his shop.
Zizy Madness
Anyone interested in mecha and unfamiliar with Zi zy‘s work should remedy that now by going carefully through his photostream. He is one of the original, and still best, masters of the small mecha. His latest offerings are no exception, ranging from ‘standard’ mecha like below, through to transformers in the same scale. Hot stuff.
Psilocybin
In this fun little diorama, Chris (Ironsniper) re-employs two drill part to great effect as the base of a giant mushroom. I also have to commend LEGO for their vast improvement to the horse design.
Space Marines GO!
Perhaps I have missed them, but I am surprised that we have not seen more creations made for the Space Marine Collectible Minifigure.
But Peter Morris (peterlmorris) has done it in spades with his Rapid Reaction Force. The SM-41 Mauler mech is a more heavily armed variant of his previous Futuron Strategic Pursuer Mk II. Not only does the mech add some firepower to his squad, but he also outfitted the figs with some extra pew-pew. I also must give props to LEGO for giving us so many unique sci-fi heads over the years…as a result there is a lot of added personality in Peter’s squad, and that is very cool!
Just a Quickie
Kyle Collard (Lazer Blade) says that he built this wonderful little drone in 10 minutes…I wish I was that efficient! The unique shape and rockin’ colour scheme really make this ship pop. Well played Mr. Collard, well played!
Best Van Ever: An RC A-Team Van in LEGO
Vimal Patel has built a sweet LEGO Technic version of the the A-Team’s iconic van, and it’s remote controlled.
Vimal’s also filmed this awesome video of it in action (though I wish it had that classic A-Team music, but I’m guessing Vimal doesn’t want to get sued).
Swoop Bag makes clean up of “play LEGO” a snap [Review]
This review is about an unusual item, namely one made for storage of LEGO rather than building with it. Sarah Kirk, the owner of Swoop Bag, sent us one to check out some time ago. My apologies to Swoop Bag for the delay in reviewing it.
This is actually a rather interesting product. Similar to the play-mats that LEGO made back in the 70s, the Swoop Bag is a combination play-mat and storage bag, designed to transform from storage to play-space and back again.
It consists of a 44 inch, round canvas mat with a nylon draw-string encased in a sleeve around the edge. The sleeve doubles as a containment “wall” when the bag is in play-mat mode. Place a pile of LEGO in the middle of the mat and build away. When you are finished simply pull on the draw-string and the mat folds up around the brick and transforms into a handy storage bag. It makes picking up a pile of brick surprisingly easy and hung up on a hook, ready for the next build session.
Pros:
The bag is very sturdy and it can hold quite a bit of brick. I dumped in an 18 gallon bin of brick (unsorted, of course) and it held it just fine. My six year old son was able to operate the bag, open or closed, in about 20 seconds. The sleeve around the edge is a lot better than the old LEGO play-mats in that the cord is almost completely enclosed. The cords on the old mats got in the way and tripped kids up. It also comes in two sizes now. We only reviewed the larger one but the smaller one looks like it would ideal for travel. The bag is also machine-washable.
Cons:
It is designed for a child’s collection of brick. It is perfect for my kids’ collection of LEGO but doesn’t have much use in my collection. This isn’t really a “con” so much as a design limitation. The price may also turn off some buyers. The large bag is priced at $48 USD, which is a lot to pay for something to keep your kid-brick in. The smaller bag is $26 USD.
Overall, I really liked the Swoop Bag. It is sturdy, makes clean up of “play brick” a snap, and my kids can do it by themselves. Obviously a lot of time and thought went into the design of the bag and it shows. This is a high quality item that will last for years. While the price is high, the ease of cleanup makes it worth it. If you have “play brick” and it gets used on a regular basis I would recommend checking out the Swoop Bag.
The Blitz’ard collaboration
A new style of collaboration was introduced to the Flickr Lego community when a group of builders (myself included) simultaneously posted creations depicting a tribe of polar bear warriors. Check out our creations on the Flickr group and learn how to build your own polar bear.
KastleVania 4: a 146 min Brickfilm
Three Finnish brothers, Sandmaenchen, Blaitteri, and Erythron from Hovinet.com spent over 7 years to create this 146 min Brickfilm with 110,000 pictures. You can read more about the plot summary and stats on Bricks In Motion.
Fully functional 1:12 LEGO Supermarine Spitfire Mk IIa can do everything but fly
At the end of December, Kyle Wigboldy (thirdwigg) posted a LEGO Spitfire fighter plane from World War II that has the most functions I’ve ever seen in a LEGO plane.
Kyle spent about six months on his Spitfire, and the finished model has a wingspan of 112 studs and is 96 studs long. Not only is the Spitfire model gorgeous (too many LEGO Technic models are just skeletons in odd colors), it also includes lots of functionality:
- Spinning propeller with adjustable prop pitch
- Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engine with working pistons
- Working landing gear
- Cockpit joystick and pedals that connect to working control surfaces
- Working rudder, elevator, and ailerons
The YouTube video shows off all the moving parts.
Read Kyle’s full writeup on Thirdwigg.com, and a more complete review on TechnicBRICKs.
“How are you holding up? Because I’m a potato.”
Alex Kobbs of Kooberz Studios posted his LEGO Portal video back in December, but it looks like we only featured the behind-the scenes video. I recently finished Portal 2 again, and Alex posted about the video on Flickr, so now seems as good a time as any to highlight the main video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V0R8Qpjl8Q
Since this is Part 1, I wonder when Part 2 will be out. Can’t wait!