Tag Archives: Superheroes

Long before LEGO released Marvel and DC Universe Superheroes sets, LEGO fans were building their own Batmobiles and Batcaves, custom Avengers and X-men. Whether you’re looking for news about the official sets or want to check out some really great custom LEGO models inspired by the world of comic books, you’ve come to the right place.

New BrickForge Shock Trooper armor & printed accessories [Review]

As readers will have noticed in our LEGO News feed last week, custom minifig accessory vendor BrickForge has just released a new batch of items, including a new “Shock Trooper” armor. We ordered a couple batches, and I managed to find enough sunshine in the Seattle “summer” to take a few pictures.

The armor comes in a sort of steel color that’s rather lovely, along with black that has a similar metallic sheen. Neither color really matches typical colors available for minifig legs and torsos, but they combine reasonably well with neutral colors like bley and black. BrickForge also offers two printed variants, with an eagle on the gray and a flaming skull on the black. I’ll be interested to see how other customizers use these helmets and armor, but I focused on their inevitable use as ODSTs from Halo. Armor for a squad of six will run you a bit over $20.

One of the few areas in which BrickForge and BrickArms overlap is in items inspired (a safe assumption, I think) by the Halo universe, so minifig customizers have a bit more choice in this area. I like to mix and match custom parts from everybody, and I have to admit that I personally prefer the BrickArms versions of these sci-fi weapons (including the previously reviewed BrickArms minigun). I think the combination of the BrickForge armor and BrickArms weapons is undeniably awesome — “better together,” as I always say.

I cracked myself up by putting one of the troopers on a BrickForge scooter, which my wife dubbed the UNSC “Shrew”. I was amused enough that I would like to share this little masterpiece with the world. You’re welcome.

As fun as a couple squads of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers might be, I had the most fun putting together the Avengers — inspired by the blue helmet with an A and the big American shield that begged themselves to be equipped on a classic Captain America. Wolverine (with BrickForge “Savage Mask”) and Thor (BrickForge hammer) quickly followed, supplemented by a HAZEL-helmeted Iron Man, official Spider-Man, and my old Hulk.

The ODSTs and Avengers were distracting enough that I didn’t get a chance to do much with the test tubes, bottles, martini glasses, and other new glassware BrickForge has just released. Briefly, they complement official LEGO items nicely, and I’m highly entertained by the idea of minifigs squaring off against each other in tiny bar fights with broken bottles.

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Conan O’Brian shows off Nathan Sawaya sculpture

It’s always nice to see our little hobby get some broader exposure, so it was great to see Nathan Sawaya‘s sculpture of Conan O’Brian‘s superhero alter ego “The Flaming C” on the show the other night, but Andy Richter deserved his own LEGO homage, too. Hilarity ensues.

Comic-Con 2011 Wrap Up: Fine Weather, Comic LEGO and 125K Nerds

Comic-Con was crowded. The biggest pop culture celebration in the world happened in San Diego from July 20 to 24. Over 125,000 crashed my Downtown where I work and eat. Infernal interlopers. Seriously, it was great hectic fun as always. It’s nice to live in the city where there’s an annual shopping, people watching and pop culture extravaganza of epic proportions.

I wasn’t lucky enough to get 4 day passes with preview night or scoop everyone on the biggest LEGO related news from Comic-Con, but others in the LEGO and Comics fan worlds were on it, and we were able to pass it on to you last week: LEGO negotiated DC and Marvel Comics licenses. DC sets are scheduled for set releases in January 2012 and Marvel in summer of 2012.

I went back on Sunday and got some slightly better pictures of prototype minifigures of Wonder Woman (with very invisible plane), Super Man, Hulk, Batman, Cat Woman, Poison Ivy, Thor, Iron Man and Wolverine.

There was also a display with four Hero Factory tie in figures: Green Lantern, Batman (no, I don’t know what’s attached to his back), Iron Man and The Hulk.

Both the minifigs and Hero Factory characters are official, but keep in mind they’re prototypes so they’re likely to be a bit rough and have changes before final release.

Unfortunately, the only LEGO panel this year was a Star Wars panel on Friday morning, which I missed. D’oh!

The other great highlight is running into all kinds of people. People in costumes, friends and even friends in costume. The only LEGO related costume I saw this year was a sexy red number sported by Michael “Bruno” Todd, an excellent human being, cat rescuer and force of nature. He dressed up just like an extremely rare vintage LEGO promotional figure that he somehow managed to snag late last year. Really, he looks just like the doll.

I was also amused by a woman dressed as Poison Ivy standing right next minfig Poison Ivy. My wife also dragged me over the LEGO free build area to see a strong contender for my personal Cutest Hobbit Child Dressed as Yoda Prize. Very prestigious.

Another great highlight of at Comic-Con is all the inspiration for LEGO building. Several weeks ago I searched all over the internet to find good concept art for the Numereji 2421 display at BrickCon and found some good stuff, but nobody quite had what I was looking for. It was a pleasant surprise to run across Robh Ruppel’s book, Aspect Ratio, and the great concept art sketches on his website. Not too militarized, not too idealized. Hit my personal sweet spot.

