Sebastian Arts (Aliencat) is one of those multi-talented builders capable of surprising me with each new LEGO creation. His latest is a nasty piece of work inspired by Warhammer 40K — the Necron Heavy Destroyer:
See more pictures of the Necron Heavy Destroyer on MOCpages.
The big news from BrickFest 2009 may be more details about 10194 Emerald Night, but there’s more to come in the next few days. ;-)
In the meantime, attendees have begun uploading photos of displays and events.
Bill Ward already has 160+ photos online, while Mark Neumann and PurirideVry have uploaded quite a few as well.
The BrickFest pool is also getting refreshed with this year’s photos, so be sure to check it out — and add your photos if you haven’t!
The first LEGO creation that Jon Hall has posted to Flickr is a LEGO version of the ornithopter, or “flaptter”, from the Miyazaki film Laputa: Castle in the Sky:
I love the shape, and the use of the clear canopies as wings is excellent.
Thanks for the tip, Horace Cheng! Don’t miss Horace’s own Laputa flaptter here on The Brothers Brick.
The forthcoming LEGO Trains set 10194 Emerald Night got an early announcement last month, but the original plan was to announce it at BrickFest 2009 (happening right now in Portland, Oregon).
AFOL-turned-Designer Jamie Berard takes his turn in front of the camera to officially unveil 10194 Emerald Night to LEGO fandom:
Jamie is of course best known as the designer of amazing sets like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer
. If Jamie was involved in the design of Emerald Night, it’s sure to be a wonderful set!
10194 Emerald Night has been available for pre-order from the LEGO Shop online since February, and is scheduled to ship on April 15, 2009.
A few key points from the video:
Check out a second, slightly longer video of Jamie, Pierre, and 10194 Emerald Night on YouTube.
To coincide with the unveiling, the LEGO Group has also released the following additional details about the changes to the LEGO Trains system:
As a follow up to the LEGO 9V Train Communication lll, there is one change we would like to inform you about concerning the LEGO Transformer.
Due to future legal requirements and to provide a more environmentally sustainable solution, we have decided to update the current LEGO Transformer #9833.
The new Power Functions Rechargeable Battery Box #8878 that will launch in mid-April 2009 has been designed to use this new LEGO Transformer #8887. The current LEGO Transformer (#9833) will not work with the new Power Functions rechargeable battery box and will gradually be phased out.
Below is a list of the LEGO Power Functions accessories used across multiple LEGO lines which are used with the new #10194 Emerald Night Train:
#8882 Motor
#8884 IR RX
#8870 Light
#8878 Rechargeable Battery
#8879 Speed Remote Control
#8887 TransformerLook for more information on these items on www.LEGO.com in early to mid-April 2009.
Tormod Askildsen, Head of LEGO Community Development
So, what do you think of the new LEGO Trains system? Did you see this in person last night at BrickFest? Sound off in the comments…
Our love affair with StarCraft-inspired LEGO continues, as does my enjoyment of the LEGO StarCraft creations by Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin):
For more pics, check out Matt’s LEGO Protoss Probe photoset on Flickr. Thanks for the tip, Andy!
When Twitter goes down, the scale of sadness around the Web is epic enough to warrant a Fail Whale. Bjarne Tveskov (tveskov) gives the Twitter Fail Whale the LEGO treatment in what is sure to make the rounds on the ‘net faster than a tweeting cheetah on speed:
Naturally, you can also follow Bjarne Tveskov on Twitter.
The much-anticipated LEGO Star Wars set 10195 Republic Dropship with AT-OT Walker is now available from the LEGO Shop online.
Yes, yes, I know — I’m a couple days behind on this…
I’m not sure whether it’s the unique color scheme or the shape, but I find Cole Blaq‘s Soylent Scream menacingly beautiful.
More photos of Soylent Scream on Flickr.
Jarek (Jerrec) combines a LEGO Power Functions motor and remote control with 8960 Thunder Driller to rather amusing effect:
On the smaller end of things, Scratel (Wojciech Scrat) has built a microscale version of Thunder Driller, completing with working drill:
See more photos of the Mini Driller on Brickshelf.
I can’t wait for the new LEGO Space Police sets coming out later this year (August, maybe?). Gorazd Vahen (kaitimar) seems to share my impatience, as he demonstrates with a pair of excellent vehicles he designed himself.
The Spike is being pursued by a police cruiser. Gotta love that orange stripe.
As someone obsessed with archaeological LEGO, the new BrickForge accessories for 2009 make me happy.
The Tribal Spear works perfectly as a scalloped obsidian blade from the Neolithic — just the sort of weapon for cavemen to take down a mastodon or mammoth:
The Tribal Sword is designed to resemble the Aztec macahuitl, inspiring me to give my Aztec god minifigs some Aztec warriors:
Of course, not all of the new BrickForge accessories are stone implements.
The Plasma Blaster and Crowbar enable LEGO fans to build video game minifigs like Master Chief from Bungie’s Halo and Gordon Freeman from Valve’s Half-Life:
The Goblin Sword and Goblin Shield allowed me to update my Uruk Hai minifigs from Lord of the Rings. What horde of orc minifigs would be complete without a Saruman minifig? Saruman wields a Sorcerer Staff.
The new Nightstick (right) combines with the older Military Helmet and Round Shield to create a policeman in riot gear.
Finally, the Particle Gun and Particle Pack (below) work beautifully for Ghostbusters. With multiple connection points like the Megagun, both of these new BrickForge accessories can hook up hoses or whatever else you can think of:
I have quite the backlog of ideas for musical minifigs, so I couldn’t decide which one to highlight BrickForge’s microphone. I’ll get to that new accessory later…
With so many things to inspire interesting minifigs, this may be my favorite batch of BrickForge accessories so far. All of the new stuff is available in both black and gray (though I still prefer BrickForge’s black accessories over their gray).
See all of the new items (except the microphone) in my BrickForge photoset on Flickr, and check out the BrickForge website for the full line of custom accessories.
