The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 62 • June 2020
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LEGO® Trains Hit the Tracks!
Cale Leiphart’s Blue Comet PENNLug’s Train Roundhouse
AND MORE!
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CONTENTS American Comic Book Chronicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Companion Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Digital Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Comics Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Modern Masters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Jack Kirby Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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2020
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Issue 62 • June 2020
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Building the Future: Keiichi Kamei’s Blade Runner Models.........3
Building Jack Carleson: Building Big Birds............................................8 A Tale of the Blue Comet...............................16 Edward Chang: The Princess Train.........................................24 Building the PennLUG Roundhouse......30
Creating Brick Model Railroader’s First Custom Locomotive Kit: The Reading T-1.............................................40 You Can Build It: Crossing Shanty............................................48 You Can Build It: MINI Dornean Gunship..............................56 Minifigure Customization 101: The Child...........................................................62
Community Sizing up a Theme...........................................68
Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Bricks in the Middle........................................80
From the Editor: This issue is yet another Train issue—the gang at Brick Model Railroader have come through and written some great content for this issue! Many thanks to Cale Leiphart and Glenn Holland for writing about BMR’s first set, which is an impressive achievement!
June 2020 Issue 62
Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray
There’s some other Train-oriented content, including instructions to a crossing shanty with a gate for your layouts, a look at a roundhouse built by the members of PennLUG, and a feature on the Blue Comet, a steam train that was built in LEGO form by Cale, and a Princess Train by Edward Chang.
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan
There’s other stuff too—some planes by Jack Carleton, and large spaceships by Jason Ruff. There’s also a Blade Runner display that was shown in Japan, and a feature on making Baby Yoda! There’s a little bit of everything in this issue, so take a look and have fun and BUILD!!
Proofreader John Morrow
West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Contributors: Jared Burks, Jack Carleson, Edward Chang, Christopher Deck, Glen Holland, Cale Leiphart, Matthew Kay, Jason Ruff, and Kevin Hinkle. 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: Jae Won Lee’s rendition of Huang Zhong has beautiful detail. Photo by Jae Won Lee. About the Contents Page: A minifigure’s view of the inside of PennLUG’s roundhouse. Photograph by Cale Leiphart. Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm. All Disney characters are TM & © Disney.
Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.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/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. 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 www.twomorrows.com or scan below!
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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)
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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 2011, 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 $67 Economy US, $79 Expedited US, $101 International, or $27 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: BrickJournal Editor, 9001 Barb Anne Court, Springfield, VA 22152, USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. 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, 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 of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
People
Keiichi Kamei is a devoted fan of the movie Blade Runner who returned to LEGO building 12 years ago. He played with LEGO growing up, but quit during his teenage years. His return was prompted when his son was born, and again he started playing with the bricks. When his son went to college he quit building, so Keiichi took the LEGO his son had and restarted his building. In that time, Keiichi has built models of animals and buildings, including a rooster and wild boar. He also built a New Year’s lion mask, a Shishimai. He also built his first version of the Spinner from Blade Runner in 2012. Since then, he has made improvements and rebuilt as new elements came out. Keiichi focused his Spinner building on four areas: functioning doors, places for two minifigures to ride, changing from ground to flight mode with minimal parts replacement, and a well-balanced form. Other builders have made models of the Spinner, but Keiichi was also interested in the other vehicles and the architecture, as designed by futurist Syd Mead. Keiichi wanted to build more, so in 2017, he started to build dioramas based on the movie. At first, the diorama was only a pillar and a wall, but it eventually expanded. His resulting build is a full street scene from Blade Runner, complete with buildings and vehicles.
Keiichi Kamei with his diorama, “Deckard Chases Down Zhora” at Tchikawa Cinema City in Tokyo, Japan.
Article and Photography by Keiichi Kamei
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A breakdown of the dragon sign that is seen.
At the White Dragon, where Rick Deckard and Gaff first meet.
Deckard atop a taxi, looking for Zhora. A closer look at the full diorama, with a stickered taxi cab and Deckard moved.
