Lego Building Secrets

As always, Lino Martins continues to amaze and delight with his LEGO creations. His latest, Ajax the Great, is no exception.

I present to you Ajax The Great! He is a centaur…the most legendary of the mystical beasts and his very name means “greatest warrior” in Greek. He wears a Hoplite helmet and armor and carries a spear and shield. While mostly white, he is adorned with coppery elements that serve as a salute to my competitor’s Steampunk leanings. His form uses a staggering 54 of the 1x6x3 1/3 white curved arch elements required in accordance with the Iron Builder competition.

Ajax truly is an impressive model standing at attention with his spear and shield in hand.

Let the Iron Builder contest continue and may the best builder win!

Hi all, sorry about the long span between posts. Comic Con does take a lot out of me.

For all of those who couldn’t make it to Comic Con, or didn’t get a chance to buy one of the exclusive Star Wars CubeDude sets, here’s your chance to at least see what was inside it.

Angus MacLane was nice enough to sign mine. He signed for about an hour on two different days. It was really nice to see him again.

Here’s what actually comes in the box. I can hear the gasps from here. Yes, I opened the box! The nice thing about this exclusive is that you can gently pull the sticker up to open the box without really damaging it. One thing you can’t tell from the pictures is that the instruction booklet has glossy silhouettes of the CubeDudes. It looks really cool, but really hard to photograph.

Here’s what a random page in the instructions look like. The instructions are a little bit strange. They look a little like they were thrown together at the last minute and some of the steps are a little interesting. Angus actually told me about that when he was signing my box.

Each figure is in its own bag, which makes it easy to build them. The models each take only a few minutes to build and its a nice way to learn how to make a CubeDude.

The final built figures. Yoda is my favorite, but then he’s always been one of my favorites.

Overall I’d say it is a very cool exclusive. $75 is a little pricey, but considering the price of last year’s exclusives (six of which were just minifigs), 5 CubeDudes at $15 each isn’t too bad. At least you can do something with the exclusive once you get it home — that is if you open the box.

Before I say anything else I have to just say — yes, that is what you think, and yes, it is real!

From my sources I got confirmation that that is an official LEGO Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean! Now if you were paying attention earlier when LEGO canceled the regular Pirates line while at the same time announcing the LEGO/Disney relationship all you had to do was put two and two together. This prototype model was leaked into the Prince of Persia display as a sneak peek of this new line. No word on when it will come out but I would have to guess that it would be June of next year, about a month before the movie will be released.

Here you can see the built CubeDudes of the Comic Con exclusive set. The models are pretty cute, my only complaint is the $75 price and the very thin cardboard box. Angus MacLane, father of the CubeDude movement, was there today signing. He’s a pretty cool guy. I’ve met him before at Bricks by the Bay and have chatted with him online many times, but it’s always nice to talk to him in person.

Not only is there a raffle to buy the CubeDudes but there is also a drawing for a custom display case with three Boba Fetts — White Boba, Gold Boba, and Silver Boba. This is the one I forgot to snap a shot of before.

Although I usually stay away from mentioning Mega Blocks at all I had to post this, their attempt at model building.

I have seen models by them before in New York’s Times Square Toys R Us. And I was equally unimpressed with those models. The Halo fig and the Iron Man Bust seem rather blocky (pardon the pun) and about twenty years behind LEGO in design quality.

On a totally unrelated note Joe Meno of BrickJournal had his panel yesterday. It was really well presented and well attended. Jim Foulds (LEGO), Jonathan Bender (LEGO a Love Story), Brandon Griffith, and Nathan Sawaya made up the panel.

Attending the BrickJournal panel was Gabriel Cuevas, a huge LEGO fan and aspiring Model Builder, who created a LEGO Comic Con shirt using the brick baseplate t-shirt

Today, with the BrickJournal Panel behind him, Joe Meno is letting himself have a little fun with the Staro mask I found for him.

Another random LEGO find was the Brick Testament books at the Quirk Books Booth.

Its been a pretty crazy couple of days and there are still two days to go. Now I’ve got to go to bed so I can wake at the insane hour of 3 am to get decent parking tomorrow.

Well guys and gals I don’t know how much I’ll be writing the next few days as it is Comic Con. I have a tendency to start running out of steam by day 3 or 4, but I will do my best to get what I can out there to you.

Although today was the preview night I actually headed down last night to help out a little with the booth, some of the glued display set models were damaged in transport and I needed to put them back together again. So I got a really good look at the new Obi-Wan’s Jedi Starfighter that they were premiering at this Convention. It is a pretty sweet model. I also got to help build the display of the new Imperial Shuttle that will be available this September. I have to say that is a really wonderful parts pack, even if I wasn’t into Star Wars (which I am ). Not only were the new Star Wars sets there, but the new LEGO Harry Potter sets were on display too.

As I was down there early I got to see something the public rarely does. LEGO in set up mode.

What was a surprise to me today was that two of the display models that LEGOLAND California brought were actually promotional models I made several years ago.

Recognize my signature dragon? He was originally made to promote the then new ride Knight’s Tournament. Also the figure in the yellow shirt is Miniland Stan, LEGOLAND’s former mascot. Little known fact — since I made all the Miniland Stan models for the video and print ads, I’m his “mom.” I’m even on the souvenir video with Stan referencing me as his creator.

The booth is pretty cool this year with awesome graphics and a nice open floor plan.

Even the back of the booth has really fun comic pictures

I couldn’t fit it all in one shot so I had to take two pictures.

The one thing I forgot to take pictures of was the special raffle drawing that they are doing for a Boba Fett commemorative display with three different Bobas — White Boba, 1 of 2 Gold Bobas and 1 of 2 Silver Bobas. At least I think those are the colors, I’ll take a picture tomorrow and let you know.

There is also a chance to play and sign up for LEGO Universe. I played it a little bit today. Its pretty fun and there are so many things that make it cool. If you do order it at Comic Con you get a special LEGO Universe shirt.

(sorry for the not so great picture)

That’s all you get for now. I’ll be posting more soon as the days go on.

Marcos Bessa has created a truly remarkable model. There is so much detail that it can’t even really be appreciated unless you look at the hi-res images.

Even a simple bench is cleverly constructed.

You really must take time to look at all the exhibits. The busts on the second floor really caught my eye and the staircase is a true masterpiece.

Lino Martins, no slouch when it comes to model building, is currently going head-to-head with equally talented builder Guy Himber in what can only be called Iron Builder (naturally).

Just like Iron Chef there are secret ingredient pieces that must be used in clever and interesting ways. They are building these for a Builder’s Lounge challenge.

Not to be out done Guy created this Urchin

It all started with a simple CubeDude version of Lino:

Cube Dude Lino was concerned as to what fate V&A Steamworks had planned for him.

He should be VERY afraid……….

Another creation by Guy with the same mystery part is this:

I don’t know exactly how they will tell who wins this competition, but I will keep an eye on both of their photostreams on Flickr.

Can you guess what the mystery part is? Hint — its white and curved.

Several new LEGO Games are now available in Europe. One of the ones getting the most buzz is the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Game (£24.99 — around $33 US) but there are three more games that look equally fun and haven’t gotten nearly enough notice. If you are interested in seeing an in-depth review of the Harry Potter Hogwarts game you can read it on Eurobricks.

The Orient Bazaar looks particularly interesting both for gameplay and as an excellent parts pack. The Belville perfume bottles have only been available in a handful of sets and only in three different colors. The last time it was available at all was in the 2007 Hogwarts Castle

Then there are the corner slopes, the 2×2 gold round tiles, and the 2×2 brown tiles with one knob. All very desirable parts. It retails for £17.99 which will most likely go for $25 in the US.

I’m not quite sure what the point of Meteor Strike is. The description says:

Launch satellites deep into space to seize these valuable cosmic rocks and sabotage your opponents lunar mission with laser blasts in the new LEGO Games Meteor Strike!

The classic space tiles and the dark red and blue elements make this one to look out for though. Also £17.99 — $24 US.

Atlantis Treasure looks fun and interesting.

I like the tiny micro subs that are the game pieces and I see lots of potential from the fun tiles included with this one. The long dark blue plates are also a definite selling point to me. The price is £19.99 — probably $30 US.

On a related note, for those of you in the States, there is a LEGO Games Truck Tour going on right now through September 6th. The weekend of August 14th at LEGOLAND California and the Chicago LEGO Discovery Center they are also having a LEGO Games Weekend

With both the prior wave yet to be released here in the States and this one to look forward to, I can see lots of LEGO games in my future.

The rumor of yesterday’s post is in fact now a fact: Five of Angus Maclane’s fun and funky Star Wars CubeDudes will be this year’s LEGO Comic Con Exclusive.

Not only is there an image of them in the latest issue of Toyfair Magazine, but none other than Angus himself confirmed it on his Facebook page.

This will be the first time LEGO has ever offered a built and guled model, much less a CubeDude model, at Comic Con. Up until now they have all been either set or minifigure exclusives. You can read the entire press release at FBTB.

The CubeDudes will most likely be offered through a raffle ticket process where only those with the “winning” tickets get the chance to purchase the exclusive. This is a pretty standard way of offering low-quantity exclusives at Comic Con. As there are five, it will probably be one per day like last year. The 2009 exclusives were $50 each, pretty steep for three minifigs in a box, but there you are. There were 300 of the daily exclusives last year, no word on the amount made or the price point for this year’s. Also, Angus will be on hand both Friday and Saturday for an hour signing his models.

News and rumors are coming from FBTB that the elusive White Boba Fett minifigure will be handed out at next weeks San Diego Comic Con.

LEGO is working with the 501st Legion to help distribute the figures. These will not be available at LEGO’s booth. Supplies are limited. No further details yet. It may involve participating in their popular Droid Hunt activity they seem to do at every convention where they have a presence. If I get anymore info, I’ll post here.

Now if this is anything like the distribution of much coveted Golden C-3PO a few years back, then they will most likely only be giving them to children. But as I will once again be helping out at the LEGO booth, I will find out soon enough how they will be passed out and let you know.

The rumor part from FBTB is this:

Gooker1 from our forums reports that the latest issue of Toyfare magazine has revealed what LEGO’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive will be: a set of Cube Dudes designed by the father of the Cube Dude movement himself, Angus MacLane. The Dudes will be R2-D2, C-3PO, Obi-wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Captain Rex. The convention runs 4 days, 5 if you include preview night, so I’m guessing they will sell one Dude per day. Stay tuned for more info as I get it.

Now I don’t know how true this is, there have been no other posts anywhere that I can find that confirm or deny this. If it is true, than it is very cool! I will know soon enough next Wednesday, so not to worry I will be keeping on the case!

As for other LEGO Comic Con news, there will be both a BrickJournal panel and a LEGO Universe panel. I look forward to going to both.

If you are coming to Comic Con, stop by the LEGO booth and check it out. If not, don’t worry. I will do my best to post the happenings over the course of the convention.

A few months ago I started selling Wedding Cake Toppers on my Etsy shop Folded Fancy. Well just a little while ago I added a couple of additional cake toppers to my store.

The first one was requested by a customer. The second one I had been thinking of making but hadn’t gotten around to until now.

Some people on Flickr have contested that the arch design is “illegal” in building rules. From what I understand in set design sticking a LEGO plate between two knobs isn’t allowed, but when it comes to Miniland model building such rules don’t apply. Pretty much the only rule is it has to be able to be done without glue — in other words not “cheating.”

I’m pretty happy with the results and as I’ve already sold 2 of the Flower Patch one, I think others are pretty happy with them too.

I can’t believe no one else has thought of this. I love the simplicity of this vignette. There really isn’t much else to say other than — Its so perfect!

As I don’t understand Chinese and the translator websites aren’t helping that much, there isn’t a lot I can say about this dress other than it is truly original.

This is what the website translator says:

CREEP STUDIO started a singularly varied journey, makes the singularly varied modelling big foreign-style clothing! Designs for the Le Gao building block element! By the blue sky white clouds is the main axle, looks like the clouds to wander about in the blue sky, in the illusion is a little unusual, is likely Ailisi sleepwalks in the fairyland the new Canada’s plot.

If someone can find a better translation, please let me know.

Although the construction isn’t that great — most likely because the person who made it doesn’t know that much about LEGO sculpture — it still is an interesting model in the fact that it is life-size.

I do have to wonder about the model wearing it, LEGO is not a very comfortable clothing accessory.

I’d like to thank Master Model Builder Brian Heins for pointing this out to me.

Kevin Heckel certainly has a different take when it comes to LEGO building and this model immediately caught my eye on how un-LEGO-like it looks. The colors, the smoothness, and the seemingly simplistic model design are all deceptive in hiding how cool this model is.

On the other hand, his Swiss Guard Mecha is and entirely different type of model but still all kinds of cool.

The only thing that is modified a bit “taboo” is that he painted the blue barrels partially yellow are the yellow stickers on the blue barrels for the sleeves and pant legs. I personally don’t see anything wrong with this, especially when it is done so well.

I was asked on Monday if I could create a model for the family of a very special little boy named Maxwell Harris who would have turned 10 tomorrow. Unfortunately Max passed away last week after a boating accident.

Max loved LEGO bricks. It was his favorite toy. On their family blog Harris Beach Bums it says “A holiday would not be a holiday without Legos.”

Max’s aunt Ashley asked me to create a bouquet of flowers as a gift for the family.

Ashley said this about Max:

His true love was legos. He probably would have grown up to be an artist such as yourself. He owned almost every set of legos and could create the most fabulous pieces of art

My heart goes out to the Harris family in their time of loss.

Eurobricks member Jonas really likes the classic 1990 Forestmen Crossing set but as he couldn’t get the original he made his own.

For us, lovers of the Forestmen (Robin Hood) Lego line in Europe, the 6071 set Forestmen’s Crossing has been like a frustrating dream. Unlike the other sets from the same series of 1988-1990, it has never been sold in Europe. Nobody knows why.
I always wished to have it, but was not ready to pay extreme prices for which it is offered on Ebay or Bricklink, now. Hence, these days I decided to built my own version of the set. My small MOC is made 20 years after the release of the original, so it is a sort of homage to this wonderful set. The idea to build it was stimulated also by the fact that this year two minifigs from the Forestmen series were released: a forest lady in Vintage Minifigure Collection Vol. 5 and a forest hunter in Minifigure Collection Vol. 1.

I have to say, although I loved the original set — the Forestmen line is one of my all-time favorites ever — this is truly an improvement. I never really liked the printed river baseplate. Brick built landscape is much better in my opinion. And of course, brown wasn’t available in bricks in the 90s it was only in the very short-lived Dark Forest theme in 96 that we even got brown trees.

You can see more images of this model on Jonas’ Brickshelf gallery.

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans.

Peter Blackert, who is known for his skill at building vehicles, has created a very patriotic Ford Mustang GT especially decorated with stars and stripes for America’s Independence Day. The funny thing is that he is Australian.

Happy 4th July to all in the USA.

Greetings and God Bless on the anniversary of the Independence of your Nation.

My gift this year is a 2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 Coupe decorated with the Stars and Stripes.

Even if you are not American, you can appreciate Peter’s design and LEGO model building skills.

LEGO Harry Potter the Video Game just recently hit stores earlier this week. I’ve not yet had a chance to check out the game, but thanks to LEGO Model Designer Carl Greatrix I have seen a few of the excellent models he designed for the game.

