I found the coolest shirt at LEGOLAND yesterday and just had to have it. The only unfortunate thing is that they only have it in kids sizes. But the fortunate thing, at least for me personaly, is I can wear a child XL. Yes, there are a few times when being under 5 feet tall is a bonus. I really wish that LEGO and LEGOLAND would make some of the kids only shirts in adult sizes and I’m sure I’m not the only one that wishes that. But I’m lucky that I can wear them even when they don’t. 
So, have you seen Iron Man 3 yet? I just got a chance to catch it last night and it was just as fun as one and two.
One thing I was disappointed with **warning: slight spoiler** was that of the three Iron Man 3 LEGO sets, only the Malibu Mansion has anything to do with the movie. I realize that the sets are often designed while the movie is still in production, and perhaps there is a small chance that the other two sets may have been left on the Editing room floor, but considering the continuity of the movie, I really doubt that.
On that note, LEGO Marvel Super Heros the video game is coming out at the end of the year. And for this one Walmart, not Gamestop, has the exclusive figure — Iron Patriot.
Via FBTB
Its a pretty sweet fig, although I still think that the helmets look a little on the big side.
Iron Patriot is available with the preorder of the game on PS3, XBox, or WiiU — all for just a hair under $50 each. Sadly it doesn’t look like it works for Nintendo DS or 3DS. 
The weird thing is that it says that the game will be available for shipment on Dec. 31st, everywhere else it says Oct. 31, which makes more sense. So we’ll see what the actual date is.
I was at Toys R Us last night and I saw this. I almost thought about getting it, but the pricey price tag (is that a thing? — that,and my earlier purchase at the LEGO store. Its cute and the minifig clown pen, if totally impractical, is pretty cute. 
) at $40 USD put me off buying it
Update:I’ve now learned the label was wrong. If I’d bothered to look at my own picture, I would have noticed sooner. The price is actually $12.
I don’t know if I like the minifig pens or not. If you haven’t seen them you pull the head off and the pen is in the middle of the body. I have a Ninjago one that I still haven’t decided if I want to use it or not. I like all these new forays into the stationary accessories, and if was a kid going to school I would have loved to have them to use.
My only complaint is the quality of the accesories. The notebooks and journals are okay, but the markers and erasers are lousy. I guess a kid wouldn’t care or notice, but when I write or draw I like to have good quality pens, pencils and erasers. I suppose most themed pens, pencils, etc. that are made for kids are not made for quality, just advertising, but even so it is something to note. So, if you want them for their collectiblity factor or to accessorize your child in proper LEGO writting impliments than go right ahead. But at that price, I’d prefer something that works better.
If you’ve been watching online, you might have seen this:
Guy Himber, aka V&A Steamworks, has a project on Kickstarter. I posted it originally on my Facebook page (which you should totally follow if you aren’t already ) but I never got around to posting it here.
And in quoting myself —
If you’re going to BrickCon, the epic and endless battle is on — Pigs Vs. Cows! And Guy Himber want to make this the most epic of epicness with his own custom pig and cow heads. If you want this to be more than just a bacon and milkshake dream, support it on kickstarter!
Now there is an even more epic reason to support it —
Hello Pig and Cow fans!
EXCITING NEWS!
I have recently confirmed the particulars to make the Gingerbread Man available as an ADD-ON to Pigs vs Cows supporters!
This limited edition custom Miniature Figure will have a unique Gingerbread Man injection molded head form, custom printing on the head, legs and torso in special ‘puffy’ style ink ( to create a 3-D icing effect ) and two custom Circus Animal Cookie inspired BRICKARMS weapons!
This very, very limited edition figure ( less than 250 will be made ) is going to be available to Pigs vs Cows supporters BEFORE anyone else! If they sell out as part of the Kickstarter campaign then that’s all she wrote.
Pricing details coming soon, shipping is free with your PvC pledge.
Ginger-Power!
What Gingerbread men have to do with pigs or cows I’m not all that clear, but who cares! With his Circus Animal inspired guns he can take care of his own bad self.
This is a very, very limited run so if you aren’t already supporting the Pigs vs. Cows movement then I suggest that you do so. There’s still 13 days to go, and with just a little over $500 left to the pledge goal I have a strong feeling that this just might get funded.
