BrickJournal #70

Issue 70 • November 2021

Visiting Dale Harris’ Edwards Island

Building like a LEGO Master!

INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!

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Issue 70 • November 2021

Contents From the Editor....................................................2

People Rickard Stensby: Building like a LEGO Master.......................3 Being a LEGO Master..................................10 Aiden Rexrod: Building Beasts!.............................................12

Building Dale Harris: Reinventing Fabuland!...............................18 Mothra... ..............................................................28

Anders Horvath: Pod Building!..................................................32 Rui Miguel: Building Micro to Star Wars......................36 BrickNerd Instructions: Mini Michael Mouse’s New Car..............43 You Can Build It: Mini Profundity...............................................48 Minifigure Customization 101: Thinking Like Leonard Snart...................55

Community Pegasus Racing Team Takes Building Teamwork to a New Level!..........................60 Bantha Bricks Files: Steve Marsh’s Corvus......................................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Classic AFOLs.....................................................80

From the Editor: Hi! Well, this issue is full of unique builders.

From the Neo-Fabuland builds of Dale Harris to the character builds by Rickard Stensby, there is a lot of different building, and it really wasn’t planned.

November 2021 Issue 70 Publisher John Morrow

Editor in Chief Joe Meno

Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow

Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon

LEGO Ideas Correspondent Glen Wadleigh Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth BrickNerd Correspondent Dave Schefcik Contributors: Ted Andes, Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Dale Harris, Are M. Heiseldal, Anders Horvath, Todd Y. Kubo, Rui Miguel, Aiden Rexrod, Steven Smyth, Rickard Stensby, and Greg Hyland.

The Neo-Fabuland was the only thing I knew was going to be in the magazine.

The Shuttle article promised here got moved to the next issue because—well, it got a little complicated, and the final part of the issue didn’t happen yet. At presstime, restrictions were still in place for public places, but that is changing rapidly.

How rapidly? Well, events are slowly coming back now. By the time this magazine has been shipped, I hope to have attended two events personally. And I cannot tell you how excited I am about it! Meeting new people and seeing new builds personally is something I have really missed!

Hopefully I will have seen you—if not, here’s to next year!

Joe Meno 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!

Website

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Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:

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About the Cover: Dale Harris’ Edwards Island takes a bow.

Photo by Dale Harris.

About the Contents: A closer look at part of Edwards Island.

Photo by Dale Harris.

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 $68 Economy US, $80 Expedited US, $103 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, 6701 Courtman Drive, 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 2 upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.

People

What do Davy Jones, Michael Jackson, and Merlin have in common? All of them were built in LEGO form by Rickard Stensby, a builder from Sweden. His specialty is building figures and characters in a larger scale than minifigure, allowing him to sculpt details that are usually restricted by a minifigure’s size. His creations also have a cartoony style about them—a series of hunter’s trophies he built have a Dr. Seuss feel. Another sculpture hilariously brings into mind John Cleese’s posture for the Ministry of Silly Walks (a Monty Python skit).

Rickard Stensby:

Rickard is happy to describe himself in the same manner.

When interviewed online, he described his age as, “Most of me just turned 40, my back is around 57 and my knees just retired.” Asked about how he has been building, his answer was, “I’ve built LEGO as a grown-up since 2014, starting off with my ’80s LEGO from the attic.”

One of the many dancer models Rickard builds.

Building like a LEGO Master!

Article and Photography by Rickard Stensby

His return to building happened by chance. Rickard had his sister’s kids over for some playtime and he brought out his old LEGO boxes from the attic. The kids went home, but the boxes never went back up the attic. The boxes now reside in one of the largest rooms in his house, while his attic is full of crates from the LEGO Masters win… (LEGO Masters Sweden—this will be touched on in a bit).

In terms of favorite theme he states: “I’m probably not very interested in any of the official themes or sets. I enjoy building anything with character, really. Caricature portraits with a cartoonish look is probably a decent description of my style and theme.”

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Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, a Disney film.

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He never really builds sets, and he personally feels that he wouldn’t get much out of doing so. His everyday inspirations are the different people he sees, or scenes that would be fun for him to build. He’s inspired almost every day to build something he has encountered that day. Since time is limited, he has to choose what projects become reality.

He most often chooses the build that he himself would love to have in his home and makes him happy. He tries to keep his builds funny and light and preferably something nostalgic. Most of the models that Rickard builds are from movies or series he grew up with, with many of them connecting to people of the same generation. He also gets lots of requests to build the more poplar themes, like Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Avengers and others, but there are enough good builders doing those and those sagas are simply not “him.” His latest completed build, Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, is from a Disney movie that he has probably watched 100 times as a child, until his VHS tape broke. It’s such an important nostalgia for him, that he was nervous to try and recreate a scene from it. He tried building Merlin a few times before and always started with

A silly walker...

...and a couple of dancers.

Merlin’s hat. If he got the hat somewhat okay, the rest would be solvable. A few weeks ago, Rickard tried again, and got the hat good enough to continue building. Judging from the comments on his Instagram page, he seems to have done the movie some justice. Right now, this is Rickard’s personal favorite, but that can change over time.

LEGO building is a form of relaxation for Rickard, so he feels no rush finishing a design. He estimates: “I’d guess my smaller builds, such as the dancers, took four to eight hours each to experiment with, while some of my more complex models take between 20 to 40 hours until I’m satisfied enough to display them. Merlin took a lot of time due to the balancing act of his body. I am an engineer, but I had to redo his stance many times to balance his heavy head and hat on those skinny legs.”

When asked what his hardest build was, Rickard tells, ”I can’t say any of my builds have been particularly hard.

Sometimes I’ve come up with some ‘smart’ part usage that I just can’t let go, and I’ve been stuck for hours insisting on implementing it instead of going for a much easier design choice that would look even better. I do this to impress only the most hardcore AFOLs in the community… and most of the time, they don’t even notice it!”

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A look at the upper level of the display, ready for expansion.

Storage cabinets under the display.

A few hunting trophies, including a unicorn (below).

Rickard does his best to never copy techniques from other builders, but the reality is that this is impossible, as most connections have been made many times before by someone, somewhere. He usually avoids watching other builders’ content, to minimize influence and let him create his own solutions. He likes to think he is the father of many connections and part usage. On his build of Merlin, Rickard got a lot of positive feedback forming droid heads for bent fingers. That’s a technique that has been used before by him and other builders, so it isn’t unique. What makes Merlin’s hands unique, though, is the middle of the hand, where he uses bricks that enable the organic free positioning of the droid heads, resulting in the hands sticking out.

Rickard is quite proud of that technique, and also the use of tan banana elements on the other hand that can turn for a more natural look.

Lacking all other artistic skills, including painting, drawing, sculpting, or playing an instrument, Rickard never tries to draw his designs. He would just get disappointed and give up. He also never uses the computer or software for design—he just thinks about a design for a couple of days and then opens a drawer and picks a good starting brick.

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A slightly annoyed bird.

Michael Jackson!

For him, one of the best parts about LEGO building is to go to bed at night and ponder how to build the next steps. It also helps him fall asleep with something light on his mind. Most of his creations start here. Sometimes he rushes out of bed in the morning to try the ideas in reality before he goes to work. After that, he usually just wings it and builds with trial and error until he gets the design he pictured in his head.

Davy Jones.

When building faces of real people/characters, Rickard always Googles a photo first. He then finds the most characteristic feature on that person: the nose, eyes, teeth, or hair. After that, a decision has to be made on the size of his design. The smaller or more challenging the design size is, the better! If a character build is large enough, there is no real challenge to Rickard, and as a result he doesn’t find it so fun to build. Sculpting small is where the real problem-solving and fun part usage comes into play. Part of the enjoyment in building is working with limitations and compromising between bricks, colors, scale, and style for Rickard.

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A slightly annoyed rabbit.

Elsa from Frozen.

When the scale is decided on, the face and building is started. He sometimes lays out the face in 2-D on a table, squints his eyes and moves everything around until he sees something that resembles the person. From there, he starts experimenting and laying it out in 3-D. Suddenly, it’s midnight, and having built through two meals, he has a decent model on the table. Then he goes back to bed to redesign the parts that feel off, until he falls asleep. Then it’s rinse and repeat!

Asked about why he builds, Rickard explains: “Initially I built LEGO as relaxation to take my mind off work. It is an awesome therapeutic means for that, at least for people like me who don’t have the brain capacity to think about anything else while problem-solving LEGO designs…”.

He continues: “The last few years, along with a lot of social media attention, local media, and lately through LEGO Masters, this hobby has become a part of my identity. I don’t mind that, of course—it’s an extremely rewarding feeling to be appreciated for something. Receiving so many positive reviews and people saying you affected them positively with something you create is a very humbling feeling. However, it’s also more than a little addicting and I hope not to get lost in my motivations for creating. I feel that I have just started to explore my potential with LEGO and that I have so much more to create right now. I’m hoping I can continue to keep doing this in the years to come.”

For advice, Rickard offers the following: “If you’re just getting started with LEGO building, don’t be discouraged by all the great builds there are out there. You must remember that LEGO is a sport of material… Start small, buy cheap bricks, learn some basic techniques with magazines and guides, and then build things you would like to have on your shelf. As in all hobbies and other aspects of life, surround yourself with people who appreciate and support what you do. That will let you grow. If you cannot find anyone at home, the LEGO fan community is one of the most welcoming and supporting ones I’ve ever seen, so join in social media. I’m sure BrickJournal has a bundle of suggestions on where to turn to as a newcomer to the community.“ The couple.

Love.

The Simpsons.

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There were some mentions of LEGO Masters in the interview, because Rickard was one of the winners of the first LEGO Masters competition! BrickJournal talked to him about his experience.

BrickJournal: When did you participate in LEGO Masters and in what country?

Rickard Stensby: I was one of the winning team members of the first LEGO Masters in Sweden in 2020. The show was recorded during the start of the pandemic during tough restrictions and was aired, with the final episode in December. As a result, the show is still rather fresh. Sweden is now recording a second season that will likely air in the fall of 2021.

How was the experience?

Winning the competition.

Being a LEGO Master!

One of the team builds.

I was mostly nervous about the cameras and cringing too much for my daughter to be ashamed when watching.

However, I absolutely loved every second of it. It’s like a dream to be able to commit to your passion 100% for many weeks during the filming. The challenges were so different from what I would normally build and what I would ever build in the future, so it was really a chance of a lifetime.

I was paired up with a builder called @dgustafsson13: David Gustafsson. He is a technical genius and together we really complemented each other and managed to win.

The roster was full of well-known builders so it was a close competition and a hard time for the judges, as there were many great builds.

What was the best part of the competition?

The best part of being on LEGO Masters is all of the excitement it brought to many kids and adults at home and hearing those stories. I don’t think it made a huge impact on everyone watching but I also had many kids and adults reach out and tell me how it affected them. That is more than enough to make me proud to have been a part of this.

Many feel inspired and I’ve received the sweetest mail from kids who have put their tablets aside and pulled out the LEGO boxes again. I love it!

The crew at Meter television was absolutely brilliant. We had so much fun backstage and around the recordings.

Also the contestants became a close group after being isolated at a hotel for so many weeks. We still kept in touch frequently after the show was over.

What was the hardest part?

Two things were frustrating in making a show like LEGO Masters. The first is the access to the bricks. Even though 2.5 million is a huge amount, the assortment in the Swedish version was not quite what we were hoping for. There was a lot less variation than we had seen in the American version, and often it led to some very sketchy design choices that we were not proud of. This was, of course, equal for all contestants so it added to the challenge, but many of us would have really hoped for an even more diverse challenge to show off our styles and skills.

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Secondly, we learned that making TV is a lot of waiting… and that’s just not so easy when you want to grab bricks and go to work! Patience was tested…

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Building

Aiden Rexrod:

Building Beasts!

Article and Photography

by Aiden Rexrod

The adult builders are getting younger and younger. Aiden Rexrod is a great example. At the ripe old age of 18, transitioning from high school into the workforce, he has made himself known online for his builds, which are organic in nature.

When he started LEGO building as a three-year-old, he had a large tub of bricks with one headless minifigure. His collection quickly grew, however, as all he asked for as birthday and Christmas presents was LEGO sets.

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Throughout his childhood, Aiden would see amazing builds online and wanted to build at the skill level he saw. He wasn’t able to build as well as they could, but he tried his best anyway. He always thought he needed millions of pieces

to really be a good builder and even then, Aiden had no idea where he would even start. Over time he accumulated more sets, which usually didn’t stay together long because he wanted more parts to build with.

One summer, Aiden began sorting the now massive collection he and his brother has amassed. It was a long and tedious task that took longer than one summer, but he eventually had most of it sorted. Even after that, he didn’t think he had enough parts to build with as well as the System builders did. He later figured out this was not true, because it really doesn’t matter how many parts a builder has—they can still build very well with only a small amount of pieces.

Tytherer, a dragon.

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After a bit more sorting and building, Aiden wanted to really start building seriously, but he still thought System building was out of his league. He did realize, though, that he had a lot of Bionicle and Hero Factory elements and some of his favorite builds were Mike Nieves’ (@retincence on Flickr) Bionicle Pokemon builds, so Aiden started building with Bionicle. He really enjoyed it and began photographing his builds and posting to his Instagram page @Aiden.builds.

Since then, Aiden’s skill with building has progressed, thanks to his LEGO-filled childhood. It’s not a surprise that his favorite theme is Bionicle.

Nocturn in light...

...and in dark.

Flos Corpus.

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Aiden can’t recall exactly what inspired him to build beyond sets, but the idea that he could make whatever he wanted, however he wanted, was a strong factor. Inspiration for models and builds come from the parts themselves—Aiden will start messing around with random parts or colors until something just fits together, then he builds off of that. Other times it will come from other builds that he sees online and really likes. And every once in a while, he’ll be inspired by some artwork he sees.

Aiden will literally sit down, pull out a drawer of parts, and just mash things together to see what happens. Most of the time, he will end up with a head design, or at least the start of one, and can then visualize scale, color, and other design aspects of the body and limbs much better.

Something he does as he is building is take work in progress (WIP) photos. They can be fun to go back and look at to see early versions of his builds. Another factor that affects his builds which may not seem as evident is the color Aiden chooses.

Bionicle has a more limited parts selection than System does, and this is especially evident when it comes to colors like green, orange, yellow, and many newer brighter colors. That means that if he is working with one of those colors, he only has so many parts at his disposal, so he is forced to build with whatever parts come in that color.

Why Aiden builds is a combination of multiple things. Being able to think of any idea, whatever it may be, and to be able to make it a reality is really captivating and keeps him coming back for more because

something new is always brewing up in his head. He also enjoys recreating real-life creatures, characters, or items from real life. Using reference photos and sometime looking up standard measurements to help get things as accurate as possible fulfills a lot of his “extra detail” nature, though this can also be a curse when it causes him to spend hours trying to get one leg to look right. Aiden also enjoys the challenge of using the limited parts of LEGO to create. Using pieces in ways they weren’t originally designed for brings joy to his heart, such as using Bionicle masks as flower petals on his Flos Corpus (purple flower). Through this he also likes to push the boundaries of what he can do with the parts he’s has and he’s always looking to do something new with his builds.

Finally, he has tons of fun building, so that alone keeps him coming back. In fact, he has a few incomplete builds that he might go back and finish at some point. Aiden doesn’t do many large-scale projects, but ideas are always popping up so he never knows when he’ll sit down to start something new.

While Aiden is proud of most of his builds, he does have some favorites. Here’s a look at them with his comments: “The Devour Flower was actually a rather short build because I built it for a LEGO Ideas contest (Get Your Build into the LEGO House) that I learned about after it was already halfway over. I was fortunate to win with it in 2020, and so it’s spending a year in Denmark. As for the build itself, the flower is the part most people see first, but there’s a good bit that went into the rest that goes unseen. Balance was a problem for me—the pot doesn’t rest flush to the ground, and the flower kept on rotating at one of the connections causing it to fall. To solve this problem I put magnet/weight bricks in the pot to help prevent the build from falling over. Another interesting part is the top of the pot. I had to create a way to hold it together while also having room for the Dino tail piece, which I was successfully able to do and am quite happy with. In the stem where the build kept twisting, I did my best to reinforce it with a lightsaber rod through the middle and Technic connectors on the outside, but even now it still will fall if not balanced correctly.”

For beginning builders, he offers the following advice—which he actually learned from another BrickJournal article: Build within your limits. This means don’t build so big or use so many parts that you run out of parts on every build before it’s finished.

This allowed Aiden to keep his builds looking consistent because he had enough parts to finish most of his builds. It also helped him hone his creativity by limiting him to what he already owned and not always buying more parts, which also saved his wallet, which is always nice.

The Devour Flower.

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Some views of Volath.

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“The hardest build I have to say is Volath. In total, I spent about a month working on it. Volath was a challenge working in dark green because there’s not a ton of useful parts in that color when it comes to Bionicle.

I started with the head and neck, and then built a general frame to help me visualize how I wanted the body to be shaped. I tried and retried different parts to get them to fill in areas of the body. Once something worked there was the challenge of connecting it to the frame that holds the rest of the body up. It’s also challenging for me to build legs for my builds, and Volath was no exception. As a result, it took a while to finalize the leg and foot designs. Another part I want to point out is the head. The main part of the head is a unique mold from the Midgard Serpent Viking set, but it was quite tricky managing to get it to fit in a way to connect both horns, the lower jaw, and attaching the neck.

Using a combination of bracket parts and Technic pieces to fit everything in such a narrow space was very satisfying to do.”

The Abyssal Serpent is another of my favorites, mostly for the organic look that it has. Most of the build is pretty simple, so it did not take a super long time to build, but it was tedious when I had to change out parts because they were strung along three different flex tubes, which are flexible bars that come in all kinds of lengths (they are one of my favorite pieces and I use them a lot). Underneath all the spikes are actually lots of Technic pieces jammed into the small space to give the spikes more range of motion to make the most organic shape I could.

“Build within your limits... don’t build so big or use so many parts that you run out of parts on every build before it’s finished.”

My Magpie build was a quick build because it was for a large online construction contest called Biocup.

I am quite happy with the wing design, having not seen anything like it before. I was quite pleased that it worked so well. It also goes to show that no matter how long or how short you’ve been building, there are always new ways to build things, even if it seems like everything has been done before.

A magpie.

The Abyssal Serpent.

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Building

Dale Harris:

Reinventing Fabuland!

Article and Photography by Dale Harris 18

As the director and graphic designer at Studio Ink, a design studio in Australia, Dale Harris spends his days designing logos, printed materials, websites and social media campaigns.

Out of the office, though, he designs his own LEGO creations.

One of his biggest models is actually a Fabuland-themed layout: Edward’s Island. Here, Dale talks about his building and about updating the Fabuland theme to Neo-Fabuland and LEGO building.

BrickJournal: When did you start building and what are you favorite themes?

Dale Harris: I have been building since he early ’80s, however I had a significant Dark Age from around 1995 to 2015. The three original classic themes will always speak to me the strongest: Space, Castle, and Train.

What got you back into building as an adult?

My wife Kara was the spark of inspiration. She joined the local LUG and invited me along to a meeting… the rest is history.

What inspired you to start building beyond sets?

As a kid, my brother Allen, my sister Sarah and I always built our own creations, sprawled out on the lounge room carpet with a pile of LEGO between us, so LEGO has always been about the creative experience for me. Don’t get me wrong—I love seeing all the new sets; I just don’t really buy many of them. Almost all of my LEGO purchasing A more distant look at the pier.

One of the residents fishes at the pier.

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Driving through town.

is done via Bricklink for parts for my builds, and I am the most interested seeing what people create themselves beyond the limitations of a set.

Now, the creations I have built so far have been inspired by two main things: local architecture of my hometown (Bendigo, Victorian, Australia) and LEGO themes from my childhood. So far, I have revisited Classic Space and Fabuland and I am currently working on a Castle display which pits my two favorite factions, Freshmen and the Black Falcons, against each other.

How do you build? Do you plan and sketch out your builds or do you just start building and let it grow organically?

I always start from some kind of plan, generally a list (of everything I want to include in my build) and a very rough layout sketch (which will invariably be ignored once I actually start building), which will grow and change as I go along. There always needs to be room for a better idea to come along once you get the bricks out.

Visiting a vendor stand.

Sailing away.

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Besides using paper, I sometimes build some elements (especially architectural detail) of my builds digitally to work out how many parts I need to purchase.

Taking care of the garden.

The deck is a perfect place to see what is going on.

How long can it take to build a model?

I like to allow a lot of time for building and gradually buying parts. I build very slowly over around eight to ten months for most of my LEGO builds. This does two things: it means that I can spend a lot more time to think and plan, but it also means I have a lot of time to source all the parts I need very gradually, making for a more managed financial outlay.

The lighthouse at Edward’s Island.

What was the hardest build you have done?

I don’t know anything I have built that has been particularly difficult. The only things that have made it hard are when I am racing to meet a deadline or when pieces I have ordered do not arrive in time.

What’s a build you are most proud of?

At the moment it’s probably my Neo Fabuland build, Edward’s Island, which revisits Fabuland in much the same way that No-Classic Space looks to Classic Space as a series of design conventions and a color palette. It features a large island with a fully realized landscape of cliffs, hills, beach, roads, trees, flowers, and plates and includes ten unique Neo-Fabuland buildings as well as vehicles, all in the original Fabuland color scheme. I particularly enjoyed working on the bulldings to try and recreate the picture storybook style of the original Fabuland sets while employing modern-day parts and building techniques to take the level of detail up just a notch or two. Another favorite aspect in a lot of my builds is the landscape. I love building rock work and terrain from slopes and wedge plates.

The lighthouse keeper at Edward’s Island.

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The island under construction.

Do you build because you want to make a replica of something, or just want to create?

I do both of these things; with my Bendigo architecture builds, I definitely am trying to create a recognizable replica of the building. However, with most of my other builds it is really about the creative process and coming up with the best idea I can, and then realizing it with all the great pieces and building techniques available to us.

What other projects are you working on now?

At the moment I am building a Castle project which will hopefully be displayed at Brickvention 2022 in Melbourne.

It features my two favorite Castle factions, the Forest men and Black Falcons, and features a sprawling underground cave network which forms part of the Forestman’s hideout

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A different view of the deck.

and a Castle for the Black Falcons. I have also started planning and purchasing parts for my 2023 display which will revisit the world of Ice Planet 2002.

