The Living Brick

I'll be brick...

2012-01-24T18:12:00.000-08:00

Hey, inferior biological scum! Look, it's everyone's favorite civilization-destroying Austrian robotic nightmare from the future! No, I'm not talking about Cyber Hitler, I'm talking about the T-800 series Terminator unit from Cyberdyne Systems. Brought to you from a scary parallel time line we like to call "The Eighties", here's the all new playable action figure version, courtesy of Kevin Ryhal (aka M<O><O>DSWIM)...

He comes packed with loads of great time-travelling post-apocalytic features including: big shooty gun with infinite ammo, neural net with artifical intelligence, hilarious resemblence to certain political figures, glowing red eyes (caution, may cause blindness), fire resistant hyperalloy combat chassis, 10mm explosive tip caseless standard light armor piercing round (...oh wait, wrong movie), 100 thousand play-skulls, and another big shooty gun with infinite ammo.

Get yours now!

Do not immerse in molten steel. Skin optional. May cause near extinction
of the human race. SkyNet not included. You-ar paarents are deead.

Happy New Year, Again!

2012-01-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

The great thing about Japan and China using the same zodiacal chart but celebrating the New Year on different dates is that I get to do this twice! Except this time you're gonna be totally blown away by Schneider Cheung's version of the Dragon...

They're gonna be talking about this one for a long time! Yet another one of those MOCs that makes you wanna just hock all your Lego on eBay and buy a dirt bike. :-)

Topic. Must. Be. EXTERMINATED!

2012-01-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

Let's wrap up this Doctor Who themed week with a look at the Time Lord's eternal enemy, the Daleks. Despite being born from the earliest era of the TV show, when lumbering tin robots were the bread and butter of most on-screen science fiction, the Daleks had a certain something that made them particularly terrifying at the time, and which still gives them a little cache today. Ok, I guess it's the manic shouty voice and the single roving eye on a stalk, isn't it?! Because it's certainly not their abilities in the pursuit department (...until the 90's, they couldn't even make it up a flight of stairs).

As with the TARDIS, Lego Dalek models tend to fall into two groups: the large accurate tabletop sculptures, and the small minifig-scale approximations. Only the brave few can attempt the big ones. And here are the winners in my book...

Jason Wolfson (who's TARDIS and Doctor I featured the other day)

Steve Locke (who actually did two different scales!)

Over in the minifig scale corner there have been way more contenders, and consequently way more disasters! Given the subject matter, getting anything to be recognizable at this scale with also looking comical is a bit of a challenge. But here are the ones that I think make the cut. I'll let you decide for yourselves which one is best. Hopefully these will inspire some of you to build a squad of shouty little cyclopian foes to terrorize your minifig heros!

"capnbootle"

Pascal (pasukaru76)

Mark Stafford

Ok, this is The Weeping Brick signing off, reversing the polarity, and releasing this blog from quantuum lock! And remember, whatever you do... DON'T BLINK.

Bigger on the inside

2012-01-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

No retrospective of great Doctor Who MOCs could be considered complete (or even in progress, for that matter) without a look at a couple of creations by Mr Xenomurphy.

One of the most beloved episodes among Who fans is Blink. It is significant in many ways. Firstly, it was one of the few episodes penned by Steven Moffat before he became head writer for the show. It even won him a BAFTA and a Hugo award! Secondly, it hardly features the character of the Doctor at all. Thirdly, and oddly for a show about a timer traveller, it was the first Who episode to really delve into the kind of mind-bending non-linear plotting common in nearly all time travel movies. But fourthy and most importantly, this episode introduced viewers to one of the scariest - and cleverest - foes in Who history, the weeping angels! Angels now almost outweigh the Daleks and Cybermen in terms of fan popularity.

Mr Xenomurphy moodfully recreated a couple of key scenes from this episode (and even provided instructions for creating minifig scale angels)...

More impressively, Mr. Xenomurphy eschewed the well-trodden path of building the mere exterior of the TARDIS in Lego, and opted to recreate the interior instead! And what a splendid job he did...

A Brief History of Time And Relative Dimension In Space

2012-01-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

The singular most recognizable motif of Doctor Who is probably the TARDIS, the Doctor's temperamental temporal transportation tub.

Over the years a lot of people have crafted the TARDIS in Lego, to the point where it was almost becoming tiresome (...well, to anyone like me, that has to pore over hundreds of Lego images on a daily basis!). Many of them were not great, to be honest. But while the idea of building a blue box sounds easy, this one has some important but subtle details that are hard to capture. Especially that whole part about it being bigger on the inside! (...have you seen the price of five-dimensional bricks on Bricklink?). But some folks got it right. So let's look at their work, in an appropriately non-chronological order.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Who related creations are in minifig scale. But one of Lego's own set designers, Mark Stafford, managed to capture the roofing and panelling really well, albeit with the help of a little blue paint!

This whimsical and deliberately simplified design by Andrew Summersgill (aka Doctor Sinister) was the basis for a great series of vignettes depicting the adventures of an imagined 83rd incarnation of the Doctor.

But top marks for accuracy and attention to detail at this scale go to capnbootle, who even managed to create an illuminatable interior...

Taking it up a scale, Doctor Sinister snapped this photo of a miniland scale TARDIS that appeared at Legoland Windsor. And while it seems a little squat for my liking, their model of Davros (creator of the Daleks) is just to die for!

But even greater things can be achieved at larger scales. This monster by Jason Wolfson not only utilizes custom engraved bricks but also comes with model of the Doctor and a rather splendid Dalek! (photo by billb♥Lego)

Whereas my PortLUG chum Jason Ruff (aka Doctor Mobius and official Bricks of Character puppeteer) went for a more 'purist' approach with his mega-TARDIS. Plus, his version comes with it's own Rose Tyler, although admittedly not to scale or made of Lego (sorry Heather!).

So there you have it, just about every Lego version of the TARDIS you'd ever want to see. Let us never speak of this again. Well, until I make one. In the proper color! :-)

The Rubric on Whobricks

2012-01-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of hysteria recently around Lego's licensing deals with comic makers to produce sets featuring everyone's favorite American superheros (read "bunch of largely homogenous, pants-on-the-outside-wearing pieces of intellectual property looking for a final resting place"). Not to mention the endless hand-wringing of Vitamin-D starved fanboys as MegaBlok went and land-rushed the Halo license (ok, I'll stop the vitriol right there!).

So it was kind of interesting, nay satisfying, to see that small UK-based toy maker The Character Group flew under the radar of all this to clinch the licensing deal for Doctor Who based construction toys!

Now, the Living Brick is not beholden in any way to The Lego Company, and you've probably seen my past coverage of the Japanese invasion of Nanoblock. Then again, this is not a fig-centric blog either, so what follows may be a little "out of character" (pun intended). Please forgive this and understand that a lot of Whovian endorphins have been kicking in recently. Not least in part due to my recent visit to The Doctor Who Experience in London!

When I first got wind of this product line I feared the worst, especially since some of the smaller sets seemed to be rather MegaBlok-ish in the predominance of BURPs. But after getting a chance to pick up some of this stuff in the UK, I was pleasantly surprised.

Above is our haul. The sets are part of the company's larger Character Building product line, and focus on the most recent seasons of the show featuring the 11th Doctor. They are a mix of traditional building sets (depicting various iconic scenes) and a very broad array of minifigs. The latter follow very much in the footsteps of Lego's own collectible minifigs, presented in individual mystery packs spanning multiple series, but with the nice addition of battle packs of the Doctor's more well-known foes! And for the real Whovians among you, there is also a collectors set featuring all 11 Doctors!

Obviously Daleks are a vital component of any Doctor Who merchandise, and you'll be pleased to hear they are available in six colors. And rather than being single-piece elements, they are composed of nine bricks that could certainly be put to some imaginative uses. Especially when you consider that this stuff is plug-compatible with Lego!

Brick quality is very high - these are no MegaBloks! Even the TARDIS is fully brick-built, and the quality of the materials, the colors and the tightness of the fit is indistinguishable from Lego. Even though this company has not been around that long, I feel that it certainly could give Lego a run for its money, assuming they continue developing the idea of construction based toys. It's hard to imagine MegaBloks being around for much longer if this is the standard that Lego's other competitors are capable of. And let's face it, as much as we all love and adore The Lego Company, they need a little fresh blood in the game, to keep them honest. Competition is ultimately a win-win for the consumer.

More info.

Fish fingers and custard

2012-01-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

Well the weather outside isn't exactly frightful, but it's probably about to bugger up my whole week. Meaning I get to substitute the refined company of adults for an endless cycle of teen anime, snowball fights and me shouting myself hoarse with my new catchphrase "Just how many hours have you been on Minecraft, exactly?".

But speaking of Doctor Who...

(ok, worst segway evaaar)

My very "Doctor Who filled" trip to the UK this Christmas was topped off very nicely when I returned to find a gift from Lego chum Micah Berkoff sitting in my mailbox ...a Lego weeping angel, no less! The only appropriate response was to build the angel some prey...

This one was a bit of a challenge since Micah built his angel to strict Miniland scale, so I couldn't cheat and work to Miniland+ scale. But I managed to just about pull off the 11th Doctor and his companion Amy Pond (in kissogram police woman costume, no less). Given more time I might have housed them in a Cyber Forest diorama. And given more dark blue I might have even built more than this sham of a TARDIS. Apologies for that.

So for no particular reason, I'm declaring this DOCTOR WHO WEEK on The Living Brick. I've even renamed the blog accordingly (look up, but remember not to blink!). I'll be featuring a bit of a trip report that may be of interest to Lego and Who fans alike. Plus I'll be doing a retrospective of the greatest Who-themed fan Lego creations.

JERONIMO!

Tentacular!

2012-01-12T21:49:00.000-08:00

The "Clinger" from LEGO's Alien Conquest sets is certainly one of their more fanciful and imaginative minifig head pieces. But Gabriel (aka Lego.Skrytsson) creates a possible back-story to this piece by introducing us to the mommy Clinger...

It is funny because the minifigs get dead.

And if the style of the tentacles looks familiar, that's because Gabriel used the same technique very effectively in his recently uber-viral Kraken (which has to be seen to be believed!).

Cotton picking varmint

2012-01-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

Here is an adorable and very nicely constructed little racoon by Brittney (aka Brick Britt)...

And here it is again, running away with your half-eaten sandwich, half-eaten pet, or whatever...

Belated.ly

2012-01-09T19:08:00.001-08:00

Darn it, a surfeit of household chores meant I failed to congratulate a certain Professor Hawking on his 70th birthday yesterday!

LSH sends best wishes to his fleshy facsimile, and was very excited by the amount of Twitter interest he recieved as a side-effect of this glorious event!

LSH would also like to take this opportunity to reveal that I plan to make him available to you all as an actual physical set in 2012!

Moko Loco

2012-01-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

When it comes to Lego-based character modelling, the work of Japanese builder Moko is as extensive as it is legendary.

And his latest chibi-esque style, which he calls LEGOBLOID, is starting to develop in some really interesting directions. Here we see his rendition of Saber from the manga series and videogame Fate/stay night.

Who is presented in a rich array of adorably attitudy action poses...

And since we're on the subject of recent work by Moko, Brother Andrew already touched on this creation celebrating 2012 as the Year of the Dragon, but I feel the face really warrants a closer look...

Talk about nice parts usage!

A well rounded body of work

2012-01-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

Not content with recreating things like Pacman or snooker balls to illustrate the possible uses of his self-titled Lowell Sphere technique, Bruce Lowell now provides us with some lovely examples of how that original shape can be extruded to create what I can only call Lowell Tubes.

As a frequent user of this particular brand of SNOT, I'm suitably impressed by (and will inevitably steal) the seamless connections of the cactus limbs and the convex curves of the donut.

Happy New... Yearsmas?

2011-12-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

Since 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, this creation by ArzLan seems like an appropriate way to ring in the New Year. Although I swear there are some decidely Christmas-y things about this MOC! (See if you can spot them)

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous year. And remember, the Mayans were a bunch of smelly loin-cloth-wearing severed-head-football-playing bunch of drug addicts, so don't take their predictions too seriously!

Filled with the Christmas spirit

2011-12-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

Just because it's the day after Christmas doesn't mean we can't still enjoy some festive MOCs! And in my opinion, this wonderful little scene by q_159 perfectly captures the essence of Boxing Day (or as we over-40's prefer to call it, Regretfulness Day).

"On the 7th day of Chib-mas..."

2011-12-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

"...TKH sent to us: Seven of whatever these things are!"

Tis the season

2011-12-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas fast approach-eth. Apparently-eth. But that doesn't mean I have to spend all week boring you with the usual array of predictable Lego-ized facsimiles of tree ornaments and Santas and other obvious Yuletide fayre.

Matt De Lanoy (aka Pepa Quin) knows what I'm talking about. Here we see his excellent Team Fortress miniland characters taking a break from whatever the hec they normally do, to help Santa to (insert oblique literary Christmas reference:) "reduce the surplus population" with a little Elf Bowling.

"Clean-up on aisle three!"

The Old Masters

2011-12-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

Lego is clearly an artistic medium. But apparently it can also be an artistic subject! As illustrated by painter and occasional AFOL Lester Murphy (aka Lenny Hoffman aka Glencaer) in these wonderfully vibrant expressionist interpretations of his favorite Lego bricks...

Above, we have the indomitable headlight brick, one of the earliest SNOT-enabling bricks. Even though the newer and easier to use 87087 brick is starting to replace it these days, the headlight still retains a certain charm and utility (for example, a pair of these can be used to do some very small-scale SNOT-180). Heh, listen to me, waxing lyrical about a frikking Lego brick!

And here are some of treatments of another incredibly useful brick, that carries the now legendary title of Travis brick or TK brick, named after Lester's friend Travis Kunce (sadly no longer with us) who loved this brick so much he got a tattoo of it!

I think these paintings would look great on the wall of any Lego fanatic's workshop...

"News from Home"

2011-12-15T21:41:00.000-08:00

Although the US flag of command was officially lowered in Baghdad today, we should not forget that as US involvement in Iraq winds down, the conflict in neighboring Afghanistan is (if anything) still ramping up, and that US soliders continue to put themselves in harms way every day.

Dave & John Xandegar (aka briXwerX) recently created this simple scene in honor of Dave's nephews Nick and Jordan, who are now both serving in Afghanistan.

As you sit bathed in the light of a flat panel display, viewing words and images miraculously delivered to you from some distant data center, it's worth remembering this... For all it's distractions and evils and sillyness, the Internet and other microprocessor technologies make the lives of today's military personnel safer and more tolerable in an innumerable number of ways!

Number One Phan

2011-12-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that my good SeaLUG buddy Scott Fowler likes to build large things. So when he decided to build a CubeDude version of his friend the Vietnamese American comedian Dat Phan, it came as no surprise that it would be a CubeDude of EPIC proportions!

I suppose this is the point at which I make some hilarious racist comment about it being a 1:1 scale model. Except I'm not that racist (...I hope).

To Scott: Good luck on your little "100,000 mile service" next week, and wishing you a pleasant and speedy recovery! I have no doubt you will figure out some devious way to maintain your normal levels of building, and texting :D

The nays have it

2011-12-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

The works of builder Tim Goddard (aka Rogue Bantha) have appeared quite a few times on this blog over the years, and rank among my all-time favorites. So despite our non-aggression pact, I just had to feature his latest creation here even though it was already just covered by my chums over at Brothers Brick. (...no, I've never heard of them either)

Except I'm gonna go one better than them, and show you the front instead of the ass! But I'll resist the temtpation to photoshop on a unicorn horn and caption it "Charlie"...

Tim had actually already created the head, to use as an exhibit in his wierd museum diorama, but decided to add the entire body as a way to ~~inspire~~ shame his wife into building again!

I'm no lawyer but if you ask me that sounds like grounds for divorce...

Grind designs

2011-12-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

Judging by the name, I can only assume that this wonderfully intricate steampunk contraption by Pablo Gonzalez was inspired by the famous travelling knife grinders of Terra da Chispa ("Land where sparks fly") in the Ourense region of northern Spain.

I love all the attention to detail and mechanically realistic components (the piston, valves, boilder, centrigual regulator, fly wheel, toolbox, and so on), all of which Pablo shows off in great detail. If you study it carefully, you can kind of figure out how the whole thing would logically work, as a foot-powered grinder given a steam-powered retrofit.

This truly is a thing of beauty!

Cooked or raw

2011-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

It's always interesting to see what artists from other disciplines choose to create when they dabble in Lego. Although let's all continue to pray that Lady Gaga never gets a hold of the stuff, otherwise it'll be all "meat castles" and blood-soaked mini-figs.

But Japanese glass artist Takashi Higashi has started posting some Lego creations on Brickshelf that caught my eye.

It's not often you'll see Lego food caught in an "action" pose, but he's managed it with this very appetizing bowl of tempura prawn and soba noodles...

While in contrast, here is a less 'appetizing' rendition of a moulting cicada, which is more in line with some of his glass creations...

For other fascinating (non-Lego) wierdness check out Mr Higashi's website at http://www.moerugomi.com (燃えるゴミ, lit. "combustible garbage").

You know, for vigilante superheros

2011-12-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

I think its fair to say this rendition of the Joker by Котон Котоныч was probably inspired by Lino Martin's clown figures. But it's repurposing for use on this subject matter, incorporation of collectible minifig parts (such as the custard pie), and moody photography are nevertheless quite clever!

Click here to the full scene involving both the Joker and Batman, built for a Batman contest over on Eurobricks.

Minilandia

2011-12-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

Ryan McNaught (aka TheBrickMan, and apparently the only Lego Certified Professional in the Southern hemisphere!) decided to celebrate the opening of Legoland Florida by declaring November to be "Miniland month" and building a new miniland-scale character every day.

To see the full set click here. Of course, as a regular abuser of this scale myself, I couldn't resist selecting my own personal favorites...

Dr. Evil
E.T.

Clint Eastwood
Madonna

Cricketer
Dalai Lama

All of Ryan's choices of subject were great, but I think for me what makes these particular examples stand out is how effectively and cleverly they capture the essence of these characters.

Behold!

2011-11-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

Some years ago, my first feeble attempt at doing something interesting with Lego involved combining it the most satisfying of all nerdy pursuits, Dungeons and Dragons.

But more recently, my good chum Guy Himber (purveyor of fine Lego sweetmeats, and venerable curator of V&A Steamworks) has been giving the world of D&D his own unique Lego treatment.

And he just made my week by tackling my all-time favorite monster...

This is truly FTW! ("For The Wargamers"). And Guy's version comes with a more interesting set of eye stalk powers than the original (click through to Flickr to check them out).

I always imagined Beholders having particularly 'tetchy' personalities. Something to do with a shortage of eyelids, the price of contact lens fluid, and adventurers endlessly waving bright torches in front of their eyes. This one's body language seems to be saying "Take one step closer to my quad-shot latte, Elf boy, and I will fuck you up!"

Fried Chicken!

2011-11-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Twenty years ago today, a singular artist and performer was lost to us.

On November 24th 1991, the British musical icon Freddie Mercury passed away, the victim of a disease that at the time was still largely on the fringe of Western consciousness. But by unexpectedly claiming such a beloved public figure, the stigma associated with AIDS was destined to be short-lived.

The band Queen dominated the British rock scene during the 70s and 80s. And by the height of their success they were, quite literally, as much a national institution as a certain British monarch of the same name! And the antics of their charismatic yet sincere front man (whether on stage or on video) were always a source of great entertainment to the nation.

This LEGO creation is my own tribute to the man Mercury. I wanted to create a model that captured Freddie's energy and joy. And Queen's concert at Wembley Stadium in the summer of 1986 (one of Freddie's final performances with Queen) seemed like the perfect source material. The concert was actually televised nationwide a few months later, and so is probably how many of us remember Freddie now - in that regal yellow jacket, sporty pants, Adidas trainers, and wielding his signature "sceptre" microphone stand.

Despite the enormous cultural blow dealt by Freddie's passing, the popularity of Queen and the memory of Freddie have in no way diminished in the intervening years. There have been numerous tribute concerts, some featuring the surviving members of the band themselves (including a few special performances scheduled this month). The band has also continued to perform their most well-known material with the help of other talented singers. Although for me personally, nothing could top the performances of George Michael, Elton John and David Bowie at the very first tribute concert back in 1992!

Freddie's legacy has also given rise to such worthwhile organizations as the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which funds AID research, and the Mercury Prize, an annual award given to promising new musical talent. The Queen fan base is also still thriving and the band itself is currently working on an album of hitherto unreleased songs featuring vocals by Freddie, thanks to some recently discovered studio tapes.

So, if you happen to remember seeing some old Queen albums hiding at the back of your music collection, dust them off today and spin one for Freddie. Or heck, do it the modern way and download a random Queen track from iTunes.

"The show must go on!"

Horse Feathers

2011-11-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

With this cute little Groucho Marx disguise, Carson Hart reminds you never to belong to any club that will have you as a member! :-)

Bite Me

2011-11-20T23:41:00.000-08:00

While I can't say for sure whether this "diesel" mosquito by Omar Ovalle utilizes custom chroming or non-Lego wing components, it still doesn't take away from the simple overall beauty of his creation.

When this one gets you, it's definitely gonna leave a mark!

Our tastebuds can't repel flavor of that magnitude!

2011-11-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

I'm of the camp that believes punning to be the highest achievement in humor. Entire civilizations have been based on it for chrissake. So imagine the cringing stomach muscle spams of pain/pleasure that I experienced when I saw Lino's latest creation...

Built as part of another Iron Builder contest. The irony here (ouch, unintended pun!) is that for me these contests are just one giant buffet of wonderfully bloggable creations. I just head up to the peanut gallery and starting hitting the "New Post" button.

My work here is done!

Little people

2011-11-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

So as promised in my earlier post on the Star Trek / Monthy Python mashup by Gabriel Thomson, here are some other really amazing dioramas that people have created (at the last minute and at great expense) for the 2011 MOC Olympics...

Wizard of Oz by Blake Baer

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Thoy Bradley

Globe Theater by Glory_Forever

These scenes are incredible, especially when you consider they had to be built to fit the theme of that particular round of the contest, and within a time budget. And as seems to be the norm with MOCPage folks, each of these scenes is accompanied by a very extensive set of closeup photos and narrative about the creation and the build process, that are well worth a look.

Of course, this immediately leaves me wondering about munchkins vs oompa-loompas. Like what their offspring might look like, or who would win in a gipsy knife-fight. So perhaps best to just end on a relevant quote, which for three MOCs could be a bit of a problem...

"Alas poor Veruca - I knew her, Toto."

You don't know JACK

2011-11-14T23:43:00.000-08:00

Terrible news! OneLUG member and him-sphere inventor Bruce Lowell has shamelessly sold out to become the Lego mouthpiece of corporate America (you can deny it Bruce, but we all know the score!).

Or more likely he just really really likes the burgers at Jack In The Box. I know I do. Although I have been clean for almost 5 years now. But I still fondly remember the wonderfully lardy heart-explode-y taste of their Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger. And those chilli cheese curly fries, mmmmm. Oh god I think I'm having a relapse. I need a bacon grease injection to take the edge off the urge to just drive down there right now. And this isn't exactly helping either, Bruce...

True story: When we first arrived in the US, my wife and I literally had to split a single B.U.C. between the two of us, on account of our tiny British appetites! If we'd been Russian it would probably have kept us fed and our oil lamps lit for weeks.

Non-Lego news roundup

2011-11-13T23:11:00.000-08:00

Flickr user Tricia Wang spotted this sign outside the Sunflour bakery and cafe in Shaghai, China. Apparently Lego dogs are not allowed. Although they'd be quite easy to smuggle in your pocket, so it seems like an un-enforceable policy if you ask me.

And while on travels of my own in the much less exotic Pacific Northwest, I spotted a fairly decent selection of Nanoblock sets in a local "mom n' pop" toy store! So they're getting pretty pervasive now. Although a bit rich for my blood at $18-25 dollars for the boxes sets!

Also pretty pervasive now are Playmobil's obvious attempt to cash in on Lego's success with its collectible minifigs. I recall seeing Megablok making a similar play a while back, too. Note the girl/boy differentiation...

...although I can't really claim that's sexist since I imagine the gender divide among Playmobil is probably far more balanced than it is for Lego.

And in my final bit of non-Lego business for the evening, I'd like to announce that I am starting a second blog! Of sorts.

For some insane reason, I've always had Yahoo as my web browser's home page. And prime billing on their site these days are a continuously scrolling range of vapid, vacuuous "lifestyle and culture" articles. Which make a very easy target for some humor.

So to that end, I have created the site Screw y(ah)oo!, where I will feature simple quips to the most pointless Yahoo articles of the day. Yes, it's an experiment. I have no idea if it will last. But please feel free to pass it on to your friends if you find it at all funny!

Oh, and finally finally, I see the total hit counter for The Living Brick just crossed the 200,000 mark, yay! Of course, that's spread over a period of about 1000 days. So I'd like to give a big THANKYOU to all my loyal readers! Or if you just stumbled across this blog by accident, fuck you!

When bricks attack

2011-11-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

What are the key attributes of a great character MOC? Let's list them, and see if you can spot the fake one...

1. A good idea, skillfully executed
2. Humor, personality, and action
3. Fifty thousand bricks and an SLR camera

Did you get it? If you didn't, then read them again, testing each one against the example of this "monster 1x1 brick" by SweStar.

Right, now you're getting it!

Run, Bambi, Run! (Oh, wait...)

2011-11-10T21:43:00.000-08:00

I immediately recognized exactly what this was, from the thumbnail alone. The imagery is so burned into my mind from watching Dumbo endlessly much as a kid. Is Disney still around? I have no knowledge. On account of me not being 8 any more.

A-n-y-w-a-y... Eurobricks is running some contest or other involving the use of Series 5 collectible minifigs. And Okay Yaramanoglu decided to use this as an opportunity to recreate the pivotal jump scene from the movie, in every detail!

More images of the model can be found here on Brickshelf. Ironically, if Brickshelf were a cartoon animal, it would actually be an elephant in a clown costume holding a feather... "I can load, I can load!".

I'm in the mood for a swim!

2011-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

I've been following the work of Kevin Ryhal (aka M<O><O>DSWIM) for a while now. He may just become the next great character builder, assuming that he can (a) renounce his allegiance to the Evil Lucasfilm Empire and (b) lay back on the hinge bricks a bit! Oh, and perhaps come up with an alias that doesn't totally swrew up my HTML editor ;-)

And here he's really taken his work to the next level, with a really nicely proportioned design for clone troopers and even some AT-RT's for them to ride!

