Building a brighter tomorrow with LEGO® bricks
Today we get new minifigures for each advent calendar:
Fresh from Ironforge, a dwarf warrior joins the human knights in the Alliance to stand against the Horde undead (skeletons). What’s next, a night elf? On the City side, however, we have a chef with an oar.
Today we get two more accessories: a ladder for the fireman to climb, so he can rescue the cat, and a crossbow on a wheeled carriage (arcuballista) for the castle soldiers to ward off the skeletons.
So to summarize the calendars so far, we have three distinct scenes for City:
And in the Castle world, one grand battle gearing up:
My Good Twin / Evil Twin plot will have to wait for now…
Local artist Emiko Oye has been building jewelry out of LEGO and other recycled materials for a while now. I met her at Maker Faire last spring. She brings a really interesting perspective to LEGO, treating it as a fine art medium rather than as a hobby the way most adult LEGO fans do.
Her latest accomplishment is a solo exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design featuring works inspired by Cartier and Boucheron, early 20th century jewelry, built in LEGO. I haven’t been to see the exhibit yet, but I’m hoping to soon. In the meantime here’s the info:
My First Royal Jewels
Interactive LEGO art exhibition by emiko oye
San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design
550 Sutter St, SF CA 94102
Through Jan 4, 2009
You can see images of the show on her Flickr account, or learn more about her at rewarestyle.com.
This past weekend, I joined with other members of Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group to set up a train layout and other exhibits at the Museum of American Heritage, which will be on display through January 11, 2009.
The opening day of the exhibit, December 6, was also the day of the museum’s annual holiday party for VIP donors. We were invited to stay that evening to show the exhibit to the party attendees and enjoy the refreshments.
Every year BayLUG puts on a “Living LEGO-cy†exhibit at the museum during the Holidays. We put it up in early December and take it down in early January.
If you’re in the area please come by and see our exhibit. It will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday now through January 11 from 11am to 4pm. I will be there some Saturdays and Sundays, so if you want to say hi to me please send me email or something and let me know when you’ll be there.
On day 8, the City advent calendar yields a mediocre tree with a cat stranded at the top, while the Castle guys get an archery target, bow/arrow, and quiver:
This gives our Day 7 guys ways to practice and hone their skills prior to entering into combat. The knight from Day 7 practices his archery; meanwhile, the firefighter from the previous day practices his skills, honed in years of experience:
I just came across Tilted Twister while reading Mike Walsh’s LEGO Blog (link removed, as apparently his site has been compromised). It’s a Mindstorms NXT robot that can solve the Rubik’s Cube!
The really amazing part is that it’s built using only the parts in the stock NXT kit. Instructions are provided – I’m tempted to make one myself. (Note however that you either need to buy a special color sensor, or modify the colors of your Rubik’s Cube so that white and yellow can be distinguished by the stock light sensor.
Reinforcements have arrived! Good Twin gets a comrade-in-arms to stand by his side against the evil undead horde, while the innocent Ice Cream Girl gets support in the form of a fireman to put out that nasty barbecue that Evil Twil used to melt her ice cream.
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.
The gist of it is that one of the “bad guy” kits that BrickArms sells has pissed off some Islamic organizations in Britain, who’ve raised a stink about it. BrickArms calls the kit “Bandit — Mr. White” without any implication that it’s an Islamic terrorist, but the Ninja-style headwrap it comes with, combined with a substantial arsenal of weapons, does remind some peole at least of a stereotypical Islamic terrorist.
The article quotes a source at LEGO disclaiming any endorsement of BrickArms, saying “The LEGO Group is committed to developing toys which enrich childhood by encouraging imaginative and creative play — and does not endorse products that do not fit with this philosophy.” They’re implying that BrickArms are not encouraging imaginative and creative play which sounds like pretty strong words. While I’m not a fan of the BrickArms and BrickForge products personally, I would not go so far as to say they don’t encourage imaginative and creative play!
It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out. There’s a saying in Hollywood that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name right” and if that’s true, BrickArms is sure to have a big boost in sales. On the other hand, I wonder if LEGO’s lawyers might decide to send them some kind of cease and desist order if enough bad publicity is sent their way…
Via Dr. Miniman on Flickr in the Flickr LEGO group.
Today the nemeses get some reinforcements:
Ice Cream Girl, nemesis of Evil Twin, receives some shade and wheels for the ice cream cart. The Skeleton Guy has a reinforcement, who comes with a crossbow weapon for ranged attack. Combined with the previous skeleton and weaponry we now have four weapons for two guys, plus a shield as well. Meanwhile the nemesis of Evil Twin has no weapons at all, just a tasty and refreshing snack.
Things are not looking good for Good Twin.
So today, we get some accessories for the nemeses (Skeleton and Ice Cream Girl):
How does this fit our story? Well, let’s say that Good Twin defeated the skeleton in combat, and Evil Twin’s hot barbecue melted her ice cream, and they both ran back to their respective home bases:
Here they are, ready for round 2:
