It takes a lot of work to make an empty building look good, and Stijn Oom (DutchLEGO) managed to capture it perfectly:
Yearly Archives: 2014
Brickfête Jul 17-20, 2014
Janey Gunning asked if we could share the following press release in regards to this year’s Brickfête.
This is a call out to all AFOL, LEGO collectors, builders, hobbyists, and enthusiasts within walking, driving or flying distance of Toronto, Canada. The Brickfête Team is looking for exhibitors and would love to see you and what you have built. Join us for some good times completely focused on our beloved obsession with the brick.
TIME IS RUNNING OUT! To register for the four days visit our AFOL portion of our site… http://toronto.brickfete.com/toafol/Registration
Our new hotel venue is awesome! Incredible hotel rates have been secured and there is free parking for all Brickfete guests. Time is running out for this super room rate at a 38% savings.
Some families are planning a vacation by taking advantage of the great room rates and the awesome location near exciting venues such as the Science Center or the Toronto Zoo.
Our list of events are being posted and there is something for everyone to get involved with.
Build Challenges
Live Auction
Prize Raffles
Games
Contests and Activities
And more to come…Display with us and enjoy the company of other AFOLS. We can’t wait to see you on the attendees list and to see what you have built.
Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary [Review]
Last night I was able to attend a screening of Beyond the Brick at the Seattle International Film Festival. I have to say that I did not have high hopes or expectations. I have found that, at the best of times, they tend to have a skewed view of the fan community, so I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing how a documentary with LEGO’s official stamp of approval would deal with us adult fans. I am glad to say that my misgivings were unjustified. It was good, even (dare I say it?) better than The LEGO Movie itself. Go ahead, stone me in the comments, but everything WAS awesome.
So what exactly is Beyond the Brick?
In a Q&A session after the screening, one of the directors said that their goal was to create a film that not only told the story of LEGO but showed the vast community that has grown up around it. The idea was to delve into what it is about the LEGO brick that touches us and inspires us, how the system of play drives creativity and who are the people who have been changed and/or affected by LEGO. Did they succeed? I think think they did. I have been a fan of LEGO’s products for 35 years and I learned quite a few things about the global LEGO community that I never knew and was reminded of things that I had forgotten. The filmmakers were able to touch on many different aspects of LEGO and the effects it has had over the years and around the globe. Some of these included changes in the art world, new therapies with special needs children, the adult fan phenomenon, crowd-sourcing before it was a buzzword and sending minifigs into Space.
Was everything really awesome about the film?
No film is ever perfect. I felt there were some key members of the fan community who were overlooked and who could have offered insight into the concepts that the filmmakers were wanting to explore. But, in their defense, they couldn’t talk to everyone and they definitely couldn’t fit every detail into 90 minutes. There were only a few omissions that really bothered me, such as leaving out the collaborators of several projects and making it appear that the projects were built by a single person. One example of those was a minor collaboration I took part in at BrickCon. I was in the film, talking about the build but there were actually two of us there. My partner-in-crime was cut out. There were other, more important examples, involving large convention collaborations, that didn’t give full credit to those involved. But really that is my only serious critique of the film. Overall, it is a very well-crafted film that does an excellent job of showing off the LEGO community to the world. You should go see it or get a hold of the DVD when it comes out.
Check out this clip from the film, via The Wall Street Journal (Many thanks to my coworker, Brett, for sending me the link):
Artistic classics are literally out of this world
It’s been almost two years since we first covered the work of Polish artists Przemek and Marcin Surma, who publish drawings every week inspired by classic LEGO sets. Since then, they’ve created a whole new bunch, based on iconic sets from classic space themes of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Classic space fans should have no trouble recognizing some of their favorites from among this collection (but the original set numbers are included in each drawing, if you need help remembering).
What you see here is just a small sample – check their website for loads more.
Thanks to Nathan Dusciuc for the tip!
MSM-03C Hygogg
Gundams are cool and all, but it is pretty clear that when it comes to wicked awesome mecha designs, the Principality of Zeon takes the cake. The amphibious Hygogg is one of my favourite of the zanier designs, and Ryan (graybandit2000) did a bang up job on this version.
Friday Night Fight – Drone Duel
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada, USA for another round of Friday Night Fights! Tonight we head down to the battledome to watch battling drones! Let’s go to the tale of the tape.
In the white corner we have Ilya T.(_TrapleS_) with his Space Marine robots:
In the blue corner we have Chris (Ironsniper) with his Adaptive Combat Platform:
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this bout by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, Speeder Bikes edition, F@bz wins 10-2 ! Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!
Is Captain America Hydraphobic?
When the neo-Nazi super-secret evil organization Hydra needs to get the drop on Captain America, they might almost have a fighting chance if they use this sweet mech by Eric Druon (Baronsat).
Industrial design
Microscale building is most commonly associated with the giant collaborative ‘Micropolis’ city displays at events like Brickworld, where the focus is on gleaming modern architecture. So it’s refreshing to see Flickr member HOEFOL going seriously old school with microscale models of structures from the industrial revolution.
Which of course means factories, mills and a lot of smoke stacks:
But if you weren’t fortunate enough to live in the big city with all those rats and consumption, you might have lived in a farmhouse like one of these (with just the rats):
Not exactly contemporaneous with the others, but here’s a bonus scene entitled “Stranded”. Yup, not even HOEFOL’s cute little canal barge is gonna be able to get you out of this situation!
So much clever part usage in these scenes. I was particularly impressed by the inclusion of window sills, the recessing of the doorways, and use of flowers for the surf effect in that last creation.
Back with a Vehemence
Chris Boen (Mos Doomsday) built this sharp space cruiser. The lines are reminiscent of a small fighter craft more than a monstrous capital SHIP, which makes this beauty stand out all the more. Chris says it’s his first go at a ship of this size, and it’s an excellent entry.
Symphony of Construction II
When you hear music coming from any screen, it’s usually there to accompany the images you’re seeing. But take away those images, and it’s almost impossible for your imagination not to do the opposite, conjuring up images of its own to accompany the music. And what if you could capture those images in some form, say as a LEGO creation?
Well, that’s exactly the idea behind Paul Vermeesch‘s collaborative project Symphony of Construction. We covered the first round of that project last year. And now a second round has just been completed, that we’d like to share with you here!
They mostly come out at night, mostly...
H. R. Giger has passed away unexpectedly, at age 74. For the few that do not recognize the name, Giger was a surrealist artist and sculptor who applied his unique “machine/human hybrid” style of work to the design of the iconic monsters from the Alien movie franchise.
Regular readers will know that many LEGO builders have recreated creatures, scenes and vehicles from the Alien movies over the years. So it seems fitting for us to celebrate Giger’s life with some Alien-themed LEGO builds. The two shown here, by the Arvo brothers, are no doubt familiar to many of you.
But instead of reviewing a lot of older builds, I’d like to show you some completely new ones! Flickr member Missing Brick has carefully recreated memorable scenes from the 2nd movie in the franchise using customized minifigs, huge sets, creative lighting, and vehicle designs adapted from the work of fellow builders.
Click below the fold to see them all. WARNING: What follows is several pages of glorious LEGO Aliens movie scene-porn! Revel in it at your own peril, and remember to nuke the site from orbit afterwards. It’s the only way to be sure.
“Hey Bishop, do the thing with the knife!”
