Monthly Archives: June 2016

If IKEA was Danish, and made of LEGO

Norwegian builder birgburg creates fantastic scenes of brick-built domesticity and then takes excellent photos of them. The resulting images remind me of IKEA catalogs. I loved this kitchen viewed from outside, although the title — “Sneaking around in the garden at night” — suggests more sinister goings-on than you might expect.

A scroll through birgburg’s photos will be rewarded with further gems, like this sun-dappled porch scene. I want to be slouched in that seat, soaking up the rays, and sipping an ice-cold Cuervopolitan from that glass…

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Fan makes awesome LEGO Game of Thrones house sigils, and Hodor

LEGO builder Omar Ovalle has spent the last two years working on and off recreating the iconic house sigils from Game of Thrones, from House Stark’s iconic wolf of Winterfell, to House Lannister’s majestic lion of Casterly Rock, and on to some of the lesser known sigils such as House Baelish’s mockingbird. The collection is still a work in progress, but Omar has also taken some time to build a few cool LEGO busts of characters from the series, including the ever-faithful Hodor. Check them all out below!

House Stark

Hodor

Click to see the rest of the house sigils

Exploring where classic spacemen have gone before

As one of the most popular LEGO themes ever, Classic Space continues to be a source of inspiration for builders even to this day. This all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and various accoutrements is a lovely space scene created by SweStar. The ATV is quirky and utilises a more unusual part for the trans-yellow cockpit windshield, the x-pod barrel. Although I love the vehicle, my favourite part of the build are those little crates stacked on the left hand side. I wonder if they are for the collection of alien life-form specimens?

A closer look at the ATV confirms that it is definitely a more unconventional vehicle with its use of technic rotation joints for suspension and ingenious brick-built wheels.

A way of life

Capturing the human form in LEGO bricks is challenging at the best of times, which is why builders either plumb for a combination of complex parts and techniques, or go the other direction and use basic bricks but scale up their creations. However, the work of British builder David Hughes seems to lie somewhere in between these two extremes, with sculptures that require relatively few bricks and relatively little detail to capture the essence of their subject. Here, in a memorable pose, is Jimmy from the classic 1979 “angry young man” movie Quadrophenia:

Announcing the 2016 LEGO Military Build Competition [News]

After a two-year hiatus, the annual LEGO Military Build Contest is back. If, like me, you are a (part-time) military builder and remember the contests from a few years ago, you’ll be excited, because the models that did well in previous contests were some of the best military models around and several ended up being blogged here. This year’s competition is being run and judged by Magnus Lauglo, Justin Vaughn, Evan Melick, Aleksander Stein, and last but not least , Andy Baumgart, who designed the exceedingly cool contest poster.

You can enter in five different categories, that cover a wide variety of scales and possibilities, from serious scale models and designing your own IFV to something slightly wacky:

IFVs: Come up with an original design for a new minifig scale Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) for the fictional country of Azmir.
20th Century Battlefields: Build a diorama representing an actual battle that took place in the 20th Century.
World of Tanks: A good chunk of us Lego Military Modellers enjoy building tanks, so why not give you all a chance to strut your stuff? The massively popular video game World of Tanks is the inspiration behind this Scale Model category.
Naval aviation: This category invites you to build a scale model of any naval- or maritime aviation aircraft
Springfield’s Citizen Militia: In an effort to bolster civic pride, Mayor Quimby has called upon the citizens of Springfield to participate in the town’s very first Military Parade! Help your benevolent leader to make this a ‘Show of Power’ that nobody shall soon forget.

Be sure to check out the details of each of the categories in the military contest group on flickr before you start building or ask your question/ find your answer in the Q&A thread. You have until the 15th of August to complete your models. Rest assured that at TBB we will be keeping a close watch on this year’s entries.

LEGO ribbon memorializes Orlando shooting victims

On Sunday, June 12, an armed individual walked into Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire. When the attack was over, 49 people had lost their lives with another 53 injured. There are many things that make this tragedy terrible: the loss of life; the fact the nightclub was meant to be a safe place for the LGBT+ community; and the clear preparation the shooter took prior to walking into the club that night. Many questions remain unanswered about the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

As the days pass, we’ll see many conversations surrounding this, but today, I encourage you to take a moment of silence for the 49 young people who never went home that night.

Ryan Howerter has built a ribbon of mourning. It is simple and profound. It is a memorial to the lives lost.

For those that wish to help the injured and families of the victims, please see the resources below:

Blood Donations
While immediate need has been met, there is still a need for blood donations for the upcoming weeks. Check OneBlood or call 1.888.9Donate for more information on what their needs are.

