The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts! Issue 5, Volume 2 • Spring 2009
8.95
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in the US
Celebrating MINDSTORMS® with the LEGO Group!
Event Report: LEGO World Zwolle Interviews, Instructions AND MORE! 91
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Issue 5, Volume 2 • Spring 2009
Contents
From the Editor..................................................................................2
News and Events New York Toy Fair..............................................................................3 MINDSTORMS 10th Anniversary Celebration............7
People
Angus MacLane: LEGO Building and Film Making .......................................11 Adult Female Fans of LEGO (AFFOLS) Jennifer Joy Poole.....................................................................18 MisaQa..............................................................................................21 Sean Kenney: LEGO Toys on NBC’s 30 Rock .................................................23 Ty’s Extra Credit...............................................................................27 12 Questions with Luis Castaneda, LEGO Designer ..........................................................................30
Building
LEGO TV Commercial: Bringing LEGO CITY to Life.....................................................32 Capturing Batman and Robin in a LEGO Mosaic...........................................................................39 DoubleBrick’s Hard Truck Contest ....................................42 Continuing the Mars Mission...............................................46 You Can Build It X-Wing ..............................................................................................50 MINILAND Photographer...................................................52 BURN•E..............................................................................................54 Building Technique: SNOT (Studs Not on Top)....56 Minifigure Customization 101: Presenting Custom Figures with Digital Backgrounds: Photoshop Effect....................................58
Community
Event Reports LEGO World Zwolle.................................................................61 Brickcon............................................................................................66 AFOL Weekend 2008 ............................................................71 WomenBuild...............................................................................73 From the LEGO Archives .........................................................77 Last Word ............................................................................................79 AFOLs.....................................................................................................80
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From the Editor: So it’s been a year since BrickJournal went to a print issue and there have been some pretty big things happening.
Spring 2009 Volume 2, Issue 5 Editor in Chief Joe Meno Photography Editor Geoff Gray Business Manager and Proofreader Carin Proctor Copy Editor Allan Bedford Proofreader Eric Nolen-Weathington European Bureau Editor Megan Rothrock West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon Layout Artists Didier Enjary
The LEGO Group bucked the trend and actually increased sales last year. With the world economy in a state of decline, this is especially noteworthy. During difficult times, people turn to things that are positive and reassuring, and LEGO sales have prospered. Circulation to the magazine has also increased, in a time where print media is also in a state of decline. In the past year, about 300 pages about the community and the company have been released from this publication to add to the over 1000 pages that BrickJournal published in its online edition. And LEGO models are being seen everywhere - in last issue LEGO bricks were used to decorate a store. This issue has LEGO models showing up on 30 Rock and referenced in making models in the Disney/Pixar movie WALL•E. It’s an exciting time to be in the hobby, and I hope that BrickJournal captures that excitement, whether it be the excitement of finishing a new set, the excitement of creating an new model, or excitement of going to a LEGO fan event. There’s always something up, and BrickJournal will be reporting on it!
Contributors:
Tommy Andreasen, Mariann Asanuma, Caspar J. Bennedsen, Jared Burks, Louis Castaneda, Nina Chatelain, Tim Courtney, Christopher Deck, Didier Enjary, Alexander Horoshilov, Ty Keltner, Sean Kenney, Jennifer Joy Poole, Scott Lyttle, Angus MacLane, MisaQa, Jette Orduna, Todd Paris, Megan Rothrock, Jamie Spencer, and 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: Photo: Alpha Rex, the NXT robot takes a bow on this issue’s cover! Photo provided by the LEGO Group. About the Contents Page: Photo: Preliminary sketches of the NXT brick., Photo by Joe Meno. Many thanks to Amanda Sorenson at Pixar, and NBC for photo use.
Joe Meno Editor, BrickJournal P.S.. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. Or go to www.lugnet.com and leave a comment on their forums! 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! You can check out the news there or look at the event calendar and see what is happening near you! Correction: In Issue 4, the Technic for Thought model (a Power Functions based joystick) wasn’t credited. The creator of the control is Jason J. Railton, of the Brickish Association in the United Kingdom. BrickJournal regrets the omission.
GLOSSARY AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Pieces) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Pieces) POOP (Pieces—that can or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not On Top) LUG (LEGO User 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 2009, 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 $38USD Media Mail, $55 Canada, $78 International Surface, $85 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 USA. ISSN 1941-2347.
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Event Report
New York Toy Fair 2009:
The Toys Are Back in Town! Article and Photography by Joe Meno One of the annual events for the toy industry is the New York Toy Fair, held in mid-February in the Jacob Javits Center. Toy manufacturers big and small display their latest products to attending buyers, and the LEGO Group is no exception!
STAR WARS
This year, the LEGO Group invited media to an event before the fair to show off the 2009 product line. With over 100 new sets coming out, this year looks pretty exciting. A returning theme this year from years gone by is Space Police, with an assortment of aliens and ships that take the usual “cops and robbers” to a new level. Other themes are also strongly represented with sets, with Star Wars celebrating its tenth year with the LEGO Group. MINDSTORMS 2.0 was also shown here. Here’s a look at some of the many sets (and a couple of surprises) that were on display - enjoy! If you want to see more photos of the sets coming in 2009, including Rock raiders, Creator, more of City, Technic, and Duplo, you can go to BrickJournal’s Flickr gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickjournal/ sets/72157613872328388/
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INDIANA JONES®
CITY
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Event Report
From RCX to NXT: Celebrating 10 Years of MINDSTORMS! Article and Photography by Joe Meno On November 20, 2008, there was a celebration at the LEGO Idea House in Billund, Denmark. The occasion was an anniversary — the tenth anniversary of the LEGO MINDSTORMS system! Guests were invited from the LEGO Group and the LEGO MINDSTORMS fans, who have played an important part in the success of the set, from the firstgeneration yellow RCX to the NXT. The party was a collection of the builders and the creators of the LEGO MINDSTORMS system, and had speeches from the owner of the LEGO Group, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Torben Ballegaard Sørensen, a former LEGO Employee and now member of the LEGO Group Board of Directors, and Søren Lund, Senior Marketing Director, Product and Marketing Development.
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AFFOLs Adult Female Fans of LEGO
Country: US Hobbies: LEGO, writing, reading fantasy, music, playing with my son, husband, & friends. Age first started collecting/building LEGO? I started in my late twenties. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and my in-laws knew it. So for Christmas one year they all got me different Harry Potter sets. I loved it. It was so much fun. But then I thought I loved the scene where Harry gets his wand at Olivander’s. LEGO didn’t make it. My husband, bless him, said ‘Well I still have some LEGO in the attic. Why don’t you built it yourself?’ He might claim now that was the stupidest thing he ever did. I finished HP scenes that LEGO made smaller or I created huge scenes that were never touched on. As a child, did you play & build with LEGO? I may have had some LEGO as a child but not much. I probably would have used it to build houses for dolls or something. Why are you an AFOL? I found out about a LEGO event in my hometown that also advertised to bring your own sets. So I did. Little kids came trickling by, most of which loved Harry Potter. One little boy realized I had customized some of the Harry Potter characters that LEGO didn’t make. He was thrilled, jumping up and down saying, ‘She made the Weasley twins mom. She made the twins.’ I was hooked. That level of joy on a kid’s face is all I could ask for. However many hours I spend on sets the end result is about seeing those happy little faces. It also gives me a chance to extol the virtues of reading good books. I have several sets that do not occur in the Harry Potter movies so the kids have to go read the books to find the scene.
Jennifer Joy Poole
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On a basic level though, LEGO lets me be creative in a very concrete way. You are making something with your hands. You are watching it grow and change as you work on a project. You can see what you have accomplished. There is a serenity about finishing a set. How many hours do you spend LEGO building? That depends on the time I have and what I want to build. Most of my LEGO time is just about planning & gathering the right parts. The actual building will take a few hours unless there is some motion in the set that isn’t working quite right. Then it is the job of my graphic designer husband to help me think of a better way to make it. I created a Whomping Willow but it just wasn’t right. My husband suggested making the truck of the tree move as well as the arms. That helped a lot. What are your favorite building themes (both what LEGO products and what you like to build yourself)? Obviously Harry Potter but I use a lot of Castle parts. At big shows I am put in the castle section. But I use minifigs from all kinds of sets. The Indiana Jones sets have been a treasure trove on parts
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for me. I am probably going to need to expand to another book series soon. Just to annoy my husband maybe I will do the Twilight Saga. That certainly would get the attention of tween girls. LEGO would need to create some wolves though & vampire heads…or maybe just pale minifig heads. What do you like most about LEGO and their products? They are well made. I know that if a set goes crashing to the floor, none of the pieces will get messed up and I can put it back together easily. Plus I let kids touch my sets… so they have to go back together easily. 5 parts you would love LEGO to produce: 1: More minifig heads. Not everyone is Caucasian & male & smiling/screaming. 2: More female bodies that don’t look like so buxom shall we say. 3: Better minifig tools or equipment. I think that is specific to my needs though. 4: More Transparent clear brick of all shapes, sizes and colors. It adds life in a way I don’t know how to explain. 5: The big one - Wolves! I love wolves. They finally made some cows…now wolves. Not dogs…wolves. What is it like to be a female in the AFOL world, which is dominated by men? I always got along better with guys than girls so its not bad, now that I am accepted. My club is great in that
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LEGO TV Commercials:
Photograph by Tommy Andreasen.
Bringing LEGO CITY to Life Have you ever watched a LEGO® CITY TV Commercial and thought: “Hey, how do they do that?” In October of 2008, BrickJournal went to Copenhagen, Denmark to find out how they make the magic!
The studio was larger than I’d expected. There were LEGO models all over the place, and a massive green screen behind it all. I was nearly blinded by all of the lights, and with the heat they gave off it felt like I was in Florida! What I didn’t realize at the time was they were actually shooting three advertisements during the eight-day shoot. One was for LEGO CITY Construction, another for LEGO CITY Farm, and another a website project. The team had been there for three days already.
Article by Megan Rothrock Photography by Megan Rothrock and Tommy Andreasen
Four years ago, Tommy Andreasen and Thomas Sebastian Fenger came up with the concept for a LEGO CITY to be built entirely from LEGO Bricks! They felt it was a shame that the city and backgrounds in commercials were not built out of LEGO elements. However the logistics of such a task were challenging, to say the least. The city would need to be built and a lot of bricks would be needed. It would then have to be stored somewhere safe, and then transported up to Copenhagen for the TV shoots, then there would be constant repairs and upkeep to make to the city. This was all a huge undertaking but the team felt that it was well worth it in the end, as the quality shone through in the finished products.
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I first met with Tommy Andreasen — his role is Senior Concept Art Director for LEGO. He walked me over to ‘Main Street,’ a very large LEGO street scene filled with mini figures doing all sorts of things, even two that were robbing the bank! “You won’t see it in the spot, because it goes by fast —all of the activity and detail brings our LEGO CITY to life!” Tommy continued, “The Designers have a lot of fun setting the scene for the mini figures.”
The History of LEGO CITY
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LEGO CITY (as it is called internally) is used not only for the TV advertisements but also in photo shoots for the Christmas and other posters and stills for the LEGO catalogues. LEGO CITY was built in Billund, with some of the buildings glued and some not. It had to be a generic city that did not distract from the product and was able to be reused for different TV spots. It is entirely modularly built on 32x32 baseplates to allow for different looks and layouts when needed. All of the buildings are facades with paper inside of them to prevent light seeping out of any cracks or windows. They re-use the same buildings year after year but for a new theme the environment changes and as a result, they have to build more. The first LEGO CITY had 486,000 LEGO bricks, and now the estimate is over 1.3 million LEGO bricks! Because of this, LEGO CITY is very well cared for and the team is reluctant to loan it out for other purposes as it might get damaged. The LEGO CITY TV Spot team has, for the most part, been the same core team since the transition from LEGO ‘World City’ to the present LEGO CITY. The key idea was to make it an evergreen product. Tommy proudly stated that
we are ‘back to classic’. It has taken some time but LEGO CITY now has its own identity, when you see a blue box on the shelf, you know it’s a LEGO CITY box. “Back when we started, we wanted to make it clear you can build it.” Said Tommy “We wanted to make a spot where we solve problems through building. Building makes it better! The LEGO CITY is running smoothly, then a ‘HEY!’ problem occurs, we show the quick build, and then everything is back to normal. Creativity and versatility are key points to our spots.
Quiet on the Set! Above: Setting up lights and the camera at the shoot takes a little discussion. Below: The Design Team put mini-figures on strings climbing buildings and walls, walking in the streets, robbing the bank and more. Activity adds the detail, bringing LEGO CITY to life.
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Building
Building
)
g
k
I was commissioned by Warner Brothers Interactive last year to build a mosaic for their LEGO Batman Video Game Launch Party in New York City. It was quite a challenge, not only because the mosaic itself was tricky, but the timeframe was too. Unlike a fan-created model that can be built over months or even years, I had only a few weeks. I was initially contacted about a month before the event would happen, which for the type and size of model they wanted is plenty of time. At first they asked if I could do the LEGO Batman Logo. I said I could, and quickly drew up a design on brick paper. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with brick paper, it is special graph paper that LEGO Master Model Designers use to draw out a design, basically making a blueprint before they build it. About a week after they first contacted me they changed their minds and asked if I could do the video game cover art. That was fine too, but I had to completely change
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Capturing the Dynamic Duo With Only LEGO Bricks and Plates! Article and Photography by Mariann Asanuma BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics
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LEGO Sets
Behind the Design:
Continuing the Mars Mission BrickJournal had a chat with Mark Stafford, LEGO Set Designer about his design work on the Mission Mars Ultra Drill Walker. Here he talks about what his inspirations were for the set, including his dog!
BrickJournal: How did you end up building the MM Ultra Drill Walker? Mark Stafford: Around the time I was finishing up my work as part of the LEGO Agents team in summer of 07 I was asked if I’d be interested in working on a Mars Mission set, a store exclusive in the USA.
Interview by Megan Rothrock Product photography courtesy the LEGO Group and © The LEGO Group All other photography by Megan Rothrock
But why build a mecha rather than a vehicle or ship? The store exclusives tend to have a more formal design brief then our normal retail lines, we have to go through a slightly different approval process where the retailer agrees on the specific concept and content of the box.
I leapt at the chance, I’ve always been a LEGO space fan (well, since I got my first space set in 1979 anyway) and I’ve wanted to work in a space theme since starting with LEGO.
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I was given the following brief by William Thorogood, the Mars Mission Design Lead: “A walking ‘Tank’ that transforms into a mining rig and space fighter with a small alien ship. Building complexity 8+. It is important both ship and base versions of the mining vehicle are stable and playable.” We knew at that stage that Exo-Force had run its course and that no new mecha would be coming from that line so to some extent we aimed to fill this gap in our portfolio. Why four legs? I have some experience with four legged mecha, the four legged 8115 Dark Panther in Exo-Force is a set I designed (my first one) and before, as a fan, I’d built a larger one for Iron Mecha! Iron Mecha was a competition held by LEGO fans in early 2006, before I worked for LEGO. The contest was to build a four legged mecha based on an artwork sketch provided. I was lucky and actually won the competition, and I’m pretty amazed to have done so, all of the other entries were very strong and anyone who has the time should have a look at them online! But the most basic reason for four legs is the required stability, it just doesn’t fall over, a two legged mecha of this size would have had to be very over engineered just to stand! How much did your Iron Mecha entry impact this model? Well if you look at this early version of the Ultra Drill Walker you can see my first attempt at legs were obviously inspired by my Iron Mecha entry “the Provost”, and the experience had taught me rubber stoppers had to be on the base of each foot to stop the spread eagling problems I encountered. The Provost also helped me figure out knee joints are a real structural problem with four legged mecha, in fact after winning the competition I had to replace all the knee joints in the Provost with fixed joints just so it could stand on display at fan events. This helped me to decide pretty early on I’d lock the knees on the Ultra Drill Walker, but then try to keep as much articulation elsewhere in the legs as possible. Any other sources of inspiration? Heh. Yeah, our dog, Bandit!
Top: Mark’s Iron Mecha entry, the Provost. Above: Bandit! Below: The first model prototype.
Megan (Rothrock – Brickshelf: Megs) and I have an English Bull-Terrier called Bandit. He’s a softy, loves his food and sleeping and hates cold and rain, so the move to Denmark has been harsh for him. But he has four legs and he’s squat and white and the stance of the Ultra Drill Walker seems to have been subconsciously influenced by him. So much so I wanted to name this set the “Bandit Driller”, and in the end I did manage to get him immortalized on the sticker sheet! So you wanted to call this the ‘Bandit Driller’? How did it end up with this name? Helping to name the sets/characters is part of the job of a LEGO Designer! (Though not so much if you’re working in a licensed theme.) It involves a lot of brainstorming, checking any good names on the internet for similar material we might clash with, and then sending them to our legal department so they can check to see if they can find any possible copyright issues. Even after this we have to ask our international marketing people if this is going to translate well or sound rude in their local languages. Unfortunately ‘Bandit Driller’
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BrickCon: Seattle’s LEGO Fan Event Article and Photography by Joe Meno
Seattle, Washington is a center of LEGO fandom on the first weekend of October. Last year was no different, as BrickCon (formerly called Northwest BrickCon) took place. Over 235 attendees from throughout the US and beyond gathered to talk, meet and show off their work to fellow builders and the public. Activity on the event started months before, and the result was a bigger display and turnout than ever before. The number of attendees was the highest to date, and the public turnout in just the first day surpassed the total public turnout to the previous year. Total public attendees numbered just under 7000 for the entire weekend. Attendees this year included LEGO staff members from both the US and home office in Denmark. A Creative Director, Matthew Ashton, was the speaker for one of the attendee-only night presentations. What began as a review of his resume and history at the LEGO Group became a look at how sets are designed and created in the company, with a little help from a set designer, Nicholas Groves. With the presentation were slides showing sketches and preliminary models of some sets, making this a fascinating look at the work that goes behind the scenes behind the themes. To wrap up the night was a quick ‘fashion show’… After some female volunteers were selected, each one of them was given a female minifigure to present down the catwalk (actually, the stage) while Matthew was the emcee. He
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described each minifig and projected slides of each one as they took their moment in the limelight. At the end, the best minifig was voted on by applause. Who won? Well, you had to be there to know….since some of the minifigures had not been released at that time. There also was an unveiling of a new set, the Medieval Town! There were other things for the attendees, such as speed builds of sets (how fast can a helicopter set be built?) and also more social activities, such as Dirty Brickster, which is a gift-giving game that is a LEGO-based variant of the “white elephant” party game. Participants brought in wrapped gifts of a set value, and each had a chance to select a gift from the pool or steal an unwrapped gift from another person. There was also an after-hours sales event at the local LEGO store, where attendees could get parts and sets at an event-only discount. The atmosphere for all of this was one of familiarity, much like a meeting of old friends. This has been one of the great things behind BrickCon: it’s always a friendly event. This is one of the many things that BrickCon Event Coordinator Wayne Hussey is happy with: “What I’m most proud about is that people who come to our Con can play and have fun! We have always kept the formality aspect small - it’s about the people.” It’s also about the displays. Returning for this year was a detailed 22 foot-long model of the passenger ship Titanic built
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