hitahita-05 has built a sweet little Daihatsu Midget:
The use of the motorcycle as a front wheel really grabbed my attention. Who would have thought that new piece would work so well? This little creation is full of excellent building techniques and looks really good too! Overall, a very elegant creation.
Take a gander at the Midget gallery
Those of you looking for a LEGO Katie Holmes might be disappointed, but Brickshelf user Jimmy Lai has posted a cool minifig version of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai:
And check out Jimmy’s awesome movie poster:
I don’t want to bump the post from last year because it’s pages and pages long, but I’ve updated my list of Japanese LEGO blogs.
Changes include fixing broken links, updating the titles of renamed blogs, removing links to deleted blogs, and adding new blogs.
Among the many additions, highlights include the addition of The Sekiyama Railroad Newsletter (a LEGO Trains blog), Be-bonest, How Many Studs to LEGOLAND? (sort of the English-to-Japanese equivalent of PPB), and legostyle-BLOG (Izzo’s new blog).
I’ll be updating my (very partial) list of Japanese LEGO builders at some point as well. In the meantime, I hope you find the blog list useful and interesting as well.
The city of Nikko in Japan is a major Buddhist and Shinto center, most famous for housing the tombs of the Tokugawa shoguns. German builder Thomas Bendt (Triathletus on Brickshelf) has just posted a recreation of the famous pagoda at Toshogu shrine:
The thumbnails in the gallery (and even the image above) don’t do justice to this stunning creation. Be sure to check out the full-size pictures in Thomas’ gallery. While you’re at it, be sure to check out other amazing creations by Thomas, including Pulguksa temple (in Korea) and a Thai temple.
May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan. Although called “Children’s Day” today, this day was in the past Boy’s Day, so many Boy’s Day traditions continue to be celebrated on May 5th. One such tradition is to fly multi-colored carp streamers, or koinobori — one for each male child in the household.
Japanese blogger inago100 has posted a nice koinobori:
Well, I never expected to be posting something by Classic-Castler Jojo here on PPB, but he’s just posted an exquisite torii in his “Things” gallery:
Jojo’s wonderful torii appears to be the famous “Floating Torii” at Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima prefecture:
Torii are found in or around Shinto shrines and other sacred places, most often serving as a gateway. (Although torii have been co-opted in western landscaping and architecture, torii are not generic gates, nor are they generically “Asian.” They have a specific religious significance and are distinctly Japanese, though similar structures do appear in other cultures. Using a torii as a gate in your “Asian-inspired” backyard rock garden would be like putting a Christian baptismal font in your TV room.)
I think I like LEGO graphic art as much as I like actual LEGO creations. Japanese blogger kazzen is a master of LEGO-themed graphic art populated by our favorite little plastic friends.
A month or so ago, he uploaded two cellphone wallpapers featuring a minifig decked out in World Baseball Classic gear:
How you get to these images and download them to your phone will probably vary by phone and by plan, but you can access both of them on this page.
Black Jack (「ブラックジャック」) is an animated series aired on TV in Japan between 2004 and 2005. The title character is a mysterious doctor with white and black hair. Naturally, after getting her hands on the new Two-Face minifig from the Batman theme, mumu’s wife saw the similarity and made Jack, along with his sidekick, Pinoko:
You can find more info on Black Jack on Anime News Network.
No, I haven’t been neglecting this blog (well, maybe just a little — I do have a small backlog).
The reason there haven’t been that many posts recently here on PPB is that there haven’t been any major holidays being celebrated by Japanese builders, nor have there been any significant product launches that resulted in extensive discussions like there was with Exo-Force.
Ideally, I’d like to post at least twice a week (compared with a couple times a day over on my other LEGO blog), but there just hasn’t been enough subject matter. I guess it’s time for me to fill the gap myself with historical minifigs or something… ;-)
If you’d like to help me by pointing out Japanese or Asian-themed LEGO creations that I might have missed, just leave a comment (I’ll be notified by e-mail) or send me a message at dunechaser AT gmail DOT com.
Kamen Rider (“Masked Rider”) is a long-running superhero series on TV in Japan, with many many incarnations. I remember watching the show at friends’ houses in the late 70’s and early 80’s (my missionary parents weren’t especially keen on bug-faced motorcyclists duking it out with hell-spawn).
A recent incarnation is Kamen Rider 555 (「仮面ライダー555」). Moko has recently posted several minifigs based on the series, including the masked rider himself and several of his adversaries, called “Orphnochs:”
For those interested in what an “Orphnoch” is, here’s the show’s synopsis from Anime News Network (even more series info here):
Young biker Takumi Inui trails a girl named Mari Sonoda, whom he suspects has his stolen gym bag. When he encounters Mari, he finds out that the bag she carries is not his and that she possesses some top-secret items developed by the Smart Brain Corporation. He also discovers that she’s being hunted down by Orphnochs – enhanced humanoid beings sent by Smart Brain to recover the items. Takumi reluctantly uses two of the items – a cell phone and a belt – and becomes Kamen Rider Faiz to combat the Orphnoch threat.
