All of Hayao Miyazaki’s films are whimsical and absolutely beautiful – and we here at The Brothers Brick are big fans, as evidenced by our continued highlights of LEGO creations from our favorite films throughout the years.
I present you with this collaborative LEGO music box by Banghoo H and Yeom-E. This intricate build features Laputa, the castle in the sky, and a steampunk-inspired, gear-filled mechanism to play music at the base.
Click for more pictures and a video below the cut!
If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own chibi menagerie, Chungpo Cheng has got just the thing for you. We’ve got practically an entire zoo here. Or, at least if the zoo focused on animals from Africa, but you get the picture. Each one has such character!
What I find particularly fantastic is that should you need to study for your African mammal anatomy test, we’ve got you covered. Check out the rib cage and internal organs on this hippo! Just fantastic.
You can further explore the whole safari on flickr. Which is your favorite?
The LEGO Ideas team has announced the winners of the second 2015 Review round. These projects will now proceed through a design phase, where LEGO designers will tweak the designs, and then they will be available to the public as official LEGO sets.
Adventure Time, by aBetterMonkey
Caterham Super Seven, by Carl Greatrix
There is no word yet on pricing or availability; we’ll be sure to let you know when we find out!
The announcement also noted LEGO has reviewed the Star Citizen F7A Hornet the last two review periods; this time, the decision was made not to consider the project further.
The next review round is underway, with an announcement anticipated later in the spring.
Congratulations to the selected projects!
We are discovering new things about Saturn regularly thanks to the NASA-ESA collaboration, Cassini-Huygens. And thanks to Stefan Schindler, we can view his gorgeous model of the spacecraft whenever we’d like. The model uses a few custom-gold pieces to emulate the craft’s special thermal shielding. The spacecraft is made up of the Cassini orbiter, named for Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and the Huygens prob, named for Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens.
Cassini has contributed to many scientific discoveries and regularly sends back some of the most stunning imagery of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. Its mission started upon launch on October 15, 1997, and is still going strong nearly 20 years later.
Dave Kaleta has been using LEGO to illustrate moments in his life, in a series of autobiographical builds. The latest addition is Winter, Harper Avenue:
The scale is somewhat deceiving; it took me a moment to realize just how large these actually are. The sculpting and the amount of life and story present in each one of these is just wonderful.
While it’s not the first time an astronaut has flown with LEGO into space, it’s always exciting to LEGO and space travel make the news for the same reason. Back in September, we reported that Denmark’s first astronaut, Andres Mogensen, flew with LEGO up to the International Space Station as part of Expedition 44.
It’s been exciting first week of March for space travel as American Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth after 340 days in orbit as part of ongoing scientific studies for long-term spaceflight. They left behind minifig doppelgangers of themselves, courtesy of Tim Peak from the European Space Agency.
Picture courtesy of ESA/Tim Peake
Click for more spacey goodness!
Getting off earth and somewhere else is tricky enough, but how do you cruise around when you get there? A rover, that’s how! Luis Baixinho has given us this adorable little rover, and I love it. The tires are a great solution, and it’s very “real world” space to me.
This little rover seems to fit the bill: it’s small, compact, and is probably easy to disassemble for transport! Because, you know…LEGO. The build features the Series 15 Astronaut, which I absolutely love. It’s my favorite spaceman LEGO has done for quite some time.
We’re pleased to bring you our second LEGO Elves Dragons review! Last week, we reviewed 41176 The Secret Marketplace. This week, I am reviewing 41172 The Water Dragon Adventure, provided by LEGO. This set has 212 pieces and is expected to retail for $19.99 when it debuts in March.
You’ve been there, I’m sure — on the sidelines, snacking on your candy tossed from other floats. Then here they come: The classic cars of days gone by. All beautiful, to be sure, but who doesn’t love when the old fire trucks come out of retirement, fire up their diesels, and head down main street in their bright red glory? Tim Schwalfenberg has captured this beautiful moment rather spectacularly. The classic hood shaping, the wood grates and that delightful ladder all make this an instantly recognizable build.
I would like you all to appreciate the fact that I did not make a Culture Club reference in the title for this absolutely adorable pair of chameleons, brought to us by Joseph Z. This little pair of color-changing cuteness are nestled in the forest, amongst the green, chowin’ down on what looks like quite the tasty insect snack.
As clever as the chameleons are, I would love to get a better peek at that purple flower below!
As promised in our 2016 New York Toy Fair coverage, I’m happy to share our first dragon review from the LEGO Elves line! LEGO sent us a copy of 41176 The Secret Marketplace. You’ll be able to find this set beginning in March. It has 691 pieces, and we expect it to retail for $59.99.
Regardless of your opinion on the merits of February 14, I would like to present you this lovely bouquet of roses. I know I would certainly love to receive a bouquet like this. Simon Pickard‘s done a lovely job designing the vase and flowers. I love the detail of the greenery with the delicate white flower buds.
One of the best things about this particular dozen red roses is that you’ll never have to worry about thorns!
Should you need something more than roses, then I suggest you take advantage of kosbrick‘s gorgeous box of gourmet chocolates.
