Toronto native Melanie F. brings us this awesome recreation of her city’s beautiful and vibrant waterfront row houses. Melanie’s a fan of Unikitty, and she’s found exceptionally clever uses for several of Unikitty’s pieces here, with the horns as lovely little microscale trees and the tails as picture-perfect rolling waves. The lime green ice cream scoops are also brilliantly put to use as topiaries.
The best part? She’s built the homes in minifig scale, too!
Because we here at The Brothers Brick have a time machine, we feel that there’s nothing particularly odd about starting our coverage of the new LEGO Advent Calendars a day late.
Each day until Christmas Eve, we’ll be revealing the mini-kits and minifigs from that day’s LEGO Star Wars and Friends Advent Calendars. Why not LEGO City? Because meh. To keep the secret alive, we’ll be posting pretty late in the day here on the US West Coast (GMT -8:00), and we’ll put that day’s reveal after the jump.
This isn’t really a review — we’ll save our thoughts until the end — more of a virtual Advent Calendar we can all enjoy together. So, follow along, and let us know what you think about each kit in the comments.
Click to see the Day 1 & 2 mini-kits!
Like our recent post of a classic space mecha dinosaur, this one mashes up quite a few things. Courtesy of Greed (승훈 이) we have a Pikachu that has taken to dressing up like Superman. Maybe this takes inspiration from the “cosplay Pikachu” mechanic from the new Pokémon games. Regardless, mixing up three franchises that I’m a huge fan of is a definite win for me.
Here’s our first glimpse of the 16 fantastic new minifigs in LEGO’s Collectible Minifigures Series 15. We expect them to be available in January, though there’s always a chance they can found sooner.
UPDATE: Read our full review of LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 15 here on The Brothers Brick.
We’ll get:
Update: Here’s a better image of the actual minifigs.
In the future imagined by Polish builder Jerac, the younger generation cruise around in yellow hovercrafts while the ‘dad-taxi’ family car looks a little bit cooler than your average Toyota.
Firstly, we have the Aeris, the 4-person family car for collecting the groceries and taking the kids to the movies. Even Jerac has to admit that this is “slightly more luxurious” than the average family car (they must be from the nicer side of the City). Honestly, I’m not trying to sell you this car, but take a look at the rear – the building techniques used are fantastic!
Next, we have the Athame, a hovercraft aimed at the cool kids who yearn for a sportier, faster, more eye-catching ride. This hovercraft has the added adrenaline rush of a transparent floor – definitely not for the feint-hearted. I love the shaping of the front, very nice curves.
Sadly, the exuberance of youth means that the Athame is sometimes exposed to more ‘aggressive driving manoeuvres’ and the resulting vehicle breakdown requires a futuristic rescue truck. Here we have the Cobbergoot Hoverlift-3. The Hovlift-3 has a great extendable lift at the back, to cater for even the largest of future hovercrafts, and collapses neatly to allow a more streamlined look when not it use.
Despite being a (relative) ‘youth’, I think I will stick with the luxurious Aeris as my future car. That transparent floor on the Athame is just too much excitement for me…
A few of the 2016 LEGO Superhero sets have finally been unveiled.
76049 Avenjet Space Mission
The similarities between this set and 76028 Darkseid Invasion are striking: four minifigs, a bigfig and some kind of vehicle. Heck, Dark Seid and Thanos even share the honour of a little floating platform to ride about in. Marvel fans can start jumping for joy now at Hyperion, Captain Marvel, Mark 39 Iron Man (also called “Gemini” and “Starboost”) and a space-going version of Captain America getting the minifig treatment. The Mad Titan Thanos comes to us as a bigfig, and he actually looks impressively good.
76048 Iron Skull Sub Attack is a very similar concept… except under water. Mark 37 Iron Man (“Hammerhead”), scuba Captain America, Red Skull and a Hydra diver are the minfigs accompanying a rather bulky submersible towing a cage. The armour on the Iron Man seems to be a recolour of the piece used for the minifig-scale Hero factory figures.
I’m personally more than a little excited for some new Iron Man, what’s everyone else looking out for?
Registration is open for British Columbia’s first LEGO convention. BrickCan is April 21-24, 2016, at River Rock Casino in Richmand, BC, Canada — just a short drive beyond the border and outside of Vancouver, BC.
Registration
Adult (19+) registration is $75 CAD through January 20, 2016. After that, registration goes up to $85 CAD.
After January 20, space permitting, registration may open to teens (14+). Check BrickCan’s registration page for more information.
To register, click here and create an account. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll be routed to the registration page.
Hotel
The convention is taking place at River Rock Casino. Convention rates are $159 CAD per night ($189 for a 1 Bedroom Suite), and available up to 3 days before and after the event. Please note that if you are staying before or after the convention itself, you’ll need to call the Reservation line.
Because this is taking place in our neighbor to the north, please note that non-Canadian citizens will require a passport to cross the border.
“The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli is one of those paintings that you study in Art History, poring over the symbolism and innovative Renaissance techniques until the painting becomes one with the millions of reproductions you’ve seen all your life, losing any interest or meaning it may have had. (Clearly, I much prefer “Primavera”…) So, I’m always pleased to run across a refreshing new take on a classic work of art. Polish builder Bartłomiej Sekuła has built a three-dimensional version of the painting reminiscent of a tableau vivant, with minifigs representing each of the figures in the original work.
That’s actually pretty cool on its own, but Bartłomiej goes one step further with a parody version of this iconic scene.
Over the past few days, a bevy of new LEGO Star Wars sets have been revealed. It’s no surprise that these include sets from December 18th’s The Force Awakens, but there are also a number of sets from the previous six movies as well. We’ll keep all of The Force Awakens sets below the jump, so that you can avoid spoilers if you wish.
75137 Carbon-Freezing Chamber is an altogether new set. The only time we’ve seen any of Episode V’s Cloud City interiors previously was in 2003’s extremely rare 10123 Cloud City, the set that precipitated LEGO’s shift to flesh-colored minifigs. This set includes the new highly detailed Boba Fett and carbon-frozen Han Solo, with the Boba nearly identical to the one available in the Ultimate Collector’s Series Slave I but without arm printing. It also features a brand-new Ugnaught, one of the few characters from the original trilogy to not yet have a LEGO minifigure.
75138 Hoth Attack is a refresh of 2009’s Echo Base, and takes advantage of some newer curved slopes and LEGO’s newer, more detailed minifigure printing.
75135 Obi-Wan’s Jedi Interceptor is the third version of the Episode III-style Jedi Starfighter, following versions in 2005 and 2007. It looks snappy in Obi-Wan’s dark red and grey livery, versus Obi-Wan’s previous blue and Anakin’s yellow.
75136 Droid Escape Pod is also the third iteration of this brief scene in Episode IV, following versions in 2001 and 2012, and adds more detail and a pair of roaming Jawas this time around.
2016 will bring us another wave of the popular Star Wars chibi-sized Microfighters ships, beginning with this adorable 75129 Wookie Gunship.
See the rest of the 2016 Star Wars LEGO sets below! [The Force Awakens Spoilers]
Whether you’re a fan of the television series or the books, everyone can agree that the next installment of Game of Thrones is simply too far away. Season 6 won’t be here until April 2016 and George R. R. Martin’s final two novels, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, may never be here. So while you’re jonesing for your next fix, check out these sweet Game of Thones-inspired LEGO builds.
Midas Touch‘s microscale Castle Black is perfect. The Wall, a colossal structure built from ice that protects the Seven Kingdoms from white walkers (or “the others” if you read the books), is instantly recognizable, as is the elevator which carries the Night’s Watch to its top.
Speaking of the top of the wall, nameless_member has built an equally impressive scene from Game of Thrones using forced perspective. This haunting scene of John Snow overlooking the lands beyond the wall uses very few parts, but packs a heavy punch.
The LEGO Shop has just released some of their January 2016 sets, including the new Doctor Who set, several City and Creator sets, and — just in time for Christmas — two Frozen sets. In addition, LEGO has extended their Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.
Most exciting for many is the release of 21304 Doctor Who (and don’t miss my review of the LEGO Doctor set here on TBB).
I will state on the record that I have never seen Frozen (and have not seen Titanic either), but it appears to be very popular, and this set has a reindeer, so I recommend buying eight or nine of 41066 Anna & Kristoff’s Sleigh Adventure. We’ll have a review of this set soon.
I think this adorable 31045 Ocean Explorer would make a great stocking stuffer for that budding ocean scientist in your life.
I assure you: you’re seeing the image correctly. Jimmy Fortel presents this glorious retro television for all of your family flashback needs. Complete with bright colors, knobs, and no remote, this excellent little build is packed full of nostalgia.
And by nostalgia I mean that hideous (and yet so wonderful!) wall-paper.
