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?
Aliens remains one of my favorite sci-fi movies, in large part because of the awesome (though mostly futile) hardware the Colonial Marines throw at the aliens. Havoc‘s version of the M577 APC is chock full of awesome:
This bad boy even has a full interior:
(Via Whippersnappers in the Void.)
The Aliens movies have spawned quite a few posts here on The Brothers Brick over the years:
LEGO fans all over the ‘net love the new Pixar movie Wall-E, and they show their affection for the film with wonderful LEGO creations too numerous to post individually.
First up, Mark Sandlin adds crushing action to his Wall-E:
Aaron Lemay goes super-small with his super-cute Wall-E built from only 11 pieces:
Jordan Schwartz breaks from the mold to build frustrated cleaning robot M-O (“FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!”), along with his own Wall-E:
While other builders go fairly large or very small, the Wall-E that legomocs built works rather well at a mid-sized scale:
Finally, reader Ryan captures Wall-E’s forlorn expression:
Previous LEGO Wall-E love on The Brothers Brick:
I had the pleasure of meeting Pixar animator and LEGO fan Angus MacLane at BrickFest 2007. When I saw the first trailer for Wall•E (in theaters Friday, June 27), I knew we should try to do something special. Our exclusive interview with Angus and first look at his LEGO Wall•E follows.
The Brothers Brick: How long did it take to build your Wall•E?
Angus MacLane: About seven hours over a span of three years. I started building the LEGO version of Wall•E around the same time he was being built in the computer in late summer of 2005. I had been waiting for some treads to be released, and with 7258 (the “Wookie Attack” set) I got just enough tread links for two treads.
The color scheme of Wall•E wasn’t settled so I stared building with all light grey. I wasn’t totally happy with the results. The treads were too small and pretty flimsy. I put him on the shelf and went back to work.
Then the snowmobile and bulldozer came out in 2007 and I had my tread solution. So I rebuilt him at the beginning of this year with the proper colors as we were finishing animation production. I’m proud of the overall proportions, but the eyes are still a bit too off for me.
TBB: Do you think that working on the movie gave you any special insights into the design of the LEGO Wall•E?
Angus: Having stared at this robot for 3+ years, I was extremely familiar with the proportions and functionality of Wall•E. It helped to know his design, but that made it hard to make the usual compromises when converting items to LEGO form.
TBB: How does your “day job” as an animator influence your LEGO hobby?
Angus: Mostly I build with LEGO as a way to unwind from a day spent in front of the computer. The tactile nature of LEGO can be much more satisfying than working in the often intangible realm of the computer. Also, a large part of an animator’s job is to clearly communicate an idea through the pose of a character. I think this is similar to building with LEGO where part of the goal is to sculpt clear shapes that communicate the purpose of the creation.
TBB: Has your LEGO hobby helped your “real” job in any way?
Angus: LEGO gets you used to thinking and designing in three dimensions. It has really helped my ability to visualize spatial relations. This is especially useful when working with artists and technical directors to take 2D designs and successfully turn them into 3D character models.
Also, when building with LEGO you often have to simplify or caricature the intended form. This is similar to caricaturing motion and simplifying acting ideas, which is an important part of the animation process.
TBB: Do you share your LEGO creations with your coworkers?
Angus: I have a small area in my office where I have my MOCs [My Own Creations] on display. Sometimes I get comments form coworkers. The question I always get is- Is that a set? Why don’t they make that? It’s very flattering to hear, but I know that they probably aren’t familiar with the latest and greatest from Brickshelf, so they have little to compare it too.
TBB: Do you check Brickshelf and Flickr for LEGO creations?
Angus: Sometimes. I mostly check out pictures that have been linked form blogs such as Brothers Brick, Klocki, etc. Favorite builders include: Mladen Pejic, Izzo, Gla Gla, Arvo Brothers, Count Blockula, Chris Giddens, LEGOhaulic, and Soren Roberts.
TBB: What’s your favorite LEGO creation inspired by Wall•E?
Angus: I was pretty blown away by Joe Meno’s Wall•E. I struggled with Wall•E’s eyes for a while, and Meno’s solution is really great. I was also impressed that he went for the arm stripes. Plus it’s motorized. Pretty amazing creation of a character from a movie that hasn’t been released.
