The Final Fantasy series has been a frequent inspiration for my LEGO creations, so it was fascinating to read that Final Fantasy creator and head of game design studio Mistwalker Hironobu Sakaguchi builds with LEGO when he’s looking for inspiration.
Click each photo of a LEGO creation by Hironobu Sakaguchi to read how he uses LEGO in his creative process as a video game designer.
(Via Joystiq, with a hat-tip to reader Nathan Hale.)
A couple of months ago, Andrew Lee (onosendai2600) challenged TBB’s own Nannan Zhang (Nannan) to a building contest.
This was to be an epic challenge of skill, with only two limitations. The first limitation was the deadline, which was the end of April. The second, each builder had to use all of the parts supplied and chosen by a third party.
Derek Schin (dbol39) volunteered to provide the mystery part, and sent each builder EIGHT of the printed radar dishes from the UCS Millennium Falcon. A panel of judges was selected, and the guys were off to the build-tables.
Each builder has now unveiled their creation. Epic is certainly the name of the game with these guys. It’s also remarkable how similar the uses that each builder made of the mystery part are. Both efforts have both pros and cons, and I don’t envy the judges their decision.
Nannan put together a battle (above) involving a massive flying saucer, several small saucers, and a huge-nosed mecha. I appreciate the effort he put in to illustrating an instant caught in time. The energy beam blasting a hole through through the mecha is really cool, although I hate the way the beam abruptly ends. I’m a bit confused by the tile floor at what looks like an out-door facility. It’s amazing what a couple of talented and dedicated builders can manage to put together in a couple of months.
Meanwhile, Andrew built a bustling asteroid spaceport/city. I can’t help but appreciate that there’s a building in the city dedicated to a theme of my own creation. I’m also generally a big fan of bases built into asteroids. I do wish that there was a bit more detail in some of the buildings and space ships, though.
Click through either of Andrew’s photos to see more on Flickr. Nannan assures us he’ll be posting a full gallery and write-up once he’s through final exams later this week.
Veteran Classic Castle member, Micah Brown, has been drawing forum avatars for some time and they have quickly become sought-after favorites.
Affectionately known as Lord DOOM, Micah is all metal and heart. But besides being a great guy, his Lego-inspired artwork just keeps getting better and better.
He also does commissions, if you want your own custom avatar!
Registration is now open for BrickCon 2009! BrickCon is a private convention and public exhibition for adult fans of LEGO, and will be held October 1-4, 2009 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.
BrickCon is the longest continuously running LEGO fan convention in the US. Last year’s convention drew more than 250 attendees from all over North America and Europe, with a significant contingent from Billund, Denmark.
As in years past, I’ll encourage those of you who haven’t been to a LEGO convention (or BrickCon specifically) to check out our past coverage of Brickcon here on The Brothers Brick and look through the photos in the BrickCon group pool on Flickr.
Highlights of last year’s BrickCon included the ChiefLUG BSG Viper Fly-In, the announcement of 10193 Medieval Market Village, and our very own Zombie Apocafest 2008.
For me, BrickCon is all about the people. Even though we’d been blogging together for nearly a year, I met Josh in person for the first time at BrickCon 2006. Similarly, Nannan and I met for the first time at BrickCon 2008.
LEGO conventions are also a good place to learn that LEGO fans don’t all look like their sig-figs in real life.
With an emphasis on a relaxed fan convention experience, BrickCon is a great way to sit back and get to know all those fellow LEGO fans you’ve only met online — an opportunity to talk about something other than LEGO, in some cases. That’s not to say that the public exhibition isn’t an awe-inspiring spectacle. BrickCon 2008 drew over 7,000 visitors in the 8 hours open to the public on Saturday and Sunday!
This year’s theme is “Imagination in Motion!” and looks to be even bigger and cooler. So, what’re you waiting for? Register today!
Many of you out there first became an adult fan of LEGO when you bought LEGO for your kids (while some of us just never stopped).
For LEGO fans like you, the GeekDad blog from Wired.com is currently running the perfect contest — the LEGO Builders of Tomorrow contest.
To enter, just add a photo of you and your kids building together to the GeekDad photo pool on Flickr. The contest ends next Thursday, April 30.
There’s LEGO to be won, of course, but the winning family also gets their picture featured on an upcoming LEGO set. In LEGO fandom, that’s pretty close to immortality.
We first saw prototypes of LEGO Home One at Toy Fair 2009 a couple months ago, but StarWars.com has an interview with Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, who designed the upcoming LEGO Star Wars set 7754 Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser.
The article also includes our first look at high-resolution shots of the box art and minifigs.
In fact, Jens tells StarWars.com that “all the mini-figures except the A-wing pilot are brand new!”
Read the full interview on StarWars.com. For those of you wondering what a “Toys R Us Exclusive” means, it just means that TRU is the only store other than the LEGO Shop online and local LEGO Stores that will carry the set.
The latest edition of Hispabrick Magazine is now available.
Hispabrick Magazine 004 includes:
Check out Hispabrick Magazine 004 on HispabrickMagazine.com today!
| In a feat of LEGO naval engineering rivaled only by Malle Hawking’s USS Harry S Truman and Ed Diment’s HMS Hood, Jumpei Mitsui (JunLEGO) completed his World War II battleship Yamato today. |
LEGO battleship Yamato has some very impressive specifications:
Jumpei’s LEGO version is based on the way Yamato appeared immediately prior to the fateful Operation Ten-Go in 1945.
Jumpei built LEGO Yamato to answer the question he posed to himself all the way back in elementary school: “How big would Yamato be from a LEGO minifig’s perspective?” A third-year college student today, Jumpei can now demonstrate exactly what that would look like!
Breaking through the language barrier, Jumpei pioneered the use of Bricklink among Japanese LEGO fans to source the two hundred thousand LEGO elements necessary to build Yamato.
Yamato includes wonderful details like the Imperial chrysanthemum emblem on the bow and a brick-built Japanese navy flag flying from the bridge. The superstructure is especially impressive.
See more photos of this amazing LEGO creation on Jumpei Mitsui’s website and in his LEGO Battleship Yamato gallery on Brickshelf (when moderated).
Not to be confused with the fictional Space battleship Yamato, the real Japanese battleship Yamato was launched in 1941, and remains the largest battleship ever constructed by any navy.
Having fired her guns against Allied forces only once during the Pacific War, Yamato was sunk in 1945, taking nearly 2,500 of her 2,700 crew to their deaths.
Six years in the making, Jumpei Mitsui’s LEGO battleship Yamato is major news in the LEGO fan community. The Brothers Brick will get in touch with Jumpei and try to arrange an interview for our English-speaking readers. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the pictures.
Every once in a while, a master builder joins the online LEGO community from out of the blue and brings along a slew of eye-opening creations. In my recent perusal of Flickr, I came across a new member who prefers to be addressed humbly as Donut. On the other hand, his creations are nothing of the modest kind – they are the works of a master. In my curiosity to press for the truth, I initiated a conversation with the builder that ultimately bore the fruit of this insightful and inspirational interview.
TBB: Tell us about yourself, how long have you been building?
Donut: I believe I was a kid when I got my first LEGO set, it had those cool minifigs in red, blue, and yellow that wore round hats and flew around in planes of all kinds of shapes. I feel like it’s been thirty years. I’ve been building since then until the LEGO sets themselves told me that I was too old. I was no longer 6-12 years old and that meant I can’t have no more bricks anymore. I was so overwhelmed with sadness when I gave away all my LEGO to my thirty-year old neighbor who said he had a son who loves LEGO, though I’ve never seen him. I felt so alone in the world without my bricks.
TBB: How did you get back into building?
Donut: I couldn’t bear to live a life without LEGO, so I rummaged the house and scavenged a handful of leftover bricks in all nooks and crannies. I secretly built in the closet in the basement every moment I can spare. I thought that if I’d been caught, it’d be worse than having cheated on my girlfriend. Eventually, I engineered a secret compartment in my house to store my bricks.
