The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 63 • September 2020
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Exploring Ryan Van Duzor’s Coral Reef! Colin Hemmen’s Brickiverse! John Klapheke’s Creations!
AND MORE!
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Issue 63 • September 2020
Contents From the Editor....................................................2
People Allen T. Hickmon: Building and Acting the Part......................3 Jessica Ferrell: Legends & Lore.................................................6 Colin Hemmen: Bringing Bricks to Life.................................12
Building Ryan Van Duzor’s Wonders of the Fragile Reef........................16
Eli Willsea: Microbuilding Master!................................24 Andrew Steele: Making Monsters!........................................30 Grant Davis: The Painted City..............................................38 Ian Hou: Ooo... .................................................................42 John Klapheke’s Adventures of Indiana Jones..................46 Mike Koppe’s Oblivion Sky Tower.......................................50
Bantha Bricks: The Razor Crest...............................................54 You Can Build It: Creative Blue Bricks Whale.......................60 Minifigure Customization 101: You Know, You’re Not so Bad for a Droid........................................................65
Community Building LEGO Legacy...................................70 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80
From the Editor: Hi! Welcome to issue 63 (!) of BrickJournal! I can pretty much say that I had no idea that the magazine would still be going after over a decade, but here we are!
September 2020 Issue 63 Publisher John Morrow
Proofreader John Morrow
Despite the delay since last issue (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), this issue has a lot of neat articles—starting with the Wonders of the Fragile Reef, built by Ryan Van Duzor. It’s currently on display at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark! We also have some amazing sculptors of character with Ian Hou and Andrew Steele! We even wander into a LEGO-themed mobile game (LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed) to see how the game was created!
West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
Joe Meno, Editor
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan
LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Contributors: Jared Burks, Grant Davis, Ryan Van Duzor, Christopher Deck, Jessica Ferrell, Colin Hemmen, Allen T. Hickmon, Ian Hou, John Klapheke, Mike Koppe, Steven Smyth, Andrew Steele, Eli Willsea, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
Along with that are the columns for minifigure customizing and minibuilding, a new feature for Star Wars builders, and a toon by Greg Hyland of AFOLs—so sit back, turn the page, and settle in. It’ll be a fun ride!
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!
Website
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About the Cover: Ryan Van Duzor’s reef graces the cover of this issue. Photography by Ryan Van Duzor. About the Contents: “It’s better down where it’s wetter under the sea!” Photograph by Ryan Van Duzor
Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm.
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)
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)
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
Allen as Thanos.
With having a passion for LEGO and a desire to do movie accurate cosplay, I got together with my best friend and cosplay partner Brandy Donielle. We thought it would be cool to combine the two together at an upcoming event called Planet Comicon. I chose the topic of Avengers: Endgame since we cosplay Black Widow and Nick Fury. I had always done a LEGO booth each year at Planet, and ironically, I inadvertently met Brandy there, which we didn’t realize until a couple years later. I started off with a big mosaic of the Avengers: Endgame wording starting to fade away after the Thanos snap, along with a few other pieces to accompany the theme. The Tesseract build was one the specialty pieces on display. On the second day of the event, Brandy used her professional face painting and body art skills to transform us from Black Widow and Nick Fury into Thanos and Gamora. It’s not every day that you call upon someone of her expertise, especially with as busy a schedule as she has,
Allen T. Hickmon:
Building and Acting the Part! Article by Allen T. Hickmon Photography by Chris Hackett The Avengers logo mosaic.
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People
Baba Yaga. Opposite page: Baba Yaga and her home.
Jessica Farrell:
Legends & Lore! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Jessica Farrell
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For Jessica Farrell, LEGO building has become an important part of life. She started building at the age of four and went from building sets to building MOCs not too long after. She remembers asking for train and town sets for Christmas, building them all on Christmas Day, then breaking them up to build a giant space station the very next day! The only toy she ever wanted was LEGO so she could amass a parts collection for MOCs. In spite of her collecting, she eventually went to other things. After having a really long Dark Age, Jessica returned to building in 2014. After a chance meeting with an AFOL, she was introduced to the world of LUGs and she found her local LEGO group, brick.ie (the Irish LUG). “Once I had gathered enough courage to gate-crash a meeting, it felt like coming home.” she says. “The members of brick.ie were so welcoming and encouraging, I felt a sense of belonging straight away.” Having four generations of female artists in her family, she inherited some artistic talent, but she did not realize LEGO was her medium until she started building in earnest. She had been a qualified horticulturist and ran a garden nursery for many years. However, when her LEGO hobby started growing faster than her flowers, she started to take on commissioned builds and other LEGO-related work. About a year ago, she took the plunge and turned her hobby into a full-time job. (continued on page 10)
People
Colin Hemmen:
Bringing Bricks to Life!