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The diorama was essentially a LEGO-scale replica of one of the exterior sets of the movie, depicting an intersection in Los Angeles. With a library of minifigures and vehicles from the movie replicated, a scene from the movie could be done with the diorama. Keiichi chose a scene where Rick Deckard (the main character) is chasing Zhora (one of the antagonists). This was displayed at a theater in Japan to coincide with the run of the Blade Runner sequel. For an event in Tokyo that took place in November 9-10, 2019 that presented a crowdsourced restoration of a Spinner—the “Police Spinner Restore Project”—Keiichi split his large diorama to create a smaller layout that depicted the liftoff of the Spinner from the streets of Los Angeles. The liftoff base was built using wedges and arches on a turntable, which could be rotated. He also had another diorama of the White Dragon (the noodle bar where Deckard and Gaff first meet). The original diorama of the chase was slightly expanded.
Here, Keiichi also displayed two Spinners, one in its land mode and the other in flight mode. For the architecture of the diorama, Keiichi tried to match the style of the futuristic architecture, from the pillars to the neon signs. Of the four neon signs in the layout, two were built in LEGO, while the others were too small to build, so they were made with stickers rendered from captured footage. At the event Keiichi was able to photograph his models with the real Spinner behind as well as showing his dioramas to Sean Young, who played Rachael in Blade Runner, showing what fans can do with a movie…and with LEGO bricks!
A breakdown of the takeoff, used for the liftoff scene below. Keiichi (left) with Sean Young (who played Rachael in Blade Runner), Prop Maker Kenichi Sekine (center right), and amateur modeler Tomohiro Tanaka (far right).
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Building
Forward view of the B-36D.
Jack Carleson:
Building Big Birds! Article and Photography by Jack Carleson
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Introduction
My name is Jack Carleson, more commonly known as “BigPlanes” on YouTube and Flickr. I’ve been building LEGO for about eight years as an amateur hobbyist. I started having an interest in aviation about five years ago after visiting a number of air museums and shows. Since that time, I have enjoyed combining the two hobbies together. When I started building aircraft models, I built primarily military. However, as my YouTube channel “BigPlanes” started growing in size, I started branching out to civilian aircraft models such as a Boeing 737 and 787. As my channel name would suggest, I build large planes. My B-36 has a wingspan of about 6 feet and the 747 weighs so much it damages the table I display it on. I try to do airplanes that have not been done by other builders and that are often neglected from history, such as the B-36. When building supermassive models, the sheer physics of the design become apparent. Due to this, my larger builds require a Technic substructure combined with standard system elements in order to not crumble under their enormous weight. Although I mostly build largescale models, I do occasionally build smaller models. To be perfectly honest, however, large planes are what I’ve become more known for. I always try to include the little details that most people wouldn’t even notice such as the small antennae on the sides or top of the aircraft. I also try to design a functioning landing gear and flap system that is as close to the one found on the actual aircraft as possible. Building large LEGO aircraft is a mix of two of my favorite passions: aviation and LEGO.
A cockpit view.
Side view of the B-36D.
B-36D (“Peacemaker”)
The Convair B-36 was initially designed during World War II to be able to bomb Europe from the mainland United States; however, the war ended before the B-36 could enter service. Known as the “Peacemaker”, the B-36 never fired a single shot in anger throughout its time in service. The B-36 filled the role of the United States’ key nuclear deterrent during the early years of the Cold War due to it being the only aircraft in the US Arsenal that could carry the very large and bulky H bomb. Early on, the B-36 had issues with being underpowered and also had cooling issues with its pusher engines. The cooling issues were mostly resolved and to help with speed at takeoff, the B-36 was equipped with four jets mounted in pods under the wing. This led to the saying “Six turning and
four burning” however, the phrase “Two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking, and two unaccounted for” became infamous due to the B-36’s unreliable engines. My model is a B-36D. With a wingspan of six feet and a length of 4 ½ feet. This is the largest wingspan on any model I’ve ever built. There is a detailed cockpit and of course, the crew of 15 needed to run such a large plane. Each engine has a separate Power Functions motor in it which allows this build to have at least six turning. This was a challenging build mostly because of the complexity of getting the proper airfoil of the wing and keeping that wing from sagging. In the end, this turned out great and I’m glad the B-36 can be brought back in LEGO form.
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Building
The Blue Comet has been called the “Seashore’s Finest Train.” The train, the brainchild of Central Railroad of New Jersey President R. B. White, whisked passengers from Jersey City to Atlantic City from 1929 to 1941. The Blue Comet’s route would take New York & Long Branch trackage to Red Bank, then follow the Southern Division Main Line to Winslow Junction, where it would travel over the Atlantic City Railroad’s (part of the Reading Railroad) tracks to Atlantic City.
A Tale of the Blue Comet “A Deluxe Class Train for a Coach Class Fare” Article and Photography by Cale Leiphart
Original LIONEL “Tin Plate” train set inspired by the Blue Comet.
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Three brand new G3 Pacific locomotives were assigned to the train; numbers 831, 832 and 833, and the CNJ totally refurbished sixteen cars, inside and out, for Blue Comet service. Each train consisted of a baggage car, combine-smoker, coaches, and an observation car. The diner accompanied the early morning trip to Atlantic City and the evening return to Jersey City. The colors chosen for the Blue Comet were Packard Blue, which represented the sky; Jersey Cream, for the sandy coastal beaches; and Royal Blue, for the sea. Even the locomotives were painted for Blue Comet service. Each car was named for a comet. The diner carried the name Giacobini, the two combines carried the names Halley and Encke. The baggage cars were named for the comets Olbers and Barnard, and the coaches for Tuttle, Holmes, Westphal, D’Arrest, Faye, Spitaler, Winnecke, and Brorsen. The three observation cars were named for comets DeVico, Biela, and Tempel. The Blue Comet was born from the CNJ’s need to compete with the Pennsylvania RR for the then lucrative Atlantic City passenger trade. The CNJ also wanted to eliminate a costly Pullman parlor car lease, in which the CNJ had carried a financial loss ten months of the year. The Blue Comet would offer extra accommodations at a regular coach fare, while having assigned seats so passengers knew exactly where they would sit. The competing Pennsylvania Railroad charged extra for its all parlor car Atlantic City Limited, and New York Limited trains. In addition, the PRR charged extra fees for parlor cars on its Nellie Bly train. The CNJ’s aim was to undercut the PRR’s ticket fares, attracting shore travelers with a better train service at a lower cost.
Initially, the Blue Comet was a huge success. The first train ran on February 21, 1929 with thousands of spectators along the line coming out to see the new train. The Blue Comet ran on schedule 97% of the time for the first five years. It was such a hit with train watchers that the CNJ placed a billboard on the Routes 33/34 overpass at Collingwood, NJ listing the times the train would pass that area. Eventually, the Depression and the PRR’s direct access to New York took the life out of the Blue Comet. The Central New Jersey soldiered on with the Blue Comet through the Depression, but the end would finally come in 1941. On September 27th of that year, the Blue Comet would make its last run. Though the Comet was gone, it has not been forgotten. The train made an indelible impact on all those who encountered it. One notable Comet fan was Lionel Trains founder Joshua Lionel Cowen, who was among those who frequently rode the Blue Comet. Inspired by the train’s elegant beauty, speed, and the sublime power of its towering locomotive, Lionel offered a standard gauge model of the train in 1930. This model elevated the Blue Comet’s status and has become part of the train’s rich lore.
The full six car LEGO Blue Comet train set on display.
The Blue Comet lives on today in the imaginations of train fans everywhere. There have been multiple models of the train offered over the years, books written about the Blue
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Building
The PennLUG Roundhouse lit up during Brickworld’s World of Lights.
Building The PennLUG Roundhouse Article and Photography by Cale Leiphart
PennLUG (the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group) has become widely known for its great LEGO train layouts. And one of the biggest structures on our layout is our steam era roundhouse, which is part of an even larger locomotive servicing terminal occupying one end of our railyard. The roundhouse once occupied a very important role in the everyday railroad operations. In the era of steam locomotives, roundhouses were commonly found in rail yards across the country. With the exception of switching locomotives, steam locomotives were designed to run in one direction—forward. As a result, it was often necessary to turn a steam locomotive to point in the direction its train is to be hauled. This was done by either using a wye, a balloon loop, or a turntable. The combination of turntable and roundhouse proved very useful to both service and turn locomotives. 30
Many roundhouses were built around the turn of the 19th century. Roundhouses were built out of brick, stone, wood, or concrete. The roundhouse would be built around a turntable, a large device used to turn locomotives. Some would only have a few stalls while roundhouses on larger railroads could have as many as fifty. The roundhouses' main function was to store locomotives between runs and provide daily servicing such as lubricating the running gear, minor repairs, and inspections. Locomotives would typically be serviced with the front of the locomotive pointing outward and the tender of the locomotive facing the turntable. This was done in case a locomotive would start to drift unexpectedly. If the locomotive drifted toward the turntable, the locomotive’s tender would fall into the turntable pit instead of the locomotive itself. This would cause less damage and the tender would be easier to remove from the pit. Each stall of the roundhouse included a vent that would allow smoke from the steam locomotive to be vented through the roof of the roundhouse. These vents can be clearly seen in most surviving roundhouses. With the arrival of diesel locomotives, which could run equally well in either direction, the need for turntables (and roundhouses) waned. By the 1950s, as most steam locomotives had been replaced by diesels, the roundhouse became obsolete. With several steam builders in our club, it was only natural that we would want a roundhouse, turntable, and engine
service terminal for the PennLUG train layout. The idea for the PennLUG roundhouse has its roots dating back to 2012. That year two shows would help to shape what our roundhouse and railyard would become. The first was Brickworld, held annually in June in Chicago Illinois. There a good friend of ours, Jason Steinhurst, was running a little tank locomotive on our layout. As the little engine was a bit too slow to run on our main line, Jason decided to use it for some switching in our railyard. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It generally consists of making up and breaking up trains, storing and classifying cars, serving industries within yard limits, and other related purposes. These movements are made at slow speed under special yard rules. Switching is a core part of model railroad operation, just as it is in real life railroading. But like most LEGO train builders and clubs at the time, we only focused on running trains in continuous loops around their layouts. It’s not something we in PennLUG had done much of, or even considered. However as my fellow club member Nate Brill and I watched Jason’s little switcher moving cars back and forth, a seed was planted. The second show to shape our future roundhouse plans was LEGO Kidsfest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, held that December. The venue we were in had numerous skylights, providing natural light into the hall. Early one morning as the event was opening, we noticed that the sun was coming
Roundhouse interior views used as inspiration for the PennLUG Roundhouse.
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Building
Creating Brick Model Railroaders First Custom Locomotive Kit:
The Reading T-1 Article and Photography by Glenn Holland and Cale Leiphart
It’s been quite a long road to get to here. By the time you are reading this, Brick Model Railroader’s first full kit, and our first locomotive model, should be in the hands of eager customers. But how exactly did we get here? And why did it take so long? That story is full of twists and turns. So let’s take a look back at the journey to create BMR’s first locomotive kit.