Then again I think he's already been on a bit of a roll recently...

And if you liked that (you hopeless fanboy you) then you're gonna love all of this stuff!

"And I thought Scotsmen smelled bad... ...on the outside!"

2011-11-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

So I'm not one to pander to all these overly commercialized nerd franchies - my 2nd choice for this post's title being the current joke "Use the force, Harry (Gandalf)". But this entry for the current Iron Builder contest, by repeat offender Rod Gillies, just tickled my fancy for all things microscale...

I have a feeling this round is gonna be another a good one!

It's...

2011-11-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

Once again the annual MocOlympics contest is generating some cool stuff. (...although personally I wish they'd relocate this contest to Flickr)

It always amazes me that the competitors are able to put together such great models with no warning of the topic, and a very limited time budget. Which for me would be a total nightmare scenario: I'm much more comfortable being able to spend 2 weeks fiddling around trying to get the elbows right on my quarterly character creation.

Three recent entries that caught my attention are actually sizable minifig-based scenes. The one I'm gonna show you today is the work of Australian builder Gabriel Thomson.

At first glance you could be forgiven for saying "oh look, another minifig version of the bridge from the original Star Trek series, yawn". But keep looking, dear reader!

Mr Spock, what's that on the scanner? It appears to be something completely different, Captain...

Oh no, it's the Crimson Permanent Assurance (from Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life", you Philistines!). We're under attack from financial pirates! Also, I like fezes; fezes are cool.

Let me just repeat that in case it's not clear what Gabriel has created here: Monty Python invading Star Trek. How awesome is that! If you look closely you'll see Doctor Who even makes a brief cameo. So that's two really cool British shows invading one used-to-be-kind-of-cool-but-then-became-rather-lame American show. Imperialists 2, Colonials 1! :-)

"Of all the blogs, in all the Internets, it has to show up on mine"

2011-11-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

By Jolyrogr

The witching hour

2011-10-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

...is almost upon us here in Seattle, and thankfully the Jelly family is all done with Halloween already for another year. The kids are candied up. I'm all cheese'd and sangria'd up - and thanks to an hour in a very hot costume, several pounds lighter too! I'll be thankful of that once Thanksgiving rolls around.

I think the Hawkings did an excellent job on their costumes this year, although I have no idea who the big one is supposed to be...

Pandering and pondering

2011-10-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

Awww, here's a very adorable looking and completely non-violent pair of pandas, by M and M (whose charming little Alice in Wonderland figures I featured earlier this year).

They look a bit glum, as though they were waiting for something. Like the end of communism, perhaps. Then again, if the only food I could eat was bamboo, I'd be pretty down in the dumps too. Hey guys, it could be worse, at least you're not koalas!

Four by four

2011-10-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Christopher Tan contines to be on a roll lately. Perhaps I'll just have to made the "Chris Quad" a regular feature!

Ant farming

2011-10-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

Jason Alleman (aka True Dimensions) built this set of microscale farm machinery. And even though I know nothing about the original subject matter, somehow I can just tell that these models are painstakingly accurate!

The only thing missing are a bunch of eviscerated cows and a flying saucer. Actually, these are so adorably playable, it just leaves me wanting more. Like, oh, I don't know... an entire microscale farm scene?!

Jason has also posted instructions to these models and more on his website. (...good man!)

LEGO patent turns 50, buys Ford Mustang GT, schedules first prostate exam

2011-10-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

Exactly 50 years ago today, the US Patent Office granted patent number 3005282 for a "toy building brick" to it's inventor, one Godtfred Kirk Christiansen of Billund, Denmark. And so, the legend began!

Even though the patent was challenged more than once in court and actually expired some decades ago, the competition never seems to have come close to creating a product of comparible quality in all that time. The question is, does that mean we should love The LEGO Company, or fear it? :-)

All bow down before the awesome power of hypno-kitten!

2011-10-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it been almost 5 minutes since I posted something awesome by Korean builder Na K Amida (aka edulyoung)? I'd better do something about that! Even if it means breaking my usual rule about 1:1 scale sculptures. But then, I am powerless against the unbearable adorable cuteness that *is* hypno-kitten!

Actually, Mr. Amida (blog) has come up with a proper name and charming backstory for this model...

"Romeo, the stray cat, cocked his ears toward the corner and looked at wide eyed. His legs were ready to run and the eyes penetrated the darkness under a dim street light."

I'm glad someone out there has had such positive and poetry-evoking experiences with cats. I'm afraid my most recent encounter with my own feline family member can only be rhapsodised thus...

"Oh accursed and ever-curious moggy, why did you follow me into the crawlspace so? For the early hours are approaching, and your journeys below the lighted entry panel are so infrequent. As I reach down cobra-like to clamp my hand around your adorably chokable neck, I wonder: Will I be able to retrieve you from the carpet of rat feces below, before you claw every last scrap of flesh from my forearm?"

Please wait

2011-10-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of posts this week - I've been busy getting ready for a business trip. Starting tomorrow morning, I shall be in Las Vegas for the 2011 Tableau Customer Conference, where I shall be including at least one Lego-related joke in my presentation!

In the meantime I shall leave you with this charming scene entitled simply "Waiting", by Russian Lego fan (and pirate builder extraordinaire) Corioso.

Many thanks to Bruce Hietbrink at Comic-Disney-God-Micro-Miniland-Sci-Vignette-Bricktale-Bricks for the hot tip on this one!

It's a dirty Jobs but someone's gotta do it

2011-10-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Christopher Tan (blog) is a man on fire at the moment, churning out one super little nanoblock based character after another. Here's a sampling of his latest batch (including a model of Steve Jobs that was featured on Wired's website).

Because robots have rights too!

2011-10-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Polish builder Jerac has provided his own take on the whole "robolution" theme of the latest add-on to the game Borderlands, featuring some hilariously bad-ass Claptraps (which kind look to me like they should be Wall-E's redneck cousins or something).

The Claptraps seem to offer a world of robotic character creation opportunities, and I wouldn't be half surprised if these become the next Lego meme waiting round the corner for us (in the vein of all the recent Portal creations, or even CubeDudes). Let's step back and see how my prediction pans out...

BrickCon 2011: And now, for something completely different...

2011-10-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of BrickCon's 2011 motto "Building a Community", the Bricks of Character theme this year included it's first ever *collaborative* display. The subject was Monty Python. The scale was miniland. And its name was...

The concept was pretty simple: Find a bunch of AFOLs who were nuts about Monty Python, and get each one to contribute a scene from the one of the TV episodes or movies. Everything would be done to about 'miniland' (theme park) scale, to allow for interesting characterization, great detailing, and to present a consistent overall look to the diorama. Each scene would be built upon one of more standard 32x32 Lego baseplates so we could just push them all together.

In the end we presented a total of 12 scenes. And you'd have to be a pretty massive Python fan to be able to name them all without Googling! For the full 'faux' miniland experience, I even hid a boom-box under the display that played random Python tunes and sketches every 5 minutes during public hours. So by the end of the convention I was pretty much humming these things in my sleep (aargh!). And during private hours, anyone within 20 feet of the area would have been treated to endless nerdy recitals of Python dialogue. As is the tradition among Our Kind.

Check out my Flick set for detailed images (including the ultra-big super-wide panoramic version, if you dare!). And many thanks to my PythonScape compadrés for all your hard work. Wear your Pythonscape badge bridge with pride. Because your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elberberries!

The PythonScape crew:

Iain Heath
Oscar Heath
Tommy Williamson
Tim Inman
Micah Berkoff
Mariann Asanuma
Ty Keltner
Guy Himber

BrickCon 2011: Bricks of Character

2011-10-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

My continuing coverage of BrickCon 2011 continues to continue! And tonight we're gonna focus on my personal Lego raison d'etre Bricks of Character.

Check out my Bricks of Character set on Flickr to see my personal favorite "BOC MOCs" from the event, or for more comprehensive coverage of the entire convention check out Bill Ward's photostream.

First of all, your humble Bricks of Character 'emmcees' would like to thank everyone who brought a MOC to the BOC table!

We had around 80 creations this time (and as always, that's counting all the CubeDudes one MOC!). It was great to see all the new and creative models. Although as the proportion of videogame-based MOCs grows from year to year, I'm having a harder time recognizing everything. Fortunately there are always plenty of 'youths' skulking about to explain it all to me!

Here's a journey across of the entire BOC table...

And as always, we got a great response from the public! (...laugh, point, hold camera phone directly over delicate MOC, push barriers closer and closer to table, if kindergarden age then also swing off barriers so that feet almost reach table level...)

We also had the pleasure of handing out trophies to the best contributions. Of course, this being Bricks of Character, you already knew the award categories would not be normal...

