Miniland Figures Go Fishing

Name of Model: Gone Fishing

Created by: Mariann Asanuma

Found at: http://modelbuildingsecrets.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/gone-fishing/

Details: Some LEGO elements are seemingly overly specialized, but actually are still able to be used at a variety of scales. For example, the fish element that came out last year in a variety of kits is a large fish when used with minifigures, but next to Belville, Scala, or Miniland people, it suddenly appears to be more proportionally correct or even small. The technique that really makes this model also will work at any of those scales - a very small piece of flex tubing has LEGO string tied around it (Oddly enough, regardless of context, I generally use fishing line instead of proper LEGO string most of the time anyway - it's much sturdier and harder to accidentally break) to make it look like the fish has been hooked at the end of the fishing rod. Another technique worth noting here is the use of 1x1 round bricks in tan with brown light saber blades (LEGO can call it a "Bar, 4L" all they want, we all know what it really is) to build typha (also known as "cat tails"). The plant life helps to make the model look more realistic (not that any of former LEGOLAND Master Builder Mariann Asanuma's work needed the help in that department...)

LEGOLAND California Photos by Ricky Romero

Going back to my old habit of occasionally featuring photo sets from LEGOLAND parks, today I'm featuring this set of photos taken by Ricky Romero. The photos are meaningful in all the ways I like in LEGOLAND photos - they are excellent photos and they show some new and/or seasonal models in one of the parks. In this case, you can spot a few Christmas and winter themed designs. Again, the set I'm featuring today is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickyromero/sets/72157623147861715/

Lisboa Tram 28 Prazeres

Name of Model: Lisboa Tram 28 Prazeres

Created by: Marwede

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=369829

Details: Although there are a few decent tram models in the Brickshelf gallery linked above, I'd like to call your attention to the one that is roughly miniland scale ("miniland scale" is the scale used by LEGOLAND Master Builders for the various "Miniland" displays at LEGOLAND parks). The sculpted curves are brilliant, and the brick-built windows are also spot-on.

This is Tuesday's model of the day

LEGOLAND California honors Vietnam Veterans in Miniland

Name of Model: Vietnam War Memorial

Created by LEGOLAND California Master Builders

Found at: http://modelbuildingsecrets.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/legoland-california-honors-vietnam-veterans-in-miniland/

Details: Mariann Asanuma brings news that LEGOLAND California has updated Miniland Washington DC to feature a miniature version of the Vietnam War Memorial. It appears that this will be a permanent part of miniland from here on out, but it was brought in yesterday to celebrate Veteran's Day / Armistice Day. The "technique" here is surprisingly simple - the "names" on this version of the wall are an optical illusion caused by light hitting stacks of black plates - it's a bit more parts-intensive than most of us would try, but it works surprisingly well.

New York Stock Exchange building

Name of Model: New York Stock Exchange building

Created by: Sean Kenney

Found at: http://www.seankenney.com/portfolio/nyse/

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! The NYSE website has more information on the history of the building this model is based on.

LEGOLAND California on Google Street View

Name of Model: Street View

Created by: Google

Found at: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Carlsbad,+California&sll=37.217206,-121.091309&sspn=2.340206,4.916382&ie=UTF8&ll=33.126568,-117.312092&spn=0.002403,0.004801&z=18&layer=c&cbll=33.126565,-117.312148&panoid=8ABq3zICFTOC-wYLJnhLdw&cbp=12,14.77,,2,3.94

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. View Larger Map 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!

Obama's Inauguration in Miniland form

LEGOLAND California is commemorating today's inauguration ceremony with a long-running miniland display. LEGOLAND's existing miniland DC attraction now includes many of the famous guests of the inauguration and throngs of additional visitors. Since we all know about LEGOLAND and the master builders that work there, I'm going to focus instead on trying to gather up as many photos and videos of this display as possible. I'm expecting a mix of professional photos and amateur photos to appear over time over the next few months, since this display will be up through late May 2009. I will update this post as more photos and videos come to my attention. For a quick hit of photos, the MinilandBricks blog is the best: http://minilandbricks.blogspot.com/2009/01/inauguration-day.html The BBC has video coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7834823.stm LEGOLAND Model Builder, Kristi Klein over has posted photos on her blog, BRICK STAR: http://brickstarsearch.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-lego-obama-inaugural-photos-from.html LUGNET has a MediaWatch thread for following news coverage: http://news.lugnet.com/mediawatch/?n=2532&t=i&v=a Christopher Victorio took some photos for SFWeekly - in the interest of linking to a site that will probably host the photos longer, here's a mirror of his photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/weichao/ The LEGOLAND website has a press release (in .doc format) The same site also has an announcement on What's New page More photos found on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23381789@N07/3212640336/ CNN had a great video (seems to be unavailable now): http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/01/15/hamel.ca.legoland.inauguration.xetv?iref=videosearch

