The Reconstruction of Fort Oswald

The Reconstruction of Fort Oswald, originally uploaded by NewRight.

Yes I am blogging one of my own creations. This one is for PTVII (Pillage the Village II) The Calm After the Storm. This is my largest creations to date so I felt that I would be okay in blogging it. Anyway I hope the photos speak louder than words.

The photo is a link by the way. ;-)

Lego collectable minifigures?

Now this certainly is new for Lego. There have been reports of a new Lego collectible minifigure series, starting in June next year (found originally on the Swedish blog Legobloggen thru BrickSet thru Dano on Flickr). Here's the translated description of the blog's post:

"In June 2010, Lego will launch a new collectors series with only minifigs. The figures will be of various types, but is reportedly not being those from current themes. They could be anything from cowboys to ninjas or adventurers, etc. The first wave will appear in stores in June, reportedly contain 16 different characters. These will then be replaced by 16 other figures in August.

"Figures will be sold in opaque polybags, so it is chance that determines which figure you get. This is the same approach as in the example trading cards. The bag with the figure will cost 25 SEK (~£2 / £3.50). May seem much given to impulse setter costs only £5 more and then there is also the accessories. But I suspect that the high price is because the characters will be unique to this collector series and that they will only be produced in two months (at least the first wave)."  (thanks et314 for the news and translation)

Dano's got a picture of some Legoland stickers which may be pictures of the first sixteen:

There's a cavman, Ronald McDonald, a superhero, a zombie, a robot... oh, the endless possibilities! /faints

RF 2153 Viper

A rather odd, yet very well made spacecraft by Pete Reid aka. legoloverman. Not the catchiest name, but I hope you like it!

-Luke

Opinions: Bionicle, Fawlty Towers and the laws of Murphy

There was a time when I was really into Bionicle myself. I forget almost every single detail. But this was because it seemed to me that every day, John and others would bounce around, proclaiming the brilliance of the new Bionicles to be released the following Wednesday. Flabbergasted may be too strong a word. But I had always wondered what was ever wrong with good old-fashioned Tahu, Lewa, Gali, Kopaka, Pohatu and Onua, although I did at least accept the existence of the Bohrok and turned a blind eye to the Toa Mata selling their naming rights (apologies, Newcastle fans) read more...

Blacktron Car

An interesting car by 'Da bloomin' onion'. My favourite part is the rocket engine type thing underneath.

-Luke

BIONICLE to end in 2010

Here's some bad news to really get you down on a wednesday evening: Lego have just given out a press release announcing that the BIONICLE line will be discontinued in summer 2010!

Now, for many of you that may not be bad news. BIONICLE is loved by many as well as being hated by many. I remember, just two years ago, how obsessed I was with BIONICLE. Luckily, all the names that I have learnt are starting to fade from my mind.

What this announcement will do to BIONICLE fans, especially BZPower (the BIONICLE fan site), we do not know yet. Apparently Lego will continue with the BIONICLE story with Greg Farshety, but only on the BIONICLE Story website. Anyways, here's the press release:

Dear BIONICLE Fans,

In reviewing the business across all of its play patterns and properties, the LEGO Group faced a tough question: should we take on a new creative challenge in the world of buildable figures that we pioneered in 2001?

BIONICLE re-invented the way consumers think of and play with the LEGO system. Through many chapters of compelling story and innovative product development, BIONICLE became a very strong property and an important part of The LEGO Group’s business. We think there is a significant opportunity to grow the buildable figure category, but it will take a more flexible platform that appeals to a wider range of ages through a variety of different entry points than BIONICLE has proven to deliver.

The easy decision would be to stick with a known entity in BIONICLE; but as history has proven, The LEGO Group achieves its greatest success by embracing the uncertainty that innovation brings. After all, BIONICLE almost never launched because it was such a big risk to the company’s way of doing business.

Because you have been such an important part of building the BIONICLE franchise and have been among its most valued fans, we are writing to tell you that the six BIONICLE Stars launching in January will be the last BIONICLE sets for the foreseeable future. Beginning in summer 2010, The LEGO Group will debut a new, more flexible buildable figure property created by the same people who brought you BIONICLE. At the same time, we are also expanding the category to appeal to a younger audience through an established third-party property, starting in January.

Since its beginning, BIONICLE has reflected the union of great product and a compelling story. Although there presently are no plans for more sets, the BIONICLE story is not ending. BIONICLEstory.com will remain an active site, with new story content updated by long-time BIONICLE writer Greg Farshtey. In addition, LEGO Group hopes to work with you, the fans, to continue to grow and expand the BIONICLE story universe.

This was an extremely difficult decision for all involved. But as seen in the tales of the Toa, striving for success in any mission requires imagination, new ways of thinking, and the willingness to take risks. We hope you will share the same level of enthusiasm we have for our plans for the buildable figure category.

We invite you to remain a part of the BIONICLE universe—a universe you have helped to build, and that we are confident that you will continue to build—in the future. Thank you for your continued support and dedication to the BIONICLE and LEGO brands.

With our very best regards,

Jan Faltum, Global BIONICLE Director

Lincoln Armstrong, Senior Brand Manager, BIONICLE Team Member since 2002

What are your opinions on this announcement? Comment below!

~John

Medium Steam Gunner

A brilliant ship by pain parade. Lovely colours, shape, picture, lighting,  building techniques... the list goes on! I hope you like it as much as I do.

-Luke

November caption competition

Sorry I haven't posted any caption competition posts lately, oh well, please come up with your best captions for this LIRL picture by wnd.andreas. The winner will be announced on the site. Good luck.

Classic Space Vignette

A decent moc by imperlialrp, in the great theme of Classic Space. Apart from a small amount of clumsy editing, it's generally quite good.

-Luke

CubeDude- Admiral Ackbar

IT'S A TRAP! ... erm... actually, no, it's a micro scale model of Admiral Ackbar by 'Larry Lars', in the style of Angus MacLane's CubeDudes. It has some great building techniques.

-Luke

Unnamed Starfighter

A nice Star Wars based creation by 'lego addict'. It's a decent photo and there are some interesting techniques on the wings and front.

-Luke

Dr. Crow's Auto-machinema

I love this creation by Zack NewRight, a really great use of specialist pieces to create an interesting shape.

-Luke

Tabletown 2010 Calendar now available for download.

I hope Brickspace readers will allow me a small indulgence. Every year for the past few years I have created a new LEGO-themed calendar available for free download and I am pleased to announce that the 2010 Tabletown Wall Calendar is finally here!

You can download it completely free of charge from here.

This year’s theme is “Calendar Minifigs” – based of course on the true story of the real Calendar Girls, ladies who bared (nearly) all in the name of charity.

The calendar is intended to be printed and so the pages appear sideways on the screen, but you can get a full preview of the images in my Flickrstream here.

As with all my calendars, this is a completely free, not-for-profit publication and no copyright infringement is intended. If you enjoy this calendar, I would strongly urge you to make a donation to the charity supported by the REAL “Calendar Girls”.

Dr. S.

Lego Toy Story, Star Wars 2010 new pictures

It's that time again. That's right, new set pictures have been leaked to EuroBricks, and several people have dumped them onto Flickr. Let's take a look at what we've got in this wave...

Note: I have taken pictures from Dano on Flickr. The pictures were first uploaded onto Flickr by 'Brickinater'. However, I find Brickinater to be extremely annoying, and he generally acts rather stupidly, with poor grammar and pointless comments (see picture). So, for those reasons, I have chosen to take pictures from Dano's photostream to avoid giving Brickinater the luxury of popularity. Until he gets his act together and finds a Caps Lock key, I won't be using his photos on this website.

First up is a large-scale model of Buzz Lightyear. There's some interesting domes, purple pieces and lime green as well. The head, to me, looks awful and garish - like something Mega Bloks would make - but I guess that's just the style Lego have used in these sets. Yeuch.

Then there's a set in the new slightly-stretched-minifig scale. The long legs have proved popular with the community so far, but I don't like them (stand by for a Brickspace Opinions rant about this). There's been some debate over whether the car is medium blue or normal blue. Medium blue would be very useful, with those triangular plates.

Now we get onto the Star Wars sets - all of which now have a Clone Wars banner at the top of the boxes. Uh oh.

First up is a new ARC Gunship, with snazzy-looking dark red parts and large wheels for engines. If this set isn't massively overpriced like most SW sets, we may also be getting Kit Fisto in a cheaper set, along with some new clone pilots and the grey-headed R2.

Now what's this monstrosity? A TIE Defender, apparently. To me, the cockpit looks angular and unfinished, and the under-plate showing is not very nice. Maybe others will like it, maybe not. I have never been a TIE Fighter fan, they were always too 'studdy' for me.

Moving back to remakes of sets, here's yet another Droid Tri-Fighter. This one's a bit meatier than the first, with new 2x4 tiles (:D), missiles, those weird-looking droids and the return of the camera-travis brick (see Legohaulic's note on the picture). Good move, Lego.

Finally, here's the blatantly-Clone-Wars-set 'Freeco Speeder'. Just look at the monstrosity of a head they've shoved in Han's hood and called Anakin. That face has a stare which could stare you down from a mile away. Some stickers on the ship look nice, and the Thi-Sun is strangely designed, but I guess that's just what they looked like in the TV series. There's even a pick axe on the sides for clipping rogue Wampa's heads off.

That's all for now!

~John

Lego Atlantis sets close-up

Recently, Thepaleman9 and Model Gal from Flickr have managed to get hold of two of the 2010 Atlantis sets!

Thepaleman9 got his off Toys 'R' Us, where they were on sale for about thirty minutes until TLG or TRU realized this and pulled them off the site. Luckily, Thepaleman9 got about 20 of the impulse sets, and here's his pictures...

Here's the box. Small, neat and with the new ring piece as a size guide.

Some of the finer details - the shiny ring part, with a space for a technic axel in the back. The new claw part is sharper-looking than the old one, and longer too. The new big helmet is quite bulk, but has some nice technic holes. And take a gander at those crazy printed legs!

Here's the whole set. There's some pale orange horns (old ones this time) and some crazy stickers. For what would probably cost £5, this looks like a good deal.

Model Gal managed to get her claws onto a much larger Atlantis set...

The shark looks huge, and has a gigantic tail. That long slope on the tail has only been in one set before - the large-scale Lambourgini. There's also some of those new claws, and the usual horns in black, which is new. The stickers promise to be interesting in this set as well:

So they look promising! Also, the lucky barstool Reasonably Clever Chris has got hold of two Space Police 2010 sets and a Power Miners 2010 set.

~John

Space police outpost

Space 1, originally uploaded by roguebantha_1138.

This interesting Space police outpost by Roguebantha is a really nice idea. The lighting isn't great, but the photo is decent.

-Luke

Hit for six

Do you play cricket? We all appreciate a nice little run-down, village green cricket ground, the sort on which your grandad claims to have once hit Garry Sobers for six. Well, maybe. But this one's charm includes deckchairs, an old-style scoreboard, sheep and a pretty small pavilion. Where better to spend a Sunday afternoon watching club cricket? Maybe you should think about it. Oh well, back to hibernation.

The original creation on Flickr. Yep, I'm linking!

Varaxian

Varaxian, originally uploaded by peterlmorris.

A really nice entry for Novvember by Peter L Morris. The colours are beautiful and the design is very different. Definitely one of my favourites.

-Luke

JM2

JM2, originally uploaded by nnenn.

Another really great Novvember entry from the king of Vic Vipers Nnenn, I love the use of thoto editing which really makes this photo stand out and brings it to life.

-Luke

Harle Q. - The Immediate

I don't normally post custom minifigs ob brickspace but this custom 'Harle Q' by Brickspace's very own Newright really caught my eye. The black background and the lighting give it a dark feel and it's just generally really good.

-Luke