This year the judging was performed by my arch nemeses The Brothers Brick. Because it's always important to have a scapegoat in these situations. Thanks guys (and godess)!

Here's me and Tommy dishing out the prizes (which included some Lego sets!) to the three winners. Tommy actually won one, as did Nathan Proudlove and Shawn Snyder. Here's Shawn recieving his award. No speeches for them since I'm a mic hog!

...is that some kind of "Left Coast" uniform? Everyone at work seems to dress this way, come rain or shine! Not that I can talk, given what I was wearing.

And to wrap up, here are two of my most very favoritest MOCs from the entire Bricks of Character display (Shawn's "Kratos" and some miniland roller derby gals by the ever-dreamy Gary McIntyre)...

Another great showing, and looking forward to seeing what the next one brings!

NEXT UP: This year Bricks of Character featured it's very first collaborative display Pythonscape. Stay tuned for an in depth analysis!

BrickCon 2011: By the Numbers

2011-10-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some more randomly selected images from BrickCon 2011. But you may be surprised to see a GRAPH at the top of this list. Yes kids, playing with bricks is fun, but playing with data can be cool too!

When I'm not fiddling with Lego or lying face down in a pool of regurgitated vegetable fermentations, I work at a Seattle company called Tableau Software. We make "data visualization" software that is so powerful and easy to use that even politicians could operate it!

Click the image to get a full explanation of what you're looking at there. I've been using Tableau to analyze the MOC database that the BrickCon organizers used to print off all the MOC cards (which as a theme coordinator, I happen to have access to).

I'll post further revealing 'visualizations' as and when I can, including (hopefully) an interactive online dashboard that will let you explore the data on your own! (famous last words)

Ok, back to the photos... Here are my personal favorites from the convention (in what little time I could find to go explore all the other exhibits while not busy 'coordinating'). This doesn't include any of my favorites from Bricks of Character though, since I'll be covering that theme in excruciating detail very soon!

(The names of the MOCs and their creators can be found by just clicking through to my photostream)

BrickCon 2011: AFOL-ing around

2011-10-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last year I procrastinated EPIC-ally and only managed to push out one decent post on BrickCon. This year I figure it's better that I just get stuff out in whatever state it comes. So get ready for randomness!

I shall be posting pictures of my personal favorite MOCs from the event, as well as providing an in-depth look at this year's Bricks of Character display, which featured our first ever collaborative effort, Pythonscape...

...if Tommy can keep his head out of the shot for just a moment!

If you want to just pore over detailed images of the entire convention, I recommend checking out Bill Ward's coverage which (as always) is exhaustively complete and very well photographed.

But tonight "on a very special episode" of The Living Brick, I want to focus on the "friends and fun" aspect of the convention, which is what it's all about (actually that's not true, it's all about how much free stuff you can swag).

This was my son Oscar's second year at BrickCon. While not manning the Bricks of Character section, he was either off fan-boy-ing it up over at Operation Bricklord or pestering me for more dough to blow on Brick Arms.

Tommy Williamson, rocking the fruits of our labor at the Bricks of Character table. Not sure where he was planning to stuff that dollar bill, though.

Scott posing next to his immense Pirate section centerpiece. He's the one on the left. We both spent a good part of the convention nestled behind this behemoth, where there were all kinds of secret compartments for operating the lights, misters, or stuffing leftover donuts. We also discovered that misters leak profusely when left running for days at a time. Fortunately Scott spotted this before the power cables did!

...the entire thing is actually made of MegaBlok (I kid, I kid!)

Brother Josh alolwed me to handle some of the Classic-Castle.com mascots that travel the world from AFOL to AFOL. They're minifigs, so of course I unleashed some HATE upon their tiny plastically nostril-plugging helmets!

This is Brother/Sister Caylin. She has the power to bestow gifts of Lego upon lucky convention go-ers. Or to unleash her teerrible fury. Fear her. This is her throttling me probably...

Me unpacking stuff for the Pythonscape table. We had Monty Python music playing out of my laptop alomst continuously. I've been humming it ever since. I think it may have caused permanent brain damage! That and all the inevitable dialog recitation from anyone wandering within 10 feet of this area.

A bunch of the younger guys showed off an arsenal of perfect Lego replica weapons, which they happpily waved around during both private and public hours. I kept pointing out to them that if they got too close to the entrance area, someone on the street would probably call it in and we'd get a visit from the local SWAT team. And their bullets aren't made out of plastic!

...and it turned out the Seattle PD eventually complained about this stuff, so we might not be seeing this theme next year. Probably didn't help that one of the lads was the spitting image of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The highlight of the evening entertainment was Hillel Cooperman's completetly impartial and thorough analysis of the quality of MegaBlok. Which of course meant a little blending. Completely scientific. Not at all maniacal...

Brothers Nathan and Andrew share a little quality family time (CAPTION CONTEST: I'll be award a prize to the suggestion that makes me laugh the most!)

And they're breeding! This is Chris Malloy, the latest recruit to The Brothers Brick. "And he shall know their ways, as if born to them". He's a really nice chap and we discovered we both met the same drunken goat in Texas one time. No, seriously! He's also about 9 feet tall.

Tiffeny, hiding her shame during the 'blind build' contest...

Darth Roger, letting his Ambassadorial powers go to his head...

Well, that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, some MOCs!

Various photos courtesy of Bill Ward, Caylin Feyring, Josh Wedin and yours truly.

BrickCon 2011: Jumping for Joy!

2011-10-02T22:51:00.000-07:00

BrickCon 2011 just happened here in Seattle. All the usual awesomeness. Details to follow!

8-bitten

2011-09-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-19T23:41:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-09-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T22:25:00.001-07:00

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.

Yo Quiero!

2011-08-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

Korean builder edulyoung has been featured endless times on this blog already, so one more time isn't gonna hurt.

The adorable features of this little Chihuahua model almost make me want to hate my wretched small real-life dog just a tiny bit less. For just a moment.

What's more, you can even purchase an exclusive copy of this set (or just the instructions if you prefer) over at edulyoung's Bricklink store.

Jitter bug

2011-08-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not saying those Eastern Europeans are over obsessed with the rave scene or anything, but even this lively little Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus) by Polish builder Bartosz Kacprzyk...

...transforms into a wild dancing robo-bug...

...but then ultimately succombs to 'E' withdrawal and massive dehydration at about 4am...

Yeah kids, it's all knee-pads and glow sticks and Swedish House Mafia at first. Then the next thing you know you're waking up either (a) on the balcony of some guy in a shell suit called Tomasz with vomit all down your It's All Gone Pete Tong T-shirt or (b) in a scene from The Hostel.

Chibi-tomically correct

2011-08-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, to ease myself back into this blogging gig, I thought I'd dig some up some classic stuff by one of my favorite Japanese builders Moko.

This adorable skeleton seems so perfectly in proportion to his other chibi characters (such as Menma from Ano Hana below) that I can almost picture him building it into every one of them! Which now I think about it, is a worryingly obsessive-compulsive thought. I need to get out more...

Small fries

2011-08-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

I keep telling people one of these days I'm just gonna switch to doing microscale stuff for an entire year or something, try and drag that category out of the doldrums of "modern downtown" that it seems to be so often stuck in.

Well clearly great minds think alike, judging by these fab microscale creations by Stacy Sterling (Hi Stacy!). Pictured here are mouth-wateringly recognizable versions of Porkys, Mickey's Diner, White Castle, and a strangely familiar 50's style movie theater complete with microscopic posters!

...hmmm, some kind of obsession with unhealthy food vending establishments Stacy? Presumably a former obsession, otherwise you'd have a spare tyre like me!

Face Off

2011-08-24T00:15:00.001-07:00

Chris McVeigh reminds us what happens if you invite Hannibal Lecter over for a staring contest!

The pin is mightier than the sword

2011-08-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Having grown up in an era saturated with classic WWII movies, I immediately had a warm feeling when I saw this excellent (life size?) recreation of a MK2 grenade by Nick Jensen. Which is probably a strange feeling to have about a grenade, I grant you.

Forty days and forty nights...

2011-08-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

...left until BrickCon 2011!

This will be BrickCon's 10th year (wOOt!) and it looks to be a good one. Right now a devoted team of organizers are juggling a hundred different logistical nightmares that I can only half imagine, while several hundred adult LEGO fans (myself included) are frantically trying to complete their MOCs in time for the big event.

If you haven't already registered to attend, then swing on over to www.brickcon.org right now and do so, because registrations this year are being capped at 400.

Much is new this year, including a revamped website, additional convention space for AFOL activities and events, and extended public exhibition hours (to reduce congestion).

And in the spirit of this year's slogan, the AFOL community has rallied to bring us an astonishing number of different themes and collaborative displays...

