Advance releases classic LEGO commercials! [News]

Advance has been making LEGO tv commercials for over 30 years and recently they rediscovered many classic commercials in their archives. They will be releasing them online over the next ten weeks, so look for them here, with a bit of commentary from the people involved in their creation.

I am a big fan of vintage LEGO ads and commercials, so I’m pretty excited about this project. Come take a trip down memory lane with Advance and The Brothers Brick!

Blast from the Past Trailer video:

Spyrius (1994):

Art director Christian Faber says:

“We shot this in London or LA, I can’t actually remember! It was one of the first motion control spots we did. At 0:15 We used a kind of ‘magic building’ technique where the bricks are held on the end of metal rods and then pulled apart. And if you look closely at 0:00 you can actually see the edge of the studio in the top
left corner.

“The set filled a whole studio and we used a lot of analogue techniques — the planet is just painted cardboard and the backdrop is just a screen with
little holes in it and a big light behind it. The hands you can see moving the sets at 0:05 and 0:21 secs are actually wax hands. I had quite a lot of
explaining to do when customs asked why I had a bag full of fake arms!”

Technic Racers (1997):

Faber says:

“We shot it in a specially built 10-metre tunnel that was hand-painted and filled with smoke. While it may look straight, if you look closely at 00:15
you can see the yellow lines bending slightly — that’s because at this point we filmed the car in a carousel to make it look like it was speeding
forward! The animatronic hand was cast on a girl’s hand so it was a perfect fit and gave her the control she needed in the more complicated movements.”

Wild West (1996)

Faber says:

“We juxtaposed stills of the LEGO sets being ‘magic built’ with lots of scenes from classic American Westerns. The last few shots featuring the fight scene
were filmed and then graded to fit in with the rest of the background scenes. The magic building techniques shown here are actually illegal now –
the law today requires that toy sets that need to be constructed have to be shown being built by hand.

Full-size LEGO Ford Explorer

A team of 22 model builders from Enfield recently built a full-scale Ford Explorer for the opening of the new Legoland in Florida. It took them approximately 2500 hours and used around 380,000 bricks! The Explorer will be on display in front of one of the new park’s attractions, the Ford Driving School.

Check out the time-lapse video:

Rest for the Wicked

Even bandits need to take a break now and again. David Leest bursts back on the scene with this lush little gem. The waterfall, foliage and general landscaping are very nice, but the posing of the figs put the topper on this for me.

Roskilde Domkirke

Lasse Vestergård built this in the style of LEGO’s architechture sets and it came out quite nice. I’m really liking the austere look of this build.

Evacuate!

Bart De Dobbelaer amazes me with the intricacies of his scenes and the action that he packs into them. The scary aliens/bugs in this scene are pretty wild and the backdrop highlights the action perfectly.

Mr. Bean’s LEGO Mini

Adam Grabowski goes for a drive with an icon in this Mini. We will forgive him for painting one piece, since it turned out so well. Now he needs to build Teddy.

Castle Greebles

Apparently even a castle can be greebly. This fortress, by ErykCoa, packs quite the visual punch. So many different pieces, techniques, angles and colors all vie for attention, but somehow it melts together for a very interesting effect.

Brides of Dracula

This scene, by Teruel211, actually creeps me out. I think it is the feeling of suspense and the sense of anticipation among the vampires. Notice there is virtually no gore in this? Many people try to build a scary scene by including blood and gore everywhere. That never works for me because the action has already happened. It’s the suspense that gets to me.

Midnight Dragon

This beast was built Jacob Unterreiner and has a very striking and menacing feel to it. I love the color scheme, as I’m an old school Blacktron fan, but this whole build just screams evil.

The cavalry is coming

Apparently this cruiser by Vince Toulouse has been around for awhile, but I missed it and it has some rather cool components. The overall shape is one that we don’t see a lot, using pieces that almost everyone refuses to touch…the giant floor pieces from the old Sports sets. But they look really good here. Also I really like the cavalry flag on the side. Very nice touch.

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