Issuu

The Publication for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Empowering LEGO® Builders Since 2007

A Celebration of LEGO®!

Looking Back and Ahead with the LEGO® Group!

Reflecting on Over a Decade of Publishing!

Top Builders, Instructions & more!

Contents Issue #50 Credits Publisher John Morrow

Editor in Chief Joe Meno

Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow

Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon

LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh

Contributors: James Burroughs, Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Dave Foreman, Jeff Friesen, Jared Harkema, Calvin Hartley, Bruce B. Heller, Rob Klingberg, Christian Lintan, Mitsuru Nikaido, Fraser Ratzlaff, Megan Rothrock, Tommy Williamson, & Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:

www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com

About the Cover: We celebrate BrickJournal’s 50th issue! Photo by Joe Meno. About the Title Page: A shot of Lorinean. Photo by Fraser Ratzlaff.

Glossary

AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female 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) BrickJournal 50: A Celebration of LEGO®

SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)

Website

Twitter

Introduction..............................................................3

People Megan Rothrock: First LEGO Editor/ European Bureau Editor, now LEGO Adventurer......................5 Lorinean: A LEGO Castle in the Sky!............12 Monochrome Building in White!.................20

Building Cornerstone Brick Designs: Building Kingsman: The Golden Circle.....26 Buildin’ and Dreamin’.........................................34 Building Project: Animation Station............................................46 The Never-Ending GBC....................................53 You Can Build It: MINI Kylo Ren’s TIE Fighter from The Last Jedi............................................70 BrickNerd’s DIY: Disney Wonder..................................................74 City Building on a Micro Scale......................78 Puzzle City : Building a City on Your Desktop...............88 Minifigure Customization 101: A Review............................................................112

Community BrickStuff: Making Small Lights for Big Ideas in Minnesota........................120 Sourcing Your Inspiration: How to Find New Ideas in MOCing......126 Talking with Tormod: Looking Forward and Back .....................134 AFOLs by Greg Hyland..................................144 Facebook

Subscriptions

ISBN 978-1-60549-082-3 UPC 182658001209 First printing, February 2018 All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the copyright holders, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Inquiries should be addressed to TwoMorrows Publishing.

Published by: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 e-mail: store@twomorrows.com web: www.twomorrows.com

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 2018, 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 $60 Economy US, $72 Expedited US, $94 International, or $24 Digital Only 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: Joe Meno, Editor, 9001 Barb Anne Court, Springfield, VA 22152 or admin@brickjournal.com. Printed in China. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, used for making 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.

Introduction Just what is a “brickjournal”? Since 2009 (2007, if you count its original digital incarnation), every two months, editor Joe Meno has produced the de facto publication of the LEGO® fan community—the ultimate resource for “brick” enthusiasts of all ages. Its mission is simple: To spotlight all aspects of the fan building community, showcase LEGOrelated events worldwide, talk to builders young and old who create the amazing models displayed in each issue, and provide a place for contributions and how-to articles by fans and top builders worldwide. But how did BrickJournal magazine start, and make it to this Golden 50th Anniversary issue? To find out, photo editor Geoff Gray talked to editor Joe Meno about the beginnings of BrickJournal, and how he decided that AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) needed a publication of their very own. Geoff Gray: How’d you start BrickJournal in the first place?

Interview by Geoff Gray Photography by Joe Meno

Joe Meno: It was simply me wanting something to document the LEGO fan community. Back in the early 2000s, the hobby in the US was growing in leaps and bounds. Builders found other builders online through LUGNET, which was the first international website dedicated to the hobby. Clubs were forming and events were started. It was a time of growth, and it seemed to me that someone should be taking notes to keep... and that became BrickJournal. I gathered some people, including you, to start this. And in only six months, the first BrickJournal issue was released as a free online magazine. From there, the magazine took off. How’d you move from free digital to paid print editions? The LEGO Group had been taking notice of the magazine and invited us to visit the Billund offices, and from there, they became interested in supporting the launch of the magazine to print. At the same time, I knew a publisher friend of mine who was willing to give the magazine a shot. That guy was John Morrow of TwoMorrows Publishing. With LEGO providing funding (basically my salary) and John publishing, the magazine went to print. How did you get hooked up with The LEGO Group initially for assistance on producing it? I had been active in the community as a volunteer or staffer at events, and when they were informed about a fan magazine launching, they kept their eye on me and were surprised at what I and the community was able to accomplish. From that they decided to support the magazine. What was your first real “build” as an AFOL?

The nine original digital-only issues, produced prior to BrickJournal becoming a print magazine. They’re still available today at www.twomorrows.com.

