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Lego Roundup: April 2014

Posted by zipblock on April 2, 2014
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Bricks Cascade happened recently and there was some very fine brickery going on. My friend John ( a former S6’er, nay the founder! ) went and took some nice pics.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/j1a3l5/sets/72157642225834783/

Also spotted at Bricks Cascade was Wild Style.


Sunlit Equinox made this Wild Style cosplay, I think she did a great job 🙂
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunlitequinox/

 

Apparently I’m too old for this contest, or any of these Emmet Awards, but neat they are going on:

http://www.us.lego.com/en-us/movie/emmet-awards/?from=0&to=20

Very cool UniKitty creations 🙂

Saw this yesterday…. oh ho ho

https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group/status/451030616734064640/photo/1 

 

My friend Jenn the Brick Chick thumped these up the other day: Aluminum Technic Lift Arms

Here is an indepth article on them:

http://www.technicbricks.com/2009/12/build-sturdy-and-stiff.html?m=1

and here is a bricklink store where you can still buy them:

http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Eezo

These are pretty neat. I don’t have a need for something this industrial ( yet ) but it’s good to know that a product is being made with such precision and craftmanship.

Coming in May to bricklink is the Moc Shop!

http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/newsview.page?msgid=799670

It’s going to be interesting, instead of selling mocs it looks like they are going to be providing instructions that you can then purchase the bricks for. You might have to get the bricks across multiple sites so they will have some dynamic instructions that show best store candidates and options for different bricks.

This along with the recent 3d model view in the individual parts catalogue shows there are many big changes being rolled out for this long standing pillar in the community.

This was doing the rounds earlier this week, Leah/Pastlightspeed made a pretty neat resume

She got hired! Here’s a picture of the blockhead at work:

Here’s more pics and info on her project: http://imgur.com/gallery/Z9xiw

Paul Heatherington celebrated the 40th anniversary of figures in Lego. These go by many names, some call them maxi-figs, I call them homemakers. I have a fondness for them and always happy when I find a part in a pick through. It’s interesting how the arm joints have kept in rotation and now with new ball joints introduced in Mixels, the hand tow balls are back in play!

Paul’s creation has many nods to the era and reflects his consistently crafty building style 🙂

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/14964802@N07/12784012104/

 

I defy you to find a more bestest pony moc than this new one from Ochre Jelly

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ochre_jelly/13398180884/

I wholly approve of this representation. Speaking of which, this came across my desk recently too and is one of the best PMV I’ve seen. Great music natch and very well done editing.

 

Morbid thought about Ghostbusters and Egon/Harold Ramis. I think that he might be the first person who was made into a minifig to have passed away. I have a cursory, non-exhaustive database in my head on the subject and pretty sure this is the case.

 

The Friends are going on a pretty big adventure this year, off to the jungle! The set lineup looks very nice and a great way to get the lil animals into the sets, including Rapunzel’s chameleon Pascal in a new colour. Yellow walky talkies!

http://www.neoape.com/lego-friends-summer-2014-set-images/

 

 

Let’s polish it off on theme with this amazing Doctor Overbuild custom by Jared Burks of Fine Clonier

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaminoan/12981395645/

Lego Roundup: March 2014

Posted by zipblock on March 8, 2014
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I’m sandwiched in between 2 local Lug events and have been meaning to post about them…. and all the craziness that has been going on with Lego lately. I’m sure most of this has come across your radar but just might be some gems you missed. In no particular order, except as I go through my notes…

Have you seen the new 3d model viewer in bricklink? Go find a piece in the catalogue and open up the 3d viewer… pretty boss. I’m guessing it’s all the parts in all the available colours.

A Bionicle fan made a record by spending the most on a single brick, 15k on a platinum mask.

http://lego.gizmodo.com/insane-lego-collector-spends-15-000-on-a-single-piece-1528631074

Seen this Sandcrawler? Pretty amazing, packed a lot of play value into something that is essentially a lot smaller than it’s supposed to be

Lots more pictures and info here:

LEGO Star Wars UCS Sandcrawler (75059) Officially Announced

Really good trailer for the Hobbit vidja game from TT, because the it’s a heist movie right?

It would be pretty hard to avoid this new, the latest Cuusoo set is the Ghostbusters Ecto 1 with the full squad:

This is pretty beautiful and much like the Lego Movie I’m having a hard time finding anything wrong with it, and with it my estimation of Cuusoo has went up.

http://blog.lego.cuusoo.com/2014/02/16/lego-ghostbusters-revealed-toyfair/
Some candid Toy Fair pics of the set: http://news.toyark.com/2014/02/16/toy-fair-2014-lego-simpsons-ghostbusters-114890

For anyone counting, Peter Reid’s Exosuit which is set #6 is still in development.

Speaking of Cuusoo, looks like they took away some hurdles that were apparently in the way for approving Dr. Who sets. Release the Daleks!

https://legocuusoo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/325064-license-conflicts-and-resolutions
This project seems to be the one to watch: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/16291

Also, looks like there will be even more Minecraft sets coming out, I’m happy for you.

Have you seen the new guns? They are in one of the Lego Movie sets and some of the new army builder Star Wars sets. They shoot great! You can fully lose the projectiles. Amazing new design, welcome to the future.

This was confusing people a week or so ago

http://brickultra.com/lego-polar-bear-certified-professional/

Not a real set, but well made mockup.

More info on the Simpsons minifigs! From Amazon:

Woo-hoo! It’s The Simpsons! The LEGO Minifigures series continues with this great collection of 16 of your favorite characters from TV’s longest-running comedy. There’s Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson, as well as Grampa, Ned Flanders, Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief Wiggum, Krusty the Clown, Itchy & Scratchy, Mr. Burns and Milhouse. Each The Simpsons minifigure comes in a sealed ‘mystery’ bag with its own special accessories, display plate and collector’s leaflet. Buy a bag, open it up and see which one you get!

Does this mean they will be in the Minifigures MMOG…?

Did you hear… Mattel bought Megablocks? So after being bumped out the big #2 by a building blocks company, I guess they decided that they needed their own bricks to get back in the game. They’ve been obviously courting the idea for a bit with the Megablocks Barbie line so this is not a huge surprise. I welcome it as it will bring healthy competition, but it is just another successful Canadian company to be gobbled up by the States.

I’m pretty chuffed about these new mini Hero Factory figs:

The Bionicle ones that came out years ago were great and still use them every year at our VicWars games. These sets look to have lots of nice parts too, looking forward to seeing more.

In Lego Movie news, the sequel will be coming out tentatively in May of 2017 and check out this out takes video:

and almost can’t believe that this is on all the official Lego Movie feeds:

There’s lots and lots that has been  posted from the recent Toy Fair, which is going to have to wait for another post, but this is really noteworthy. Not only do we have sets for the upcoming TMNT movie, but there’s this guy, wot:

I’m sure I missed something. Will be back soon with posts about our various club events and the current ruleset for VicWars!

Lego Roundup: Ninjago, Architecture, Watches, Brick Games, BrickCon, Maersk, BrickOwl, Marvel

Posted by zipblock on October 18, 2013
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Lots of Lego news has been piling up in my scratch pad and going to chew through all of it while it’s still at best before date.

Lego Ninjago has been ressurected by it’s rabid fanbase! I have been so impressed with the sets that having been coming out the past year, thinking it was going all flaming phoenix blaze of glory, and it’s still not done.
Here’s a teaser poster, looks like roboninjas? Sounds good.


The binary spells ‘Nindroid’


This is allegedly a fig from the new lineup

Lego Architecture has a lovely new set out, the United Nations Headquarters:

More set details on Brickset:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=21018-1

There is a new series of Lego watches that are coming out geared more towards an adult audience. They have a familiar adjustable link wrist band but the watch faces are all new. There’s a wide selection, some digitial and some pretty complex like this one with week date and days:

The watches you find in the Lego store are $20-30, expect these to be upwards of $80 though.

LEGO Launches Wrist Watch Collection For Adults


Lots of pics here:

LEGO Watch System Revealed

The Brick Games are happening in Langley ( close to Vancouver ) on October 26th. This is not an official Lego event and I will be going more into this around the date. Robin Sather, Canada’s only Certified Lego Professional ( and former Sector 6 member! ) will be part of the hijinx.

http://www.thebrickgames.com/
http://www.brickville.ca/

BrickCon looked amazing! There’s lots to fawn about but immediate mention has to be said about Rivendell. I’m still finding out about it, but it was a collaborative piece put together in part by Alice Finch who did the infamous Hogwarts display.

Here are some pics from my friend Michelle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47604199@N00/sets/72157636325765033/

There is a new Maersk ship coming out…. but not with any Maersk blue! This is curious huh. They are instead using the Friend’s azure blue. I guess Olivia and the gang had a painting bee, did the ship up in a more profitable colour.

LEGO Announces 10241 Maersk Line Triple-E [News]

Brick Owl is a new second hand Lego market, similar to bricklink. So similar that they are being sued by bricklink.

http://www.newelementary.com/2013/09/bricks-inc.html
People were curious how the new shift in ownership would change bricklink and this is an unsavoury demonstration.  They are lucky so far that they haven’t attracted the wrath of the mothership and legal sabre rattling just might. Oh hey, thanks bricklink for letting me know about another market alternative, I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the fuss you were kicking up about them.
http://brickowl.com/
In related news, bricklink recently moved their servers to Amazon which is a pretty huge shift. They are roomies with Netflix, Instagram, Pintrest, etc now….

Beautiful new Cafe Corner set ( I guess they are not actually called that, but you know what I’m talking about )
10243 – Parisian Restaurant
Was I just recently ranting about nice parts? This set has some nice parts. White croissants… mmm yummy. Those inverted bowls look fab too!

Marvel is celebrating the release of the new TT game ( which I know you’re all jack and jilled about that one coming out ) with Legofied covers of a bunch of titles!

http://www.brickjournal.com/view/article/412/

Sets

Posted by zipblock on September 29, 2013
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Even though I’m not going to BrickCon this year, I am asking a fellow Lugmate to mule back some sets for me. We get a significant discount just for crossing the border, it amounts to 20-30% and really good time to get any exclusives that are just at the Lego stores ( or SAH ). Unfortunately Lego has stopped offering con attendees a discount as well which ended up being around 40% off. Due to that I have had to be even more selective about my set purchases and been revisiting my thoughts on them.

In the 90’s I built my collection mostly through sets and the occasional 2nd hand lot. Around 2000 I discovered the online Lego community, the local Lug, and bricklink, all of which changed my purchasing habits. Since my collection had bulked up somewhat I didn’t need to buy sets for bricks and was looking for specific parts, it was much more efficient to get those parts or figs on briclink. I would spend a few dollars on a fig that might come from a $100 set, repeat that a few times and the savings become astronomical. I pretty much stopped buying sets altogether for at least 5 years.

this… or…

this… ya, early millenia I chose bricklink

In the mid part of the decade that changed when Lego revamped their whole business model and product line. You got Power Miners, Agents, and the introduction of the Cafe Corner line. I started attending fan events around the same time, me and sets had a grand reunion. It’s levelled out for a few reasons again though. There have been some initiatives from the Lego program like the Lugbulk program, group purchases within the Lug, and the removal of discounts from the mothership have made me rethink what’s out there.

Now thatsa tasty meatball!

The past couple of years I have been Minifig crazy and there has been no decline in my interest there, and none in sight. I still make regular bricklink orders to work on my backlog. When I go to actually get a set it has to have enough interesting bricks in the mix to make it worthwhile. The whole is not as valuable as the parts to me, I really do not care about the actual end model. Actually, some models are quite lovely like the Cafe Corner buildings, and I’m actively not going to get any more of those because *I don’t take them apart* I don’t want to be a set collector and displayer, I would prefer if my collection was organized and fluid, ready for building.

Ya, I’m probably never taking this apart…

This week I went and took almost all of my still assembled sets and tore them all down. They are essentially doing me no good in that state. When I went to look at the current product line as to what I’d like to get from BrickCon I was actually kind of at a loss. Any Hobbit, Super Hero or Turtle set I will bricklink want I want to get, or have managed to pick it up already at a very reasonable price. The Tower of Orthanc epitomizes this problem for me. I pretty much want the eagle. The rest of the set is a bunch of nice black bricks which are amazing altogether, and then you wouldn’t want to take it apart. The eagle is also available in the Black Gate set… more black bricks. I was casting about, kind of weirded out that there was nothing that I felt hit my criteria.

Well, if you *give* it to me I won’t be sad I guess

Then I looked at the Galaxy Squad line. Hell ya. I had picked up one small set many months ago when it first came out but hadn’t really checked out the new wave. This fits my bill, great buggy figs, neat parts in crazy colours and some wacky elements only found in that line. I’m a happy camper. It’s all got me thinking though, there is a culture of the sanctity of the set being unbreakable and an end unto itself. Lego itself has done much to foster this mindset and it’s a big part of what’s driving their current success.

Now we’re cooking with gas

People want to buy a set for the model that it represents. They want the X-Wing, not for that obscure slope, but for the whatever it is the whole model evokes. People purchase LOTR over DC sets because they care for those characters, not the colour palette or the introduction of a new tile. People do or don’t buy Friends because of the their feelings towards gender representation, not all the new colours and elements included. This has always been the case to some degree but I think the shift really happened at the turn of the century when Lego stopped putting alternative models on the backs of sets. I can’t remember distinctly when it happened but I see it as part of the shift from a creative building toy towards a building toy that informs you how it should be used. Very little emphasis is put on free form play, one actually has to go out of their way to get random bucket of bricks now.

From my understanding it was customers who complained that Lego wasn’t including instructions for the alternative models and that’s why they removed them. I always thought that was the appeal? To figure out how they did it? Or to give you ideas as to do other things with the bricks? I wholly realize that ironically enough I’m a niche customer… someone who buys bricks primarily to make their own creations, but since Lego is constantly looking at retooling their image then this is something that would make me feel better about them as a company and not just selling a predetermined play package. They’d also probably see more of my dollar vote 😉

What drives your choices when it comes to sets? What would you like to see more and less of?

Couple of new sites and other Lego news

Posted by zipblock on July 2, 2013
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Here’s a few Lego tidbits that I’ve come across in the past week or so that are pretty interesting.

There’s a new after market brick vendor on the block ( oh ho! ) called brickowl, not much there yet but worth keep an eye on:

http://brickowl.com/

A new blog  just cropped up and if it takes off it will sure to be one of my favs that I will follow like a hungry puppy:

http://www.newelementary.com/

It’s all about new elements and possible uses! ~ swoon ~

A new custom rollercoaster system was just unveiled. It’s pricey, no lie, but looks pretty interesting. Worth the snoop:

http://www.therollercoasterfactory.com/

Did you hear about those teens who knocked over the massive Lego helicopter in Australia? A couple of them were caught. What should be the charge? Dragged over a bed of molten mega blocks?

http://lego.gizmodo.com/vandals-destroy-largest-lego-helicopter-ever-update-id-614196901

A girl made a Lego prosthetic leg and made a video of it, hypnotizing:

This isn’t Lego news, but I’m pretty stoked about it. Oh this is a gaming centric blog, and you’re all creatives, it fits! The creators of Neverhood, Skullmonkeys and Earthworm Jim have successfully funded their kickstarter for Armikrog, the spiritual successor to those games. They made a stretch goal and it will also be on the WiiU, and I’ve heard wind of them trying to wrastle the rights of Neverhood back from EA. If you are not familiar with those games, they were entirely claymation puzzle games with the most wonderful and weird soundtrack.  It’s really a victory for the gaming world that this is happening.

http://armikrog.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1949537745/armikrog

Bricklink sold to new AFOL owner

Posted by zipblock on June 7, 2013
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2013/06/06/bricklink-com-sold-will-be-getting-security-upgrade-facelift-news/

Lots of buzz about this right now in the Lego community. It’s one of the major pillars and there’s still muscle memories of when brickshelf went down, how that affected everyone. The echoes are still rippling with the exodus to flickr. I hope this goes amazingly well and that bricklink finally joins this decade, the site sorely needs an upgrade in appearance and function. It must have been the hardest decision for Eliska and applaud her for being so upfront about the whole process.

From bb:

About a week ago I posted a special message to thank all of you for supporting us over the nearly three years since my son Dan died. I thank all those who sent personal messages to me about what BrickLink has meant to them. In my message, I mentioned some progress we made, and also the challenges we faced. Good news remaining is that, despite the challenges, business has been brisk and even impressive. When I took over the website in the name of my son, the representational visitor log (front page of BrickLink) was at about 50 million visitors. Today, it is at nearly 144 million visitors and counting. Nearly two-thirds of all those who visited BrickLink over the 13 years since its inception have arrived here in the short time we’ve run BrickLink.com. Also, we’ve partnered with security experts and have been able to make the website safer than it has ever been. I’m proud of these facts and I again thank all of you for your patience in sticking with us to this day.

But it’s a new era, and much needs to be done to bring BrickLink to a higher level and to become the site whose potential all of you see and we want to reach as well.

Thus, I am announcing that I am stepping down as CEO of BrickLink and have handed the website over to the committed and competent hands of a new owner, Jung-Ju “Jay” Kim, founder of Nexon, one of the world’s largest online game companies.

I completely endorse Jay to take the reins of BrickLink. He has the knowledge, resources and capabilities needed for the job. He has a passion, not just for all things LEGO, but also for BrickLink. Like most of you, he has been a member of the community for years. He has tremendous respect for what Dan accomplished while he was alive. He also has a compelling desire to carry forward Dan’s vision and his guiding principles that were laid down more than a decade ago. Jay and his team are ready to work toward “BrickLink 2.0”, as well as continuing hardware architecture and application upgrades.

It’s a bright future for BrickLink, and I intend to be a part of it along with the rest of the BrickLink Community. Larry and I will be staying on in an advisory-consulting role to the new owners. Eric Smith will be staying on as Admin to ensure a smooth, seamless transition with minimal interruption.

Part of that transition will include relocation of the BrickLink site to a different data center. Later today you will learn more about that server relocation and the migration schedule, which has been carefully designed to minimize downtime.

It’s been a great three years. I did my best and I am sorry that the hacking incidents waylaid us from doing more, earlier. I am proud of the amazing growth of BrickLink, thanks to all of you.

As hard as it was to give up our treasured BrickLink that Dan loved so much, I felt it was the right thing to do, not for me, but for the Community. And, as always, it is that worldwide community that matters to me most, just as it mattered to Dan. That is why I am passing the torch to new leadership. It is what Dan would have wanted me to do.

As I mentioned, I will remain on with BrickLink and will act as an ambassador and link to BrickLink’s lineal past. Please feel free to contact me any time at eliska@bricklink.com. I still want to hear from you.

Thank you and let’s all look forward to tomorrow.

Best regards,

Eliska Jezkova, former CEO of BrickLink.com

In addition, here’s the text of the message from Jung-Ju “Jay” Kim, founder of the online game company Nexon:

Dear BrickLink Community,

I am extremely pleased to be taking over the operations of BrickLink.com. I’ve been a LEGO fan for 40 years and an avid user of BrickLink.com for over a decade. My first plans are to upgrade the website, and do our best to make users happier and more prosperous, while staying true to the original vision of BrickLink.com founder, Daniel Jezek. We will work hard in order to ensure that BrickLink.com becomes stable, secure and as user-friendly as possible.

I want to sincerely thank the family of Daniel Jezek, especially his mother Eliska, as well as the BrickLink.com Community, for the opportunity to upgrade and operate such a beloved website as BrickLink.com. In order to expedite the process of renovating BrickLink.com, I and Bricklink Limited will be asking users to e-mail us with their ideas for the improved functionality of the site, as well as any current issues that need to be addressed in order to provide users with the best possible selling and buying experience. We’ll establish those lines of communication very soon.

Thank you for your continued patronage and support of BrickLink.com

Jung-Ju Kim, incoming owner of BrickLink.com

 

Further more, I have this quote from Eric Smith:

 Had this sale not been a good thing, I would not have stayed involved in the new company. I have had extensive discussions with the new ownership about future plans and I’m genuinely excited about this change