Hi all, I really do apologize for not posting anything of late. I’ve been fighting a really nasty cold and haven’t felt like doing much of anything. π¦
While I’ve been away, FBTB.net has done an excellent job of wrapping up the NY Toy Fair so I recommend going over there to check it out.
On a completely unrelated note, this “Proto Man” model by Ezra B. just struck me as a fun and whimsical character. π
I am slowly on my way to recovery and I’ll be back to posting with more regularity soon. π
As I still have not made it to the New York Toy Fair, I have to rely on others like Joe Meno of BrickJournal that are on sight. The Captain Jack Sparrow model is on display but LEGO also unveiled another, equally iconic Disney Model — Lightning McQueen
Containing 325,000 bricks, this model weighs 3 tons, measures 12.5 x 6.5 x 4.5 feet, and took 2,000 hours for Master Model Builders to create!
Joe already has a large amount of photos on his Flickr stream of all the new and exciting LEGO models that will be coming out this year. The new themes and elements make me really excited for LEGO this year. I will be posting additional photos from Joe’s Flickr stream and talking about all the new themes in coming posts.
Recently I was asked to make a birthday cake topper. It was for a LEGO fan and his wife asked me what I could make. I told her I could create him building and she said that sounded great. He just happened to be building the LEGO Taj Mahal model at the same time so she asked if I could make him building with white bricks. I figured I could do something even better:
I want to say it was a challenge, but in actuality, once I thought about it, it came together rather quickly. The inspiration was the cheese slopes. I can not tell you how much I love that element!!! It was the only way to create the eight sided building at that tiny of a scale.
I was even happier when I realized that it was almost exactly to scale with the Miniland figure. The real Taj Mahal model really is about that size to a person. Hopefully he had a wonderful birthday (it was yesterday) and loved his totally unique birthday present. π
First off, I apologize for my long absence from posting on this blog. I was a tad too busy this weekend to get around to posting anything.
This weekend and several of my fellow LEGO club members got together and built all day and all night long! What were we building you might ask? The post title might give you a clue. π
Well, did you know that when a new LEGO store opens in your area they ask the local LEGO club to build the display models? Those are the models that line the shelves — the Miniland scenes, ducks, fish, etc. Although I don’t know how many there are in total, Costa Mesa, California’s newest LEGO Store will be getting quite a few!
As you can see from the picture, this is what the LEGO models look like when they are in the boxes. π
The models vary in complexity from Miniland scale Circus performers
to large rats with cheese π
Tim works on building a golf scene
Karen built a fast food tray while Skylar made a pair of bunnies.
And here’s what I worked on with Tiffeny, the Miniland scale LEGO Store.
There were about eight of us that worked from 10 am till about 10:30 pm at night. We all worked on several models, some more complex than others. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of all the models when they were finished (it had been a rather long day), but as they will be on display at the new Costa Mesa Store I’ll take pictures of them eventually. If you are in the area, the Grand Opening will be next month:
LEGO Store Grand Opening Event:
South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, CA
March 11 – 13
Come visit our new LEGO store in the South Coast Plaza. This grand opening event will feature a Master Model Build of Yoda!
We all knew it would happen, if they were going to have the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean license LEGO would naturally make Captain Jack. Here you can see actor Ian McShane, who will be Captain Black Beard in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides, as he is introduced to the LEGO Captain Jack and his creator Master Model Builder Erik Varszegi.
Disney and LEGO unveiled a six foot tall βlife-sizeβ statue of Captain Jack Sparrow, the first of its kind. The highly detailed statue, which includes a removable sword, consists of approximately 150,000 LEGO bricks and took more than 200 man hours to design and build. Approximately 70 of those hours alone were used in the creation of Jackβs head which was all done without the assistance of computers.
Ever since Comic Con last year there’s been buzz about the Pirates of the Caribbean Sets.
So many new elements! Between the new bottles, hairstyles, and the new mermaid tails I just have to get these drool worthy sets!!!! This is only 4 of the 8 sets check out the gallery on MTV.com.
And if that’s not enough there’s a LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Video Game coming out!!! Go to FBTB.net to see it as I can’t figure out how to post it here.
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.