Monthly Archives: May 2013

May TBB Cover Photo Winners

Well the month of April has completely flown by and it is already time to pick new winners for our Facebook and Twitter cover photos.

I was lucky enough to do the selecting for this month, and since Andrew’s picks for April were of the sci-fi variety, I thought I would switch things up this month.

For Facebook I chose Legopard’s ingeniously quaint Nano Modular Buildings.

Nano Modular Buildings

For Twitter, the winner was Tobigo’s epic oil rig which we had blogged last week.

Oil Rig

 

Since this is still a relatively new idea, I am going to copy and paste Andrew’s observations from last month. Once again there were several pictures that were fantastic except for the fact that the orientation would not have worked. Also I was kind of hoping that some of the previous month’s submissions would have been re-submitted as per Andrew’s ‘hint’…but that may just be something that we readdress for future months:

Since this was our first month, here are a few random observations about what worked and what didn’t:

  • This isn’t how you get blogged, but we certainly found a few gems we’d missed otherwise!
  • There were scores of gorgeous photos that just didn’t work because of the composition, mostly because of where Facebook and Twitter put our logo and page text on top of the photo.
  • Vertical (portrait orientation) photos really don’t work at all. As much as I love looming medieval towers and tall sculptural figures, we can’t really use them on Facebook and Twitter.
  • With so many great buildings, vehicles, and dioramas, it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll ever choose to feature a photo of a single minifig for a whole month.
  • It’s a good idea to brand or watermark your photos online, but large branding is distracting when the photo is going to be used as the “face” of The Brothers Brick, so I skipped past photos with big logos or chunks of text.
  • We love microspace here at TBB, but since I’d been using one of my own microspace photos for the last year or two on Facebook, I excluded several remarkably awesome photos (like Pierre’s) for this first month. Looking ahead, we’ll definitely be taking into consideration the subject matter or theme of what we’ve recently featured in selecting the next month’s photos.

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R-Type & Beyond

Just a quick announcement.

For the first time in nearly 2 years, we at the Starfighters Group are having a monthly build challenge. This month’s theme was suggested by Shannon Sproule and is quite simple; just build a starfighter based on or inspired by the iconic video game series R-Type.

So if you are interested in partaking in the fun, just head on over to the discussion thread, we’d be happy to have you as part of our Space Corps!

R-Type Build Challenge

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Hail to the new King!

Many of you may have missed it, but it was hard to miss in the Netherlands, my home country: since yesterday we have a new king and queen: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima (yes, that is the name given to her by her parents). This momentous occasion prompted Paul Toxopeus (P@u! +ox) to build these wonderful portraits.

Portraits of the new king and queen of the Netherlands

Considering the limits of the colour palette, these are surprisingly recognisable. Hail to the new King!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

76003 Superman: Battle of Smallville [Review]

Since I’m a sucker for Superman,  I’ve been really looking forward to 76003 Superman: Battle of Smallville ($49.99 USD / $59.99 CDN),  available now form the LEGO Shop and for pre-order on Amazon.com.

This is the biggest set in the line of licensed sets from Man of Steel, the new Superman movie due out in June.

76003_NA_MA.indd

The 418-piece set features a military jeep with missile launchers and the “Black Zero” drop ship, a Kryptonian fighter ship. There a 5 minifigs included: Superman, Colonel Hardy, General Zod, Faora and Tor-An.  At that price point, the set is fairly reasonable, given the part count.

The Build

UntitledThe set comes with 5 polybags of parts, 2 instruction books, stickers and a comic.  The first part of the build is the military jeep.  It’s simple but nicely designed, employing clever SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques. The jeep comes equipped with a pair of flick-fire missiles for its play action. Flick fires are never that interesting in my opinion.  The first set of figures are Superman, sporting torso and leg prints based on the movie,  and Colonel Hardy, who sports a military-style torso print that might be of interest to military enthusiasts.

Untitled

The second part of the build is the Black Zero Drop Ship, not to be confused with the Black Zero, which is a gigantic ship in the movie. The minfigures here are particularly noteworthy as they contain a number of new molds.  Zod and Faora each have their own styles of body armor, as well as new helmet pieces.  Faora appears to have a new hair mold as well. And finally, there is a new blaster weapon.

Untitled

Untitled One particularly noteworthy element is the dark grey bubble canopy.  While it is not a new element, the color is new, and should lend itself to some creative uses.  Building the dropship is straightforward enough; it only took about 15 minutes to do it. The finished ship is definitely swooshable, and it comes with two spring-loaded missile launchers for its play action.  While I’m sure the set was designed to reflect the movie’s look, the end result is largely colorless —  it’s mostly dark grey with a few tiny green accents. I somehow get the sense that the designer’s hands are tied on this one, given the source material.

Untitled

The Verdict

The set is a fair value.  If you are a fan of the movie, or a fan of Superman, then you would probably appreciate the set.  The set is not a standout in terms of the color design.  The predominantly grey palette is a little dull. But my kids, as I suspect with most kids, don’t care about design details.  They’ve been playing with the set non-stop ever since we finished building it.

76003 2

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Chris Maddison gets crabby

Of course, Chris Maddison is certainly holding his own against Bruce Lowell! This aquarium features a delightful crab, as well as realistic details like the water aerator/purifier unit thingy on the tank.

Crab

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Bruce Lowell handles hazardous materials

Sometimes, the simplest scenes are the most charming. Bruce Lowell (bruceywan) is furiously battling Chris Maddison for the title of “Iron Builder,” using the little red cone piece (aka the fez) as the seed part. They’ve each built a number of great LEGO models, but this little scene of a minifig in a HazMat suit trying to work with what I presume is a rod of plutonium is easily my favorite.

Careful!

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The Siege of Cedrica

ZCerberus built this LEGO Castle scene for the Guilds of Historica challenge over on Eurobricks. Orcs defend their home against a marauding human army (or something like that).

SiegeMain

ZCerberus built quite a few motorized elements into his diorama, including a whirlwind, battering ram, and catapults. Check out the video for the action.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.