Finally, a nemesis worthy of my vast intellect

Following his amazing GLaDOS from Portal 2, Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) miniaturizes a turret to minifig-scale (or near enough), alongside an adorable custom Chell fig, complete with ASHPD.

Chell, ASHPD and Turret

For all of you out there who’d like your own turret to keep you company during the long twilight of civilization, Brandon has kindly posted instructions.

Turret Breakdown

Another interesting thing about Brandon’s design has been watching it evolve based on feedback from fellow builders. See the earlier iterations here and here, together with the comments that inspired the final version.

How to paint an artist.

Ah, the life of an artist. Glamorous, with paintings selling for millions upon millions, right? Eh, probably not. Unless you’re Picasso, this poor minifig probably won’t see his works reach seven digits in his lifetime. But that’s glamorous, right?

All he wants to do is pay for his fantastic flat, that he just cleaned. But he missed the red pigment. That’s going to stain.

I love the detail in this. The coat rack, especially, and the half-finished sculpture. Bravo, Walter Boy.

Something Completely Different

A little something cute by Moritz (Nolnet) to balance yesterday’s nightmare clown. It looks like he’s working on a series of these. I dig it, and not just because I’m holding a cute baby while I write this.

Power Minors Pebbles Plow

Ok, so maybe I have cuteness on the brain…

How to identify Series 3 Collectible Minifigs by touch through the bag

minifigures3The LEGO Series 3 Collectible Minifigures are now available in local store.

Since Series 3 packaging doesn’t have a barcode unique to each minifig  it’s good to have other ways to get past LEGO’s ridiculous marketing ploy.

SEALUG member J Junker posted a great guide to figuring out which minifig is in the bag by feeling for specific elements. Here’s J’s method in its entirety:

Gorilla – it’s best to find the banana. Be careful though, the Pilot has goggles that can feel like a banana.

Pilot – feel for the backpack/parachute (and the goggles there’s an indentation in the middle that the banana doesn’t have).

Racecar Driver – feel for all 3 of these, head, helmet & hair. He’s the only guy with all 3.  Finding the visor helps too.

Samurai – if you find the sword, that’s the best. He’s also got an ‘armor’ chest piece that’s unique.  It collapses inward when you squeeze it from front to back.

Rapper – feel for the mic, and his hat brim is curved. Careful not to mistake for the Hula Girl… She has 2 maracas that feel like the mic.

Hula Girl – finding both maracas is the best. The hair also feels different, since it’s designed to be in the front and back. Easy to confuse with the Rapper by feel and dots.

Indian Chief – the headdress is pretty easy to feel.  It’s very big.

Baseball Player – the bat is a dead giveaway. One of the easiest to feel.

The Mummy – the dots are very easy to spot on this one. Really the best way to feel this one is to find the scorpion.

Sumo Wrestler – another where the dots help quite a bit. I only felt the trophy one time, so I ended up feeling for the ball of hair on top of his head the most.

Alien – the head has the 2 distinct spheres. I almost always felt the beam from the gun as well. Dots are good for this one too.

Space Pirate (Cyborg) – easy to confuse with the race car driver. If you can find his robot hand, that’s the best. Remember that both the alien and this guy have a ray coming from their gun (the gun: which is also a good way to narrow it down to one of the 2).

Tennis Player – the racket is the tell tell here.

Elf (Legolas) – I felt the back if the shield on the first one, but found the bow & arrow easiest from then on out.

Snowboarder – the snow board is as easy as the surfboard and skateboard were to feel. Both ends curve up.

The Fisherman – the fish is easy to feel, plus the rope on the fishing pole is very different than anything else since it’s ’soft’.

I personally has manage to find all 16 of them from 18 packs (2 mistakes)

Good luck in hunting your favorite minifigures.

Custom DC Comics superheroes

Julian Fong (levork) has made a set of nine DC Comics superheroes for Creations for Charity. Each features custom-designed waterslide decals and an acrylic finish. They’re one-of-a-kind minifigs whose quality is among the best I’ve seen. You can check out more of Julian’s works on Flickr.



UPDATE: They’re all sold out!