Tag Archives: Movies

Films and the cinema provide a lot of great inspiration for LEGO builders all over the world. You’ll find LEGO models inspired by everything from Mad Max to Toy Story here.

76006: Iron Man 3: Extremis Sea Port Battle [Review]

76007 Iron Man: Extremis Sea Port Battle

Get to de choppa 76006 Extremis Sea Port Battle is the last of the Iron Man 3 sets I’ll be reviewing. Be sure to also read my reviews of the Malibu Mansion Attack and the Ultimate Showdown sets, if you’ve missed them. The Extremis Sea Port Battle consists of an Extremis speedboat driven by badman Aldrich Killian, and Iron Man and War Machine to fight him. This set is what you’d expect from an MSRP $19.99 USD set: one large vehicle, and three minifigures, for a total of 195 pieces. The box contains two numbered bags, the instructions, a sticker sheet, and the same LEGO-style comic as the other two Iron Man 3 sets. The first bag builds the minifigs, and the bottom half of the boat, and the second finishes the boat and adds the buoy.

The boat is fairly large at almost 27 studs long, and looks pretty snazzy with its dark green and yellow color-scheme. It’s one of the cooler LEGO speedboats I’ve seen in a while, and I really appreciated the little touches the designer added like the swept-back windshield. I do always find it odd when a LEGO model calls for numerous plates where a single larger one would do. In this case, the bottom deck of the boat is held together with a row of four tan 1×10 plates. Perhaps that’s to make it look Get to de choppa more like planking, or perhaps a 4×10 plate would have put the set over-budget. Either way, there are no complaints from me; I’d rather have the smaller plates. There are two flick-fire missiles in the aft compartment of the boat. Unlike most flick-fire missiles which I find cumbersome to flick with your finger and ineffective for range, these fire via a small lever mechanism which works remarkably well, and blends in well with the design of the boat. The foredeck also pops off, allowing for a minifig to hide in there. Really, though, a sleek speedboat is its own play-feature in my book, and you don’t need too many gizmos added to it to make it fun. The bottom of the boat is, of course, covered in boat-tiles to make carpet-sailing an easy adventure. Next up is the buoy, which explodes when you press one side. It’s built sort of like a minifig-flinger, but I’m not certain it’s meant to be used like that. Spare parts were slightly nicer than usual, with an extra light-grey lightsabre handle, and some other typical pieces.

Get to de choppa The Iron Man minifig here is in the same Mark 42 Armor that’s in the Malibu Mansion Attack set. War Machine is definitely the coolest of the minifigs in this lot, especially since we haven’t yet had a version of him, despite his role in Iron Man 2. Naturally, the helmet is the same as Iron Man’s, just with a different color scheme, and the shoulder cannon looks nice, even if a little simple. Despite being covered by the neck-bracket for the shoulder cannon most of the time, War Machine does have a detailed printing on the back of the torso. The two-tone silver printing on this minifig really looks gorgeous. Aldrich Killian is sporting a simple tan suit with front and rear prints, and the two-sided glow-in-the-dark head is almost, but not quite, identical to that of the Extremis Soldier in the Malibu Mansion Attack set.

Get to de choppaAll in all, this is a solid set. There’s nothing outstanding here, except for the exclusive War Machine minifig, but the speedboat is a satisfying build and looks good when it’s done. For those not wild about keeping the set built, here’s a look at the inventory pages. I’d say the set is a pretty fair source of pieces, with lots of easily useable pieces, and an abundance of slopes of all sizes.

Finally, since some of you seemed particularly interested in what’s happening with Iron Man on the box art of the Malibu Mansion Attack set, I’ve scanned part of the comic that’s included in all three sets, which expounds on that scene a little more. Here there be spoilers.

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That is one dazzling smile you’ve got there

Perhaps there is a hint of minty-freshness? Regardless of your opinion of Shrek (or the second one…or the third one…did they make a fourth?) the sculpting on this lady dragon by gtahelper is simply lovely. The coloring’s fabulous. I want to see a scaled Donkey to go with!

The builder included a helping of adorable little donkey-dragon babies, and they’re pretty adorable,too. Check em out!

via The Living Brick

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76007: Iron Man 3 Malibu Mansion Attack [Review]

76007 Malibu Mansion Attack

76007 Malibu Mansion Attack is the largest of the current round of sets for the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie, which releases May 3rd. Since this set is based on a movie that’s not out yet, this review may contain mild spoilers for the film. The set consists of a piece of Tony Stark’s seaside palace, and the Mandarin’s attack helicopter. With only 364 pieces and a US price of $39.99, I suspect we’ll see a larger set down the road.

Get to de choppaThe box art matches the other Marvel Super Heroes sets we’ve already seen, including last year’s Avengers sets, this time simply using the Iron Man 3 logo. Inside are 3 numbered bags, a large and a small instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and an Iron Man 3 mini-comic in LEGO style. The first numbered baggie and small instruction book builds the Mandarin’s helicopter, as well as Mandarin and his accomplice. The helicopter is a pretty fantastic build, and I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the LEGO helicopters of similar size I’ve built. For several years now, LEGO has been getting increasingly more bold with their use of studs-out building, which is a terrific thing. This helicopter is a great example, being pretty much Snot for snotsringed-about with slopes pointing out. Of course, no set is complete without flick-fire missiles, and this heli should be able to take on even Iron Man, since it’s equipped with four. I did find it odd that both of the black lightsabre handles in the rotors point the same fixed direction, so that when they’re spun, one is always pointed “backwards.” Both minifigs here are pretty cool. The Mandarin has dark green robes with olive pants. Oddly, he has a double-sided face with two mouth expressions, but neither are visible underneath the bushy black beard. The accomplice has a glow in the dark head, and one side has blood vessels prominently outlined. I’m not sure exactly what’s that’s supposed to represent, but I have no doubt it will be clear once I’ve seen the movie.

Earthquake!Bag two isn’t terribly interesting on its own. It builds a piece of the mansion, as well as Tony Stark, Iron Man, Pepper Potts, and that robot. Now, if you’re wondering why there’s both a Tony Stark and an Iron Man, since they’re ostensibly one and the same, well, I think there are two answers. First, Tony’s mansion needs to include a non-suited-up Stark, but you also can’t have an Iron Man set without Iron Man. And secondly, according to the box art and the comic, that’s not Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit, that’s Pepper Potts. She’s apparently piloting the suit in that scene from the trailer where Mandarin blows Stark’s place sky-high. The suit also includes a plain-white head for use in it’s “off” mode, so you can have all your other Time to suit up minifigs complete to play with too. Also, it’s worth noting that this is a different Iron Man minifig than has been in any of the previous sets. This is presumably the upgraded armor, with a lot more gold, including pearly gold hands.

Bag three of course merely finishes out the mansion. The mansion is really quite nice. The designers have done a great job of capturing the look of the mansion without needing to get terribly large. The mansion includes a Barbie's Malibu Mansionlittle kitchen area, and then some techy-goodness for Tony Stark to dabble with. There’s a little flinger bit, but I can’t figure out exactly what it’s suppose to do. I guess it’s just part of the mansion falling to pieces as Mandarin blows holes in it. Then there’s a window that pops out, which works quite nicely. And finally there’s a turn-table with cool displays on it for Stark to stand on and pretend he’s Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Sadly, all the displays are stickers, which I didn’t apply. In fact, the only printed pieces in the entire set are minifigs. I didn’t notice any new parts, and the only piece that was new to me was the 6×6 round plate, though Bricklink shows that’s been in a few other sets already. I’ve included a shot of the inventory pages, for those who are curious.

Overall, I think this is a very nice set. The Whole ThingThe part selection is a good mix between larger structural elements and small bits, and the five minifigs are a big draw. The helicopter is cool, and the mansion looks nice, and incorporates a lot of playability. The one thing I’d have liked is perhaps a little more of a roof to the mansion, or maybe a very small piece of cliff underneath it, to give the building more context. This is a good set for the price.

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Out of the Frying Pan

Here’s a great Hobbit diorama for you. This scene by Legopard depicts the tricky situation Thorin’s company find themselves in, as they’re backed to the edge of a precipice before being rescued by eagles, which is also the subject of the official set Attack of the Wargs. Legopard’s eagle is a true standout here, with some really terrific sculpting, and the whole diorama conveys the film’s scene excellently.

Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

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The epic Battle of Thermopylae from 300

Simon Pickard finished his massive scene of the Battle of Thermopylae that spans over 5 feet and features over 500 minifigures. Read more about this incredible 2-year long project on Flickr, and you can browse the work in progress shots on Flickr as well.

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Ushiabu from Nausicaä

I’m not one-hundred percent certain what this is, but given the builder’s (62778grenouille) history of creating other gorgeous models from Miyazaki’s films, I’m guessing this is the giant horsefly, or ushiabu, from Miyazaki’s 1984 masterpiece, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In any case, it’s a fantastic and slightly terrifying creature, with some really interesting building techniques.

ushiabu2

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Filthy Hobbitses!

I have a feeling that we are going to see a large influx of builds inspired by The Hobbit, and Iain Heath certainly starts us out with a bang!

Finders Keepers!

Please check out the full set for more views.

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Brave Merida

Mariann Asanuma (Model Gal) creates a wonderful miniland figure of the heroine Merida from Pixar Animation Studios’ Brave

Brave Mereda

The repetitive parts use to create Merida’s iconic hair is rather ingenious. Not to mention, the bow design as well.

Brave Mereda

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Welcome to Fhloston Paradise

Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin) creates my favourite scene from one of the most fantastic movies of all time…The Fifth Element! Matt says that he has wanted to build this for going on 2 years now. I am very happy that he got around to it!

Welcome to Fhloston Paradise

A creation this size can not adequately be captured in one photograph, so please make sure you click through the full photo set to see all the goodies.

For those of you that are lucky enough to be in the Chicago area, you can see this in person at the Cantigny 2012 Christmas Lego Train Show this Saturday and Sunday (December 8th & 9th).

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Please don’t eat the Truckster

This one’s a year old, but we missed it last year and Iain just blogged it over on The Living Brick, so I say it’s fair game. Joe Klang (-derjoe-) built the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Griswolds

I’d seen all the other National Lampoon vacation movies, but somehow managed to avoid the first one until recently. This is a beautifully rendered LEGO version of a very ugly car, but for those who’ve seen the movie, that black bundle on the roof is a wonderful touch…

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More Cars Parts!

I came on to write this post and had to laugh when I saw what Chris had just posted…it would seem that SPARKART! had a similar stroke of creative genius as Gilcelio :D

The Queen Would Not Approve

The Caped Cars-ader

S-Cars-lett Speedster

Captain Ameri-Cars

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Then & now: Kaitimar updates his Blade Runner Spinner

We first featured this sleek Spinner from Blade Runner by Gorazd Vahen (Kaitimar) more than five years ago. In the intervening years, Gorazd has tweaked his model and added some excellent virtual decals.

Spinner-final version

The most notable improvements are the police lights, as well as a sleeker and smoother rear behind the cab. It’s always interesting to see how builders continually improve their work, and for those who hadn’t seen it before, I hope you like Gorazd’s Spinner as much as I do.

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