Michael Jasper is one of our favorite builders here on The Brothers Brick. He has recently updated his Characters gallery with major contributors to the sciences: Alfred Nobel and Carl Zeiss.
Tag Archives: Vignettes
Flying ninja monkeys invade DARKspawn’s peaceful village
What lies beyond death
Shannon Ocean portrays the process of letting go and the chaos that lies beyond death. If what Shannon shows in his vignette is true, then I’ll be going to a world with endless colorful LEGO bricks after I die, but I’m sure that’s not the case presented here.
We are coming out of the darkness into the light!
I was a strange little boy, with my LEGO and my stories and my classic black and white movies. One of my favorite films to this day is Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, from 1940.
Piglet recreates a famous scene in which Charlie Chaplin, as “Adenoid Hynkel,” parodies Adolf Hitler’s ridiculous (and ultimately terrifying) oratory style:
However, I like to think that this is the movie’s final scene, in which the Jewish barber (mistaken for the identical Hynkel) delivers a beautiful speech calling on humanity’s better nature. Here’s one of my favorite passages:
We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.
In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
Truer words couldn’t be said today, nearly seventy years later. Watch the full speech here:
Via VignetteBricks.
Don’t open the trap door. I mean it.
Aaron Andrews lets something in with this nicely detailed vignette. I really like the posing of the red minifig in this one. Aaron has always been a talented builder, but he has been definitely improving on his fig posing lately. Cheers, Aaron!
Nathan Proudlove knows when to walk away, knows when to run
I suspect that there isn’t a living person on the planet — whether they speak English as their native language or not and whether they even know who Kenny Rogers is — who doesn’t know the lyrics to “The Gambler.”
Nathan Proudlove certainly does:
(Now I have that song in my head for the rest of the evening. Better than the Chocobo’s Dungeon soundtrack, I guess…)
Rocko depicts Falun Gong organ-harvesting in LEGO
The recent Beijing Olympics — and NBC’s coverage of them here in the U.S. — painted a picture of the People’s Republic of China as a veritable utopia of modernism in harmonious balance with ancient tradition.
In this vignette depicting alleged organ-harvesting of Falun Gong detainees, Rocko suggests that the truth may not be so pleasant:
You can read more about this issue in the surprisingly well-sourced Wikipedia topic.
(Via VignetteBricks.)
Coming out at the Christopher Day Parade
Working my way further back through Moritz N‘s photostream, I encountered this great vignette highlighting the importance of being tolerant:
Moritz says:
Although there are still incurable boneheads in both the dwarf and the troll society, Gnork and Shroeder finally summon up the courage to come out of secrecy.
Living their relationship freely they join the Cristopher Street Day parade to demontrate for tolerance and equal opportunities.
Go Gnork and Shroeder, go!
Aaron rocks their world
Aaron Andrews has been working on a fun series of pirate creations, populated by a hapless band of buccaneers. In his latest, he sends them down a lava tube. I don’t know if they’re going to make it out of this one alive!
*smooch*
Click through for the punch line to this great little vignette by Moritz N. (nolnet on Flickr), featuring a little gray frog on a table and a rather unhappy princess.
Via VignetteBricks.
EDIT: And, it would seem, via The Brothers Brick. :oops: This is what I get for blogging while jetlagged… Thanks Tyler!
Daniel takes us to the edge of the world, and beyond!
I’m really liking all the new pirate creations lately, inspired no doubt by Forbidden Cove and the possibility of a new official LEGO Pirates theme in 2009.
Daniel Z (DNL on Flickr) gets in on the pirate action with this very vertical creation that’s definitely worth the scroll:
Castaway Contest! [News]
Forbidden Cove has launched the site’s first contest!
Christened the “Castaway Contest“, the premise is to build the abode of a long-stranded survivor. So bust out those fabulous building skills and show them what you can do!
There is some sweet pirate booty up for grabs as well:
First Place: #6265 Sabre Island
Second Place: #6260 Shipwreck Island
(Pictures courtesy of ForbiddenCove)