8-bitten

I wasn't intending to get all "80s retro" twice in one week, but how could I resist when I saw this neat little Pac-Man vignette by none other than Bruce Lowell, inventor (discoverer?!) of the Lowell Sphere, a SNOT pattern that I enjoy using on a regular basis. And as you can see, he has employed his titular technique in this creation. Ok stop snickering, 'titular' is a proper word. I know because I am edumucated.



And as the Countdown to BrickCon enters its final phase, astronauts strapped in, rockets warming up, I am looking forward to seeing this creation and it's creator in person tomorrow! I have a feeling the Bricks of Character display this year is going to be even more awesomer-er than last year.

So if you run into me at the Con, please come say hi, unless I am busy whoring myself at Lino's feet in order to bag one of these bad boys...


He's giving them away to the first 40 people that tell him they are "Adult Fans of Lino"! And I assume it's the other meaning of 'adult' that applies in this instance, so if he's wearing his util-kilt, run screaming like a little girl ;-)

In contrast, and in a shockingly predictable act of one-up-manship, I have decided that the first 40 people who PLANK in front of me at the convention will be rewarded with a swift kick in the balls. Go on. I dare you...
 

Pika-dude

About a year ago I covered the completion of Filip Johannes Felberg's project to recreate every Pikimin character in Lego, and the beginning of his new quest to recreate every Pokemon character in the same fashion. Which sounds like a life's work if you ask me! (...I'm assuming Pikimin is some kind of Soviet era Russian knock-off of Pokemon; if you know more, please make a point of not telling me).

Anyway, a year or so in and he's knocked out a vast number of these things. And they're all completely adorable!



However it doesn't want me to learn anything more about Pokemon. Under any circumstances whatsoever. On account of me not being seven.
 

Blipvert-ual reality

Chris McVeigh's instantly you-know-what /what-what-what/ version of 80's icon Max Headroom had me involuntarily rolling up my jacket sleeves and bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-dy popping with delight!



L-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-look it up, kids.
 

You are what you eat!

Just a quick update on the current Iron Builder contest (mystery part: yellow road signs). Sorry, let me just repeat that with the suitable amount of dramatic reverb added: IRON-ron-ron-on-on BUILDER-ilder-ilder-der-der. It's important to do these things right.

From my adopted side of the pond, Tyler "I would never work for any toy company that would have me as an employee" Clites gives us an unexpected Eureka moment (or whatever the Latin equivalent would have to be), as Caesar discovers his own salad...



Just think how different the history of the Roman empire would have been if Caesar had thought to patent his invention! By the way, Tyler gets 10 extra "me" points for consistent use of blog-friendly white backgrounds.

Meanwhile, from the side of the pond that still remembers how to spell, Barney "Stitch that Jimmy / curry and chips" Main tapped into the same rich vein of spleen-bursting bad punnery with this literally whole different kettle of fish...



Barney of course gets 20 extra "me" points for using one of my favorite themes, hilarious animal cruelty. And yes, that thing is a fucking ELECTRIC KETTLE you colonial ingrates! Cornerstone of civilisation! I laugh at your fuseless plugs and general lack of knowledge about teabags.

Nuff said. Stay tuned for the inevitable (we can only hope) very bloody finale of this comeptition...
 

Those in peril on the sea

Anthony Lau is a builder from Hong Kong and a regular contestant in the MOC-off at the annual Ani-Com convention (which always features spectacular creations). This sea dragon was his entry in 2009...

"War Beasts" at BrickCon 2011

One the more unique and creative themes at the last couple of BrickCon events has been Battle Bugs - mechanized armored insectoids of all shapes and sizes. Just going over the old Battle Bugs photo pool just makes me wanna start posting them all over again! It's like some kind of Entomological porn!



...a great addition to the show, although I think everyone agreed that the late introduction of a live bee exhibit to the display last year was a bit on the wierd side!

Anyway, speaking of porn, Battle Bug founders Lino Martins and Jason Ruff decided that for 2011 the Battle Bugs needed to *evolve*. And thus, from their fiery ashes (or maybe that should be boot-squished juices) the concept of the War Beasts was born!

War Beasts is basically a non-speciest version of Battle Bugs: All forms of creature are welcomed, whether be it hamsters, squids or kangaroos. And no, you didn't mis-read any of that...



"Hailfire Hamster" by Tim Inman. "Tentacled Terror" by Guy Himber. "Mecharoo" by Lino Martins.

So if you're coming to BrickCon next week, make sure to check out the War Beasts display. It's gonna be one gigantic whoopass of zoological mayhem. And if you're able to contribute something to the theme, you'll even be in the running to win one of these fine awards (also by Lino)...



Because nothing says "I am awesome" like the pistol-packing panda from hell! "Take THAT, Chinese government inter-breeding program!"
 

Trapped Wind

The MocOlympics contest is finally gathering speed, and we're seeing some great stuff come out of it. One of the recent categories included the four elements, and some of the entries under the theme of "Wind" did a great job in capturing the appropriate sense of motion.

First up is this scene of destruction from Hurricane Irene created by Blake Baer, the same talented castle-building TFOL that recently produced this microscale tornado.



...there are just so many small details hidden throughout this MOC that a single image won't do. Only poring over the detailed images can really do it justice.

And also worthy of a mention is this creation entitled Windy Afternoon by Portuguese builder António Silva. This one just put a huge smile on my face!


 

Warning signs

If you follow this blog then you may be aware of the Iron Builder contest - a sweaty Lego-building face-off of Titanic proportions (but without all that messy iceberg nonsense, or Kate Winslet taking her kit off).

The current battle looks to be epic. The adjudicators have selected the excellent 'mystery' part of Yellow Road Signs, to be utilized in every creation, and we have two young *powerhouses* going head to head... In the amber corner is Tyler Clites. While in the marigold corner is Barney Main.

The MOCs are coming thick and fast, and they're all keepers. But I'm gonna eke this out for maximum effect, and only highlight a couple at a time...

Flower Power by Tyler


Mister Burrito's Spicy Doritos by Barney

 

Swoosh-talgia

Today is self-indulgence Sunday, so here's a trio of iconic spacecraft from three of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi screen epics, all recently recreated in Lego.

First up, from the Eighties, Stefan Käsmayer (aka 2x4) brings us a fully playable Harkonnen Ornithopter from Dave Lynch's ex-travesty-ganza Dune...



...Stefan has also create a nice little vignette of Paul versus the Fighter Robot from the same movie.

Jumping forward to the Naughties is Lino Martins' take on the Cylon Raider, from the rebooted TV show Battlestar Galactica...



...which is so accurate in it's detail that it even comes with guts!

And finally from the Seventies, SPARKART! recreates the Eagle from that oft overlooked Gerry Anderson show Space 1999...



...which is also available in many utilitarian variations.

Note that the Nineties is conspicuous by its absence!
 

Sisters are doing it for themselves

Anime-inspired character builder tkh takes us once again into dodgy territory (not that I'm complaining) with this rendition of Kirino Kosaka from the anime series Oriemo (also known as My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, or perhaps more correctly My Little Sister Can't Be This Perverted!).



I considered some title along the lines of "You know, for kids" but felt it might sound a bit wierd. Ah. Too late.
 

"Bricks of Character" at BrickCon 2011

In the run-up to BrickCon 2011 I'm going to be featuring some of the "themes" that will be making an appearance this year. So very selfishly, and without further ado, I'd like to announce that BrickCon will be hosting the 4th incarnation of Bricks of Character!



Bricks of Character (aka "BOC") consists of figures, sculptures and scenes inspired by history, film, music, television, videogames, comics, celebrities and popular culture. The idea behind BOC is that the characters are brick-built, so mini-figs are generally not involved. But beyond that there are no rules about style, scale or subject matter!