What is really interesting (and very cool) is that LEGO strives to make even the digital world actually build-able. That is where Carl Greatrix comes in. Some things like tables and chairs are pretty easy to design, while others like the dragon skeleton that hangs in one of the classrooms and the whomping willow are much more complex.

Carl generally designs the model in real life first and then creates it digitally. You can see with this “Ride in the Wasp” both the digital copy and the original.

Sometimes as with the pumpkin car the actual model looks a little different than the final game version.

The more and more I see of this game I can’t wait to try it.

Carl, along with his coworkers, were also recently interviewed on Eurogamer.net.

You can see even more of Carl’s models in his Harry Potter LEGO game build / designs set on Flickr and of course when you play the LEGO Harry Potter Video Game.

New York’s Rockefeller Center will never be the same now that a LEGO store has moved in. For the past three days there has been a Building Event extravaganza as 4 Master Model Builders have been constructing a massive LEGO apple to culminate the opening of the new LEGO store.

I couldn’t be there in person (as it is across the country from me) but my friend Scott Lyttle was kind enough to take lots of pictures and allow me to share them with all of you.

Here you can see the giant apple as it is half way done. It was just completed this morning and is an awesome sight.

above photo taken by Master Model Builder Erik Varszegi

Unlike regular LEGO stores, the Rockefeller LEGO Flagship store is similar to the Downtown Disney Stores or the Mall of America store because it has theme specific models to the area.

One of the interesting is a smaller version of the LEGO logo made completely out of minifigs — there is a much larger version in Denmark

There is a massive pick-a-brick wall, although anything about adult height is just for show.

They even made a minifig scale Rockefeller Center so that all of the minifigs could shop too.

This mural is similar to the actual Rockefeller one.

If you want to see more, you’ll just have to go to New York.

I just found out that the Big LEGO Apple will be on display until Tuesday of next week (I heard it from a very reliable source). So if you are in the area, check it and the store out for yourself.

I know this set, heck even the movie, has been out for a while. But even so, I felt that this set needed a review.

I was going to take pictures of my set, but Dita Svelte has taken such wonderful images that I am going to use them instead.

I have to admit, I wasn’t really interested in this set. I had all of the other Prince of Persia sets, but this one didn’t look that great. Even after I saw the movie, I didn’t quite understand what this set was all about. Without giving away plot points, the sets aren’t all that accurate to the movie and this one most of all.

I can see why the set designers did what they did, there are lots of “moving” parts like the swinging swords and the rotating blade (which isn’t in the movie by the way).

The light up brick is cool looking and all, but even so, it wasn’t going to tempt me to buy the set.

So, why did I end up buying it? Well, when I was at BrickWorld at the Scratch and Dent LEGO Store Sale that was one of the sets I got. It wasn’t one of my first or even third choices, but as I was in one of the later groups, I didn’t have as much to chose from.

I figured, heck why not? I knew it had some pretty cool parts, especially the lion bricks in nougat — the only set that has them in that color.

But as I sat down and actually built the set yesterday I realized that even if the set is kind of a mess design wise, there are a lot of very useful parts in this set.

Lots of dark bluish gray slopes, dark tan tiles, and great nougat elements come in abundance. The large 8×8 dark tan plates are also a plus.

So overall, I may not like the set itself, but I see it as a great parts pack. All in all the Prince of Persia line is a great theme. Now that I have all five sets, and multiples of more than one of the sets, I highly recommend them.

We are starting to see images of a couple new LEGO City sets that will be released later this year.

7848-1: Toys R Us delivery truck

8404-1: City Public Transport

Both of these sets would be wonderful additions to any LEGO collection.

The Toys R Us truck is really cute. Granted it is almost identical to the LEGO City Truck. But even so, it can add a touch of realism to any town layout.

The City Public Transport has a whole bunch of fun details that make this worth while. Postcards in the shop, a green bicycle, and all those fun vehicles make this a very desirable set. You can see more images of this set at Eurobricks.com

No word on when they will be released or how much they will be so stay tuned.