Few days ago 3rd issue of LEGO fan magazine, BrickJournal hit the stores.

Inside, a lot of interesting articles:

• Interview with LEGO CEO on the current company status
• Long article celebrating 10 years of First LEGO League (I wish we had this in Poland)
• Reviews and behind-the-scenes facts about designing new Custom Car Garage and Beetle sets

and many more. Check it out, it’s really worth spending 4 bucks.

Arzlan, a LEGO fan from Hongkong build a great ent figure:

Check out the rest of his amazing creations on Brickshelf!

This blog is for adults… so I have no doubts about posting the newest Nolnet’s diorama:

Amazing set of tools hanging from tha wall. Probably only the famous red axle is missing….

I’m usually reluctant to post notes on my own MOCs, and that is why Hippotam occasionally uses the Power of the Poke to convince me to post one So it was in the case of my model of one of the world’s weirdest vehicles ever - a diwheel.

Diwheel is basically a type of bike with two wheels parallel to each other, and the actual bike residing inside the wheels, kept in place by its low placed center of gravity. If you’re interested, you will find plenty of informations on diwheels and monowheels here.

As for the model itself, it’s key feature is an advanced drivetrain. I’ve used a subtractor, that is a mechanism able to add or subtract the speeds of two motors and distribute it independently to two wheels. Thanks to that, the diwheel is able to quickly drive straight and still make precise turns, which would be otherwise impossible with the wheels so close to each other.

You can learn more on the functionality of the subtractor, and of the diwheel’s driving characteristics from the video:

Since some time one of the biggest questions regarding 2009 news was ‘Power Miners’ line. One leak and some crappy pictures - that was all we knew. But today we have something much better at posted on www.brickshop.nl:

Via Eurobricks, as usual.

Jerac reminds us he’s a master of microscale building. These cool micro trucks were the part of his larger, but cancelled project:

Some details here are amazing. Mudgards from cheese slopes? Pure madness!

Third edition of Brick Transport Tycoon Contest just started at LUGPol. Never heard of it? Time for some catching up!

This edition has four rounds. Every round the contestants are challenged to build one transportation-related creation. Each round lasts two weeks. Only the best can keep up with this pace and win the whole contest.

So, what was the first round about? Here’s the challenge:

Challenge 1: Build a SPECIAL transport vehicle. You HAVE TO show the cargo.
Fantasy and SF: no change.

Bonuses:
+1 point for vehicle with 20+ wheels. Of course, it’s not about adding few more wheels to a truck, number of wheels shpuld have some justification.
Fantasy: +1 point for a vehicle with 12+ wheels
SF: no change

Let’s see creations of some LUGPol’s builders:

ImpreSariO deals with 20 wheel requirement in a very creative way. Meet RollE:

ImpreSario presented a whole story describing mecha. In a future, LEGO company is experiencing raids on their ABS supplies organised by a clone brands troops. To protect the valuable cargo, LEGO designs RollE, a rollerblade mecha, who can transport and protect ABS granulate.

You have already seen Jerac’s Ymir space transport, blogged by Ricardo:

But BTT creations are not only futuristic. Nori takes the wheel problem into the fantasy era. Here is the ogres’ tranport (in fantasy, only 12 wheels are required to get a bonus point):

Kaczor presents a steampunk solution: a platform transporting a statue:

Crises takes the similar approach, but his platform transports the King himself:

There are also traditional solutions, set up in the present. Here’s 20-wheeler from Bobofruttx:

And very cool special (and long: 106 studs) transport by M-Longer:

Who will win? Nothing is certain now, since the deadline is today’s evening. Some new creations are will probably still to shop up…

But, we alredy know the second challenge:

Challenge 2: Build a nautical vehicle. Must be able to transport at least 5 tons of cargo by 500 miles. Transportation does not to be on the sea, there might be a river, lake or such.
Fantasy: 2 tons of cargo, 200 miles
SF: no change

Bonuses (all themes):
+1 point for vehicle not built with metal, wood or plastic

Eurobrick’s user Holodoc shows off his amazing collection of colorful minifig parts. Some are really rare!

Jerac presents us one more of his wonderfull creations. Ymir is a mix of a loader with double arm and a transporter. Enjoy these interesting details that make this model one of the most beautiful space tows ever.

Take a look at his functions… even his arms are independent.

 EDIT (by hippotam) Jerac built Ymir for BTT contest on LUGPol. Tommorow we will have a press-coverage for this. Stay tuned!

Michael Jasper adds two new characters to his gallery. Carl Zeiss and Alfred Nobel might be entries in Chis Doyle’s Brick Science contest ( I hope so!).

Here’s Herr Zeiss, notice the spillt coffee!

And here’s Alfred Nobel. How did Michael built  the open drawer?

Via Vignette Bricks.