Pierre E Fieschi alluded to a much larger project recently when he posted a heavy hauler. The result was worth the wait.
Pierre’s bombardment platform uses the new 1×1 round tiles, and incorporates some interesting polygonal shapes. I love the way the yellow spans the underlying dark gray.
The BrickIt team in Denmark has built a robotic system to sort LEGO bricks. The “Dynaway Sorting Plant” uses 28 Mindstorms NXT motors, 7 processors, 4 color sensors, and 14 touch sensors, and took over 250 hours of programming time plus 800 hours to build. The result is an amazing system that separates 2×4 and 1×2 bricks by both shape and color and then moves the pallets full of sorted bricks.
Read more about the sorting machine on BrickIt.dk.
USS Reliant appeared in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” as a vessel commandeered by the titular villain. Christer Nyberg (myko82) built his LEGO version with 10-15 thousand bricks over the course of a year.
See more pictures on Flickr, and read Christer’s write-up on Eurobricks.
Back in 2004, a certain fast food maker partnered with LEGO for the toys in their children’s meals. The result was some pretty awful LEGO pieces. However, Cole Blaq incorporates the Happy Meal skateboard into this orange beauty of a gunship, complete with a squiddy pilot.
Cole also posted this variation — more squat, and still somehow more brutish, despite the lack of a massive chin gun.
The customization of LEGO Friends mini-dolls continues. Victor Fernandez (eclipseGrafx) takes up the baton with his version of Tifa from Final Fantasy VII, complete with a massive Buster Sword that Cloud would be proud to wield (a custom accessory from Brick Command).
Between sick days and snow days, I’ve been stuck at home for nearly two weeks. Great for building, but cabin fever is setting in. The National Geographic Channel has been on pretty much constantly, so I was happy when NatGeo TV sent us a message to say that the LEGO factory in Billund will be featured on this Saturday’s episode of “Ultimate Factories”.
Here’s what they say:
Our cameras go on a fun and fascinating adventure in the world inside the Lego factory in Billund, Denmark. We’ll see what it takes for Lego’s crackerjack team of international designers to update the Legoland police station. Every single block of the new play set has to be designed with almost superhuman precision because every block produced has to fit seamlessly into the set it comes with, as well as every single Lego block ever made since 1958. We’ll see the new police station evolve through design and development, molding, painting and decorating, packaging and distribution.
And here’s a clip:
The show airs this Saturday, January 21, at 8:00 PM. Can’t wait!
Blake Baer has continued to build LEGO models inspired by the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, most recently featuring a series from The Hobbit. Here are a few we missed over the busy holiday season.
Bilbo and the dwarves escape aboard and within barrels in “Barrels out of Bond”.
Bilbo encounters the dragon Smaug for the first time in “Inside Information”.
The men of Lake Town defend their wooden buildings against Smaug in “Fire and Water”.
Ever since the announcement of LEGO Lord of the Rings and Hobbits sets in December, LEGO has been teasing us with posters of the minifigs.
Aragorn wields Anduril in his promo shot.
Legolas looks like he has a new Elvish hairpiece.
Death Cab for Cutie are one of my favorite bands, and I’ve enjoyed seeing them live (including opening for the Seattle Mariners a couple year ago).
L D M has recently been posting DCFC album art recreated in LEGO. His rendition of Narrow Stairs
Though it’s a less-sophisticated LEGO build, I also like his version of Transatlanticism
Though we missed it when he posted it back in September, Plans
Alex P. (Sirens-of-Titan) built this gorgeous bridge to accompany a fantasy story he wrote. The jagged rocks along the water contrast beautifully with the smooth lines of the stone bridge.
See more pics and read the story on MOCPages.
The North American LEGO convention season is coming up surprisingly soon, beginning with Bricks by the Bay in mid-March and wrapping up with BrickCon in October.
The newest LEGO convention will be held June 1-3, 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Here’s the official description for Bricks Cascade.
Bricks Cascade is a convention held in Portland, Oregon, open to Adult Fans of Lego who excel in building various items of detail whose existence beg a public display to the community. Attendees of the Convention must be at least 18 years of age, or if under 18, can only obtain registration if accompanied by a registered adult. The convention officially begins on June 1st 2012 and ends on the evening of June 3rd, 2012.
Friendships, knowledge sharing, and building techniques are just a few benefits gained by attending the convention. More details can be given about this convention on this web site in the coming months. All Convention Attendees pay $52.00 during our initial registration period. Please fill out all information requested to insure your entrance ID is created without errors and prevent any delays during on-site registration fulfillment.
You can register now at BricksCascade.com.
I first noticed Carson Hart‘s LEGO models over the holidays, but was offline at the appropriate times to blog his Christmas-themed creations. Thankfully, he’s followed it up with some other great models, including this diorama of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom in Hogwart’s Castle.
This microscale version of The Burrow is also nice, complete with a micro-magical Ford Anglia.
