Details:
This may be the most unique mosaic we've seen in quite some time. Coming in at around 3 studs thick, this is full of details and unusual techniques. Red clip plates hold flex-tube casings (which have been used as thin rigid hoses in a variety of sets more recently) which form the letter K as connected by minifig hands here. Using a variety of small parts, more hoses, and a generous amount of hinge plates makes the body look particularly impressive. I particularly like the way arch pieces are attached on an angle to make the blade of the King's weapons. This piece has since been sold to LEGO's Community Operations Manager, Jan Beyer, who decided he wanted it for his office after he saw it at Kockice Expo 2010.
We're going to go ahead and call this Saturday AND Sunday's model of the day. It's about time we stopped falling behind, and the Kockice 2010 photos are certainly worth counting as a second day (even though there are "only" a few hundred of them)
Details: Apparently the most popular Technic creation at BrickCon this year (it also won a trophy at that event), this seaplane with a wingspan of nearly 5 feet (just over 1.5 meters) is modeled after a DeHavilland Twin Otter.
I'm going to try to keep this short - although this hasn't been singled out post-documentation on any blogs, much has been said about it already. Here's the list of features from the flickr set above:
Specifications:
Wingspan 59.5 inch (151 cm)
Length 43 inch (110 cm)
Height 28 inch (71 cm)
Weight 26.5 lbs (12 kg)
Passengers 9 (incl. 2 Crew)
Motors 5
Cylinders 6 Large, 3 Small
Compressor 6 Cylinders Total
Switches 3
Sensors 1 Touch, 2 Rotation
Power 1 RCX, 2 Battery Packs
Pieces 20 000 (estimated)
Working Features:
Elevators
Rudder
Ailerons
Flaps
Landing Gear (With Main Gear Suspension & Casting Nose Gear)
Independently Variable Throttle
Independently Variable Propeller Pitch
Regulated Compressors in Engines
Regulated Auxiliary Compressor
Navigation Lights
Beacon Light
Passenger Entry Door
Sliding Pilot Seats (allowing entry)
Folding Wings
The information above is for the flickr set, but there's actually more documentation for this model spread out across a few sites. For the long write up (by a Technic expert who didn't build this personally - I've briefly mentioned his Technicopedia a few times), you'll need to look at this post on the Eurobricks forum (of all places - we actually try to avoid linking to Eurobricks because of their set-news-leaking habits). There are also photos (again, by Blakbird instead of the builder) on Brickshelf in a BrickCon 2010 directory, not to mention two YouTubevideos that were made by the builder. That's the extended reading when you're done with the 59 flickr photos linked above. For extra credit, write a report on that, create an LDRAW set of instructions for the plane, or build your own that's even larger, more detailed, or more functional.
Details:
As I mentioned last Monday, LEGO World 2010 in Zwolle is now underway. The size of this thing is a bit hard to comprehend - this event actually features a full roster of musical guests, in addition to official LEGO displays and hobbyist (AFOL, or Adult-Fan-Of-LEGO) layouts. Here's an attempt at rounding up what's out there. Since this event is still in progress, we'll keep updating this page as we find out more. We'll also be trying to cover a few individual models from the show soon.
This event is not to be confused with the other LEGOWORLD event in Denmark (I'm not sure why they haven't tried to differentiate the names more), which we rounded up back in February. We also rounded up LEGO World Zwolle 2009.
Details: Another event that snuck under our radar is Bricking Bavaria 2010, a LEGO show in Neumarkt, Germany. I'm not sure why it has such a small online presence this time out, but here's what I've been able to track down:
Since this particular post is a bit lean, don't forget - you can always send your photos, event information, and other links in to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com
Found at: ? (I haven't been able to find an official link - photos of the event can be found at the links below.
Details:
For reasons unknown to me, there have been increasingly more LEGO events overseas lately that aren't getting much of any attention on the internet. News about shows doesn't seem to be getting out as much in advance, making it a bit confusing when the photos show up online afterwards. This also poses an issue for our efforts to keep the BrickJournal shared calendars up to date - we can't let everyone else know about an event if we don't know about it ourselves.
Anyway, it turns out that on October 9th, there was a LEGO show Madrid, Spain called MadBrick 2010. Here's a mini-roundup of photo links:
Details:
It was Brickcon time again this weekend. As I'm writing this, the festivities aren't over yet, so expect this page to be updated with more links over the next few days (or weeks - sometimes people take a while to upload photos, but we keep compiling them). We've previously covered the new set unveiled over the weekend.
On to the photo links (again, we're still adding these - if you know of photos or other coverage that we don't, send in your tips to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com):
Details: I'm not sure who actually designed today's model - it was a promotional kit for a LEGO store opening just outside Detroit. Every time a LEGO store opens, they have a different limited edition one-day-only first-so-many-people to spend $35 set to promote the store. Usually, there's also a child's size t-shirt for the event on the day without the event kit, and LEGO generally schedules a Master Builder build event for the weekend of the store's grand opening as well. LEGO has an official page for this new store, and if there's a LEGO store opening coming up near you, make sure to check out the opening weekend so you don't miss out on these goodies!
The model itself features some mildly clever techniques - note the use of steering wheels as wheels on this model, and the use of a 1x1 brick with studs on all sides with some clear cheese slopes to make the lamp. While this isn't quite minifig scale (those seats are much too small for that even though this does come in at 6-studs wide), the wheel and lamp techniques are definitely worth "borrowing" for minifig-scale creations. Since this uses mostly common parts, you can try building your own with the instructions posted on flickr by Reasonably Clever Chris - who, by the way, is still running his popular Reasonably Clever webcomic (although with an unusual cast and plotline this week).
Details:
I'm sorry about the sporadic posts lately - we've done as much filling in as we're going to and will be daily again starting now. As mentioned earlier this week by Matthew (Brickapolis), the LMOTD team was at BrickFair last weekend, and we're still recovering from that whirlwind of LEGO action. I personally took nearly a thousand photos in an attempt to exhaustively cover every creation on display and as much of the action as possible. It was exhaustive, alright - I'm still tired from a few late-night photo runs. In addition to photo-taking and running performances of the NXT Robot Band, I also hosted a "Blogger's Roundtable" event, nominated two trophy categories, and got involved with several of the games. A word to the wise: getting truly involved with a LEGO convention can be work that may require a second vacation afterwards.
In addition to my own photos and the links below, we're also expecting more coverage to appear in the coming weeks - my "NXT Robot Band" (prepped for this year's music theme) was videotaped a few times by someone from CBS, and I'd expect their report to show up sometime in September. I'll try to update this page with additional links when I can. As always, you can send in your tips to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com - I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more come in, thanks to the ~1,000 registrants and nearly 20,000 public visitors.
In the meantime, check out my photos and the photos/videos of these people who didn't win the competition to take the most photos:
Some amateur-ish video from goobers who can't handle using terminology correctly, but think you should watch ads for the privilege of seeing their goofy clips (and yes, that's the least snide I can be while describing these): Fox 5 DC clips CNN clip
Details: The Portuguese LEGO community 0937 hosted this event in Matosinhos back in 2007. They recently posted 124 photos of the event on their group flickr account. It appears to have been another great show.
In the interest of catching back up, we're calling this the "model of the day" for the remaining two days in last week
Details: I've previously mentioned some of the Star Wars related news from this year's Comic Con, but that's just the beginning of the LEGO news there. As in years past, the event is loosely focused on comics, but other topics have found a home there - LEGO's role is primarily based on licensed kits and video games, but the print side of LEGO fandom has a presence there too.
Feel free to send in your links to additional Comic Con coverage, but keep in mind that we're trying to keep this largely LEGO-related and not just plugging all the tech/game/comic coverage of the event.
Details: The big news in the LEGO world today is that a new Star Wars set is being unveiled for Comic Con. Follow the links above to see the press release for the new set, photos of the assembled kit, and even a brief video with the kit's designer. A brief review that sums up my feelings of this kit is also included there.
Elsewhere on that same LEGO Star Wars fansite (yes, there are separate fansites for seemingly every major theme - the authority for Star Wars fans is FBTB.net), you can see more news on what's going on so far at Comic Con (our round-up post for the event may be a bit late - there have been more than enough great events to go around lately). Highlights so far include news of exclusive Star Wars CubeDudes and a list of the LEGO-related panels at the event.
Details: Apparently last year's "LEGO Experience Tour" was successful, because they're bringing it back this year. Once again, there are actually two groups (East and West) of this truck show-lite travelling the United States visiting State Fair style venues. You can check their calendar to see if they'll be coming near you during the next few months.
Details: We are once again recapping great LEGO events this summer from around the world. This time, it's Arte em Peças (in English: Art in Parts), a Portuguese event hosted by the LEGO Users Group that calls itself 0937 (which, if you type it into a calculator and flip it over, spells "LEGO"). I know this recap looks a bit short compared to some of the larger round-ups I've posted, but the photo links above actually point to the official 0937 flickr account, which has over 1000 pictures of this event. The one account includes photos taken by several members of the group. Here are those links again along with all other Arte em Peças links that popped up on my radar:
Details: This batch of semi-autonomous NXT androids was also at this year's FANABRIQUES event. It's pretty common for LEGO conventions to have "themes" that are very loose and only attract a handful of theme-specific models. This year's FANABRIQUES theme was Space (which actually happens to be a popular theme that people tend to build in anyway). Taking up the challenge to bring the theme to the NXT, Matthias Paul Scholz built these two cute "astronauts" with one Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit each. You can see in the video both a remote control mode (probably implemented via Bluetooth) and an automatic mode that passes out pamphlets.
Details: During the weekend of June 26th and 27th, the French LEGO fan community had their big convention. Since European countries are close together and travel is more accessible there (compared to in the United States), this ends up being another big international shindig. I've previously covered one of their Great Ball Contraption layouts - they generally have one of the world's best GBC layouts. Below are some links to photos and other coverage of the event. Francophone LEGO fans - we need your help digging up more photos and coverage of this year's FANA'BRIQUES event. Send in your links to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com
