BrickJournal #89

Issue 89 • Spring 2025

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Issue 89 • Spring 2025

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

People Ivo Popov’s LEGOMAN1000!..................................................3 Nicole Honeycomb: Brick Printer!.......................................................6 Jon-Paul Hansen: From Pop Art to LEGO Masters..............12

Building Stefano Bolcato: Brick Painter!...................................................20

Adnan Lotia: Turning Vinyl Into LEGO...............................24 Mark Lorah: Studgineer.......................................................28 Isaac Wilder: Building Art.....................................................36 Reverse Engineering SNOT.........................40 BrickNerd Instructions: Cassette Tape..................................................47 Minifigure Customization 101: Hold Your Breath, Make a Wish, Count to Three!..............................................52

Community Bantha Bricks:

Tom Jacobsen:

ARC Brick Studios.........................................58 Brick Galleria: Displayingand Building Brick Paintings...............................................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Next Issue............................................................80

BrickJournal is no longer sold in Barnes & Noble stores.

But it’s still available in independent bookstores, comic book shops, and by mail order and subscription!

From the Editor: Hi! This was an issue that went down a different path than I planned.

Spring 2025 Issue 89

Originally, this was supposed focus on art with sculpture, but I noticed a couple of painters that did renditions of LEGO minifigures. From there, it wasn’t hard to add some album covers.

Publisher John Morrow

Editor in Chief Joe Meno

After that, things got real dry for a bit.

Then the Capitol Dome showed up on my Instagram feed, and that was quickly added. Turns out the builder did some great work besides the dome.

BrickNerd and Assistant Editor Dave Schefcik Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow

Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon

Bantha Bricks Correspondent David Strenzler

Contributors: Brick Galleria, Giorgio Benni, Stefano Bolcato, Jared Burks, Oscar Cederwall, Emily Corl, Jon-Paul Hansen, Rylie Howerter, National Trust for Places of Historical Interest or Natural Beauty (UK), Nicole Honeycomb, Tom Jacobsen, Mark Lorah, Adnan Lotia, Ivo Popov, Screentime NZ/Banijay, TVNZ, Isaac Wilder, and Greg Hyland.

Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal: www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com

About the Cover: Stefano Bolcato’s art and Adnan Lotia’s covers take the spotlight.

Photo by Giorgio Benni.

Album cover art by Adnan Lotia.

About the Contents Page: Nicole Honeycomb’s cards are ready to be sent!

Photo by Nicole Honeycomb.

And then it was quiet until a printmaker posted on Instagram, who was very clever with her work. While making print plates with LEGO elements isn’t new, the new assortments of DOTS and tiles have made the medium much more accessible and fun!

It’s all here. So enjoy!

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

Twitter

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)

Facebook

Subscriptions

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)

BrickJournalTM issue 89, Spring 2025 (ISSN 1941-2347) is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BrickJournal, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Joe Meno, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BrickJournal Editorial Offices: 6701 Coachman Drive, Springfield, VA 22152, USA. E-mail: admin@brickjournal.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $53 US, $63.80 Elsewhere, $19 Digital Only, and can be purchased at twomorrows. com. LEGO ®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. Star Wars, The Mandalorian TM & © Lucasfilm. All articles, photos, and art © BrickJournal Media, LLC, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

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BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.

People

A few of Ivo’s works.

Ivo Popov’s

LEGOMAN1000!

Article and Photography by Ivo Popov

Ivo Popov is a full-time artist from Bulgaria, which means he’s a one-man show. He does his own social media marketing, hustles across groups to find clients, expands his own fan base, does his own sales, wraps his creations safely as he prepares to ship them abroad, and when he finds time, he does art. What he likes most about his job is the smile he imagines his customers have worldwide when they unpackage their new artwork.

Ivo grew up inArticle an artistic family. Both his parents, sister, and grandparents, uncles and cousins are creative and artistic Photography people. He is a third generation artist with a professional

by Nicole graphic designHoneycomb diploma that he got from his applied arts high school in Sophia. After that, he studied architecture for a while, tried a bunch of different things, and finally six years ago he decided to dedicate himself to becoming a full-time artist. It has been 16 years since he grabbed the pencil to learn how to draw. Now he uses pencils, markers, and paint.

Growing up, he also really enjoyed playing with building blocks. He remembers that at the age of five, his parents got him a construction crane by an alternative brand because they couldn’t afford real LEGO at the time. Ever since that moment, he fell in love with construction blocks.

Nowadays, he plays with LEGO, but rarely, and not as he used to. There was a moment when he decided to donate all his LEGO to a school so that kids could play with it.

Ivo Popov.

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There’s a bit of regret now, but he thinks he did it for a good personal reason: he wanted to prove to himself that he was bigger than his attachment to materialism. Also, he wasn’t playing with it anymore, nor wasn’t sure if his future kids would even like LEGO—for Ivo, there’s a thrill of saving money to get a specific set, tearing the box open, building it yourself or with friends, and then using your imagination to create new objects with the same parts from that set.

Now, he uses his imagination to create paintings of minifigure heads. Brightly colored, these paintings capture the playfulness and whimsy of LEGO. He was inspired to start what he christened the LEGOMAN1000 series of paintings for a few reasons: • He could change his media from pencils to acrylic art, which would allow him to scale up the size of his creations • He would have an opportunity to improve his acrylic technique • Of course, his sentimentality to LEGO • The LEGO minifigure (and its head) is widely known • Look at them! They are so fun to look at!

Paintings by Ivo.

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He started on October 1, 2024 with a goal of painting 1000 pieces. So far he has completed 26. The public has loved it—seven of those pieces have been sold. Two have been sold in his country of Bulgaria, one in Italy, one in Switzerland, one in Belgium, and four in the USA!

Other paintings.

Ivo thinks that LEGO and art are tightly connected in terms of experience. Creating art feels a lot like building a nice LEGO set; the more fun he has, the nicer the artwork gets. What he’s noticed amongst his customers is that the majority of them grew up the same way as he did: playing with LEGO, toy cars, and military action figures. Later some studied art, architecture, or did something creative.

As a result, a big reason why his fans appreciate his craft is because they deeply understand where he is coming from and can relate, even if they don’t know him personally at all.

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People

Artist and graphic designer Nicole Honeycomb uses LEGO to create, but not to create models.

Using plates, tiles, and ink, she makes prints that are delightfully whimsical. She started with traditional printing methods, such as linoleum and block printmaking. She enjoyed the process and look of her prints and started her LEGO printmaking journey about a year ago. After seeing some examples of prints on Pinterest, she was intrigued by the idea of using LEGO for prints. When she found out that the company was discontinuing their LEGO DOTS sets in early 2024, she stocked up on two different sets and began experimenting.

What started as a simple curiosity has since evolved into a new creative adventure for her, and she shares her printmaking process and finished artworks through videos on TikTok, and sells them at local markets and online.

b: m co y e on H ole c i N

k c i Br ter! n i r P

Article and Photography

by Nicole Honeycomb

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Nicole’s affection for LEGO began as a child. She loved playing with the only LEGO set in the house, which belonged to her brother. The set was a spaceship that opened in the back. Sometimes she would follow the instructions and build the spaceship, but mostly she would build other ideas that she had. Over the years she has enjoyed playing with LEGO whenever she came across it; she always loved how versatile LEGO was, being small bricks that could be built up into anything.

When it came to printmaking, Nicole was drawn to LEGO because of that same versatility and also the challenge it presented. The small scale 1x1 or 1x2 tiles, small shapes, and the small space of the paper size that she chose to work on push her to see whether she can actually create the designs she envisions. She loves this limitation LEGO offers for design—sometimes, when an artist has too much choice in art, a blank page can be daunting. LEGO also feels like a more sustainable option compared to traditional printmaking materials like Lino, where one actually cuts a new plate for each artwork. With LEGO, she loves that she can take the design apart and rebuild it to different designs, offering endless possibilities with the same set of tiles.

A sampling of Nicole’s work.

Nicole Honeycomb with the tools of her trade.

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With those possibilities, Nicole found starting out that building LEGO print plates was both exciting and challenging. One of the early obstacles she faced was the constant need to adjust the placement of the tiles.

She often found herself changing her mind about where certain tiles should be for the design she wanted to create, which meant frequently removing and shifting them around on the plate. This trial and error process led her to the realization that planning her prints digitally before beginning would save her a lot of time and frustration.

Since the prints were also mirrored, especially with text, she had to carefully plan and build everything in reverse to ensure that it could be read once printed.

Another challenge was choosing the right ink and paper to create a clear print, which took some experimentation.

Nicole started by using Lino or block inks but switched to good quality ink pads so that the clean-up was easier.

One surprise to her was that the LEGO tiles would occasionally crack or break. She honestly didn’t know that LEGO would break! She thinks with the tiles she uses being so small and withstanding a fair bit of pressure when she rolls over them to create prints, they’re pushed to the extreme. Despite these challenges, this journey has been incredibly rewarding and she has gained a lot of confidence in her technique.

Public reaction to her print work has been a happy surprise for Nicole. She started by sharing the process of making the prints on social media, which quickly gave her a lot of attention. People are often amazed that LEGO can be used as a printmaking medium.

Some of Nicole’s multi-colored prints.

Some food-inspired prints.

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Having people comment, make suggestions and request designs has been so nice for Nicole. It’s been incredibly encouraging to see how her prints resonate with others.

Some people have mentioned that the prints remind them of pixel art, which she thinks is a good comparison.

Actually, when she plans print designs, she uses a grid to get started.

For Nicole, it’s gratifying to see how people connect with the work and appreciate the creativity behind using something as unexpected as LEGO to create art. Many people have told her they want to give it a try, and that they already have the LEGO and art supplies at home, and she gets so excited for them. Nicole observed, with LEGO printmaking particularly, the process is a fun and rewarding one, and the fact that it’s so accessible for people of any age or with any amount of art experience to try brings her joy.

Because of the public demand, Nicole started teaching LEGO printmaking. She started offering classes after she realized how much fun she had experimenting with the medium and how eager others were to learn about it. She wanted to share that excitement and give people a chance to explore this creative process themselves. A local community hall asked her to lead some classes last summer and they were very well received. “It’s always exciting to watch people’s reactions when they see the potential of LEGO as a tool for printmaking, and it’s been rewarding to guide them through the process from planning their designs to making their first prints,”says Nicole. Even young children have enjoyed the classes; they are usually very excited about the LEGO in general and shocked that they are allowed to put ink onto them.

She loves how the process sparks their creativity to try their own designs. It’s been a wonderful way to introduce printmaking to a new generation of artists!

Another use for the prints.

Tiny printing kits, with everything needed to make a print or two.

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Working on a print.

When Nicole started running classes, she realized it would be fun for people to continue exploring printmaking at home, so she recently launched a tiny LEGO printmaking kit that has everything you need to get started: a LEGO plate, tiles, ink pads, cards, tile lifter, and an instruction leaflet. The kit includes just 28 LEGO tiles, but you can make 15 designs provided in the leaflet and there’s plenty of room for creativity so you can make many more from your own imagination. It’s a tiny kit in a tiny box designed for making tiny prints, but it packs a large amount of fun reuse and potential. She’s sold them at markets so far and has amazing feedback. The kit is available at her workshop and she’s excited to see how others use it to explore the world of LEGO printmaking.

As for the future, Nicole has exciting future projects planned. One of the things she is working on is creating stop-motion animations using her tiny prints. She’s already made a few animations: a matchstick being lit, a Christmas cracker being pulled, and some others, and she plans to continue exploring with more animations in the future. She’s also excited to keep pushing herself to see if she ever runs out of design ideas for tiny prints.

Every time she’s sure she must’ve run out of ideas, she manages to think of a few more. Additionally she’ll be releasing new versions of her tiny LEGO printmaking kit, including Spring, Halloween and Christmas editions, later in the year.

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For Nicole, lots of different things inspire her printmaking—everyday moments and objects, requests from people, emojis, and even current affairs. For example, during the recent Olympics games she started printing people in various poses or engaged in different activities.

As for LEGO, it represents limitless possibilities and fun to her, and both of those qualities inspire her deeply. The simplicity of the tiles paired with the endless way they can be arranged and used in printmaking encourages her to think creatively and push boundaries. Ultimately, LEGO brings out her sense of fun and encourages her to think outside the box, constantly pushing her to discover new ways of creating with it.

You can view Nicole’s Linktree page at https://linktr.ee/honeycomb.artistry or by scanning this QR code to see more of her work and shop!

Nicole’s print set-up.

Making Your Own Prints Nicole’s printing set-up, seen above, shows what is needed to make a twocolor print. The plates are numbered and are inked with the drop-shaped ink pads seen on the left side of the set-up. After inking, a sheet of paper is placed on the print plate (3.75in x 2.5in) and rolled with a roller. The size of the paper fits within the brick border, so the paper is aligned. The alignment is needed to make sure colors don’t overlap each other. In the case above, the first plate is inked black. After a print is made of the first plate, the second is inked yellow.

The resulting print is seen at the top. Letters are built in reverse for printing.

Tiles and some decorative parts can be used to make prints. Nicole uses the pieces seen on the right to make her prints. All of these parts have one thing in common: they have smooth tops. Specialty parts, such as the green grille tile and the star, allow for different patterns and elements. You can see the star in the print that was done above—it didn’t print a full star, but an outline!

Parts used for printing.

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People

Jon-Paul Hansen:

From Pop Art to LEGO Masters Article and Photos

by Jon- Paul Hansen LEGO Masters Photos Provided by TVNZ, & Screentime NZ/Banijay Jon-Paul starting out as a builder.

Jon-Paul Hansen lives in Auckland, New Zealand and works in website content and digital marketing. He’s married with three adult children in their early 20s.

He’s in his early 50s.

Three years ago, he was lucky enough to be employed behind-the-scenes for the two LEGO Masters New Zealand seasons, as a “Brick Builder” under the guidance of their Brickmaster, Canadian Certified LEGO Professional Robin Sather. He and the other Brick Builders got to create the LEGO set decoration and prop builds to set the scene for the episodes, and also test out some of the challenges. Some of the builds were Jon-Paul’s and the other Brick Builders’ own MOCs built to Robin’s specifications on size and height; some were from designs Robin created digitally.

Jon-Paul was born in the early 1970s. He had Danish grandparents and they would catch up with relatives in Denmark or New Zealand every year or two and bring sets from back home. He still has some childhood sets from that pre-Minifig era: the Fire Station, the Police Station, the London Bus, and some others. He’s picked up a few more vintage sets from that time and recovered a few sets from bulk lots over the years.

When his cousins used to visit, they would make “smash up derby” MOCs and race them down the hall and smash them into each other. He cringes now, but it was huge fun at the time.

The Star Wars license in 1999 brought him out of his Dark Age. He used to make MOC X-wings and TIE fighters as a kid, so official sets and minifigures were a dream come true.

His favorite theme is hard to pin down, but he does have a soft spot for pop culture nostalgia (as you’ll see in his MOCs), so he loves Scooby-Doo, Indiana Jones, The Simpsons, Stranger Things, and others. He has all the retail sets from those themes.

As an AFOL, it was probably seeing build contests at the local toy shop that inspired him to build. He was too old to enter, but it got him thinking about what he could do with all the parts he had accumulated. He started to look online at sites like Brickshelf.com and got inspired by what others were doing.

Not knowing any other adult fans of LEGO at the time, it was quite liberating seeing the online communities. He had a Brickshelf profile which was very sparse, but his pop culture inspired builds were evident even way back then.

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Jon-Paul’s first large MOC of note, outside of minifigs and minifig vignettes, was an America’s Cup racing yacht. He’s a bit of a frustrated artist deep

down; working with LEGO is more forgiving than paint, wood, or other traditional media. LEGO is ripe for scrapping and rebuilding and making improvements over time, especially as new parts get released.

Jon-Paul’s builds are mostly inspired by pop culture nostalgia from his childhood; movies, TV, and music from the 1970s and 1980s. Generally you’ll see classic sci-fi robots like Robby the Robot and B-9 from the 1950s sci-fi movies and TV shows.

Robots from the Disney movie The Black Hole, Sam the Robot from Sesame Street, and Ripley‘s power loader from Aliens also are items he has built. He’s also built scenes from George Lucas’ first movie THX-1138 and recreations of characters and scenes from Star Wars, such as a life-size Salacious Crumb and Ralph McQuarrie-inspired concept art, including the Millennium Falcon’s docking bay and the Gorax from Endor.

Jon-Paul’s first large MOC: a racing yacht.

Robby the Robot and B-9.

Musicwise, he has built MOCs of classic rock acts like ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, and his favorite, the primitive CGI characters from Dire Straits’ video Money for Nothing.

Of course, Jim Henson has been a huge inspiration to him. As Jon-Paul grew up with The Muppet Show in the 1970s, he has built lots of Muppetrelated builds.

Building a MOC often takes much longer than Jon-Paul expected. The Dire Straits set of characters, for example, was where he built the main porter Harv a year or so before building the dog. He knew he also needed to build the thinner guy, Sal, before he posted photos online, but couldn’t find inspiration and techniques for his curved head. In the end, after maybe another year, he simplified the face and just had one angle: the chin, and it looked great.

With his Muppet bust, Jon-Paul attempted twice to build Kermit the Frog, but could not get the shaping right, so as a way to clear his head, he started working on Gonzo, which was completed within the same afternoon. He still hasn’t returned to Kermit at that scale, although he has made a smaller one for his MahnaMahna scene.

Left to right: VIN.CENT, Maxmillian, and B.O.B.

Generally, though, a MOC will take Jon-Paul between a week and a month to complete, usually just building on the weekends unless he’s super inspired and has the energy after work.

Jon-Paul is a tactile, hands-on trial-and-error builder, with minimum planning other than gathering reference material. Since he works in front of screens for his day job, building is a break (other than googling reference images). He doesn’t digitally build outside of Mosaic planning (with those he pixelizes an image, then eyeballs the colors). He doesn’t use LEGO Mosaic Maker or other software.

Sam the Robot from Sesame Street.

He also has no interest in creating digital instructions; that would take longer than the actual building and require the destruction of the MOC to record what he had done. This would put him back in front of a screen for an extended period, which is the opposite of why he builds. He usually is inspired by a TV or movie scene or character, then he’ll find a seed piece to set the scale. An example of this is using the white 4x4 half sphere for Muppet eyes. For the pink Mahna-Mahna Snowth figures, the seed piece was the pink snout, with the rest built out and scaled from there.

He might also use an existing scale, such as the scale used in the Speed Champions theme. His THX-1138 police car is based on the Speed Champions Lamborghini set.

Ripley’s power loader from Aliens.

For Jon-Paul it is a process of build, stop, look at it, think if there’s a better way and if so, unbuild, rebuild, and repeat.

The police cruiser from THX-1138.

Above and Below:Scenes from George Lucas’ film THX-1138.

Salacious Crumb.

Jon-Paul’s rendition of a Star Wars production painting by Ralph McQuarrie.

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On the opening episode of LEGO Masters New Zealand, Brickmaster Robin asked Jon-Paul and his team to make a mash-up of famous New Zealand architecture, buildings, and sculptures. Robin had a few in mind from the outset: the Auckland Skytower and Ferry Building, The Beehive (NZ Parliament building), and Christchurch Cathedral. He asked their thoughts on what else to include, looking to represent different regions as much as possible. They came up with the Tirau Dog visitor center, Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance, the Ohakune giant carrot, Invercargill Water Tower, and the Cape Reinga lighthouse.

The Gorax from Endor.

Robin sketched out the footprint on their baseplate table. The other initial builder on the team, Mark, and JonPaul split up the builds and went to work. Robin gave advice on scale and height, techniques to speed things up, and how the buildings would intersect, but pretty much left the team to build.

Since this was for the opening show, they had a few weeks to complete it.

Jon-Paul had taken time off from his day job so it was working about five days a week at the studio. Just the sheer size and tight deadline made this the most challenging MOCing he’s ever done.

Jon-Paul is probably proudest of his Muppet Beaker build. He gets the most comments and giggles when the MOC is displayed at his LUG (All Blocks RLUG) shows. Jon-Paul initially made Beaker for a contest several years ago. Back then, the MOC had hair made of red bars, snakes, and hotdogs, among other things, that were not all attached.

Since then, he’s improved Beaker’s nose (twice) when new parts became available, and most recently redid the hair using red prickly bushes.

Beaker got a staff pic on LEGO Ideas, which was thrilling, and has been highlighted on The Brothers Brick, Beyond the Brick, Brickvault, and other websites and social media pages.

Jon-Paul builds to have a break from screen time and get to relax, and also create something tangible. His wife has gone back to study remotely, usually doing assignments in the

ZZ Top and their iconic cruiser.

The CGI workers from the video Money for Nothing.

Above and Below: Pigs in Space!

Pink Floyd in concert.

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evening and weekend, while working full-time and doing volunteer work that’s part of her study requirements. She’s always busy, so building keeps him out of trouble, so long as “out of trouble” doesn’t include buying yet another set or bulk lot. He likes to build unique models often from IPs LEGO doesn’t have or are no longer active, such as Blade Runner, Alien(s), ZZ Top, and Monty Python.

Jon-Paul was inspired by the recent C-3PO set to mod/MOC a RoboCop at the same scale, borrowing some of the build techniques from the set. So far, he’s built basic legs, the torso, and arms, using colors on hand to start. These parts will be swapped out for as much silver as he can get via Bricklink. At that point he’ll also make the legs more Robocop-like and less C-3PO-esque. The arms aren’t right yet as they need some tweaks. He hasn’t tackled the head at all yet.

Animal!

He’s also working on a MOC of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak that’s about 70% done, and he’s been working on it for most of 2024 on and off.

The Mahna-Mahna singers.

Another project he is planning is for a large diorama for LUG displays, probably 3’ x 5’, based on a very popular children’s story in New Zealand: Badjelly the Witch, written (and narrated for the even more popular radio story) by the late British comedy legend Spike Milligan of The Goons. Jon-Paul has been collecting minifigs and parts for the build for about five years, but hasn’t started the main building at all yet, which includes a cottage, lake, forest, river, treehouse, and castle.

For builders, Jon-Paul offers the following advice: “It can be quite overwhelming when starting a MOC; the scope is limitless. A good idea is to look out for build contests online, as these will have themes and often piece

Jon-Paul’s first try at building Kermit the Frog.

Jon-Paul’s second try.

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Jon-Paul’s first version of Beaker.

Gonzo the Great.

Jon-Paul’s second version of Beaker.

Jon-Paul’s current version of Beaker.

Jon-Paul’s Lichtenstein-inspired mosaics.

count or size limits. This means you have to be more focused to build within the rules, but it can free you from getting overwhelmed. The contest deadlines also give you motivation to finish. Afterwards, you can see what other people do with the same restrictions and learn from their builds and techniques.

Bricknerd.com has a monthly contest round-up posted the first week of each month. Many contests don’t have prizes and are just for fun and maybe run via Instagram or Discord. Get involved! Also, build lots of official sets to learn techniques, then try to modify them.”

Starting on the LEGO Masters build with the Tirau Dog Visitor Center.

Jon-Paul’s friend Jono Samson, a contestant from LEGO Masters NZ season 1, says: “Three-in-one Creator theme sets are perfect for this. Build all three official variations and see if you can make a fourth one,” which is great advice!

“Don’t get too frustrated if your vision doesn’t manifest itself in your final build.

Try alternate ideas or, if you have to, shelve your build until inspiration strikes Another look at the Tirau Dog Visitor center and to the right, the Ohakune giant carrot.

Continuing with the Beehive and Invercargill Water Tower.

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BrickMaster Robin Sather and host Dai Henwood with the final LEGO Masters NZ episode 1 scene-setting Architecture mash-up build.

In progress: Robocop!

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again. Maybe new parts become available or you figure out another scale or you learn from another build a technique you can apply to your MOC to improve it. Don’t be afraid to steal someone else’s idea, but if you do, try to give credit if appropriate or it’s a big enough borrow to warrant it.

Models based on Where the Wild Things Are.

“When you have enough parts to start to sort, I recommend sorting by type, not by color. It’s much easier to find a green 1x3 slope in a container of slopes than it is to find a green 1x3 slope in a bin full of assorted green parts. You don’t need to refine down too far. A bin of all your wheels is probably fine, especially when starting out, rather than separating out further to different types of wheel, tire rim, and axle.”

For more of his builds or if you’d like to chat about LEGO, please check out Jon-Paul’s socials via Linktree: https://linktr.ee/ jphansennz or scan this QR code!

19

Building

Stefano Bolcato began his artistic practice as a painter 35 years ago he made his first painting with LEGO characters in 2006.

As a painter in terms of study and techniques, he came from an academic background. He has worked for many years on classic painting themes, such as landscape, figure, or still life. Later he thought of moving onto a painting of narrative and social denunciation. To do so it seemed to him that LEGO characters could be an effective way to talk in an original way, even about social topics. Then, always inspired by LEGO characters, in the last eight years he has dedicated himself to the reinterpretation of paintings and authors (more or less famous) in the history of art.

As a child, Stefanos’s absolute favorite toy was LEGO. He spent entire days building all kinds of houses and cars. The little LEGO characters arrived later when he already an adult have been painting for many years.

Stefano Bolcato’s rendition of Tamara de Lempicka’s Ragazza con i guanti (Girl with Gloves).

StefanoArticle Bolcato: and

Brick Painter!

Photography

by Nicole Honeycomb

Article by Stefano Bolcato Photography by Giorgio Benni

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Stefano’s audience is very diverse in terms of age, interest, and social background. This aspect of his activity makes him truly happy, and makes what he creates as an artist meaningful. His works are present in important private collections, but they are also highly appreciated by people interested in art in general, lovers of the LEGO world, and no less importantly by a very young audience. Furthermore, fine art prints are available in limited editions of his paintings allowing people to be able to purchase artwork at an affordable price. For him, most of the public responds very well to his art.

Some people may not take his work very seriously, but that’s normal.

Obviously his art can be appreciated by many, but not by everyone.

Stefano’s first choice in painting a LEGO version has a very strong and profound motivation that refers to the protection of the common international artistic heritage. It’s linked to a sad event that occurred in November 2015 at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona,Italy, which has an important collection of ancient and modern art. 17 paintings of great value were stolen from this

museum, including works by Rubens, Tintoretto, Bellini, Mantegna and other great artists. The news struck Stefano so much that he wanted to share this great sorrow with other artist friends. Together they started a project with the aim of keeping public attention alive on this serious and frightening case.

They wrote an appeal that was spread online to social media and subsequently through newspapers. They also invited the artists available to participate in the project by choosing one of the stolen paintings to create, according to their own original style, a work to present in public spaces and in the form of street art to make the widest possible audience aware of what had happened. Many artists joined the initiative in many Italian cities, generating great interest in the case of the theft at the museum. For his artistic contribution to the project, Stefano created a mural painting of one of the stolen works in Rome at an outdoor public space, choosing a painting from 1523 by Giovanni Francesco Caroto.

Thanks to the great work of the investigators, the paintings were found after about a year, all fortunately in good condition.

Stefano’s rendition of Caravaggio’s Medusa.

For Stefano, it was a very engaging and important experience, and he discovered a pleasant way to re-interpret the history of art through LEGO minifigs. Since he started, he has studied and worked on different periods and authors, following his instincts, passion, and admiration for artists of the past from Raphael to Frida Kahlo to Caravaggio to Tamara de Lempicka, and from the Renaissance to Pop Art to Metaphysics. Lately he has also made portraits of favorite people from the world of sports fashion, politics, and entertainment, often working on commission.

Stefano’s rendition of Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Hummingbird.

Keith Haring’s Devil.

Keith Haring’s Love.

Keith Haring’s Angel.

21 21

Asking Stefano for his favorite painting so far is a question he can’t answer.

All of his paintings are born from passion and curiosity for great artists and essentially represent a tribute to their artwork, accompanied by a sense of profound gratitude towards them. There isn’t a favorite.

He can say that he chose Caravaggio to see if he could convey the same dramatic emotion as the original and Tamara de Lempicka to see if the seductive force remains the same with minifigures or if it would change. The portrait in the profile position of the Duke of Urbino painted by Piero della Francesca shows a very evident and pronounced nose while his LEGO version obviously it is totally absent. Each time it is a challenge in form of a game, but with a deep respect for the original artwork. The principle that studying the great works of the past is a great and wonderful training ground for forming one’s own solid structure in artistic identity is always valid in these works.

Stefano’s Haring-inspired ornaments.

As a lover of René Magritte’s surrealism, Stefano has already created numerous renditions of his works. He would like to continue with with Magritte’s other works. Roy Lichtenstein is also one of his favorites and he’s thinking of new paintings inspired by Lichtenstein’s works. At the moment, Stefano’s direction is to deepen the study of authors on whom he has already done works of. The Renaissance as a period also attracts him a lot, particularly for portraiture. He would like to return to this in the future.

Piero della Francesca’s Duchess of Urbino.

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With Stefanos‘s art, he has also started making ceramic items. These are the result of meeting with a creative laboratory called I Solitari Lab, which collaborates with various artists and creates handcrafted artistic ceramics with silk screen printing techniques. This collaboration started recently and is a new venture for him. At the moment, purchases are mainly in Italy, but if there are people interested in ordering, they can contact him to determine the shipping cost, which differs from country to country outside the EU. At the moment, there are eight ceramics that you can buy with either karma or PayPal. The latter method is preferable. Before ordering from non-EU countries he recommends contacting him.

Piero della Francesca’s Duke of Urbino.

Stefano’s mugs and ceramic desk caddies. The caddies can be stacked as seen above.

A mug and caddy.

The caddy has a tube bottom to allow stacking.

You can go to Stefano’s gallery or contact him at https://www.stefanobolcato. com/ or scanning this QR code!

23

Building

Adnan Lotia:

Turning Vinyl Into LEGO Article by Joe Meno Images by Adnan Lotia Adnan Lotia was last featured in BrickJournal 74 in 2022.

His album covers, built digitally with LEGO elements, were spotlighted. Since then he has expanded his online album collection considerably and updated some of his previous work.

Within the confines of 24 stud by 24 stud footprint, Adnan has used the extensive LEGO element catalog to create portraits, art, and even typography. All of his work is done with traditional stacking. Here’s a look at some of his more recent pieces.

Phil Collins But Seriously Adnan’s rendering of Phil’s portrait uses wedge plates to define the chinline and contours of the head. The mouth is made of minifigure blades.

Article and Photography

by Nicole Honeycomb

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Alice in Chains Facelift

Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Unusual parts come into play here to make the distorted face and background. Minifigure pirate hooks and multicolored taps can be spotted here.

The limited shapes of LEGO elements makes for some creative solutions, such as the folds on the dress.

Album Covers Then and Now

Adnan has revisited some of his earlier covers. Here’s a look at the old and new and the changes that were done.

Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon

The new version has thinner strips and beam. The prism is also different, using smaller wedge plates and plates with rails on the bottom to make its lines thinner.

Madonna True Blue

The new version has a changed color palette. The hair is now more graphic than accurate using wedge plates.

25

The Killers Pressure Machine

Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life

Black, white, and gray make a good palette for LEGO elements.

Wedge plates are used to make curves here. The type is only hinted at but is very effectively rendered.

One thing that stands out to me when I look back at my older work is how my approach used to be more experimental. I would try out new techniques frequently and used obscure elements if I thought that they could help convey a particular shape or nuance in the album cover. Now I feel I have settled into a rhythm with certain elements that I feel comfortable with, and are situationally flexible (largely a palette of tiles, wedge plates, modified plates, minifigure accessories, taps, nozzles, and bars). ­– Adnan Lotia You can see more of Adnan’s work at his Instagram gallery: https://www.instagram.com/uvupv/ or you can scan the QR code below!

Rush Fly by Night Samurai swords are feathers and provide the detail for this cover.

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Building

Mark Lorah’s display at BrickUniverse.

Mark Lorah:

Mark Lorah is a structural engineer by profession and has developed a specialty in historic restoration and repurposing buildings. This goes hand-in-hand with his love for historic LEGO buildings, and has helped with the design and structure/strength of his new builds.

Article and Photos by Mark Lorah

One of his favorite activities, however, is mentoring and inspiring others professionally. He teaches engineering seminars, and mentors engineering college seniors.

However, to inspire the next generation of engineers, designers and planners, he was convinced that he needed to reach young people. This is where LEGO started to play an important role in his life as a mechanism to provide that inspiration. Being an engineer working with LEGO brick studs also inspired his social media handle: Studgineer.

The Studgineer

As a child, Mark enjoyed building the now iconic 1980s LEGO space sets with his brothers. Those early sets just had bricks that came in those big cylindrical cans, if anybody remembers those (yes, that dates him!).

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As an adult, Mark picked it up again in the early 2010s.

Before then he had been renovating several historic homes and ended up losing a bunch of money in the 2008 market crash. He jokes with people that while LEGO is expensive, it doesn’t compare to the cost of renovating real buildings.

Seriously though, he was intrigued by the LEGO modular series buildings which were targeted to adults. Not satisfied to simply build the sets, however, he decided he

needed to find a way to display them—and what more appropriate way than to build a village? The issue with a village, though, and most village builders would agree, is that they take a lot of space, particularly if you have a train—and of course you need a train. This is where his engineering came in handy. He asked the question, “What would a real city do?” Well, they have hills, retaining walls, subways, trestles, and tunnels. He could and did build all those from LEGO. He started displaying his village at a local fair and then as a local artist in a LEGO convention which came to town. It was so popular at the convention that they invited him to display at additional events.

A look at the Virtruvian Man’s hands.

Between his village and his profession, Mark tends to lean toward the LEGO modular series with its more traditional buildings that fit well within a Classic City theme.

However, with his MOCs, it is much tougher because he can’t tell you what inspires him. He can only tell you when it does. He wants to build things that are beautiful and fill the world with beauty.

After seeing his work, and with connections made through his LEGO club, Mark was invited to re-create several local historic landmark buildings for the history museum in Mark Lorah’s Vitruvian Man in progress.

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The Good Shepherd Window.

town. These were actually his first commissioned pieces and the first ones he did independent of his village.

Additionally, afte seeing his work in the conventions, an area Art Center asked him to be a featured artist at their BrickMasters event. This demonstrated to him that his work could stand independently on its own. Until then he considered himself, at best, a LEGO hobbyist—but if an Art Center wanted him to display as a featured artist, he figured he could start considering himself a LEGO artist. It then became clear to him that it was okay to build independent pieces on subjects that inspired him.

The real Good Shepherd Window.

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As mentioned before, Mark can’t really define what inspires him. He can only tell you when something does.

For instance, when he decided he needed to practice his LEGO sculpturing skills, he chose perhaps the most iconic anatomic study ever done. That is how his Virtruvian Man, a 3-D rendering of the classic Leonardo da Vinci work, was done. Having it rendered in 3-D, however, Mark had to imagine the rear, since the original sketch was only from the front. A random discussion with a professional bodybuilder, however, who started identifying the muscles in the shoulders and back, seemed to make (more than he’d like to admit) the pictures he looked up of professional male models and athletes worthwhile.

Working on the Good Shepherd Window.

Interestingly, this is where his artistic integrity conflicted somewhat with living in a practical world. He wanted to reproduce the work authentically, which, of course is a full male nude. After discussions with other artists and venues, he decided to be authentic in the work, but to make a removable LEGO fig leaf for him. He found himself having to replace his fig leaf a handful of times in a multi-day convention. Typically it is teenage boys who take it… because they’re teenage boys. Middle-age ladies also remove the leaf; you can draw your own conclusions there.

Another view of the window.

Mark‘s piece entitled “Good Shepherd Window” was a recreation of a beautiful stained glass window and a church in which he grew up. He always loved this window and had for years toyed with the idea of creating it with translucent LEGO pieces. The greatest inspiration, however, came when he was visiting the church for a holiday service and mentioned he was thinking about recreating it. A nice lady in the congregation scoffed at that notion and said, “Yeah, right!” Well, then it was on—he had to do it and the challenge was accepted.

It has become one of his most popular pieces. He did get a chance to take it back to the Church, receiving high praise from the members, including the lady who inspired it.

Nicely, he got a compliment from a convention attendee about it who said she was so glad that he didn’t shy away from items of faith. His grateful response was that it was intended to present and demonstrate a beautiful thing of this world, not necessarily any particular faith or belief.

The Capitol Dome, standing nearly six feet tall with over 40,000 pieces, has been by far Mark’s largest piece.

Drawing from his engineering roots, Mark was inspired by a famous engineering sketch of the dome done by Thomas Walter, the designer/engineer for the dome when it was added to the Capitol in the 1860s. This not only showed the beautiful dome that we all know from the outside, but also the interior iron framework which supports the structure. He very much wanted to show all of this, not only as a presentation of beauty, but also the engineering practicalities of producing such a work. The issue, however, of recreating LEGO is very much a practical one. He knew that the majority of the stonework columns could be done in LEGO, but how could he do the iron

Mark with the window.

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The Capitol Dome takes center stage!

frame and trusses that support it? Again, engineering skill helped, as he decided not to simply represent the structure, but actually use a LEGO structure, as intended, to support the weight of the piece itself. This included a lot of LEGO Technic pieces. Additionally, he had to be concerned about transporting it, which meant it had to be built in sections.

This added a whole new level of complexity to the designs.

Some close-ups of the dome structure.

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For Mark, building a MOC typically does not take as long as it does to design it. For instance, he was working on the Capitol Dome design for over six months before he got to the point where he could start building. Before he finished the design of the whole structure, he had built the cupula and the Statue of Freedom which goes on top. He figured that if these couldn’t be done and look good, there would be no need to finish the rest of the piece. This then inspired him to keep working because he then committed it to a large show—he had to build the rest in about four weeks. For a piece this large, he basically did nothing but work, build, and sleep, with a couple of breaks to eat.

Presently, he has several dozen pieces right now in various stages of design, some of which, like the “Good Shepherd Window,” had been in the inspiration and planning stages for over a year before he took them to completion. Once done, and with all the bricks delivered, it only took about a week to put together.

Typically, Mark uses several of the computer design programs to design his MOCs. His favorite is LEGO Digital Designer, although he is trying to transition to Stud.io. Rarely does he simply start building without a plan. Using a program means that he can design all he wants to virtually, before committing the resources to buy the bricks, and building. This is a common question he gets at conventions—usually from parents who know the financial commitment of this hobby. He recommends having the kids design and build as much as they want for

The Capitol Dome lit up for display.

free with a program, and then maybe choose one or two special ones to build.

Mark‘s hardest design was his Vetruvian Man. It had so many complexities, but a limited structure to work them out. The hardest piece to build was his Capitol Dome.

Many LEGO designers know that a dome is a tough shape

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A look at the internal structure, built with Technic axles and connectors.

to do in LEGO elements—well, imagine doing only half a dome! He was able to build several innovative half-moon trusses that were incorporated into the dome typically where the segments separated.

His favorite builds are typically the ones that he most recently completed, or ones that required a certain amount of creativity or engineering expertise. It’s hard to beat his Capitol Dome for all of these. It also has been the piece that has gotten the most attention, although because of the connection to home and his childhood, the “Good Shepherd Window” also has to be up there in his favorites.

Mark builds because he wants to inspire—whether it be the young people who will be the next generation of designers, creators, or engineers, or even adults who want a way to teach, inspire, or just relate to kids in their lives. He actually gives presentations designed to do this.

Another aspect that he was not aware of until he started displaying his work was that LEGO has been found to be a great means of expression for special needs people who may have had issues expressing themselves in other ways.

He loves to be able to foster these aspects in his work. He also just simply loves having a hobby that he can share with others.

Presently, Mark has committed his Capitol Dome to an art center event whose theme is “America the Beautiful”.

Additionally, for that theme he is currently working on a piece entitled “American Majesty.” It is an American bald eagle in flight with a wingspan of over five feet and will be pulled mounted above head height. He continues to look for other engineering structures that he can showcase and he is working on several other pieces that he hesitates to mention until he can determine if they can actually be built.

The most surprising aspects of his work have been a number of people who have said that he or his work has inspired them. He is just doing what he likes and never realized how much of an impact he is evidently having.

Typically what he tells people is to “keep on building.”

He continues: “It doesn’t matter what you build or if anyone sees it, but it’s important to just keep practicing and enjoy what you do. This also means that if you get frustrated or stuck on a project, it is okay to walk away from it. Building should be fun, not work… however, if you are anything like me, soon something will inspire you to build or the build solution will come and you’ll be right back there building away.”

(opposite) A look at some of the elements in the Capitol Dome broken down for travel.

35

Building

Isaac Wilder:

Building Art Article and Photography by Isaac Wilder

Isaac Wilder’s rendition of a still life.

Isaac Wilder has been building for as long as he can remember. Now 28, bricks of various sizes have been a part of his life since he was old enough for DUPLO! His love of bricks has only grown with him.

The release of Speed Champions got him to start building MOCs after having a two-year Dark Age. He jumped right back into building in 2016 with a model of a 1940 Ford Coupe.

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Isaac’s current favorite theme is the LEGO Ideas theme.

He enjoys building vehicles, but also gets enjoyment out of building different things and learning new techniques that these sets have to offer.

His dad was one of the factors behind Isaac’s building. He had various sets and parts from the ’90s in his collection growing up and was a MOC builder himself. As for the collection, it only grew larger as they grew older.

Isaac’s inspirations for building mostly come from things that already exist that he would like to replicate, like vehicles. If it’s not a vehicle he is recreating in bricks, sometimes it’s a LEGO element that sparks him to create something.

MOCs can take thirty minutes to three years for Isaac to complete, as it really depends on what goals he sets for himself. The longest project that he has taken on was his Volkswagen T1 Kastenwagen panel van that started as a “patina collaboration” of sorts with fellow builder Simon Liu in 2020. He finally finished it in January of 2024.

Mostly, though, he spends a lot less than three years (on and off in this case) working on a build.

Isaac’s building style differs from project to project.

Sometimes he plans things out to see if he needs to order parts or acquire them in a set, as he doesn’t usually use standard wheel and tire combinations for his vehicles.

Other times planning is less involved—he just builds until he’s satisfied.

Isaac’s first MOC.

Isaac’s Volkswagen T1 Kastenwagen van, a collaboration with Simon Liu.

Another Volkswagen, this time a T1 Westfalia, in a fall-inspired diorama.

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Isaac’s Morning Bath.

The most difficult builds that Isaac has done include the largest he has done so far: a larger-scaled model of a Volkswgen T1 Westfalia! At 14 studs wide and slammed to the ground, he wanted to figure how to make it roll while looking accurate all around. A month was spent on this build for preparation for Bricks Cascade 2023, a LEGO fan convention in Portland, Oregon. The model still needs some work, but he’s rather pleased with how it turned out.

Another build Isaac endured was the aforementioned 7-wide Volkswagen T1 Kastenwagen, which he built/ designed in conjunction with a 7-wide T1 Westfalia in red and white (a small-scaled version of the Creator Expert set 10220). It took countless hours to design a front end for these that he was pleased with.

A T1 Westfalia.

A MOC that Isaac is very proud of is his Morning Bath, which he built in 2023. He had a little fun with interior design, inspired by Marcin Otręba (@martinlegodesign on Instagram) and his beautiful room MOCs. Isaac’s build started with the tub and could not have been done without tips from fellow builders. Some elements are directly from Marcin’s vintage bathroom (the sink stand and assembly).

Isaac also did an animation for this model as well, creating movement for the water and steam.

For Isaac, building is a creative outlet and a tool for relaxation. Everyone should have an outlet to express their creativity or to relieve stress, and LEGO building happens to be his.

A futuristic snail.

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Another layout by Isaac of a gas station with a visitor.

More views of the diorama.

For advice, Isaac offers this: “I would say that it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of pieces available.

There are so many connection combinations from just a selection of 2x4 bricks, and that number of possibilities grows exponentially when you introduce bricks with studs on sides, hinges, brackets, and so on. So, I would start by building sets to get used to different techniques or connections. Pick a few sets from a theme you like to get you started. There are so many options now! Build the set and once you’re finished, you can take it apart and rebuild it into something new using the techniques you’ve learned! To learn more techniques, there are so many resources. One is a website called Rebrickable; there are usually many alternative set builds available from an array of builders. Lots of instructions are free. The site gives you an idea of what else is possible with the pieces on hand, but also techniques that other builders use.”

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Building

Reverse Engineering SNOT Article by Oscar Cederwall Photos by Rylie Howerter Previously posted on Bricknerd.com

I have written numerous articles covering many aspects of SNOT that I think are necessary for an advanced LEGO builder to know about. In this article, however, I will focus on how I learned many of the tricks I know and how to think when applying SNOT to your MOCs. It’s time to talk about reverse engineering, or more specifically, the Reverse Engineering Contest (REC).

I participated in my first REC competition in 2014. It is actually one of my most precious moments so far in my AFOLhood. It was basically a LEGO SNOT puzzle that you were challenged to recreate. A new puzzle was released every week, and if you didn’t solve it, you didn’t get any points. That basically meant you wouldn’t win, so it was an equal mix of stress and delight. I made it to the final challenge, which I failed. But it was such a great experience, and I learned invaluable lessons about SNOT that I still have great use for.

What I didn’t realize until later was that REC actually gave me the tools I needed to reverse-engineer my own ideas! What I mean by that is that I can have an image in my head of what I want to achieve, and then I can mostly solve it—if I treat it as a REC challenge. It’s super useful for me as a LEGO builder.

In this article, we will look at how you can attack SNOT puzzles with a few examples. And I’m excited to reveal that helping me with this article is the one responsible for this whole REC business, Rylie Howerter!

I have been following Rylie on Flickr since my early AFOLhood, around 2013. I think the first image I saw was the Modulex/system compatibility analysis. Rylie’s feed has since then been a reference for clever NPU, connection techniques and color charts.

Rylie Howerter.

Chat With A Master Reverse Engineer Oscar Cederwall: Before we focus on REC, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

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One of Rylie’s impressive MOCs.

Rylie Howerter: I’m Rylie, a graphic designer from Fort Collins, USA. The part I play in the LEGO community is a mix of historian, collector, color fanatic, and sometimes-builder—I’m trying to bring back more of the

latter lately as I start working on MOC projects again!

What is your relationship to LEGO? Have you been hooked since childhood?

Basically, yes. I think my first set was a Duplo bucket in 1994, then asking for LEGO for every holiday through to the 2000s. The way I engaged with LEGO has varied; there was a time when I kept all my sets built and used them as playsets to make stories about with my brother, and another when I was deeply into making Bionicle MOCs — but LEGO has always been there for me in some way.

I see that you have been active on Flickr since 2009. Was that your first interaction with the AFOL community?

I discovered the online AFOL community around 2006 and spent all my free time poring over MOCs on BrickShelf and Flickr. The next couple of years were probably the most prolific building I’ve ever done; these days, I’m lucky to get a MOC or two in each year. But I’ve just recently unpacked my collection from the last move, so hopefully I can get something new out.

As for the community, it was mostly Flickr for a long time, but I’ve also been to many Brickworlds, one BrickCon, and this year I actually managed to visit Billund, Denmark. Hopefully I can go back soon!

Can you tell us about your LEGO Color Project? How did you get so interested in the LEGO color palette?

That started as a graphic design class project, actually. I wanted to make a timeline infographic showing when the colors were used, but the more I dug into it, the more incomplete, outdated, and even contradictory the existing resources seemed. So I created my own spreadsheet, which after years of talking colors with other AFOLs, grew into my color database.

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Along with that, I created a second Flickr account where I post a photo of every single color I can find, for ease of comparison and discussion (driven by my own compulsion to generate content™). It’s all a perpetual work in progress—I’m always correcting it and adding to it as we learn more because I know something like this is only as useful as it is up-to-date.

Reverse-Engineering So, let’s talk about REC. What caused you to start this contest? Where did you get the idea?

It started as the Reverse Engineering Contest in 2010—I don’t really remember what inspired it, but I know I was searching for fun new ideas for community contests at the

How to Reverse Engineer a LEGO Build

time, and this was something I hadn’t seen done before.

People would reverse-engineer each other’s MOCs to learn techniques or just to display, but I wanted something that celebrated the act of reverse-engineering itself.

The contest was (what I considered) a huge success, so I ran it again the next year. Flickr user “q_159” took over to run REC III, then I did IV. By that point it had become a bit overwhelming—I think I was vetting 120+ answers each week at first, and I had to keep adding tiebreakers for weeks at the end. It wore me out, but it was very fulfilling to see everyone enjoying the puzzles!

Yes, I can imagine that was a lot of work! I remember how many contestants expressed their awe and gratitude afterward.

So, how should you go about solving a REC Challenge?

Let’s dive into it.

Example 1 - 2X2X2 cube core.

This is not actually an example of a puzzle from any of Rylie’s REC challenges. It is just a simple start to give you an idea of how it works. You need to build a cube where the core is 2x2x2 studs and the plates on the outside need to be connected. The puzzle looks the same from every direction. There are many solutions, and if you think it’s too easy, try to use 2x1 plates on the outside instead of 2x2 plates.

The first thing I do is to figure out the dimensions and the limits. In this challenge the core must be 2x2x2 studs and it needs to have at least one stud in every direction.

