Or so it would seem, based on the recent spate of overweight minifigs (see “Fat Minifig by Mister Zumbi“).
Now Nelson Yrizarry has posted “Couch Potato,” captioned “Disaster strikes as Fatboy drops the TV remote:”
Posts by Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)
Final Fantasy VII Characters
Last summer I made several characters from Final Fantasy VII — Barrett, Cid, Sephiroth, Vincent, and of course Cloud. (Well, actually I made the version of Cloud that appears in Kingdom Hearts. I just liked the purple cape and demon wing.)
But where were the ladies — Aeris (sometimes spelled Aerith), Tifa, and everyone’s least-favorite perky ninja, Yuffie? So I set about trying to make the non-male characters. Thank goodness my wife has one of the only two Paradisa set that includes pink legs!
From left to right: Cid (with awesome new goggles!), Vincent, Yuffie, Cloud (proper FF7 version), Aeris, Barrett, Tifa, and Sephiroth.
Check out the Brickshelf gallery for full-size pictures of each character.
Japanese Mythical Creature: “Kappa”
I debated whether to post my latest minifigure over on my minifig-themed blog, but it does require a bit of explanation, so I’ll post it here instead.
Kappa are mythical water imps from Japan. Kappa inhabit lakes, ponds, streams, and other bodies of water. If you do a little research, you’ll find that kappa are associated with some pretty nasty legends. For example, they drag people into the water and eat them.
Their favorite food is cucumbers, which is apparently why cucumber rolls are called “kappa maki.” Long ago, parents would sometimes carve their child’s name into a cucumber and toss the vegetable into water in an attempt to prevent kappa from stealing the child. Generally, though, kappa are considered mischievous creatures today. Here’s a more contemporary, “cutified” kappa:
Norse Gods and Goddesses (Updated!)
I’ve updated my Norse gods and goddesses, based largely on feedback I received from Classic-Castler The Hordesman and many others. Thanks guys!
Specifically, Odin is now darker (black hat instead of blue and dark blue legs instead of regular blue), Thor is now a red-head, and Freyr the Peaceful (or something like that) no longer has a sword.
And the whole set on Flickr.
LEGO Photography
One thing I really like about Sugegasa’s blog is that he presents practical tips on LEGO-related issues ranging from organization to photography. About a month ago, he posted a couple pictures of how he takes pictures of his LEGO creations. What I noticed immediately is that he uses a fluorescent desk lamp to illuminate the creations.
Inspired by Sugegasa, I decided to try my own LEGO photography experiments.
Until recently, I’ve always tried to take my minifig pictures in sunlight. Here’s my Cloud Strife minifigure (from the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts), taken in full sunlight:
Here’s the setup I used last summer, on the back deck at our old house (nice flowers, huh?):
Those are the top of banker’s boxes left over from moving. Sunlight obviously provides fantastic lighting, but living here in Seattle, it’s cloudy more than 200 days a year, and right now we’re nearing a record for consecutive days of rain (the record is 33, and as of January 14, we stand at 27 days). Partial clouds provide great diffused light, but I just can’t rely on weather to take my pictures.
After Christmas, my wife suggested I go ahead and spend the $100 for one of those “Studio in a Box” light box kits. The idea is great. It comes with two small but powerful lights, a camera stand, a reversible backdrop (blue and dark grey), and the light box itself. According to the instructions, you’re supposed to place the lights on the outside of the box to provide diffused light.
Here’s the result following the instructions to the letter:
My camera flash obviously went off, and it totally washed out the picture.
I manually turned off the flash and tried again:
The diffused light is far too dark and way too yellow.
I tried lighting Cloud directly, with the flash turned on:
Again, the flash washes out the picture.
Here’s direct lighting, without the flash:
That’s better, but I don’t like the backdrop color choices, and I’m not using the light box, so what’s the point of the kit? I returned it for a refund and got depressed.
Then I remembered Sugegasa’s post that showed the fluorescent desk lamp he used, so my wife and I looked around for a fluorescent desk lamp. Lighting stores sold full-spectrum lamps for $100, but that didn’t seem worth it. Target had a couple choices for under $40, but they weren’t in stock.
My wife saw a “natural light” desk lamp on sale for $25 at Bartell Drugs (a local pharmacy chain), and there was much rejoicing! She picked it up for me on Friday, and said it was actually on sale for $20 instead of $25. Cool! (For those of you here in Washington, the sale runs through tomorrow, if you’re interested.)
Without any additional light sources, here’s the result:
Hurray! Check out the Brickshelf gallery for higher-resolution versions of each of the pictures I’ve featured above.
Overall, I still prefer sunlight, but the “natural” or full-spectrum desk lamp provides a great result for a very good price. If you want to improve your LEGO photography, spending $20-$30 on decent lighting seems well worth it. (Of course, you might need something significantly bigger to take pictures of your four-foot-wide castle!)
“Fat Minifig” by Mister Zumbi
Japanese Proverb Vignettes by Izzo
I just saw that Bruce posted about a new set of vignettes by Izzo (whose New Year’s creations I posted about earlier this month). Quoth Bruce: “Hopefully Dunechaser will be able to shed some enlightenment via his Pan-Pacific Bricks blog.” Well sir, I shall give it my best shot.
Here’s what I’ll do. The vignettes won’t make sense unless you understand exactly what the Japanese proverbs say, but you still might not get what the proverbs actually mean, so I’ll try to find a corresponding English proverb or provide a brief explanation.
Japanese: By hiding your head you expose your butt.
English: Burying your head in the sand.
Japanese: Even a one-sun bug has a five-bu soul.
(Sun and bu are units of length that are no longer used in Japan, where the Metric system is used instead. There are ten sun in one bu, so this proverb is saying that even a little bug has a big soul.)
English: Tread on a worm and it will turn.
Japanese: If you gossip about someone, their shadow will appear.
English: Speak of the devil (and he’s sure to appear).
Japanese/English: A drowning man will clutch at a straw.
Japanese: To gain one of your nine lives back.
English: To have a narrow escape from death.
Japanese: The son of a frog will be a frog.
English: Like father like son.
Japanese: Prayers to God in difficult times.
English: Danger past, God forgotten.
Japanese/English: Art is long, life is short.
Latin*: Ars longa, vita brevis. *Bonus language!!!
Japanese: Unless you enter the tiger’s den, you can’t steal her cubs.
English: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Note: I used Izzo’s site to determine which proverbs go with the vignettes in his Brickshelf gallery, but I couldn’t find this one, so I’m not sure what the proverb is. Sorry folks!
The Hundred-Question LEGO Poll
Yes, that’s right, one hundred — count ’em, they’re numbered! — questions. This poll or questionnaire has been making the rounds of Japanese LEGO blogs and home pages recently, and there’s really only one question that’s uniquely applicable to Japanese LEGO fans (#35), so I thought I’d take a crack at an English version.
1) Why did you get hooked on LEGO?
2) What was the first set you bought?
3) When did you first start playing with LEGO?
4) What’s your favorite minifig face?
5) What’s your favorite set?
6) What’s your ultimate goal?
7) What theme do you primarily build in?
8) What about new lines that might be released in the future?
9) What are the moments that make you happy you’re a LEGO fan?
10) What do you think of Bionicle?
11) Was LEGO in the past better than LEGO today?
12) What challenges or problems have you encountered while playing with LEGO?
13) Do you have anything you want to tell The LEGO Company right now?
14) How much do you spend on LEGO in a year?
15) What are your interests other than LEGO?
16) What do you think of flesh-colored LEGO heads?
17) Have you ever used LEGO in an unusual way?
18) What set would you like to see re-released?
19) What if you could work for The LEGO Company?
20) Have you ever attended a LEGO event?
21) What parts are you using a lot lately?
22) What parts do you find difficult to use?
23) How would you increase the number of LEGO fans?
24) What kind of new bricks would you like to see released?
25) Do you have any LEGO games?
26) Have you ever been hospitalized due to LEGO?
27) Have you ever felt any animosity toward The LEGO Company?
28) Who do you respect in the LEGO community?
29) What genre of building are you not good at?
30) Which of your creations did you spend the most time building?
31) How much have you spent on LEGO so far?
32) Have ever made a custom minifig?
33) What do you think of customization?
34) How big is the largest creation you’ve ever built?
35) What thoughts do you have about the LEGO King Champion TV show? [It was a LEGO-themed episode of a Japanese game show. Read about it here.]
36) Have you ever gone out looking for old LEGO sets?
37) What do you think of LEGO clubs or user groups (LUGs)?
38) What part do you have the most of?
39) Do you have any Mindstorms?
40) What parts or features of LEGO do you find useless?
41) What do you think of the colors of LEGO?
42) What do you think of people who say that LEGO bricks are just children’s toys?
43) What parts do you want right now?
44) Have you ever bought anything from the LEGO Sports line?
45) Do you find the LEGO Sports line interesting?
46) What are your thoughts on the rumor about the end of the Star Wars license?
47) What do you use to organize your parts?
48) What’s more important to you than LEGO?
49) What LEGO do you plan to buy in 2006?
50) You’re halfway through. How do you feel?
51) What would you do if you could live in a world made of LEGO?
52) Have you had a particularly heroic episode in relation to your LEGO?