Miniland New York New Year's Eve

Name of Model: Miniland New York New Year's Eve

Created by LEGOLAND California's master builders, photographed by chantastic

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chantastic/3154123232/

Details: Yes, I know, I'm plugging the seasonal additions to the LEGOLAND parks too much. I absolutely love this miniland version of New York's famous New Year's Eve festivities. The crowds haven't shown up yet in this scene, but that's just because this is earlier in the week (although I have no idea if they plan to update the parks further as the day goes on).

LEGOLAND California photos

I know it's "cheating" for me to not pick just one model here, but today I'm just linking to a nice flickr photoset of LEGOLAND California photos instead. I love seeing good pictures of the exhibits in the parks, and the master builders who work at the parks make a point to add new items seasonally and over the years to make each visit unique. This photo, for example, shows one of the famous scenes at the park partially decorated for Christmas. These photos are from December 12th, so I'd take it that the seasonal bits popping up are still there and likely will be for another week or two. They may be adding more each day - you never know. At LEGOLAND Windsor, they got into the habit of updating the Doctor Who miniland characters each time a new episode aired - so apparently weekly in-jokes are nothing out-of-the-orindary to the builders of the LEGOLAND parks. Did I miss anything surprising this time around?

Halloween Hearse

Name of Model: Halloween Hearse

Created by: modelbuildingsecrets

Found at: http://modelbuildingsecrets.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/halloween-hearse/

Details: Here's an exciting new blog: Modelbuildingsecrets's Weblog features tips, ideas, and creations by a former LEGOLAND Parks master builder. This particular model is timely for Halloween - and visible in the Miniland New Orleans section of LEGOLAND California through the end of the month. I think both the car and the skeleton may be easy to try out in other themes, but I'm not sure if those jumper plates (also known as off-set plates - they're the 1x2 plates with only one stud on top) are actually available to the public in clear. Occasionally, you can spot parts in LEGOLAND parks that haven't actually ever been sold in a kit - sometimes when the professionals need a certain part that isn't available, they can request it (and then the company makes a large enough run of it that the builders for the parks will have it for quite some time after that). They make a great windshield there, though. It's fairly common for LEGO to do Halloween-themed "easter eggs" in the parks and in video games. There are also "Brick Or Treat" promotions at LEGOLAND parks - you can probably find information about events at the parks at the official LEGOLAND parks website.

This is Wednesday's model of the day

LEGOLAND California Miniland Photo Gallery

Name of Model: LEGOLAND California Miniland

Created by the LEGO Company's official Master Builders, photos by John Ambon

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnambon/tags/lego/

Details: OK, so it's not just one model and I generally try to avoid getting into stuff from the parks. Get a look at these photos, though - hi-res shots of large swaths of Miniland. Lots of people take photos at LEGOLAND California, but most people just do it for novelty - they don't actually get pictures that are good enough that you could try using the scale and techniques in your own models. These photos, on the other hand, are excellent, cover a large variety of Miniland models, and are clear enough that you can zoom in and see how things are done. Of course, there are some other photos of LEGOLAND here too, but the Miniland shots are most of the highlights. Besides, there are over 400 photos here - you probably couldn't look at all the rides and sculptures in the same sitting as the Miniland anyway.

Sorry about the late post - this had been picked out last week but I apparently never got around to writing about it in advance. I'm rushing it up now (Sunday around noon EST) but will be adding to it later today.

Adorable Miniland-scale Dog

Name of Model: Dog

Created by: Moko

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=244303

Details: This dog is a hoot - he looks amazing. The best trick here is the way the eyes are made - those are inverted LEGOLAND Town levers stuck in side of a pair of studs-not-on-top plates with grooved tops. Now there is an idea only Moko could come up with.

This is Thursday's model of the day