On one end of the belief spectrum, we have my Aztec, Norse, and Greek minifigs. On the other end, we have a bunch of communists.
First up, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin:
Next, Leon Trotsky, Maxim Gorky, and Joseph Stalin:
Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Kim Jong Il:
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
Finally, Ernesto “Che” Guevarra:
For those of you just joining us (welcome, BoingBoingers!), my other blog, Pan-Pacific Bricks, features cool LEGO creations from the many LEGO builders in Japan, along with a few of my own Japanese-themed creations. (I was born and raised in Japan.)
NOTE (2/25/06): Although I’m in the process of migrating my images to Flickr, there are still a fair amount of images hosted on a site called Brickshelf, which appears to be unstable at the moment. Check back later if you don’t see pictures in this post. (This is definitely going to make me switch to Flickr.)
My most recent set of creations is a series of minifigs based on historical and legendary people from Japan. Click the thumbnails to read more on Pan-Pacific Bricks:
Name: Kukai (空海) / Kobo Daishi (弘法大師 こうぼうだいし)
Dates: 774-835
Biography: Known after his death as Kobo Daishi, Kukai was the founder of Shingon-shu, one of the major sects of Japanese Buddhism. In 804, Kukai traveled to China, where he studied under Hui-kuo. Kukai returned to Japan in 806, bearing religious texts from various faiths. He founded a monastery at Mt. Koya outside Kyoto, where he was buried upon his death, and which continues to be the headquarters for Shingon Buddhism to this day.
Further reading:
Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語), Shingon Buddhist Int’l, Koyasan.org.
Name: Hattori Hanzou (服部半蔵 はっとりはんぞう)
Dates: 1541-1596
Biography: Member of the famous Iga Ninja clan, little is known about this mysterious man.
Further reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語), Real Ultimate Power, Ninja Village
I’ve enjoyed Jamie Neufeld’s minifig creations for some time, and I’m pleased to see that he’s still creating new characters:
Be sure to check out his other steampunk LEGO creations, including a steam-powered boat and giant wheel:
Joe discovers that there are grave consequences for foreigners who fail to remove their shoes upon entering a Japanese home.
(The image is a link to the gallery, when public. “Gaijin” means “foreigner” in Japanese.)
Just when you think LEGO builders have exhausted new minifig-building techniques, Uda-san gives us Cinderella with a glass slipper on her right foot and a bare left foot:
Name: Timmy Kennedy Classified.
Occupation: Special Agent.
Interests: Fragging exobiotic lifeforms, escorting non-Terran diplomats, monitoring the activities of super-intelligent molds and fungi, protecting the earth from Gthulinian invasion, providing security for Moonbase 4. Classified.
Name: Minamoto no Yorimitsu (源頼光 みなもとのよりみつ)
Dates: 944-1021
Biography: Yorimitsu was a legendary warrior from the Heian period of Japanese history. Although famous for many real-life exploits, he appears in several legends, including one in which he defeats the ogre (oni) Shuten Doji, disguised as an ascetic Buddhist monk, or yamabushi.
Further reading: Wikipedia (English), Wikipedia (日本語).
Name: Timmy Kennedy
Occcupation: Third-grader.
Interests: Candy and cowboys and ninjas and Legos and Star Wars and pizza pockets and Bionicle and Coca-Cola and Grand Theft Auto and peanut butter and Yu-Gi-Oh and…
Once you let it slip that you build stuff with “Legos,” the floodgates open for “Oh, oh, can you make a minifig of me?” So I finally broke down and did so. The resulting minifigs were all pretty boring, so I made alternate versions that give each person a little more personality.
First up, Joe, who’s always annoyed about something, and likes Audis:
Next, Melissa, who’s a contractor and is therefore my henchman (as opposed to a minion; thus the Oddjob outfit):
Pete, whose Greek heritage is a point of pride (of course, Pete’s family comes from a mountain village, not an island — something much harder to represent in a LEGO minifig):
Paul has a podcast (RSS), in which he plays really cool music and interacts with a mechanical entity named Weasel_bot:
(Paul gets a full-size picture only because both of his figs appear in the same pic; everybody else is like Superman and Clark Kent — they can’t both be in the same picture at the same time.)
Finally, just when you thought you couldn’t look at any more minifigs of my coworkers, BAM!!! NINJAS! Here’s Sky as himself, and as a totally awesome ninja:
