Clash of the Lego-Titans

Stumbled across this yesterday, but since it was Talk Like A Pirate Day, it seemed inappropriate to mention it then.

I was looking for a picture of a particular type of longbow, that I needed for an RPG I'm running. And google image-search linked me over to www.brickforge.com. Tres greek-brick-geek. And here, I thought my fun money from this paycheck was going to be spent on Sgt Hetfields Motorbreath Pub Band and some random Seattle-area tourist attractions. Nope. Looks like I'll be getting Legos instead.

I've been a fan of Legos for a long time, but just didn't realize how much I was missing out on. My only experience with Lego-knock-0ffs had been MegaBlocks, which, for the record, suck. They don't stick together without hammering or superglue. The one time I ever bought MegaBlocks it was because I wanted the little soldier dudes in cammo. Their helmets fall off. They can't hold their M-16s. The bodies don't come apart, at least not where they're supposed to. So I'd decided never again to drop money on wanna-be-Legos, just stick to the tried-and-tested real LEGO legos.

Little did I know, there's an entire subculture of Lego Minifig customizers. Curse my ignorance. So, in the hopes of educating my fellow man, here's my preliminary findings from like an hour or two of murdered time...

www.brickforge.com has the greek outfit to the right, also available in black for gothic-achilles fans. They do a variety of historical and fantasy weaponry / armor (real viking helmets!) / accessories for your Lego minifigs (so forget the spear, I'm getting my little greek minime a Falcata!). They also have lego-style cows (with pink udders, even), pigs and sheep.

www.brickarms.com has a ton of modern, historical, and scifi firearms. My Han Solo can finally have a broomhandle mauser instead of the revolver Lego gave him! Brickarms has potato-mashers, PPKs w/ silencers, shotguns, "aliens" pulserifles, even a briefcase with an SMG built into it for spy-fans. It is a little disturbing that they make 5 different Nazi figures and only one U.S. soldier, but maybe that's just so the good guys have more uber-villains to shoot at.

www.minifigcustomizationnetwork.com is a site for people who customize their own figs - not just swapping parts around like we all do, but everything from tracking down weird bits from other manufacturers to sculpting your own pieces. (I'll be diggin' out the Sculpey this weekend...). Thier website seems to be down at the moment, but it was working fine yesterday. From that site you'll find links to other manufacturers, too, but I'm not linking any further here since the other ones either have crappy (i.e.: not Mac-friendly) websites, brazenly violate copyright law, or only make waterslide transfers that you'd need blank lego bodies to use.