Sebastiaan Arts lives up to his name with this thing of beauty. Gorgeous castles in tan are a rarity, but that isn’t all that sets this creation apart from most of the others. The detail, the height, the apocalyptic battlefield…the list goes on and on.
Ochre Jelly presents Tour de Force, featuring characters from the Clone Wars. I especially like the light trails on the lightsabers. You can read more on his blog.
…one giant leap for a minifig. Mikael (CopMike) celebrates the 40th anniversary of the moon landing with this simple but iconic build of the first step on the moon.
Oh, and talent like Adrian Florea‘s.
The droid arms are connected to blue flex-tubing, giving the repeated element an excellent curve.
Brett Gilbert has landed an interview with Cephas Howard, the lead designer for LEGO’s new line of board games.
“First you build your game,” says Cephas. “This creates a bond and a greater sense of ownership, immersion and understanding of the game for the kids. It also gives them the confidence to change it later on.”
“Next you play. The games all have good, solid game experiences that can be played over and over, and allow kids to have fun with their friends and family while doing so.” Cephas points out that truly social play is something that LEGO has not always offered, but that these games allow parents to be genuinely involved in LEGO play with their children.
“Then you change. Now if gets interesting!” Cephas explains that each game provides new ideas for gameplay, including not just advanced rules but also the challenge to children to get creative, albeit with the wise suggestion to try out one idea at a time so that they can see what works and hopefully learn why.
“The dice we designed sums all of this up in itself,” says Cephas. “You build it, play with it, and can change it. And it creates the element of chance in all our games which means that any player has a chance of winning a strategic game.”
Check out the full text of the interview here. Brett also has done a roundup of all the Lego Board Games. The games are currently available in the UK, but may be coming to North America in the near future.
I put off blogging this lovely floating rock/steampunk city by Kevin Fedde (Crimson Wolf) because Nannan had just just blogged his Field of Dreams.
It’s like a lovely steampunk version of 10193 Medieval Market Village:
Since then, Kevin has also posted a very cool dune buggy from Red Faction: Guerilla
The red backdrop adds a lot to the presentation, and I particularly like the subtle wheel covers.
Among the many interesting things that eclectic (and talented) builder Karf Oolhu has posted recently is this brave troll, complete with both Gatling and ray guns.
As always, that’s not the only interesting thing in Karf’s photostream. I love this microscale fuel refinery abuzz with activity.
As the LEGO Flattery Challenge demonstrates, it’s sometimes fun to try building in another person’s distinctive style.
Shannon Ocean has recently posted several LEGO Space creations in Crimso Giger’s Zorg Empire theme.
I love the Zorg tank, with its series of wheels at decreasing sizes, and the smaller scout on the left is lovely and creepy.
There are too many castle creations on the front page of this site right now. I had to add some more space.
Fortunately, Stefan (Brainbikerider) built this lovely Taidan Raptor inspired by the Homeworld games. The color blocking is fantastic, as is the shaping on the cockpit area. There’s some great brick-work in that area. While I personally wish that it wasn’t such a straight line overall, I can’t argue with results like this.
Comic-Con, the largest popular arts convention in the world, is coming to San Diego from Wednesday July 22nd until Sunday, July 26th, 2009. Passes have been sold out for several months and finding lodging within 50 miles of San Diego may be nigh-impossible, but for those of you who are able to make it, there are a few LEGO-centric activities worth checking out.
The first is of course the LEGO Store (booth #2829) inside the Convention Center, that carries a multitude of sets and accessories. There will be a reputedly awesome exclusive set (right: teaser courtesy of CaptainRex110) or sets, but currently there are a few too many rumors flying around for me to pass on anything authoritative about it or how it will be made available. The store is open during the whole Con. If you MUST get the exclusive sets, probably a good idea to get there earlier in the day. Some of the large LEGO models at the booth will be constructed by local LEGO fans, who are helping out some of the very busy LEGOLAND builders and designers.
On Thursday, the 23rd, there’s a panel discussion from 1:30 to 2:30 PM in Room 8, featuring representatives of LucasFilm, Dorling Kindersly (DK) Publishing, and Rob Johnson, art director for The LEGO Group. They’ll be discussing the upcoming release of DK’s LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, unveil the book, show some exclusive new minifigs, give out some free stuff, and you may have the chance to enter to win a Star Wars LEGO set or a copy of the visual dictionary once it’s released.
On Friday, the 24th, Joe Meno of BrickJournal, former designer Megan Rothrock (above, her “Tragon,” featured on Timo Beil’s flickr page) as well as builders Bryce McGlone, Brandon Griffith and Mark Stafford will be holding a panel discussion from 10:30 to 11:30 AM in Room 3. The subject is LEGO and BrickJournal, a general discussion of the adult LEGO fan world, and they’ll be displaying some of their original creations.
If you’re coming to Comic-Con I hope you enjoy yourselves, and maybe I’ll even see you around.
I’m not advocating a particular political position in the epic (imaginary) Classic Space vs Star Wars battle, this is just funny. Day 197 by Ken (KWG73) is titled “A Good Kicking.”
Ken’s been doing a regular 365 day photo project on flickr in which he displays great photographic skill, but during the last several weeks he’s been icing the cake by using more and more of his classic space figs. They started off just romping in a bowl of M&M’s, but have moved on to bigger and better things.
Photos of his visit to the abandoned Bangour Village Hospital are also good for inspiring post-apocalyptic creations. (Shout out to Josh’s Northern State Hospital photo set).
