Special BrickCon Issue Of BrickJournal!

Excitement is growing here in Seattle as the first day of BrickCon kicks off. And what better way to get going than to reflect on the past and present of the convention with a special edition of BrickJournal? And wouldn't it be great if it was free? Well, the fine folks at Twomorrows and Joe Meno are doing just that. For the next two weeks you can download this special issue and see just what all this madness is about. 

Be careful around page 28, there's some surly characters and disturbing images, just sayin'

Tinkling The Teeny Tiny Ivories

I don't know the whole story about this MOC, but it has some history. Scrolling back through builder edguy20's photostream I can see it was actually produced as a very limited run, and frankly amazing, custom kit. This presentation of an already stunning MOC takes it to the next level.

Snowspeeder

Well, the rebels may have had some trouble converting the T-47 Airspeeder to the cold, but builder Steebles seems to have had little trouble converting it to a MOC. And it's at a desktop scale that I just love. This is one of my favorite ships, and this is one of my favorite interpretations of it.

Seattle Here I Come

The trunk is packed, my suitcase is standing by, my camera bag is waiting. It's time to fly to Seattle for a week of brick debauchery. I have a limited amount of swag so if you're there find me and I might still have some. I'm also planning to do at least one live event so stay tuned!

The Wheels Of Steel

DJ, artist and LEGO aficionado Arran Hearn has updated his Technics DJ setup and there's a really cool video to go along with it. I've never actually touched a real DJ setup before, but I've done my fair amount of damage to my own turntables and records over the years.

New Fangled Communication Device

I may not be so old I remember phones like this, but I do recall with surprising clarity the days of the rotary dial. That dread and grumbling when you go to call a friend with a lots of 9's in their number. But I must say if it was getting to use a beautiful device like this MOC from edguy20, it may not have been such a bad experience.

FK ANTROTTA

Well, SHIPtember is coming to a close, and that's when the big guns come out. Builder and SHIP evangelist S--MOCs has revealed his beast and it's pretty epic. The main thing I love about this vessel is the attention to detail in areas of little detail. Even areas with simple planes are subtly and expertly panel lined and broken up, for scale at any distance.

Watch It, She's Got A Hammer

It's been 30 years since this iconic ad made a big impact (pardon the pun). Back then I had no personal computer allegiance. I used whatever I could get my hands on since I didn't have my own. I later became an Amiga user, then moved on to PC. About three years ago I made the switch to Mac, and haven't looked back. JK Brickworks totally nails the look and feel for the ad, with a bit of a modern update. That Apple logo is amazing.

Y - Thank You

I can see that being on the receiving end of builder Steebles' gratitude is a good place to be, his boss got this phenomenal mini Y-Wing as a thank you gift. It's amazingly detailed for it's scale and the display base is a perfect compliment. Makes you want to do something nice for him huh? Like feature him on your obscure and lame blog, yeah, that's it!

DOOM!

I can still remember the first time I played Doom. We were enjoying a little down time at the vfx company CafeFX and someone loaded it up. I remember watching with fascination and thinking what a leap it was from Wolfenstein, the future of gaming was looking bright. Well, some 20 years later and my good buddy Iain Heath has built pretty much the ultimate LEGO tribute to the game and it's colorful levels and characters. Well played sir, well played.

Slums Of London

Intrepid builder and history buff Peggyjdb is back with another glimpse into London's past. This time it's the living conditions of the unskilled laborers in some of the poorest areas of London, and the efforts of Octavia Hill to elevate those conditions. This and many more outstanding, historical builds will be on display in Swindon at the Great Western Brick Show on October 4th-5th as part of the "London 1875 - Capital of an Empire" collaborative build. 

Musical Artist Quiz

Builder SuckMyBrick is back with another wave of awesome. This time it's a collection of musical artists. They cover just about every musical style and genre, and it's quite a diverse collections. There are 16 in all, how many can you guess? If you need a little help the builder was kind enough to add a video with clues. Click through to see them all!

Dino Riding And Battle Ready

So you say you've got some swords? Oh, and those are some nice sturdy shields. You've even got some smaller weapons for close quarters and some ranged weapons, very diverse. Yes, you seem fairly ready for battle. Why you've even got some banners and colorful uniforms, quite spiffy. Well...is your army riding FRIGGIN DINOSAURS? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Off-Road Zombie Killin' Action

When it comes to killing zombies, the right equipment makes all the difference. Take this off-road vehicle by Pixel Fox, it's perfectly equipped for an afternoon slaying brain-eaters, then you can hit the dunes for some serious rompin'.

Hot Off The Presses

Back when I was in high school I took graphic arts for three years. Back then we used photochemical processing, typesetting and huge printers like this one by Invicta Bricks. Sure they were mostly endangered processes, but it gave me a good foundation in graphic arts. And seeing this MOC gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. 

ZAKU Amazing

From Gundam Build Fighters and builder neruneruneranai comes ZAKU Amazing, and amazing it is. The build and pose of this mobile suit are super impressive, but my favorite detail is the launching rockets with variegated contrails, awesome little touch there.

Spooky

The timing of series 12 and particularly this Minifig is perfect for Halloween. I spent a happy few minutes manhandling all the packages at Wal-Mart looking for this one (to no avail, I did score a gamer and pizza guy though). This shot by DigiNik13 is superb, with perfect composition, excellent lighting and an interesting but non-intrusive background. Well done!

Boots

This awesome walker by builder cmaddison looks like the illegitimate love child of ED-209 and a AT-ST (We're assuming the AT-ST is female in this fantasy union). I love the limited use of yellow as a trim color, just enough to make it pop. And the proportions give it an almost juvenile, chibi feel, like it's not fully grown yet.

Zero G: Not An Option

If we're ever going to truly strike out into the cosmos, we're going to have to overcome a simple problem: humans need gravity. And until some super big brains somehow develop artificial gravity, some other super big brains need to build a vessel like this, with a spinning axis to make sure we don't get muscle atrophy and can properly play ping pong. Builder El Barto has some inspiration here, go big brains go!