The end, that is, of October and Jamie‘s fabulous advent calendar. I want to present this week’s batch, with my top two favorites: The Broken and Take your Cthulhu to Work Day.
The other figures from this week are below:
October 19
October 17
October 16
October 15
In an odd but awesome twist, LEGO City leaves the, well, city and heads for the hills in 2012. All of the law enforcement and emergency services that form the core of each year’s LEGO City sets are represented by wildland firefighters and park rangers instead.
Looks like there are some interesting new brick…bricks.
Oh yes, there are bears. I am so building a moonshine still out back of this hillbilly cabin.
In the same vein, the firefighters battle forest fires with their bulky wildland equipment.
I wonder if wunztwice will approve of the chainsaws…
Via Eurobricks.
After the LEGO Cuusoo Beta launched in English last week, I’ve been keeping an eye on the site to see what people are up to. As announced last week, winning projects have to reach 10,000 supporters, and the winning designer keeps 1% of the proceeds from the LEGO set’s sales.
Projects from several Japanese builders are also available on the English site, including one of Hidaka‘s classic, oft-imitated pianos.
Other cool projects include a Back to the Future Delorean and Macross/Robotech Valkyrie.
Of course, we here at TBB don’t want to be left out! Dan already mentioned his Protype Attack Mecha Alpha Zero design, while Nannan submitted his massive “Mirage” collaboration with Tyler:
I thought I’d go a bit smaller, with a couple of my favorite vehicles — a wildland fire engine and WW2 ambulance:
It’ll be interesting to see where all of this goes!
The VW Camper Van isn’t the only German vehicle released in LEGO form this year. Long-time readers of the blog will recall that I’m obsessed with the Mercedes Unimog, and I’ve featured several — starting with Adam Grabowski’s Unimog back in 2006. Adam now works for LEGO as a designer. I don’t think Adam works on Technic sets, but it’s nice to see an official LEGO version of this awesome vehicle.
It’s been out for a few months, but I suspect it might be news for a couple of you out there. TechnicBricks has the full review.
I had to do a double-take with this one. The thumbnail looked like it was just a lovely presentation of a small-ish lantern. But it was lovely, so I looked, and realized I was actually looking at a LEGO creation.
Luke Watkins said this was a random creation that took very little time, but I definitely appreciate the build and the thought that went into the presentation.
This life-sized LEGO Gears of War Lancer Assault Rifle by PLUM B already has the looks to fit a C.O.G. soldier, but it also features a clip-fed firing mechanism that shoots rubber bands — perfect for taking out the paper Locust horde. If that’s not enough, the saw blade on the front of the gun is motorized for slice-and-dice action. See it all in the video below:
The builders of the nascent OneLUG have come together to build the Lord of the Ring’s Last March of the Ents in epic proportions. More accurately, they’ve built the battle in minifig scale, resulting in a display eight feet in diameter, and over seven feet tall.
The battle rages between an army of more than one hundred Orcs, and a force of over twenty-five Ents. The group started design and building in February of 2011, and have finished it in time to unveil it at Brickcon, this weekend in Seattle. They estimate that there are more than 22,000 bricks in the display, which weighs over 145 pounds. The tower itself is built almost entirely with studs not on top techniques, in order to capture the sculptural details of the movie version.
I’ve always enjoyed this scene in the movie, and it’s great to see it done justice here. They’ve included all of my favorite details, like the Ent partially consumed in fire, and caught the deluge from the burst damn in action.
A team of 22 model builders from Enfield recently built a full-scale Ford Explorer for the opening of the new Legoland in Florida. It took them approximately 2500 hours and used around 380,000 bricks! The Explorer will be on display in front of one of the new park’s attractions, the Ford Driving School.
Check out the time-lapse video:
LEGO has just announced an intriguing new set that brings together nearly all of the modular building series, going all the way back to the classic 10182 Cafe Corner — 10230 Mini Modulars. The set is due out in January 2012, and will only be available to LEGO VIP Program members.
The set comes with 1,356 pieces and will retail for $80 in the States. It includes Cafe Corner (of course), Market Street, Green Grocer, Fire Brigade, and Grand Emporium
. I guess we’ll have to wait for the recently released Pet Shop
until later (or build your own!).
We’ve seen LEGO fans create mini/microscale versions of these sets for years (including Matthew Raehl’s mini modular street, mumu’s pre-release micro 10182, and many more), but it’s great to see an official LEGO take on this concept.
See lots more photos in the photoset on Flickr.
Here’s the complete press release from LEGO:
10230 Mini Modulars
Ages 12+. 1,356 pieces.
US $79.99 CA $99.99 DE 69.99 € UK 59.99 £ DK 649.00 DKK AU $119.99Available only to our LEGO® VIP Program Members, this exclusive mini modulars set is an authentic miniature representation of the first 5 buildings in the Modular Building series: Café Corner, Market Street, Green Grocer, Fire Brigade and Grand Emporium. Featuring highly detailed design, each building can be displayed as a stand alone piece or connected to the others buildings in the set. The mini Café Corner includes details like a fan above the doorway and printed hotel signage, while the mini Market Street includes transparent bricks and a unique brick construction. The quaint mini Green Grocer also features transparent bricks and a fire escape at the rear, while the mini Fire Brigade includes a brick bell and white arch wall elements. Finally, the mini Grand Emporium has a rooftop sign, skylight and window washing platform. With fantastic detailing and a huge variety of elements in a range of rich colors, this exclusive mini modulars set is the perfect addition to every VIP Member’s collection.
- Exclusively available to LEGO® VIP Members!
- Authentic miniature representation of first 5 Modular Buildings: Café Corner, Market Street, Green Grocer, Fire Brigade and Grand Emporium!
- Each building can be displayed individually or connected to the other buildings in the set!
- All buildings feature fantastic detailing and a wide variety of elements and colors!
- Completed model measures over 5″ (14.5 cm) tall, 12″ (32 cm) long and 2.5″ (6.5 cm) wide!
- Each individual building measures 2.5″ (6.5 cm) long and 2.5″ (6.5 cm) wide!
Watch this space for a video message from the LEGO designer who created this set.
aurore&aube‘s favorite set of all time is the small 1976 set 212 Scooter. He celebrates this classic set by recreating it in Miniland scale. My favorite detail, though, is the extra black-and-tan dachshund that aurore&aube included. Making small-scale LEGO animals is especially challenging, though aurore&aube is no stranger to excellent LEGO creatures. The dachshund stands in an expressive pose, as though he’s about to start barking at the passing scooter.
Even though Alex (Orion Pax) couldn’t afford to join the likes of Brian Wilson and Kanye West in owning a pair of the new Nike MAGs from Back to the Future, that didn’t stop him building his own from LEGO.
Auctions of the real shoes benefited Michael J. Fox’s research foundation for Parkinson’s disease, and raised several million dollars.
