The fifth issue of Hispabrick Magazine is now available for download.
This issue includes:
Download Hispabrick Magazine 005 for free today.
Ciamek (Piglet) has incorporated his Polish PZL P.11c fighter into an interesting diorama that tells a fascinating story.
Stanisław Skalski was a Polish fighter ace during World War II, credited with 18-22 victories over Axis forces. Escaping to the UK after the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Poland, Skalski later even commanded an RAF squadron.
Click the photo for lots more pics of Ciamek’s LEGO creation, and be sure to read the full story.
Why is this 10187 Volkswagen Beetle by Alex Schranz yellow?
Well, I suppose the post title gives it away, but click the pic to see this lovely classic Beetle in “robotmode”.
…and then there are hard suits.
Lord Dane takes the chunkification of hardsuits to new heights with this LEGO Star Wars suit operated by a clone trooper. The legs are wholly unique, while fitting in nicely to the Imperial aesthetic.
The BBC is reporting that Top Gear host James May will attempt to build a two-story house entirely out of LEGO for his Toy Stories show.
The show is looking for volunteers to help build the house, as well as unused bricks with which to build the house. (Though if you have unused bricks and you’re reading this blog, I’m sure you can think of better things to do than donate them to James May.)
Via several readers, and the entirety of the World Wide Web.
Guy Himber (V&A Steamworks) recently kicked off a series of LEGO creations that each incorporate a Knights Kingdom II shield.
Guy started with a clockwork lionfish (above) and followed it with an eagle ray (below).
As always, Guy combines SYSTEM, Duplo, and Bionicle elements in new and interesting ways.
Ernesto Carillo has posted his completed diorama of an Imperial factory that produces AT-STs (or “chicken walkers”). The scene is full of technical detail, and the lighting effect added to the photo is excellent.
Today is the fourth anniversary of The Brothers Brick!
I said last year that 2007-2008 was the year that The Brothers Brick transitioned from “just a LEGO blog” to a full-fledged LEGO fan community. While this community that we all belong to continues to grow, 2008-2009 may be the year that The Brothers Brick transitions from “just a LEGO blog” with a large fan community to trusted LEGO news source.
Unlike years past, the broader LEGO fan community didn’t experience any major crises during 2008-2009. Brickshelf is still around, and little plastic bricks continue to be available just about everywhere. Nevertheless, a number of interesting trends emerged in the last 12 months.
Two key events in 2008-2009 demonstrated how much power organized groups of consumers can have in their relationship with the company that produces their favorite little plastic bricks.
The headline: Dear LEGO: We want 7979 Castle Advent Calendar!.
In news that shocked and saddened LEGO Castle fans outside Europe, The LEGO Group decided not to release 7979 Castle Advent Calendar in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries.
The set was the first to have the jester, peasant girl, and new witch.
While many of us promptly found other channels to import them ourselves (Josh and I ordered five or six from Italy), we collectively worked to find a way to get the set to more fans elsewhere.
LEGO heard our hue and cry — thousands of votes on our poll, 80+ comments on my “Dear LEGO” post, and 100+ comments in a thread on Classic-Castle.com. Although changing LEGO’s supply chain and marketing plans proved impossible, North American LEGO Community Team member Steve Witt tracked down a pallet of sets in a distribution center in Tennessee, and managed to prevent the sets from being shipped back to Europe or destroyed (!).
Thanks to this community activism and the quick thinking of community advocates like Steve, hundreds of LEGO Castle fans were able to get their hands on this lovely set. (Here’s hoping we don’t have to repeat this for the rumored LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar this year!)
The headline: LEGO Pick-a-Brick price increases on LEGO Shop at Home.
When The LEGO Group dramatically raised the prices of many individual bricks available through the online Pick-a-Brick service, LEGO fans here and elsewhere rallied together to express how upset we were with this change.
We talked to our LEGO Ambassadors. We called LEGO ourselves. We sent letters.
In the unprecedented move that followed, a large multinational corporation changed its pricing structure based on direct consumer input.
As the LEGO fan community grows, and as children who grew up with computers are set loose on the Internet younger and younger, the adult LEGO fan community is forced into situations that require interactions with these younger LEGO builders.
Despite stellar efforts by community leader Sean Kenney, MOCpages has become a byword for childish behaviors and ineffective communication. Similarly, children violating Flickr’s 13-and-older terms of service continue to flood LEGO-related groups with blurry photos of Rainbow Warriors, trade requests, and indecipherable chatter.
Plagiarism and outright copyright violations have emerged as major problems, particularly on LEGO.com. Children have even submitted photos to contests of LEGO creations built by prominent adult fans — and won. In the absence of careful moderation (at least looking for plagiarism) by LEGO, the Brick-Busters group on Flickr scours LEGO.com, identifies the real owners, and reports violators.
How the adult fan community will respond to the broader issue in the long run — are these things a threat or an opportunity? — remains to be seen.
Readers of The Brothers Brick are just about everywhere in the world.
Starting last year, I began listing the top 30 countries where our readers come from (seems more interesting than just the top 10). The overall list hasn’t changed very much, but Hong Kong jumps nearly ten places and South Korean edges out South Africa for #30.
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I believe the biggest change in our keywords reflects the shift of the blog to trusted LEGO news source. Though we continue to get many links from non-LEGO sites, more and more “sibling” LEGO sites are linking to news stories on The Brothers Brick.
| Top Keywords* | Top Categories | Referring Sites |
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* Excluding variations on “The Brothers Brick”.
With the exception of a post covering our post-apocalyptic display at BrickCon 2008 and two very large LEGO battleships, the 10 most popular posts were all news items.
Finally, stuff for the historically minded:
That alien queen needs to be bombarded from orbit. This microscale U.S.S. Sulaco by 2×4 seems up to the job.
Via MicroBricks.
Nick Crocco (Steam Pirate) is taking the apocafication of official LEGO sets to great heights.
An armored city bus emerges from 7641 City Corner.
Nick replaces the stickers on the truck in 7733 Truck & Forklift with Space Police III stickers of the same underlying design.
I think it’s awesome that the LEGO designers took an existing LEGO City design and essentially apocafied it themselves for Space Police III. And it was brilliant of Nick to notice.
Of course, it looks like Nick could use some more zombies. Fortunately, we’ll have plenty available at BrickCon.
Oh, and talent like Adrian Florea‘s.
The droid arms are connected to blue flex-tubing, giving the repeated element an excellent curve.
