Miniland Elvis

The King has not left the building, he’s just been miniaturized.

This is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while. Although I designed an Elvis Presley for Miniland Las Vegas at LEGOLAND California several years ago I could never have done this at LEGOLAND as rhinestone stickers won’t stand up to the elements.

Actually I designed several different ones — normal Elvis, a fat Elvis, Elvis in a gold suit, an African American Elvis impersonator, and a child dressed like Elvis — sadly none of these might ever see the light of day. That is unless I redesign them for some reason.

If it seems like I’m doing a lot of Miniland scale models lately that’s because I am. It might have something to do with my upcoming book (hint, hint ).

If you are interested this custom Elvis is available at my Etsy store Folded Fancy.

TT Games Announces Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars

It’s official, there will soon be a third LEGO Star Wars Video Game.

Based on the popular Cartoon Network animated TV series. The game is set for Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS, and PC this fall. The company promises characters from both seasons of the series, along with cameos from the movie characters. TT is working to make this game an improvement over previous installments with an enhanced level builder, Jedi and Separatist factions, and new attacks and abilities.

“LucasArts is an amazing partner, and working with them on the next iteration of the Lego Star Wars continues to be a great experience,” said TT Games director Tom Stone in the press release. “The team at TT is working hard at making this simply the best Lego game ever with all new gameplay and features never before seen in a Lego game.”

Via www.1up.com

Now although Clone Wars isn’t my most favorite of the Star Wars universe, I’m always a fan of the Traveler’s Tales LEGO Video Games.

Of course, I’m falling a tad behind on the games, since I’ve yet to get a PS3, Wii or Xbox. But I’ll catch up one of these days.

Collectible Minifigure Series 2

Although we have yet to see the first wave of these Collectible Minifigures which are set to be available in June, the first images of the Series 2 are already showing up thanks to the Toy Fairs. Proceed drooling now —

This is by no means an official list but it does mention a couple more figures you can’t see in the picture:

- female lifeguard (Baywatch minifig)
- vampire
- judo fighter (with a great detail: a mini-trophy that looks like a mini-figure)
- Mexican with Sombrero
- 70s like guy with black curly hair
- witch
- Pharaoh
- Roman (or Greek) soldier
- surfer
- guy with skis
- female singer
- weightlifter
- thief
- ringmaster

One assortment contains 60 figures. Each assortment is planned to contain all 16 figures, but there may be 10 of a certain figure and only 3 of another.

Series one is supposed to be out in June as we all know, the second series in September will be packed in blue bags by the way.

via homoludens of Eurobricks.com

These Collectible Minifigures are making me excited about minifigs again. And all the fun new elements that these figures have makes me even more excited!

2010 LEGO Preview from the Canadian Toy & Hobby Fair

On Kris Able’s Tech Life blog he recently paid a visit to the Canadian Toy and Hobby Fair and due to the over whelming response of his readers last year was good enough to take pictures of every LEGO set on display.

Included in the pictures was the first images of the Collectible Minifigures and their packaging.

He also mentioned something that I’ve heard rumors of but have yet to have seen any images of:

Not included are any sets from the upcoming Harry Potter release. LEGO didn’t have any mock-up boxes or prototype sets, but they will be releasing kits both for the Hogwarts Castle, the Hogwarts Express train, and other elements from that world.

From the rumors I’ve heard, there will be a LEGO Harry Potter line in conjunction with with the upcoming video game that will be released later this year.

There are lots more images on his blog including summer’s line of LEGO Atlantis and the new Duplo LEGO Disney Cars, so be sure to check it out.

Doctor Mobius’ Cloud Moth

I posted last year the work in progress of Doctor Mobius’s Mantis made for the Battle Bugs display at BrickCon 09. Well now Jason (aka Doctor Mobius) has created a Cloud Moth for Battle Bugs latest challenge Bred for War.

The only thing more epic than the model is the description:

The MDF SB-17 “Cloud Moth” is the Mars Defense Force’s first battle bug designed to project force to other plants. It is designed with a jump drive for FTL travel, Ion Engines for high speed realspace missions, and scramjets for atmospheric missions making it able to complete a wide variety of attack missions.

The Cloud Moth’s scramjets are unique to space fighters of it’s class. While it’s Ion engines are more than capable of propelling it through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds, engaging the jets allows for much greater fuel efficiency as well as cutting the craft’s active flight emissions by 95%. It’s wide wingspan allows it to use only it’s jets in even the thinnest of atmospheres. . .

This is just a third of it! If you would like to read the whole thing, click the picture.

My first thought when I saw this was of Godzilla’s arch-nemesis Mothra.

BrickJournal — There’s an app for that!

Now BrickJournal is as mobile as you are.

BrickJournal Mobile is an app that has all the feeds to BrickJournal Magazine’s resources on the web, including podcasts and the BrickJournal website, allowing LEGO fans to keep up with the latest news and events that are happening in the LEGO community! Links go to BrickJournal’s site, photo archive, blog and video podcasts!

Although I’m not tech savvy enough to actually use apps (mainly because I don’t own an ipod, iphone, or any other equipment starting with “i” ) I’m excited that BrickJournal is moving further into the 21st century.

I’m also excited for the next issue of BrickJournal that focuses on all things LEGO Disney. There is even an article by Erik Varszegi and Dan Steininger, two of the Master Model Designers in the Enfield, Connecticut Model Shop. You can find out what else is in this issue at BrickJournal.com

Active Camo Space Marine

BrickForge.com has a special offer for this month.

Beginning Feb 2nd orders subtotaling $25 or more will receive an exclusive Trans-Clear Space Marine Armor Set (Armor, Helmet, Visor). Limit one per order. While supplies last. We will not combine shipping of multiple orders.

The trans clear armor is pretty cool but I’m actually more interested in Armothe’s Jackle alien. Its really thinking outside of the box. Using minifig hands and arms to create the body and gun is very interesting.

Miniland Marty Martin

If you have been to LEGOLAND you probably have seen entertainment extraordinaire Marty Martin.

Marty has been a fixture of LEGOLAND California for many years. He even has a mini version of himself in Miniland Las Vegas.

Marty liked his mini version so much that he asked me if I could make him one that he could keep.

As you can see I tweaked the design a bit. I also added vinyl stickers to capture those little details.

If you would like to buy a custom Miniland version of yourself or any other LEGO models feel free to contact me.

Marty really likes his Miniland doppelganger and now he can take it where ever he goes.

Joe’s LEGO IPAD

My friend Joe Meno, creator of BrickJournal recently posted that he really wants the new IPAD from Apple. It won’t be available until later this year, but I’m sure that Joe will be one of the first in line.

Since he can’t get his hands on a real one quite yet Joe decided to make his own (contrary to rumor, he can actually build ):

I saw the presentation, and after a day or so, I was really curious about its size. So I went to the Apple site and found the dimensions, and decided to build a form study. The dimensions match as close as possible, and took a few hours of straight building.

He managed to make it almost as thin as the real one

He even made the it so the screens could change

And here you can see it with the iPhone and iPod nano

I was thinking about making one myself, but I can’t really think of doing a much better job than Joe did. It’s nice to see him building with all the running around he does.

Gone Fishing

Here’s my latest creation. Father and son have gone down to the old fishing hole for some bonding time. Looks like junior is having a lot more luck than his dad.

This was a fun quick build. The trickiest thing was to figure out the fishing pole thread. And yes, the string attached to the fish is not just glued, there is a very small section of flex tubing (that’s what we called it in the Model Shop) holding the string in place.

This is available for purchase on my Etsy shop.