This Dutch farm by Barbara Werth (McBricker) portrays the beautiful pastoral scene of the Netherlands, complete with the iconic Dutch cows and windmill. Don’t forget to check out the detail pictures, or you might miss cool features like this water spigot.
Iain Grant has posted a video build of the upcoming 10211 Grand Emporium scheduled for February 20 release. From the box to the completed model, Iain has captured the great details that make this set a must have for many Lego fans.
BlueBard has been posting pictures of a whole series of his Cafe Corner style buildings over the last few days. They’re all excellent, but this Italian restaurant and repair shop stood out to me as doing an exceptionally good job of capturing daily city life.
It’s also worth checking out his bar and comic book store, which have a similar modern feel and plenty of interior vibrancy. He’s also on Brickshelf.
After emerging from a 20-year dark ages without LEGO, Anthony De Wynter recently finished this fantastic English mansion in the Jacobean style.
Anthony says the building grew rather organically — “I just layed out a floor plan which fitted the desk top and started to build” — in much the same way that old English manors did over the centuries. Read more and see lots of other pictures on MOCPages.
(link goes to creator’s Eurobricks post)
It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally managed to get the review up for Ryan McNaught’s excellent A380 model as debuted at Brickvention last weekend. While the sculpting and other building techniques are highly impressive they are only the wrapping on this excellent model.
Firstly it also includes a fully detailed interior featuring scenes from five different movies. It also had some other features that may be visible in closeups. Try to spot them all.
Secondly it includes a large a large range of powered features including retractable landing gear and working engines which are all controlled by an A380 control panel on a touchscreen computer. Great mindstorms fun even on a regular model but on the A380 truly spectacular.
And finally Ryan is also selling a mini version of the A380. A got my girlfriend to build the kit to provide a ‘lay’ perspective. She said it was easy enough to build from the included instructions although she found some aspects of them strange and a little confusing. I can’t find the pictures and details right now but rather than make you wait for the main meal I’ll edit some in tomorrow.
Overall it was a very deserving best-of-show at the convention and sets the bar high for future minifig-scale plane building efforts. Truly an impressive model.
And for our American readers Ryan will be taking it to Brickworld in Chicago in June. If you’re in the neighbourhood I highly recommend checking it out in real life. Pictures honestly cannot do it justice.
I had these on my list to blog today anyway, which happened to coincide with Nannan’s announcement of the 10211 Grand Emporium, which I love. How serendipitous.
The first is this stately corner building by Allan (a-corb).
The second is this tasty looking pirate ice creamery by Philip Stark (Erdbeeris1). Aaargh! Yummy.
UPDATE: The LEGO Shop site now has a page up for 10211 Grand Emporium
with a scheduled release date of
February 20, 2010 March 1, 2010.
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The next addition to the Cafe Corner line of modular buildings is 10211 Grand Emporium, a great set to round out another corner of your expanding LEGO city. From the info on Eurobricks, this 2182-piece set will cost $149.99 in the US, £97.85 in the UK, and €149.99 in Germany.
Like the 10197 Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium has a full interior with some great details to get excited about like the escalator and chandelier seen through the nice dark green windows.
Via Eurobricks
But I have to admit that this beautifully landscaped course by Bryan (Eggy Pop) makes me kind of want to hit and chase a little ball around.
Karwik may have built the first LEGO version of a Jelcz 272 MEX (EDIT TG: Not the first, thanks Globetrotter). I suspect the model means something if you’re a bus fan in Poland but to me it just screams excellence in LEGO design. From the slight tapering from body to roof to the amazing grille this vehicle is a masterpiece of technique and style.
Thanks to Tim David for the heads up.
The best thing I can say about this model of a Jelcz 315 crane truck by Maciej Drwiega is that from the thumbnail I wondered if someone had mistakenly posted a real truck to a LEGO flickr group. To my pleasant surprise and awe, it’s all LEGO. Apparently I’m not the only one who thought so.
I think reader ShiYue is right that we’ve never blogged anything built by a LEGO fan from mainland China.
With an impressive palace measuring 92 x 42 studs and 59 cm tall, Beijing builder “TenderShadow ” (zgreenz on Brickshelf) helps us introduce the world to a community of LEGO builders with whom we might not usually interact.
Looking over the pictures, I’m impressed with how much Technic TenderShadow has incorporated into the build. We all use Technic for structural integrity and studs-not-on-top (SNOT) construction, but it’s unusual to see quite this much Technic in the detailing for a LEGO Town creation.
For those of you reading The Brothers Brick in China who might not already know this, Lelezhen.com is a LEGO fan site with hundreds of active members.
Thanks for the tip, ShiYue!
As Aleksander Stein notes in the photo’s description, North American and Western European fire engines are fairly common in LEGO form, while those designed eastward of the old Iron Curtain are more rare. Aleksander remedies this with his Soviet-era ZIL-131 pumper:
Both the front and rear wheel well designs are impressive. Inverted chairs enclose the rear tires, and I suspect that much of the rear half of the vehicle is built upside down.