The Story: Developing Our T-1 Model
Our story really begins with two entirely separate locomotives. Cale has always wanted to model a particular locomotive with plans to be sold as a full kit under his own name. We’ll leave that locomotive unspecified for now, but this was our starting point. After some discussion, and before the first two bricks were assembled, Glenn had convinced Cale to switch to another locomotive; the Nickle Plate Road S-2 2-8-4 Berkshire (the operating Nickle Plate 765 is a notable example of this class). This locomotive was our primary task during the fall and early winter months of 2017, and during that time we were even able to photograph and ride behind the 765 in Ohio. We had a running and presentable model at the Greenberg Train and Toy Show in Lebanon, Pennsylvania that December, where we tested it to work out bugs. A few were found, and the model was corrected and brought again to the World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour (WGH) show in Monroeville, Pennsylvania in January 2018. After another trial, we found several more issues. Our main problems were the powertrain, which was not as
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robust as we had intended. This, along with several other design choices we had made, really disheartened us. Thus our engine sat in a box for several months. At this point, Glenn was going through the most rigorous part of his college career, while Cale was busy with other BMR projects and we found we had no time to come back to our 2-8-4 model. While we were at the WGH show that January, we had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Forrest Nace of the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association (ASR). The ASR is currently in the process of restoring Reading T-1 no. 2100, the first T-1 built, to operation. After talking with him throughout the weekend, while also mentioning the fact that we would like to model a T-1 at some point, Glenn showed him a mock-up T-1 he had designed on LEGO Digital Designer. Though we didn’t realize it at the time, wheels had started turning in a new direction for our first locomotive project. Later that year in May, we began talking about what to do for the stalled locomotive project. We had chosen the Berkshire due to its popularity. And while both of us are fans of the Berks, the locomotive just didn’t feel right for us as our first BMR locomotive. The prospect of doing the T-1, however, started looking very good. The Reading Railroad was located in the eastern part of the state of Pennsylvania, and the BMR Model Team (Cale and Glenn) are Pennsylvania residents, making the Reading a home road. The Reading T-1 felt like a natural choice for a prototype as it has been on both of our “to do” lists for a while, but other projects have taken priority since. It was a unique locomotive, with an iconic look, and loyal following. And with four surviving examples, two of which are under restoration to operation, there was a mountain of information on the locomotive available to us. The T-1 would fit well with all of our current transition-era Premium Instructions models, as all of them were used on the Reading and could very well have been seen behind a T-1 at any point during their service life. Transitioning from the Berk to the T-1 didn’t mean tossing out all our work done so far though. The Berk and T-1 both are eight coupled locomotives (eight driving wheels) and both used the same size drivers, and were roughly the
same physical size. So a lot of what we had been developing with the drive translated over. The T-1 model was also not without its challenges, however. We initially had a few powertrain issues, but these were quickly corrected using what we had learned on the Berk, resulting in one of the most robust powertrains we could build. Once the prototype model was assembled, we have had zero mechanical issues beyond routine maintenance. Next, we discovered a few traction issues and tracking issues. We quickly found that not enough weight was resting on the drive wheels, which is Steam Locomotive-101. Our prototype was designed and assembled in Cale’s basement model shop leading up to the NMRA Train Show in Kansas City in August 2018. We even had our T-1 at the show, but there was never a good time to try it out. After the show, we began to sort out the remaining issues.
T-1 no. 2100 at the head of a Rambles train.
Cale took charge of the engine from this point on, working through all of the traction and running issues, strengthening the boiler assembly, cab, and tender, and adding some details (while Glenn had creative influence from afar). In December of 2018 the T-1 prototype, along with some appropriate rolling stock, was boxed up and shipped to our friend Adam Stasiek of the Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club. The T-1 was going to make its debut at the annual Cantigny Park Christmas Train Show in Wheaton, Illinois on the NILTC layout. We tested the locomotive extensively that weekend, running with a total of ten heavy passenger cars at one point with no issues. Needless to say, we were quite happy with the results.
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You Can Build It Build Crossing Shanty Design and Instructions by Joe Meno
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty Color 1 White 1 White 2 2 4 1 4 1 4 3 1 9 13 8 6 8 2 5 1 4 3 2
From the Whippanny Railway Museum website (whippanyrailwaymuseum.net): Before there were automatic crossing gates, a crossing shanty or watch box would be placed at grade crossings. Crossing Watchmen operated the gates and used a stop sign to control traffic. The watchmen also inspected passing trains for defects, reported engineers who failed properly sound the whistle or ringing the bell at the crossing, and kept the crossing area clear of snow or other debris that could interfere with safe operation. This model is based on a Pennsylvania Railroad Watch Box replica that was built in 2003. The gate is a simpler build, and both are built with separate bases so they can be placed on a 16x16 as seen above, or independently on a train layout. And why is there an interior stud in the shanty? There is an interior for this shanty that can be built—which is why the roof is a loose part. You can find instructions on that at the BrickJournal website (www.brickjournal.com)! Have fun building!