Art/Mosaic/Sculpture Robotics
Battle Bugs Steampunk
Bionicle Technic
Bricks of Character Town/Train
Castle [New] Bling your AT-AT
Dragon Fly In [New] Numereji 2421
Great Ball Contraption [New] Pirates
Mecha [New] Pythonscape
Microscale [New] Superheroes
Model Team [New] The Dark Side
Moonbase [New] War Beasts
Operation Bricklord [New] World Architecture

There really is something for everyone! Detailed information about each theme can be found here. If you're interested in contributing MOCs to any of these displays, just contact the relevant theme coordinators. Or if you are looking for volunteer opportunities, contact the organizers - I'm sure they have a million and one different jobs that they could use help with.

Over the coming weeks I'll be featuring some of the above themes in detail, to give you a flavor of what each one is all about (particularly the new ones).

Right, better stop blogging and get back to working on my MOCs. No time to waste!

The Phoenix Rises!

2011-08-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

After a long summer hiatus - if you can call it that in Seattle - involving a lot of intense (and occasionaly secret) building in preparation for BrickCon 2011, The Living Brick is finally back! With a new look and a new url...

www.thelivingbrick.com

Look for a resumption of the traditional festivities and jollyness very shortly. As well as lots of new features and surprises. Should I happen to think of any.

- iain

May the force be blah blah blah etc

2011-06-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

Seeing as how Legoland California is holding it's annual Star Wars days event this weekend, this seems like a good time to share with you these cute 'chibi' style models of some well-known Star Wars characters by SPARKART!...

How to get a head in Lego

2011-06-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

The awful green background of this blog will probably ruin the beautiful simplicity and composition of this image, but that shouldn't stop me from showing you these great little shrunken heads by Jordan Schwartz (aka Sir Nadroj).

Pocket Heros

2011-06-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

Slightly 'against charter' since these models are articulated, but I've always dug this detailed style of somewhere-between-minifig-and-miniland-scale characters constructed a from mass of tiny specialized components.

I honestly believe that if The Lego Company spun up a line of figures based on this technique, they'd be a massive hit, and they could finally jettison the casserole of nonsense that is Bionicle!

number.3 by Tim Müller

Halo fig by Larry Lars

Dark Dragon Knight by Pete Corp

And as a bonus, Pete also created this Chibi Samurai in the same vein, which he auctioned off to help with the Japanese disaster relief effort...

...so you can see, they're even saving the world!

It takes guts to create something like this...

2011-05-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

And Clay Morrow (aka Choking Hazards, nyuk nyuk) is not afraid to show them!

Scotch & Soda

2011-05-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been a while, just shut up, ok?! I have finally completed my largest MOC ever. And it's kinda been a bit of a distraction lately!

Right, now we've got that out the way, I would just like to thank my good chum Guy Himber (aka V&A Steamworks) for creating something totally wild to totally restoke my blogging boiler. I give you...

...created as part of the current 'Iron Builder' smackdown between Guy and fellow Lego lounge lizard Rod Gilles, a contest that involves building models featuring a 'mystery' part, which for this round are inverted tan arches.

While that sounds like a pretty accursed part to have to build around, both competitors are already finding some very creative uses for it, such as Rod's novel take on an otherwise well-trodden part of the Steampunk canon...

But this is all just par for the course among the ranks of the Iron Builders. The previous round (which I was honored to judge) featured the even more miserable choice of sand green droid bodies. However, this did not prove to be much of an obstacle for the final victor SlyOwl, who knocked it out of the park several times...

Although his opponent Karf Oohlu did put up a good fight, literally...

Monstrosities

2011-05-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

I've always enjoyed the very organic building style of stalwart SandLUG member Matt Armstrong (aka Monsterbrick), probably because like me he focuses on character-based models, but also because he's not locked into one technique or scale.

After an exhaustive and seemingly impossible exploration of microscale character building that he calls Bricklings, Matt has switched gears (and scales) completely! Starting from the David Pagano's posable 'template' character, illustrated in the recent animation-themed issue of Brickjournal, he's applied his signature style very effectively to create all kinds of fun stuff.

Here are the Universal monsters, a subject that must be dear to Matt's heart since he's covered them in several other scales in the past...

And here is his interpretation of the King and Queen of Hearts (of playing card fame)...

And here is his slightly oblique (and inexplicably turquoise!) variation on the Wicked Witch of the West...

If I know Matt there will probably be a new one of these every day for the next year, so keep your eyes peeled for your favorite characters!

"Intersht Fckxplorer!"

2011-04-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

Chris McVeigh (aka Powerpig) entitled this scene "Nerd Rage" but I think this digital version of road rage is something everyone in this day and age experiences on an almost hourly basis.

Hmmm, maybe the title actually refers to the rage that we all feel towards the nerds that make our technology so hard to use (...among whose ranks I must sadly count myself, although I am fighting the good fight, by trying to bring down the system from the inside).

Happy East-ant

2011-04-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

I carefully reviewed the usual hoard of Easter themed Lego offerings this year and decided they were all trite and predictable and overly cute (sorry guys). Hardly any new ones of guys nailed to trees. Ergo: Missing the point entirely!

So instead I will just fall back on one of this blog's main-stay themes: wildlife. And this ant by Théo (aka Titolian) was just the ticket (I am currently engaged in a protracted and bitter war with some local ants, and all the droppings from my kid's Easter egg hunts is just going to make things worse).

A slice of life

2011-04-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Chris McVeigh (aka PowerPig) frequently builds everyday objects out of Lego, and the results are always delicious. Especially in this instance...

Showtime at the Plaza

2011-04-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

There's a huge fan-created Lego exhibition going on at the Cityplaza in Hong Kong at the moment, and my favorite local builder tkh has plenty of great images to share of all the things on display. Not to mention the fact that he's also crafted this fine set of figures for the event...

And when you're done marvelling at these, The Brothers Brick has links to a bunch of other images of the event. But I'll save you the bother and just show you this most awesome pyramid diorama by ArzLan...

...monumental!

Righteous One Because Of The Story

2011-04-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Scruffy Mynxbane, also known as SHANE (Slave Hammer Android, Not Employed) massively abuses the concept of acronyms to build us this heartwarming tale of RON (Radar Operator Node) and his wife LINDA (Logic Induced Negative Diagnostic Android), welcoming their SON (Synthesized Original Newbuilt) named SCOTTY (Sorta Cognitive Object That Toddles and Yammers) into the world after RON gets back from a long ~~sea~~ space voyage. Hopefully one that lasted less than 9 months! Although I don't know how it works with robots. Are e-mail attachments involved?

Put on a friendly face

2011-04-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Facebook. It all seemed like such innocent fun at first. "Funville", if you will. Then one day, we all woke up and realized we were all friend-whores with 537 friends. Brickshelf builder azumu uses a little punning to poke fun at us all (...ok, no further pun intended there; well, maybe just a little one)

Like!

Instantly recognizer-ble

2011-04-16T11:04:00.000-07:00

As a hopeless Tron fan, I'm always amused by (and occasionally guilty of) Lego creations with a Tron theme. Even, begrudingly, when the bricks are virtual! Such as in the case of all this fab stuff created by the mysterious tronlegocy...

Ok, but you know you've gotta build these for real next, man!

Way Out West

2011-04-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

I recently got a new car, one that actually has electricity and therefore 'features', and one of those 'features' is a device called a ray-di-oh. Through some aetheric process this wonderous device delivers music from the further corners of the globe, most of which I'm sad to say is complete codswallop.

However, I have been quite enjoying the musical stylings of a nice young lady by the name of Katy Perry, who as well as being an avid fan of flavored lip balm, is focusing her attention this week on Extraterrestrials. Who she apparently wants to kiss. What's wrong with this woman? It seems like she needs to kiss every thing or one that she sings about.

Anyway, imagine my horror to hear this song totally desecrated by the presence of none other than THE BIPOLAR SPAWN OF SATAN'S UNDERPANTS. By which I mean Kayne West, of course. Here he is on TV being a spaz...

And here he is being modelled in Lego being a spaz, courtesy of Dave Kaleta...

Dave is a man of wit and education and reason, so I shall assume his creation was intended as a mockery of The Swift Basher. Because if not, then I shall be forced to label him as one of the devil's minions. Or devil's onions, which you've got to admit sounds a lot funnier.

US nanoblock set review. With video! And 3D!!

2011-04-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last month, nanoblock is now available in the US. And as promised, here is my review of the current US product line.

Last year I did a thorough review of some nanoblock sets I obtained from Japan. I don't want to repeat too much of what I already covered in that review, but I'll give you the essentials... nanoblock is a brick building system, much smaller in size than Lego, consisting entirely of plates (no bricks or slopes), and with a focus on accurate sculptures of real world objects (animals and buildings - no figs, no wheels, no themes). I'm guessing that in Japan the primary market is adults.

So now that nanoblock is available in the US, what's changed? Let's take a look!

-= Packaging =-
This appears to be a full English rebranding of the product. All the packaging and instructions are now in English, and there is even a dedicated English website, mynanoblock.com. The overall style of the original product has been maintained, and conveys the feeling of 'quality' (the box and resealable bags are very glossy and covered in nice color pictures).

