Details: Minifig sculptures are an interesting genre - you can build them at so many different scales, and with so many different techniques, but it still seems like most people just copy set 3723. Increasingly, the official sculptures that LEGO uses for promotional purposes seem to be getting increasingly cartoony, with dimensions and angles that look less like actual LEGO pieces and more like something out of a LEGO-branded video game. It's an interesting aesthetic that I suspect we'll see leaking into fan-created builds over time, but so far seems to be used primarily by professionals.
One advantage of Ryan McNaught's status as a LEGO Certified Professional in Australia is that his model shop is LEGO's preferred method of making official promotional sculptures in Australia (this doesn't happen in most of the world, but it's an advantage of being on a continent without other model shops or certified professionals). Because of this, official designs for sculpted large minifigures have been trickling out on Ryan's Flickr photostream for some time now. They're not all necessarily built or designed by Ryan, but they're all built in his studio. You can see a few more characters under his legominifig tag and legocity tag, or, say, in anyofthesephotos. There aren't too many photos of any particular model, but the models themselves are nice, with appropriate details and sculptural technique. It's worth taking a look and browsing through his photostream.
Details: LEGO Certified Professional Sean Kenney was recently commissioned to create replicas of eight different Marriott hotels. As you would expect from Sean's reputation, all of them are fantastic models. Built in microscale, they show off the architecture of the buildings nicely. Each model was presented to the matching hotel as an award for design, construction, collaboration, and and participation.
Details: You may remember LEGO Certified Professional Sean Kenny (wemayhavefeaturedhisworkbeforethis). This time, he uses "nnenn scale" to fulfill a commission to build a LEGO version of a large house in the Hamptons. It does, unfortunately, appear that some of the sideways bits used to make the doors and windows may be just glued into place (they'd probably stay still with friction, but in a commissioned piece you need to be sure they can't be knocked out of place). However, there are some great details here - you have to zoom in to get a good look, but all of the outdoor seating is fantastic. The backs are even adjustable on the patio furniture!
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I put off blogging this one in favor of getting some photos and news coverage in addition to what Sean Kenney wrote for his own site. That decision paid off, since I can now offer you a round-up of coverage of this exhibit, which lasts for several months. The particular picture above is roughly minifig-scale, and is one of three showing a rainforest in various states (healthy, destruction, replanting). The rest of this exhibit (running from April 10th to October 31st at the Philadelphia Zoo) features large, life-size sculptures. Here's a round-up of links covering the events:
In addition to the long-term display, there are also two "Build with Sean Kenney" events scheduled for visitors to the zoo (both events are free with zoo admission). One is next weekend, the other is in September.
Details: Scripps Encinitas Critical Care Center has been built in minifig scale - even though the "real" thing hasn't been finished yet. Five weeks of work from a former LEGOLAND California Master Builder and her assistants resulted in this permanent model for the hospital. This model debuted at a recent event, but I don't know if/when it's still available for the public to see. Since this is just the kick-off of the expansion, we'll have to wait a few years to see how well this captures the final building.
Created by Sean Kenney and David Pagano. Full credits:
RED LIGHT : Biking Rules PSA campaign for Biking Rules.org Producer: Sean Kenney Director: MA Shumin Stop-motion animator / Editor: David Pagano Music / Sound Designer: Brian Kenney
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The clever Brickfilm-based PSA blends a minifig-scale town with a traffic light sculpture by way of "Hollywood magic" (of the sort that a few LEGO fans can work in New York City without the actual use of a Hollywood production studio). The end of the clip can be a little startling, but the piece as a whole is a winner and the models contained therein are solid. I, for one, would like to see more projects of this sort - I believe this is the first time that we've seen a LEGO Certified Professional collaborate with an established BrickFilmer.
Details: Sean Kenney was recently commissioned to build the historic facade of the New York Stock Exchange building. This model is 3 feet tall, a scale that allowed both minifigs and miniland figures to represent the sculptures above the columns. Speaking of those enormous columns - Sean posted building instructions so we can build our own giant columns!
Details: Here's the latest in mind-blowing news: Google has brought Street View into LEGOLAND California. The iframe below is a decent preview pane, but you should click on the link to see the full interface, complete with a walking minifigure where the Street View man would be. This is a pretty spectacular "easter egg" for Google's software, and a great way for those of us not near California to look around the park. You can see a pretty wide variety of things here - rides, stores, sculptures, miniland, etc. This is also a pretty great use of the "User Photos" feature - Google automatically cross-references locations and images in their virtual rendition of the park with photos taken by tourists, and you can pull them up as you browse around.
Sorry if the preview pane doesn't show up - to put it bluntly, there are reasons I try to avoid using Flash (it never seems to work quite right, and I hate making people install a plug-in before they can view things). With any luck, it will show up properly on your end. In any case, I can see the full Street View web interface at the link above and it looks great there. You probably want to try this with that bigger viewing window anyway - you could spend a few hours doing a proper browse of the park!
...and we're using this as Thursday's model of the day. Figures that mind-blowing news would break right while we're getting ready to head out to BrickFair!
Details: Nathan Sawaya, a LEGO Certified Professional, is well known for his life-size sculptures. In this, his latest sculpture, he reminds us once again why he can offer to build you a life-size sculpture of yourself for a mere $60K. Nathan does a superb job depicting the shape of a human body in a single color and with square bricks. I'm not sure if there's a message that Nathan is trying to represent with these heads replaced with the three basic shapes, but it has been thought-provoking for me. I tend to think the guy on the right is a "block-head." :) And while doing a giant square out of LEGO is easy, and a circle is getting to be fairly common, I can't say as I've seen anyone do a 3-d triangle before. Makes me want to break out a bulk bucket of bricks and give it a try...:)
Details: Um. Wow. So what would you do with 51, 324 LEGO bricks and a nice commission from Nintendo? At 7 feet wide and 250 pounds, this is probably not the Nintendo DS you're going to slip into your pocket.
Sean Kenney is a well-known LEGO certified professional who appears regularly in the news whether in print, on TV, or online. Sean is also the creator and owner of MOCpages, a popular site for LEGO fans to post pictures of their own MOCs (My Own Creations).
I love how the size of the model allows a greater amount of detail in the creation. The cat mosaic cracks me up. Take a look at some of the other images Sean has on his site that show you the details. He actually has the Nintendo disclaimer and bar code on the back! Okay, so the disclaimer amounts to gobbledygook, but it's very well designed gobbledygook!
My only question is: Does the thing fold up? :) [Editor's Note: Sadly, no - the steel frame used to make this sturdy keeps it from folding. This model is currently on display in the store window (ready for people on the street to take pictures with it) at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York, USA.]
Details: Sorry if this is a little too political or close to home, but I just had to cover these amazing sculptures. I'm not entirely sure what scale these are at, but they are amazing - the faces have all sorts of studs-not-on-top trickery in them to increase the resolution possible with the bricks, and the food counter and newspaper are fully detailed with more special parts. The egg carton is brilliant, and the newspaper just looks amazing - I have no idea how that weight is held up, but it looks like there's just hinges in there! The pictures speak for themselves, and my only gripe is that there aren't more of them.
EDIT: Sean left a comment filling in some more details:
The newspaper is supported solely by the hands... The hinges on the fingers hold it upright... But in the back, the paper leans inward a bit and touches the thumbs and palm, which support the bulk of the weight. (Just like reading a real paper!)
It's about 1:3 scale; The figures are just under 2 feet tall.
There isn't a lot of studs-not-on-top (SNOT) in their faces... mostly just jumper plates (1x2 plate with one stud) for half-stud offsets. I did use some SNOT for their nostrils (heh). In the case of the businessman, this necessitated building the cheeks sideways as well. The eyes are just 1x2 technic bricks with a 1x1 round plate set into the hole.
It looks like I overestimated how much was built sideways around the noses, but it's still a great effect. All those jumper plates must have thrown off my sense of proportions a bit - if you think of bricks as having a width:height ratio of 5:6, then sideways bricks have a ratio of 5:5, and a pair of plates have a ratio of 4:6. The jumper plates add in multiples of 2.5:2, which can be a bit harder to spot at first glance. If you're really good at these things (like all the LEGO-Certified Professionals are), you can make these odd measurements line up in all sorts of great ways. Those cheeks, for example, line up perfectly with the plates and tiles that are right side up.
Details: This gorgeous snowman was made by one of the lesser-known LEGO® Certified Professionals. Oh sure, Sawaya and Kenney are all over the American media outlets, but Singapore's Nicholas Foo is just as talented (even if more of his creations don't rely on sheer scale to catch people's attention). The Snowman is notable for the great details and the studs-not-on-top snowballs, but was also commissioned as the centerpiece for a charity event.
Minifig sculptures are an interesting genre - you can build them at so many different scales, and with so many different techniques, but it still seems like most people just copy set 3723. Increasingly, the official sculptures that LEGO uses for promotional purposes seem to be getting increasingly cartoony, with dimensions and angles that look less like actual LEGO pieces and more like something out of a LEGO-branded video game. It's an interesting aesthetic that I suspect we'll see leaking into fan-created builds over time, but so far seems to be used primarily by professionals.