That’s it. Great weekend of geeky frolicking.

LEGO gets Marvel Comics superhero license [News]

With the DC Comics license fresh off the press, reports have also surfaced that LEGO has also obtained a Marvel license. Some low quality pics appear here.

EDIT: Mariann Asanuma (Model Gal) has much better pics in her photostream including some strange Hero Factory/Superhero hybrids.

From StitchKingdom.com:

The LEGO SUPER HEROES Marvel collection will spotlight three Marvel franchises – Marvel’s The Avengers movie, and X-Men and Spider-Man classic characters. The LEGO Marvel’s The Avengers movie line brings such ever popular Marvel characters as Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow to LEGO minifigure form. The LEGO X-Men collection includes minifigure comic versions of Wolverine, Magneto, Nick Fury and Deadpool, while the LEGO Spider-Man sets offer minifigure comic versions of Spider-Man, and Doctor Octopus. The first buildable characters in the LEGO SUPER HEROES collection are highlighted by Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man. Select figures will be unveiled in the LEGO booth (#2829) during Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center July 21-24.

“Our partnership with Marvel helps us continue to deliver some of the best and most constructible Super Hero stories of all time,” said Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing and entertainment for The LEGO Group. “We’re thrilled to partner with Marvel to create creative, constructive play sets for builders, fans and collectors alike.”

Lego gets DC Comics superhero license [News]

Variety is now reporting that Lego has announced a broad license for DC Comics. What’s more, it appears that they’re giving away some promotional Batman and Green Lantern figures at San Diego Comic Con this weekend.

Warner Bros. has expanded its relationship with Lego, granting the toymaker access to DC Entertainment’s complete library of comicbook characters and stories to launch DC Universe “Super Heroes” as figures and playsets.

The multi-year licensing deal, made through Warner Bros. Consumer Products, will start rolling out the new line in January, starting with 13 characters, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and villains the Joker, Bane, Harley Quinn and Lex Luthor.

The first toys will be shown off at the Lego booth at Comic-Con Intl. in San Diego, where 3,000 exclusive Batman and Green Lantern minifigures will be distributed to launch a promo that runs August-December, enabling fans to create and submit videos, photos or illustrations of the characters to win trips to Legoland and Warner Bros. Studios.

WB and Lego had already been producing toys and videogames around the Batman franchise, and will launch a new set of playthings around next summer’s “The Dark Knight Rises” through the Lego Batman collection. The “Lego Batman: The Videogame,” published by WB Bros. Interactive Entertainment, has sold more than 12 million units since 2008.”This partnership gives builders a chance to recreate the characters, vehicles and worlds of some of the most iconic super heroes, so they can relive the action and even customize it, a proven and winning formula in Lego construction,” said Jill Wilfert, VP, licensing and entertainment for the Lego Group.

Via FBTB.

LEGO Batcave

After building a very nice Tim Burton era Batmobile, Alex Schranz (“Orion Pax”) has gone the whole hog (should that be best bat?) and built it a lovely batcave to live in. He has combined excellent lighting, great use of vertical space, 9000 bricks and all his grey slopes to make a truly impressive location.

I really like that this has the dark comic book feel of Burton’s work rather than the more realistic feel of Nolan’s vision.

The mood lighting does make the details hard to see so check out his set for more pictures.

I believe this snippet of the film sums up the model perfectly. Where indeed? Enjoy!

55cm LEGO Ironman

I know nought about Iron Man but Alex Schranz (“Orion Pax”) was obviously a fan of the comic and has dedicated 55cm worth of ABS to recreating this armoured superhero. His dedication to recreating the ‘muscles’ on the figure really lend it a drawn air. And as an added bonus the light in the chest actually works. Superb building.

The keen-eyed will notice a slight difference between the most recent four shots and the rest.

Custom DC Comics superheroes

Julian Fong (levork) has made a set of nine DC Comics superheroes for Creations for Charity. Each features custom-designed waterslide decals and an acrylic finish. They’re one-of-a-kind minifigs whose quality is among the best I’ve seen. You can check out more of Julian’s works on Flickr.

UPDATE: They’re all sold out!

Holy Bricks, Batman!

Fredoichi recently unveiled this sleek bust of the Caped Crusader. I really like the smooth, finished look of this build. Now it just needs a voice chip saying, “I’m Batman”.

I can’t believe that I’m blogging this.

I think I should hate Cade Roster for building this, but I can’t. His rendition of the “Artist Formerly Known As…” is really good. Like a good train wreck, I can’t stop looking at it, so I’m inflicting it on our loyal readers. Misery loves company and all of that. By the way, he says that it isn’t actually finished but he’s not working on it anymore. Be thankful. I’d be compelled to blog it again if he did….

Kneel before Zod!

Chris Doyle has built an incredible rendition of the phantom zone, from the Superman movies. This is truly creepy.

Where does he get all those wonderful toys?

Many years ago Mike Psiaki came onto the online LEGO scene and was impressed by El Caracho‘s Batmobile. Now he’s built his own for a new generation of builders to be impressed by.