-= Materials =-
The nanoblock I reviewed last year was a noticely 'thinner' ABS mix: the bricks were slightly bendable and the colors a little translucent (although the selection of colors was very good, mostly primaries and pastels).

The new product appears to be a different ABS formula. It's much tougher, glossier, and more opaque. So it feels much more like Lego now. But the grip is basically the same since they don't use tubes underneath like Lego, so it's more push-pull-slide than snap-and-pop. The color palette seems to be growing, with all kinds of lovely darker tones. I particularly like the dark yellow, a color that I wish Lego would explore some day. Transparent colors have also appeared this year, including a trans-clear and a trans-blue.

-= Instructions =-
As well being in English now, there are more hints than in the Japanese version, and all instructions are now in full color (not just in the boxed sets). Another big improvement is the introduction of 'plan view' steps in some places, where each layer is shown top-down rather than in perspective. This helps a lot with the larger sets.

The instructions still show bricks from prior steps as "faded out", which takes some getting used to. But now they use a pale blue for this instead of white, which was a blessing when building the Taj Mahal set! However, we did notice that trans-clear is represented using the same pale blue tone, which lead to some confusion in one case.

-= The Build =-
Construction can be fiddly, with the instructions requiring a lot of concentration to interpret correctly. Each numbered step shows multiple stacked layers, with vertical guide arrows to help you line them up correctly. Layers need to be built bottom-up rather than top-down, although this isn't obvious at first glance. Definitely not the 'no brainer' process you might be used to with Lego instructions!

They are still using a 5-level difficulty rating system, and the sets we got were all level 2 or 3. While my 12-year old had no trouble with any of the sets, my 9-year old had a very tough time indeed making sense of the instructions, and required a lot of help. So I would recommend this product for ages 10+.

We had 9 sets to play with: 6 animals (giraffe, pig, panda, koala, frog and dog) and 3 buildings (Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, and Neuschwanstein Castle). The animals took about 30 minutes each to build, while the buildings took nearer 60 minutes each.

The panda and pig had very satisfyingly "barrel-like" designs and looked great. The koala and giraffe had some hanging elements that had a tendency to work loose - illustrating the limitations of the tube-less interlock system. But all the animals were adorable!

The Taj Mahal is a somewhat uninteresting set, since it is one color and at this scale relatively undetailed and box-like. The Eiffel Tower is lovely - the building's shape is well captured, with lots of cute ground features at the bottom. The Neuschwanstein Castle set is the winner of this group, though. Lots of great color and a very detailed chaotic/organic design with all the various turrets and landscaping.

-= Overall =-
Really the only downside to the nanoblock system is that construction is less than fun, especially for grown-up sized fingers and middle-ages eyes! But in every other respect this is a great product. Every set is a tiny little work of art, that will look great on your dashboard, computer monitor, or mantlepiece. The choice of subjects is very imaginative and growing all the time, and the range of colors is really good. Street prices in the US seem pretty reasonable. Plus, each set comes with plenty of spare bricks.

And to address the elephant in the room here: I don't really see nanoblock and Lego as direct competitors. They seem to serve different niches and markets. Nanoblock will probably never have the same mass market all-ages appeal as Lego, and its bricks are not as advanced as Lego's. But by squarely focusing on the art/sculture angle, nanoblock only has to worry about competing with a relatively small proportion of Lego's product line, namely the Creator series. I don't think we'll be seeing original 'theme based' sets from nanoblock like Lego's; the emphasis is more on the beauty rather than playability of the models. And that is one reason why I enjoy them so much.

The current US product line is fairly modest. The full product line (as seen in Japan) is pretty extensive and includes some really radical stuff, as hinted at in my prior nanoblock article. I just hope we start to see that stuff arrive on our shores pretty soon! The US distributors also tell me we should expect to see a number of specifically US-themed sets in the near future, which may further increase nanoblock's appeal over here.

But I thoroughly recommend that next time you're racing down the Lego aisle at Toys R Us, arms outstretched to scoop endless Lego sets into your cart, you at least toss a nanoblock set or two in there as well, and give it a try!

Humppa an oompa lumpa in your jumpa

2011-04-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

Teen builder Pate-keetongu and his friend Luuranko collaborated to create this lively diorama of Finnish hummpa band Eläkeläiset.

I particularly like the facial hair, beer bottles lying all over the place, and the fact that one of the instruments is being operated with a hammer.

I know they say Icelandic is one of the wierdest languages out there, but reading Eläkeläiset's discography I've concluded Finnish leaves it in the dust... It's like someone fed Klingon through the anagram server website running inside the pig-latin generator website. Who can forget such memorable and suggestively titled albums as Humppaelämää, Humppaorgiat, Huipputähtien Ykköshitit, or Humppasirkus. And of course the classic Jenkkapolkkahumppa and Werbung, Baby!.

Click here to enjoy closeup shots of the above scene, in all its festive glory, while you ponder whether Ochre Jelly is either a racist or a xenophobe. In actual fact, I am a räciophöbe. As I always like to say, "It's funny because they're not like us". :-)

"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important post"

2011-04-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Bruce for allowing the Miniland Bricks blog to go dangerously off-topic and bring the following work to my attention! ;-)

Brickshelf builder M and M has created a set of wonderfully quirky sculpts of Alice, the March Hare and the Caterpillar from some book you've probably never heard of...

Judging by their facial expressions, I'm guessing the Caterpillar must have been experimenting with something 'special' in that hookah pipe! "Woah dude, I think some parts of this story are actually finally beginning to make sense..."

A Tale Of Two Conventions

2011-04-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the pleasure of making the trip down to the San Jose area to attend the 2nd annual Bricks by Bay Lego convention. And since BBTB is the ancestral birthplace of Bricks of Character, it was also a bit of a pilgrimage (except without the bandits and dyssentry). This year the event took place at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara. Going to a convention in a hotel that's hundreds of miles of from home has many advantages. Such as being in a hotel. That's hundreds of miles from home. Because PLAYTIME!

Now if you're reading this and thinking "Oh god, here comes another turgid report on another random nerd-filled Lego convention", then I'm afraid you're only 50% right. Because by an amazing twist of fate, the Nova Albion steampunk convention was going on in the same hotel at the same time. And even for those of us that were not already massive Lego steampunk fans like my buddy Guy Himber, this was an opportunity not to be missed!

Guy and I had already planned for this well in advance, growing as much Victorian-issue face fungus as our childish faces could muster, and putting together some appropriately outlandish and anachronistic costumes.

The exhibition space for BBTB was several times larger than last year, providing most themes with a veritable orgy of display space. The Bricks of Character theme was present once again (hosted by yours truly) and our 'piece de resistance' this time was the 8-foot long Santas Workshop scene by rising talent Carl Merriam.

This is the first time the entire thing has been on display since it left the store window at Macys in Fresno. And quite the sight it was to behold!

I particularly liked the elf that's all hopped up on coffee from the little coffee machine, and the fact that these elves are able to fabricate videogame consoles!

The other highlight of the show was the Cyber City collaborative diorama, made by the guys at RoninLUG. This was a densely packed Bladerunner-like nighttime city scape that came alive with all kinds of lights, sounds, LCD screens and even a monorail. You'll find a million photos of this on the web by now, so instead I've created a video 'fly through' of the diorama, with music.

Among other awesome works at the Space table were Charles Esseltine's fleet of super-greebly ships and Andrew Lee's impeccibly detailed MEGA Destroy Super Action diorama, featuring a giant Japanese-style mecha stomping on a Japanese-style town eating monster in the middle of a Japanese-style microscale rush-hour cityscape.

Over in the Medieval & Fantasy area there were many large castle dioramas, a good steampunk presence, and this wonderfully original curiosity: a series of vigettes by Brandon Griffith and Ayleen Gaspar depicting memorable scenes from the movie Blazing Saddles. This was just about as "out there" as anything anyone has ever seen at a Lego convention. Hilarious. Politically incorrect. Wish I'd thought of it!

Meanwhile, on the Nova Albion side of the building, a very different set of MOCs were on display, in much quieter and more civilized surroundings, at the Museum of Curiosities. All manner of brassy, leathery, 'punked-up' artifacts and gadgets, from weapons to gas masks to medical devices to dead fairies and even a steam powered tricycle (...nah, that'll never catch on).

Guy, Carl and I had an equally squeee-worthy time perousing the many vendor areas, looking at all kinds of wonderous merchandise, from aethericly-powered vacuum-tube-encrusted wrist-wearable nerf-firing crossbows, to a plethora of goggles, goggles and more goggles.

Meanwhile meanwhile, across a lobby filled with people in the most elaborate and peculiar costumes you have ever seen (and the occasional Dalek), a wholly other group of ~~nerds~~ fans were enjoying typical Lego convention fayre such as games, contests, sessions, shopping and a floor-load of loose brick, as we continued to feverishly try and complete our setups for the public exhibition.