2 1 2 10 44 3 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 4 1 1 1
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Part Description 2431.dat Tile 1 x 4 with Groove 3069bpw0.dat Tile 1 x 2 with “Wanted - Flatfoot Thomsen” Pattern White 62462.dat Technic Pin Joiner Round with Slot Red 62462.dat Technic Pin Joiner Round with Slot Reddish Brown 2453b.dat Brick 1 x 1 x 5 with Solid Stud Reddish Brown 3020.dat Plate 2 x 4 Reddish Brown 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Reddish Brown 41539.dat Plate 8 x 8 Reddish Brown 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Reddish Brown 60592c01.dat Window 1 x 2 x 2 without Sill w/ Trans-Clear Glass (Complete) Reddish Brown 60596.dat Door 1 x 4 x 6 Frame Tan 3004.dat Brick 1 x 2 Tan 3005.dat Brick 1 x 1 Tan 3009.dat Brick 1 x 6 Tan 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 Tan 3040b.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Tan 3622.dat Brick 1 x 3 Tan 3666.dat Plate 1 x 6 Tan 11211.dat Brick 1 x 2 with Two Studs on One Side Tan 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Tan 87087.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side Yellow 32123b.dat Technic Bush 1/2 Smooth with Axle Hole Semi-Reduced Black 3004.dat Brick 1 x 2 Black 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 Black 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Black 3032.dat Plate 4 x 6 Black 3068b.dat Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Black 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Black 3070b.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Black 3700.dat Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole Black 3737.dat Technic Axle 10 Black 3937.dat Hinge 1 x 2 Base Black 4733.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on 4 Sides Black 4740.dat Dish 2 x 2 Inverted Black 4865b.dat Panel 1 x 2 x 1 with Rounded Corners Black 6134.dat Hinge 2 x 2 Top Black 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round Black 6143.dat Brick 2 x 2 Round Type 2 Black 6541.dat Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole Black 6558.dat Technic Pin Long with Friction and Slot Black 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Black 60623.dat Door 1 x 4 x 6 with 4 Panes and Stud Handle Black 85984.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Light Bluish Grey 32034.dat Technic Angle Connector #2 (180 degree)
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The upscaled Classic Space layout at Bricks Cascade 2019, with their source sets in the foreground.
a theme
Article and Photography by Jason Ruff
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One of the more unusual displays at BrickCon 2019 were some copies of Classic Space sets from the ’80s. Older sets are often showcased at fan events, but what made this display different was that these sets were built three times larger than the originals. These larger-than-life creations were the efforts of Jason Ruff, Joe Larson, Michael Gilliam, and Dan Parker. The person who started this ongoing project was Jason Ruff. He built these to evoke the feeling he had building the original sets as a child. He remembered being small enough that he couldn’t run while he swooshed his Galaxy Explorer set. When he set the venerable old LL-928 next to the much newer UCS Millennium Falcon, Jason was blown away by how small the older set felt. Jason chose 3x scale for several reasons. The first was that the scale wasn’t unheard of—even LEGO themselves used the scale with the first Ant-Man set. Second, the scale itself provides a number of conveniences: 2x2 round tiles are close to perfect for stud width, and measuring the vertical scale of a set is a lot easier—a plate in 3x scale enlarges to a brick in height! With Neo-Classic Space, which he loves building, builders often ‘update’ an old set (in this case, a Classic Space set) to what they imagined it looked like when they were young. With 3x scale, a creation feels in a builder’s hand like it did when the builder first built the original set.
Jason Ruff’s Galaxy Commander. Another angle of the layout at Bricks Cascade 2019.