Monday, April 30, 2012

The Legend of Zelda on LEGO CUUSOO


 Most people have seen this CUUSOO project, put up by MINGLES, which currently has 7,658 supporters. But now a better, more detailed version of a worthy project has been posted by Ragaru.
 This new version is much more detailed than the previous one and just seems more worthy of being put into product. More pictures of the proposed pieces can be seen here.

 Also, over the the weekend, the Back to the Future(BTTF) - DeLorean Time Machine, proposed by m.togami, became the fifth project (technically sixth) to reach 10,000 supporters. This feat was achieved on April 29th.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

News From LEGO CUUSOO

 The LEGO CUUSOO project based on Shaun of the Dead, submitted by Greg (aka Yatkuu). It reached the required 10,000 supporters on March 31, 2012. But LEGO released an official statement today, stating that their review board deemed the project inappropriate for their core audience. The statement reads as follows:

The LEGO Jury has completed the review of the Winchester – Shaun of the Dead project that hit 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO on March 31, 2012.

LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity to submit product ideas, however all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content appropriate for our core audience. With this in mind we have decided that – good though the model is – the film Shaun of the Dead contains content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.

Long before the Winchester received mainstream media attention, Greg (Yatkuu) contacted us in earnest to see if his project was acceptable. We recognized the potential conflict, but didn’t see a reason to remove the project. The model was presented tastefully and we thought it deserved fair consideration. With 10,000 supporters, the Winchester earned the opportunity to receive the full LEGO Review.

Greg has been a pleasure to work with throughout this process. We’re impressed by his model, grateful for his constructive approach with us, and we are sad to disappoint such a devoted LEGO fan.

We appreciate the passion exhibited for new product ideas on LEGO CUUSOO. Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. This is the first time we’ve felt that we should turn a LEGO CUUSOO idea down, but we’re grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Winchester and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.


 On a happier note, a project submitted by CUUSOO user czar reached 10,000 supporters (actually 10,006) yesterday. The project, EVE Online Ships - Rifter, is a model of a Minmatar Frigate called the Rifter from the popular MMO EVE Online and has the full backing of CCP.  czar is working on three more ships to compliment this one. The ships were chosen based off of a poll on the EVE Online Facebook page. Apparently the three other ships are going to be Gallente Incursus, Amarr Executioner, and Caldari Merlin.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Custom Doctor Who Minifigs



 This whole set of Doctor Who custom minifigs, which includes all the doctors and all of the new series companions, was hand-made by Fine Clonier. I not particularly thrilled abouot the minifigures themselves, which have hand-drawn faces and decals, but rather, I like what they could eventually become. Full-blown Doctor Who-licensed LEGO sets! How amazing would that be!
 One piece out of the set I do very much enjoy is the TARDIS. The decals look rather good on this piece.
 Fine Clonier has several other custom sets, including G.I. Joe, Avengers, and The Walking Dead.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Steampunk Sunday



 This week's installment focuses on Mark Stafford's (lego_nabii) Tri-terrortops, a mechanized war machine that resembles a triceratops. This thing actually walks! Very slowly. You can see a video of it walking on Mark's Flickr stream.

Friday, April 20, 2012

LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie App For iOS



 Warner Brothers Consumer Products/DC Entertainment have created a new LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie Maker app for the iPhone and later gen. iPod Touch. The app lets you make stop-motion videos. Specifically Lego, of course.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Lego Labyrinth Game


 This really incredible Lego rendition of the traditional Labyrinth game was constructed by Jason (True Dimensions). The game features interchangeable boards, and ball storage unit, and a travel lock so it doesn't move about while you move about.
 Jason submitted this idea to CUUSOO, where it has 48 supporters. I don't think this will make it into production, though.
 Video of the game below.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

'Epic Mario'


 Some interesting stuff can be found on Kickstarter. This project, created by Zachary Pollock, is asking for $26,400 to build a one-stud-per-pixel recreation of World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. While useless, that is an incredible undertaking. The finished project, which is projected to consist of more than 780,000 studs, will be about 6 ft (1.8 m) tall and 90 ft (27.4 m) long. Pollock plans to showcase this at various cons and other exhibits after finishing.
 Looking through the rewards, you see the usual cheap stuff for the cheap people - thank you cards and stuff - but higher up are some really neat rewards. A couple are blueprints so that you can build a panel that will be used in the final product, and others are just neat knick-knacks. Even higher are rewards such as receiving a piece of the display after its exhibition run, wall art, and paid registration for BrickCon 2012.

Kickstarter campaign

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Steampunk Sunday


 It would seem this week was a rather slow one in the Lego steampunk community. I didn't find anything that I thought was really great, so I settled with this airship from tikitikitembo. This was tikitikitembo's first attempt at the steampunk genre, and it was a pretty good first attempt.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Lego Star Wars Giant Music Box


 I just found this video today. I love this! It's so cool how the sets make the piano play.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Nintendoformers!

 I'm sure all of you remember Baron von Brunk's incredible LEGO Gameboy Transformer. Well, he decided to make a CUUSOO campaign out of it. It currently has 31 supporters, which is of course very short of 10000. But it did just go up yesterday. I think this would be a cool product, but the campaign is kind of pointless as he posted instructions on Instructables. Why buy the set when you can just build using parts you have lying around, like von Brunk did. I guess it is more convenient to have all the required pieces instead of hunting for them, but still.

Monday, April 9, 2012

1:1 Replica of the M45 Shotgun From Halo: Reach


 Nick Jensen (Nick Brick), who last year built a 1:1 Halo sniper rifle with actual working parts, has done it again, with this full-sized replica of the M45 shotgun. This model, with working pump, trigger, and bullet loading and ejecting system, took Nick 2 months to build, weighs 5 lbs., and is about 38" in length.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Sorry.

No Steampunk Sunday this week. I was gone all day, and I didn't have time to look.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

This Hermit Crab Makes His Home In Legos


 Harry the hermit crab lives in the Atlantic Discovery Area of LEGOLAND in Windsor, Berkshire. He was a picky crab, rejecting all the shells that were offered him. But then some staffers made him a shell made of red, blue, and yellow bricks, which he took to quickly.
 A video of Harry can be seen here.

Friday, April 6, 2012

LEGO Batman Tumbler


 This Batman Tumbler was made by Legohaulic as a last minute entry for the MOCAthalon in the Super Hero category. It's really well done, and he plans to add an interior sometime soon.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Exclusive Model for the Opening of New LEGO Stores


 LEGO is opening 10 new retail stores across North America, and they'll be giving out this model, 3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store, for free to a limited number of people who show up to the grand opening of one of them.

 Press release follows:

3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store
Ages 7+ 280 pieces

New LEGO Stores are opening soon!
Celebrate the opening of a brand new LEGO Store in your area with the new, exclusive LEGO Brand Retail Store model! Not available for purchase, this set is only given out to a select number of customers with a qualifying purchase during the Grand Opening Celebration. We are proud to announce 10 new locations in North America opening in 2012:

  • Nashville, TN
  • Victor, NY
  • Vancouver, BC; Canada
  • Wauwatosa, WI
  • The Woodlands, TX
  • Peabody, MA
  • Overlord Park, KS
  • Elizabeth, NJ
  • Seattle, WA
  • Alpharetta, GA

Stay tuned for details on the Grand Opening Celebrations, featuring the new exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Brand Retail Store set and T-Shirts! For more information, please visit stores.LEGO.com.

Offers will be available during the Grand Opening Celebration only, while supplies last.
Phone orders will not be accepted, to qualify purchase must be made at store location.

 The Nashville and Victor stores have their grand openings on April 27-29.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Block Buddies


 Okay, so by now everyone's seen this picture, originally done by some German design company. Well, now they've spawned a whole trend, as documented by the Flickr page Block Buddies. There are a lot of cool pictures there. I, for some reason, find great fun in trying to figure out what they are. some are really obvious, some, not so much.
 Above are some of my favorite from the pool. Anybody with half a brain should know what these are.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Steampunk Sunday: April Fool's


 Ha! You guys thought I'd go another week without everyone's favorite feature. It was my April Fool's prank... no, actually I was busy yesterday and I forgot. But here it is.
 This week I'm featuring Felipe Avelar's (Felipe Descomplicado) Steampunk Walker Crane, powered by Mindstorms. In the video Felipe posted showing the crane's operation, it seems that all the motor can do is make the thing walk. The circle may be a consequence of the tile floor.