Okay, so a meme from the year 2000 may not be the freshest of source materials, but Will Ferrell as Gene Frenkle is still awesome in my book.
And just in time to freak out my fellow Americans reading this at the top of the blog on Independence Day, I give you big-time communists Fidel Castro and Che Guevara:
Too un-American, you say? Fine, will The Incredible Hulk do?
Will Chapman of BrickArms was at BrickWorld 2008 the weekend before last, and Nannan scored a selection of custom items and prototypes for future BrickArms products. Since this isn’t a review (like my recent BrickForge review), I’ll mainly just show you pictures.
My favorite BrickArms prototype is the unique Lewis gun from World War I:
In addition to historical accuracy — the round magazine is removable — I think this gun has the most potential beyond military applications. In fact, the real-life Lewis gun inspired the T-21 light repeating blaster from the Star Wars universe.
The BrickArms machete and KA-BAR (“survival knife”) add sharp edges to the BrickArms inventory:
Military builders have already expressed excitement over the M21 Sniper Weapon System:
The baseball bat and “cleaver” improve minifig odds against the zombie horde:
The “Spy Carbine” and “Golden Gun” evoke the world of Ian Fleming’s James Bond:
See more in my BrickArms photoset on Flickr.
I know lots of you want to know when these are going to be released and whether these prototypes represent the final design. To save you some confusion, here’s the official word from the BrickArms spokesbadger:
- Cleaver – Prototype only. Design is finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- Machete – Prototypes only. Two versions were distributed in a variety of colors: one with a lip on the handle and one without. The design is still being finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- KA-BAR – Prototype and included in a special BA custom Commando fig. Existed in a variety of colors including trans-colors. Will eventually see mass production.
- Golden Gun – Prototypes only. Existed in a variety of colors including trans-colors. Unlikely to ever see mass production, but may be available beyond the Spy Contest prizes at some point in the future. Design is final.
- Spy Carbine – Prototypes and included with a special BA custom White Tuxedo Bond figure. Decision regarding mass production still in flux as is the design of the accessory.
- Needler-inspired accessory – Only included with a special BA custom Marine fig. Will never see mass production due to the complexity of the process to produce the item (multiple molds and over-injecting).
- Baseball Bat – Available for purchase in a variety of colors. Design is finalized. Will eventually see mass production.
- Lewis Gun – Prototypes only. Design still in flux. Will eventually see mass production.
- Brodie Helmet – Prototypes only. Design is final. Will eventually see mass production.
- MGL – Prototype only. Design still in flux. May or may not see mass production given certain design difficulties.
- M21 Sniper rifle – Prototype only. Design still in flux. May or may not see mass production.
LEGO employees in the UK have put together tens of thousands of clone troopers to raise money for the National Autistic Society. As you can see, this puts Moko’s golden army to shame:
More details on Gizmodo. (Thanks for the link, Jesus Diaz and Jeramy Cooke!)
Those of you who were paying close attention to our coverage of BrickWorld 2008 probably noticed references to and pictures of the latest BrickForge accessories.
Thanks to Nannan and the magic of the United States Postal Service, here’s my review of the new items BrickForge will be releasing soon. In general, I’ll try to avoid repeating what I said in my original BrickForge review.
Naturally, the big buzz is about the new “Space Marine” armor. When combined with BrickArms weapons, the result looks remarkably like the Master Chief from Halo (we’ll be taking a close look at the new BrickArms prototypes as well):
The helmet will cost $1.50, the armor $1.50, and the visor $0.50. If I understand the grapevine correctly, these items will be available in red, blue, white, black, and sand green (pictured above, with BrickWorld-exclusive “steel”). I’m very pleased with the design of each piece, though I’d assess the color matching between BrickForge’s version of sand green and “official” LEGO sand green at around 90-95%, as you can probably see from the picture.
Personally, I was most excited by the new Roman helmets (two types), spear, gladius, and shield:
Most interesting, though, is the gladiatorial armor — specifically helmet and face shield for a Murmillon. The face shield fits over the stud on top of the minifig’s head, and then the helmet fits over the top of that:
I found that the helmet fit a little loosely (it popped off a lot) with the face shield, but fit snugly when directly placed on my gladiator’s ill-fated head.
New turbans can fit a little round cap or a special helmet:
Finally, Mark Sandlin and Chris Giddens worked with BrickForge to create a gun that would fit well with the design aesthetic of the loudhailer and other early Space accessories. Dubbed the “Megagun,” many of you have probably already seen Mark Sandlin’s photos of it, so I’ll just post a couple:
The Megagun has lots of places to attach LEGO, as you can see from the ridiculous gun on the right. :-D
As with their earlier accessories, the latest BrickForge armor and weapons work well with my LEGO. My favorite new items are definitely the Roman items, and I can’t wait to order a bunch when they become available from BrickForge in the next week or so.
Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz just got back from his trip to LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark, where he took a great video of stormtroopers getting made in the LEGO factory.
Click through to Jesus’ post on Giz to watch the video.
UPDATE: 10188 Death Star is now available for preorder from the LEGO Shop.
The intrepid Eurobrickers who comb the LEGO.com image cache for new files have found photos of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars set 10188 Death Star.
The box art:
At least twenty-one (21!) minifigs:
The set even comes with a small TIE Advanced fighter (aka “Darth Vader’s TIE fighter”):
Check out Eurobricks or reader Will’s photoset for a couple more pics.
Long-time readers of this blog should know by now that I’m a sucker for small adorable things. Tim Zarki isn’t helping my addiction by posting this cute little hardsuit inspired by Maschinen Krieger (often abbreviated Ma. K. or MaK):
That’s a Technic figure helmet. I may just have to dig mine out of my “useless” bin and give this one a try myself. (I know, I know, there are no useless LEGO pieces!)
This isn’t a Photoshop job:
That’s right, Brickmodder has added 7 LEDs to a custom Iron Man minifig. (Custom decals by Jared “Kaminoan” Burks and Chris “Uubergeek” C.)
Here’s Mr. Stark in action (with weapons by BrickArms):
We feature two unique dioramas by the ever so prolific Jordan Schwartz, depicting a Victorian-esque sci-fi laboratory, which serves as the backdrop in the first part of Jordan’s fiction story called Journey to the Center of the Earth. The working lights on this creation are purchased from Lifelites.
Next is a creation called Bar of the Future, featurng a crowd of whimsical bar aliens.
Big, bulky shoulder armor can certainly contribute to a minifig’s overall ApocaLEGO look, but attaching helmets is difficult and limits the minifig’s arm movement and poseability.
Austin S (MOCpages) has figured out the perfect combination of bulked-up armor and range of movement by using the old Rock Raiders helmet:
Cool. Off to try this on my own figs…
So where’s the Matt Damon minifigure? ;)
Justin Vaughn captures the opening lines of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series with a pair of minifigs.
“The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed…”
(The post title is a pair of lines from Shakespeare’s King Lear, which inspired the closing line and title of Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” which in turn inspired Stephen King. Ah, allusion!)