My first official build was an alternate build of the first LEGO X-Wing (released in 1999)! It’s something that looks like a beginner would build. Needless

and started work there. That was in 1999, and the new Star Wars sets came on the scene. I bought the X-wing, and the rest is history. As for other hobbies, I always drew and built scale models. LEGO building has somewhat taken over these hobbies, but I’ve been getting back into drawing as of late. From Walt Disney World, I went to a brick convention in Washington, DC in 2002, which started my community involvement. I volunteered at events and went up the ranks until I ran conventions. I was the Event Coordinator to BrickFest 2006 in Washington, DC, and also ran a few conventions in North Carolina by the name of BrickMagic.

My first build as an AFOL

to say, I have improved my skills, thanks to practice and the magazine. Reading and looking through the articles can be very inspiring. Who was the most helpful person and/or website in getting the magazine established in its early digital-only days?

I also got into LEGO Robotics and mentor FIRST® LEGO® League teams. Of all the things I do, this is the most fulfilling, and the most fun. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you in the course of producing BrickJournal? Having a mistake in the magazine pointed out by a teen during a question-and-answer session at the San Diego Comic-Con. And he was right! What does the future hold for BrickJournal, now that it’s reached 50 issues?

Was LEGO a main toy/hobby for you as a kid, or did you first discover it later in life as an adult?

I really don’t know. With new media constantly turning over, who knows what will be next? There are things I want to see happen with the product and the community—things like MOC scanners, that can scan a model and generate a computer model that can be looked at from all angles, and taken apart. That would lead the way to creating online galleries and events that could happen in multiple cities, but have a common online space.

LEGO was something I played with when I was younger, but I wasn’t building when I was in college. I got back into it when I was working at Walt Disney World sometime after I left college. I had to take another job to try to make ends meet, so I went to the Disney Imagination Center

In another direction, this could also lead to making virtual environments in which you become the minifigure in a LEGO landscape where you can build in 3-D. Think of it as Minecraft, but with augmented reality using LEGO bricks. How cool would that be?

The most helpful person? I would list the staff of the LEGO Group. Once I got introduced to them as the editor of BrickJournal, I was able to contact many of the people that were behind the making of the sets I loved.

A much more recent build.

An Active AFOL Online

My first appearance in BrickJournal was when I was interviewed for the AFFOLs (Adult Female Fans of LEGO) section of the magazine by Mel Caddick (the then European Bureau Editor of the magazine). This was BrickJournal #6 (the online version before print, in 2006). After being interviewed, Joe Meno and I began to communicate more, and it turned out that we were both “Journalism Geeks” and enjoyed interviewing and exploring the Adult LEGO Fan Community. Our LEGO Community was a lot smaller then. I was active sharing and getting to know fellow LEGO Enthusiasts via LUGNet, ClassicSpace.com, ClassicCastle.com, and of course my ‘megs’ account on Brickshelf. We had no Flickr, MOCpages, Brothers Brick, or BrickNerd, just some “Old School” methods of sharing our work.

First Event: Into a Live LEGOWorld

I have to, of course, give credit to Mark Stafford (LEGO nabii on Flickr and later Senior Product Designer for The LEGO Group) for inviting me to build with him, and bringing me to my first LEGOWorld event back in 2003. For me, LEGO was then just a hobby which I enjoyed very much. I could have never imagined the amazing LEGO Adventure that would unfold over the years. That first LEGO event for me was a profound experience: We had more than 30,000 visitors. Being expatriates, Mark and I were taken in by De Bouwsteen (the Dutch LEGO Users Group) and treated like family. Paul Wolters and his event team were so warm and welcoming. Discovering I could speak Dutch, they asked if I could volunteer, and I was happy to help—both in the event hall and presenting Mark’s Castle Model to all of the Visitors. I also couldn’t help but notice a huge crowd around a table nearby and a gentleman presenting a brilliant transforming LEGO Model, from Jet to Robot—this was built by Nathanael Kuipers, who would also go on to design for LEGO.

Megan Rothrock: First LEGO Editor/ European Bureau Feature Editor Beginnings Editor, now LEGO Adventurer! Article and Photos by Megan Rothrock Art provided by No Starch Press.

One of Megan’s early creations, the Podagons. His name is Vergirak.

