The brilliant mind of Mike Crowley strikes again. Check out those legs! As with so many of Mike’s building techniques, the simplicity and elegance — dare I say inevitability? — of the design are what makes it so awesome.
Tag Archives: Minifigs
All your brick
are belong to us.
I can see your humerus
Patrick Swayze chaser
Too much steampunk lately? Here’s something completely different, from Rocko:
Oh wait! Is that too steamy after all? Dang.
Nelson Mandela
Name: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Dates: Born in 1918.
Biography:
Nelson Mandela is a South African statesman, former political prisoner, and leader of the African National Congress (ANC).
In the late 1940s through the 1950s, Mandela worked through non-violent means for an end to the South African government’s policy of apartheid. Mandela and more than 150 others were arrested in 1956 and tried for treason, although they were later acquitted.
In 1961, Mandela formed an armed faction within the ANC, which he explained then (and later) as a form of self-defense, necessary given the decades of ineffective resistance against apartheid. Mandela briefly led a campaign of sabotage against government and military targets, until his arrest in 1962 (after a tip from the American CIA). Mandela spent the next 27 years in prison.
In 1990, Mandela was released from prison. He immediately began leading negotiations to form a multi-racial government. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. With the first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president.
Learn more: Wikipedia
Rosa Parks
Name: Rosa Parks
Dates: 1913-2005
Biography:
Rosa Parks is often called the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement.”
In Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950’s, African-Americans were not allowed to ride in the first 10 rows of city buses (typical of similar laws in the segregated South). On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus when ordered to do so by the white driver. Parks was arrested for this refusal, and her act of peaceful resistance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A Supreme Court decision in 1956 struck down the state and city segregation laws.
Parks became an icon in the civil rights movement, but worked as a seamstress until 1965, when she joined the staff of Michigan representative John Conyers, for whom she worked until 1988. Rosa Parks died in 2005 at the age of ninety-two.
Learn more: Wikipedia
(Yes, today is Martin Luther King Day, but I already posted MLK on his actual birthday, January 15.)
Winona LaDuke
Name: Winona LaDuke
Dates: Born in 1959
Biography:
Winona LaDuke is an economist, Native American activist, environmentalist, and writer.
After graduating from Harvard with a degree in rural economic development in 1982, LaDuke became the principal of the high school on the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) reservation in Minnesota (LaDuke herself is part Anishinaabe). She soon became involved in the struggle to regain land promised by an 1867 treaty. When the case was dismissed, she led the effort to buy back thousands of acres of lost land.
The author of both fiction and non-fiction books, LaDuke has been an outspoken critic of the United States government’s abuses of its land and native peoples. In 1996 and again in 2000, LaDuke ran as the Green Party candidate for the office of Vice President.
Learn more: Wikipedia | Mother Jones | Salon.com
Lesson #1: Don’t ever let Emma Thompson cure cancer
The latest from The Brick Time (mrbrickbob on Brickshelf) are the protagonists of one of my favorite recent movies, I am Legend, starring Will Smith as Lt. Col. Robert Neville, here with his constant companion Sam.
Harvey Milk
Name: Harvey Milk
Dates: 1930-1978
Biography:
Harvey Milk was a city supervisor for San Francisco, California, and one of the first openly gay politicians in the United States.
After moving to San Francisco in 1972 with his partner, Milk opened a camera store in The Castro district. After running unsuccessfully several times, Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was instrumental in defeating a proposition that would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in California schools.
In 1978, Harvey Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone were assassinated by a disgruntled former supervisor named Dan White. Despite the fact that White had carried extra ammunition and crawled through a window to evade security, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter instead of premeditated (first-degree) murder. White was sentenced to less than eight years in prison.
Learn more: Wikipedia
Dred Scott
Name: Dred Scott
Dates: 1795-1858
Biography:
Dred Scott was an African-American slave who sued for his freedom in the antebellum (pre-Civil War) period of United States history. Born as the property of U.S. Representative Henry Taylor Blow‘s parents, when the family had financial problems, Scott was sold to Dr. John Emerson. Emerson traveled frequently, including to states where slavery was illegal.
When Emerson died in 1843, Scott became the property of his widow Irene, whose brother John Sandford became the executor of her late husband’s estate. Attempting to follow the principle “once free, always free” (since he had traveled to states such as Wisconsin and Missouri), Scott sued for his freedom in 1846, financed by his former owners, the Blow family.
After 11 years of lawsuits, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision, ruling that no person of African descent (regardless of their status as slaves or free people) could be a U.S. citizen, and could therefore never have the right to sue for their own freedom.
In the meantime, Irene Sandford Emerson had married a noted abolitionist, who was unaware that his wife owned one of the most famous slaves of the era. Irene’s new husband returned Scott to the Blow family, who were now living in Missouri and could therefore emancipate him. In 1858, Dred Scott died of tuberculosis, only nine months after earning his freedom.
Learn more: Wikipedia
Albert Schweitzer
Name: Albert Schweitzer
Dates: 1875-1965
Biography:
Dr. Albert Schweitzer was an Alsatian theologian, physician, philosopher, and musician. Early in his life, Schweitzer gained a reputation as a noted theologian with the book The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Schweitzer lived a life that expressed his philosophy, which he summarized as “Reverence for Life.” In addition to opposing war and violence in all forms, Schweitzer was a strict vegetarian.
Having already earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1899, Schweitzer decided in 1905 to travel to Africa as a medical missionary. By 1913, he had earned his medical doctorate. In that year, he and his wife Helene founded a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, where Schweitzer spent most of the rest of his life. As a renowned organist, Schweitzer earned money from performances (along with the proceeds from his books) to fund the hospital. A strong opponent of colonialism, Schweitzer frequently criticized the “crimes” and “oppression” of Europeans in Africa.
After World War II, he joined Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell in opposing nuclear weapons and testing. In recognition for his lifelong commitment to his peaceful philosophy, he was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
Learn more: Wikipedia
Minifig assassins
Alex Eylar created a concept of minifig assassins, each with a distinct psychotic nature and style of operation. Check out his MOCpages gallery for vignette shots and profiles of these plastic killers. Who’d you hire? I prefer the White Rabbit; he’s got style.
