Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Lost your bottle?
Apparently this Lost your bottle? case by James Pegrum is an important legal precedent in British law.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them
Workshysteve's Flashman series is full of such great work I have to keep blogging it again and again. Check out the awesome horses in this vig from the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Gold down under
Workshysteve built this missing memoir, filling in a gap in the Flashman books, imagining that Flashman went to Australia looking for gold.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Series 9 apartments
Greybrick is building a set of vigs to house the Series 9 Collectibles. It looks like these will be displayed in a store window when finished.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Bricks of the Realm II
/TheBricks\ has built a second series of Bricks of the Realm - large vigs depicting different levels of a Dungeons & Dragons style adventure.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Lightswitches
This is a really cool idea. ValGlaser has made a number of LEGO lightswitch plates that are essentially little vigs. Unfortunately these are glued, which I think would be a problem because if I got one of these for my son I think he'd be trying to pull off the pieces. It gives me an idea, though. I think when I repaint my son's room I'm going to cut a plate to use as a switchplate, and then he can stick pieces or figs to it. I'm sure that's been done before, so I'm not claiming it's a completely new idea, but it'd be fun. Anyway, on to ValGlaser's work. She made a ton, so follow the link, but here are some of my favorites.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Mike Crowley
Sad news that Mike Crowley, aka Count Blockula, passed away two days ago. Mike was an early vig builder, and some of his work can be found in his LEGO vignettes and snowblower man sets. In addition to being a great builder, he was also a great guy, and will be sorely missed. Play well, Mike.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Book Review: LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination
Last in a series of book reviews. You've got two days left. Run out and buy your loved ones some LEGO books!
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
VignetteBricks-specific content - None. Another surprise as this would seem to be a good subject.
LEGO Ideas Book - Unlock Your Imagination by Daniel Lipkowitz, 2011, Dorling Kindersley Books.
I'm very happy to end this run of LEGO book reviews with another extremely positive rating. This one's been out for a year, so you may already have it. If you were only going to buy one LEGO book last year, this was the one. If you didn't, you still have time to rectify the situation. As with the LEGO Adventure Book, this book seeks to inspire your building by simply showing you what you can do with the brick.
Author and editor Daniel Lipkowitz brings together an impressive array of AFOL contributors: Sebastian Arts (AlienCat), Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha), Deborah Higdon, Barney Main (SlyOwl), Duncan Titmarsh and Andrew Walker. These builders made a ton of models for this book. I didn't bother counting them, but there are 200 pages, and almost page has several different models, all beautifully photographed.
There are no real instructions in the book. Oh, in a few places they include exploded constructions so you can see how this or that detail was done, but the stated purpose of the book is: "The ideas in this book will inspire you to create many more models of your own." And the models are inspirational. Subjects include castles (lots of this - thanks AlienCat!), town buildings, brick built animals, space ships, robots, pirate fortresses, Viking longboats, etc. It's not all fig scale, either. There's quite a bit of microscale, mosaics, and also some sculptures that serve purposes like pen holders for your desktop. There are mini interviews with each of the builders, which is a nice touch. There is also text on each page giving little insights and highlighting details, but truth be told the text is unnecessary. The stars here are the photos. As with all of the various DK LEGO offerings, each page is packed with high quality color photos. I'd love to see more and more books like this (and the LEGO Adventure Book I reviewed previously) that celebrate all of the cool things that AFOLs build. I hope DK comes out with one of these every couple of years - just bring together some top quality builders and let them loose. I'd be happy to give them a list of names!
Again, this is one of those must-have books. Everyone from kids to expert builders will love flipping through the pages - whether they are seeking inspiration for their next MOC, they want to celebrate the community of builders, or just to enjoy all of the beautiful pictures.
VignetteBricks-specific content - None. Another surprise as this would seem to be a good subject.
Book Review: Amazing ABC
Amazing ABC by Sean Kenney, 2012, Christy Ottaviano Books.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
A quick little review of a book you are probably unlikely to have happened across. If you don't have a very young child, you probably don't browse the board book section of your local bookstore. I do, and one day a little while ago I happened across this charming book. I'm a fan of alphabet books, and of course when you're teaching a child their letters you see a lot of these. This book is pretty straight-forward. Each page has a letter (built of bricks) and a model to illustrate that letter. As you'd expect from Sean, the models are all great and the photos are perfect. Even if you don't have a little one crawling around your home, this is a great book to get (hey, it's only a few dollars) and have sitting out in your home. If you do have kids, you can justify this as educational even!
Blog-specific material - There is none.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Book Review: I LEGO NY
I LEGO NY by Christoph Niemann, 2010, Abrams Image.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
VignetteBricks-specific content I suppose you might classify some of these little scenes as vignettes, though not in the way I normally define those in this blog.
Christoph Niemann is an artist whose work has been on the cover of the New Yorker, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. He's got a regular New York Times pictorial column, Abstract Sunday that takes a really fun whimsical outlook on the world. At one point he lived (or still does, I'm not sure) in Berlin, but his thoughts were stuck in New York City. A few years ago he was playing LEGO with his sons and started making some models of his home town. The result was a column I LEGO NY.
