I don’t know about you, but I got my red envelope on Chinese New Years a few weeks back. Here, two builders from Asia, rack911 and MrH have created the God of Wealth (財神). You can see the character 財, meaning wealth, depicted in both creations (in the latter it appears on the stand).
Here’s hoping your wealth comes in Lego bricks!
Over on Flickr, Car_MP has just posted a great rendition of one of the more adorable pieces of Japanese culture. Although I’m more partial her boyfriend Dear Daniel, for obvious reasons, it’s hard not to be a fan of this creation.
This would also be great in the Big In Japan display that The Brothers Brick is organizing for Brickcon 2010.
One of the interesting things about living in Southern California is that I get to talk quite a few of the model designers who are working on exhibits and installations for LEGOLAND Malaysia, which is scheduled to open in April of 2012. I get to hear about it, but I don’t get to see. I’ve also heard several of my friends here in SoCal talk about their own training process as well as the crew of Malaysian designers who have been hired and trained to work on the same projects. Bill Toenjes was nice enough to send us a link to an article in Johor Buzz, an English language Malay news site, which ran a great profile of several of the team in Malaysia.
We in the adult LEGO community usually get the (very interesting) perspective of adult fans who go on to work for LEGO or LEGOLAND, but the numerous straight-out-of-their-dark-age graphic designers, artists, engineers, and architects are kind of overlooked, though they seem to make up the bulk of the model and set design teams. It’s interesting to hear their perspective.
Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) applies his skills to medieval Japan with his latest creation, “The General is summoned to war”.
The stone wall has a great texture, and the green roof isn’t something you see that often in LEGO samurai/ninja creations (though they certainly exist in real life). My favorite detail is the fountain.
This shrine, by gtahelper, is top notch. It’s packed with all sorts of incredible details, including the first Shishi odoshi that I’ve seen. Make sure you check out the video too, the fish are very cool.
Thanks to Bruce for pointing this out to me in Classic-Castle’s chat room last night.
The Buddhist temple of Kinkaku-ji was originally built in 1397. In 2009, talapz built a Kinkaku-ji in a box. Okay, words fail me here. They really do.
The builder notes in the video that he used 4,500 LEGO pieces to build his pop-up Kinkaku-ji, and it weighs 4 kg. Be sure to watch the whole video — talapz shows how this amazing creation pops up out of the box.
And don’t miss Jumpei Mitsui’s Kinkaku-ji from 2007.
And it’s beautiful! It’s the best layout I’ve seen in a long time. Very few people try to build in this style. The pieces are hard to get, European castles get more press, and the architecture is difficult to pull off. None of that stopped Sandy Cash. As soon as the first pictures started trickling in from Brickfair, we were getting glimpses of this incredible work. Finally, all the pictures are up and Bruce edited a picture of the entire layout. Thanks, Bruce!
Vincent Cheung‘s Chinese opera display is an incredible work of art that captures the essences of one of the oldest drama art forms in the world. The creation depicts the iconic colorful costume with its intricate designs and even the painted/masked face. The whole build is nothing short of gorgeous.
Amazon.co.jp has revealed details about the upcoming 10199 LEGO Creator Christmas set, due out later this year. The picture isn’t perfect, but good enough for discussion, I think.
Due to ship in Japan on October 25, 2009, the set will apparently retail for 12,600 yen. Comparing the prices of other LEGO sets between yen and USD, my guess is that this will be a $60 set (assuming it’s available, but we LEGO fans can always make that happen).
Thanks to EDGE over at LEGO-KEI for the tip!
| 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.
I blogged the 7th annual Original Model Contest last week, but winners hadn’t been announced yet.
Sachiko Akinaga now has the final list of winners.
First Place: “Howl’s Moving Castle” by TEN (more photos):
Second Place: “Memories of a Dream” by Mokuami:
Third Place: “Goldfish Balloon” by Sachiko Akinaga:
Fourth Place: “Animal Happy Cake” by Kana-Oyako:
Fifth Place: “MSN-100” by Tuwake-de-Sondake:
Although winners of the 7th Original Model Contest (sponsored by Japanese LEGO specialty store clickbrick) won’t be announced until March 7, some great photos of the LEGO creations entered in the contest are now available.
Entrants are free to choose their own theme, but are restricted to 20×20 studs and 30 cm tall, and they can’t use LEGO Baby/Primo, DUPLO, MINDSTORMS, or custom parts.
“Goldfish Balloon” by Sachiko Akinaga:
“Howl’s Moving Castle” by TEN:
“In Space” by Tora-Chichi:
“Memories of a Dream” by Mokuami:
See lots more photos in Sachiko’s Brickshelf gallery.
(Via LEGO-KEI and Let’s LEGO.)
Past coverage of this event here on The Brothers Brick: