Monthly Archives: June 2008

LEGO Wall-E roundup

LEGO fans all over the ‘net love the new Pixar movie Wall-E, and they show their affection for the film with wonderful LEGO creations too numerous to post individually.

First up, Mark Sandlin adds crushing action to his Wall-E:

Aaron Lemay goes super-small with his super-cute Wall-E built from only 11 pieces:

Jordan Schwartz breaks from the mold to build frustrated cleaning robot M-O (“FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!”), along with his own Wall-E:

M-O cleaning bot on Flickr

While other builders go fairly large or very small, the Wall-E that legomocs built works rather well at a mid-sized scale:

Finally, reader Ryan captures Wall-E’s forlorn expression:

Previous LEGO Wall-E love on The Brothers Brick:

Army of golden knights

Moko shows off his wealth of gold minifig accessories by displaying a dazzling army of golden knights. As with Moko, there are no custom pieces used in the display, but I’m sure the cost would be in no way under par of that in buying customs.

LEGO Ambassador Vignettes

Over at the LEGO Ambassador Forum, we current Ambassadors were asked to build “a standard 8×8 vignette that represents [us] and [our] interests within the world of LEGO building and community.” Many of us came up with creative and interesting pieces; here are a few of some of the most recent ones:

(Below left) Yiu Keung from Hong Kong displays his miniature Green Grocer in the palm of a brick-built hand.

(Above right) Peer Kreuger from the Netherlands makes a working mini planetarium model. Check out the amazing animated image!

(Below left) Tim Gould from Australia portrays himself as the man behind the screen, sharing ideas through the internet.

(Above right) Mike Crowley from the US represents himself as a LEGO creation, having people “build” him to be the Ambassador they want to see.

(Below left) Danila Martyakhin from Russia creates a vignette called Equilibrium, featuring the ultra-posable biotic robot.

(Above right) I present my work called Just Add Imagination that uses spray-painted pieces and fishing lines to create the floating bricks effect.

(Below left) Andrew adds his belated vignette to Nannan’s post with many hats that represent many communities:

(Above right) Dan Rubin serves as a liaison and “noise filter” between the LEGO fan community and The LEGO Company.

Again, these are just a few of some of the amazing vignettes that the Ambassadors have made. You can see some more over at Klocki.

Half Life 2 inspired Dodge

Adrian Florea replicates the “Jalopy” car from Half Life 2, which has the appearance of a partially built and customized 1969 Dodge Charger. Take some time to absorb all the gutted details, especially in the hood area. The model seems to feature a working steering system as well.

Photo review of new BrickForge accessories for 2008 [Review]

BrickForge Megagun on FlickrThose of you who were paying close attention to our coverage of BrickWorld 2008 probably noticed references to and pictures of the latest BrickForge accessories.

Thanks to Nannan and the magic of the United States Postal Service, here’s my review of the new items BrickForge will be releasing soon. In general, I’ll try to avoid repeating what I said in my original BrickForge review.

Naturally, the big buzz is about the new “Space Marine” armor. When combined with BrickArms weapons, the result looks remarkably like the Master Chief from Halo (we’ll be taking a close look at the new BrickArms prototypes as well):

The helmet will cost $1.50, the armor $1.50, and the visor $0.50. If I understand the grapevine correctly, these items will be available in red, blue, white, black, and sand green (pictured above, with BrickWorld-exclusive “steel”). I’m very pleased with the design of each piece, though I’d assess the color matching between BrickForge’s version of sand green and “official” LEGO sand green at around 90-95%, as you can probably see from the picture.

Personally, I was most excited by the new Roman helmets (two types), spear, gladius, and shield:

Most interesting, though, is the gladiatorial armor — specifically helmet and face shield for a Murmillon. The face shield fits over the stud on top of the minifig’s head, and then the helmet fits over the top of that:

Murmillon on Flickr Murmillon on Flickr

I found that the helmet fit a little loosely (it popped off a lot) with the face shield, but fit snugly when directly placed on my gladiator’s ill-fated head.

New turbans can fit a little round cap or a special helmet:

Finally, Mark Sandlin and Chris Giddens worked with BrickForge to create a gun that would fit well with the design aesthetic of the loudhailer and other early Space accessories. Dubbed the “Megagun,” many of you have probably already seen Mark Sandlin’s photos of it, so I’ll just post a couple:

The Megagun has lots of places to attach LEGO, as you can see from the ridiculous gun on the right. :-D

As with their earlier accessories, the latest BrickForge armor and weapons work well with my LEGO. My favorite new items are definitely the Roman items, and I can’t wait to order a bunch when they become available from BrickForge in the next week or so.

Sending the right signals

Brickshelf user Elalfreddo demonstrates that you don’t need to use ‘advanced’ techniques to create a good design. His signal tower is a straight studs-up building dressed up by a clever use of colour to create texture. Very effective and a good lesson.

Signal tower

I also need to mention that I have a nostalgic soft spot for the mail bicycle.

Exploring planet Nidoria

Flickr user Chrispockster makes a diorama depicting a retro space landing on the fictional planet Nidoria. Some highlights include the organic alient plant life and the interesting color choice for the planet’s surface, which I think might just be plain yellow shaded dark during the photography process. The final result looks great.

Peer Kreuger is Singing in the Rain

Peer “Mahjqa” Kreuger gets light on his feet to recreate the title scene from the 1952 musical Singing in the Rain:

(Via VignetteBricks.)

Tim Goddard’s LEGO Star Wars Imperial base

Tim “RogueBantha” Goddard has made quite a name for himself with his microscale LEGO Star Wars creations.

Tim’s latest is a modular Imperial base called Mustaneer (not to be confused with the far more distant Mustafar):

The base has a rack for a squadron of TIE fighters, a landing pad for an Imperial shuttle or landing craft, and an AT-AT garage. Even cooler, the AT-AT garage doors open and close on tracks:

There are lots more photos in Tim’s Imperial base photoset on Flickr.

Neo-Classic Space LL-497 by Peter Reid

Peter Reid‘s series of Neo-Classic Space vehicles evoke simultaneous feelings of awe, jealousy, and nostalgia.

For Pete’s latest, he gives 497 Galaxy Explorer the contemporary treatment:

Pete’s use of modern bricks and current building techniques, applied to the shapes and colors of LEGO from the Classic Space era, results in creations that combine the best of both worlds.

Juggernaut Fortress microship

Jerak uses brown in his most recent creation to construct a heavily armed micro spaceship called the Juggernaut Fortress, based off the Clairconctlar Pinnacle. It is worth checking out the bottom of the ship, equally full of details as the top and in my opinion wouldn’t look so awkward to be cruising upside down.

Lino shows his age

As part of LUGNuts‘ “Show your age” contest, Lino Martins rolls out yet another jaw-dropping tribute to the open road.

Lino’s 1971 Cadillac Eldorado:

Sweet ride, Lino!