William and Kate and Westminster Abbey

Posted on April 28, 2011 by

Tomorrow is a big wedding if you haven’t notice, and to celebrate the royal wedding, here are some LEGO MOCs that focus on the soon-to-be- royal couple and the setting for the wedding.

The first in our little feature is a very impressive build from the LEGO folks themselves. LEGOLAND Windsor. I’m not going to post any pictures, as I’m not sure of the copyright issues and who the original holders are, but the Daily Mail and Geek Sugar both have photos of the royal wedding diorama at LEGOLAND Windsor. The Manchester Evening News was one of the first to get a look at it, and report that 180,000 bricks went into its creation, along with 400 LEGO figures. Note that these are not the normal LEGO minifigures, but rather the LEGOLAND-scale figures, which are larger.

The next is a very impressive build by Justin Ramsden of the heads of Kate Middleton and Prince William (via The Brothers Brick):

LEGO Wills & Kate (Best Wishes)

Just in case you want to view a lot of close-ups, visit the full set at Justin’s Flickr page.

Curbed National has posted this image of Westminster Abbey at LEGOLAND Windsor:

Lego_World_Places_3

And again, more links, but the BBC has some photos of a MOC put together by LEGO fans showcasing the wedding as well, this time in normal LEGO minifigure scale. The MOC is going to end up at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. These photos were supposedly handed out by the LEGO press office, but I never saw where so I’m not going to risk it.

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l’Entité d’Atlantis – One of the Best Atlantis-Themed MOCs Yet

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

“Captain Spaulding” has put together one heck of an Atlantis-themed MOC for Contest L13 on the French Brickpirate forums.

MOC l'Entité d'Atlantis 01

Vues du MOC d'Atlantis sans l'Entité

While it may not resemble the formal Atlantis divers and vehicles/settings found in the Atlantis sets, you will find plenty of parts from the various Atlantis sets.

If you look at the Brick Pirate link below, he has included several extensive behind-the-scene photos.

Links
* Full set at Flickr
* Thread on Brick Pirate (French)
* MOCPages entry
* via Brothers Brick and Legobloggen

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LEGO Toy Story Western Train Chase 7597 Clearance Sets at Amazon

Posted on February 1, 2011 by

I’m one of those people that try to buy a lot of my LEGO sets on sale. I think we are, for the next few months at least, past the heavy holiday-related clearances, but some Toy Story sets popped up on Amazon, including the LEGO Toy Story 3 7597 Western Train Chase for $55.76, which is about as cheap as I’ve seen it.

LEGO Toy Story 3 7597 Western Train Chase

* LEGO 7597 Western Train Chase at Amazon.com – $55.76
* Also: LEGO 7596 Trash Compactor Escape – $39.48

I’ve seen the Trash Compactor Escape for around that price both in retail stores and online. The lowest I’ve seen the Western Train Chase was $59.99 at some Targets.

I say it’s a clearance on the Train Chase set – if that’s not somebody clearing out Toy Story sets to make way for other Disney and/or Pixar lines that LEGO is pushing out in a few months, I don’t know what is. I’ve been tempted by it, but I’m putting my LEGO money into a few other sets that I want first.

Surprisingly, the holiday related sets are still available through Amazon, either near or at LEGO’s recommended prices:
* LEGO Creator Winter Toy Shop 10199
* LEGO Creator Holiday Bakery 10216
* LEGO City Advent Calendar 2824
* LEGO Kingdoms 7952 2010 Advent Calendar

Brickset mentions that the Winter Village Bakery can be had at some LEGO retail stores for up to %30 off, so before buying on Amazon or elsewhere online, if you are interested in this set, try and make it to your local LEGO story if you are lucky enough to have one.

Keep in mind that all of the above prices are subject to change, based on availability. I’ll try to make it to my local LEGO store this weekend and verify any sales/clearances, but my area is in for some very cold and nasty weather this week.

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Space Police Lives on, in MOC Style

Posted on January 24, 2011 by

LEGO maybe retiring the Space Police line for the time being, in favor of the upcoming Alien Conquest, but that’s not stopping people from putting out their own creations. While some like to go for the complex and outlandish, others go for a more simple/streamlined view, which I prefer.

Eurobricks forum member DrNightmare has created a really cool little Space Police MOC which fits into the types of Space Police sets and MOCs that I like. As of yet, it doesn’t have a formal name (he’s looking for suggestions). He’s waiting on a few parts to complete it and/or clean it up. He’s including a lot of pictures as well as a photo of the original prototype. As small as it is, he’s managed to include a droid.

You can view the full thread at Eurobricks in the Sci-Fi themes

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LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu – King of Shadows Movie Review on Cartoon Network

Posted on January 14, 2011 by

This is part two of my LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu movie reviews. This is going to be light on the commentary – the images speak for themselves.

LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu - King of Shadows Movie Review

Remember, click on the images for larger versions – I’ve uploaded 1080p. Yes, they are out of order.

The first part of the review can be found here (Way of the Ninja Review)

As mentioned previously, SPOILERS AHEAD!

LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu - King of Shadows Movie Review

Would love to have a LEGO set of this ship:

LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu - King of Shadows Movie Review

Continue reading →

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LEGO Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu – Way of the Ninja Movie Review on Cartoon Network

Posted on January 14, 2011 by

I wasn’t intending to post such a large review at this point – I wanted to watch the entire thing again and pay attention to the plot, but I’m impressed with both movies, and I’m going to go ahead and post a bit as well as a bunch of screen captures. It was a little bizarre seeing skeletons driving around in motorcycles and four-wheel drive monster trucks, however from my limited experience of what I’ve seen in stores, they did an excellent rendering of the actual LEGO sets into animation for TV. I also saw a lot of vehicles and settings in the movies that I’d like to see turned into actual LEGO sets. If they make the ship you see in the second review, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

LEGO Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu - Way of the Ninja Movie Review

I’ll say up front that I’m not very familiar with Ninjago! (or NinjaGo! or Ninja Go! as I’ve seen it) and its universe. The screenshots I’ve posted below are going to be out of order – I was jumping around and just taking random screen captures to give you a sense of things I thought were interesting – potential future LEGO sets, etc. I’m trying to avoid giving the actual plot away since many people haven’t seen it yet. Screenshots from the second “movie” – Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu – King of Shadows, will be in a follow-up post. These are screenshots from the first episode “Way of the Ninja” but they are out of order.

Even though I’m not familiar with the Ninjago line, I still enjoyed what I watched. It was very very well produced. The animation, voice acting, sound effects, and music seem to have been upgraded over last year’s LEGO Atlantis movie. This year I do benefit from being able to see it in HD, and it looked great. I would love to be able to view last year’s Atlantis movie in HD. I’m not that into Ninjago! but I think if you were a fan of the sets and minifigs, you’d love the movies.

I have no idea how long these episodes take to produce, but I hope The LEGO Group produces more, and not just in the Ninjago universe.

Just a quick note on the screen captures – there will be blurry areas – that’s due to motion of the characters. It looks great in HDTV. There were a lot of Cartoon Network logos popping up. If this comes out on DVD or Blu-ray, definitely worth picking up if the price is good just to avoid those.

DO NOT VIEW THE IMAGES BELOW IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS!

Link to the second movie at the bottom.

A really cool animation style that was explaining some of the backstory of the characters:

LEGO Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu - Way of the Ninja Movie Review


Continue reading →

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