Brickworld Report, Part One - The Setup

The first few days of Brickworld Chicago are reserved for workshops, presentations, and the all imporant display setup in preperation for the public viewing days on Saturday and Sunday. If you ever have the chance to attend Brickworld during these "private" days I would recommend doing so. The access you receive grants you a behind-the-scenes view into the creations and the creators of Brickworld. LEGO fans are a very friendly bunch and always very passionate about their favorite brick building hobby. With so many diverse building styles and themes you are bound to pick up a new technique or two that you can apply to your future builds, all while having a ton of fun and meeting cool new people.

Stay tuned for part two, where we will cover one of my favorite parts of Brickworld, collorbative builds.

History Cops!

It's just a great day for LEGO videos. Here's one from the peeps behind The LEGO Movie, Michelangelo and Abraham Lincoln in History Cops, a grind house film parody.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I finally got a chance to watch Wes Anderson's latest cinematic achievement The Grand Budapest Hotel just a few days ago, and I loved it. And now Ryan Ziegelbauer, Gary McIntire and a team of top notch builders have created a masterpiece of their own inspired by the movie. I give you the LEGO Grand Budapest Hotel, and it's awesome!

Scarecrow

I've never played Arkham Asylum (I know, bad nerd) but I've seen plenty of images and footage from the game and it looks amazing. The characters design and art direction have inspired many very cool MOCs, like this Scarecrow from Julius No, scary cool.

Sweet!

A hallmark of a really great MOC is when you can make a member of the general public go "wow, that's LEGO?" A Hallmark of an incredible MOC is when you can get me to go "holy crap, that's LEGO?" Mike Doyle has revealed the cover of his upcoming sequel to Beautiful LEGO, and it's absolutely, positively jaw-dropping.

Snoochie Boochies

Here's a fun fact, I worked on Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I'm a long time Kevin Smith fan, and I'm totally digging today's shirt from ShirtPunch! The clock is ticking, get over there and score one!

Hodor

Hodor hodor hodor? Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor ( hodor hodor hodor hodor).

Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor.  Hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor  hodor Game of Thrones. Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor.

 Hodor!

FIGHT!

We're nearing the end of this round of Iron Builder, but these fierce competitors aren't letting up. Check out this game console from Onosendai2600! As a quarter-poor teen I spent a lot of time with these contraptions, but none this cool (except maybe the sit-down vector Star Wars game, my all time favorite).

Who You Gonna Telegraph?

Imagine if you will professional paranormal investigation and elimination services at the turn of the century, it would have to look like this. Yes, builder Bausteineck has done a steampunk ghostbusters mashup and the results speak for themselves. 

Pikachu, I Choose You!

Ash and Pikachu pretty much personify Pokemon. The duo go back the the very beginning and have been a formidable fighting team for ages. Now we can enjoy them in brick from thanks to Combee. I especially like the mini Pokeballs on Ash's belt, nice detail.

Who Wants To Play Space Invaders?

I was 13 when my grandpa Chet surprised us with our very own Atari 2600, the perfect age. We played that thing until our hands ached and our eyes bled. And when we went to bed, we could still see invaders from space when we closed our eyes, good time. Very nostalgic build lego27bricks.

The EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle

One of my favorite all-time movies is Stripes. And this is one of the best things about it, the ridiculously awesome EM-50. How amazing would it be to have an RV with a flame thrower and rocket launcher? It would certainly help those camping trips with the obnoxious loud music neighbors (camping with PJ and Sean wouldn't suck either). This MOC by BMW_Indy rocks by any measure, but with the addition of lighting by BrickStuff, it's just over the top.

Big Catch

One of the best things about the Iron Builder contests is the incredibly diverse MOCs that get churned out. In this battle alone we've seen everything from a boot, to a video game to a haunted TV to a tornado. And now it's a guy landing a huge, orange three-eyed fish. Where else in the world can you connect all those things together? Nice build 6kyubi6.

ModBots

What do you get when you add modular robot parts, cool design, pose-ability and clever construction? You get ModBots by Alex Kelley. ModBots is a series of customizable, modular figures. Sort of like brick-built action figures, and they're awesome.

The Beast

My first vehicle ever was a lifted '76 Chevy LUV nicknamed "The Beast". It was awesome, with extended cab, 12" woofers, amp, equalizer, big fat tires, the works. At least I thought it was awesome, in reality it was a piece of junk, but in my 19 year old mind it was pretty much this MOC by rongYIREN. 

Spooky TV

If you happen to have a cathode ray tube television in your house, especially one with rabbit ears, it's most likely haunted. We are providing this information not to alarm you, but just to make you aware. Even though you should already be aware since analog broadcasts are a thing of the past and your TV sucks. But now there's a ghost in it, so really, get rid of it. Oh, and ditch that VHS VCR too, just sayin'.

This has been a public service message from all HDTV manufacturers

Mystique

Character builder extraordinaire Iain Heath is back with what may become the first in a series of Jennifer Lawrence tributes (see what I did there?) The first is everybody's favorite blue-skinned, red-haired and let's face it, naked mutant, Mystique.

Hammond P2011

Titanfall has inspired more full-sized weapon props than any other game in recent memory, and I can see why. The design in the game is top notch, movie-level stuff, and what could be more inspiring? This pistol is by Cyan Madness, and like all the rest it's pretty awesome.

Last Days

I like the small town life. I've lived in Los Angeles and London, and I've spent time in NYC, Philadelphia, Tokyo and many more metropolises. The allure of the big city wears off really quickly with me, and it's not long before I can't wait to get back to a quiet little town. Then there's the threat of annihilation from an alien attack, as visualized by Tim Schwalf here. I seriously doubt they're going to target my house.

Out Of This World Tees

Our friends at Tee Fury have a couple new LEGO inspired tees for you all to wear. Now I don't want to judge, but take a moment and look down... now look at these designs and ask yourself "self, what would I rather be wearing?"

You're welcome.

UPDATE: They're gone!