The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 16 • November 2011
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Featured Builders: Guy Himber, Rod Gillies and Nathan Proudlove Interview: Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen Instructions and MUCH More! 1
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Issue 16 • November 2011
Contents From the Editor......................................................................................................................2
People
An American AFOL in London...................................................................................3 Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: Growing Up With the LEGO Group, Part 2................................................10 More Building in Billund.............................................................................................14 USS Intrepid Meets USS Intrepid..............................................................................16
Steampunk
Building
Minifigure Customization 101: Styling Your Figure’s ‘Do .........................................................................................20 You Can Build It: MINI Nazgul.................................................................................24 Steampunk: An Introduction.................................................................................27 A Look at V&A Steamworks......................................................................................28 Builder Profile: Morgan190.......................................................................................33 Builder Profile: Beau Donnan..................................................................................36 Builder Profile: Rod Gillies...........................................................................................40 MOC Spotlight: Crawler Town................................................................................44 Builder Profile: Dave De Gobbi...............................................................................47 Builder Profile: Nathan Proudlove.......................................................................48 Builder Profile: Sylvain Amacher...........................................................................52 Steampunk Minifig Essentials................................................................................54 Steampunk Through the Brick Ages.................................................................60 You Can Build It: Steamplane.................................................................................64 You Can Build It: Mr. Steamy...................................................................................67 You Can Build It: Steamship Enterprise...........................................................70
Community
Steam-Wars: Star Wars in Steampunk..............................................................74 Part Index by Mark Doyle...........................................................................................77 Community Ads...............................................................................................................78 Last Word...............................................................................................................................79 AFOLs.......................................................................................................................................80 Right: William Shakespeare, a model from Guy Himber. Cover: Moon Model by V&A Steamworks, photography by Mike Spatola - www.msdi.com
From the Editor: Many LEGO builders build things from the fantastic, usually sciencefiction oriented. The LEGO palette of bricks and elements lend themselves well to imagining places and things from futures and pasts... including a past where the steam engine became the common motor for industry and culture. To some this is called Victorian Science. To others, this is Steampunk.
November 2011 Issue 16
Editor in Chief Joe Meno Photography Editor Geoff Gray Business Manager and Proofreader Carin Proctor Proofreader Rob Smentek European and LEGO Group Bureau Editor Megan Rothrock Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
Contributors:
Sylvain Amacher, Jared K. Burks, Christopher Deck, Timothy Deering, Dave De Gobbi, Ed Diment, Beau Donnan, Mike Doyle, Rod Gillies, Ian Grieg, Guy Himber, Christina Marie Photography, Pasukaru76, Nathan Proudlove, Dan Sabath, Jordan Schwartz, Sodagoat, Jamie Spencer, Mark Thompson, Kevin Walter, David Watts Jr, Tommy Williamson and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
This issue is dedicated to this fan theme. Guy Himber is your guide, and he’ll show you many Steampunk builders and creations. There are also some instructions to build a Steampunk model or two, and a look at the history behind this relatively new fan theme. However, this isn’t a complete record, but an introduction. There’s much more out there to build and explore. The Steampunk theme, like all other themes, is growing... and you are invited to join us. Have fun! On another note, there is a new page toward the end of the magazine. Mike Doyle, an AFOL behind some beautiful works we will be spotlighting, is also a graphic designer who is working on a project — a LEGO visual index. We’ll be adding more in following issues! Joe Meno Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup - http://www.facebook.com/ pages/BrickJournal/32409707828. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader! P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to: http://twomorrows.com/ index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=78&products_id=616 or scan below! Website
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Glossary
AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece)
POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2008, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $57USD Media Mail, $75 Canada, $86 International Surface, $128 International Airmail and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5600 Oak Meadow Lane #1108, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in Canada. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Kjeld with one of many LEGO fan gifts in his office.
People
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen:
Growing Up with the LEGO Group (part 2)
Interview by Joe Meno and Megan Rothrock Photography by Joe Meno
This is the second and last part of an interview with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the owner of the LEGO Group. Last issue, we began by tracing Kjeld’s career with the growth of the company, starting with his building as a schoolboy. Progressing from building LEGO® bricks to building the company, Kjeld told Joe Meno and Megan Rothrock how the LEGO Group entered the digital age with the LEGO MINDSTORMS® sets. This article continues the interview from the launch of the LEGO MINDSTORMS sets in the late ‘90s, beginning with a discussion of the building aspects of the robotic set. Joe Meno: It’s a nice extension of the building experience, because you build with this (the LEGO brick), and LEGO MINDSTORMS added the building to the digital level with its programming. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: That connection between what is going on on the screen and what you build is so fascinating to me. If the model doesn’t exactly do what you want it to do, there are two ways to go change it — you can change the program or you can change the model, until you reach the result you want.
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JM: I’ve learned to change the model! (laughing) KK: I love both!
JM: I still work with LEGO MINDSTORMS, just not as much because of the magazine. But one of the things I learned is that I can build and I’m happy that I’m able to build in a new way. It’s the programming that is difficult.... Megan Rothrock: It’s a whole other type of building.
JM: Yes, it’s an entirely different animal. It’s not like a LEGO brick!
KK: I think it is, in a way. It is, of course, a different media, but it’s still the same logic. The different building blocks equal different programming modules. You can combine them in many different ways. And when you start on a task you know that there is a solution. JM: You just gotta get there!
MR: So tell us about FIRST LEGO League.
KK: FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen in the early ‘90s When we learned about the FIRST Robotics competitions and what Dean Kamen did in the FIRST Organization, Peter Eio (who was President of LEGO Systems Inc. US at the time) got in contact with Dean. We got involved by sponsoring a LEGO team for the FIRST Robotics competition. This was fairly early, even before we had LEGO MINDSTORMS.
We also worked with the Media Lab and I remember seeing some fantastic robotics competitions FIRST held at MIT using LEGO robots. So when Dean contacted us in Billund to suggest that we should develop a “little league” together using LEGO MINDSTORMS, we jumped on the idea pretty quickly. Where the FIRST robotics competitions were for high school students, we could reduce the entry age from 15 to 9 years. This competition would be fantastic and give children a meaningful task, give them time to build and create their robot, and then compete with each other. So that idea materialized, and we decided to name the new competition for the younger children FIRST LEGO League. We had the FIRST LEGO League pilot in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry in the fall of 1998 and then started to roll it out in the US and internationally the year after. We worked closely with the FIRST Organization on the format. It took a little while, but already from the beginning we had a clear idea that this was going to be a learning experience that involved the whole team. It wasn’t just a question about building a robot that could solve as many tasks as possible, but also a research challenge given to the team that provided an opportunity to get much more deeply into a very relevant issue, whether it be global warming, or how it is like to live as a disabled person. So it has been wonderful to see how that is going. Now, it is 17,000 teams next year, I think. It has grown almost exponentially over the years — we are in more than 50 countries now. JM: FLL World Festival is a great indicator of what a single LEGO set can do. But also, when you go in there and you come out, the feeling is basically, “you know, when you give a bunch of kids something to think about, they just take off.”I hung out with one team during the entire competition and from there I learned so much from them just seeing how the team worked and how they dealt with whatever was thrown at them. It was just amazing.
KK: It gives those children who are participants a great collaborative experience. They have a lot of fun together, socialize, and they work hard on finding the best solutions to whatever challenges they face. It also gives them so much self-esteem — “Wow, we did it!” It’s really very good for the children...
MR: It gives them teambuilding skills and social skills. It’s brilliant.
KK: It is. And there is another kind of competition that is going on also using LEGO MINDSTORMS robots which is called the World Robotic Olympiad. JM: That is over in Asia.
KK: It’s Asian, yes. That’s also growing a lot. It’s also very interesting. It’s a different format, but it has come about a little later. I don’t know quite how that came about. It seems also to be growing nicely. JM: FIRST LEGO League is something that I am very much behind.
KK: It’s wonderful, and the relationships we have enjoyed with Dean Kamen and his staff in Manchester have been fantastic. JM: Now we get to talk about the dark times. MR: The crisis.
JM: Chronologically, we are right now at that point. The big question for me is... I came in literally at the beginning of that and what I saw was as a consumer/ hobbyist was really not that much. There was a return to the brick, which meant that we got a bunch more sets in the end that weren’t so license-based, but outside of that, if I wasn’t a fan, I wouldn’t have been terribly aware of what was going on. KK: That’s good.(laughs)
JM: There was a lot of press at that point coming out about...
KK: Following the way our company was going then, it was like a roller coaster. We had some good years, but also some very bad years. After some fantastic years up through the ‘80s and early ‘90s, our growth slowed down and we were not meeting our plans so an uncertainty was spreading in the organization. We were launching way too many new products to sort of push more growth, which was not the right approach. Our product program was more or less exploding in terms of numbers of components, for instance. MR: The parts palette was way out of control.
KK: Yes, out of control. And we were starting too many new initiatives. As we didn’t have enough focus on our core business, and maybe many didn’t believe enough in it, so it became very distracting when we then introduced watches and clothes and new LEGOLAND parks and video products and so on. I was changing my organization quite a lot over those years. I wanted also, after all those years, to hand over more responsibility for the daily operations, but I wasn’t too lucky. (laughs) Until I found Jørgen.
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Building
Above: The LEGO version of the Intrepid, photographed by Ian Grieg.
USS Intrepid meets USS Intrepid
Article and Photography by Ed Diment Ed Diment, an ongoing contributor to BrickJournal with LEGO replicas of a British Airways SST (Issue 2) and the British battleship HMS Hood (Issue 6) this time is asked to contribute a model from his home in the United Kingdom to New York! Here’s his story!
16
So, it’s hardly a news flash that I built a stupid big model of a ship right? My minifig-scale model of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid was a labour of love that many people have seen on a number of blogs, in the press, and at various shows last year. Well, about three-quarters of the way through the build last year, I got an interesting Flickr Mail (a message on the photo-sharing website Flickr, for those of you that don’t use it). The message said “Hi, my name’s Luke Sacks and I’m the PR director for the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum… are you interested in bringing your model out to New York?”. OK, yeah, no problem I thought, so I replied in the affirmative… what on Earth was I thinking! That was all back in June last year and was followed by months of discussions and changed dates. The logistics of fitting in with the timetable of a major museum and their ability to sweet talk UPS into providing free shipping and British Airways into providing free flights doesn’t bear thinking about, but finally a date of April 14, 2011, was set. For those who may not be aware, the USS Intrepid herself is the museum in question. Launched in 1943, the USS Intrepid served during World War II (as I have her depicted) before going into reserve; then it underwent a major refit to fly jets, which she did in Vietnam before finally being used as a helicopter carrier. She was decommissioned in 1974, then bought and turned into a museum in 1982. Once the date was set, the biggest question was how is this all going to work? Fortunately, since the museum had been in touch before I’d finished the ship, I made what turned out to be the sensible decision of building custom wooden packing cases for the model. A week before Annie (my wife) and I were due to fly out to New York, a man from UPS turned up with a big lorry to take her away (Intrepid that is, not Annie!). After a quick chat about what the plan was, the man from UPS sucked in through his teeth before explaining what people who pack aircraft do to packages. After yours truly made several frantic phone calls, followed
The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.
by printing some hasty additional warning signs, the $50,000 insurance bond for the ship and shipping was made perfectly clear to all concerned. April 14 came round, and after a mad dash from South Wales (I do have a real job I have to do sometimes), we flew out of Heathrow on one of BA’s lovely shiny new Boeing 777s. A quick cab ride from JFK and we were in our lovely Hotel (Ink48) overlooking mid-town Manhattan and just a block from the Intrepid Museum. A quick stop at a diner the next morning was followed by our first visit to the museum. We met Luke and some of his staff, who were really friendly and gave us the VIP treatment and a fantastic tour of the ship. Then Annie suggested: perhaps we should get the cases up and take a look at the ship. The guys at the museum had a fantastic stand built for us, dead-level and smooth, right by a huge window on the hangar deck, so it all looked set… then we opened the boxes. The first couple had a little more damage than usual, but nothing that I wasn’t expecting. Opening box number five was a different story. Off came the lid and with it the top half of one hull section, leaving the other half behind. On closer inspection, the bit left behind was split in two sideways! Understand that these hull sections weigh about 20kg each and are made of about 20,000 LEGO bricks on their own. At that point an adjournment for beer, dinner, and bed was called for. We turned up bright-and-early on the Friday and set to. Refreshed by a good night’s sleep in our lovely hotel and the obligatory 27 cups of coffee with breakfast, we raced through the repairs, and then the fun started. At about 11 am,
the press descended on us like a paparazzi meltdown. I’ve had stuff photographed before and even been on TV in the UK, but this was something else. Literally every time I stuck two bricks together the sound of digital SLRs filled the air as cameras blasted away. At one point I thought, “I’ll swoosh one of Ralph’s (Savelsberg) planes for a laugh,” but wished I hadn’t — half-a-dozen flash guns practically blinded me. After a barrage of questions from press, TV and radio things finally died own… just in time for the next encounter. I knew Luke had arranged for kids from a local school to visit and do some building, so I’d taken along a load of loose LEGO bricks. What we hadn’t done was co-ordinate what was meant to happen, which went like this: Luke: “Hey welcome everybody, this is LEGO Monster and he built this fantastic model — take it away Ed.” This was followed by a strange bumbling Englishman trying to talk to a bunch of eager and enthusiastic ten-year-old New Yorkers. They weren’t without a sense of humor, when I asked where they thought I was from, “China” came the immediate response from one boy, followed by his classmates all saying, no he’s British, of course. Once we got stuck into building, the cultural differences melted away, and everyone had a great time. Then the press and the kids were gone and we pretty much finished getting the ship up-and-together by Friday night. Suddenly one thing struck Annie— we didn’t have a flag… arrggh! For dinner that night, we were eating just off Times Square and a quick trawl of souvenir shops afterwards came up with the goods: a lovely little stars and stripes (it only occurred to me later that 17
Building
Minifig Customization 101:
Styling Your Figure’s ‘Do! Article and Art by Jared K. Burks
Helmet hair has been previously examined, as has part color alterations using paint. The final example is a very slight modification to the front of the hair piece to give the shape from the film. The back was also slightly modified.
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One of the greatest challenges with most custom figures is finding an appropriate hairstyle. In the last few years, the LEGO Group has started to create more hairstyles that are more modern, especially in the Collectible minifigure series. These are great, but as we develop as customizers the hairpiece is something else we can customize. Previously this series demonstrated how to combine hair and helmets; this was the tip of the iceberg. Hair can easily be modified to create that custom look that your figure needs. Many times this can be something simple like a hair color alteration or a small change in shape. However, these types of alterations are not the point of this article. The point of this article is to cover how to grossly reshape or shorten the hair piece to create something entirely new. When we use an existing part to start with, we are limited to what is present or what we can create with the addition of clay. Therefore, the original hair style must be considered; however, some great things can be created and the resulting part is typically more durable as it has a plastic base. The key point to learn from this article is that altering a LEGO hairpiece can be done safely. Borrowing a line, I am sure, from a film I can no longer recollect the title of, “trim your hair, hippy!” Many hair pieces can easily be shortened. This can be performed by merely removing the length. I recommend this be done using a rotary tool or razor saw if the amount to remove is larger than 1/8 inch or 3 mm. If it is less than 1/8 inch or 3 mm, I would merely sand away the undesired portion by hand. Just remember that once the gross removal is completed, you will need to sand the part back to the high shine that the LEGO hairpiece is produced with, so leave a touch of excess that will be removed during this sanding step.
Before and After: Shortening hair can be easy, just use care when holding the part. Use a razor saw, rotary tool with a sanding attachment, or sandpaper when possible.
Hair Shortening Steps: 1.
2.
Gross removal of unwanted part. When you cut a part it becomes square. When a rotary tool is used to remove an unwanted portion of plastic it can partially melt if the tool is spinning too fast for the sandpaper or cutter to remove the unwanted plastic. So work slowly with a rotary tool at a slow speed to minimize this issue. This will also be safer for you as the cutter will cut what it is supposed to and not being loaded or bound. Scraping/sculpting the part to shape. With the gross removal completed, the part will need to be shaped back into a more organic or natural shape. Hair doesn’t have squared edges in hair design. To fix this issue, using a razor blade, I scrape along the edge to round it to a more natural shape.
3.
Adding details. Once the organic shape is achieved, it is time to start adding/ correcting details. When the gross removal was performed, the edges and details of the hair were also removed or changed. It is time to add these grooves or edges back to the hair to make it look more real and less plastic. This can be done gently with a small metal file or by taking GREAT care with an X-acto knife.
4.
Cleaning up. Finally, the part needs to be cleaned up to make it look like it is fresh out of the mold. This means either steps through sandpapers like the ones from Micro-mesh or a large amount of Brasso. Either will work, but the Brasso will take more time. This is because it is a constant grit, unlike the sandpapers, which will vary in grit and allow more broad removal at the beginning. If you take your time and make sure the lower grits are well done, the final few papers will go quickly and result in a highly polished final result.
The next type of alteration is the removal of a particular portion of the hair piece, specifically bangs, ponytails, etc. This is a much more delicate procedure to perform. This means that removal has to be exact. It cannot merely be a guess. When I do this sort of removal, I will not use a rotary tool as it risks too much and can damage the remainder of the part too quickly.
Before and After: Removing hair from the front can be done, it just takes some trial and error. Work slowly to ensure you don’t remove too much and be sure to add back the details as seen in the close-up.
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People
A Look at V & A Steamworks
Article by Guy Himber
Above: A demonstration of the Infinity Rifle. Photograph by Mike Spatola, www.msdi.com
V & A Steamworks, named after the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is the alias of Guy Himber. One of the leading Steampunk builders in the LEGO fan community, his work is regularly seen on not only his Flickr account but on leading blogs. BrickJournal got to talk to him about his work.
BrickJournal: When did you first start building? Guy Himber: From the age of 4 or 5, I received a steady stream of LEGO and Erector sets from family and friends. I have always had a passion for building and deconstructing things in order to see what makes them tick. My childhood friends and I would usually take our LEGO vehicles into the pool, so we often had to deconstruct them poolside, shake all of the air bubbles out of them, and then rebuild them underwater so they could sink! Initially, I would keep full sets all together, there was some magic to collecting them this way, but once the first set took a big crash, I gave that up and started to take them apart after building. BrickJournal: Did you have a Dark Age where you stopped LEGO building? If so, why? GH: Eventually real life took priority and the bricks went to Goodwill via Mom. As I got older, I bought a few of the very first Technic sets for fun and later used many of these parts to prototype items in my design work for film projects. That was about it until my son was born and then we started buying him LEGO sets. As he got into building, it reawakened my love of the bricks.
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BrickJournal: What inspired you to start building again? GH: After a fateful father-son trip to BrickCon in Seattle, I decided to formally start focusing on building a few things. Once I discovered BrickLink for buying LEGO elements online, it was pretty much “Game Over, Dude.” The idea
that you could get almost any part in any color and any quantity was like finding out the Earth was round. BrickJournal: What was your first MOC? GH: As a child, I am sure they were numerous and unnamed. As an AFOL, I hit the Flickr community strong with a series of 4 Steampunk-inspired builds (the HMS Vern, the TESLA Man/Machine , the KENSINGTON Pipe Organ, and the Victoria Steam Carriage). These all got quickly featured on the Brothers-Brick and numerous Steampunk blogs and I just figured that was normal! Coming from a non-theme biased background, I am known for combining parts from all kinds of mismatched LEGO elements. I especially take great joy in using previously “useless” elements and turning them into something fantastic. Bionicle elements are some of my favorite Steampunk parts to work with. Please don’t ask me to name any of the Bionicle characters, I truly have no idea! BrickJournal: Why do you like to build? GH: I just like to build things of interest to me. There is something appealing about having a MOC or idea chase around in the back of my mind. It also helps that other people like what I build too! I have done lots of intense work building wild things for film projects under the direction of some highly creative folks, but it’s always nice to design things where the only eyes you have to please are you own. BrickJournal: Favorite Set? GH: I like ALL of them! Anytime I build an official set I always learn something new in technique or connection possibilities. Most of my bricks I buy via Bricklink aka “Cracklink.” BrickJournal: Tell me about your Cabinet of Curiosities project... GH: One day I thought to myself, “Hey, self, wouldn’t it be curious if there was some kind of sentient Curio Cabinet that wandered about and collected rare and beautiful artifacts of great interest from around the world?“ I decided it should have legs to walk around on and hands to collect objects with. Once gathered, the Wunderkammer would place them within its shelves. As I developed the idea, I started making some noteworthy items to fill the shelves and then I decided it would be even BETTER if my LEGO pals each created an artifact for the cabinet. At present, there are over 30 different objects in the collection. The curiosities have been gathered from great builders all over the planet! I even created a second freestanding Curio Cabinet to help hold them all! It’s been really amazing seeing all of the great ideas people have developed from my simple concept. I am currently collecting objects for the third wave of artifacts. Contact me if you would like to be a part of the project! Top: The Kensington Pipe Organ. Center: When V&A Steamworks combined a Battlestar Galactica Viper and Steampunk, it got a Steamviper. Bottom: The Cabinet of Curiosities.
Building
MOC Spotlight:
Crawler Town Article by Mark Thompson Photography by Dave DeGobbi
Crawler Town roams the barren wastes of a post-apocalyptic Steampunk world. Excessive use of coal for their steam-based technologies has caused cataclysmic climate change, reducing much of the world to a desert wasteland. Of the few remaining cities, Crawler Town is the most popular due to its Aero 500 hydrogen fuel cell air races. Many travel to Crawler Town to vacation, or to trade for fresh vegetables and beer. Crawler Town’s mobility lets it scavenge the wastes in search of underground supplies minerals and fresh water, and keep it clear of the worst of the planet’s vicious sandstorms. – Designer Dave DeGobbi Yes, it really is that big. At first, Crawler Town draws you in just because of its sheer scale. You can’t help be drawn to the way it towers over the ground. But the really remarkable thing about crawler town is how long keeps your attention when you start to examine it closely. It takes a lot of time to examine all the individual pulleys, shops, people, plants, and machines. When you really look at it , you realize that each detail is there for a specific purpose. Together, all the parts of Crawler Town tell the compelling story of a self-sustaining post-apocalyptic mobile city. Crawler Town was originally conceived as a Steampunk style land-roving dreadnought. However, as additional pieces were added, the design became less focused less on the MOC’s weaponry, and more about how 44 it could sustain itself and its crew in the
Name: Crawler Town
Dimensions: 140 studs long, 78 studs wide, 70 bricks high Style: Eco-Punk (Steampunk derivative)
Build Time : “All in all it was 80 hours build time with maybe 10 hours of prototype development. “
Primary Components: “I got the frame from an Ultimate
Collector’s Imperial Star Destroyer, set drafts and a few ‘pick a brick’ cups of Technic beams from the official LEGO stores. Most of the shops sell regular pieces.” Influences: “Lots of people have asked if I read Philip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles. I didn’t read it until after I’d built Crawler Town, but I’m a fan now. I think it’s sweet that Peter Jackson is making it into a movie. After I read it, I
decided to make my next project based on the Salthook. ” Crawler Town Features • Functional powered treads for movement • Full front and rear independent suspension • Working crane, elevators and lifts • Hanger slides for planes • Pizza shop with roof-mounted bocce ball court