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.
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.
So you’ve probably been wondering why I’ve been off the radar for the past few days. Well, if you’ve been reading my blog for very long you know that when I have a project, I tend to let everything else slide.
So here’s my latest creation
I have decided to start selling portrait mosaics but in order to do that, I needed a sample to show my skills. This is a picture of my friend Tiffeny’s baby Colby. Its the first time I’ve done a portrait, although my Remembering 9/11 mosaic was my first based off a real picture.
I wanted to make a smaller mosaic than my standard size of 2 feet tall, so I decided to go with 1 foot tall as I felt it was a nice size, but I could still retain the likeness of the image.
Since I know you are always curious about my process I took a picture of the brick paper design I made for this mosaic.
It looks like kind of a mess, but trust me, it makes sense.
What I do is take the original picture, then I use Photoshop and Bricksaic to find the color values. If you are not familiar with Bricksaic it is a freeware program created by Bob Kojima. Bob is also the man behind BrickShirts. Bricksaic is a program to help you design mosaics. It can be helpful, but it doesn’t work fully for my technique. The best part of it though is that you can constrain the image to only the LEGO colors you want to use. So instead of the mosaic having weird colors in random places you only have the colors you want.
Here’s an up close shot so you can kind of see what I’m doing.
The model took my 40 hours or so to make.
Its funny, I never would have thought that I would be able to create something like this a decade ago when I started in the Model Shop. But after so many years, and so many mosaics, it was relatively easy.
I am selling them on my Etsy shop, if you’re interested, but I admit, it’s not cheap.
The pictures were impressive, but didn’t really highlight the shear size of this model. This new video released by LEGO gives you a much better perspective on how really massive this model is.
My jaw literally dropped when I saw this and all I could say was “WOW!”
It took a team of 12 model shop employees 3,000 hours to build this life size model of the LEGO Bag End set. In addition to containing over 2 million 1×1 bricks this model has working lights in the fireplace and over the bookstand as well as a chimney that really smokes!
The people in the picture give you a hint on the shear scale of this model.
Words fail me with this model, its simply awesome! You can find more pictures of this model at LEGO Shop’s Facebook page
As a trick, or a treat, take it how you like. I’m posting a second post tonight. Last week I was interviewed on Beyond the Brick. If you’ve always wondered what I sound like, well here’s your chance. Click on the picture above to go to the podcast.
The sound is a little bit off, mainly because my internet connection wasn’t working too well. But even so, it was a fun thing to do.
I posted earlier about the building event that happened this past weekend. Well, here’s some pictures for those of us who couldn’t make it down there.
Its looks pretty cool, but you don’t really get the true scale until you see Master Model Builder Erik Varszegi building it.
And here’s an awesome time lapse video of the whole thing being put together.
This particular building event held its own set of challenges –
1. It was outside at night, in the rain! Those lightening flashes aren’t special effects added to make the video more dramatic, it really was a dark and stormy night
2. The fact that it was an all night event finishing at 6:15 am in the morning. I’ve done these types of events many times, but never over night.
Great work from Erik and LEGO for pulling off this impressive model!
Update:If you are able to go to LEGOLAND California this weekend October 6th and 7th you too can get a chance to build Lord Vampire with Master Model Builder Ryan Ziegelbauer.
If you are in the New Orleans area you just might want to check out this building event.
This spooky celebration is open to the entire family and features something for everyone, including performances from New Orleans Saintsations and community costume contest.
WHEN: Saturday, September 29th to Sunday, September 30th
Saturday:
12:00 PM-5:00 PM: Open brick building for Lord Vampyre model
5:00 PM: Lord Vampyre assembly begins
6:00 PM: Costume contest (for children up to age 14)
9:00 PM & 10:00 PM: Monster-inspired Saintsations dance performances
3:00-7:00 PM: LEGO Club Kids Activities
Sunday:
6:00 AM hour: Master Builder, Erik Varszegi, will place final brick
WHERE: Washington Artillery Park Amphitheater
750 Decatur St., between St. Peter and St. Ann Sts.
New Orleans, LA 70116
COST: FREE
Based of Lord Vampire from the new Monster Fighters sets this model will be 10 feet tall when completed. I know I’d be there if I lived closer. This is the first time that I know of an all night build. If you get to go, I’d love to see pictures.
Although this model was created about a year ago, I just recently discovered it. Now if you’ve been following me for a while you know that I love Miniland scale, so this one got me extra excited because not only was it the Hobbit, but it’s a Miniland Hobbit
I love how well both Gandolf and Bilbo are characterized so well. It only makes me more excited for the official sets that will be available later this year.
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.