Article and Photography by Colin Hemmen
Colin Hemmen originally was featured in BrickJournal #37, showcasing his sculptures. Since then, what has he built? Colin reflects on his building and how he has progressed since we first saw him. It’s really great to be back gracing the pages of BrickJournal magazine. And let me start by saying a big thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of this lovely publication. With that being said, the first time I was asked if I wanted to be featured, the whole AFOL world was unknown to me. So let me bring everyone up to speed. Since our very first meeting at BrickCon a few years back, I felt like I was welcomed into a new family. And that family just keeps getting bigger. One thing I noticed right off the bat was how friendly all the other builders and fans of the hobby were with one another. And that was right up my alley—a very inviting feeling. One of the very next things I noticed was how all of these amazing creations looked great from all sides and angles. At the time, I was making a bunch of one-dimensional MOCs that looked great in pictures, but not so much from the sides or top/back. So I knew I had to step my game up. I have always loved drawing and enjoy the challenge of trying to accomplish that using LEGO bricks. Nine times out of ten, I don’t have something specific planned for a build. I’ll see a piece and get an idea from the elements—like how a minifigure’s hair might make for a good nose.
Some of Colin’s many sculptures.
Or this horn would be great for a monster’s moustache. That’s also how I like to approach buying a set. Sure, there are themes I love like Elves, Nexo Knights, The Mixels, Monster Fighters, stuff like that. But mainly, I’m looking at the parts. I like to find the odd shapes and see something different in that than what it was intended as. And that’s what keeps my love for it going. I like to try and stay busy even if I’m not working on anything in particular, whether it’s fiddling around with bricks and table scraps or just learning new part connections to see if anything cool inspires me. I like the escape from everyday life that LEGO is able to provide me. It’s very therapeutic to be able to create something out of thin air. A lot of that comes from just giving yourself time to sit down and see what happens.
“I like the escape from everyday life that LEGO is able to provide me.”
You may or may not have realized that I like to make faces. And when I figured out I could do that with LEGO, a whole new world opened up. Normally, I don’t have a lot of patience for things like bad drivers and time wasting. And I think that’s why I enjoy LEGO in such a way: The satisfaction of problem-solving a certain connection issue, or making a build structurally sound enough to withstand the scrutiny of the TSA. Becoming an uncle four years ago got me back into buying Duplo even before my niece was born. And it’s great to see a new generation benefiting and learning from the almighty plastic bricks that people from all ages and places have come to know and love. It’s also great to finally start seeing more sets that are less gender specific. Another great joy is sharing a creation on social media and getting a nice, positive reaction. One of my favorite comments that I tend to get is just one word, and that is “Wow.” I love that my non-LEGO friends are very supportive. But it always feels just a little more special when other builders whose work you
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People
Ryan Van Duzor’s
Wonders of the Fragile Reef Article by Joe Meno Photography by Ryan Van Duzor and the LEGO House
The coral reef is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Under the sea, colorful anemones shelter clownfish, while moray eels watch schools of fish swim by. Jellyfish lazily move by, propelled by the pulsing of their bodies. It’s an alien world that only a few people have gone to, and a world that Ryan Van Duzor built. His build, Wonders of the Fragile Reef, is a model of a reef and many of its denizens, and is a great showcase of LEGO building that is now at the LEGO House in its Masterpiece Gallery.
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Ryan, a high school and college science instructor, has been an AFOL for about six years. He restarted his building (he built when he young) when he started buying his daughter her first sets. Since then, he has built a variety of builds— usually big builds with small builds sprinkled in. Wonders of the Fragile Reef took over two years to build, but then took another eight months of additional building for the LEGO House. When asked about his building approach, Ryan replies, “I do all of my planning in my head, and much of the time spent on my MOCs is in the planning and piece-finding phase. I am a tactile builder and I don’t use computer programs. Visualization is the key to my building style. I will often have an image in my head, buy a bunch of pieces that I think might fit that image, and then sit and play with them until I find the look I want. This is not the most efficient approach, but I need the parts in my hands to start to figure out if they will work for my purpose.”
A diver brushes by a shark at the reef. A look from above the reef.
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Jellyfish.
