Tag Archives: Custom

This is not the page for LEGO purists. From heavily customized minifigures to LEGO pieces chopped, painted, and stickered to within an inch of their little plastic lives, this is where you’ll find some of the most creative uses — and abuses — of LEGO anywhere.

Bricks Helping Japan – Charity LEGO Auctions Update 2

We’re back with more custom LEGO auctions to help Japan! Those of you who were watching may have noticed that all of our auctions ended yesterday, without anything new being added. That’s because it turns out that eBay puts a limit of $5000 per month on new selling accounts, and we broke that number! I spent some time on the phone with eBay, and got them to raise our limit, so laissez les bon temps rouler! Here some of the new auctions:

Once again, here’s the link to all of the on-going auctions to help the Red Cross in their efforts to help the victims of the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and the Pacific Rim.

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Minifigure Customization: Populate Your World!

If you’re a minifigure customizer or just interested in making your own custom minifigs, BrickJournal is presenting a book on minifigure customization to be released in May 11. Written by Jared Burks (Kaminoan), the 84-page full-color book is available for $8.46 if you pre-order it from the publisher. Meanwhile, you can download a preview of the book.

But of course I like nightmares personified!

Actually, I’m going to be honest. Hellraiser is, in fact, one of the many films I haven’t seen. I’m just not big into horror. What I can appreciate, though, is a spot-on custom creation that even I can recognize. This is totally one of those.

Fantastic job, capnbootle!

Bricks Helping Japan – LEGO Charity Auctions Update

Several of our auctions of donated LEGO creations are ending in just a few hours! Remember, all proceeds go to the Red Cross, so please bid liberally, and feel free to spread the word! As a reminder, here’s the full explanation of this charity LEGO auction effort. Here are the creations that are ending today:

I can’t link to a photo of the last one, which is a delicious looking set of LEGO Cupcakes!

Also, don’t forget to check out all the other on-going auctions to help the Red Cross in their efforts to help the victims of the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and the Pacific Rim. I listed several new auctions today and yesterday, including some fantastic LEGO creations and several pieces of original LEGO comic art by Greg Hyland! All of the pieces by Greg have been published, whether on FBTB.net, in LEGO BrickMaster Magazine, or Star Wars Insider Magazine.

Custom printed minifigs and more from Citizen Brick [Review]

Joe of CitizenBrick.com recently sent me some custom printed LEGO elements to take a gander. A quick glance at his store revealed some interesting and potentially useful parts such as cobblestone tiles and a tattooed minifig. As far as I know, Citizen Brick is one of the few vendors who offer a variety of custom printed parts (the others being BrickArms who focuses on military minifigs and Tommy Armstrong who only takes commissions). Here are my impressions of their products:

Quality: The text from the store claims that their products are impeccable and of the finest quality. Truth be told, they are 100% correct in saying so. The printing is no less than what you would expect from the LEGO company itself. They are centered with precision and resist rubbing and scratching by other bricks. The printed bricks themselves are new and clean, and the minifigs have stiff joints.

Compatibility: It’s important that the ink matches the palette of LEGO colors. You can judge this by looking at the picture on the right that compares the printed tiles with bley and silver LEGO parts. Both light and dark bley matches perfectly and so does the metallic silver. The patterns on the “wooden” tiles and bricks are a close but not exact match to dark tan (not shown). The patterns can be tessellated.

Price: If I had to find something not to like about these parts, it would be their prices. At roughly $1 per tile or brick, it would cost a fortune to pave a wall or road. The $20 minifigs are nothing to scoff at either. However, given the fine quality of these bricks, I don’t find their prices to be unjustified. Comparably, BrickArms, who operates at a much larger scale, charges similar prices for their printed minifigs.

Bottom Line: Citizen Brick offers a unique and quality-oriented line of custom printed parts and minifigs to enhance your creations. While you might put a dent in your wallet buying their products, you’ll be happy once you see their quality firsthand. If you’re looking for something to spice up a vignette or small creation, you should visit Citizen Brick before you get to building.

More than just a minifigure.

I think it really goes without saying that Morgan190‘s custom minifigures are simply brilliant. It’s nigh impossible to pick a favorite.

He’s posted some fantastic ones in the month of March, so rather then suffer the consequences of choosing, I’ll just gather them here.

It’s all in the scales

This image by Fred (Shamisenfred) reminds me of those collectible fantasy cards that were big in the 90s. Although Anutrich himself is very nice I have to confess that the scales he’s holding are what really drew my attention to it.

New BrickArms direct-printed minifigs indistinguishable from official LEGO figs

Our friends over at BrickArms were kind enough to send along a couple of their new direct-printed custom minifigs a while back, and they’re quite possibly the single greatest leap forward in minifig customization technology since Brasso.

Will Chapman uses a solvent inkjet printer that bonds the inks with the minifig’s ABS plastic, resulting in printing that I can’t distinguish from minifigs printed in a LEGO factory. And unlike the waterslide decals intended for “gentle play” or “display,” these are likely to withstand much heavier abuse.

I honestly haven’t oohed and aahed over a new BrickArms product in a couple of years, and kind of thought their ability to surprise me was long past. But I have to admit — perhaps a bit grudgingly — that these new direct-printed minifigs may be the coolest thing ever.

Custom DC Comics superheroes

Julian Fong (levork) has made a set of nine DC Comics superheroes for Creations for Charity. Each features custom-designed waterslide decals and an acrylic finish. They’re one-of-a-kind minifigs whose quality is among the best I’ve seen. You can check out more of Julian’s works on Flickr.

UPDATE: They’re all sold out!

New BrickArms release: Duck and Cover

BrickArms released new products including the Brodie helmet, modern combat helmet, Shaun UK zombie fighter with printed torso, and a bunch of other weapons packs. Take a look:

A haunting way to count to All Hallow’s Eve

I’ve been a fan of Morgan190‘s custom minifig work for quite some time. He doesn’t simply customize a minifigure–he creates works of art.

So I’m completely excited to keep an eye on his Halloween Advent adventure, with a new minifigure each day of October:

I gotta say that Mira Bankava is my favorite so far.

This time they will not fail

These dwarves aren’t going to take it lying down anymore. The vile, nefarious dragon is no match for their high-tech weaponry. This time things will be different. This time they will not fail.

This Castle Spoof scene was made by me.