Because these two conventions had collided, the organizers of both had arranged for some cross-pollination. BBTB attendees could buy extra badge bricks to gain entry to the steampunk con, while Nova Albion attendees could buy ribbons to stick to their badges to gain direct access to our space. Many of the punkers I spoke to were very suprised - and then immediately very excited (Sarah!) - to learn that a Lego con was going on barely a league away! Which meant that during table setup I did run into some rather atypical sights for a Lego convention. But it was all 'pleasantly diverting' nonetheless!

Our duties at BBTB meant than Guy and I had to yo-yo continuously, in full cosplay regalia, between both conventions. The highlight of the Steampunk con were the evening balls. As far as we could tell, the objective was to get your photograph taken with as many young ladies in corsets as possible. Well I don't know if that really was the idea, but we certainly made it our mission! And that wasn't particularly difficult since Guy had fabricated an amazing brass top hat, which meant we basically got stopped every 30 seconds to get our picture taken or explain how it was made or let people fondle it. It was quite the head turner, I can tell you!

Along the way we also got to show Guy's steampunk Lego weapons to the League of Steam, who were demonstrating a working net gun and plunger shooter. Then later on a bunch of shadowy figures inducted us into the League of Proper Villains (details of which I cannot divulge as I am sworn to secrecy). Erm, so how many times is that for the word 'league' now exactly?

On the final day of the festivities, the public were invited to come and see the fruits of our Lego. Well over 3000 people showed up, and due to better space, a better hotel, better planning and better weather, the atmosphere was relaxed and everyone got through in relatively short order. When I eventually got outside to photograph the queue around the block, there wasn't one. There wasn't even a queue for the door!

During the public hours we hung out inside the Bricks of Character pen and tried to amuse ourselves by working on some steampunk respirator mask kits (...which would have come in handy earlier in the day, when it smelled like one of the visitors had been recently sprayed by a skunk!). By this time Guy had unceremoniously shaved off his mutton chops, and the brass top hat now doubled as a combination waste paper basket / spitoon.

When it was all over, the displays had all been packed away, and the closing ceremonies completed, a few of us lingered in the hotel lobby for the remainder of the evening, watching the number of Steampunk cosplayers gradually diminish. And we unanimously concluded that "cross-conning" was such an awesome experience, that every Lego con from now on should do double duty like this! And from what I hear, the organizers of BBTB and Nova Albion kind of agree. Now if I could somehow get the organizers of BrickCon and SteamCon in a room together...

Additional photos by Guy Himber and Tim Inman

And for those of you that get all squishy when you think about the combination of steampunk and Lego, make sure to check out the forthcoming summer steampunk issue of BrickJournal magazine, guest edited by Guy Himber, and featuring a ton of Lego steampunk related articles, including a full writeup of the Bricks by the Bay / Nova Albion 'mashup'.

They walk slither among us

2011-03-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

This disturbing and inexplicable creation by Hans Dendauw is called "Monster Under The Bed", and is described as a "green tentacled, hermaphrodite, dominatrix cyclops". Although "menopausal Mike Kazowski" might work just as well!

Would you like flies with that?

2011-03-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Well, what a week it's been! On Monday I returned from the double convention whammy of Bricks by the Bay and Nova Albion in rain-drenched San Jose, California. Look for a full writeup here very soon.

Meanwhile, please to enjoy this entry in the 2011 Podracer Challenge over at From Bricks To Bothans by my Bricks of Character co-conspirator Tommy Williamson. Presenting, the McPod™!

...it looks almost good enough to eat! So in that respect its very similar to the real thing.

And talking of all things Lucas, the Star Wars Miniland display at Legoland California opens TOMORROW (March 31st)! You can guarantee that FBTB will be giving by-the-nanosecond coverage of the event. And the park has even set up a webcam so you can monitor the preparations. Several of our beloved Legoland builders were unable to make it to Bricks by the Bay because of this, so the display had better be worth it! And from what I've seen, it will be.

Security has been very tight...

(Nerds!)

Cor blimey string a light apples and pears how's your father

2011-03-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

Apparently the laziness of your average British laborer - 2nd only to the French, of course - is so legendary that Barney Main (aka SlyOwl) figured it should be summed up in Lego form.

It's certainly true that to keep your typical chain smoking ass-crack-showing Cockney layabout working at the maximum 20% capacity, you will have to feed a "cuppa" into him roughly every 15 minutes. Kind of like those electricity meter boxes of old. And he will almost certainly bring along an even more useless teenage oik to stand there and watch. And a dog will probably be involved too at some point. But none of this is unreasonable. Just don't ask them to actually do anything useful like turn on your cable TV for example (Tommy!), or they'll be rubbing their chins and talking about "not having the parts" or "come back a week next Thursday".

However, not everyone of the English persuasion is that bone idle - for in my tireless dedication to the Lego cause, I have this evening arrived in ~~sunny~~ soggy San Jose for the Bricks by the Bay convention (yes, that white box on the right). The LIVING BRICK base camp has been set up in my hotel room, and my outfit for the simultaneous Steampunk convention appears to have arrived unscathed. Prepare for a weekend of geeky wonderfulness, dear readers! I'll be providing as much daily coverage of both events as the brief periods of sobriety will allow.

Bloody kids, muckin' about

2011-03-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Star Trek, the font of all knowledge (at least to you nerds) teaches us that omnipotent aliens are often so far beyond meagre human comprehension, that even their children / pets / household appliances would seem as gods to us.

...as illustrated in this scene depicting how stonehenge was built (or vandalized, I'm not quite sure) by darling of the Texas news scene, the goodly Brother Nannan.

"Playtime's over Timmy, we're going home!"

Catch 22

2011-03-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for a good Nam movie, and therefore a sucker for a good Nam MOC, like this wonderfully busy jungle patrol diorama by Chris Beckett (aka Becheman). But take a close look at this scene. A very close look...

I'm not trying to draw your attention to the hidden enemy soliders in the foreground, or the fact that I'm actually featuring something involving mini-figs (shock horror!). No, what's unusual about this MOC is that it's actually computer generated.

Chris is one of a very special group of Lego builders who do all their work using Lego-tuned CAD tools like LDraw, and then run the results through ray-tracing software to create realistic lighting effects and surface textures.

Now this isn't a particularly new phenomenon, and right about now a bunch of purists are all crowing about how this is 'cheating' or not 'real Lego' or how they don't each quiche. And as someone who appreciates the physical art of Lego building and who's blog follows a very specific charter, I probably won't be featuring this kind of stuff very often.

...except when it's exceptionally well done, and demonstrates the kind of attention to detail and creativity that even 'real' builders aspire to. After all, it's not like doing it in the virtual world is any easier - probably quite the reverse. I'd probably be throwing the keyboard through the screen after the first 10 minutes.

After all, do people scoff at the amazing CGI effects in blockbuster movies like Avatar because they weren't filmed on actual alien planets with actual spaceships (or at the very least, very fiddly plastic models of spaceships)? Or scoff at David Hockney for creating art on fax paper? (...ok, maybe that wasn't such a good example)

I just think it's important, from time to time, that we peer over the tops of our respective hedgerows and appreciate the breadth and depth of the AFOL movement.

Plus, consider all the advantages that folks like Chris enjoy by pursuing the hobby digitally...

- No waiting impatiently for that next Bricklink order to arrive.
- Unlimited quantities of every brick type in non-production color combinations.
- And non-production colors!
- No dropping of small parts down the heating vent
- No consumption of small parts by children, animals, appliances, etc
- No dusting
- *AND NO SORTING*

Of course, we purist snobs will always have the satisfaction of being able to lug our physical creations to a convention for the entertainment of the general populace. Plus we get to enjoy the unique and God-like satisfaction of destruction!

Unitron-opus

2011-03-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Taylor Baggs (aka Stormbringer, aka Unitronus Galaxy, aka oh make your mind up will you, man!) appears to be a bit of a fan of the book series, slash movie, slash soon-to-be-a-movie-trilogy, slash-soon-to-be-a-TV-show franchise that is How To Train Your Dragon...

Actually correction, he's not a HTTYD fan. He's an obsessed HTTYD manic! Because for the majority of the past year, Taylor has been creating Lego versions of nearly every dragon that appears in the movie, as well as entire action dioramas based on scenes from said movie!

Having spent most of my building time last year on a single multi-part Lego project, I can kind of appreciate the dedication required to make progress on something that is so potentially infinitely open-ended as this. I can also appreciate the kind of mania that sets in too! One day you look out of your little Lego workshop window and realize you've missed the entire summer. Or your daughter's graduation. Or to eat.

	Art/Mosaic/Sculpture	Robotics
	Battle Bugs	Steampunk
	Bionicle	Technic
	Bricks of Character	Town/Train
	Castle	[New] Bling your AT-AT
	Dragon Fly In	[New] Numereji 2421
	Great Ball Contraption	[New] Pirates
	Mecha	[New] Pythonscape
	Microscale	[New] Superheroes
	Model Team	[New] The Dark Side
	Moonbase	[New] War Beasts
	Operation Bricklord	[New] World Architecture