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.
Wow, I’ve now gone longer than I’ve ever wanted to go without posting here and I really do apologize for the three week absence.
Going to Emerald City Comic Con and BricksCascade sounded like such a good idea when I left my house February 25th and drove the 1200+ miles to Seattle. And it was a fun trip with much hanging out with friends and meeting of new people. But the crazy thing is that I’m still not home!
I have one more day of driving and around 200+ miles left before I finally make it back to my house.
Over the course of my trip I’ve gone up to Seattle, Washington then to Portland, Oregon and I’m on the last leg of a journey that’s taken me almost 3 weeks to complete.
I shall be posting both images and posts of both Emerald City Comic Con and BricksCascade once I finally recuperate from this crazy trip.
But there are some great photos of both on Flickr.
You can find a whole set of ECCC photos on Sean Edmison’s photostream. (Okay I know I’m posting my own mosaic, but a lot of people took pictures of it and even ECCC posted it on their Facebook page )
LEGO’s own Kevin Hinkle has a nice set of photos of BricksCascade 2013 including some nice crowd shots that I was too busy to get while working my vendor booth.
So was the trip worth it? Well the jury’s still out on that one. I’ll have more to say about that later.
Right now all I can say is its been a long, long trip and driving what will end up being a total of 2,700 miles total by the time I get home by myself isn’t really all that great. I love road trips, but they are much better shared with at least one other person who can take the wheel now and then and talk to you as you try and stay away.
Thankfully (knock on the proverbial wood) I haven’t had any problems so far and I will get home safe and sound by the end of today.
So for now signing off and regular posting will resume shortly.
So you’ve probably noticed I have been absent for the past week. But as there is a little less than a week till the Emerald City Comicon (ECCC) and two weeks till BricksCascade, I’ve been very, very busy getting ready for both shows stocking up on hundreds of keychains, necklaces, etc.
I also wanted to create something specifically for ECCC. And what better than the ECCC logo?
As always with my mosaics I incorporated a lot of tricks to get just the look I wanted and even invented a few new ones.
If you look at the close ups, you can see parts that are upside-down and sideways
And though it looks like they are just stuck on, the letters do have at least one connection point. Now since this is not glued, the letters also have some double stick tape to make sure they keep in place. Especially as I travel — handy tip, double stick tape is your friend.
Of course I will be bubble wrapping this tightly as well.
For those that are wondering, the mosaic is 2 x 2 ft square. So not on the small side. And it took me about a week to design and build.
I also came up with another Doctor Who design — his ever present sonic screwdriver.
Since they revived the show there have been two variations — a blue one and a green one. Now they of course do look more different than just the tips, but when you are going for one that is only an inch long you can only do so much. For those who can’t make it to either show they are available online at my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy shop.
I find it somewhat ironic that a lightsaber handle is used for the design. Who knows, maybe the Doctor is also a Jedi.
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.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m prepping for my two upcoming conventions — one a Comic Con, one a LEGO Con.
One of my goals for each new convention that I go to is to have new products to sell. And because the first convention is a Comic Con, I wanted more iconic Pop Culture products. So I created these two new models for Doctor Who fans.
Now for the LEGO purists out there — yes, both of these are cheated. I can see you wincing from here, but frankly I don’t care. How do you think new LEGO parts are made? You have to “break” the mold as it were.
And the main reason I’ve “cheated” is because it was the best way to make the models the desired size of about an inch and to look as close to the original at that size.
Oh, and for those of you that don’t know what cheating means it is when you cut or alter your bricks or just glue parts on where they other wise could not connect.
For both of these models I’ve done both.
And if you’re wondering most of my online and in person customers don’t care either.
I think they are simply adorable (even if I do say so my self ) and if you are interested in either model you can find them at my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.
Happy New Year Everyone! As I reflect on this past year of 2012 I decided to make a compilation of all the models I created this year. To be totally honest, this isn’t all of them. I made over 30 wedding cake toppers and literally hundreds of earrings, necklaces and key chains. But this gives you a pretty good idea.
This has been a whirlwind of a year. I went to ten Conventions this year — five LEGO Conventions, three Comic Conventions, the McDonald’s Worldwide Convention and Focus 12 Convention. I had six large project (even if one of them was microscale) — 3 ft x 3 ft Statoil logo mosaic, 4 ft long McDonald’s building, a giant Harting Connector (the big black thing on the left), a 2 1/2 ft microscale replica of a home, 4 ft x 2 ft John Hancock logo and 10 giant bricks, and a 5 ft x 5 ft Google Chrome logo. I flew to Portland, Orlando, Chicago, Virginia, and Seattle. I drove to northern California twice, Phoenix and Vegas — while building the top of the Harting model the whole way in the car (I wasn’t driving ).
Who knows what I’ll be building next year. I’m certainly excited.
Hopefully you had a wonderful 2012 and welcome 2013!
What is a hobbit without his home? We saw the figures, but not the set until today when it was unveiled at Comic Con.
My first thought was — Green Parts Pack!!! Oh, and you get some figures too.
Okay at $59.99 its not exactly a steal for all that green, but of course you do get all those awesome new figs with fun new elements!
Today at the booth was all about Lord of the Rings and Hobbit. There was a scavenger hunt at the very, very start of the day where you got a map and had to get the parts of Bilbo
Unfortunately due to the crazy factor, the line for this was capped very early so even I was not able to get a map or a fig
There was also a mosaic build, part of a 4 day mosaic build. That anyone could participate in and a station so you could play LEGO Lord of the Rings Video Game.
Tomorrow the craziness factor increases to a factor of 11 (at least) due to it being Super Heros’ Day. Where they will be giving four different figures (100 of each) to those lucky enough to get their badges scanned early. You will only get a chance to win one of the four, if you win one at all.
It will be slightly (and I do mean slightly) better than last year’s fiasco with the Batman and Green Lantern figs. It will be more fair, but still the crazy factor will be off the charts. Lucky for me, I’m not working the LEGO booth this year, so I don’t have to deal with disappointed people unhappy with not getting a chance to participate.
I will be doing something I’ve never done before tomorrow (well today since its already 1:30 am) — I will be on a panel! I’m excited about it. Of course there are eight of us on the panel so I will only have about 5 minutes to talk, but hey, that’s more than most people get at Comic Con. I’m looking forward to my 5 minutes of Comic Con fame.
That’s all for now. I still have 3 days to go and very little time to sleep before I start all over again tomorrow.
After I built my Mini Modulars building set I naturally wanted to have it on display. So I cleared off a few of my older models on top of my LEGO supply drawers and set it up there. I decided to leave my 2006 LEGO Batman San Diego Comic Con exclusive (which has apparently gotten very expensive!) up there since there was room. What I didn’t notice until just a few days ago was how perfect the placment was!
Now let me first emphasize that this is not a LEGO built model. It was created by the Character Building Company and made with their building blocks.
For this year’s Toy Fair, a 280-kilogram, 2-meter-tall plastic Dalek will be unveiled to strike fear into patrons’ hearts. This project required four people, 328 hours (almost two weeks) of effort, and 157,460 separate Character Building bricks.
As a Doctor Who fan, seeing a life size Dalek built out of bricks is cool.
But watching the video as a LEGO Master Model Designer, I see a lot of things wrong with the model. Not that I want to bash them too much mind you, but they made that model way, way too heavy. 280 kg is just a little over 617 pounds!
When I, or any other properly trained Model Builder, designs a model we want to make it as light as possible. Even when they are only made of bricks, with no metal armature, a large model can get heavy very quickly.
If you’ve watched the video all the way through, watch it again. On this second go round, notice the interior. They’ve built solid walls criss-crossed to give structural support. Although this will give support, it will also make it much heavier than it has to be.
In contrast, look at the hidden interior of my Perot Museum
Granted this is a smaller model being only 2 1/2 feet cubed, but you can clearly see the difference in sheer quantity of brick used. My model is just as structurally sound but instead of being hundreds of pounds, it only weighs about 60.
For further perspective check out this life-sized Ford Explorer made by LEGO
You can see that there are spaces in the interior structure, allowing strength with less weight. Even so, the Ford Explorer still weighs about as much as an actual car.
As more and more companies have a building brick line (clearly copy-cats of our beloved LEGO) they want to create their own “impressive” large models. This has been done with mixed results. I’ve seen some that resemble what they are supposed to be but that do not have the beauty and well crafted design of a LEGO sculpture. This Ironman by Mega Bloks is a good example:
(although I’m hoping for a stunning Super Hero model to surface now that LEGO has the DC and Marvel licenses. )
This Optimus Prime created by Kre-0 really impressed me at Comic Con last year
But, in talking with the designer, I found out that she is also a former LEGO model builder.
I’m not saying that only LEGO trained Model Builders can build great models — the vast array of MOCs (My Own Creations) created by Adult (and child) LEGO fans is proof of that — but it helps.
I'm Mariann Asanuma, a former LEGO Master Model Designer and now a Freelance LEGO Artist and Author. Thanks for checking out my blog dedicated to all things LEGO. ;)
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a custom LEGO model.