53) Do you have a Brickshelf account?
54) What LEGO Web sites do you like to visit?
55) What title do you have [like “Minifig Customizer” or “LEGO Photographer”]?
56) Go ahead and brag about your LEGO.
57) What do you think of the LEGO Stores?
58) What are your feelings about LEGO sets that aren’t available in your country?
59) What about clone brands?
60) Is your future dream to become a LEGO Master Builder?
61) If you had a million dollars, how much of it would you spend on LEGO?
62) What was the best set released in 2005?
63) On a scale of 1 to 100, where would you place your LEGO building skills?
64) What LEGO do you want for Christmas?
65) How would you improve LEGO?
66) What do you think of Belville?
67) Have you ever participated in a LEGO contest?
68) What movie would you like to see turned into a LEGO license?
69) What’s your favorite LEGO set [yes, it’s a duplicate question]?
70) What makes LEGO so great?
71) What do you think of $600 LEGO [nobody seems to know what this question means]?
72) What do you think of sets that are no longer available?
73) Where do you always buy your LEGO?
74) Is the place where you live a good LEGO environment?
75) Do you currently have a stock of ideas?
76) If you were a minifig in a medieval LEGO war, what would be your rank?
77) What do you think is interesting about your LEGO creations?
78) How many minifigs do you own?
79) What’s the most expensive LEGO set you’ve ever bought?
80) What was the set you always wanted as a kid?
81) Have you ever made a LEGO movie?
82) Do you have any friends or acquaintences who are LEGO fans?
83) Do you have a particularly unique way you use a LEGO piece?
84) What’s your favorite Bionicle mask?
85) What’s your favorite game on LEGO.com?
86) What are your thoughts on “bad” train set #4561?
87) How many sets from the Train theme do you have?
88) How many train motors do you own?
89) What do you think of LEGO games (like ones for Game Boy Advance®)?
90) Have you ever been to LEGOLAND?
91) What would you do if you entered a “Dark Age?”
92) What do you think was the worst set LEGO ever released?
93) What type of creation do you most admire by professional-level LEGO builders?
94) What company do you think is The LEGO Company’s arch-nemesis?
95) Have you ever used LEGO design software (like LDraw, MLCad, or LEGO Digital Designer)?
96) Have you ever built anything that incorporated a motor?
97) Have you ever seen LEGO at a second-hand store?
98) Have you ever bought LEGO at a second-hand store?
99) Have you ever sold LEGO at a second-hand store?
100) Have you ever rebuilt a train?
“Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil” by Michael Jasper
A great combination of faces, torsos, and accessories:
The whole folder full of wonderful miscellany:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=140593
Dark Knights by forrestman
Brickshelf user forrestman has just posted some interesting dark or undead knight minifigs:
Hmmm… Are those horns modded parts (they’re not the new Viking horns)? I guess we’ll let these slide…
“Moon-Viewing Sake” by Ichigou
Continuing from Sugegas’s “Udon-Making,” Ichigou has posted his first vignette, a shiritori entry titled “Moon-Viewing Sake:”
Moon-viewing, or tsukimi, parties usually take place on the night of the full moon in August. During these parties, people get together to listen to traditional music, compose poetry, and partake of traditional moon-viewing foods and beverages, including of course sake. (And for those who care about proper pronunciation of foreign words, it’s pronounced saké, as in LEGO! If it were pronounced “saki,” it would be spelled that way!)
The robed monk, the bamboo, and the inverted goblet to represent the sake bottle all combine to make this a wonderful, distinctly Japanese vignette.
“Udon-Making” by Sugegasa
Continuing from mumu’s wife’s “Kitarou,” Sugegasa recently posted a new entry, a vignette called “Udon-Making.” (Notice how the U in “Kitarou” carries over to the U in “Udon-Making?” Not all of them work in English like this, but this is a rare example of one that does.)
For those of you who haven’t had Japanese food lately, udon is a type of Japanese noodle made from wheat. (Soba is made from buckwheat.) Udon is generally served in a broth, with seafood, meat, or vegetables, although my favorite is cold udon you dip into a sauce, with various garnishes.
Udon is made by rolling out the dough, folding it over, repeating this process several times, and then cutting the dough into the noodles. Udon shops often feature a window where you can see the udon cook making fresh noodles. (One of my fondest memories is of the udon shop that occupied the first floor of the English school where my dad’s church met. I spent many hours overlooking the main street of Himeji, with the world-famous Himeji Castle dominating the end of the street.)
What I like about this vignette is that Sugegasa captures the rolling pin and dough perfectly, with just two simple pieces. The overall color scheme makes the minifig stand out nicely, though I’m not sure what Peter Pettigrew is doing… ;-)