What advice would you give to beginning builders?

I don’t know that I have any great advice. The main thing is to begin and remember that building is meant to be enjoyable. I have found a great community of like-minded people in our local LUG and online who are great to bounce ideas off and get feedback on my ideas.

Some of the charm of Edward’s Island can be seen here.

One of the houses on the island.

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An overhead view of the island.

Creating Neo-Fabuland Edward’s Island is Dale’s revisiting and reimagining of the Fabuland theme. Instead of looking at the theme by its unique elements, Dale chose to look at the theme as a design style and analyzing its design conventions and color schemes. From there, he created Neo-Fabuland. Here are the ideas and guidelines that define the theme:

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A snack stand in town.

Primary Color Palette

Fabuland has a limited color palette, with the buildings and vehicles made up of four colors: red, blue, yellow, and green with rare uses of white, black, and gray mixed in. The full Fabuland color palette is larger and includes oranges, browns, lime green, and tan. Neo Fabuland would use the primary color palette as much as possible for the buildings and vehicles, while receiving green for grass and foliage.

The more natural colors would be used to represent wood, stone, and sand among other things.

Neo-Fabuland should read as Fabuland at first glance, and keeping the same balance of colors as the original sets will be key to this.

Storybook Style

The ‘70s picture storybook world inhabited by the anthropomorphic animals of Fabuland features buildings, vehicles, and implements with an exaggerated, whimsical style not unlike children’s books at the time, such as the Berenstein Bears. Door and window frames appear rounded; vehicles have exaggerated, rounded features reminiscent of classic cars; implements are slightly over scale and decoratively styled rather than the more utilitarian designs of standard LEGO town implements.

Neo-Fabuland will recreate this visual style as closely as possible in all of its models.

Unique Elements

It’s not possible to pay homage to Fabuland without using the many original figures and distinctive parts that made the theme so unique.

Neo-Fabuland will be inhabited by as many original Fabuland figures and elements as can be found.

An example of using unique elements and primary color for windows.

Some concept builds.

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Buildings under construction showing bright color.

Hand-Drawn Lettering

Fabuland sets featured in pen and ink cartoon-like graphics for signs, house numbers and even some physical objects.

As with the architectural style, the overall style of these graphics is very reminiscent of the picture storybook illustration of its time.

Neo-Fabuland will recreate the classic hand-drawn lettering of Fabuland with the use of custom decals for signage.

More buildings showing use of color and storybook styling.

Examples of lettering and graphics in the Neo-Fabuland style.

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Building

Detail of the artwork brick pattern used for Mothra’s wings. The work is printed to size, matching LEGO plates snot-built. The color is matching the current color palette.

MOTHRA

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Mothra can balance on the pedestal (sans wings) at a location with a four stud connection. Shown here with the fore wings removed. The wing connections are Technic pin and 1 x2 plate with ball socket.

LEGO Muji hole punch was key in being able to create exact hole for the studs to connect the paper printed elements with LEGO.

Builder Profile

Todd Y. Kubo

Below: First test of the wing balance with no additional support. Only suspended by fishing mono-filament between wing supports through the top of the forewing.

A long-time LEGO contributor, builder and fan.

Todd is one of the first original LEGO Ambassadors, a contributor with the LEGO Group’s efforts with the LEGO Factory Project, and a beta software tester for LEGO Digital Designer. He was one of the 24 finalists in the first LEGO Master Model Builder search in 2004. He’s a frequent attendee and contributor to BrickCon in Seattle. Recently, he stepped down as one of the West Coast editors of BrickJournal.

I have been a fan of the Kaiju movies since my childhood.

I spent many a lazy late Saturday morning, watching the “creature features” on the local channel growing up in Denver, CO. Perhaps it was a connection to the plastic model building I was really into for a while that caught my interest. Watching the actors in the suitmations tear through the city, or battle all the rockets, bombs, and lasers thrown at them was pure B-grade entertainment. It did make me wonder how many hours were spent on building

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However, it isn’t this model of Mothra! I had already completed Mothra almost ten years ago. Back in 2010, I was able to get my hands on a few of the LEGO Muji sets. The most important item of these sets was the LEGO Muji hole puncher! As soon as I had unboxed the Muji Hole punch, I had an idea of what I was going to build. The LEGO Muji sets were an interesting merge of papercraft and the brick.

The hole punch was a vital tool that I used to make the first Mothra.

Original Mothra build 2011-2012, displayed at Brickcon in 2012 and 2013. Model has fixed wing position. Overall wingspan of the original model is approximately 34 inches wingtip to wingtip.

those fantastic miniature sets, all with the goal of having them explode, crushed, and kicked in slow-motion.

LEGO was perfect for this! I could craft any type of ship, building, etc., and watch it do the same thing—blow up beautifully! But I could rebuild it many times over!

I am always considering, what do I build next? I try to think of something that I have not run across before. It is either that, or any number of new parts the LEGO is coming up with—that spurs the creative thoughts and I become inspired to build!

Mothra is one of those inspirations.

My first Mothra MOC was not half bad! I created the wings on paper and took the time to “brick out” the wing pattern (complete with studs up and underside tubes and rods print). The body was made to look like the older animatronic puppets used for Mothra, while the wing artwork came from Godzilla: Final Wars (Toho Pictures, 2004).

Fast forward to 2019. Godzilla: King of Monsters (Legendary Pictures, 2019) is in the theatres, and is featuring one of my favorite Kaiju once again! Mothra returned to the big screen! So time to rebuild a new Mothra MoC!

From one wingtip to the end of the other (laying as flat as possible) the wingspan is just over 50 inches. In the image here, you may be able to just make out the mono-filament line that pulls the wings up. A balance and slight tilt forward can keep this open and off the table surface.

Far Right: Shows the dual Technic connections. A Technic axle w/ball end is all that is used to connect each wing to the body.

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All new parts—curved slopes, tiles, horns, Mixel ball joints, and so on—now exist! My first thought is how can I keep the head of this new Mothra down to about 4-5 studs wide?

Even if I can limit her head size, the thorax and abdomen are going to be good sized! I hadn’t even thought about the wingspan yet. I figured as long as the head can come together, the rest will follow just fine.

I’m not a huge “planner.” I grab parts, rough out a structure, and redo/rebuild time and time again. I’ll check any number of references, LEGO fan books, MOC forums, anything to get some idea of how to build what I’m working on. I stay with bricks in hand and have at it. To be honest, since I do build that way, I have no clue how many parts I’ve used!

Once the head was completed, I could rough out the rest of Mothra. It’s fairly straightforward building too; studs out, analog hinges, and Mixel ball joints to angle sections in a cylindrical structure for the body. A few more larger ball joints to connect everything together, head, thorax and abdomen—it’s all looking good so far!

Now back to the wings. Here comes the challenge. Even in paper, these get a bit heavy. And as much as I would want to stick to using brick, it’s probably not going to be as posable as I want. Now that the main body is complete, I’ve estimated from images that her forewing is going to need to be anywhere from 28 to 32 inches each. Even at a brick wide, that is going to be a bit more than I am going to attempt.

The ‘dead bug” pose. An underside view of the leg connections. Mixel ball and plate connected 6-leg structure.

Let’s dig out the Muji hole punch!

But this time, I was going to design the wings in a ‘plate side view.’ And after countless ‘freeze frames’ on the bluray player and looking at the wing style from vinyl toys, I came up with the size and mapped it all out on a grid.

Matching colors in Illustrator to the bricks, I proceeded to select each boxed section to fill in the pattern. Once that is completed, it was just a simple effort to color print on 11 x 17, knit the prints together, and trim it out. Add a few strategic creases for rigidity to the wings, it then became just a matter of planning the hole punches. Thread Technic axles, secure the brick connections, and I was pretty much done. In fact, it might have taken me just as long to create the artwork for the wings as it took me to build the model.

I think the results were well worth it! Mothra returns!

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Building

Anders Horvath:

Pod Building!

What can I do with a few Vidiyo Pods?

Anders Horvath contemplated this question and created a building. He wanted to incorporate the rounded corners on the pod glasses on the structure as well.

Black stripes were added in his second iteration of the build to give it more of a black and white look

John Randall’s train display.

Article and Photography by Anders Horvath 32

The rear of the building, showing the lower balcony and the rear windows of the sporting goods store.

and to help define the building’s form.

A look at the rear window of the sporting goods store.

The three-floor interior has a sporting goods store in the ground floor and living quarters in the 2nd and 3rd floor.

For Anders, it was tricky to get all the bricks to align in all three directions.

People might notice a one plate “addition” between the 1st and 2nd floor, but Anders wanted

The side, showing the entrance to the sporting goods store.

Another angle, showing the upper balcony.

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Another view of the building.

The pod on the second floor has a bedroom!

to keep half-plate inserts for the balcony. This became a compromise to get the roof exactly correct in width and depth. He also gave the roof a modern look for the air intake, as he didn’t want that to have a square bulky air box on the roof.

Skateboarders are having fun.

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To make the building and its layout come to life, Anders

And it’s time to open the shop!

A visitor decides it’s a good time to window shop!

A drone’s eye view of the building.

added minifigures through the building, from a person on the upper balcony to the shoppers and skateboarders outside the bicycle shop.

The pod on the third floor is an indoor garden.

The interiors are filled with details too, making this building a great example of unusual parts usage!

A resident tends to one of his plants on the balcony.

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Building

Rui Miguel’s Chamber of Secrets, as seen in the Harry Potter film.

Rui Miguel:

Building Micro to Star Wars!

Article and Photography

by Rui Miguel

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Rui Miguel, a Portuguese builder, has been on the scene making creations for a few years and has been featured online recently with some outstanding builds.

At the age of 27, he has completed a Master’s degree in Design and Multimedia from the University of Coimbra and is preparing to enter the job market.

While he is developing his resume and design portfolio, his LEGO portfolio has already gotten him recognition online.

Rui has been building since childhood, having strong memories of building classic pirates and castle sets at the age of four. His mother recalls him building even earlier, with him creating towers and strange houses at only eight months old. He never stopped building since, as for him, “No other product that would emerge could offer me what LEGO does then and now. Imagination has no limits and LEGO has always allowed me to physically bring anything from the realm of my imagination into existence.”

Growing up with all the recent LEGO themes, Rui doesn’t have a single favorite theme. Instead he has a group of themes he likes: Adventurers with Johnny Thunder, Star Wars, Classic Pirates, Castle, and Space. His inspiration to build beyond sets came from the activity of building itself: he wanted to expand the experience of creating his own stories and universes.

Inspiration behind a specific build can come from a variety of factors for Rui. If it’s a creation with creative freedom such as no piece count, inspiration could be from a music track, an action scene in a movie, a simple phrase from a book, or a fellow LEGO fan. Sometimes he can look randomly at a LEGO piece and be

Building small...

Rui’s building skills run across all scales, from miniland scale for figures to, as seen here, microscale. This microscale street model is a group of modular builds lined up to make a city block.

The train station.

Buildings include a Chinese restaurant, a train station, a police station, an apartment building, a luxury hotel, and a LEGO store. There’s also a train that is displayed behind the train station.

The police station.

The Chinese restaurant.

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A long time ago...

Rui’s rendition of the original Star Wars poster is a combination of mosaic and sculpture. The plates and elements are used not only to make the characters (which in itself is a major challenge) but also to convey scale—a microscale X-Wing is followed by nanoscale fighters made of simple parts (see inset at far right). Other tricks include the use of sculptured builds to pop out the characters from the background, and the treatment of Darth Vader, which is featured on the next page.

The characters of Star Wars, as rendered by Rui.

A track is mounted from the ceiling and has a running cargo train.

A panorama of the main level.

inspired: “I think I could do an alien with this,” and the whole idea flourishes from that point. If the context is LEGO to be featured as a product, the root of that inspiration depends entirely on the theme, the references and the target group. If, for example, it’s a movie-based project, he needs to imagine himself inside the movie set, see the scale and the details of the movie props, hear its soundtrack, feel its fandom, and channel all this into LEGO form.

Surprisingly, all of Rui’s published LEGO works were made for contests. He likes to participate because it helps him train for small LEGO Design exercises. It allows him to experience what it’s like to create with the pressure of a deadline and resources. All projects so far have taken on average two days to finish; from setting the idea, building physically, to digitally building and after that, taking and editing the photos. It’s important for the design process to be feasible. Sometimes, if it requires planning or if a specific idea has a complex architecture, basically Rui’s pencil and paper are the LEGO bricks. He first sketches directly with physical bricks and then digitally— other times the inverse.

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Rui’s design process always starts with an idea he visualised in his mind. He takes some notes and does some brainstorming of the play features. After this step he collects

Making a Mask One of the distinctive elements of the Star Wars poster is the looming mask of Darth Vader in the background. Rui’s rendition took form over a progression of building, using shades of blue to pull out Vader’s helmet and other details.

Here you can see the build as it developed from basic shapes to the design that is recognizable by any fan of the original Star Wars trilogy!

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Building a board...

One of Rui’s most recent builds is a shadow box build of a storyboard image from The Empire Strikes Back. Like his Star Wars poster, he pulls out the pilot by making him a sculpture. The snowspeeders are also rendered and pop out of the mosaic and windscreen, which add a unique twist to the background.

The original image.

all the pieces he thinks he will need, no matter their color. At this stage the important thing is to design the model itself and explore the quality of playfulness. He builds with the flow of the LEGO shapes he has in his hands and the goal in his mind, but he’s also very meticulous... he always guides his process with ‘legal LEGO techniques.’ He wants the structure of his creations to be sturdy and played with, without the fear it might break at the smallest movement.

The snowspeeders.

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Once the prototype model is done, he builds it digitally using LEGO Digital Designer or Bricklink Studio 2.0. There he does the final refinements and does the colour testing. After that he physically builds the final version with the right colours and last refinements. The process is finished with the photography and editing process.

Each build has its own challenges. From Rui’s microscale projects, he recalls the police department in particular because he built it with studs facing down. On his Chamber of Secrets, it was Salazar Slytherin’s head sculpt. For the modular Neo-Gothic Library project, it was finding the right aesthetic. On his Star Wars (1977) poster recreation, it was Leia’s dress and Luke holding the lightsaber, and on top of that, giving the sense of motion into their clothes. His Battle of Hoth was also challenging, to play with LEGO on a 2-D perspective matching the original storyboard reference.

As for favorite builds, Rui picks out specific sections in his creations: for him, Vader’s mask in the Star Wars poster is a definite. His blue pieces stock was very limited and he had a hunch that he couldn’t do it because he didn’t have a lot of specific pieces that allowed him to sculpt the reference image, so he went to Bricklink to get some pieces, but he couldn’t afford waiting for the arrival of the order, due to the contest deadline—so he started experimenting with what he had, spending two hours of placing this, moving that and trying this… or what about this instead? With this process, he actually completed the whole mask. In the end, he had all the pieces needed. For him, it was almost like the pieces wanted to be assembled by themselves.

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The Star Wars project made Rui very proud because it opened many doors to promote his creations, and he’s excited to share much more in the future. For beginning builders he offers the following advice: “As you grow up and play with LEGO, never let go of your inner child. That’s to me the most crucial core to building creative things—to get wild and tell crazy stories. The more you build, the more natural it will become to capture your imagination in LEGO.”

The full model.

Building a library...

A smaller project RUi has worked on is a modular Neo Gothic Library.

Styled with arches and black chandeliers, this layout is furnished with the various items found in a library to make the model come to life.

Furnishings and figures.

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Unfurnished.

A look at the ceiling.

BrickNerd is a LEGO fan website that was started by Tommy Williamson. Relaunched in 2021 by Dave Schefcik and some of the best LEGO builders in the world, the site continues the mission started by Tommy: to show the best of the LEGO fan community online with builds, interviews and articles. BrickJournal is proud to continue its partnership with BrickNerd.

Parts List

(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Mini Michael Mouse‘s New Car Design and Instructions

by Are M. Heiseldal from BrickNerd

When I grew up in the ’80s, I ended up collecting what we now know as Classic Town. My younger brother, however, had quite a lot of Fabuland sets, and even though I loved Town (and still do), I was also slightly envious. Fabuland was so cool! Especially the cars; I really liked that aesthetic.

Set number 328, Michael Mouse’s New Car (we called him Mass Mus in Norway, but the set goes by “Moe Mouse’s Roadster” on BrickLink and was released as set 121 in the US, simply called “Roadster”) was a bit different from most of the other cars. It was released in 1979, the first year of Fabuland, and apart from the then-new chassis, doors and windscreen, it was all made from regular bricks and plates.

I still loved it, though.

This miniature version features some classic mudguards that have been out of production since 2004, but they’re super cheap on BrickLink if you want to stick with my design. If not, there are more recent mudguard parts that will work almost as well.

Michael’s head is what BrickLink calls Dark Orange, a new colour for 1979. Any shade of brown will work, but the minifig head was actually just produced in Dark Orange as of this year—there are three of them in the Ideas Pooh set!

If you decide to build your own miniature roadster, maybe it will bring back good memories of an old theme—or give you a little taste of something young kids played with way before you were born. Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

Qty Part 1 2431.dat 2 3022.dat 4 3023.dat 1 3821.dat 1 3822.dat 2 4081b.dat 3

15573.dat

2

4600.dat

4 4

4624.dat 3139.dat

1

47905.dat

2

60897.dat

1 1 1 2 1 3 1 1

2432.dat 3004.dat 3005.dat 3023.dat 3024.dat 3070b.dat 87079.dat 3626c.dat

1 2 4 2

2540.dat 3020.dat 3021.dat 3787.dat

1

11476.dat

4 2 1

54200.dat 63864.dat 87580.dat

Color Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue

Description Tile 1 x 4 with Groove Plate 2 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 Door 1 x 3 x 1 Right Door 1 x 3 x 1 Left Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2 Blue Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud, without Understud Lt Bluish Grey Plate 2 x 2 with 2 Wheel Pins Lt Bluish Grey Wheel Rim 6.4 x 8 Black Tyre 4/ 80 x 8 Single Smooth Type 1 Black Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Two Opposite Sides Black Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical (Thick C-Clip) Yellow Tile 1 x 2 with Handle Yellow Brick 1 x 2 Yellow Brick 1 x 1 Yellow Plate 1 x 2 Yellow Plate 1 x 1 Yellow Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Yellow Tile 2 x 4 with Groove Dark Orange Minifig Head with Closed Hollow Stud Red Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Red Plate 2 x 4 Red Plate 2 x 3 Red Car Mudguard 2 x 4 without Studs Red Plate 1 x 2 with Clip Horizontal on Side (Thick C-Clip) Red Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Red Tile 1 x 3 Red Plate 2 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud You can go to the BrickNerd website by typing: https://bricknerd.com/ on your browser or by scanning this QR code!

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You Can Build It MINI Build

Mini Profundity (Admiral Raddus’ MC75 Flagship) Design and Instructions

by Christopher Deck Hello everybody, and welcome to our next building session in order to complete the vehicles and vessels from the first Star Wars spin-off movie: Rogue One. Our vehicle of choice today is Admiral Raddus’ flagship, the Profundity, a Mon Calamari MC75 star cruiser. The ship design already looks similar to the well-known MC80 ships from the Classic Trilogy, except for the belt with fin that looks like an exo-skeleton in which the cruiser is docked.

The tricky part with this simple-looking ship is that it has a sleek hull, narrowing to the ends. The smaller you want to build this ship, the more difficult it becomes. With a nice upside-down attachment of the large 4x16 wedge piece (stud inversion technique is inside) and a 4x9 wing plate on top which features the same angles as the wedge piece, we obtain the desired shape.

The other difficult part is to create the illusion that the slim ship slides into the ring of the exo-skeleton, while in fact both ends of the ship are attached separately around a SNOT-core, of course. I hope you will enjoy building this.

See you next time!

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Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)

Qty Color Part 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3005.dat 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 4070.dat 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 30162.dat 3 1 2 2

Dark-Bluish-Gray 3024.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3794b.dat

6

Dark-Bluish-Gray 3794b.dat

1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1

Light-Bluish-Gray 34103.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3021.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 3021.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3020.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3795.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3034.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 85984.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 4460a.dat

2 4 1 2 1 1 3 1 1

Dark-Bluish-Gray 15068.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 92946.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 6632.dat Black 4263.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 3068b.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 87079.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 45301.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 43713.dat

1 1 1

Light-Bluish-Gray 41770.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 41769.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 2413.dat

Description Brick 1 x 1 Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Minifig Binoculars with Round Eyepiece Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud Plate 1 x 3 with 2 Studs Offset Plate 2 x 2 Plate 2 x 3 Plate 2 x 3 Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 2 x 8 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Brick 75 2 x 1 x 3 with Open Stud Slope Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Plate 45 2 x 1 Technic Beam 3 x 0.5 Liftarm Technic Plate 1 x 4 with Holes Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Tile 2 x 4 with Groove Wedge 4 x 16 Triple Curved Wedge 6 x 4 Triple Curved Inverted Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Right Wing 4 x 9

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Building

Maxifigs ready for paint.

For those fans of the TV show The Flash, I am going to sum up this article in a character’s name: Leonard Snart. I believe you will all completely understand my experience with this article. For those that do not know the character of Leonard Snart, I will explain with one of his more famous snippets of dialog.

Leonard Snart: “Doesn’t matter. There are only four rules you need to remember: make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan.

Follow my lead and you’ll be fine.”

Foreword

My plan for this article failed me. I then went rogue. This article was also massively late due to the plan going so far off the rails and having some urgent and pressing work tasks that just kept me far too busy. These complications and my overconfidence in my original and back-up plans were nearly my undoing.

So what happened? Well, I was going to decorate one of the 6.7x BigFigs I have been creating, which I walked through how to make in the last article.

The first attempt to frisket.

Minifig Customization 101:

Thinking like Leonard Snart Article by Jared Burks

55 StretchMask.

The plan was simple; I was going to use a material called Frisket to create a stencil. Frisket is an adhesive material that is commonly used in the AirBrush world to make stencils. I have featured it some years ago in an article. I was going to cut the stencil using my GlowForge laser cutter (referral link: https:// glowforge.us/r/XxUXj7). Once the series of stencils was created, I would either airbrush or spraypaint the design onto the figure. Simple, easy. Well my Frisket I have now, is very different. The GlowForge did an excellent job cutting the stencil (150 speed 4 power), but the material was far thinner, and much more adhesive than what I had used in the past. This was going to make aligning the stencil as I added colors nearly impossible. The other issue is I made larger sheets of stencils, thinking they would also help mask out the edges so when I spraypainted, I wouldn’t have any overspray. This, coupled with the enhanced tack, made it impossible to apply to the torso.

Stencil Film

Therefore, I was forced to circle back to the Frisket, trying some of the tricks that were used for the Cricut cut vinyl stencils, and substantially reducing the stencil size to make it easier to apply. After way too many hours and being up long enough to see the sunrise, I have a resulting BigFig that looks pretty good. Let’s go through the process, so I can share what I learned.

I have long been a fan of Usagi Yojimbo, a comic book character created by Stan Sakai about Miyamoto Usagi. Usagi is a rabbit samurai who has lost his master, thus he is a wandering ronin. Many people were introduced to this character when he appeared in

Stencil bleed.

Usagi Yojimbo TM & © Stan Sakai.

Plan two? Use a different material called StretchMask. Much lower tack, which was great, but the GlowForge seemed to melt it more than cut it, even at the low power of 4. I am sure with much more testing I could dial in the settings, but alas, time was against me as previously mentioned. So on to material three, GRAFIX Stencil Film. This issue here is it isn’t adhesive at all and paint bleed could be a real issue, even using the spray adhesive that I had. Guess what? The paint bleed was terrible. This lead me down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos and asking a friend to try and cut a vinyl stencil on a Cricut/Silhouette. This seemed promising, but also flamed out. Long term I believe the vinyl stencil is likely the best option, but due to time and not owning that machine, I was unable to test it further. Please know vinyl is not a laser safe material, which is why I didn’t simply put it in the GlowForge.

several Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle TV shows and comic books.

Well, I 3-D printed the needed head with his ears affixed into an appropriate topknot, 3-D printed special legs, torso, arms, etc., all at 6.7x scale.

3-D printed parts.

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Then it was time to create the art for the figure. I started with the traditional vector program, but because I had to cut a stencil from the art, I couldn’t merely have colors on top of other colors, as this would cut the same area multiple times, which meant the laser kerf (thickness of the blade/cut, in this case the diameter of the laser beam) would be additive and cause issues. I had to create lines that abutted up against one another and subtract lower levels from upper levels to get them to align instead of cross. Creating this design took a bit longer and the color separation was much more critical as I was planning on spraypainting through the stencil due to time instead of airbrush. This also meant that the black layer had to come last, and it had to cover the edges and hide any errors.

Once I had the stencil art, I had to cut down the outer area to make them easier to manage, but I also had to add tape to act as a carrier for some areas like the Samurai clan and the belt tie, as they had nothing to hold them in place. I also had to start from an area where I could center the art and then slowly work the stencil down, smoothing as I went, much like putting a screen protector on a cell phone or tablet. The process of applying and masking out the areas outside of the stencil are shown below:

Using the stencils to make a multi-color torso.

Stencil art separated by color.

This process went fairly smoothly for the white layer; the blue came next, which I aligned to the bottom of the figure instead of the top because the blue wrinkles matched to the belt perfectly, making a natural alignment.

Had I not had this alignment, I would have needed registration marks.

The skin tone was next, and I used a different color white paint for this area in an attempt to make it look different from the other, but I shouldn’t have worried—I am not sure it is visible.

Skipping this step could have reduced my stencils by one.

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Using the final stencil.

The final layer was the hardest layer, mainly due to my design. The little shading ticks that Stan Sakai uses on the belts cut these into little segments, and even with a carrier tape applied over the top, they wouldn’t stay, so each one of them had to be placed manually. This created a long application of the stencil to the figure at the latest point in the early morning hours (not something I recommend).

With some better planning I could have made these smaller and made this easier. I could have also just cut them from an additional layer and separated the lines from the detail and made this easier. In hindsight, I learned a lot from this process. To clarify, if I had a layer just adding the black lines and then I had another layer of just the little tick marks on the undershirt, collar, and belt, this could have gone very quickly. This would have only left me with the bow to deal with, which was a challenge all its own.

Now, I made a critical error. I used black vinyl dye for the black paint, not acrylic paint as I had been using. I had also been using a heat gun to speed up the drying of the paint between layers. The vinyl dye, which penetrates ABS because it contains acetone, did not penetrate or bond well to the acrylic or the PLA that the figure was printed with. PLA is much more resistant to acetone than ABS, so my paint was cured, but not adhered; and when I pulled off the mask in some areas, the black paint and under-paint came with it. Luckily this created a new mask as I had white under there, and it cut the white paint. At this point it was time to get out the paint brush and merely add these details back. I think it turned out nicely and was an easy repair. The lesson is to stop and think about your paints before merely adding them to something—in this case, vinyl dye is the wrong product and I should have used an acrylic paint.

Another lesson from this project.

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While I had the paint brush out, I wanted to add some details to Usagi’s face—his prominent scar, his pupils, mouth, nose, cheeks, and finally I painted the whites of his eyes. I thought his face and edge of the eyes were all too much of the same color of white, and by painting white on white, gave it more depth.

I now have a plausible and passable Usagi Yojimbo BigFig, and more importantly, many, many lessons learned through its creation. I will likely make another to improve upon what I learned making this one, as I believe I can perfect this process. I also want to add details to his back, and of course he is currently missing his samurai souls—I am sure I am saying that incorrectly, but his swords. I want to try and figure out how to not only 3-D print his swords, but the scabbards, and somehow attach them to his hips so I can have the Usagi BigFig complete. Just as with most projects, a figure is never completely finished; there is always more that can be done and with BigFigs. This is more true than ever because every part has to be created to scale. I hope everyone enjoyed this meandering path through my lessons learned, and it helps all of you avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way—till next time.

You can view Jared’s webpage by going to http://www.fineclonier.com/ or scanning this QR code!

Don’t miss Jared’s two books Minifigure Customization: Populate Your World! and its sequel Minifigure Customization: Why Live In The Box? (available at twomorrows.com).

Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization!

Community

SkyRacer.

Pegasus Racing Team Takes Building Teamwork to a New Level!

Article by BrickNerd’s Ted Andes Photography by Team Pegasus

What defines a good team? To answer that question using a single sentence, it would be when a group of people come together and achieve something greater than the sum of their individual contributions. The annual Space Jam sci-fi building competition wrapped up a few weeks ago, and the entrants delivered some great examples of this good teamwork.

For those not familiar with Space Jam (the non-movie), it is a large-scale LEGO sci-fi building contest with six diverse building categories that change each year; space ships, creatures, vignettes, etc. One of those categories has always been some kind of team collaboration category. The challenge is for two to four builders to create models that not only express their individual creativity and skill, but also display strong team coherence at the same time. This can be done in various ways; through color schemes, logos, a common part usage, sharing an aesthetic style, etc.

This year’s entrants were asked to create a Space Rally Racing team, with each person tasked with creating a different type of racing vehicle. One team that really impressed me with their teamwork was Pegasus Racing.

They were neck-and-neck for the lead in the Space Jam rally, but in the end, they were edged out from taking a victory lap by “The Super Six.” Although it doesn’t make for much of a consolation prize, I thought I would feature their team here (well, at least it’s a better prize than getting “Boggle” as a bar mitzvah gift…).

Here is a quick look at their four racers, and some of the things that caught my eye in each of the designs:

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SkyRacer Seeing BobDeQuatre’s SkyRacer in flight is an afternoon delight. The spoiler-stylized forward canard and tail wing definitely sell the sky racing vibe. The angled engine intakes and forward-swept wings are well-shaped and well-crafted too, especially considering how much color blocking is incorporated into them. I also really liked the usage of the angled Nexo shields along the top of the nose.

With Mira being the Latin word for “wonderful” or “astonishing,” this skyracer’s pilot is aptly named for flying this wonder of aeronautics.

Another view.

The rear of SkyRacer.

More views of SkyRacer.

Monowheel Speed Racer Brick Spirou’s Monowheel Speed Racer is one of my favorite entries from this year. As a mechanical engineer by degree—if no longer in actual practice—I always appreciate seeing technical greebling where I can actually visualize all of the functionality they might provide. The webbed radar dish makes for the perfect cooling vents on the off-center motor hub. The long arm across the wheel likely manages wheel shape, and I imagine those are braking or steering pads at the far end. Everything I see here seems thoughtfully placed and plausible in an actual real-world design.

The color usage and stickering choices are stellar as well… and if you look really closely at the back, you can just make out a bumper sticker that says “My other car is on TLCB.”

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More views of Monorail Speed Racer.

Sailing Hydrofoil If you aren’t following F@bz on Flickr already, now would be the perfect time to start. Known for creating curvaceous builds, this Sailing Hydrofoil delivers curves as well with those forward telescoping arms. Flexible, tentacle-like metallic arms are certainly a classic sci-fi standard; think of alien tripods roaming the planet, the appendages of Spider-Man’s nemesis Doc Ock, or even the ’80s cartoon favorite Inspector Gadget and his go-go-gadget arms. I don’t recall too many other MOCs embracing them to this degree, and the greebling where they connect to the ship’s hull is spot-on. This racing hydrofoil is certainly going out on a limb to take yacht rock to the next level.

Side view.

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More views of the Sailing Hydrofoil.

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Off-Road Quadropod What has four legs and flies? Well, in addition to the mythical winged horse Pegasus, Lokiloki’s Off-Road Quadroped most certainly does as well, as it clambers across whatever planetary terrain is put before it. I really like those wicked angles that shape the legs and sides. And A look at the tail of the Off-Road Quadropod.

speaking of legs, I haven’t seen such a perfect integration of the Bionicle Tohunga foot part since Jon Palmer’s M-Wing. The dark grey greebling of the actual feet is out of this world as well, with very clever part usage. Simply wonderful stuff!

More views of the Off-Road Quadropod.

Since Pegasus Racing worked so well together in creating a diverse, yet coherent racing team, I reached out to learn more about how they pulled it all together.

Ted Andes: First off, congratulations on being so close to taking the victory. I’m not sure if you were aware, but it was a split-decision between the judges, with just one vote being the difference. I really thought your team did a great job building coherency across such a broad range of builds.

Pegasus Racing: Thank you for that, and for your interest in our teamwork. It’s always a pleasure to answer questions about our creations.

Was this the first time the four of you have ever collaborated together, or have you collaborated before?

It was the first time for all of us to work together, although we have known of each other’s works for a long time. We are all members of the French community forum “Brickpirate,” and have been for some years. F@bz and Lokiloki were both searching partners for the contest with a public message to our community, and then BrickSpirou replied fast as the racing theme (and the team) was a really exciting idea to him. Some of us already had the opportunity to meet in real life, but our main interactions have been through social media like Brickpirate or on Flickr.

How did you communicate with each other once your team had been formed? Did you set up a private group on Flickr, a private chat, or use something else to discuss ideas and share photos?

The first thing that we needed to decide was indeed how to communicate in an effective way. We finally agreed on using Discord, and Bob set up a private server for 66 us. This was very convenient, as we were able to

discuss general subjects and everyone’s creations in dedicated channels, and Discord is easy to use on any platform (PC, mobile, tablet). After setting up the Discord server and channels, our first discussion was about choosing a color scheme.