For Wonders of the Fragile Reef, Ryan made his initial focus the layout and structure for the corals. He explains: “I wanted the reef to look realistic, meaning fairly chaotic and organized at the same time, much like a real reef ecosystem. The foundation and structure was vital to provide a platform for the corals and to be pleasing to view. I had a few major elements early on that I knew would be included (the sharks, schools of fish, anemones, and shipwreck), but the primary component through the whole build and rebuild process was to have a diverse selection of realistic/ believable corals and to have them in areas of the reef that were plausible or scientifically accurate. After about a year of work, my focus changed to details. I have built hundreds of corals over the years and I started the process of culling the ones that weren’t good enough (in my eyes). I have also continuously added and built new corals as new ideas have come in my head and new elements have been released. For the final rebuild before I displayed at the LEGO House, I knew I had to add sea turtles, so I spent an entire summer building/culling those. I also did a total rebuild to fit into the LEGO House displays and take advantage of that space. I tore the entire reef apart and added a deep water drop-off section. I also took advantage of an awesome selection of new parts and the new ‘coral’ color for additional corals. I would say that the biggest changes over the past three years have been in the quality and details of the build. I was not afraid to remove things or rebuild things that were not quite right.” For him, the hardest part about building the reef was the fragility of the corals and finding the space and location for each. Many hours were spent arranging and rearranging (and rebuilding) the corals as well as the other animals.
Ariel can be found there too.
A moray eel waits in his den.
Turtles swim lazily in the reef.
Crabs explore a skeleton.
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People
Eli Willsea:
Microbuilding Master! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Eli Willsea Eli Willsea started playing with LEGO as a child, with his brother and neighbor, creating all sorts of random creations for their adventures, including fortresses, vehicles, and evil creatures to defeat. His favorite themes were Aqua Raiders and Knights Kingdom, and while he always tended to build “rainbow creations,” there always was a desire to take his building to the next level. The MasterBuilder Academy subscription sets, which came out in 2011, were the sparks that led him to build better. Eli received the first set as a gift along with a subscription from his grandmother. Reading through booklets that were in each set, he learned the importance of techniques like SNOT, how to color block, and why not to use BURPS. He also got a peek at some AFOL MOCs that he had previously only thought could be found at LEGOLand. Inspiration was already beginning to take seed in Eli’s mind. The next summer he visited his local fair which displayed some LEGO creations by a builder that later became his good friend, Grant Davis. Eli spent hours poring over Grant’s creations, examining all the details. Being fully inspired, Eli went home and built his first MOC. Ever since then he’s been building and steadily improving with no signs of stopping in sight! Since Eli started building MOCs, he has constantly been trying to improve and is always looking for ways to innovate using old and new LEGO elements. He started posting his creations on MOCpages, then moved to Flickr. The community on Flickr is where he developed a lot of his building technique and met many friends. With so many other builders that inspire him online, being in an environment where he can see their creations is priceless.
The Imaginary Islands This model is one of Eli’s newer works. Using only slope bricks and a couple of Technic supports, he makes a futuristic city that rises above a lush tropical island. The water is light blue plates covered with transparent light blue tiles that are round or rectangular, suggesting waves in a simple, elegant way. With microscale, it takes only a few special pieces to suggest scale. Cheese slopes become roofs or terrain with the change of its color.
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People
Grant Davis:
The Painted City Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by Grant Davis 38
The Painted City is a build that was a collaboration between three builders. When the project began in May 2019, Grant Davis and Micah Biedemen built at Grant’s house for a week. What started as a quick collaboration, though, took on a life of its own as the builders’ ambitions grew. By the time Micah had to leave, the project was unfinished and remained that way as school and work took priority. Over Christmas, Eli Willseas came and helped complete the project and photograph it. The total amount of combined build time added up to about three weeks, with a part count between 50,000–100,000 parts.
The original inspiration for this model was a painting done by artist LZY (Li Zhiyong). When contacted about the LEGO version that was built, Li was very impressed: “When I saw that my previous work was made into a LEGO model, my first reaction was incredible—it was really great! I would have never expected this to happen, much less on the other side of the ocean!” You can see more of Li Zhiyong’ss work at https://www.artstation.com/l_z_y.
To create the illusion of distance, forced perspective was used between the closer building (which was minifigure scale) and the background city (which was microscale). In terms of construction, Grant built most of the background city, Eli built all of the right side buildings and some of the left, with Micah filling out the left side buildings and providing creative input. Here’s a look at all the builds that were done to make this layout, including some behind-the-scenes photos of the photo shoot itself.
Here’s a look at one of the buildings closer up. To make some of the details, the customary stud-up bricks are turned sideways to allow for tiles to be placed like posters on the walls. The smooth surfaces of the walls are broken by 1 x 1 round plates.
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People
Ian Hou’s Toy Story Alien.
