Shannon Ocean has titled this sculpture “Delicate Civilization” — with a couple important messages worth clicking through to Flickr for.
The asymmetrical microscale city is excellent in its own right:
Posts by Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)
It’s still not too late to give LEGO for Christmas or Hanukkah!
If you’re like me, you’re probably panicking a little bit about what to get your loved ones for the holidays. Hanukkah began last night at sundown, and Christmas is only three days away! Like many retailers, the LEGO Shop now says that they can’t guarantee shipment by Christmas. What to do?
Why not give a LEGO e-Gift Card?
Available in denominations from $10 to $500, it’s the perfect last-minute holiday gift!
Ipswich public art in LEGO, aka IpsArtLego
Inspired by the Ipsart site closed down in 2006, Ed Broom set about recreating the public art in and around Ipswich, Suffolk, UK using nothing but basic LEGO bricks in “traditional” colors:
As you can see, Ed also photographed his homages in sight of the original artwork.
For lots more, check out Ed’s IpsArtLego photoset on Flickr.
Truckin’ with Firas Abu-Jaber
This fantastic big rig by Firas Abu-Jaber evokes the classic sets of the Model Team series — sets like 5580 Highway Rig (1986) or 5571 Giant Truck (1996).
A LEGO big rig has never looked so realistic or so good.
The snowpocalypse is upon us!
After arriving home from sunny New Zealand, I’ve been watching the snow accumulate here in Seattle for the past week.
Many parts of the United States have been gripped by an Arctic freeze, inspiring Improbcat to dub our collective freeze the Snowpocalypse:
This looks like a great set of vehicles for navigating the frigid wasteland, and a cool group of minifigs to hang out with along the way.
5935 Island Hopper seaplane redux by Mike Psiaki
Mike Psiaki continues to churn out great additions to his Jurassic Park layout.
His latest is actually inspired by 5935 Island Hopper, from the Adventurers “Dino Island” series.
Here’s Mike’s current lineup of terrible lizards:
UNSC AV-14 Hornet VTOL by Chuck Citrin
Chuck Citrin isn’t afraid to build LEGO creations inspired by Halo, mainly because he does it so well. Here’s his cargo and maintenance variant of the AV-14 Hornet:
Regardless of the inspiration, I’m always amazed by Chuck’s ability to fit minifigs inside his tiny little vehicles.
Madness ensues at Rocko’s medieval market
While we all eagerly wait for the release of 10193 Medieval Market Village next month, we can enjoy the fruits of Rocko‘s labors:
For the “Act of Chivalry” category in this year’s Colossal Castle Contest, one of Rocko’s signature “Leians” rescues a bunch of unfortunate lads, their savior astride a glorious pegasus:
If you’ve built something of your own for the Colossal Castle Contest VI, don’t forget to submit your entry.
Nightcrawler
Andrew Lee based his latest mecha on a frame by Soren Roberts, but the head reminds me of classic 1980s Japanese superheroes:
Surprisingly, the mecha fits a minifig pilot!
The gunship Cerberus by Paul Meissner
This great gunship by Paul “legosamurai” Meissner has a definite Matrix vibe to it, but it’s also very original. Paul’s Cerberus is built in a smaller scale than some of the larger hoverships inspired by the movie trilogy, and the large gun pods on either side of the cockpit make the name particularly appropriate.
Get well soon, tadashistate’s girlfriend!
Tadashistate‘s girlfriend is sick. So he built this lovely little heart for her. Boys, take note! And get well soon, whoever you are!
LEGO Designers want our input on future play themes
FINAL UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions, readers! We’ve passed on your ideas to LEGO. Look for other opportunities to submit ideas to The LEGO Group through The Brothers Brick’s LEGO Ambassadors in the future.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: LEGO tells us that they didn’t intend for this discussion to take place in public, since that enables their competitors to watch the discussion and steal all your great ideas! So, we’re locking comments, removing the ones posted so far (85!) and asking all of you to use the Contact Form at the end of this post to submit your comments instead.
You don’t need to re-submit your suggestions if you had already left them as a comment; we’ve saved all the comments so far.
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LEGO Designers have asked the LEGO Ambassadors to help brainstorm ideas on future play themes. Here is the original message:
My name is Phil McCormick; I am a Senior Designer at the LEGO Group working within a small concept group specializing in new theme generation.
We are looking for new LEGO set opportunities within the Play Themes line-up. Play Themes are sets involving characters and stories, where the minifigure always plays a key role. The big theme this year is Power Miners. Some sets from the past include: Agents, Aqua Raiders, Exoforce, and Mars Mission. Usually the stories are conflict-based (good vs. bad) and revolve around treasures or missions. The stories that accompany Play Theme sets help spark the imaginations of our target group: boys aged 7-9.
Currently we are in an “insight phase,” gathering inspiration for the next big Play Themes opportunity and we would really like your input. We hope to involve you as much as possible for the next few months as we take in the ideas. Please submit ideas for themes as detailed below. Limit your words to a few sentences; we encourage you to submit pictures, drawings, MOCs, to accompany each story. Feel free to involve your greater fan community at this point–the more ideas the better.
Things we do look for:
-Simple, well understood themes (Usually, placing a “twist” on a known universe works well).
-Unique Model expression, or play experience to accompany the set.Things we do not look for:
-Castle, or IP (Star Wars/ Indiana Jones/ Sponge Bob/ etc…). They each have devoted project teams which are separate from us.The deadline for submissions is Jan 12, 2009; but we do encourage you to post earlier. Thanks and we look forward to your input!
Create a new, never-before-seen, LEGO Play Theme! (Place words and images under the following categories)
Theme Name (something short and catchy):
Characters (who is good and bad guys?):
Conflict (why do they fight, and what do they fight over?):
Setting (where does the story take place?):
Background Info (if relevant):
Please use the Contact Form below to submit your suggestions, using the format requested above:
Before you click Submit!
- We won’t be able to pass on your suggestions if they don’t follow the format described above.
- LEGO cannot use suggestions based on IP (intellectual property) owned by other companies, such as Halo, Lord of the Rings, or Pirates of the Caribbean.