2001
| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
November 4-10, 2001
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Xcalabur’s LEGO Lair
-Chris Maddison
| | Here is a delightful site loaded with hundreds of photos of Castle-themed characters, buildings, and settings, rounded out by several short stories. The site is actually interdisciplinary -- covering Castle, Space, and Mecha creations -- but the main focus is really Castle. This realm is remarkably detailed and interfaces with realms created by other LEGO builders online. Every one of the dozens of character biographies lends a warmness and believability.
(Reviewed by Todd Lehman)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
September 16-22, 2001
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Building Empires
-Kevin O’Connor
| | Kevin is setting up a site devoted entirely to the Galactic Empire from the Star Wars universe. The site is a work-in-progress, but already there are many familiar faces and ships from the original trilogy. Kevin has put a special emphasis on re-creating actual named characters from the films and is also re-creating some of the more memorable scenes.
(Reviewed by Todd Lehman)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
August 19-August 25, 2001
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Engineering with ABS -Beat Felber
| | Mobile cranes, mining rope shovels, trucks, and even agricultural equipment: Beat Felber’s Engineering with ABS showcases the models and explains the key engineering ideas that underpin them. The site is clear and easy to follow, and gets you to the Models quick smart.
The combination of Technic and Model Team makes for some gorgeous and working models. Don’t miss the minifig scale Harnischfeger P&H 4100 TS Mining Shovel (with 6 different electrical functions), Mobile Crane #3, or the Australian Road Train Tractor.
And for those fancying following in Beat’s large and impressive footsteps, the Building Hints and Downloads pages offer the key ideas.
‘More to come in the future...,’ says the Models page. Can’t wait...
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
August 5–August 11, 2001
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Brickfilms —Jason Rowoldt
| | If you want to learn the how-to of LEGO animation, or just enjoy the fruits of the director’s and producer’s labour, Jason Rowoldt’s Brickfilms is the place to start. He and Jared Gilbert have massed links to over 100 LEGO “films,” from short and simple clips (under 60 seconds) to small movies (some as long as 12 and 13 minutes). Some of the films are Jason’s own, all of the films are detailed with reviews and vital statistics.
The Resources page contains all sorts of handy animation stuff including interviews with experts and links to software, forums other and useful sites.
Nice work, guys.
Remembering that video files are generally fairly large, Internet connection performance for downloading the movies may be an issue for you. But then, if you’re into animation or would like to be, you already knew that, right?
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
July 29-August 4, 2001
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T.J.‘s LEGO Creations Website -T.J. Avery
| | “That’s not a crane...this is a crane.” T.J.‘s minifig scale crawler crane, reaching 12 feet high and capable of a 40-lb. lift, is a truly staggering affair. Words fail - just go and have a look.
And while you’re there, check out the huge truss bridges (both a straight and an arched), complete with construction notes on some of the interesting details. This is the engineer you want to engage for the biggest construction projects around Legoland.
And then there’s the tower crane...
There’s only one problem: What does he do for an encore?
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
July 22–July 28, 2001
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MINIFIG.co.uk
—James Stacy
| | There are cartloads of wonderful castles and characters at James Stacey’s Minifig.co.uk. The (nicely thumbnailed) photography is good, the website is clear and easy to follow, but it’s all about the castles.
Head straight for the models and fun stuff pages. Don’t miss the Guarded Inn Mk2 (complete with .DAT file), or clicking on the grand display pic on the homepage.
Among the characters, check out the dude at the bottom of the Fun Stuff: fun pictures page and the nice work on the sabre gleam (not quite sure how a motorcycle got here :-), and on the Fun Stuff: Characters page, see what can be done with some imagination and the right torso stickers.
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
July 15–July 21, 2001
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BrickExpressions
—Peng-Cheong Yoon
| | Peng-Cheong Yoon’s BrickExpressions is a very stylish website. Elegant graphics, fine photography and effective use of web effects make swanning around this site an experience in itself.
And there’s nothing wrong with the models either.
There are some large scale (12-wide) detailed models of cars, including a BMW 3-Series, VW Golf and Jeep Wrangler, and over a dozen interesting minifig vehicles, some with .DAT files for download. Don’t miss the other minifig-scale models at the bottom of the creations list either — the phone booth is rather clever.
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
July 8–July 14, 2001
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LEGO Rides
—Markku Jääskeläinen
| | Markku Jääskeläinen, self described “Crazy LEGO Builder” has set a new high-water mark in fun park models, not only for size and sheer quantity, but also for detail, and for the fleet of minifig trucks and other vehicles (all 185 of them) he has built to move the rides around.
In terms of going the extra distance, the rides work like the full-sized rides on which they’re modelled, complete with blinking lights, 9V motors and pneumatic systems. There are even some hand drawn plans for six of the big models, for other ride engineers to consider.
Then there’s the extensive collection of 5-, 6-, and 7-wide cars (don’t miss the Batmobile), the automatic transmissions (under Other Creations), and the mosaics and sculptures (Other Creations, Misc).
So many wonderful models, so little time...
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
June 10–June 16, 2001
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Marlon’s LEGO Page
—Marlon Wuytenburg
| | Marlon is a sculptor, a media buff, and a dab hand at computer graphics work too.
The sculptures include a 15” R2-D2, the head of Darth Maul, and an (almost) life-size Gibson SG guitar. No doubt Marlon scored extra points for cute for the R2 chorus line on the bottom of the R2 page (takes a while to load, but very cute).
There are several small James Bond models complete with stylish instruction sheets, LEGOLAND fig renditions of music legends AC/DC and Tom Connors, a host of Dr. Who figs and models, and a video of the Rebels and Empire bout from the last SWWF Smackabout.
As with all video, it takes quite a while to load, but what with the audio clips from the movies, sound effects, and excellent editing, it’s laugh-out-loud funny.
Fantastic. More please....
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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More about Marlon’s LEGO Page...
| | NEW Doctor Who Lego - The 8th Doctor
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| www.multiboard.com/~marlon Just updated my Lego page with my rendition of the 8th Doctor, Paul McGann. Don't forget to check out my AC-DC Lego, Star Wars Wrestling Movie, Lego Guitar and more! (24 years ago, 6-Mar-01, to lugnet.announce)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
June 3–June 9, 2001
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CaL’s Lokschuppen
—Carsten Luetjen
| | CaL’s Lokschuppen (Locomotive sheds) presents some nicely thumbnailed pictures of Carsten’s steam and diesel locos, complete with pictures of the actual trains that were the inspiration.
The site is still under construction (including the E-Loks, Waggons, and English/French translations from the German), but if you stick to the beaten path, there is good stuff to be found.
The key to getting in to look around the pictures is understanding the main menu: Sonstige (Other), E-Loks (Electric Locos — under construction), Damphloks (Steam Locos), Dieselloks (Diesel Locos), Waggons (Wagons, — under construction), Bauten (Built). Forget about the English and French pages, and press on to the pics!
Check out the Damphloks (Steam Locos — including the large Baureihe 44) and the Dieselloks (Diesel Locos — including the cute Rangiertraktor). In Sonstige (Other) are pictures of some more of Carsten’s inspirations, and details of the development of his shipping containers.
Can’t wait to see more...
If English-only speakers would like to read the German, AltaVista’s Babelfish does a nice job.
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
May 27-June 2, 2001
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Ticket-Center —Markus J. Strick
| | Markus Strick’s Ticket-Center is a goldmine of bits a pieces for train fans, including picture series of dozens of train sets and MOCs, some pictures and details of some of the 1960’s LEGO sets, and a news section pointing the way to what’s new and interesting in the train world, all in an interesting railway ticket vending machine interface.
Highlights include the rag hopper cars and snot car (good use of Ninja doors) on the Freight Cars page (7), the green traincar on the Traincars page (6), and the huge BR41 and stylish BR03 on the Steam Engines page (3). Oh oh, and don’t forget the Netherland Intercity on the Trains page (1). There is just so much to see.
And for non-trainheads, check out the detailed pictures of the original LEGO motorcycles from set 270 circa 1958 on the Other Stuff page (0).
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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More about Markus’s Ticket Center website...
| | New private Homepage online
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| Hi Train folks, a friend of mine, Markus Strick from Aachen, Germany just brought his personal webseite online. It's nearly 100% LEGO train related. He uses a nice way of navigating: A real german ticketcenter like it could be found at every station (...) (24 years ago, 16-Nov-00, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: New private Homepage online
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| Thanks for telling us all about Markus new web site. I just enjoyed viewing all the sites. Always great to see new creations. I really like his ticketcenter "look". It is very nice. There are some great MOCs. I like his white and red passenger train (...) (24 years ago, 16-Nov-00, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
May 20-May 26, 2001
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Freight’s LEGO Page —Freight Freitas
| | There is some extremely serious engineering going on over at Freight’s LEGO Page, from the V-6 engined, six-wheel drive Volvo A35 Rock Truck to the 1968 Red Ferrari 612 Can-Am with the working V-12 and 4-wheel independent suspension built from two copies of 8448 Super Street Sensation and other bits — beautiful working models. I’m not game to start talking about the Pneumatic Crane....
The site is clear and clean with buckets of excellent images, all thumbnailed — just a pleasure to cruise about and take it all in. Nice work, Christine.
And Freight’s idea of a LEGO train layout is to build some very stylish LEGO trains (check them out on the projects page), and then get out the LEGO track, the LEGO motors, and the stainless steel (yup, stainless), to build helix-style elevations and suspension bridges (on the Current Project page).
In a word: stunningly impressive.
Oh, that’s two words...
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
May 13-May 19, 2001
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LEGO Structures
by Patrick Bosman —Patrick Bosman
| | Patrick’s LEGO Structures from the Netherlands includes detailed and accurate trucks, buses, ships, villages and castles, and even a sculpture of a witch. Don’t miss the huge minifig scale Royal Mail Steamer (over 32 studs wide and no trace of hull pieces — it’s all bricks!) or the three separate castles in Knights’ Land, and check out the wonderfully intricate masonry on the older buildings, like the railway station in the fortified town (based on a real building in Valkenburg — picture included).
Patrick is a very busy builder — there is enough material here for at least three normal sites, so take some time, and look around.
(Reviewed by Richard Parsons)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
May 6-May 12, 2001
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The Animated Brick Co. Showcase
—Greg Perry
| | This site was one of the first to publish animated short LEGO-themed films. Greg began making videos using a VHS video camera long before the LEGO Animation Studios product came out. One of these won Greg grand prize in a home video contest and a trip to LEGOLAND California!
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
April 29-May 5, 2001
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Bricktannia —Dave Amos
| | Bricktannia is a charming LEGO town depicted in two time periods of its history: the present and the medieval past. The site design is gorgeous, particularly the entry pages. At the time of this writing, the site is still missing major components (such as the backstory — the Epic tale of Bricktannia), but you can follow new developments in the forums or in the Bricktannia Courier, the city’s virtual online newspaper.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
April 22-28, 2001
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Frank’s LEGO Site
—Frank Buiting
| | This is the place to come if you want to look up a new LEGO-related word you’ve just heard or just to enjoy browsing the color-coded Lexicon of LEGO-fan jargon Frank has created. Also on this site are many original creations by Frank — a LEGO Outlet Store, a Heavy Railway Crane, and several other beautiful train-themed models. Very tasty.
Overall, this site is remarkably clean and sports a very attractive design. (You’ll understand when you see it. :-)
Star Wars fans: don’t miss Frank’s realistic Han Solo in Carbonite, a vast improvement over the flat brick supplied with 7144 Slave I.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
March 25–31, 2001
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LEGO Mania
—Hideaki Wakabayashi
| | This is a wonderful site with a potpourri of information and photos. Note: If you don’t have Japanese font support installed in your web browser, the text will look strange, but you’ll still be able to view all the images — everything from town and train creations to chess sets to pure sculpture and more. There is also a BBS going back more than a year.
LEGO historians: don’t miss the photos of old LEGO cars and other items from the 1950’s and 1960’s.
LEGO Star Wars fans: don’t miss the “LEGO Maniax” pages!
LEGO train fans: don’t miss the 3-wide trains in the Creations area!
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
March 18-24, 2001
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The Royal Train -Brian M. Williams
| | This site is just too good for words. The Royal Train is a traveling exhibit which “promotes model railroading and truthfulness through storytelling.” In addition to several pages of breathtaking photos of the exhibit (many specially edited), Brian gives a history of the exhibit with construction photos and concept art. This site is a must-see for everyone.
A note to LEGO purists: Brian has made extensive use of stickers to decorate these creations. However, the stickers are entirely removable, and no LEGO elements were cut or damaged. The decorations have been so expertly applied that they might pass for delicate paint jobs. Even the most die-hard purist would have to admit that the minifig chest graphics worn by the Winterthur Barber-Shop Quartet look entirely “real”—as if they had been made by LEGO itself.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
March 4-10, 2001
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The Kingdom of Andrastavia -Kevin Hall
| | Kevin Hall’s Kingdom of Andrastavia is a highly detailed masterpiece. A phenomenal amount of time and effort has been spent on the details and graphics. Nurstwik Palace reminds one of a castle nestled in the clouds in Europe, and chapter 2 of the saga is eagerly awaited. A very well polished site, I look forward to seeing much more of Kevin’s work. (Reviewed by Jennifer L. Boger)
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
February 25-March 3, 2001
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LEGO Palm -Tijger Tsou
| | Tijger has taken a pair of Palm® VII Handheld devices, removed the innards, and encased the devices in attractive shells of LEGO® elements -- without using any glue. The devices still work, including the infrared ports, which are cleverly hidden using clear bricks.
Hardware hackers may remember Tom Owad’s LEGO Macintosh (featured here in 1999 as CLSotW #122), another great LEGO/computer hacking project.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
February 18-24, 2001
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Keppler Industries -Kyle Keppler
| | Keppler Industries, the main subsite here, is set 100 years in the future and covers dozens of futuristic creations, including mecha, dropships, troop transports, armored vehicles, a mobile missile launcher, even a hover garbagetruck. This site is also the home of a popular LEGO chat area.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
February 4-10, 2001
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KK Quah’s LEGO Creations
-Kung Khoon Quah
| | KK Quah demonstrates the architectural beauty of Japanese castles here in large, minifig scale models with plenty of juicy photos and several pages of design notes. Much consideration is given to educating the curious with historical links and other goodies.
ZNAP, TECHNIC, and MINDSTORMS fans -- don’t miss KK’s Giant Wheelbot which uses an RCX brick as a pendulum inside of a giant wheel built from LEGO ZNAP elements.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
January 28-February 3, 2001
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BrickFrenzy -Adrian Drake
| | This site is an eclectic cornucopia of cool stuff -- cars, mecha, dancing skeletons, a beautiful Christmas Themed Train and a LEGO Technic P-51 Mustang, several character sculptures, spaceships, a Fright Knights themed amusement park ride, sophisticated Technic models, dozens of pages of BrikWars carnage photos, and more!
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
January 21-27, 2001
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LEGO Technic workshop
-Alex Zorko
| | Showcased here are several large LEGO TECHNIC automobiles featuring working differential gearboxes, pneumatic V8 engines, locking doors, realistic rear and front suspension, and more. Details of some of the concepts are also given in Alex’s My Ideas section.
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| | Cool LEGO Site of the Week
January 7-13, 2001
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Idleworm LEGO -Dermot O Connor
| | Three gorgeous models, the Hotel Frankenstein mansion, Salyut 7 space station, and an Apollo Lunar Lander module can be seen here. Unfortunately, you will need a special browser plug-in from Macromedia, Inc. to view the proprietary Shockwave/Flash content if you want to see the models rotate around in circles, but you can also see a few still images using Internet standard JPEG format.
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