873 comments later, he knew he'd hit upon something. He made some more models, and the result was the book I LEGO NY. This little thirty page board book is full of whimsical models that celebrate New York City life. The thing to note, though, is that this really isn't a LEGO book. It's a New York book. As a set of LEGO models, there's not much here. The arrangement of simple blocks evokes they subject matter rather than depicts it, as, for example, a cluster of 1x2 bricks representing a traffic jam at the entry to the Holland Tunnel.
The people that would most appreciate the allusions are New Yorkers, or probably even more so New York expatriates who miss their home. However, even as someone who has only been to New York for a few brief visits, the city is so much in the American consciousness from the numerous TV shows and movies set there that I understood all of the references.
Even though this is a board book, it's not for kids. Not that there is anything objectionable to the content, it's just that kids would not get the point of the pictures - they're just too abstract. I suspect that this is a board book to give it a little heft. At only thirty pages, as a paper book it would be little more than a pamphlet.
This is a fun little book. More of a stocking stuffer gift for that New Yorker in your life. It's a nice little conversation starter to leave out on your coffee table.
VignetteBricks-specific content I suppose you might classify some of these little scenes as vignettes, though not in the way I normally define those in this blog.
Book Review: LEGO Heavy Weapons
Still more book reviews.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat, 2012, No Starch Press.
I have very little to say about this book. That's in part because it isn't really my thing, and in part because the book is exactly what it sets out to be. The subtitle is "Build Working Replicas of Four of the World's Most Impressive Guns", and this book is essentially a series of detailed instructions to make these four guns.
There is a little bit of background on building LEGO, how to buy pieces, designing with CAD programs, and Streat also gives some background on each of the weapons featured. Streat then launches into the heart of the book, detailed step-by-step instructions to build your own. The pictures are all in black and white, but that's okay, since you would probably build these out of black anyway. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. When completed, these guns are rubber-band driven to launch bricks. I haven't actually built them, so I can't tell you how far they shoot.
As I said, I don't really have much to say about this book. I fear it's a little dismissive to say 'If this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this sort of thing,' but that's my honest response. If you want to make life-size weapons, this book is perfect for you. If not, pass it by. I suppose I could go on and on about gun play in general. I'm writing this review in the aftermath of the horrible school shooting in Newton, so anything with guns seems wrong right now. But I also know that I spent my childhood making guns out of sticks and shooting squirt guns, and later 22's at camp. Now my son loves sticking about five DUPLO bricks and calling it a shooter, and we bought him a Nerf dart gun for Christmas. So I'm not going to act all holier-than-thou on the subject of toy weapons. Boys, and to a lesser extent girls, fairly naturally gravitate to toy guns (or bows and arrows, or swords, etc etc), and building them out of LEGO is a pretty natural thing. Anyway, as I said, this book is aimed at a pretty narrow market, but perfectly hits that market. Make your purchasing choices accordingly.
Blog-specific material There is none.
Book Review: The Cult of LEGO
Another book review. I'm posting these across my blogs, with blog-specific content at the end.
The Cult of LEGO, John Baichtal and Joe Meno, 2011, No Starch Press.
Okay, I'm embarrassed. I've had this one sitting here to review for just about a year now. I've been hesitant because I didn't want to be negative, but I suppose that's not a concern one should have in reviewing books. The thing is, from the point I first heard of this book, I wanted to love it. And, don't get me wrong, there is so much to love about this book. And before I go any further on a negative note, I want to start out celebrating what I love about this. We all know Joe as the founder and editor of BrickJournal, and a look at his Flickr stream reveals that he can be found at just about every gathering of more than five AFOLs, snapping picture after picture of all the great MOCs in the community. And the photos here are stunning - both those by Joe at fan events and photos chosen from builders across the community. This book tries to comprehensively cover all aspects of the hobby. The text by John Baichtal starts with a history of the company, then goes into all different areas, like different themes, spotlights on builders, NXT building, brick comics, LEGO in education, fan fests, micro macro sculpture and figs, Legoland parks, customization, Lugnet, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
There, I suppose is what bothered me. I love the photos. Yes, with anything like this you're going to quibble with 'why did they include this and not the five thousand other MOCs that they should have?' I suppose part of this comes down to taste, or luck, or maybe just which builders gave permission to use their photos. The text, though, tries to do too much, and it doing so it falls kind of flat. The style is more reporting, and lacks the personal feel we get in something like Jonathan Bender's LEGO: A Love Story. Actually, this book works best as the illustrations that were missing from Bender's book. In addition to the lack of a real emotional connection, there are odd inclusions and exclusions. I completely understand how a favorite MOC can be overlooked, but there are some glaring omissions in the text. For instance, the Castle theme gets less than a page (with a few additional MOCs that show up elsewhere). This is much less coverage than some individual builders or MOCs. Now, I'm a castle guy, so maybe I'm being sensitive to my favorite area of building, but Castle is one of the 'big three' themes along with Town and Space. Also, the coverage of the online community is sorely lacking. If you read this, you'd think that the community consists primarily of Lugnet and the Brothers-Brick. Miniland building is another shortfall. Sure, there aren't a ton of people who build in this scale, but it's at the heart of the theme parks, and in the book miniland figures get about a third as much space as Homemaker and Belville figs. Some inclusions are odd. There seems to be a huge emphasis on FFOLs. I'm not complaining about including women builders prominently, but it seems a bit agenda driven - trying to prove that LEGO isn't just for boys. There are also some individuals who get featured again and again - no knock on them, but it just seems that there are so many who get overlooked that to put a lot of attention on a few seems misplaced. The book does cover some areas that are left out of other LEGO books I've seen, like First LEGO League and Serious Play. I guess part of the problem is that there is no narrative thread that runs through the book. It's more like a scatter-shot of short pieces that tries to cover everything, but is inevitably hit and miss.
