Names and Ranks: S/Sgt. Bob Berg, Engineer; Sgt. James McCooey, Gunner; Capt. Tom Coomer, Pilot; Lt. Tim Stout, Navigator/Bombardier; and Lt. Eddy Coursier, Co-Pilot.
Interests: Defending freedom and getting back on the ground.
History: Served together in Italy with the US Army Air Forces in 1944-45. Multiple citations. Disappeared somewhere over Switzerland on their 35th mission. Reappeared over Wangerberg, Liechtenstein exactly 60 years later.
Names: Reginald Fortescue, Miles Cavendish-Dehavilland, Nigel Pugthorne, and Clive Smith-Smythe-Smith
Occupations: Member of Parliament, Sargeant Major, Viscount, and president of a national bank.
Interests: Uncharted Asia (which they pronounce Ayyyzeea), darkest Africa (with a rolled R), and the wild tepuis of Venezuela. Oh, and cashews, lots and lots of cashews. They have them in large bowls at the club-house in Nigel’s backyard. Mmmm…cashews….
With minifigs based on Greek and Norse deities out of the way, I hopped across the Atlantic and started working on Aztec gods and goddesses:
Left to right: Tlaloc, Quetzalcoatl, Xipe-Totec, Mayahuel, Mictlantecuhtli, and Huitzilopochtli
Check out the full gallery in my Mythological Minifigs photoset on Flickr.
As a professed purist (though I’m sometimes tempted to make just one little tweak), I’m always excited when The LEGO Company announces a new batch of minifigs. I’ve withheld judgement on the new Batman line, but more detailed images are beginning to trickle out of the minifigs and the sets. Brickshelf user KimT seems to be the primary source for these pictures lately.
Posted a while ago, here’s a scan from the magazine Toyfare:
(Check out rendered versions of some of these figs as well.)
I’m not nearly as impressed with Batman himself as I am with some of the other minifigs. Perhaps I’ve begun to think of minifigs from a reusability perspective. At any rate, I think Alfred and Penguin’s tuxedo and the Joker’s purple suit are fantastic, and Croc is certainly interesting. Politically speaking, I’m a bleeding-heart liberal pacifist, so I’m conflicted about the new weapons (Tommy gun and modern-looking pistol). That said, they are kind of cool…
Finally, every LEGO theme needs its fan-site, and the Batman theme is no different. I’ve added BatBrick.com to the list of community sites in the navigation area on the right.
I have no idea what Hub City is, but Octopunk has created a fascinating cast of characters to populate the metropolis. Here are a few of my favorites:
With my Final Fantasy VII characters done, the next logical step was to move on to Final Fantasy VIII. (Classic-Castle and FBTB user boses’ post of his gunblade also spurred me on.) Without further ado, here’s my Squall Leonhart minifig with brick-built gunblade:
My gunblade is by no means perfect, but I like its smallness. The perfect gunblade would attach the sabre blade directly to the end of the pistol, but that would require cutting and glue.
My favorite anime director by far is Hayao Miyazaki. Although my favorite movie is Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (「風の谷のナウシカ」), I’ve always enjoyed Laputa: Castle in the Sky (「天空の城ラピュタ」). With my increasing collection of US-released Miyazaki DVDs, I thought I’d try my hand at some minifigs.
From left to right, Muska, Uncle Pom, Pazu, Sheeta, and a couple of air pirates.
Watch this blog for more Miyazaki minifigs soon!
Or so it would seem, based on the recent spate of overweight minifigs (see “Fat Minifig by Mister Zumbi“).
Now Nelson Yrizarry has posted “Couch Potato,” captioned “Disaster strikes as Fatboy drops the TV remote:”
Last summer I made several characters from Final Fantasy VII — Barrett, Cid, Sephiroth, Vincent, and of course Cloud. (Well, actually I made the version of Cloud that appears in Kingdom Hearts. I just liked the purple cape and demon wing.)
But where were the ladies — Aeris (sometimes spelled Aerith), Tifa, and everyone’s least-favorite perky ninja, Yuffie? So I set about trying to make the non-male characters. Thank goodness my wife has one of the only two Paradisa set that includes pink legs!
From left to right: Cid (with awesome new goggles!), Vincent, Yuffie, Cloud (proper FF7 version), Aeris, Barrett, Tifa, and Sephiroth.
Check out the Brickshelf gallery for full-size pictures of each character.
I debated whether to post my latest minifigure over on my minifig-themed blog, but it does require a bit of explanation, so I’ll post it here instead.
Kappa are mythical water imps from Japan. Kappa inhabit lakes, ponds, streams, and other bodies of water. If you do a little research, you’ll find that kappa are associated with some pretty nasty legends. For example, they drag people into the water and eat them.
Their favorite food is cucumbers, which is apparently why cucumber rolls are called “kappa maki.” Long ago, parents would sometimes carve their child’s name into a cucumber and toss the vegetable into water in an attempt to prevent kappa from stealing the child. Generally, though, kappa are considered mischievous creatures today. Here’s a more contemporary, “cutified” kappa:
I’ve updated my Norse gods and goddesses, based largely on feedback I received from Classic-Castler The Hordesman and many others. Thanks guys!
Specifically, Odin is now darker (black hat instead of blue and dark blue legs instead of regular blue), Thor is now a red-head, and Freyr the Peaceful (or something like that) no longer has a sword.
And the whole set on Flickr.
