Jam-packed in Japan

Each year the Japanese Lego store clickbrick holds an MOC contest with a twist: All entries must fit within a 16x16x30 cm space! (I'm assuming this is some kind of cultural "real estate is at a premium here" thing!)

Next month we'll get to see the work of contestants for the 7th annual event. Until then, you can enjoy entries from previous years, thanks to coverage by Sachiko Akinaga (who I believe is busy working on her own entries at the moment!).

The entries just get better and better every year. Here are my personal favorites...

Hot manga chick!


Some kind of evil genius


This is presumably the monkey god


Squirrel with a bit of a 'habit'


Totoro and the Cat Bus


Satsuki and Mei meet Totoro at the bus stop
(...arguably the greatest moment in animation history!)


I can hardly wait!

Mahalego

From "Big Daddy" Nelson (aka "Ambassador Yrizarry, of the Planet Hawaii in the Outer Rim"), here is a wonderfully moody and relaxing Easter Island inspired scene. Positively dripping with Pacific ambience!

Lego Land (trip report)

We just got back from a nice (but all too short) Winter break in San Diego, where we only partially managed to bring the Seattle weather with us to ruin it for everybody else! Between paddling in the sea, paddling in the streets, and watching duuudes in dog-powered skateboard races, we managed to make TWO trips to Lego Land, much to the kids delight (especially my daughter who clocked up about 12 sessions on the miniature car driving thing).

Between the totally overwhelming quantity of mini-land displays, "life sized" mini-figs (I guess they're all midgets then) and gigantic-but-deliberately-still-blocky replicas, here are some things that caught my eye...

Lego versions of my very favorite paintings...


Busts of important UK figures (I am standing to attention and singing Rule Brittania as I write this)...


Still life, albeit in the context of a drunken pirate's feast...


Anachronistic Egyptian crypt frescos and a dead dude...


Nice mini-land version of that Iwo Jima monument...


I CAN HAZ DUX...


Behind the scenes at the Obama inauguration...


Rabid animals (like being back home)...


Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya...


Where old mini-land figures go to die...


WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS!


The scariest thing in the entire park! Seriously, mini-figs should NOT be made life size and allowed to move around. Jeez, that was creepy!


Proof that I was there, and did not spent the entire trip working my way through the mini-bar...


And the ultimate humiliation: being turned into a mini-fig!


Like, totally later, dudes!

OJ

Ochre Jelly's status is set to 'Away'

The Jelly's are off to LEGO LAND, weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

See you all next week...

Blok-u-licious

CountBlokula's creations have a uniquely artistic quality - almost as though they have been molded from clay, the shape of every brick exploited to maximum effect. His sculptures are also endowed with a very 'lively' quality. I suspect he may have stared into the face of Cthulu at some point.

Among other things, the count has an ambitious ongoing project to create an "A to Z" of Lego animals. Here is his progress so far. I'm looking forward to seeing what he chooses to build for "X"! Needless to say, I'll being reporting back as more creatures get added (over the coming years?!).




...I'll leave it to you to figure out what letters these ones represent.

Duuudes

The aptly self-titled Legohaulic's achievements are probably too numerous to mention, but these two B.A.M.F's from different eras have to be my favorites so far...


The "Triumphant Samurai" was inspired by a piece of art, but I think its a work of art in its own right.

Hair brained schemes

Moko is yet another talented and prolific Lego builder from Japan, who experiments with all kinds of ideas both large and small (and frequently off-beat).

Here is the tiniest taste of just how much he rocks...



Love the hair! Moko knows his hair.

This *IS* Ceti Alpha Five!

"Star Trek - The Wrath of Kahn" (1982) kicked off the modern franchise of the original Star Trek series, and Ricardo Montalban did a wonderful job playing the very-buff-for-a-60-year-old-but-then-he-was-genetically-modified villain of the title, KAHN.

In honor of the Mr Montalban's final beam-out, father and son team Dave and John Xandegar did a splendid rendition of a memorable moment from that movie (...fortunately NOT the bit where that ikky worm thingy burrows into Chekov's ear, phew!).



"Kaaaaaaaaaahn!!"

A case of the fuzzy wuzzys

One of my favorite builders is MisaQa from Japan. Her gallery on Brickshelf can only be described as an orgiastic dreamscape of adorable little animals.

I could probably feature a different one of her creations every day and not run out before the sun goes nova. So I guess I'd better pace myself! Perhaps I'll make it a weekly regular or something.

So without further ado, prepare for cuteness overload...




And just one more for an extra 'awwwww'...



I expect if I showed my daughter this stuff, her little head would probably explode. Hmmm, sounds like a science experiment (...I'll get back to you with the results) .