Monetary Donations
Equity Florida has established a GoFundMe page, as well as the GLBT Community Center of Florida (GoFundMe). Funds will go to the families of victims. Additionally, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has created the OneOrlando fund, with funds also helping victims and providing ongoing support. Before donating, check with your employer to see if they have a funds matching program available.

Local Needs:

Volunteers
Please click here to check with the City of Orlando to see what assistance they may need.

Mental Health Volunteers
There is a need for mental health professionals; The Center is accepting information from licensed clinicians here.

Translators
Many of the victims were people of color. Their families coming in are in need of translators. If you can provide translating services, you are encouraged to reach out to info at hispanic chamber dot net.

Knights of the Cute Republic

In what might be one of the more interesting (and perfectly executed, and beautifully presented) mashups that I’ve seen in a while, David Lee, inspired by the excellent design of Herbert Lee’s Stormtrooper puppet, has reimagined Captain Phasma and a First Order Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens as chibi samurai. They’re so adorable, and stabby!

Classic television star fighters get the LEGO treatment

Some of you might feel that there are contributors at The Brothers Brick who have an unhealthy and self-indulgent obsession with nostalgia for 70s and 80s pop culture. And that those should contributors be stopped. And you would be absolutely right, on both counts.

Unfortunately we cannot be stopped, so please enjoy this latest LEGO-themed slice of retro goodness from SPARKART, who put together this microscale collection of ships from the Glen Larson TV shows Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica. These look totally swooshable, and each one is instantly recognizable as I peer at it over the rims of my half-moon spectacles.

“Hard Six” mech will hit your soft spot

The only thing better than alternate history is alternate history with big stompy mechs. Matt Rowntree must agree with me because his “prototype heavy walker, model 3, mark 3” (or “Hard Six” for short) certainly fits the bill as a Japanese war machine from 1949.

Be sure to check out Matt’s photostream for other shots including a really cool Jungle platform supply station and the fact that the nose features a sticker from LEGO set 7701 Grand Titan.

Big, black and beautiful: The Blacktron Behemoth

This huge Blacktron-themed tank by Adrian Drake measures a whopping 104 x 48 studs. Complete with a rotating turret and articulated corner treads, this LEGO tank is an absolute necessity for any Blacktron fleet worth its salt.

Adrian explained that his build was inspired by the artwork of DeviantArt user Duskie-06, but of course modified for LEGO building and tricked out in black with yellow trim and red transparent pieces in order to be a true Blacktron vehicle. According to Adrian, “The entire thing is basically a giant technic framework that, when I take the treads off, I can pick up and swoosh quite easily. It is, in reality, a SHIP with tank treads.”

If you’re looking to build a Blacktron Behemoth of your very own, be forewarned, to complete a tank like this you will need to spend countless man-hours in R&D and manufacturing. It took Adrian nearly two months to complete this build and that was even with the assistance of child labor: Adrian’s 9-year-old son designed the gun on the top of the turret and his 12-year-old son tirelessly mass-produced the tank’s treads. Without minions of your own, you’re looking at a much longer timeline before your tank rolls off the assembly line.

To see the up-close details of this build, be sure to check out more photos of Adrian’s massive Blacktron tank on Flickr. You can also see this tank in person at Brickworld Chicago or BrickFair DC.

Brick Ops

While I still actively buy and play with LEGO, Spy vs. Spy remains a part of my childhood exclusively. Due to import charges and weak local currencies I could never afford to buy Mad magazine, but the hours I spent hiding from store employees while I read Spy vs. Spy are etched into my memory. Andreas Weissenburg does the characters justice in this vignette. I don’t know what I love more, the little tank being driven by the white spy, or the fact that the black spy is wielding a brick separator! My money is on the black spy…

New 10252 Volkswagen Beetle LEGO Creator Expert set revealed [News]

Update: Read the full review of 10252 Volkswagen Beetle here on TBB!

One of the most iconic cars of all time is returning to the brick. Today LEGO has unveiled a spiffy new version of the famous bug, 10252 Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle comes fully outfitted for a day at the beach with a surfboard, cooler and even a beach towel. It includes license plates for the USA, UK, Germany and Australia, as well as new large curve elements for the wheel arches and loads of new parts in azure. The set will retail for $99.99 USD when it goes on sale Aug. 1, and contains 1,167 pieces. The LEGO Beetle’s larger sibling, the VW Camper Van, is one of the longer running products in LEGO’s catalog, though it will likely be retiring soon in favor of this new addition to the LEGO VW family. Read the full details about the new Beetle set after the jump.

Click to see more of the Volkswagen Beetle