As always, the first 30 contributors to the BOC table will recieve a one-of-a-kind sand green BOC badge brick. And all entries will be eligible for judging to win one of these even one-er-of-a-kind-er trophies by my BOC cohort Tommy Williamson...



Visit www.brickcon.org for full convention details, including public exhibition hours. BrickCon takes place in Seattle over the first weekend of October. And for those of you shamefully procrastinating about registering for the full-on 4-day AFOL event, you'd better do it soon because we are rapdily approaching our registration cap!

And make sure to come over to the BOC table and say hi to Tommy, me and our epically awesomesauce BOC posse! Peace out...

You know, for people with very small fingers...

As the diminutive Japanese building system nanoblock gains traction here in the US, with new sets appearing in stores on a regular basis, more ambitious original creations are starting to emerge from more 'wizened' fans in the Far East.

First up is higeko_dx, a graphic designer from Tokyo, who's choice of subject matter reveals her dark sense of humor (...check out her Crab Prince, Child's Play and Little Man Piss, if you dare!).

Jackass	2-Headed Deer
Daft Punk	Hand

Meanwhile Christopher Tan from Malaysia has been churning out a ton of amazing character-based models recently. Here is but a tiny sample of his collection, which also includes R2-D2, Shawn the Sheep, Wall-E and Batman.

Captain America	Smurfette
Panda	Darth Vader

In some ways it seems nanoblock's basic palette of brick types actually lends itself well towards character-based creations, which I love because that's what I'm all about. I just wish my fingers were small enough to emulate this kind of work!
 

A lot of bottle

The Lego display at this year's ANI-COM convention in Hong Kong already produced some stunning works, including a slew of fresh and wonderfully detailed Miyazaki dioramas already adequately covered by The Big Blog during my recent esternation.

But one piece that really blew me away were these dolphins by scientific sculpting sensation Schneider Cheung...



And as always, Schneider offers a sneak peak into his sculpting process, which borrows from the 6-sided SNOT techniques pioneered by Bram Lambrecht, but without any assistance from Bram's LSculpt modelling software...



Having employed the same technique myself - albeit on sculptures of a far more modest nature - I really have to take my hat off to this guy once again for the artistic accuracy and engineering accomplishments that he continues to demonstrate!

Am I jealous?

Does the Pope shit in the woods?!
 

e-JPop

What would you get if you blended Lady Gaga, Madonna, Britney Spears, some actual talent, and a generous dollop of Wasabe? (...other than a really foul tasting smoothie)

Answer: Hatsune Miku, the crazy-haired teenage digital diva from the voice synthesizer app Vocaloid, that's who! And to celebrate the 4th anniversary of this android angel's creation, Japanese builder chaosbrick (カオス煉我) has recreated her in Lego. And judging by the pretty comprehensive job that he's done, I'm guessing he's a "bit of a fan"!


And if you haven't seen her in action, take a look at this piece of wierdness. We're living in the future, people!
 

500th post!

This is The Living Brick's 500th post! This is me writing it! Here's a picture of 500 Lego bricks with a Lego number '500' floating over them!


This is the end of the post! You can go about your business now...
 

Finn-al Fantasy

When Lego recently released it's latest line of Heroica board games, my kids and I thought we were onto a winner... Lego meets D&D? Fantasy gaming, free of 247-page manuals, 7-sided dice and that sweaty college friend who still lives in his parent's basement? It was too good to be true! Well, sadly yes it was. After a few rounds we realized they'd dumbed it down even below the level of a good old Monty Haul and turned it into a dreary mechanical game of chance.

Fortunately when it comes to Lego and fantasy, it's not all bad news. In April I featured the work of young Finnish builder Pate-keetongu, who introduced us to the unpronouncable and slightly rude-sounding world of Finnish folk music. Well since then, he's started producing some pretty interesting Bioni-scupltures, including Forestwoman Kathrienna here...




She's great. The only downside is that she already appears to have a boyfriend. But that's ok, I'm a patient man. It's only a matter of time before he slips up and gets an arrow through the skull.