Monday, February 18, 2013
Fell Beasts
Over in the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics builders LukeClarenceVan and Toa Infernum were paired up and challenged to build Fell Beasts. Both turned in awesome MOCs, but there could be only one winner, and Luke advanced.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
2013 sets posted
I know that some of these have been available online previously, but I avoid linking to images leaked from dealer catalogs. Now, however, LEGO has publicly displayed (and allowed photography) at the New York Toy Fair. Toy News International has photos and there are also videos going up at Brick Show. FBTB has a correspondent there, so expect a full report from them in due course.
79005 – The Wizard Battle - Great way to get the two wizards for cheap. Love the Palantir with the Eye - obvious MOC is to put that Eye at the top of a microscale Barad Dur
79006 – The Council of Elrond - Yes, as a Tolkien fan I appreciate the inclusion of Elrond and Arwen. I'm a little annoyed that they chose to highlight one of the points in the movie where Gimli is treated as comic relief. Most exciting to me, though, is the inclusion of a new gothic arch piece. As a castle builder I really appreciate this more than anything else. Orange leaves, new printed tiles, and great torsos make this (IMO) generally useful set for castle builders.
79007 – Battle at the Black Gate - While I haven't linked them, of course I'd already seen the leaked pictures of the Black Gate, and knew it would look cool. I'm pleasantly surprised with how good the Eagle looks here. I think the previously leaked image included an unfinished prototype.
79008 – Pirate Ship Ambush - Again, I'd seen the leaked image, and this looks even better. I was most excited to see good pictures of the ghost warriors, and they look great. Those six shields on the ship will make for a nice army faction as well. My main complaint here is that they dumbed down the name of the set.
79005 – The Wizard Battle - Great way to get the two wizards for cheap. Love the Palantir with the Eye - obvious MOC is to put that Eye at the top of a microscale Barad Dur
79006 – The Council of Elrond - Yes, as a Tolkien fan I appreciate the inclusion of Elrond and Arwen. I'm a little annoyed that they chose to highlight one of the points in the movie where Gimli is treated as comic relief. Most exciting to me, though, is the inclusion of a new gothic arch piece. As a castle builder I really appreciate this more than anything else. Orange leaves, new printed tiles, and great torsos make this (IMO) generally useful set for castle builders.
79007 – Battle at the Black Gate - While I haven't linked them, of course I'd already seen the leaked pictures of the Black Gate, and knew it would look cool. I'm pleasantly surprised with how good the Eagle looks here. I think the previously leaked image included an unfinished prototype.
79008 – Pirate Ship Ambush - Again, I'd seen the leaked image, and this looks even better. I was most excited to see good pictures of the ghost warriors, and they look great. Those six shields on the ship will make for a nice army faction as well. My main complaint here is that they dumbed down the name of the set.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Witch king
There have been so many wonderful MOCs built for the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics that there's no way I can feature them all, but I'll try to put up some of my favorites. Martin Geistefeldt made a great version of the Witch King of Angmar riding on a warg.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Storming the gates
DecoJim made this great version of the gates of Minas Tirith during the Battle of the Pelannor Fields. It's currently on display in Troy, Michigan.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Death of Boromir
LukeClarenceVan built the Death of Boromir, which was his round 1 entry in the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Prancing Pony
Thorskegga's Prancing Pony is on display at a LEGO store in Watford, England. I actually think the lighting is better in this pic by Gary Davis.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Forth, Eorlingas!
Majkol87 built the ride of Theoden, the final sortie of the Battle of Helm's Deep. Via Lord of the Brick.
Friday, January 11, 2013
MELO
I have been remiss in not highlighting the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics. Round 1 is now in, and the top 32 builders are entering a single elimination tournament. The top builder in Round 1 was Büürli Burri with his rendition of Edoras.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Book Review: LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination
Last in a series of book reviews. You've got two days left. Run out and buy your loved ones some LEGO books!
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
TolkienBricks-specific content - None. I'm hoping that they'll come out with a DK LEGO Tolkien Visual Dictionary in 2013. Lots of castle stuff that you could say is in Middle Earth if you want.
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
TolkienBricks-specific content - None. I'm hoping that they'll come out with a DK LEGO Tolkien Visual Dictionary in 2013. Lots of castle stuff that you could say is in Middle Earth if you want.
Book Review: Amazing ABC
Amazing ABC by Sean Kenney, 2012, Christy Ottaviano Books.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Book Review: I LEGO NY
I LEGO NY by Christoph Niemann, 2010, Abrams Image.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
TolkienBricks-specific content There is none.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
TolkienBricks-specific content There is none.
Book Review: LEGO Heavy Weapons
Still more book reviews.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
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