Ken Robichaud built this lovely Chokutō for the Classic Castle Weapons Challenge. I love that engraving on the blade.
Tag Archives: Japan
Katsumoto
This samurai is astounding. The plethora of unusual pieces meshes perfectly together. Genius, I say. Pure Genius. You can color me a fan of the builder. His name is Cameron, by the way.
And, yes, this is the type of thing we would love to see in the Big In Japan layout at BrickCon this year.
Thanks to Bruce for pointing this out to me.
Announcing “Big in Japan” – collaborative display for TBB readers at BrickCon 2010
A LEGO zombie apocalypse is so last year (and the year before that). We’re pleased to announce that the collaborative display that The Brothers Brick will be coordinating this fall at BrickCon in Seattle will be inspired by the rich history and culture of Japan.
Like these wonderful characters from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro by Iain Heath (Ochre Jelly) — elements of the “Miyazakitopia” section Iain is planning for the display — we’ll welcome creations spanning many different eras and building styles. Part of the fun of a collaborative display is figuring out how to fit it all together once all the builders and their creations arrive at the convention!
From the epic Battle of Sekigahara to Godzilla battling Mothra in retro-future Tokyo, both reality and fiction from the Land of the Rising Sun provide plenty of inspiration for great LEGO creations.
Many of my earliest posted LEGO creations were inspired by the legends and history of land where I was born, and I’m personally looking forward to building again from that cultural heritage.
This is the earliest we’ve announced a collaborative display — for good reason. We hope that Big in Japan will inspire some truly different LEGO creations (like Proudlove‘s dekotora), alongside the iconic samurai and mecha we expect. From sketching designs to buying the parts you need on Bricklink, planning substantial contributions to the display may take the next eight or nine months.
As in years past, we’ll have prizes and giveaways, though we’re still working out the details about what those might be. In the meantime, break out those Kurosawa DVDs, crack open some Natsume Soseki novels, and start building!
Happy New Year 2010, Year of the Tiger!
かわいいレゴずき (I Love Cute LEGO) has a great roundup of New Year’s best wishes from our LEGO friends over in Japan, starting with one of their own:
Here are a few more of my favorites.
muntax has built a tiger truck (“寅っく” for a lovely bilingual pun):
Hiro’s tiger burns bright in the forests of the night — or at least in a thicket of bamboo :
Satoru’s tiger bust would look great on any mantle, in any year:
Check out I Love Cute LEGO for the full roundup — click the links in the second half of the post.
Tigers are, of course, the most awesome animal in the Chinese Zodiac. 2010 looks to be a pretty good year.
The General in his Pavilion
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.
Japanese shrine
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.
LEGO battleship Yamato, largest LEGO ship ever, completed after 6 years
| 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:
- Length: 6.6 meters (22 feet) from bow to stern
- Width: 1 meter (3 feet) at the widest point midship
- Scale: 1/40
- Time to complete: 6 years, 4 months
- Parts: 200,000 LEGO elements
- Weight: 150 kilograms (330 pounds)
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.
Photos from 7th annual clickbrick Original Model Contest now online
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:
- Winners of the 6th annual clickbrick Original Model Contest
- Winners of the 5th Original Model Contest
Ninigi-no-Mikoto arrives bearing gifts
Finding a cool set of names for a series of LEGO creations can be hard. RAMM builders take advantage of the German propensity for concatenation, while Jacob (Memory) has been borrowing from Japanese mythology for his decidedly futuristic walker.
White Egret Castle by Nathan
Check out this impressive Japanese Castle by Nathan / Mister 007. The walls, the roof, the whole thing is great!
Ancient Japan
Chrispockster‘s scene of ancient Japan has a ton of interesting building techniques and cool minifigures to look at. I like the vines on the trees and the broken stone steps leading up to the torii gate.
だるま (Daruma)
Like his recent test pattern, Nelson Yrizarry has been taking a break from the minifig-scale creations he’s known for, to build LEGO on a more sculptural scale.
Daruma are Japanese dolls most often used to make a wish or keep oneself focused on a goal. You paint one eye when you make the wish or start something, and only paint the other eye when your wish has been granted or you’ve achieved your goal.
My wish is that Nelson will build more great stuff like this!