Rob presents a small, brilliantly designed fighter:
The custom stickers add great detail to an already excellent model reminiscent of World War II fighters.
Posts by Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)
First look at future BrickArms prototypes [News]
Will Chapman of BrickArms was at BrickWorld 2008 the weekend before last, and Nannan scored a selection of custom items and prototypes for future BrickArms products. Since this isn’t a review (like my recent BrickForge review), I’ll mainly just show you pictures.
My favorite BrickArms prototype is the unique Lewis gun from World War I:
In addition to historical accuracy — the round magazine is removable — I think this gun has the most potential beyond military applications. In fact, the real-life Lewis gun inspired the T-21 light repeating blaster from the Star Wars universe.
The BrickArms machete and KA-BAR (“survival knife”) add sharp edges to the BrickArms inventory:
Military builders have already expressed excitement over the M21 Sniper Weapon System:
The baseball bat and “cleaver” improve minifig odds against the zombie horde:
The “Spy Carbine” and “Golden Gun” evoke the world of Ian Fleming’s James Bond:
See more in my BrickArms photoset on Flickr.
I know lots of you want to know when these are going to be released and whether these prototypes represent the final design. To save you some confusion, here’s the official word from the BrickArms spokesbadger:
- Cleaver – Prototype only. Design is finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- Machete – Prototypes only. Two versions were distributed in a variety of colors: one with a lip on the handle and one without. The design is still being finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- KA-BAR – Prototype and included in a special BA custom Commando fig. Existed in a variety of colors including trans-colors. Will eventually see mass production.
- Golden Gun – Prototypes only. Existed in a variety of colors including trans-colors. Unlikely to ever see mass production, but may be available beyond the Spy Contest prizes at some point in the future. Design is final.
- Spy Carbine – Prototypes and included with a special BA custom White Tuxedo Bond figure. Decision regarding mass production still in flux as is the design of the accessory.
- Needler-inspired accessory – Only included with a special BA custom Marine fig. Will never see mass production due to the complexity of the process to produce the item (multiple molds and over-injecting).
- Baseball Bat – Available for purchase in a variety of colors. Design is finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- Lewis Gun – Prototypes only. Design still in flux. Will eventually see mass production.
- Brodie Helmet – Prototypes only. Design is final. Will eventually see mass production.
- MGL – Prototype only. Design still in flux. May or may not see mass production given certain design difficulties.
- M21 Sniper rifle – Prototype only. Design still in flux. May or may not see mass production.
Screaming along with Matt Wagner aboard the Sleepy-time Express
Our resident virtual LEGO and cave racer expert is dutifully withholding judgement as the Pigs on the Wing contest winds down.
But this virtual cave racer by Matt Wagner is too cool to pass up:
7628 Peril in Peru out, 7036 Dwarves Mine back, and more [News]
The Toys R Us exclusive LEGO Indiana Jones set 7628 Peril in Peru is now available from the LEGO Shop online.
One of my candidates for “favorite LEGO set of all time,” 7036 Dwarves’ Mine is once again available:
Of course, this latest update to the LEGO Shop online also includes a whole bunch of other new sets, as well as a fair amount of clearance items. Some highlights:
- Awesome (preorder): 10188 Death Star
- 31 Castle minifigs (preorder): 852293 LEGO Castle Giant Chess Set
- Exclusive Indy and Star Wars sets: LEGO® BrickMaster™ One Year Subscription
- 50% off: The Unofficial LEGO® Builder’s Guide
Last but not least, the long-awaited 10187 Volkswagen Beetle is also available.
35,310 LEGO Star Wars clone troopers raise money for autism
LEGO employees in the UK have put together tens of thousands of clone troopers to raise money for the National Autistic Society. As you can see, this puts Moko’s golden army to shame:
More details on Gizmodo. (Thanks for the link, Jesus Diaz and Jeramy Cooke!)
LEGO Wall-E roundup
LEGO fans all over the ‘net love the new Pixar movie Wall-E, and they show their affection for the film with wonderful LEGO creations too numerous to post individually.