I'm really sorry to be negative on this book, which is why I've put off reviewing it. I do think that as a peek into the community it works well, and as a coffee table book to pick up and flip through the pictures, but to sit down and read to get some comprehensive insight I think it falls short of the high mark it set for itself. Anyway, if you're into LEGO books, you probably already have this. If you don't, I might turn first to one of the other books on the market.
VignetteBricks specific content - There are two pages devoted to vigs, with several featured MOCs, mostly by Nelson Yrizarry. I saw a couple of other vigs at other points in the book, like Andrew Becraft's Rendition.
The Cult of LEGO, John Baichtal and Joe Meno, 2011, No Starch Press.
Okay, I'm embarrassed. I've had this one sitting here to review for just about a year now. I've been hesitant because I didn't want to be negative, but I suppose that's not a concern one should have in reviewing books. The thing is, from the point I first heard of this book, I wanted to love it. And, don't get me wrong, there is so much to love about this book. And before I go any further on a negative note, I want to start out celebrating what I love about this. We all know Joe as the founder and editor of BrickJournal, and a look at his Flickr stream reveals that he can be found at just about every gathering of more than five AFOLs, snapping picture after picture of all the great MOCs in the community. And the photos here are stunning - both those by Joe at fan events and photos chosen from builders across the community. This book tries to comprehensively cover all aspects of the hobby. The text by John Baichtal starts with a history of the company, then goes into all different areas, like different themes, spotlights on builders, NXT building, brick comics, LEGO in education, fan fests, micro macro sculpture and figs, Legoland parks, customization, Lugnet, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
There, I suppose is what bothered me. I love the photos. Yes, with anything like this you're going to quibble with 'why did they include this and not the five thousand other MOCs that they should have?' I suppose part of this comes down to taste, or luck, or maybe just which builders gave permission to use their photos. The text, though, tries to do too much, and it doing so it falls kind of flat. The style is more reporting, and lacks the personal feel we get in something like Jonathan Bender's LEGO: A Love Story. Actually, this book works best as the illustrations that were missing from Bender's book. In addition to the lack of a real emotional connection, there are odd inclusions and exclusions. I completely understand how a favorite MOC can be overlooked, but there are some glaring omissions in the text. For instance, the Castle theme gets less than a page (with a few additional MOCs that show up elsewhere). This is much less coverage than some individual builders or MOCs. Now, I'm a castle guy, so maybe I'm being sensitive to my favorite area of building, but Castle is one of the 'big three' themes along with Town and Space. Also, the coverage of the online community is sorely lacking. If you read this, you'd think that the community consists primarily of Lugnet and the Brothers-Brick. Miniland building is another shortfall. Sure, there aren't a ton of people who build in this scale, but it's at the heart of the theme parks, and in the book miniland figures get about a third as much space as Homemaker and Belville figs. Some inclusions are odd. There seems to be a huge emphasis on FFOLs. I'm not complaining about including women builders prominently, but it seems a bit agenda driven - trying to prove that LEGO isn't just for boys. There are also some individuals who get featured again and again - no knock on them, but it just seems that there are so many who get overlooked that to put a lot of attention on a few seems misplaced. The book does cover some areas that are left out of other LEGO books I've seen, like First LEGO League and Serious Play. I guess part of the problem is that there is no narrative thread that runs through the book. It's more like a scatter-shot of short pieces that tries to cover everything, but is inevitably hit and miss.
I'm really sorry to be negative on this book, which is why I've put off reviewing it. I do think that as a peek into the community it works well, and as a coffee table book to pick up and flip through the pictures, but to sit down and read to get some comprehensive insight I think it falls short of the high mark it set for itself. Anyway, if you're into LEGO books, you probably already have this. If you don't, I might turn first to one of the other books on the market.
VignetteBricks specific content - There are two pages devoted to vigs, with several featured MOCs, mostly by Nelson Yrizarry. I saw a couple of other vigs at other points in the book, like Andrew Becraft's Rendition.
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