Monthly Archives: July 2013

A striking frigate

Chris (Ironspniper) says his latest model is a microscale space frigate, but I think it could work just as well as a fig-scale drone or fighter.

That’s one of the odd things about LEGO models not built to resemble something “real” — it’s really up to the builder to decide what scale it’s in. I’ve built spacecraft myself that I only decided were microscale after I’d finished them and taken the pictures.

Regardless, the great color choices and contrast between angular and circular shapes make for one excellent LEGO model.

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Clattering along in Ɍaillery’s Jigger-class Steam Railtank Mk. LXXIV

Going in the opposite direction, chronologically, from the last post yesterday, here’s an armored hand car by Beau Donnan (Ɍaillery).

Two minifigs fit inside this “railtank,” pumping the adorable little war machine forward.

Though posted nearly a year ago, I also can’t pass up Beau’s wonderfully inventive windmill locomotive in the same alternate history theme.

The lovely asymettry of the Azuki Shipyards Myrmidon-class missile boat

John Stephens (-=Steebles=-) says of his missile boat that it’s “designed to deliver endless salvos of medium and long range missiles.” While the loadout is certainly formidable, I’m most impressed by the radical asymmetry of the craft, with the cockpit offset from the center-line, balanced by the sensor array and two very different wings. Nevertheless, the forward projections and wingtips on both wings tie it all together very nicely.

Tyler Clites’ E-MOTE will make you feel human

Tyler Clites has embarked on a new project, crafting a friendly little robot with loads of pose-ability. This robot was intentionally made with lots of articulation and the fundamental elements of a face that allow us humans to interpret emotion from facial expressions. Tyler has been updating every day or two with new poses and expressions, and plans to continue for several weeks. Tyler is doing some fantastic work here: taking a relatively simple build and imbuing it with emotion and personality. This sort of creativity is what makes LEGO building amazing. We’ll be featuring the dramatic little robot again as his acting broadens, so be sure to watch TBB to see more of him. In the meantime, check out E-MOTE’s photoset to see all of his poses so far.

Today, E-MOTE discovers the wonder of butterflies.

You built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?

When first introduced, the DeLorean DMC-12 looked as though it came from the future. In reality, however, it turned out to be a disappointment. Its stainless steel body was impossible to keep clean, its fancy gull-wing doors leaked, its electronics were unreliable, the build quality was shoddy and its performance was lacklustre. It is no surprise then that DeLorean Motor Company went bust after a few years. Nonetheless, the Back to the Future Trilogy turned this sleek but hopeless clunker into a pop culture icon. In the words of Doc Emmett Brown: “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?”

Back to the Future is a popular subject for LEGO builders, and we’ve featured a fair number of Back to the Future models here on The Brothers Brick. Now, thanks to LEGO CUUSOO, LEGO is getting in on the action too, with an official BTTF DeLorean scheduled for release soon. Like many of you, I’ve seen some of the preliminary pictures, and though I quite liked the original version on CUUSOO, I though it looked rather over-sized with the figures standing next to it. The size was chosen such that it could seat two minifigures side-by-side in a vehicle.

Since I am currently building cars from Eighties movies and TV shows anyway, seeing the preliminary picture of the set prompted me to have a go at building one myself. Since minifigures are oddly proportioned little characters and play value isn’t my priority, I decided not to bother with them, opting for a brick-built figure instead. I chose the flying version of the car that is introduced at the end of the first movie and was used during Part II.

I am not the only builder who was prompted to build a DeLorean by pictures of the forthcoming set — Larry Lars has finished his own. It is a rather different interpretation of this movie classic, but it looks the business. The model is slightly smaller than mine, which makes it about the same size as the CUUSOO version. In Larry’s words, it’s all about shapes and not so much about the details. He didn’t skimp on the details, though.

Larry and I realise that we don’t have to work with the same constraints as LEGO set designers. Our models would not work as a set; they use far too many parts, are too complicated and use a few illegal connections. Furthermore, mine doesn’t drive very well and the doors are very flimsy. I suspect this isn’t different for Larry’s model either. Inevitably, there’s something lost in translation between fan-designed models like ours and an official set. I’ll await definitive pictures of the set before making up my mind, but I hope LEGO haven’t turned a sleek design into a clunker.

Check back soon here on The Brothers Brick for coverage and a review of the official LEGO Back to the Future DeLorean.

A tiny lighthouse made of Modulex

The sheer scale of all the dioramas we’ve featured today calls for a tiny chaser — just something different. Modulex is as different as you can get, so here’s a lovely lighthouse built by Carson Hart.

Modulex has a fairly limited palette compared to SYSTEM bricks, so the sand under the water and the printed piece on top of the lighthouse are particularly excellent details.

Unexplored Ruins

Kyle Collard (Lazer Blade) displayed this beautifully crafted ruined castle at Brick Fiesta last weekend. This edited photo shows all the details of the decay and lends itself to insta-faves.

No evidence children harmed by greater variety in LEGO minifig facial expressions

We’ve been studiously ignoring the rather ridiculous press coverage of a study published last month in the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction. The study itself is simply a numerical analysis of minifig facial expressions from 1975 to 2010, concluding that facial expressions perceived by adults as “happy” have decreased over time in favor of “angry” faces and other emotions. It’s actually a rather interesting study, if you bother to read it.

But the media frenzy surrounding the study has been silly at best and consistently inaccurate — not necessarily about the trend toward more variety in minifig facial expressions but about the substance and conclusions of the study. One of the more moronic trends among the articles — or at least their headlines, which many people probably don’t read past — is claiming that the study says that the greater diversity in minifigure facial expressions is somehow harmful to children.

Conan O’Brian did a bit last night that is representative of the misunderstanding many people have about the issue. While Conan and his writers put the material to good comedic use, it reminded me that we might still want to post something about the study and the press coverage surrounding it. The story just doesn’t want to die!

Thankfully, not all the coverage is as idiotic as what you’ve probably seen on your local news. Scientific American editorial intern Arielle Duhaime-Ross has written an excellent blog post about the study and its media coverage, with insights into why people have been so attracted to the story.

She quotes one of the New Zealand researches as saying, “Our little LEGO study was never intended to give scientific evidence of the minifigures’ harmful effects — it cannot even give a hint.” Christoph Bartneck continues, “The media fights for our attention and one mechanism they use is to invoke fear.”

It’s this fear-mongering that I find so distasteful (and consistent with the controversy surrounding LEGO Friends). I’m no defender of the LEGO brand or corporation, nor do I always agree with the decisions they make — I’ve been advocating for more ethnic and gender diversity in minifigs for years, in fact — but I do take issue with bad journalism.

Head on over to ScientificAmerican.com to read Arielle’s post, and let us know what you think yourself in the comments.

Mothra!

This incredible layout, by OliveSeon, shows Mothra, sometime ally/sometime enemy of Godzilla, involved in an epic battle. I love Mothra herself and her silken spray entangling all the buildings around her. The builder did a good job of seamlessly incorporating actual modular building sets in the layout as well. But I’m also partial to well-built battle scenes, and this fits the bill. For the record, I’m rooting for Mothra…

VirtuaLUG’s Wizard of Oz diorama will knock off your ruby slippers

VirtuaLUG collaborated on a mammoth Wizard of Oz layout for BrickWorld this year. I posted the wizard’s hot-air balloon earlier but the entire diorama definitely deserves its own post. They worked together on a large number of dioramas depicting crucial scenes throughout the story. Each of the sections is an incredible piece alone. Together they form something truly incredible. Every time I go through the pictures I find more details that I didn’t notice before. I especially love how the early scenes were built in tan, black and greys to depict the black-and-white scenes in the movies and the motorized cyclone with mini farmhouse. The vibrancy and technique in the later dioramas is breath-taking. I didn’t make it to BrickWorld but I wish I had seen this in person. Incredible!

The entrance to the Emerald City:

Uncle Henry and Aunt Em’s Farm:

The Dark Forest:

See the rest of the Wizard of Oz layout after the jump!

Brick Fiesta 2013 wrap up and walkthrough video

Brick Fiesta 2013 took place in Dallas this past weekend. In its third annual event, Brick Fiesta has grown to be one of the largest medium-sized Lego conventions in the US, trailing behind its big sibs known as BrickFair, Brickworld, and BrickCon. This year the event was held in my location of residence, so I attended the convention, albeit briefly, to set up some MOCs and do coverage of the displays. Here are some of my favorite creations from the event.

Matthew Greene’s Hobbiton was a colorful display full of lush landscaping. The cheerful colors and peaceful action of the Hobbits (minus the fire that burned on the top right on Sunday) was a soothing contrast to the builder’s other WW2 display that also attracted lots of attention.

The Unexplored Ruins by a team of 5 builders showcased a lot of advanced techniques used to create a realistic-looking ruined castle. In the walkthrough videos I showed a close up of the MOC and highlight a few parts that I really liked.

Even though I’m not a train builder, I enjoyed this layout by David Hawkins for the detailed landscape and the few realistic buildings.

These are many more creations that I enjoyed besides these featured ones. I encourage you to browse through the Brick Fiesta Flickr group to see more photos from the event. I have also recorded around an hour of video of me walking through the exhibit hall and talking about the displays in 4 clips, with part one shown below:

Rolling through the woods in the Leopard 2A8

A forest may not be the most appropriate environment for a main battle tank, but the Leopard 2A8cE tank built by Corvin Stichert seems to feel right at home in the woods. The Leopard 2A8 is a fictional development of the real-world German Leopard 2, fitted with new armour and goodies such as IR signature reduction technology and an active protection system.

I like that Corvin sticks to technology that isn’t too far-fetched. For instance, active protection systems, intended to intercept incoming projectiles and missiles, have already entered operational service. I also like how, unlike many tanks people build and post, this one isn’t just dark grey.