Your team’s color combinations of white/dark blue/brightlight orange looked really sharp (with the additional pops of lime green too)! So how did you arrive at that color scheme and the “Pegasus Racing” theme?

We tried some different color variations while taking into account everyone’s else color availability and preferences.

Once the color scheme was settled, we then started to dig into our collections of stickers to find ones that would fit best with the color scheme and the racing theme. We also tried to find some common markings, and a logo, too. We ended up going with the Lance’s Mecha Horse (70312) sticker sheet. It was available at a cheap price and in good quantities on BrickLink, so we adopted this equine as the team logo. This led us to the final team name “Pegasus Racing”... after eliminating others like “White Stallions.” :-) No way! WYLD STALLYNS would have been most excellent! (Oh, you said White Stallions—anyway…) I really enjoyed the diversity in your types of vehicles. Did each builder bring their own ideas as to what they wanted to build?

Yeah, we agreed that we wanted each vehicle to have its own unique and well-defined design, and custom to each race on different types of terrain. This decision was quite fast as each of us already had desired ideas that met this requirement. From there, we tried to imagine some original designs.

As you were building, did any of you adjust your designs to fit in better with the team in any way?

We shared work-in-progress photos, but we never really did anything more than offer some advice to fit the creations together; this was more or less natural. The process was quite smooth. For Brick Spirou and the monowheel racer, there was some minor adjustments in the color proportions of the build to match up better with Lokiloki and Bob’s racers, as their work-in-progress builds were at more advanced stages.

The photo editing with the template and backgrounds was also done consistently well. Did one person take that task on?

Lokiloki took that on and did a really great job on the final presentation of our creations. Big ups to him. The goal of this process was to show the diversity of our vehicles while keeping a consistent look. As he had some experience with photo editing, he added Spirou’s, Bob’s and his MOC onto fitting backgrounds (F@bz did his own). Spirou’s was the most difficult because he couldn’t find any freely-usable photos of an empty futuristic racing track. Lokiloki had to merge several photos to get it right.

The Monopod Speed Racer under construction.

F@bz also had this idea of showing the minifig in the pictures. From there he created the graphic overlay that includes some data about each driver and their machine. We thought it would be fun to simulate what we sometimes see on TV or video games about sport.

It gives more depth to our team while allowing us to hide a few Easter eggs! This process had to be done by a single person for more consistency, even though everyone suggested improvements. Spirou also vectorized the sticker to create the team’s logo.

jacQueline sanchez

Ooh. I better go back and look for a few of those Easter eggs… Before I do though, is there anything else you would like to share about the builds? Any challenges that each of you faced with your specific design, or any special sources of inspiration?

LEGO AND DIAMONDS

jewelr y design

®

PR - BrickSpirou: I was very interested in making a monowheel vehicle for this first time, but I wanted to build at minifig scale as we decided to display our pilots too. It needed to be something bigger than a monowheel bike (unicycle), so I went in that direction not really knowing where it would end up. I did some research about sci-fi monowheels during the building process, but never choose one particular work to inspire on.

PR - Lokiloki: For me, I wanted to build a racing mech, but I wasn’t very inspired by biped ones.

F@bz showed me some concept art by Alex Jaeger with six-legged racing vehicles that I really liked for their aerodynamic look. I made a compromise and opted for a quadrapod inspired by rally cars.

That research certainly resulted in some very handsome machines. Thanks again for sharing with us, and great job! Party on, dudes!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

.

jacquelinesanchez.com

@jacquelinesanchezjewelry

404.441.5225

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Steve Marsh’s

Corvus

raider II class corvette

Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Steve Marsh

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. Steve Marsh took on the challenge of building the Corvus, a Raider II-class corvette, from the videogame Star Wars: Battlefront II and the build looks sleek and stunning.

I thought it would be great to learn more about this talented builder and his custom LEGO build.

Steven Smyth: I know you have quite a following in the Bantha Bricks community since you started posting your jaw-dropping builds. The group members have been drooling over your latest Corvus construction, among the others you have shared—but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do.

Steve Marsh: It is going good, and thanks loads for inviting me to be part of this. I am just an ordinary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) from the United Kingdom who works as a graphic designer by day and a MOC (My Own Creation) designer by night. I am also a dad of two very destructive and noisy young boys who I have to keep my LEGO collection firmly locked away from!

The back of the droid.

Rs’s front, showing some “brick bending.”

Would you say Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us?

Yes! I am absolutely obsessed with LEGO Friends! Nah, just kidding. I guess Star Wars is my favorite theme, though I also adore the color schemes in the Classic Space and Blacktron series. In 2020 I created an entire fleet of Classic Space-themed attack craft. That was something which did not sit right with some members of the community who insisted the spacemen were a peaceful bunch, who would only ever use their spaceships for exploring. I even pushed my exploration of the theme further by creating a mash-up MOC of Classic Space and Blacktron podracers, racing each other across the surface of the moon. Recently though, yeah, it has been Star Wars all the way.

Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself?

For me, it feels like drawing in 3-D. I have always been creative, plus I have a very creative day job. I do not watch TV because I cannot just sit there doing nothing. I have to create things, and LEGO is one of the most tactile, versatile and satisfying mediums to do this with. When you are making your own stuff, it is like one giant problem-solving exercise, and I love this about it. The fact is, with LEGO, there is almost always a way past every wall you come up against; you just have to find it. I once heard it said that there is nothing in the world

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that cannot be created in LEGO form.

After three years of making MOCs, I wholeheartedly agree!

We know the Star Wars gaming community loves this ship design and accompanying story of the Inferno Squad. Did your love of the game drive you to build this ship, or did something else inspire you to tackle this build?

Would you believe me if I told you I have never actually played the game?

I did recently buy it to see what all the fuss was about. I still have not played past the first hour of the campaign, due to other commitments taking up my time.

Really? To be honest, I had thought with this build you were big into gaming as well as building amazing LEGO MOCs! What drove me to build this ship was the one I built before it. A few months ago I had renewed my interest in Star Wars MOCs and I wanted to make something that had very rarely been attempted in LEGO. I settled on creating a Gladiator-class Star Destroyer from the board game Star Wars Armada. I made a really big one. It is 70 cm long and even has a small interior. So once this was done, I wanted to once again make something that I had not seen before.

Also, this was for the community.

Every day we see another Imperial Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon or TIE Fighter made out of LEGO. I feel like we would all appreciate seeing something new in LEGO every now and again.

It sounds like the Gladiator-class Star Destroyer might be a future build we can discuss! Going back to the Corvus, can you tell us a bit about the construction and any special techniques you used?

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The most prominent technique used is the one where bricks are laid on their sides and stacked to create a smooth stud-free surface. This has the unfortunate acronym of SNOT (Studs Not On Top) and is used for about 90% of the upper hull of the Corvus.

It is not too difficult to get right but it is very easy to get wrong, and I consulted an expert in this technique before I embarked on it.

What are your favorite design elements you created for the build?

Some people are not a fan of the SNOT look and believe it betrays what truly makes something a LEGO model, despite the fact that it uses legitimate LEGO pieces. But I am not one of them. I love it and the smooth finish of the ship is by far my favorite design element. Many people have commented that they had to look at it twice before realizing it was made of LEGO, which was exactly the reaction I was hoping for.

Did you freestyle build this or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first?

Absolute freestyle from start to finish, winging it and hoping for the best every step of the way. In fact, the Corvus is my 21st MOC and I have only just, after finishing the Corvus, moved onto designing with Stud.io.

issue 70

The expert I refer to is Jerac (from Rebrickable.com). He was my go-to for advice during this build. A couple of years ago I bought instructions for and built his TIE Advanced model. I liked it so much that I decided to build a hangar for it, which went on to become my first serious MOC. Jerac loved the hangar and we chatted a few times and met then. So when I started the Corvus, I already had a connection with him.

brickjournal

Who was this expert you consulted? Inquiring minds want to know!

Were there any moments in this build where you felt like, “Aww man, I’m stuck!” If so, how did you overcome that obstacle?

Really only at the very beginning. My first attempts at a SNOT build were entirely wrong. It was not working and I was close to scrapping the whole project. Then I reached out to Jerac, who has perfected the technique, and he was incredibly helpful and totally saved the build. His advice was the springboard I needed. He helped me once more at the very end of the project by pointing out a major flaw in the build which I had missed. Again, that advice resulted in a far superior final model.

What would be your advice to anyone looking to build a unique starship on their own?

If we are talking unique, as in one of your own design, it is probably best to try it freestyle. Just get a very large collection of pieces together and see what you can come up with. Plus, educate yourself in new tips and techniques as they appear in the community. There are so many amazing resources out there. If it is an existing design that you want to create, such as a Star Wars ship, then get as many references for it as you can find and try to be as accurate to those references as possible. People really appreciate builds that do not cut corners

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in this respect. So if that means an extra week or two trying to get one part exactly right, do not be afraid to put that extra time in. That is what it takes sometimes and the result will be worth it!

Do you have instructions available for people to follow along and build the amazing MOCs you design? If so, how would our reader go about finding these and purchasing them?

I do. I have a midi scale Nebulon B Escort Frigate available from Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-34757/Rubblemaker/ef76-nebulon-b-escort-frigatewith-micro-millenium-falcon/ and the instructions for my Rebel Corvus will shortly be available through Brick Vault at www.brickvault.toys.

To see more amazing builds, cool contests and giveaways and family-friendly discussion about everything Star Wars brick, check out the Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/starwarsLEGOgroup or banthabricks.com or scan the QR code here!

Any final things you would like to add?

Yes, why do LEGO pieces blink out of existence every time they fall on the floor?

I believe the edge of the universe is made of randomly colored 1x1 LEGO plates.

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Back Issues BRICKJOURNAL #69

Starship builders NICK TROTTA and ATTILA GALLIK, TIM GODDARD’s space builds which have been featured online and showcased in the book LEGO Space: Building the Future, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, “AFOLs” by Greg Hyland, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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BRICKJOURNAL #65

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BRICKJOURNAL #66

ALICE FINCH’s art/architectural models, the WOMEN’S BRICK INITIATIVE and the BRICK ALLIANCE (bringing more builders to the community), the WOMEN OF PHILIPPINES LUG (LEGO Users Group) and their creations, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

Get an introduction to TOM GERARDIN’s LEGO best friends Billy and Charlie, tour Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty Castle in bricks with DARIO DEL FRATES, and visit more theme parks LEGO-style with BILL VOLLBRECHT! Plus: “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, and more!!

YUANSHENG HE’s breathtaking LEGO® brick art photography, the many models of TOM FROST, and the intricate Star Wars builds of Bantha Brick’s STEVEN SMYTH! Plus: “Bricks in the Middle” by KEVIN HINKLE and MATTHEW KAY, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

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BRICKJOURNAL #63

BRICKJOURNAL #62

BRICKJOURNAL #61

BrickJournal celebrates the holidays with acclaimed brick sculptor ZIO CHAO, takes a offbeat look at Christmas with our minifigure customizer/columnist JARED K. BURKS, and decks the halls with the holiday creations of KOEN ZWANENBURG! Plus: “AFOLs” by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

Classic LEGO themes re-imagined! PIET NIEDERHAUSEN’s creations based on the Classic Yellow Castle, CHRIS GIDDENS (originator of Neo-Classic Space theme), and tour the Masterpiece Gallery at Denmark’s LEGO House! Plus: “Bricks in the Middle” by HINKLE and KAY, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

UNDERSEA LEGO BUILDING! RYAN VAN DUZOR’s Coral Reef, the many creations of COLIN HEMMEN’s Brickiverse, plus a look at JOHN KLAPHEKE’s scenes from the Indiana Jones movies! Also: “AFOLs”

by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO TRAINS! CALE LEIPHART’s Blue Comet, GLENN HOLLAND introduces us to the L-Gauge Modular Building Standard, a look at PennLUG’s Train Roundhouse, and many other train-related surprises!