First up, Mark Sandlin adds crushing action to his Wall-E:
Aaron Lemay goes super-small with his super-cute Wall-E built from only 11 pieces:
Jordan Schwartz breaks from the mold to build frustrated cleaning robot M-O (“FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!”), along with his own Wall-E:
While other builders go fairly large or very small, the Wall-E that legomocs built works rather well at a mid-sized scale:
Finally, reader Ryan captures Wall-E’s forlorn expression:
Previous LEGO Wall-E love on The Brothers Brick:
- Pixar animator Angus MacLane builds best LEGO Wall-E yet
- Brick-built Walll-E by Joe Meno
- Wall-E, the littlest and loneliest robot on Earth
Photo review of new BrickForge accessories for 2008 [Review]
Those of you who were paying close attention to our coverage of BrickWorld 2008 probably noticed references to and pictures of the latest BrickForge accessories.
Thanks to Nannan and the magic of the United States Postal Service, here’s my review of the new items BrickForge will be releasing soon. In general, I’ll try to avoid repeating what I said in my original BrickForge review.
Naturally, the big buzz is about the new “Space Marine” armor. When combined with BrickArms weapons, the result looks remarkably like the Master Chief from Halo (we’ll be taking a close look at the new BrickArms prototypes as well):
The helmet will cost $1.50, the armor $1.50, and the visor $0.50. If I understand the grapevine correctly, these items will be available in red, blue, white, black, and sand green (pictured above, with BrickWorld-exclusive “steel”). I’m very pleased with the design of each piece, though I’d assess the color matching between BrickForge’s version of sand green and “official” LEGO sand green at around 90-95%, as you can probably see from the picture.
Personally, I was most excited by the new Roman helmets (two types), spear, gladius, and shield:
Most interesting, though, is the gladiatorial armor — specifically helmet and face shield for a Murmillon. The face shield fits over the stud on top of the minifig’s head, and then the helmet fits over the top of that:
I found that the helmet fit a little loosely (it popped off a lot) with the face shield, but fit snugly when directly placed on my gladiator’s ill-fated head.
New turbans can fit a little round cap or a special helmet:
Finally, Mark Sandlin and Chris Giddens worked with BrickForge to create a gun that would fit well with the design aesthetic of the loudhailer and other early Space accessories. Dubbed the “Megagun,” many of you have probably already seen Mark Sandlin’s photos of it, so I’ll just post a couple:
The Megagun has lots of places to attach LEGO, as you can see from the ridiculous gun on the right. :-D
As with their earlier accessories, the latest BrickForge armor and weapons work well with my LEGO. My favorite new items are definitely the Roman items, and I can’t wait to order a bunch when they become available from BrickForge in the next week or so.
Peer Kreuger is Singing in the Rain
Peer “Mahjqa” Kreuger gets light on his feet to recreate the title scene from the 1952 musical Singing in the Rain:
(Via VignetteBricks.)
Tim Goddard’s LEGO Star Wars Imperial base
Tim “RogueBantha” Goddard has made quite a name for himself with his microscale LEGO Star Wars creations.
Tim’s latest is a modular Imperial base called Mustaneer (not to be confused with the far more distant Mustafar):
The base has a rack for a squadron of TIE fighters, a landing pad for an Imperial shuttle or landing craft, and an AT-AT garage. Even cooler, the AT-AT garage doors open and close on tracks:
There are lots more photos in Tim’s Imperial base photoset on Flickr.
Neo-Classic Space LL-497 by Peter Reid
Peter Reid‘s series of Neo-Classic Space vehicles evoke simultaneous feelings of awe, jealousy, and nostalgia.
For Pete’s latest, he gives 497 Galaxy Explorer the contemporary treatment:
Pete’s use of modern bricks and current building techniques, applied to the shapes and colors of LEGO from the Classic Space era, results in creations that combine the best of both worlds.
Pixar animator Angus MacLane builds best LEGO Wall-E yet [Interview]
I had the pleasure of meeting Pixar animator and LEGO fan Angus MacLane at BrickFest 2007. When I saw the first trailer for Wall•E (in theaters Friday, June 27), I knew we should try to do something special. Our exclusive interview with Angus and first look at his LEGO Wall•E follows.
The Brothers Brick: How long did it take to build your Wall•E?
Angus MacLane: About seven hours over a span of three years. I started building the LEGO version of Wall•E around the same time he was being built in the computer in late summer of 2005. I had been waiting for some treads to be released, and with 7258 (the “Wookie Attack” set) I got just enough tread links for two treads.
The color scheme of Wall•E wasn’t settled so I stared building with all light grey. I wasn’t totally happy with the results. The treads were too small and pretty flimsy. I put him on the shelf and went back to work.
Then the snowmobile and bulldozer came out in 2007 and I had my tread solution. So I rebuilt him at the beginning of this year with the proper colors as we were finishing animation production. I’m proud of the overall proportions, but the eyes are still a bit too off for me.