TBB: What are your thoughts on the various LEGO games?
Angus: I’ve only played the Classic Star Wars game. The play control is pretty good and it’s fun to play. The animation is fine, but I wish that there was more truth to materials in the animation. Something about seeing the knees on minifigs kind of freaks me out.
If the only joints that moved on the characters were the wrists, heads, and legs, the animation would be a lot more charming. I realize this would limit the movement, but it would feel more like LEGO and less like clay. It would also be about 78% funnier. Which is a big win in my book.
TBB: Have you built anything from the other Pixar films that you’ve worked on?
Angus: I took a pass at the Omnidroid from The Incredibles. At minfig scale it’s a bit too chunky for my taste, but I haven’t gotten around to rebuilding it properly. I built the Luxo lamp which is a bit more on model. I also built a Monsters, Inc. door station that is to scale with the action figures.
TBB: Which Pixar film (feature length or short) is your favorite?
Angus: That’s pretty hard to for me to decide. Toy Story is the only feature that I got to see as an audience member, rather than as a crew member.
Probably The Incredibles is my favorite feature and Luxo Jr is my favorite short.
TBB: Okay, we have to ask this. :-) Why aren’t any of the main characters in Toy Story or Toy Story 2 built from LEGO?
Everybody has toys from their childhood that are very special and meaningful to them. For me personally that would be Classic Space LEGO, Fisher-Price Adventure People, Original Star Wars 4″ line and the first 3 years of the small GI Joe line. You’ll notice that the toys of the Toy Story world are loosely based on or inspired by toys that are pre-LEGO. So I don’t actually know the answer to your question, but I’m guessing it’s because the original character designers did not happen to grow up with LEGO as a major influence. As to why there hasn’t been many Buzz Lightyear LEGO MOCs that would be due to the relatively new arrival of lime green and the shortage of purple.
A huge thanks to Angus MacLane and Pixar for this interview. Be sure to check out all of the rest of Angus’s Wall•E photos on Flickr.
Boing Boing Gadgets contributor Joel Johnson recently visited futurist Syd Mead‘s house. Mead is of course renowned for the designs he’s contributed to many of our favorite movies, including the Spinner from Blade Runner.
Joel reports that LEGO presented a special LEGO Technic Spinner to Mead when the legendary designer visited the company. The Technic Spinner now occupies a place of prominence in Mead’s house:
Joel — who got to swoosh this beauty around — has a couple more pictures on BB Gadgets. I wonder if LEGO has built many other one-of-a-kind creations for geeky luminaries…
LEGO Spinners featured previously on The Brothers Brick:
YouTuber Mar Delgado has posted an intriguing trailer for a LEGO CGI movie he’s working on, inspired by the game God of War:
Very cool.
(And no, this isn’t an “official” trailer. Sadly, there will be no LEGO God of War after LEGO Batman. Nor Grand Theft LEGO.)
Joe Meno, editor of BrickJournal magazine, built the first well-done model of Pixar’s adorable little robot Wall-E. The creation features moving parts including the neck and arms and rolling treads and took three months to plan.
Steven Locke (legoavon) presents a work-in-progress Dalek and Davros which are already by far the best I’ve seen at their size (Steven has also built bigger ones which are possibly better). His part use is breathtaking. I invite every sci-fi lover to browse Steve’s folders as he is an incredibly talented builder.
Inspired and influenced by Steven Marshall’s Johnny 5 robot from the movie Short Circuit, Brickshelf user rack911 has constructed an equally amazing model of Johnny 5. Check out the gallery for some cool mechanical detail pictures.
Jordan Schwartz (Sir Nadroj) built what he thinks is one of the most disgusting scenes in all the Indiana Jones movies that has the ground crawling in giant ants. Although I haven’t seen the movie yet, Jordan’s scene looks very promising.
A new creation by Mike Psiaki (Brickshelf) is nice to see, but when that new creation is a Savoia S-21 seaplane inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso, well, it’s that much more awesome.
Previously on The Brothers Brick:
