Last night at BrickFest, the new 10194 Emerald Night train set was officially announced. For the announcement, they played this video on the big screen…
Category: News
New Flickr Group: LEGO Antigravity
I had a hare-brained idea the other night, to create a Flickr group for antigravity-based vehicles. You know, Jetsons cars, Blade Runner spinners, Star Wars speeders, stuff like that. I’ve really enjoyed the LugNuts group that Lino runs, but wanted something like that with a more science-fiction bent. So I created the LEGO Antigravity group, and pimped it on the LugNuts and Sci-LUG forums. I added a few of my own aircars to it and invited a few other MOCs that seemed on-topic to join. Check it out!
New LEGO blog: Sariel’s LEGO Technic creations
One of the most well-documented LEGO builders out there is “Sariel,” a Polish LEGO builder specializing in Technic models: construction equipment, trucks, military equipment, etc. They feature a lot of moving parts, often with motorized and/or pneumatic power. He takes excellent quality photos and even has Youtube videos of his models.
BayLUG on TV?
Yesterday, a crew from KTVU channel 2 television came to see the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group exhibit. Watch this Video on KTVU.com about our exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. Russell (the club president) and I weren’t there, but Loren did a great job explaining the exhibit for the camera. I’m sure that must have been nerve-wracking but I think he’s got a great voice for that kind of thing so I’m glad he was willing and available to do it.
LEGO Cruise Ship Contest
There are LEGO building contests organized by LEGO hobbyists all the time, but this may be the first time a company (other than LEGO itself) is soliciting entries in a contest. STX Europe, a shipyard that builds some of the world’s largest cruise ships, is sponsoring a building contest using LEGO Digital Designer.
LEGO survey of adult fans
This showed up in my email today. I filled out the survey, and encourage everyone else to do it too.
BrickArms Controversy in Mainstream Media
It would seem that BrickArms has garnered international attention. The article “Lego-Style Islamic Terrorist Figurine Sparks Outrage” appears on Fox News and similar articles appear in a number of other sources; see Google News report for the story for more.
Congratulations to President-Elect Obama
Some LEGO creators have been posting images recently in honor of Obama’s victory:
My Video of BrickCon 2008 (Part 2) on LAMLtv
As promised, I made a second episode for LAMLtv about BrickCon.
My Video of BrickCon 2008 (Part 1) on LAMLtv
At BrickCon 2008, I shot video of a lot of models on display and interviewed a few people. The result has just been released as an episode of LAMLtv, the new video podcast arm of LAMLradio. This episode features interviews with Simon Kent, design lead at Lego Creator in Denmark, and Jenn “The Brick Chick” Wagner, as well as footage of models on display.
BrickCon 2008 so far
BrickCon is going very well so far. There are tons of great models on display, many great deals to be had on LEGO, and some amazing news
My Track Geometry page translated to Italian
My Track Layout Geometry page has been translated into Italian!
LEGO Technic Tora no Maki
Yoshihito Isogawa, author of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT The Orange Book, has just released a new PDF book jam-packed with pictures illustrating a lot of Technic tips and techniques.
RIP 9V Trains
Well, LEGO has finally made up their mind on the future of trains. Steve Witt has announced that the 9V system will be discontinued, to be replaced by IR-controlled, battery-powered trains.
A Reprieve for Brickshelf
Brickshelf.com owner Kevin Loch finally posted about the whole shutdown controversy. It seems that he has had enough people offering to donate that the shutdown of Brickshelf is, for now, not iminent. Still, I think it’s pretty clear that moving one’s pictures to a more stable place like Flickr or MOCpages (which has introduced a new feature of hosting images, in response to the Brickshelf shutdown), is a good idea.
Brickshelf is back – but not for long
Brickshelf has returned, but with a prominent notice saying “Notice: Brickshelf will be shutting down on 2007/07/31. Please save your files to your computer.”
No More Brickshelf!
For many years, brickshelf.com has been the primary image hosting site for the LEGO community. But sadly, if you visit it today, you get nothing but this cryptic message:
USB Flash Drives in LEGO
Every once in a while someone comes up with a new way to modify LEGO parts to do something unexpected. The latest example is a USB flash drive by an Australian company called Zip Zip. They are taking 2×2 LEGO bricks and installing USB connectors and flash memory. For about US$50 you can have 1GB of LEGO for your very own. As much as I generally dislike modifying LEGO, I have to make an exception here, this is just too darn cool. I gotta have one! Don’t you?
LEGO Online Game Coming Soon
It would appear that LEGO is working on a massively multiplayer online game!
The Unofficial LEGO Advanced Building Techniques Guide
Didier Enjary of FreeLUG (French LEGO users group) has compiled a great guide to advanced LEGO construction techniques. It explains in great detail the geometry of LEGO bricks, and how to fit them together to achieve some great effects. The focus is mainly on SNOT (Studs Not On Top) construction, and how to achieve various offsets of fractional brick widths. There are some very inspiring ideas which can improve anyone’s LEGO skills.