TBB: Do you think that working on the movie gave you any special insights into the design of the LEGO Wall•E?
Angus: Having stared at this robot for 3+ years, I was extremely familiar with the proportions and functionality of Wall•E. It helped to know his design, but that made it hard to make the usual compromises when converting items to LEGO form.
TBB: How does your “day job” as an animator influence your LEGO hobby?
Angus: Mostly I build with LEGO as a way to unwind from a day spent in front of the computer. The tactile nature of LEGO can be much more satisfying than working in the often intangible realm of the computer. Also, a large part of an animator’s job is to clearly communicate an idea through the pose of a character. I think this is similar to building with LEGO where part of the goal is to sculpt clear shapes that communicate the purpose of the creation.
TBB: Has your LEGO hobby helped your “real” job in any way?
Angus: LEGO gets you used to thinking and designing in three dimensions. It has really helped my ability to visualize spatial relations. This is especially useful when working with artists and technical directors to take 2D designs and successfully turn them into 3D character models.
Also, when building with LEGO you often have to simplify or caricature the intended form. This is similar to caricaturing motion and simplifying acting ideas, which is an important part of the animation process.
TBB: Do you share your LEGO creations with your coworkers?
Angus: I have a small area in my office where I have my MOCs [My Own Creations] on display. Sometimes I get comments form coworkers. The question I always get is- Is that a set? Why don’t they make that? It’s very flattering to hear, but I know that they probably aren’t familiar with the latest and greatest from Brickshelf, so they have little to compare it too.
TBB: Do you check Brickshelf and Flickr for LEGO creations?
Angus: Sometimes. I mostly check out pictures that have been linked form blogs such as Brothers Brick, Klocki, etc. Favorite builders include: Mladen Pejic, Izzo, Gla Gla, Arvo Brothers, Count Blockula, Chris Giddens, LEGOhaulic, and Soren Roberts.
TBB: What’s your favorite LEGO creation inspired by Wall•E?
Angus: I was pretty blown away by Joe Meno’s Wall•E. I struggled with Wall•E’s eyes for a while, and Meno’s solution is really great. I was also impressed that he went for the arm stripes. Plus it’s motorized. Pretty amazing creation of a character from a movie that hasn’t been released.
TBB: What are your thoughts on the various LEGO games?
Angus: I’ve only played the Classic Star Wars game. The play control is pretty good and it’s fun to play. The animation is fine, but I wish that there was more truth to materials in the animation. Something about seeing the knees on minifigs kind of freaks me out.
If the only joints that moved on the characters were the wrists, heads, and legs, the animation would be a lot more charming. I realize this would limit the movement, but it would feel more like LEGO and less like clay. It would also be about 78% funnier. Which is a big win in my book.
TBB: Have you built anything from the other Pixar films that you’ve worked on?
Angus: I took a pass at the Omnidroid from The Incredibles. At minfig scale it’s a bit too chunky for my taste, but I haven’t gotten around to rebuilding it properly. I built the Luxo lamp which is a bit more on model. I also built a Monsters, Inc. door station that is to scale with the action figures.
TBB: Which Pixar film (feature length or short) is your favorite?
Angus: That’s pretty hard to for me to decide. Toy Story is the only feature that I got to see as an audience member, rather than as a crew member.
Probably The Incredibles is my favorite feature and Luxo Jr is my favorite short.
TBB: Okay, we have to ask this. :-) Why aren’t any of the main characters in Toy Story or Toy Story 2 built from LEGO?
Everybody has toys from their childhood that are very special and meaningful to them. For me personally that would be Classic Space LEGO, Fisher-Price Adventure People, Original Star Wars 4″ line and the first 3 years of the small GI Joe line. You’ll notice that the toys of the Toy Story world are loosely based on or inspired by toys that are pre-LEGO. So I don’t actually know the answer to your question, but I’m guessing it’s because the original character designers did not happen to grow up with LEGO as a major influence. As to why there hasn’t been many Buzz Lightyear LEGO MOCs that would be due to the relatively new arrival of lime green and the shortage of purple.
A huge thanks to Angus MacLane and Pixar for this interview. Be sure to check out all of the rest of Angus’s Wall•E photos on Flickr.
Smod heads home after the apocalypse
Smod showcases a survivor repairing a really great four-treaded mech in a snowy landscape — his entry in the Picking up the Pieces contest:
