Author: Albert Balanza

I have a confession to make: I often find myself going back to that page that reminds me how turning your passion for the brick can become a very meaningful full-time profession. I’m talking about the elite roster of 13 LEGO Certified Professionals who advocate the hobby all over the world. Whether they’re working on a commissioned project or simply building things for the love of the craft, you’ll simply find the enthusiasm of these LEGO Certified Professionals inspiring.  Situated all over the world, our LCPs are known for their extraordinary LEGO design and building skills, exciting level of interest in the LEGO brick-building system, and their professional influence among LEGO fans and the larger community

For this week, I would like to begin with someone very close to where I am geographically. When I saw the video of his commissioned work over the streets of Singapore back in 2011, I was immediately captured by the depth of his creativity. Meet Nicholas Foo – the only Asian, and fifth Lego Certified Professional who was awarded with the prestigious title in 2006.

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Photo courtesy of Yahoo Singapore.Nicholas did not aspire to be a LEGO Certified Professional at first. According to an interview with Yahoo Singapore correspondent Fann Sim, Nicholas understands very well the difficulty of being honored with such a title. “There are some Lego fans that can build well, even better than me, but don’t get accepted into the program,” Nicholas said. “Other than having good building skills, you also have to show that you are creative, demonstrate that you’re a people person, carry yourself well, and have a good business plan. It’s a big step apart from a hobby because you’re running a business.” Nevertheless, it is quite difficult not to notice his works. Once commissioned to build a three-dimensional version of the Singapore map, his team over at Blackbulb Creations used 250,000 pieces of LEGO bricks to complete it, making it the biggest project that Nicholas created to date.

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He and his team have gone a long way since then – and as a way of paying it forward to the community, he never had second thoughts in embarking on a project commissioned to him by Ogilvy and Mather. This time he knows that he will be leaving a legacy that will somehow inspire his fellow Singaporeans to think and imagine big. Commissioned to make three sidewalk murals, Nicholas came up with a theme that is so synonymous with the LEGO name. ‘IMAGINE’ features a very clever take on how three fictional characters – a rainbow-colored caterpillar, a red giant monster, and a distressed whale – may come to life if ever you meet them along the street. Take a look at these photos.

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These murals were mounted in 3 bus stops ad shells at different locations in Singapore. When viewed from the front, these murals would blend with the background, even in their illustrative and studs-out form. It has fun, dreamlike characteristics that will make you blink twice, thinking that you might be imagining things. Working with his creative team at Blackbulb Creations, they managed to work out the technical details and dimensions based on photo collages that they sketched and dot-inked. Each mural measures around 1.2m x 1.8m and uses a total of over 97,000 pieces of 1×1 plates. Nicholas’ murals were eventually recognized and awarded by various award-giving bodies in advertising both locally and abroad. Here’s a short promotional video on the making of these murals and how people responded to them. I find it inspiring to see those little kids simply being amazed by what they see.

Nicholas probably couldn’t help but smile each time he passed by those bus stops. Those murals will continue to remind him of how far his imagination has carried him throughout his journey as a fan of the craft and more so, a LEGO Certified Professional. Listen to him as he shares his thoughts about his work and on pressing on towards the direction of your dreams, as seen in this promotional video from HP Asia. Visit Nicholas’ blog site for more examples of his work and involvement in the larger LEGO community.

It was a glorious day for fans of LEGO’s toys-to-life genre when the much-awaited Wave 4 of LEGO Dimensions officially landed in stores yesterday. Included in Wave 4 are the Midway Arcade Level Pack, the Ghostbusters Stay Puft Fun Pack, the Superman Fun Pack, and the Aquaman Fun Pack. They are now available via Amazon where you can enjoy discounts as much as 50% off so be sure to check on them. Click here for a complete listing of the discounts available.

Before their release, PortalCharacters also wrote a useful overview of Waves 4 to 5 characters in LEGO Dimensions plus a brief summary of how they are expected to come into play. Now that Wave 4 is out, we hope to see some developments later on regarding their gameplay and other great stuff waiting to be discovered from these characters.

To celebrate the release of LEGO Dimensions Wave 4, PlayStation came up with these cool trailers showing Superman, Aquaman, Marshmallow Man, and Gamer Kid in action. Check these out.

Wave 5 is expected to be released on May 31. We’ll keep you posted on these developments, or you may also check PortalCharacters.com for comprehensive coverage of everything that you need to know about LEGO Dimensions.

Owners of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers for the PlayStation can now download a free character pack DLC (downloadable content) featuring the characters of Disney Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War. It was already hinted during the launch of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers last January that PS3 and PS4 gamers will receive a DLC for the said game.

The LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Character Pack DLC will introduce new and re-skinned characters all based on their real-life movie counterparts:

• Agent 13
• Black Panther
• Captain America
• Crossbones
• Falcon
• Iron Man (Mk 46)
• Scarlet Witch
• War Machine
• Winter Soldier (aka Bucky Barnes)

This free DLC also includes Black Panther and Crossbones. Absent from the roster is Spiderman who just made a big debut recently in the Civil War’s latest trailer. It is quite uncertain if the DLC will only roll out for the PlayStation.

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We are still monitoring recent developments in the gaming scene if and when this update will be available for the PlayStation Vita, Xbox, Nintendo or PC platforms. We still expect to hear a word or two from Traveller’s Tales, the developer behind LEGO Marvel’s Avengers.

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Watch this trailer of LEGO Marvel’s Avengers – Civil War DLC courtesy of PlayStation.

Last January, the brick world was aghast when a news item spread like wildfire over the Internet regarding the discontinued support that was looming over LEGO’s Digital Designer. With such consternation across AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) forums, the LDD’s Consumer Services Team was quick to clarify that continued support will still be provided for LDD’s current functionality. This means that they will not be doing automatic updates, but more elements will be added from time to time.\

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Now, as a way to stay true to their word, LDD has recently launched Version 4.3.9 as a patch if you have installed a previous copy already, or by clicking on the download graphic above to begin downloading the installer from the LDD website. If you have LDD previously installed, it will prompt you to download and install the update, otherwise, you may proceed and continue offline. The patch is around 280MB in size so it might take several minutes before the update is applied.

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We’re thankful for the efforts of our friends over at Eurobricks.com for the handy pdf file that includes all the new elements included in 4.3.9. Credit goes to forum member Superkalle for sharing this great piece of info.

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