Plus a “Bricks in the Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO FIGURE BUILDING! JAE WON LEE’s historical and legendary characters, EERO OKKONEN’s stunning mythic figures, ANDREA (“Norton74”) LATTANZIO’s new ultra-realistic builds (including classic food stands and gas stations), “AFOLs”

by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

BRICKJOURNAL #60

BRICKJOURNAL #59

BRICKJOURNAL #58

BRICKJOURNAL #57

BRICKJOURNAL #56

MYSTERIOUS, SPOOKY LEGO BUILDING! FLYNN DeMARCO’s motorized Treasure of the Snake Queen, Laika’s MISSING LINK

by HOLLY WEBSTER, STACY STERLING’s HAUNTED MANSION, “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions

by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the galactic work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® Star Wars-inspired photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “You Can Build It” instructions, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO WARBIRDS, PAST AND PRESENT! JEFF CHERRY’S WWII and modern fighters (P-51 Mustang and F-14 Tomcat), RALPH SAVELSBURG’S BrickJournal exclusive X-plane, MICHAEL BROWN’S F-14 Tomcat “Vandy One”, step-by-step LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

MICROSCALE LEGO BUILDING! Tour WAYNE TYLER’S National Mall (Washington, DC) layout, skyscrapers from ROCCO BUTTLIERE, BLAKE FOSTER’s Ugly Duckling spaceship, step-by-step “You Can Build It” LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LIFE-SIZE LEGO and what it takes to build them (besides a ton of LEGO brick)! HELEN SHAM’s sculptures of giant everyday items, MAGNUS LAUGHLO’s GI Joe®-inspired models, military builds by ERIC ONG, plus “Bricks In The Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

BRICKJOURNAL #55

BRICKJOURNAL #54

BRICKJOURNAL #53

BRICKJOURNAL #52

BRICKJOURNAL #51

LEGO HEADS & TAILS: FELIX JAENSCH’s remarkable LEGO sculptures, from realistic animals to the human skull and amazing face masks! BRYAN BENSON’s detailed Kermorvan Lighthouse and how he built it from LEGO bricks. A spectacular Winter layout by DAVE SCHEFCIK! Plus: Minifigure customizing, step-by-step instructions, BrickNerd, & more!

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: HSINWEI CHI and his revolutionary LEGO animals and giant robots! We also declassify other top LEGO builders’ creations, including MICHAEL BROWN’s Technic-scale F-18 Hornet!

Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

Russian builder TIMOFEY TKACHEV, plus what it takes to become a LEGO Certified Professional (an elite group of builders officially recognized by LEGO), with New York’s SEAN KENNEY and Australian RYAN McNAUGHT! Also: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

STEAMPUNK, with builder GUY HIMBER! PAUL HETHERINGTON talks about his cover model “Unchain My Heart,” ROD GILLIES’ latest Steampunk work, and a look at the creations of other top Steampunk builders! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

NOW ON SALE! BRICKJOURNAL’S ACCLAIMED BOOKS FOR LEGO FANS!

MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION 1

MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION 2

JARED K. BURKS shares his knowledge of the techniques he uses to alter the lovable LEGO® Minifigure into any character you can imagine! With step-by-step tutorials on decal design and application; color alteration; custom part modification and creation; plus tips on minifigure displays and digital photography to capture your custom figures in the best light!

The sequel introduces advanced techniques to alter minifigs, with more tutorials on virtual customization; designing decals and advanced decal application; custom part modification and creation; 3-D printing; advanced painting techniques; lighting figures with LEDs or EL wire; tips on minifigure displays; and a Gallery from top customizers, with their best tricks and tips!

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BRICKJOURNAL #50

YOU CAN BUILD IT, BOOK 1 and BOOK 2

DOUBLE-SIZE BOOK! JOE MENO discusses the beginnings of BrickJournal, LEGO Group’s TORMOD ASKILDSEN interviewed, fan community growth over 10 years, and the best builders of the past 50 issues! Plus: Minifigure customizing with JARED K. BURKS, instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

From the producers of BRICKJOURNAL MAGAZINE comes a new series of books, compiling STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS by the LEGO fan community’s top custom builders!

BOOK ONE is for beginning-to-intermediate builders, and features instructions for LEGO creations from a fire engine and Christmas ornaments to miniscale models from a galaxy far, far away! BOOK TWO is for intermediate-to-advanced builders, with more detailed projects to tackle, from a miniscale yellow castle and miniland people, to a mini USS Constitution! Together, these books take you from novice to expert builder, teaching you key building techniques along the way!

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BRICKJOURNAL #1-49 $

3 EACH

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BRICKJOURNAL #49

Get copies of the first 49 issues of BrickJournal for only $3 each (66% off, with a free Digital Edition)! Or the Digital Edition only for $2.99! #3, 5-6, 9-13, 15, 17-49 are currently available in print editions, but are close to selling out!

BRICKJOURNAL #48

BRICKJOURNAL #47

40th ANNIVERSARY OF LEGO TECHNIC! GEOFF GRAY explores Technic history, JOE MENO interviews former LEGO Set Designer SØREN HOLM about the classic Technic Space Shuttle, MICHAEL BROWN shows off his Technic-scale AH-64, and more! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

THE WORLD OF LEGO MECHA! Learn the secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecca builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

LEGO GOES UNDERSEA! Builder MITSURU NIKAIDO shows us his undersea creatures and organic builds! Then jump aboard MARCELLO DeCICCO’s minifigure-scale warships! And see amazing architectural creations by PEDRO NASCIMENTO! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #46

BRICKJOURNAL #45

BRICKJOURNAL #44

BRICKJOURNAL #43

BRICKJOURNAL #42

LEGO TRAINS! Spotlight on train builder CALE LEIPHART, a look at the train layouts and models from the PENNSYLVANIA LEGO Users Group (PENNLug), BRICK MODEL RAILROADER (a new LEGO Train fan website that launched this year), and more locomotive action! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

FEMALE LEGO BUILDERS! US Architectural builder ANURADHA PEHRSON, British Microscale builder FERNANDA RIMINI, US Bionicle builder BREANN SLEDGE, and Norwegian Town builder BIRGITTE JONSGARD discuss their work and inspirations! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

THEME PARK ISSUE! ERIK JONES’ custom LEGO version of Cinderella Castle, STÉPHANE DELY’s Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle, and JOHN RUDY’s brick-built versions of your favorite theme park rides! Plus: Step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons and more!

LEGO GAMING! IMAGINE RIGNEY’s Bioshock builds, NICK JENSEN’s characters and props from HALO and other video games, and GamerLUG member SIMON LIU builds LEGO versions of video game characters, spaceships and more! Plus: “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, MINDSTORMS robotics and more!

LEGO EDUCATION! See how schools and AFOLs build with the new WeDo, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE’s 2016 season explored (with national competitions at LEGOLand California), and robotics builders the Seshan Brothers take LEGO MINDSTORMS to the next level! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #41

BRICKJOURNAL #40

BRICKJOURNAL #39

BRICKJOURNAL #38

BRICKJOURNAL #37

OUT OF THIS WORLD LEGO! Spacethemed LEGO creations of LIA CHAN, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Orion space plane

by NICK DEAN, and Pre-Classic Space builder CHRIS GIDDENS! Plus: Orbit the LEGO community with JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

LEGO MECHA! Build giant robots and mechs with BENJAMIN CHEH MING HANN and KELVIN LOW, and SETH HIGGINS shows us his amazing transforming LEGO robots! And even cyborgs love Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons, and more!

LEGO DINOSAURS! Builder WILLIAM PUGH discusses building prehistoric creatures, a LEGO Jurassic World by DIEGO MAXIMINO PRIETO ALVAREZ, and dino bones by MATT SAILORS! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions

by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art

by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons, and more!

LEGO COOL CARS AND HOT RODS! LEGO car builders STEPHAN SANDER, JORDANIAN FIRAS ABU-JABER, and ANDREA LATTANZIO! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd Pop Art

by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

STAR WARS! Amazing custom ships by ERIC DRUON, incredible galactic layouts by builder AC PIN, a look at the many droid creations built by LEGO fans—truly, the LEGO Force has awakened! Plus JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #36

BRICKJOURNAL #35

BRICKJOURNAL #34

BRICKJOURNAL #33

BRICKJOURNAL #32

MICROSCALE BUILDING! JUSTIN McMILLAN’s micro house, a look at the MICROSCALE Standard by TwinLUG, and featuring some of the best microscopic LEGO work from around the world, plus JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

HISTORY IN LEGO BRICKS! LEGO pro RYAN McNAUGHT on his LEGO Pompeii and other projects, military builder DAN SISKIND on his BrickMania creations, and LASSE VESTERGARD about his historical building, JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

TOMMY WILLIAMSON on the making of his YouTube sensation BATMAN VS SUPERMAN, BRANDON GRIFFITH’S COMICBRICKS PROJECT recreates iconic comic book covers out of LEGO, JARED BURKS and his custom Agents of SHIELD minifigs, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

LEGO ROBOTS! A talk with MINDSTORMS EV3 builders MARC-ANDRE BAZERGUI and ANDY MILLUZZI, designer LEE MAGPILI, CHRIS GIDDENS with his amazing robot sculptures, plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, other looks at MINDSTORMS building, and more!

LEGO ARTISTRY with builder/photographer CHRIS McVEIGH; mosaic builders BRIAN KORTE, DAVE WARE and DAVE SHADDIX; and sculptors SEAN KENNEY (about his nature models) and ED DIMENT (about a full-size bus stop built with LEGO bricks)!

Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, MINDSTORMS building, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #31

BRICKJOURNAL #30

BRICKJOURNAL #29

BRICKJOURNAL #28

BRICKJOURNAL #27

Building LEGO bricks WITH character, with IAIN HEATH and TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Manga-inspired creations of MIKE DUNG, sculptures by Taiwanese Brick Artist YO YO CHEN, Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS building, and more!

LEGO ARCHITECTURE with JONATHAN LOPES, a microscale model of Copenhagen

by ULRIK HANSEN, and a look at the LEGO MUSEUM being constructed in Denmark! Plus Minifigure Customization

by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS building with DAMIEN KEE, and more!

Technic hot rod builder PAUL BORATKO and editor JOE MENO diagram instructions on adding functions to your models, shop-talk with LEGO Technic designers, and more surprises to keep your creations moving at top speed! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!

