You know, for really tiny hippies...

SouKoyamada appears to be a relative newcomer to the game, but is clearly a classic car nut, and has developed quite a knack for small-scale vehicle construction.

...and is also a total clever-clogs for coming up with this groovy little design for a 60's VW van! I'm guessing it's similarity to LEGO's larger VW van set is more homage than coincidence. WANT.



And how could I ignore this vignette of the car chase from the 'lost' Miyazaki movie Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. I particularly like the use of minifigs with no faces. Classy!



Hmmm, now why do Miyazaki and small versions of things seem to be in my thoughts this week? Guess you'll have to wait and see...
 

Crafty

Unless you've literally been living inside some kind of cubist virtual world for the past few months, you'll know that The Lego Company has been working on a Minecraft set, ever since this became the first idea to gain the required 10,000 votes on Lego's experimental AFOL IDOL website (...beautifully gamed by Minecraft creators Mojang, btw)

Today, images of this new set were finally unveiled. Cue inevitable flurry of polar reactions and heated discussions of the result.

But if it had been up to me, I'd have put TUNIK J on the job...




I am personally offering to fax a hug to the first person that comes up with a convincing Enderman at the scale of this new Lego set. I'll permit use of stickers or ink for the eyes. Here's TUNIK's version...


 

Superfly

As a child I was very keen entomologist. No, that isn't the scientific word for someone who eat's their own poo. It means I was into bugs. So I only had to see the thumbnail of this model by Bartosz Kacprzyk (aka "the man whose name can never be used as an anagram") to recognize it as Musca Domestica, the common housefly. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz!



And here is the almost obligatory "bug stuck upside down" view that The Living Brick regards to be the hallmark of any good bug creation...



At one time I could probably diagram this species, label about 20 of it's body parts, and all 5 dieseases that it can carry. But nowadays I am content to just find insects to be generally a bit icky! Another example of how your tastes change as you get older. And by "tastes", I mean "view of reality". And by "change", I mean "start making sense". And by "older" I mean, "past caring".
 

You just can't get the staff these days

As part of the ongoing "Pirate Parts Plunder" build-off over at forbiddencove.com, Jalkow sails into the uncharted waters of miniland scale building to imagine his perfect pirate crew.

The first mate looks like a solid fellow...



But I have my doubts about his crewmates!


 

You know, for emos...

I've been watching the AFOL community's adoption of LEGO's new line of "Friends" ladyfigs (minidolls?) with great interest. Customizations started to show up right away, including some amazing work by the likes of Mike Yoder, Victor Fernandez and Brandon Bannerman. But my favorite so far has to be this apocalyptic goth girl by Tyler Thompson...



Some might say these new Friends sets created quite a controversy when they came out earlier in the year. Which of course is bullshit - this is a toy company, not the Catholic church.

Personally, while they don't really change my general stance on minifigs, I'm really glad to think I might not have to put up with those bloated, beady-eyed, jaundiced monstrosities forever, assuming LEGO would ever have the balls to take the core Friends template and start adapting it to other themes.