Later, Joe asked if I would like to contribute more to BrickJournal starting with the AFFOL feature, as Mel’s plans were changing. Based in Europe, I could cover European LEGO events and help grow content. Enthusiastic, I dug in and began attending and displaying my LEGO models at more LEGO events all around Europe. Meeting so many talented LEGO builders from all over, learning more about them and featuring them in BrickJournal, was brilliant. Events would have AFOLs from all over. I recall the LEGOWorld where Tim Courtney (USA) attended, promoting his LDraw Book and introducing me to the world of virtual LEGO building (cheers, Tim!). Another time I shared a MOC table with Jason Railton (UK’s “JoeFish”) who had talked Peter Reid and Yvonne into joining with him (LEGO Ideas: Exo-Suit); after that event we were all friends, and still are to this day. Interviewing so many AFOLs, I began to create quite a library of content for articles and features—my poor hard drive was beginning to melt!

People

Lorinean:

A LEGO Castle in the Sky! Article by Joe Meno

Fraser Ratzlaff works for the nonprofit organization Children of the Nations, leading teams to Africa to work with orphan and destitute children. Empowering kids to become the next generation of leaders in their communities, he also does advocacy work in Seattle—volunteer events, public speaking, meeting with donors, and fundraising. Basically, Fraser helps get people involved, and he loves his job. He also loves to build. BrickJournal talked to him about his latest creation, Lorinean. Fraser has been building since he was 5 or 6 years old. He had other toys growing up, but nothing captured his imagination like LEGO. When asked about his LEGO hobby, he answers, “It was all I asked for every birthday and Christmas. I did take a break from building in college, but then got back into it as an adult after reading Jonathan Bender’s book LEGO: A Love Story. I had no idea there was a whole community of adult builders before that.” Fraser’s favorite theme is Castle. However, one of the suggestions in Jonathan’s book was to, as Fraser notes, “push yourself by building things you normally wouldn’t.” He continues, “I did a big art sculpture piece that I ended up loving. I tried making brick-built streets to go with the modular town buildings. And

A view of the castle towers.

One side of the caste has a skyship dock.

I made a jungle scene. It definitely helped me grow as a builder.” He also enjoys making space and town creations, having built a neighborhood post office modular building and a space station a few years ago. Still, he has always been attracted to castles—real ones and LEGO castles. For Fraser, they are just cool.

Another view.

Lorinean was built as a return to his favorite theme. After building some other large-scale creations, he wanted to build a castle, but not another typical castle since there are so many of those built already. Fraser wanted to do something new. He also knew that he had to up his game after seeing some incredible castles on the Brothers Brick blog. What inspired him was a base he built for his large art sculpture piece that turned out really well. While taking the art piece apart, he thought the base would make a great foundation for a fantasy castle in the clouds. That excited him because he could eliminate building a moat, and the fortress would still have a formidable natural barrier: The sky. One he got started, he took inspiration from John Bunyan’s The

Building

Monochrome Building in White! Article by Joe Meno

Christian Lintan, a Digital Media Coordinator at Burman University in Alberta, Canada is a builder that works in a unique way. Unlike the majority of LEGO builders, Christian creates using only one color: white. Monochromatic building forces the builder to use form to make a recognizable model, which is a challenge in itself—but with LEGO elements, there are also parts that appear only in certain colors. Christian’s creations are extraordinary in this context. He spoke to BrickJournal about his creations. BrickJournal: How long have you been building? Christian Lintan: I grew up playing with LEGO almost my entire childhood. Unfortunately, new interests started picking up for me and I stopped somewhere around 13 or 14 years of age. I didn’t get back into building with LEGO until the beginning of 2016. Previous page: A sampling of Christian’s work. Below: A microcity.

Building

Cornerstone Brick Designs:

Building Kingsman: The Golden Circle Article by Bruce B. Heller and Joe Meno Photography by Bruce B. Heller

Bruce B. Heller came on the LEGO scene last year by recreating art deco buildings in Los Angeles at microscale. From there, he began to direct his energies toward building as a profession. One of the projects he did late last year was some models to promote the movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle. BrickJournal talked to him about his experience in creating and building Eggsy’s cab and the Kingsman Tailorshop. Bruce built these models for a friend and started back in early July of 2017, months before the film came out. His goal was to complete them well before the release of the film on September 22nd. He worked on both models concurrently, and finished them both by the first week of September. So, all told, they took two months. Since the film hadn’t been released yet, Bruce had close to no reference material for the film. All he had was what was shown in the first official trailer. Fortunately, the requested models were both things that existed in real life: Eggsy’s cab design is that of a standard London Cab, and the filming location of the Kingsman Tailorshop is an actual London tailor called “Huntsman.” Scouring the internet for reference for the cab, Bruce also referred to the first film, as the cab appears a few times in it as well. The submersible feature was only introduced in the sequel, so he had to glean what he could from screen grabs from the new trailer. As it happens, it looked pretty close to how it did in the film!

Building the Kingsman Tailorshop

Getting the design of the tailorshop right was trickier. Usually Bruce uses whatever details he can from Google Images, Google Maps, Google Earth and Apple Maps. The actual building is tall and on a narrow street, so it was hard to get a view of the whole façade. He also had trouble making out details of the building, such as the stairs leading to the basement level, and what was written on the huge front windows. For that, Bruce sent a person in London on a secret spy mission! A fellow AFOL in the UK has a brother who lives in London, so he sent his brother to the actual building at 11 Savile Row. He sent back over a dozen high resolution pictures of the building, including the windows, the royal crests hanging inside the window, the downstairs area, and even the streetlight in front.

Building

Buildin’ and Dreamin’

Article by Joe Meno Photography by Joe Meno and Davin White 34

One of the best creations at Bricks by the Bay 2017 was California Dreamin’, a layout that was built and named for the event’s theme. It’s a minifigure-scale amusement park ride depicting the various attractions in the Golden State, and is more than a train layout. Functions are activated when the cars drive by, and other areas are lit and have movement. Every part of the layout is a vignette, from the mountainside that has a door hiding a bear inside, to the backstage area with wardrobe and guardrail at the rear. The layout is a great example of a multitude of different settings and builds, creating a story for the viewer to see and experience. As a result, the layout requires more than

a casual look—it can easily take an hour or more going through its details. The layout was built by Flynn DeMarco and Richard Board, two builders who hit the scene online with other smaller builds. While their individual efforts got them on LEGO fan websites, California Dreamin’ won the Best of Show award, as well as three other awards at Bricks by the Bay, which is a good indicator of the talent and skill used in the model. Both of them talked to BrickJournal about themselves and their build.

Flynn DeMarco and Richard Board are both show folk. Flynn is an actor and a director who also decorates specialty cakes. Richard is a theatrical lighting designer who has worked with dance, multimedia performances, film, and video. They started building together and are rather new on the scene, with only a couple of years of building experience when they started California Dreamin’. They started building at the same time Flynn picked up an X-Men set. He was really into the X-Men in high school, and both enjoyed building the set together. So Flynn

Built to Travel

GBC ... The Never-Ending

Article and Photography by Geoff Gray

The “Infernal Machine,” a Great Ball Contraption device, has been under construction for almost four years, and has been redesigned and rebuilt several times. It has been displayed in Charlotte, NC and in Manhattan, NY. The current version is the third major layout and will hopefully make a public appearance in 2018 somewhere on the East Coast. Anytime I show this (or any large MOC) to friends, family or the crowd at a convention, the two questions I get asked the most are: “How long did it take to build?” “How did you transport it?”

In this article, I will strive to answer those questions, and many more. I suspect that the story I am about to share is very similar to many of the stories other AFOLs have to share. I also believe that the journey is just as important as the final destination. But then again, with this particular MOC, I have changed and added to it so many times (and continue to have more ideas), I do not think there ever will be a “final destination.” I think this GBC will truly be “never-ending.” To learn more about Great Ball Contraptions, you can visit http://greatballcontraption.com/wiki/Main_Page

... 55

Building

City Building on a Micro Scale! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Jeff Friesen

Jeff Friesen is a professional photographer who has been building for the past six years. His models are seen on Instagram, and in the past two years, he’s started building micro cities. What’s fascinating about them is the wonderful use of parts and color to make urban environments that are only 20 LEGO studs by 20 LEGO studs—smaller than a standard baseplate! When asked about what inspired him to build microcities, Jeff answered by e-mail: “My daughter was given the LEGO Architecture Big Ben set and I was intrigued by how such an accurate model could be made with so few bricks. I actually prefer the microscale Big Ben set to LEGO’s much bigger version. LEGO is a modernist medium, and it lends itself well to a stripped-down aesthetic. I also enjoy the puzzle-like engineering problems inherent to microscale, though it is frustrating at times. Someone once said ‘children don’t play because it’s easy, they play because it’s hard.’ That’s exactly how I feel about microscale.” Here’s a look at his cities, with notes from Jeff as posted on Instagram, and construction comments by Joe Meno.

Upper Brick Side

pulent but tiny residential buildings surround the microscale city park. The parts for much of the opulence are actually minifigure accessories, such as the telescopes that make up the streetposts, the minidragon on the skyscraper roof, and the Ninjago minifigure sai for a tower spire. On the left is a breakdown of how the sides were done on the dark orange corner building. The long windows are actually 1x2 plates with one stud (jumper plates), built studs pointing inside. You’re actually seeing the bottom patterns of the plates.

BrickJournal #50