Ian Hou:
Ooo... Article by Joe Meno Photography by Ian Hou
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Ian Hou has been building for only a few years but has already been displayed at the LEGO House. His work has a sense of fun that is shown in the surprises he places in his models. In the model showcased here, the Toy Story Alien has some places that can only be seen if the viewer looks at the back. BrickJournal talked to him about his building and his Toy Story Alien. BrickJournal: So tell us about yourself. How old are you and when did you start building? Ian Hou: I am a 39-year-old LEGO builder from Taiwan. I played with LEGO as a child, but went on to other things. In 2014, my brother gave me a LEGO set and hoped that I would assemble it. I clearly remember, it was the 10218 Pet Shop. It took me many days to complete it. I discovered the differences in types and colors of LEGO parts with my childhood memories during building. The ways of connection and the appearance of the final model are more refined, especially with the way the sign was built by stacking plates sideways. All of this reignited my passion for LEGO as a child. After finishing the Pet Shop, I bought a few LEGO sets and completed them according to the instructions. I bought the Creative Bucket 10681 at the beginning of 2014 to build my first creation, a sculpture of my Golden Retriever Astro. It was a very simple but important work for me. My models in that early period were small due to the limited quantity of pieces I had. My first relatively complete and satisfactory work was Shulers tool box, which is a mini-size tool box that contains a tape
measure, a screwdriver and a disassembler. Then I started to build my own creations with a few pieces. Since then, it has been six years of building experiences! What is you favorite theme? My favorite theme is Creator. The way the Creator series are built inspires more ideas from me. When assembling Creator Expert cars, particularly from 10220 Volkswagen T1 to the Ford Mustang 10265, I am able to appreciate the designer’s work and learn the building techniques and use them in my works. What models have you built? My creations can be classified into three categories. The first is related to everyday objects, such as the dragon boat for the Dragon Boat Festival, Frankenstein for Halloween, and Santa Claus for Christmas, among others. The second category is characters, such as Deadpool Duck, Rio Tsu Kankichi, the Incredibles, Niffler from Harry Potter, and others. The third and last category is animals, such as the Rooster, Cats in the park, Hedwig the white owl from Harry Potter, and Circus Animals.
Rooster.
Niffler (above), and Deadpool Duck (below).
Mr. Incredible and Jack-Jack.
Blue and Red slipper.
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Community
Bantha Bricks:
The Razor Crest
Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by FX Manaud
Galactic greetings! I’m Steven Smyth from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. Since the community’s founding in 2016, on an almost daily basis, I have witnessed amazing and creative Star Wars builds in the best Star Wars themed building brick group on Facebook. FX Manaud took on the challenge of building the Razor Crest from The Mandalorian and the final build looks fantastic. I thought it would be great to learn more about this talented builder and his custom LEGO build. Steven Smyth: How’s it going, FX? I know you have quite a following on your Papaglop page and everyone in Bantha Bricks has been in awe over your amazing Star Wars brick build of the Razor Crest among others, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do. FX Manaud: Hi, first, thank you for contacting me! My builder name is Papaglop, my first name is F-X, I was born in France 44 years ago but I moved to Canada ten years ago. I work in the video games industry. I played a lot with LEGO when I was a kid (Castle and Space era), but then I stopped when I got my first Nintendo and I did not touch a brick for 30 years. Then, my first daughter was born and we started building together, first with big Megabloks. At the time she could not pronounce “Block” and would say “Glop” instead, so when she wanted to play, she would say “Papa! Glop!” and the name stuck with me. Then we got her first real LEGO bricks, mostly used from the thrift store. Everything changed when my wife offered me my first real Star Wars set six years ago (the Millennium Falcon 7965) and then the same year she found me loads of used LEGO, an incredible haul for just $10 CAD with many old Star Wars sets in it. That is really what kickstarted my collection. I’ve been an AFOL since then: Building Star Wars sets and MOCs. Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us?
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No surprise here. It’s Star Wars all the way: sets and MOCs and minifigs. I’m a fan of the movies/series/novels/comics, and when I happen to buy sets from other IPs, it’s always for parts for my Star Wars MOCs. I also buy Minecraft sets
because my daughter is really into it these days. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? At some point in my childhood, I wanted to be an architect. I guess it stemmed from there. The world has fallen in love with the new hit show, The Mandalorian, so let’s jump right into your newest MOC of the Razor Crest. What inspired you to tackle this starship? I was really looking forward to this show as soon as it was announced. And I discovered the Razor Crest on April 14th when the SW Celebration panel for The Mandalorian aired on YouTube. I immediately wanted to MOC it. So I did a first version, based on just a couple of images, then I improved it after each trailer. At the time, when I was posting photos of it on the Internet, most people had no idea what it was because by then Top view.
Rear view.
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