The LEGO Batman Movie may not be out on DVD till May 21st, but I got to see the West Coast preview at WonderCon! Not only did they show the movie, but there was a Q&A afterward with the director Jon Burton of TT Games and several of the voice actors.
If you haven’t seen the trailer, here it is:
I’ll get back to the Q&A part in a minute. Now for the review — if you haven’t played LEGO Batman 2 yet, or don’t want to know what happens, you might not want to read this review. Spoilers ahead –
If you have played LEGO Batman 2 like I have, read my review of the game here, and read the description of the movie you would think what I thought — that the LEGO Batman Movie is basically the cut scenes from the game.
That is both true and not true. The story line is the same, but an interesting fact that I discovered from the Q&A is that the game is based off the movie!
According to Jon Burton, the director, they were working on the movie and then realized it would be a great game. But the game took less time to make than the movie and that’s why it came out first.
So in watching the movie, the plot is not really a surprise for those of us that played the game. Even so, this is worth watching. I have to admit I enjoyed it a lot more than any of the latest LEGO Star Wars mini movies. It was cute, fun and funny.
And watching a Gotham that’s built of LEGO is just plain cool. One of the coolest scenes is something that isn’t in the game — Lex’s airship. Its massive, shiny and “built” of over 20,000 parts. Like Jon Burton said, all the models in the games and the movie can be built in real life. TT Games actually has LEGO Master Model Builders on staff to ensure this.
What I like about the movie is that you can just watch it, you don’t have to do anything like in the game, and when you get the DVD you can pause it to look at the models more closely.
If you want to watch the Q&A here it is: (more spoilers)
After the panel I was able to meet both Jon Burton and Christopher Smith (the voice of the Joker)
Here’s a picture of Christoper
It was awesome seeing it on the big screen and meeting some of the talent behind it. I highly recommend it!
And don’t forget that you get this awesome minifigure with the movie
Overall 5 out of 5 stars! Fun movie, and I’ll be wanting to watch this one more than once.
I’ve done it again and been gone from here for the past week or so. Lack of an internet connection and my third convention in March kind of took the writing wind out of my sails. This month I’ve got a little bit of a break from Cons, which frankly I needed it.
I will be going back in time and writing about both Emerald City Comic Con and BricksCascade, but as WonderCon, my latest convention, is still very fresh in my mind, I’ll focus on that one first.
This was supposed to be my “fun” Con. I wasn’t planing on working really, just going and hanging out with friends and my brother. But I seem to find LEGO and LEGO related items everywhere, and its really not a stretch that would find it at a comic convention. 
The Nintendo booth had a giant picture of the new LEGO City Undercover game.
I would like to review it, but I can’t (at least currently) justify buying the WiiU just for one game. And I would have tried to play it at the show, but unfortunately there were way too many people trying to play it. That went for the 3DS game “LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins” too. But as I actually have that game system, I’ll be picking it up when it comes out. GameStop does have the Chase McCaine figure if you preorder it, but as he’s also in a set and let’s face it, he’s just a cop figure, I’m not as focused on getting one.
I went slightly to the dark side and picked up the Character Building brand Doctor Who Tardis set. I normally stay away from non LEGO brands but this was the Tardis after all.
There’s not all that much to the set at 53 parts considering the price (I paid $15)
The interesting thing is that the Amy figure is basically naked under her skirt which is a separate piece. Why they didn’t make the hip part white or some other color than skin tone is a curious decision to me. Both figures are kind of like hybrids between minifigs and Friends figs. They have the more human shape of the friends fig, but they have the rotating hands of minifigs. I still wish that friends figs had rotating hands.
The disappointing thing to me is that all but the doors are large panels (you can see it on the left of the picture). There is very little building, just the bottom, and top of the model for the frame.
One interesting thing is that they give extra stickers, like they expect you to make a mistake or that they will eventually come off. And there’s a cardboard insert for the “inside” of the Tardis.
I do have to admit that there was a pretty cool 4×4 grey tile for the floor of the model and the 1×6 tile with 2 studs for the doorway (there’s two in the set, one for the top and one for the bottom). The roof was disappointingly one part, but the tiny light at the top is a separate part.
For some reason I didn’t take a picture of it built while I was at lunch (yes I built this while waiting for my order) but here’s it almost completed
Was it worth it? Not really. The plastic is clearly inferior and the figures aren’t all that great, which is why I didn’t buy their version of collectible minifigs. They did have a set with all 11 Doctors, but as I only like 9-11 and the cheapest I saw it for was $45, I couldn’t justify buying it — I’d rather spend that on a LEGO set!
Most of the rest of my WonderCon experience had nothing to do with LEGO, that is until the last day. But that will be a post all its own.
Hi all, as you can see I’m still not fully recovered and not posting at all regularly yet. I did get back home finally after an almost 3 week trip up and down the West Coast. And once I’ve managed to upload all my images to Flickr I’ll be posting about the trip in more detail.
But I wanted to post about the recently released Hobbit movie on Blu-Ray and the Target exclusive version with the Bilbo Baggins minifigure.
I won’t go into a full review of the movie, as others such as FBTB have done a very good review already.
No what I want to talk about is the small featurette on the making and designing of the LEGO Hobbit Models that is on the Target Blue Ray and the Bilbo figure — cause let’s face it, that’s really the main reason I got it at Target.
Its not that I “must have all minifigures!” But since I was going to get the movie anyways, I might as well get it with a Bilbo minifig.
Its a pretty cool fig, with a nice blue waistcoat and printing on the back. There’s even an alternate scared expression on the other side of his head.
What I found that interested me more than I thought was the featurette about how they designed the LEGO Hobbit models.
Now as I’m not as tech savvy as some, I took pictures from my TV while I watched the feature so that you could get an idea of what it shows.
The thing I thought that was coolest to me was the original prototype of Bag End, Bilbo’s house.
You can see how it differs from the actual set and what stayed the same.
They also talked about how they designed the Goblin king and his minions.
Its only about 15 minutes long, and there’s scenes from the LEGO Lord of the Rings Video Game at the start and end of it. What I’m hoping and predicting will happen is a LEGO Hobbit game about the time the 3rd Hobbit movie finally gets released.
The Blu-Ray / DVD combo pack is on sale at Target.com for $24.99 in the US. I found it at my local Target for $22.99 so if you want it, I’d recommend getting it there before the week is over and they jump the price up to $29.99.
Is it worth it? Well the feature was interesting, I don’t see myself watching it over and over again. I’m of the reluctant Blu-Ray crowd. I don’t care all that much that my image is that much crisper than the DVD version. However, it seems that is the way the world is going and that’s why I picked up a PS3, so at least I could play games and watch movies.
I do like the exclusive figure, and I imagine that it will cost as much as the movie once it starts making its way to Bricklink. But if you are going to buy the movie any ways, you might as well get this one.
I don’t fully know what’s going on here. I do know that this picture is part of a set called Twisted Tales by Bart Willen. But what caught my eye was the vines on the building.
Most of the vines consist of the “trash” sprue that comes on this part.
If you have the part you know what I mean. There is a sort of triangle ring that holds all 3 leaves together and protects them from bending or breaking quite as much until you build with it. I’ve kept mine for years but never really knew what to do with them until now.
This may not be the first person to do it, but I’ve never seen it before and I like finding new ways to use old parts.
The whole set of pictures has some really great building techniques in them and I recommend reading the story as well.
BrickCon isn’t the only time you can see awesome LEGO displays in Seattle. Emerald City Comic Con is just two weeks away and for the second year in a row SEALUG will have all kinds of LEGO coolness for attendees to see.
And that’s not all — several LEGO vendors will be there too, including your’s truly!
I will be partnering with BrickShirts and AltBricks. So if you are attending, stop and say hi.
Not only that, but I will be giving a presentation at 3:20 pm in Hall C all about my career as a Freelance LEGO Artist.
But if you want to attend the Con, buy tickets soon. The full Con passes and Saturday passes are already sold out but Friday and Sunday are still available.
I know I haven’t been posting for the past few days and I apologize. I’ve been preparing for my upcoming shows and I have a lot of products that I have to get ready so I’ve been totally focused on making hundreds of key chains, earrings and necklaces.
Any how, Happy Valentine’s Day! I searched Flickr for some of the Valentine fun and found quite a mixture of cool photos to share.
![Día de San Valentín [45/365]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8474623926_48d0912996.jpg)
Lets start off with this excellent photo by DVieytes. There isn’t really any building, but it doesn’t need it.
And then here’s a couple cute pics from Debbie Hickey
And then of course we have some built creations too by Tyler Sky
And Carl Merriam
Hope you have a happy Valentine’s day
