Death Cab for Cutie are one of my favorite bands, and I’ve enjoyed seeing them live (including opening for the Seattle Mariners a couple year ago).
L D M has recently been posting DCFC album art recreated in LEGO. His rendition of Narrow Stairs
Though it’s a less-sophisticated LEGO build, I also like his version of Transatlanticism
Though we missed it when he posted it back in September, Plans
Brick Fiesta is taking place in Houston from July 4 – 8 and registration is now open. This is the second year of this growing Southern Lego convention, and you can see pictures from the first event on Flickr.
The combination of exotic colors and shapes from nature in Dita Svelte‘s modular bank makes this a standout build among fan-made modular buildings. The different gradients of green and earth tones add a complex layer of texture on top of that formed by the bricks.
The Brothers Brick recently purchased several sets from the LEGO Friends line in order to give our readers a feel for the new line. My 11 year old daughter and I reviewed the following sets and I let my nieces (6 and 8 years old) play with the sets for an afternoon. Nannan has already done one review from a parts perspective and Caylin has done one from the perspective of an adult female fan. Hopefully this review, from a father and daughter view, will be just as useful.
This was my favorite set of the four that we built. It’s a well-designed set with lots of play value. The exterior is a rather simple build but the interior is packed with some pretty cool details, such as an X-ray machine, scale, and examination table. It includes a stall for the horse and lots of new accessories, which are only slightly over-sized when held by traditional minifigs. It also includes the new flowers, which I liked. The new animals are cool, but I was pretty disappointed in the horse. It has no moving parts and the new mini-dolls can’t sit on it or interact with it in any way, except to stand on its back. So unless you’re going to build a horse-vaulting arena with it, the horse is pretty useless. I liked the mini-dolls more than I expected but they’re nowhere near as versatile as regular minifigs. The biggest drawbacks are that the legs can’t move individually and the almost total lack of connectivity.
This set has the most interesting exterior of the sets we reviewed. But the interior is really good as well. It has a display case w/register, booth for customers and small kitchen area. The forks and knives will be useful and the mixer has some interesting connection points that I’m sure will enable it to take a place among its greeblish brethern. My main complaint with the set was the new cupcake pieces. They’re designed to hold a 1×1 round plate/stud but there’s really no “connection” as the 1×1 just sits in it. A tighter connection would have made this piece much more versatile.
The tree house is a fun little set with some interesting animals. The tree design is really nothing new but it is sturdy and stands up under play very well. The set comes with the new flowers in red but also includes some of the old flowers. Having the two together in a set makes it immediately obvious that they two don’t go well together. They each have their place but together looks rather off.
This was the smallest set we got and I’m not sure that it is a good buy for what you get. There are unique printed pieces in the set (ipod, anyone?) but there were no interesting design features.
Josh’s Daughter:
To start with, I think that one of the biggest drawbacks is that the girls feet can’t separate and they can’t sit on studs. Also the horse in the Vet set can’t pose very well because the head does not move up or down.
Their hair is pretty neat because it can be switched with a different mini-doll or regular mini-fig. I also really like the three sets of silverware in the Cafe set. They are cool because the mini-dolls can hold it and it looks more real when they eat. Also in the Cafe set there are cupcakes that a single stud can sit in. I like those because it adds another food.
I like the pastel colors but I think there needs to be more dark colors in the sets. Also having only five mini-dolls could get boring because you can’t switch them around as much as you can with mini-figs. Having all the new animals and food is really nice. My dad had the cat chasing the bird. The new flowers, butterflies and Ladybugs add some more detail to the sets. Also, since every new animal I’ve seen has a hole in their heads, you can put bows and things on them all. The girls also have the holes so you can put bows and ribbons on their heads. The Vet set has a little hat for the veterinarian to wear. She also has an icepack that fits into the hole on the animals heads.
Out of all the sets that we built, the Vet is my favorite. All the new animals are cool and the hedgehog is my favorite.
My two nieces both enjoyed the sets, but the 8 year old liked them the best. She already likes LEGO and she loved the new mini-dolls. Her favorite set was the vet because of the animals. My six year old niece is normally bored with LEGO as she prefers Playmobil. But she played with them for a couple of hours and specifically commented on “the pretty colors”. After I had put the sets away, she came up to me and asked if she could get those “Playmobil Lego sets” out again.
If you have any questions about these sets, please feel free to ask them in the comments. Here is a link to my entire gallery of Friends pictures. I hope this review was helpful to you!
Alex P. (Sirens-of-Titan) built this gorgeous bridge to accompany a fantasy story he wrote. The jagged rocks along the water contrast beautifully with the smooth lines of the stone bridge.
See more pics and read the story on MOCPages.
The North American LEGO convention season is coming up surprisingly soon, beginning with Bricks by the Bay in mid-March and wrapping up with BrickCon in October.
The newest LEGO convention will be held June 1-3, 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Here’s the official description for Bricks Cascade.
Bricks Cascade is a convention held in Portland, Oregon, open to Adult Fans of Lego who excel in building various items of detail whose existence beg a public display to the community. Attendees of the Convention must be at least 18 years of age, or if under 18, can only obtain registration if accompanied by a registered adult. The convention officially begins on June 1st 2012 and ends on the evening of June 3rd, 2012.
Friendships, knowledge sharing, and building techniques are just a few benefits gained by attending the convention. More details can be given about this convention on this web site in the coming months. All Convention Attendees pay $52.00 during our initial registration period. Please fill out all information requested to insure your entrance ID is created without errors and prevent any delays during on-site registration fulfillment.
You can register now at BricksCascade.com.
I first noticed Carson Hart‘s LEGO models over the holidays, but was offline at the appropriate times to blog his Christmas-themed creations. Thankfully, he’s followed it up with some other great models, including this diorama of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom in Hogwart’s Castle.
This microscale version of The Burrow is also nice, complete with a micro-magical Ford Anglia.
Registration opens today for Brickworld Chicago 2012, the highly-attended Lego convention from June 13-17. I want to remind anyone planning on going to register and pay a few months in advance because registration always reaches its cap and MOC display space will run out. Check out photos of Brickworld on Flickr to see displays from the previous events.
Series 6 Collectible Minifigures are beginning to show up in various retail stores and in significant quantities.
I picked up a sealed case yesterday and the breakdown was as follows:
I’m curious if this is the breakdown that our readers are getting as well. Please post your case breakdowns in the comments. Make sure you say whether or not the case was sealed.
Bruce Lowell has been building some real-life objects recently, and the products are comparable to the uncannily accurate things that the Arvo Brothers made. You can see more in Bruce’s Flickr photostream.
If you’ve wondered what the Friends mini-dolls look like with other LEGO headgear, then L D M has what you’re looking for:
Thanks to an excessively busy patch in my life it’s been a long while since I blogged anything LEGO. Unfortunately this probably won’t change much for a little while at least.
But I felt I should take a few moments to remind everyone that the public tickets to Brickvention 2012 are selling out fast. So if you want to come see Ryan McNaught’s Apollo 11 (and a bunch of other good stuff) you should book soon.
It’s on in Melbourne Town Hall next weekend (21-22nd Jan 2012)
