Inspired by the King County Metro and Sound Transit buses we both see around Seattle, Leigh Holcombe (worker201) built this great city bus. I’m particularly fond of the doors and the bike rack on the front.
If any of you out there are bus riders like me, I’ll see you on the 555.
I’m fascinated by tagging, though I’ve never done it myself. And as a person who is well-aware of the impact it has on business people, property owners and taxpayers, I have really mixed feelings about featuring any tagging here. But this vignette by Cole Blaq isn’t at the expense of anybody else (I hope), is quite visually simple, clever and full of action.
I’m really enjoying seeing tagging in the background of train and town scenes, because I don’t think I ever walk, drive or ride anywhere without seeing some tagging in the background. It adds atmosphere to an otherwise clean and blocky LEGO world.
Tony Sava just finished his latest locomotive and its a big one! The H8 “Allegheny” class locomotives were the biggest steam locomotives ever built. Sava really did justice to them with his version.
Young Belgian builder imagelego has recently branched out from small military vignettes and vehicles into this detail-rich diorama of an African city in the aftermath of political upheaval.
The mere search for interesting subject matter set in new locations is fantastic. And the quality of photography and build sure doesn’t hurt.
Legoloverman has achieved that which most of us can only dream about. He has built a better mousetrap. I think it’s pretty spiffy, myself.
The mid-2009 LEGO sets are now available from The Official LEGO Shop online, including the brand-new LEGO Space Police theme — a theme that has the fingerprints of Mark Stafford and Adam Grabowski all over it.
Two of the smaller sets make it easy to get a couple of the unique new aliens from this theme.
The VTOL police vehicle below includes an alien with four arms.
LEGO Castle fans are sure to shout for delight at the availability of the newest sets, including this massive fortress full of goblin and troll minifigs, along with a couple smaller sets.
The newest LEGO Power Miners sets feature a massive drill (8964 Titanium Command Rig) and the new, larger rock monsters.
LEGO Agents gets a reboot in LEGO Agents 2.0. With the cool minifigs that I love this theme for, the line includes a hilariously awesome mecha.
Finally, five new LEGO City sets are also available, including 7641 City Corner with its six-wide city bus.
Here’s a partial list of new sets that are available:
| LEGO Space Police | LEGO Castle |
|---|---|
| Power Miners | Agents 2.0 |
|---|---|
Amazon.co.jp has revealed details about the upcoming 10199 LEGO Creator Christmas set, due out later this year. The picture isn’t perfect, but good enough for discussion, I think.
Due to ship in Japan on October 25, 2009, the set will apparently retail for 12,600 yen. Comparing the prices of other LEGO sets between yen and USD, my guess is that this will be a $60 set (assuming it’s available, but we LEGO fans can always make that happen).
Thanks to EDGE over at LEGO-KEI for the tip!
Among the many collaborative displays at BrickWorld, a new micro-city display has been announced. To participate, construct one or more micropolis modules to add to the huge city layout. The micropolis standard can be found here.
Above layout by TwinLUG. For more examples, visit the Micropolis ‘Bad Day’ building contest at Reasonably Clever.
Tony Sava is selling custom sets of one of his designs, the American Standard 4-4-0, via his Bricklink store. He has made this available in two different liveries, dark blue and dark grey.
The sets are $135 and seem to moving fast. As of this writing, there were only two of the dark blue locomotives left and the dark grey were all gone. However, it is possible that one more dark grey will be posted.
By the way, Tony is using the money to finance his trip to BrickWorld…
For all you LEGO train builders attending the NMRA National Train Show this summer, here’s some pretty cool news:
As part of the National Train Show on July 10-12, 2009 in Hartford, CT, Jamie Berard, set designer of the newly released ‘Emerald Night’ and employee of The LEGO Group (TLG), will participate as part of the show. Jamie will be giving a talk on both July 11 and 12 (Sat. and Sun.) about the design process and thinking that led up to the final ‘Emerald Night’ set, and about the Power functions components that support it. Fans are encouraged to participate to offer their views on the new platform. Jamie will also be available during the show for any questions you may have about his other excellent creations – Fast Flyer, Cafe Corner, Cool Convertible and Green Grocer.
Also as part of this year’s show, Steve Witt, LEGO Community Relations Coordinator for North America, has graciously offered to host the traditional ILTCO pizza party at LEGO corporate headquarters in Enfield, CT after the show on Sat. July 11. Along with pizza and hanging out with Steve, Jamie and some of the LEGO Master Builders from Enfield, other events such as tours of the model shop and parts of the campus will occur. All train show participants are invited to attend.
To contribute to the layout please post to the Trains-n-Town NMRA 2009 forums at:
http://www.trains-n-town.com/forum/index.php?forum=34
Information about the National Train Show can be found at:
http://www.nationaltrainshow.org/2009/hartford.html
Photo above, from last year’s NMRA show, by Peter Norman. See more photos of LEGO models at NMRA on Flickr.
Very few people render castle models and even fewer do it well. Aellaron is a rare and exciting exception. He even manages to put good minifig life in his scenes which is, from my experience, quite difficult.
Jesus, Tim, do you have some sort of contractual obligation to jump on every bandwagon that comes down the pike?
Copywriting by Leigh Holcombe (worker201), model by me.