Tag Archives: Minifigs

Everybody loves LEGO minifigures — well, almost everybody. Minifigs are often the stars of the LEGO models we feature here on The Brothers Brick, but we also feature some amazing custom minifigs you’d never expect to see in an official LEGO set.

No evidence children harmed by greater variety in LEGO minifig facial expressions

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.

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Chrome Block City review

Chrome Block City is a Bricklink store that specializes in selling a large selection of custom chromed Lego elements. This is our first time reviewing their products, which the owner has sent to me for sale in the Creations for Charity fundraiser later this year. Below is a video of the review along with a summary of pros and cons.

Pros:

Large selection of parts and colors.
Very limited quantities on most items, making them exclusive to the few owners.
Same clutch strength when used with regular Lego elements.
High quality of chrome paint on most items.

Cons:

Chrome parts are expensive due to their quality and cost of production.
Some parts with bar shapes have minor exposed areas that are not chromed. Contact the seller before buying if this is a concern to you.
Underlying printed patterns on the original elements may be visible. This can be cool if the pattern is appropriate but may be distracting if the pattern is out of context.

Overall, Chrome Block City’s large selection of chromed elements means there’s a good chance you’ll find something that appeals to you in an interesting shade of chrome. Many of their items are one-of-a-kind, which means you can take pride in being the owner of an exclusive chrome Lego piece. Despite the high quality of most elements, a few will have imperfections as mentioned above and in the video, but they are not significant enough to be recognized without a close inspection.

ChromeBricks new releases and review

ChromeBricks is a longstanding Bricklink store that sells custom chromed Lego elements. I reviewed a sample of their products several years ago, and I recently received some of their new items for a review. Below is a video of the review along with a summary of pros and cons.

Pros:

Flawless quality of chrome paint. I love the deep shade of chrome red.
Same clutch strength when used with regular Lego elements.
Two-toned chrome weapons are unique and awesome.
Underlying color of Lego element has similar color to chrome paint.

Cons:

Chrome parts are expensive due to their quality and cost of production.
Connections between minifigure parts and accessories are tight, requiring effort to swap.

In conclusion, ChromeBricks offers top quality chrome elements for those with a budget for them. Their crimson red chrome is eye-catching and their unique two-toned weapons are outstanding. The tight connections between their chromed minifigure parts might diminish the play value, but I suspect most buyers will not subject them to heavy use.

The Brothers Brigade

Well boys and girls, there is a new super hero team in town. If you thought The Avengers or Justice League were cool, just take a look at The Brothers Brigade. Twelve super powered, super cool individuals from around the World (well, most of them are from the U.S., but they do have three token foreigners). They are fighting evil and taking names.

Full Character Bios:
Front Row (L-R)
Tripod, Gold Member, Mad Physicist
Second Row (L-R)
Artist, The Stud, El Capitan
Third Row (L-R)
The Surgeon, Archaeology, Knight Farmer
Back Row (L-R)
Justice of Space, Mr. Naked Train, Death Pixie

Danish Gothic

Seb Toutouille (spidertoutouille) has recreated the iconic 1930 painting “American Gothic” by Grant Wood using minifigs and a bit of forced perspective.

It’s not quite perfect — I think the farmer could’ve and should’ve held the pitchfork vertically — but it’s a lovely scene nevertheless.

The Extraordinary League of Justice

Purists beware: Hammerstein NWC is all up in your grill with his latest batch of minifigs. Steam Punk meets the Justice League, with this amusing lineup of familiar heroes: Nautical Man, Luster Lady, Albert Jordan, Super Chap, The Martian Gentleman Hunter, Bat-Fellow and The Flash Esq.

My 5 year old daughter and I have been watching Justice League cartoons recently so naturally I solicited her opinion on the photo. She liked Wonder Woman’s bling, was disturbed by Batman’s ‘mustache’, but what she really wanted to know was: “why is Super Panties so angry?” Good question daughter…good question.

“It’s raining men!”

I searched the darkest corners of the internet for LEGO related material to cobble together a decent Father’s Day post, to no avail. Luke and Vader riding a rollercoaster together just doesn’t do it for me and my own little builder wouldn’t sit still long enough to photograph our first collaboration; a 12 inch tall model of Aku (the shogun of sorrow). So instead, enjoy a bunch of half-naked dudes, courtesy of Moko

Happy Father’s Day.

Les hommes du village et la femme en rouge

Mesdames et Messieurs, la brique du frère est fier de présenter deux excellents vignettes par Sofiane SAMLAL samsofy L’un est fabuleusement heureux, et on est peut-être le contraire.

La première scène est le célèbre groupe de disco américaine des années 1970 qui a comporté des stéréotypes culturels américains, ainsi que des mélodies accrocheuses et des paroles suggestives. Dans la recherche de cet article, je suis surpised de constater que le groupe était-il la création d’un compositeur français.

La deuxième scène est beaucoup plus grave, depicitng Ceyda Sungur, comme elle est comblé avec du gaz lacrymogène dans le parc Gezi comme elle est venue de son bureau de l’université à proximité de défendre parc de pelles.

To all our French and French-speaking Canadian readers, please excuse my rusty attempts at your language. High School was a long time ago…

Skis, Guns and a big LEGO Fan

The pedant in me is very happy that Karwik has, after many years, given me the designation of a rad ski-mobile (technically an aerosan) I built way back when. He’s also given all of us an absolutely excellent LEGO rendition of the NKL-26 which totally puts my older one to shame. And since you need to be freezing in your boots to use this thing, I promise not to complain about the 10C minimum on this Winter’s day…

Tiny tank chaser

Before I hand things over to Keith for the weekend, I think I owe our readers a somewhat more adorable chaser to follow all the super-serious discussions about LEGO and the military this week. This “MK45-Toad” is brought to you by Eero Okkonen (Pate-keetongu).

The use of binoculars for the tank treads is brilliant, and even the minifig includes some interesting part combinations, like the modern/space visor on the LEGO Castle helmet.

The Contaminated

I know what some of you are thinking: “you’ve lost your mind Goldman, this isn’t even a build!”. What can I tell you, I’m a sucker for the hazmat-guy minifig and all things G.I.T.D. Somebody told me this site started as a bunch of figbarf anyway, so hopefully you will forgive this break in your regularly scheduled programming. So what say you, constant reader, is this kind of image appropriate fair for the big blog, or strictly small-time action?

The image comes courtesy of delgax and if this kind of shot is your bag too, he’s got a photostream packed with very classy minifig-based photography.

Hey, at least it isn’t a storm trooper walking across a chili-dog.

Mr. Gold charity auction

If you want a Mr. Gold minifig but don’t want to give your money to someone trying to profit off their luck, you can bid on one offered by the BrickBrats family on eBay with 100% of proceeds going to the American Lung Association in California, which has provided services and support over the years to their son with asthma at no charge. This is a great story of one of the good things brought out by the highly coveted Mr. Gold.

Via Brickset