TBB: When did you decide to publicaly reveal your hobby and what inspired you to do so?
Donut: Well, not to sound gay or anything, but I came out of the closet just recently. I have to admit that the story was pretty embarrasing now that I think about it. I had been at work one day 
and was experiencing the most boring day of my life. Since the economy went bad, we were getting less and less customers to invest in our Margaritaville-brand magarita mixer. I was sitting in front of my computer thinking nothing but LEGO. All the while I wanted to search for LEGO on the internet. I thought that if I’d been caught, it’d be worse than having downloaded pr0n. In the end I caved in temptation, so I googled for LEGO. Lo and behold, there were all sorts of websites with adults and LEGO, it was like everyone was doing it back in the Sixties!
TBB: How did you feel afterwards?
Donut: Man, that was the best day of my life! When I came home I took out all my bricks and built for more than 48 hours non-stop. I wanted to share my creations with the world and see what everyone else is building. It was a shame I never took photos of my creations. I can say with certainty that there had been thousands of MOCs in my years of behind the scenes building. Although I’ve only built less than a dozen new creations this week, they’re all uploaded onto my new Flickr account.
TBB: In our last question to wrap up the interview, what have you concluded from your unusual experience with LEGO?
Donut: If Yu-Gi-Oh was a minifig, he’d be saying “never stop believing in the heart of the bricks!” Phrases like that catch on when you have kids who watch cartoons. But in addition to that, I also want to say to never believe the age markings on the LEGO boxes, because you can never be too old to build. That’s what I love about these bricks, man: I get older, they stay the same shape. I love the smell of bricks in the morning. It smells like victory. Recently someone saw my LEGO room and told me that this is madness, but I screamed to his face “this is LEGOland!” and kicked him into the nearest uncovered manhole on the streets. From above I told him my momma always said “life is like a tub of LEGO bricks. You never know what you’re gonna get”. So until then, hasta la vista, baby.
Our friends at the Jørgen Vig Knudstorp blog always finds ways to parody our favorite chief executive officer of LEGO. For the April Fools bonus, we get an extra dose of Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen along with Jørgen at no extra charge! Enjoy this special comic made by John of Brickspace.org. Speaking of which, you should definitely check out his regularly updated blog.
Contrary to what you see of me as a LEGO builder, blogger, seller, collector, and ambassador, I actually run a double life as a high ranking member of the mafia, and I work the night shift to clean up the streets and run various errands. Of course, you know this can’t be true, or can it? In either case, I can’t tell you too much of what I do. I’ll leave it to you to judge the authenticity of this picture that speaks a thousand words.
Well-placed sources in the United States government have recently revealed that LEGO blogger and alleged poet Andrew Becraft is in fact the same person as international super-spy and beloved raconteur Steven Andrew Ogilvy.
Leaked technical specifications reveal that the LEGO minifig, or so-called sigfig, that Becraft carries with him on his travels contains a 3D micro-camera, long-range stereo microphone, 2-terabyte flash drive, and spring-loaded poison darts.
This and other as-yet-undisclosed technology has enabled Becraft — codenamed “Dunechaser” — to surveil high-profile locations such as the UK Houses of Parliament with impunity. An anonymous MI5 agent is quoted as saying, “The unprecedented access Becraft was able to obtain using a few pieces of heavily customized Legos [sic] is astounding.”
Motives behind the exposure of “Steven Andrew Ogilvy” remain as unclear as the value of the intelligence Becraft was able to gather on his “business trips” to Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, and New Zealand.
Fellow agents interviewed for this article (speaking on condition of anonymity) assert, “Everybody at the CIA already knew that the British Museum has lots of Egyptian statues, and that there’s a bust of James Joyce on St. Stephen’s Green. Oh, can you edit out the part where I mention the CIA?”
Others suspect that Becraft’s promotion of Danish toy maker LEGO’s Agents series may have run afoul of protectionist elements in the American government.