Learn what went into the making of The LEGO Movie and other brickfilms with moviemaker DAVID PAGANO, chat with brickfilmers The Brotherhood Workshop, sit in on a talk with the makers of LEGO: A Brickumentary, a look at MINDSTORMS building, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

GUY HIMBER takes you to the IRON BUILDER CONTEST, which showcases the top LEGO® builders in the world! Cover by LEGO magazine and comic artist PAUL LEE, amazing custom models by LINO MARTINS, TYLER CLITES, BRUCE LOWELL, COLE BLAQ and others, minifigure customization

by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #26

BRICKJOURNAL #25

BRICKJOURNAL #24

BRICKJOURNAL #23

BRICKJOURNAL #22

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL with builders SEAN and STEPHANIE MAYO (known online as Siercon and Coral), other custom animal models from BrickJournal editor JOE MENO, LEGO DINOSAURS with WILL PUGH, plus more minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

MEDIEVAL CASTLE BUILDING! Top LEGO® Castle builders present their creations, including BOB CARNEY’s amazingly detailed model of Neuschwanstein Castle, plus others, along with articles on building and detailing castles of your own! Also: JARED BURKS on minifigure customization, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

STAR WARS issue, with custom creations from a long time ago and far, far away!

JACOB CARPENTER’s Imperial Star Destroyer, MARK KELSO’s Invisible Hand, interview with SIMON MACDONALD about building Star Wars costume props with LEGO elements, history of the LEGO X-Wing, plus our regular features on minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

LEGO PLANE BUILDING! Top builder RALPH SAVELSBERG takes off with his custom LEGO fighter models, there’s a squadron of articles on Sky-Fi planes by FRADEL GONZALES and COLE MARTIN, find instructions to build a Sky-Fi plane, plus our regular feature on minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, other step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

TwoMorrows TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

BRICKJOURNAL #21

BRICKJOURNAL #20

BRICKJOURNAL #19

BRICKJOURNAL #18

LEGO CAR BUILDING! Guest editors LINO MARTINS and NATHAN PROUDLOVE of LUGNuts share secrets behind their LEGO car creations, and present TECHNIC SUPERCAR MODELS by PAUL BORATKO III and other top builders! Plus custom instructions

by TIM GOULD and CHRISTOPHER DECK, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” section, and more!

LEGO SUPERHEROES! Behind-the-scenes of the DC and Marvel Comics sets, plus a feature on GREG HYLAND, the artist of the superhero comic books in each box! Also, other superhero work by ALEX SCHRANZ and our cover artist OLIVIER CURTO. Plus, JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customization, building tips, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

LEGO EVENTS ISSUE covering our own BRICKMAGIC FESTIVAL, BRICKWORLD, BRICKFAIR, BRICKCON, plus other events outside the US. There’s full event details, plus interviews with the winners of the BRICKMAGIC CHALLENGE competition, complete with instructions to build award winning models. Also JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customizing, building tips, and more!

Go to Japan with articles on two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus take a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of the BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

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LEGO®, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. BrickJournal is not affiliated with The LEGO Group. All characters shown are TM & © their respective owners.

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Last Word It’s June—actually late June, as I write this.

And the magazine is a little late.

One thing that can be frustrating about getting a magazine done is that the lead time can confuse things. Planning has to be done months in advance, and really, for a LEGO builder, anything outside of a month is an unforeseeable future. This is a little problematic for me, as an exclusive cover image requires that I have a completed photo of the cover model six months prior. So an exclusive model had to be made before the six months cover deadline.

Being the first word for LEGO news and information is not possible for the magazine. But it is possible for the website.

The magazine is now the last word for the LEGO fan community. BrickJournal informs and inspires LEGO builders, and builds community.

With things going back to normal, this will be easier to do.

I hope we all get to meet this year!

That Joe Meno Guy Yes, I feel like that every so often.

Classic AFOLs

80

RetroFan:

Pop Culture You Grew Up With!

If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, editor MICHAEL EURY’s latest magazine is just for you!

SUBSCRIBE! SIX ISSUES: 68 Economy US (with free digital editions) 80 Expedited US • 87 Premium US 103 International • 27 Digital Only

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RETROFAN #15

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

RETROFAN #21

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, catching up with singer B.J. THOMAS, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns

by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships April 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2022

RETROFAN #16

RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #18

Holy backstage pass! See rare, behind-thescenes photos of many of your favorite Sixties TV shows! Plus: an unpublished interview with Green Hornet VAN WILLIAMS, Bigfoot on Saturday morning television, TV’s Zoorama and the San Diego Zoo, The Saint, the lean years of Star Trek fandom, the WrestleFest video game, TV tie-in toys no kid would want, and more fun, fab features!

Sixties teen idol RICKY NELSON remembered by his son MATTHEW NELSON, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., rural sitcom purge, EVEL KNIEVEL toys, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Saturday morning’s Super 7, The Muppet Show, behind-the-scenes photos of Sixties movies, an interview with The Sound of Music’s heartthrob-turnedbad guy DANIEL “Rolf” TRUHITTE, and more fun, fab features!

An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview.

Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

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(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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TwoMorrows.

The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #10

RETROFAN #11

RETROFAN #12

RETROFAN #13

NOW BI-MONTHLY! Celebrating fifty years of SHAFT, interviews with FAMILY AFFAIR’s KATHY GARVER and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour’s GERI “FAKE JAN” REISCHL, ED “BIG DADDY” ROTH, rare GODZILLA merchandise, Spaghetti Westerns, Saturday morning cartoon preview specials, fake presidential candidates, Spider-Man/The Spider parallels, Stuckey’s, and more fun, fab features!

HALLOWEEN ISSUE! Interviews with DARK SHADOWS’ DAVID SELBY, and the niece of movie Frankenstein GLENN STRANGE, JULIE ANN REAMS. Plus: KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, ROD SERLING retrospective, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, TV’s Adventures of Superman, Superman’s pal JIMMY OLSEN, QUISP and QUAKE cereals, the DRAK PAK AND THE MONSTER SQUAD, scratch model customs, and more!

CHRIS MANN goes behind the scenes of TV’s sexy sitcom THREE’S COMPANY— and NANCY MORGAN RITTER, first wife of JOHN RITTER, shares stories about the TV funnyman. Plus: RICK GOLDSCHMIDT’s making of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, RONNIE SCHELL interview, Sheena Queen of the TV Jungle, Dr. Seuss toys, Popeye cartoons, DOCTOR WHO’s 1960s U.S. invasion, and more!

Exclusive interviews with Lost in Space’s MARK GODDARD and MARTA KRISTEN, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, Hogan’s Heroes’ BOB CRANE, a history of WhamO’s Frisbee, Twilight Zone and other TV sci-fi anthologies, Who Created Archie Andrews?, oddities from the San Diego Zoo, lava lamps, and more with FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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New Comics Magazines!

ALTER EGO #174

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #26

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #27

FCA [FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA] issue—spearheaded by feisty and informative articles by Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. BECK—plus a fabulous feature on vintage cards created in Spain and starring The Marvel Family! In addition: DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III interview (conclusion)—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the lost art of comicbook greats—the haunting of JOHN BROOME—and more! BECK cover!

Career-spanning interview with TERRY DODSON, and Terry’s wife (and go-to inker) RACHEL DODSON! Plus 1970s/’80s portfolio producer SAL QUARTUCCIO talks about his achievements with Phase and Hot Stuf’, R. CRUMB and DENIS KITCHEN discuss the history of underground comix character Pro Junior, WILL EISNER’s Valentines to his wife, HEMBECK, and more!

Extensive PAUL GULACY retrospective

by GREG BIGA that includes Paul himself, VAL MAYERIK, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, TIM TRUMAN, ROY THOMAS, and others. Plus a JOE SINNOTT MEMORIAL; BUD PLANT discusses his career as underground comix retailer, distributor, fledgling publisher of JACK KATZ’s FIRST KINGDOM, and mailorder bookseller; our regular columnists, and the latest from HEMBECK!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #81

KIRBY COLLECTOR #82

BACK ISSUE #130

BACK ISSUE #132

BACK ISSUE #133

“THE MANY WORLDS OF JACK KIRBY!” From Sub-Atomica to outer space, visit Kirby’s work from World War II, the Fourth World, and hidden worlds of Subterranea, Wakanda, Olympia, Lemuria, Atlantis, the Microverse, and others! Plus, a 2021 Kirby panel, featuring JONATHAN ROSS, NEIL GAIMAN, & MARK EVANIER, a Kirby pencil art gallery from MACHINE MAN, 2001, DEVIL DINOSAUR, & more!

BRONZE AGE PROMOS, ADS, AND GIMMICKS! The aborted DC Super-Stars Society fan club, Hostess Comic Ads, DC 16-page Preview Comics, rare Marvel custom comics, DC Hotline, Popeye Career Comics, early variant covers, and more. Featuring BARR, HERDLING, LEVITZ, MAGUIRE, MORGAN, PACELLA, PALMIOTTI, SHAW!, TERRY STEWART, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more!

1980s MARVEL LIMITED SERIES! CLAREMONT/MILLER’s Wolverine, Black Panther, Falcon, Punisher, Machine Man, Iceman, Magik, Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolfpack, and more! With BOGDANOVE, COWAN, DeFALCO, DeMATTEIS, GRANT, HAMA, MILGROM, NEARY, SMITH, WINDSORSMITH, and more. Cover by JOE RUBINSTEIN. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

STARMEN ISSUE, headlined by JAMES ROBINSON and TONY HARRIS’s Jack Knight Starman! Plus: The StarSpangled Kid, Starjammers, the 1980s Starman, and Starstruck! Featuring DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, ROBERT GREENBERGER, ELAINE LEE, TOM LYLE, MICHAEL Wm. KALUTA, ROGER STERN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Jack Knight Starman cover by TONY HARRIS.

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(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Winter 2022

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2021

“KIRBY: BETA!” Jack’s experimental ideas, characters, and series (Fighting American, Jimmy Olsen, Kamandi, and others), Kirby interview, inspirations for his many “secret societies” (The Project, Habitat, Wakanda), non-superhero genres he explored, 2019 Heroes Con panel (with MARK EVANIER, MIKE ROYER, JIM AMASH, and RAND HOPPE), a pencil art gallery, UNUSED JIMMY OLSEN #141 COVER, and more!

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Alter Ego (Six issues) Back Issue (Eight issues) BrickJournal (Six issues) Comic Book Creator (Four issues) Jack Kirby Collector (Four issues) RetroFan (Six issues)

ECONOMY US $68 $90 $68 $46 $49 $68

EXPEDITED US $80 $103 $80 $56 $59 $80

PREMIUM US $87 $113 $87 $60 $63 $87

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INTERNATIONAL $103 $137 $103 $69 $72 $103

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

ALTER EGO #173

BLACK HEROES IN U.S. COMICS! Awesome overview by BARRY PEARL, from Voodah to Black Panther and beyond!

Interview with DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III (author of Looking for a Face Like Mine!), art/artifacts by BAKER, GRAHAM, McDUFFIE, COWAN, GREENE, HERRIMAN, JONES, ORMES, STELFREEZE, BARREAUX, STONER—plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

PRINTED IN CHINA

ALTER EGO #172

ALFREDO ALCALA is celebrated for his dreamscape work on Savage Sword of Conan and other work for Marvel, DC, and Warren, as well as his own barbarian creation Voltar, as RICH ARNDT interviews his sons Alfred and Christian! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PETER NORMANTON’s horror history From The Tomb, JOHN BROOME, and more!