With Brickshelf's mysterious disappearance, the hearts and weblinks of Lego fans are broken.

Copied over from the Brothers Brick LEGO Blog:

Whether you host your own images there or not, Brickshelf is one of the cornerstones of the online LEGO community. As many of you visiting this blog will have noticed, none of the images hosted on Brickshelf are currently working, and if you've been to Brickshelf.com in the last few hours, you will have seen the following text - and nothing else - on the home page:

"Brickshelf has discontinued operation. We apologize for any inconvenience."

They follow up with links to discussions across the Lego fan community, since this caught even the most insidey of insiders by complete surprise.

Update, July 19: Brickshelf is back online; it turns out the entire panic was part of a questionable publicity stunt to raise awareness of Brickshelf's financial woes. However, this heightening of awareness seems to have been a completely wasted effort, as Brickshelf lacks any obvious method for taking donations.

	The Brothers Brick: Brickshelf gone for good?
	Brickshelf.com: Brickshelf has discontinued operation
	UPDATE 07/19: Brickshelf NOT gone for good: Kevin Loch speaks

Oh come on. Those aren't proper minifig proportions.

For those who haven't seen it yet, Kotaku's got an exclusive concept trailer for the upcoming Lego Universe MMOG.

Kotaku exclusive: The LEGO Universe Trailer

The high point of this month's Escapist magazine is a great article by Allen Varney. Entitled "LEGO Games - More ways to stack bricks than you can easily imagine," it's a quick overview of the wide world of Lego gaming, and a little of its culture and history.

BrikWars gets a fair amount of good press, but my favorite bit of the article comes near the end:

"And how long until we get collectible LEGO games a la HeroClix? Designing a good clicky-base miniatures army feels (metaphorically) like assembling a model - that is, putting together a little machine with lots of complementary, interlocking parts."

Isn't that the truth!

LEGO Games - More ways to stack bricks than you can easily imagine

Sosuke is a religious adherent to the Rule of Fudge.

My schedule's been packed lately, but I'd be completely derelict in my duty if I didn't make a note here about the fact that BrickArms just released a giant pile of new weapons that are simply unbelievable. You'll all be especially excited to hear that we can finally get some minifig-compatible grenades.

Or, you would be excited to hear that, if that's what I were here to tell you about. But the real reason I'm posting is because I want every one of you to go watch this clip on YouTube before it gets taken down. Merely witnessing it will make every one of you a better BrikWars player. It's a quick clip from Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, and and it may represent the finest grenade-based attack of all time.

	YouTube: Sosuke vs the Karate Triplets
	BrickArms, the Modern Minifig Armory

What I wouldn't give for the ability to print custom metallic-gold decals like these!

I got a surprise package from Hong Kong last week - Red Bean (from the Minifig Customization Network and BrickForge) sent a custom minifig of the night elf pictured on BrikWars' Scout card. Sweet! So I've dressed her up nice with a Dementor cloak and a BrickForge longbow and snapped a photo for a Scout card alternate version.

	Scout Card (Alternate Version)
	The Minifig Customization Network
	BrickForge custom minifig accessories

Black Falcons Uber Alles

The Christmas rush has still got me working ninety- and hundred-hour weeks, so I've gotten behind on answering e-mails. The one question that's piling up more and more in my inbox is about when and whether BrikWars will have a print or PDF version ready for Christmas.

The short answer is, probably not - I don't have enough free hours in the next month to do all the necessary print layout work, and all the badgering of Wayne that I expect to make a part of that process. (Did I say badgering? I meant "consulting"). But I thought I'd talk about the plans currently in the works. I've laid out a list of the main bullet points and posted them to the Frappr forum.

Also, Fryslayer made a post on Classic-Castle.com a few months ago about custom wargaming banners. These have been the topic of much behind-the-scenes discussion over here, especially as an attractive way to show unit stats or even as special Squad-buffing equipment items.

	Plans for the BW2005 PDF on the Frappr Forums
	Fryslayer's War Gaming Banners on Classic-Castle.com

Happy Halloween! And happy birthday BrikWars! BrikWars turns 11 today. Spoooooky!

Happy Halloween everybody!

I just got back home from a month of traveling, and what a month! It kicked off with NWBrickCon in Seattle, where BrickArms was showing off their new MP5 and PSG1 sniper rifle. I got a pile of the new items from BrickForge (formerly Red Bean Studio) right at about the same time; I'll post further news and photos of all of these when I get a spare minute.

Ben Fleskes was up at the con doing demos of his new Lego strategy game - he hasn't made any public announcement about it yet, but I from my play-through it was pretty cool indeed; I'm keeping an eye on his website for any news. I also had the chance to catch a quick lunch with Stephen Fisher while I was up there, who's managed to beat me at every BrikWar I've played against him in the last five years or more.

Unfortunately anyone in my line of work knows that November's the heaviest workload of the year, so it may be a little while before I have time to put up posts and photos for everything that's going on lately - which means there's also not a lot of hope for a printable PDF by Christmas this year; apologies to everyone who's been asking. But keep your fingers crossed, you never know when I might suddenly get a free week off for Thanksgiving or something.

	New guns on BrickArms.com
	Lots and lots of new stuff going on at BrickForge
	Ben Fleskes' site has no info about any new strategy game... yet

Now you not only get to have an M4 carbine - you get to choose your favorite style of M4 carbine. We've entered a BrikWars golden age!

Just a few months ago, brickfans looking for modern weaponry for their minifigs were out of luck. Then, in the space of a few weeks, we suddenly had new weapons coming in from all directions - and now we suffer from what is almost an embarrassment of riches.

I've just received a shipment of Little Armory's new military weapons (along with the long-awaited release of their medieval Great Helm), close on the heels of BrickArms' similar assortment a few weeks earlier. The Little Armory molds are as awesome and detailed as I've come to expect, no surprises there; but now that we've suddenly got multiple options, which guns are the better buy?

I've set the two lines up for photos and side-by-side comparison over on the forum; it's worth a look if you're at all interested in staging any kind of modern minifig combat.

	Little Armory Toys Inc.
	BrickArms L.L.C.
	Modern Firearms Review on the BrikWars Frappr Forum

These minifigs have been waiting a long time for weapons like this!

There's been quite a bit going on lately - BrikWars got a full review on All Games Considered a few weeks ago, much to my surprise. Please ignore anything they say about chapter eight. I deny all knowledge of how they might think that it's missing.

In unrelated news, a new custom-parts shop has opened up to answer the unfilled need for minifig-compatible modern and WWII firearm elements. And they're high-quality bits, too; I just got a big batch delivered and I'm loving the designs. Check out the new offerings from BrickArms.com.

	All Games Considered
	BrickArms, the Modern Minifig Armory

Why the forbidden love between wargamers and black t-shirts? The answer is simple: black t-shirts kick ass.

In a bout of shameless merchandizing, I tossed a bunch of products up on cafepress.com last year - mostly as a joke, since their clothing selection spans the narrow range from white to a couple of pastels, not exactly the preferred palette for wargamers. I was surprised to see people actually buying them - especially the BrikWars thong, which continues to be the best-selling of the clothing items.

But cafepress is finally trying out some new direct printing methods that allow printing on black cloth, so we can finally get a BrikWars shirt in wargaming colors. Take a peek at the BrikWars Pirate T-Shirt.

In other black news, Shaun Sullivan has pointed out that black versions of Little Armory's medieval weapons have been spotted for sale on the Sith's Toy Box BrickLink store.

	Cafepress Shop: BrikWars Fund for Global Domination
	The BrikWars Pirate T-Shirt
	BrickLink shop: Sith's Toy Box

The pirates were like, "We're going to explode!" And then they exploded! Just like they predicted!!!

These links have nothing to do with BrikWars. But then again, they have everything to do with BrikWars. It's a crime that I haven't posted some of these earlier.

You'll need Flash for all of them. And, as it turns out, the last one does have a brief cameo by one of Dave Eaton's BrikWars units, if you watch real close.

	The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
	How to Kill a Mockingbird
	Trogday!