Yearly Archives: 2015

Prepare for a swarm of TIE/D automated starfighters

I really enjoyed the growth of the Star Wars Expanded Universe back in the 90’s, from the gorgeous Dark Empire graphic novels by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy to the stellar Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Though I stopped paying attention following the Prequel Trilogy, I’ve always liked seeing the unique vehicles and vessels from the EU. Dead Frog, Inc. built this compact little TIE/D droid fighter, capturing the iconic look of the larger, manned TIE fighters while reducing the size to match the EU source material. Now imagine thousands of these spewing out of a World Devastator, swarming a Mon Calamari city…

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Star Wars: A New Hip

We’re starting to see a lot more LEGO Star Wars creations as we ramp up toward the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens LEGO sets — or maybe as I get excited myself, I’m just noticing them more. Either way, this little Miniland scene by Matt De Lanoy had me laughing uproariously. I realize it’s not a new joke, but Matt’s LEGO build is very well executed, with instantly recognizable characters, innovative parts usage (more on that below), and very cool lighting.

Matt built this as part of the current Iron Builder challenge, with the barbell accessory piece as the seed part. Expect to see a lot of posts over the coming days featuring this piece…

Exclusive review of LEGO Ideas Wall•E set designed by Angus MacLane [Review]

Last July, the LEGO Wall-E designed by Pixar director/animator Angus MacLane achieved 10,000 votes on LEGO Ideas, and its approval as an upcoming official set was announced in February. LEGO officially unveiled the set just yesterday, but thanks to the good people of Billund, we already have a copy of the set for a hands on review!

Spoiler alert: Wall•E is a a fantastic model with some great building techniques, lots of parts in an unusual color, and quite a good value for the money. I expect strong popularity from the subject matter alone, so I strongly recommend you pick up your LEGO Wall•E while supplies last.

Read the full review after the jump!

Lumière and Cogsworth

Koen (Swan Dutchman) recreates the lovable characters Lumière and Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast out of Lego, and he uses clever techniques to capture each ones expression. Take a look at the use of black sausages for the eyebrows and using an upside-down arch with curved slopes to make Cogsworth’s smile.

3LUG Presents: A Tale of Two Cities

As regular readers of the blog may know, Nick Kappatos and I build a joint display every year for BrickFair. This year, we wanted to contrast between organic and mechanical, as well as high-tech sci-fi and low-tech creations. We also just really wanted to build a bustling bazaar. It was also high time to work some motion into the display, even it it was simple. While the motion isn’t terribly complex, I have to say that I think Nick’s rotating ring has a perfectly sci-fi feel to it that I love (and can’t take credit for). I also tried my wobbly hand at a fly-through video… with an iphone.

First official images of Star Wars: The Force Awakens LEGO sets! [News]

Here’s your first look at the lineup of sets for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. No word yet on precisely when these will hit stores, but you can probably look for them in the next month or two. See the full list below the jump (mild spoilers possible).

75101 First Order Special Forces TIE fighter ($69.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75099 Rey’s Speeder ($19.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75100 First Order Snowspeeder ($39.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75102 Poe’s X-Wing Fighter ($79.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75103 First Order Transporter ($89.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75104 Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle ($119.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

75105 Millennium Falcon ($149.99): Available from Amazon.com & LEGO Shop Online

Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution

Hello minions! Claptrap, everyone’s favorite/most hated robot from the Borderlands game is back again. We’ve featured some fantastic renditions of this iconic character before, from Medium scale to stupidly large-life scale, but I think this build by Davyn (Rifflestein) is my favorite version yet, in adorable minifig scale:

What most readers don’t know is I actually built a minifig scale version of Claptrap, and while there has been times people have based work off of my builds, it’s rare someone like Davyn comes along and basically goes: “I can do way better.”

Which he did!

What resulted was an incredibly well thought out build, using the lamp holder as the wheel, and minifig hands as the entire arm is just perfect. It was also really cool how he presented his build in the same unique cel shading of the game …

… I think I have to go build me a set of these now.

LEGO official Wall•E set finally revealed [News]

LEGO has raised the curtain on its latest set, 21303 Wall•E. This is our first official glimpse of the finished product since an official Wall•E set was announced over a year ago, and we’re excited to bring our readers a full hands-on review of this set tomorrow!

LEGO Ideas member MacLane is an animator and director at Pixar Animation Studios, and built his original WALL•E model around the same time the character was being built digitally at Pixar in late 2005. Since then, Angus has refined his model, most recently by collaborating with LEGO Designer Steen Sig Andersen and WALL•E director Andrew Stanton to bring the official LEGO Ideas version to life.
You’ll be able to purchase your own WALL•E starting September 1, for a recommended retail price of $49.99 / EUR 49,99.

You can read the rest of the press release over at the LEGO Ideas blog.

LEGO 2015 Land Rover Defender

An iconic landmark in the automotive world, the Land Rover Defender launched in 1948 and has been in production continuously throughout the next 67 years. Sadly, this classic 4×4 model is coming to an end, as Land Rover have announced that 2015 will be its final production year. To commemorate it, Nick Barrett built this magnificent fiery-red model, complete with its recognizable white roof and a loaded interior. It also includes fully opening doors and hood, as well as working steering, suspension and pistons.

Beautiful castle of the Elves by Takeshi Itou

Japanese builder Takeshi Itou has been one of the most influential castle builders in the LEGO community, raising the bar worldwide, beginning when fans were first discovering each other online. His gorgeous castles rely largely upon older pieces and clean lines, clearly inspired by the golden age of LEGO castle lines in the 1980s. Takeshi’s latest piece is this gorgeous elven safehold.

When Takeshi began posting his castles in the early 2000s, he took the fan community by storm, and his influence still ripples down through many well-known builders today. While current trends in castle building emphasize a ramshackle aesthetic, with rough edges and extreme amounts of detail, Takeshi’s work remains in the style of the classic official sets, pushing that aesthetic to new heights. Brothers-Brick has been covering his work since the blog began 10 years ago, and one of my favorite pieces is this replica of Hikone Castle in Japan. 8 years after its creation it is still well worth checking out. Takeshi’s Volcano Tower also was enormously influential on my own building style in the early 2000s, showing me that dioramas with landscaping were possible at a time when the majority of builders still placed their structures on naked baseplates.

Bring in the artillery, boys!

When you absolutely, positively need covering artillery, you can’t do better than Stud Systems’ War Weasel Advanced Howitzer 9. Fully packable, the Howitzer is ready to be towed to a new position at a moment’s notice by the accompanying heavy duty cargo truck.

Mecha plus Countach equals coolness

A long time ago, not long after I joined the online community, I upset a number of people by openly declaring that I don’t care much for mecha. While I can appreciate quality when I see it, mecha still aren’t my cup of tea. However, make one that can transform into a cool car, like Andrew Lee‘s Lamborghini Countach, and you’ve definitely caught my attention.

This is Andrew’s first working Transformer and he describes it as total pain in the ass and quite the learning experience. I can sympathise. He is no stranger to building mecha, though, as many of you will know, and his experience shows, because the articulation on his model is truly exceptional.

He talks about this and about LEGO transformers in general in the latest episode of his video podcast, aptly titled Bricks and Beers. Cheers man!