If you’re curious to see what other comic book characters look like in the style of Lego’s Hulk, then The Brick Creator has just what you’re looking for with their 3″ Hulk-sized “EPICFIG” figures. Shown below are Rhino, Venom, Hulkbuster Armor, Colossus, and Juggernaut. Check out Flickr for more photos on how they’re made and visit their Facebook page for details on how to purchase them.
This 19th of November marks the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The Battle of Gettysburg, which took place several months before, was the bloodiest battle of the American civil war and many of the dead were hastily buried in temporary graves. They were subsequently reburied in what was to become the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The Address was one of several speeches that marked the official consecration of the cemetery.
Gary Brooks (Gary the Procrastinator), who is no stranger to TBB, has expertly recreated the scene of President Lincoln giving the speech. At the time, the reception of the speech was mixed, but it has gained a prominent place in the history and culture of the United States.
Buried in an email from LEGO last Friday was a great picture of the Series 12 Collectible Minifigures that will be released in January 2014. LEGO says, “The collectible series of never-before-seen LEGO Minifigures gets its first Hollywood treatment with an all-star lineup of 16 characters appearing in THE LEGO MOVIE.”
Here’s the official list:
I’m still not sold on the movie, but I’ll take an official Honest Abe and Bill Shakespeare! And I love the sense of humor in figs like “Where are my Pants Guy. I’m not sure what the movie’s writers are on, but hey, funny figs!
In his latest effort, the simply titled History of the World, Lasse Vestergård has wonderfully combined microscale architecture with collectible minifigs to create a timeline starting with ancient Egypt and ending with modern America. I’ve seen many fellow hobbyists construct brick-built display units for their minifigs but never one with such panache or purpose.
Lasse also took the time to make the back of the display interesting as well, by including a map of the world.
“And of course, with the birth of the artist came the inevitable afterbirth… the critic.” My only complaint about this otherwise fine project is with the title, which is a little misleading as the model seems focused on western civilization to the exclusion of the rest of the world. However, when you try and boil down the entirety of human history into a dozen vignettes, you’re bound to leave somebody out.
It’s been almost two years since we’ve seen anything new from South Africa’s WhereverPanda, but I won’t let a little thing like time and distance prevent me from blogging one of my favorite builders. I’m not sure that anyone is better at capturing the essence of a song lyric in Lego, and his skill with a camera is unrivaled.
So cheers to you, Mr. Panda, wherever you are.
JéRôMe has created an eye-catching monochrome minifig rainbow to brighten your weekend. I know many of you like to stick parts in your mouth while building, so go ahead…the first taste is free. For those of you interested in such things, check out Brother Andrew’s posting of the 2007 minifig rainbow for a little historical perspective.
We complete today’s Orange Trilogy with this many-scaled celebration of the self by the builder mentioned in the title, Madrid’s own Jose Carlos Fernandez (Lego-Man-at-arms). One thing is for certain; to deny the power of the maxi-figs beard would be perilous.
Jose also likes to draw a comic from time to time and I found this one to be all too familiar.
It is time to celebrate the minifig-driven heritage of this august blog with a 6-pack of little people. Purists beware; you have just gone through…the scary door…
First up is Madame man-hands, or as she is more properly known, The Iron Lady by Hammerstein NWC.
Next up is the always reliable delgax and his spooky “The Administrator“.
I’m not sure if “Crysis Nanosuit” even qualifies as a minifig anymore but I admire the amount of time and care that Geoshift put into its design.
“Shingeki No Kyojin ( Attack Of Titan ) – Eren Yeager” by Nathaniel Ng features a snazzy coat and futuristic floatation device?
69zobieslayer brings some bricks to the party with his simply titled: “Star Wars and zombies?“.
And completing our 6 pack is Curzon79 and his “Boxer“.
It has been my distinct pleasure to spin the tunes for you this weekend, but I’m going to hand it back to my Brothers and enjoy an unplugged Sunday night. Of course I can’t leave you without one for the road. This one is from Joriel “Joz” Jimenez and he calls it Bring it on…again. Cloned-cheerleaders and aftermarket guns; what more could you ask for?
See you next weekend.
Cpt. Brick returns to the Brothership for the second time this year with his latest scene that is sure to delight your pre-school aged daughter as much as it did mine. This has been your official TBB Mermaid update. Now back to your regularly scheduled boilerplate…
And yes, I know you can see a hint of the trans-clear support for the tail, but Kate didn’t care and neither should you.
In our first non-SDCC news item this week (I think), the Series 11 LEGO Collectible Minifigures are apparently on sale now in Poland, and Herman Napierala has shared a nice scan of the character sheet with Brickset.
We won’t know what the official names of the minifigs are until closer to the official street date, but here’s what I’m seeing in this series:
*C’mon! Is he anything else?!
We’ve been studiously ignoring the rather ridiculous press coverage of a study published last month in the Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction. The study itself is simply a numerical analysis of minifig facial expressions from 1975 to 2010, concluding that facial expressions perceived by adults as “happy” have decreased over time in favor of “angry” faces and other emotions. It’s actually a rather interesting study, if you bother to read it.
But the media frenzy surrounding the study has been silly at best and consistently inaccurate — not necessarily about the trend toward more variety in minifig facial expressions but about the substance and conclusions of the study. One of the more moronic trends among the articles — or at least their headlines, which many people probably don’t read past — is claiming that the study says that the greater diversity in minifigure facial expressions is somehow harmful to children.
Conan O’Brian did a bit last night that is representative of the misunderstanding many people have about the issue. While Conan and his writers put the material to good comedic use, it reminded me that we might still want to post something about the study and the press coverage surrounding it. The story just doesn’t want to die!
Thankfully, not all the coverage is as idiotic as what you’ve probably seen on your local news. Scientific American editorial intern Arielle Duhaime-Ross has written an excellent blog post about the study and its media coverage, with insights into why people have been so attracted to the story.
She quotes one of the New Zealand researches as saying, “Our little LEGO study was never intended to give scientific evidence of the minifigures’ harmful effects — it cannot even give a hint.” Christoph Bartneck continues, “The media fights for our attention and one mechanism they use is to invoke fear.”
It’s this fear-mongering that I find so distasteful (and consistent with the controversy surrounding LEGO Friends). I’m no defender of the LEGO brand or corporation, nor do I always agree with the decisions they make — I’ve been advocating for more ethnic and gender diversity in minifigs for years, in fact — but I do take issue with bad journalism.
Head on over to ScientificAmerican.com to read Arielle’s post, and let us know what you think yourself in the comments.