It’s been a busy week of LEGO-related news.
The good:
The bad:
The ugly:
I just thought this was cool:
It’s difficult to read at this size, but the small text says, “Retired after making 120,000,000 LEGO Bricks.” Sweet!
From Flickr user girlfactor.
Some of you may have noticed that I added a new site to the list of LEGO communities over on the right. Joining the likes of Classic-Castle.com, Classic-Space.com, and From Bricks to Bothans, Mecha Hub is the new home for a growing community of LEGO mecha builders.
Administrator Bryce has high hopes for what Mecha Hub will be, including:
* repository for Lego Mecha models.
* dynamic resource of current builders.
* historical resource of past builders and contributions.
* dynamic how-to source for Lego Mecha builders.
* community driven knowledge base.
* platform with which to show new Lego Mecha creations.
* close knit community with active forums and feedback.
Best of luck to this new community! I would encourage those of you who build in this genre to join, and those of you who don’t to visit the site for some great inspiration.
A year ago when I launched “Dunechaser’s Blocklog,” my blogroll included just a handful of other LEGO blogs, such as LEGO-BINGO and VignetteBricks. As I’ve become aware of more blogs and new blogs have been launched, this list has grown to include nearly sixty Japanese blogs, nearly fifty in English (in the nav bar on the right), and several in German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
With so many of us blogging about our hobby, some overlap is inevitable. Sean Mykael has given this some serious thought over at Brick Brick, and has proposed an excellent LEGO Bloggers Code. So, let’s head on over there to discuss, shall we?
I profiled Japanese blogger xeuren’s American Comics Lego Archive over on PPB late last year. Xeuren recently posted a nice photo review of 7783 Batcave. Perhaps I’ve missed a review in English elsewhere, but xeuren’s review includes several great pictures of the new set, including the new minifigs:
The set also includes Batman and a henchman (for a total of seven). I think Robin (black pompadour!!!) and The Penguin (purple stubby legs!!!) are fantastic, but I’m not so sure about Alfred — as xeuren also says, the expression on his face seems a little dandyish.
I’m really torn between this set and 7785 Arkham Asylum. I still don’t have a black Batman minifig, and both have some great villain minifigs as well…
Anyway, head on over to American Comics Lego Archive for more close-up pictures of this set, as well as xeuren’s own custom superhero minifigs.
Douglas Coupland, author of books such as Generation X and Microserfs is apparently a LEGO fan. I noticed that several of his books have covers that incorporate LEGO into the design:
A quick search for Douglas Coupland LEGO turned up this article. Here’s Coupland talking about LEGO:
Thing is, we all played with Lego…. There just comes a time when you don’t go into that box anymore, and then for the next 30 years Lego’s been playing with me. Messing with my mind and my way of looking at things. I’ve [been wondering] all this time, where do I end and toys begin?
Apparently, though, Coupland’s dark age is over. The article describes an art installation he’s created (sorry, no pictures), in which he uses LEGO. I really like this next quote:
I had to build the Cape Cod house with two dormer windows, and my God! My fingers still had that weird Lego tingling feeling. I was still hunting down in the bottom of the box for that one piece. That sound? You remember that sound? Of stirring around in the bottom of a box of Lego? When I’m building things in my mind, I call it ‘shapehead.’ When I’ve got shapehead, I can’t sleep, I might as well just keep on building and building…
Nice. I guess that makes me a shapehead.
A quick reader poll, plus semi-useful information unrelated to LEGO.
1) How many of you have subscribed to the two feeds available for this blog?
2) For those of you who subscribe to either the Atom or RSS 2.0 feeds, which one do you use?
3) Finally, do you prefer short descriptions or long descriptions in your feeds?
Okay, that’s it for questions from me.
Some of you might not know much about blog feeds, how they work, and how you can use them. The basic idea is that you “subscribe” to a feed from a Web site (like this blog) and you’re automatically alerted when there’s a new item in the feed (like a blog post). No need to check the site every day! The software you use can be on your computer (like FeedReader for Windows or Safari for Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”) or on the Web (like My Yahoo!, Google home page, or Bloglines).
For those of you who are technically inclined, I highly recommend Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom by Ben Hammersley.
Note: Yes, I have a big backlog of great creations to post. I’ll get to them. ;-)
We’re very pleased to announce that the blog until recently known as “Dunechaser’s Blocklog” is now “The Brothers Brick!” For continuity purposes, the blog’s Web address will remain the same, but I’ve registered a couple variations on the new name and redirected them here.
We evaluated more than 100 entries from 14 readers, but this name stood out because it reflects the team-oriented nature of the blog, leaves open the possibility of adding future bloggers (not to leave girls out, but nearly all of our fellow LEGO fans who we might invite in the future are male), and so on. I personally like the fact that it forms a sentence in which the word “brick” is used as a verb.
Congratulations to Peppermint Pig, who gave us so many great name ideas in this thread over on Classic-Castle Forums that we had a hard time choosing just one! We’re in the process of picking out the best prizes for Pep, so he should expect a little package in the mail from each of us soon.
Also look for an updated header graphic instead of the boring placeholder we have now. Once again, many thanks to all of you who participated in this naming process, and congrats to Peppermint Pig!
Last November, I blogged about the LEGO King Championship event broadcast on TV in Japan. Now, via the aptly named TV in Japan we have actual footage of the show:
With the addition of Josh to the team, we’re considering a name change, as noted in this post a week ago. I asked all of you out there to submit ideas for a different name, and the response has been fantastic: We have over 100 name ideas from 14 of our readers.
The name ideas have been tabulated, so now Josh and I will review them to pick a new name. There were some great ideas, so this is going to be tough!
Oh, and as to prizes, we’re thinking an original minifig from each of us. (Perhaps I could’ve announced prizes while the contest was going on, but this has been evolving as it happens.)
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled LEGO creations! Look for a new name some time very soon.
Just in time for Memorial Day here in the United States, Malle Hawking has completed his LEGO version of CVN-75, U.S.S. Harry S. Truman.
For more details, see Malle Hawking’s LEGO aircraft carrier here on The Brothers Brick.
Congratulations to Malle on the completion of this amazing ship. As Spacers say, this is quite a S.H.I.P. (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts)!
