As much as I like to see more Asian elements within the available palette of LEGO elements, and as addicted as I am to the collectible minifigs, I can’t say I’m thrilled with the hair piece used for both (both?!) the sumo wrestler and geisha. Nevertheless, I can’t help but love anything that springs from the brilliantly bricking fingers of Michael Jasper.
Via twee affect, which has a nice discussion of the various interesting techniques that Michael inevitably applies to his LEGO creations.
かわいいレゴずき (“I Love Cute LEGO”) has their annual roundup of New Year greetings from Japanese LEGO builders up on the blog, replete with adorable bunnies to honor the Year of the Rabbit.
But most unique of all this year’s New Year creations is this set of osechi cuisine by mumu from the resident builders at かわいいレゴずき:
I always thought osechi food was a bit of an acquired taste, but I’ve said the same thing about traditional American holiday food. (In both cases, it doesn’t help that my choices are further limited by being a vegetarian from birth.) Whether you appreciate the source of inspiration or not, the LEGO version is a lovely evocation of a uniquely Japanese tradition.
Happy 2011, LEGO fans of the world! Scientists, please provide a status update on your abject failure to give us flying cars and personal robots. We are, after all, living in The Future…
Brickshelf user midnightcat built a detailed kyomachiya townhouse complete with a fully adorned interior. The technique of building the roof with a combination of cylinders and tiles create a good effect.
I spent four days under the shadow of Robin Sather’s 1:1 scale torii gate at BrickCon last weekend, so it was lovely to see this equally impressive-but much smaller- version of Miyajima Torii by Matija Grguric.
Adrian Drake (Brickfrenzy) is bringing his colossal super robot Raideen to our Big in Japan display at BrickCon. I think it will look very nice standing next to Mark Sandlin’s Mazinger Z, both of which are based off the Teknomeka frame.
One of the advantages of cover version LEGO is that it allows us to blog older models with fresh pictures. Aaron Dayman recently posted his variants on Adam Grabowski’s (misterzumbi) motorbike from the 1988 film Akira. Adam’s version is many years old as are my instructions for it (much older than the 1×1 brick with stud on side).
And it’s entirely possible this was blogged when it was new but that’s a long, long time ago.
HKLUG has posted a ton of excellent pictures from the 2010 Anime Festival their Facebook page.
You should definitely take the time to check them out. The pictures posted here really caught me eye, but there are many, many more.
If any of our readers have information on the actual builders, please let us know so that we can give credit where credit is due. Thanks!
Tsang Yiu Keung (chiukeung) built a microscale replica of the China Pavilion that dominates Expo 2010. I’ve been wanting to build this structure since visiting the expo earlier this month, but there’s no need now. It even has lights.
Ray Kwan builds the Hong Kong Coliseum complete with working lights and an illuminated interior. I recommend checking out the gallery for shots of all corners of the building, which features some nice modern city details.