After that I try to just find a core with those attributes. The easiest way for me is to use a digital building tool, like LDD or Studio.

Easy, right? Let’s make it a bit trickier!

Above are examples of solutions to the puzzle.

How many can you figure out?

Example 2 - REC IV, week 1 This puzzle was featured in the first week in REC IV from March 2015.

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Let’s break it down. You need to have room for the 1x4 tiles on the sides and you need some studs outwards to attach the rest of the elements. The outer limits of the puzzle will look like the render to the right.

Once you have established the frame, you need to figure out how to connect it. The 1x4 tiles are flush with the edges of the purple 2x4 tiles. There are several ways of solving this. You could aim to connect the individual parts of the frame separately to the 2x4 tiles, or you could aim to build the frame and then connect it to the rest. Here are some suggestions: Brackets can be used, but they don’t give us much stability.

Headlight bricks are often a good replacement for brackets.

This way you can also add 1x2 Modified Brick With Studs on Opposite Sides to attach the 2x4 tiles.

A possible solution.

And now, back to my conversation with Rylie…

You sometimes add restrictions to your puzzles when it would be too easy to solve. The challenge above had a “no Travis bricks” restriction (a 1x1 SNOT brick with studs on all sides). There was also a “no flex tube” restriction.

My take was that you wanted REC IV to be as purist as possible.

Exactly. There are a lot of unofficial LEGO parts that can lead to unsatisfying solutions, at least for me—rubber bands, stickers, string, and so on. Flex tubing especially

can be used as an easy way out when I really wanted people to think about the inherent mathematics of LEGO geometry. That’s also why you don’t see a whole lot of puzzles involving weird angles or clips that don’t lock into a discrete position.

I also add restrictions on a per-puzzle basis—if a build is trivial with Travis bricks but otherwise requires much more elaborate geometry, I might say “no Travis bricks” just to guide people to a particular solution.

Practice Time Here are a few other examples of REC challenges. See if you can solve them! The solutions will be shown at the end of this article.

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In April 2020, in the middle of a raging pandemic, you started a new REC of sorts, on Instagram this time.

It was not so much a contest this time, but more like a daily challenge where everyone could participate and try to solve your puzzles. Can you tell us about that?

Four years after REC IV, I brought it back in 2020 as the Reverse Engineering Challenge—no prizes or scoreboard, no need for me to personally review every solution, just a series of daily puzzles on my Instagram account. I liked that people could miss a day or jump in at any time instead of facing elimination.

I think this more casual format was very well-received when a lot of AFOLs were stuck at home by the pandemic, looking for activities to do.

It ran for over 150 days, not counting a month-long intermission in the summer.

And I must mention that in every REC since the second, puzzles have been crowdsourced—I can’t come up with all of them! It’s a real community effort to put REC together. I’ve just been the host.

New elements like this “swivel SNOT” are great for MOCs but make it harder to create challenging puzzles.

Did you want to reach a bigger audience with Instagram compared to Flickr?

At the time I had a much smaller following on Instagram than on Flickr, but it feels like the community has largely moved on from Flickr. It’s kind of sad to me—it’s much more dispersed than it used to be; some people moved to Instagram, others to various Facebook groups, still others to Discord, so there isn’t one good place to post things anymore. Honestly, I might have kept it on Flickr if I wasn’t already near the 1000 photos upload cap.

Many of your puzzles were a lot harder to solve eight years ago. We’ve received so many more awesome SNOT elements in the last few years. What is your opinion on this?

It’s hard! There’s a part of me that cringes every time a fancy new bracket or modified brick comes out, even though as a MOC builder I’m really excited to play around with them. There have been a lot of puzzles that needed revising or scrapping upon the release of a new part, but I’m really okay with that since it usually opens up opportunities for other new puzzles to come into existence, too.

I haven’t revisited the puzzles since part 3386 came out, though, so maybe they’re all super easy now.

I know you didn’t create all the challenges yourself, but what is the process of creating a new puzzle?

I think the most common way I come up with a puzzle is by playing around with small parts until I find an interesting core, then see if I can cover it up in a way that both obscures the core but also doesn’t allow for too many alternative solutions. (Note: you can never anticipate every solution—someone will always surprise you!)

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Another way is to design what you want the exterior to look like, and then try to figure out how to connect it all. This is almost exactly like solving an existing puzzle, with the added bonus that you don’t know for sure if it can be solved.

And lastly, just build MOCs without thinking about reverse engineering, and if you happen across an interesting technique or section of your build, maybe it can be converted into a puzzle!

Do you have a favorite puzzle from all of the RECs? The one I’m proudest of is this one— it only uses a few part types, and the vast majority of them are visible, but it’s still so twisty.

But I think my favorite overall is this cube by Gonkius. It’s just so deliciously precise and a great example of how many solutions a single shape can have.

Honorable mention goes to this one of mine, which is really just a MOC that later became an REC puzzle— it’s a dense chunk of messy, messy geometry inside.

Do you have any puzzles that you weren’t able to show us in your last challenge that you would like to share?

I have! Here are a few that have never been published that I’ve had sent to me, as well as some of my own, so you can try your hand at reverse engineering them!

RBC 158 by Jack Porter

RBC 159 by Jack Porter

RBC 160 by Jack Porter

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RBC 161 by Jack Porter

RBC 162 by Jack Porter

RBC 163 by Jack Porter

RBC 164 by Jack Porter

RBC 165 by Jack Porter

RBC 166 by Rylie Howerter

Thank you so much for this deep dive into the world of LEGO reverse engineering!

Can you solve these ten(!) never-before-seen puzzles? Use your SNOT skills! (Solutions will be made available through Rylie’s Linktree at: https://linktr.ee/rhowerter or by scanning the QR code at the left.)

If you want to learn more about REC and practice your own skills, I highly recommend trying to solve the challenges in the REC group on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/1353510@N20/ or by scanning the QR code at the left.

RBC 167 by Rylie Howerter

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Here are the solutions from the challenges at the middle of this article.

Parts List

(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Part Color Description 2 2431.dat Black Tile 1 x 4 with Groove 1 3004.dat Trans Clear Brick 1 x 2 10 3005.dat Black Brick 1 x 1 3 3023b.dat Reddish Brown Plate 1 x 2 2 3024.dat Red Plate 1x1 2 3024.dat Orange Plate 1 x 1 2 3024.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 1 2 3024.dat Green Plate 1 x 1 2 3024.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 2 3024.dat Blue Plate 1 x 1 1 3069b.dat Black Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 2 3070b.dat Black Tile 1 x 1 with Groove 4 3460.dat Black Plate 1 x 8 6 4477.dat White Plate 1 x 10 4 6091.dat Black Brick 2 x 1 x 1.333 with Curved Top 2 6541.dat Lt Bluish Grey Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole 6 51739.dat Black Wing 2 x 4 4 52107.dat Black Brick 1 x 2 with Studs on Sides 4 86996.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 x 0.667 2 87994.dat Lt Bluish Grey Bar 3L

Cassette Tape Design by the BrickNerd Team

The cassette tape was a game-changer back in the day, making music portable and personal. To celebrate this retro classic, our design stays true to the real thing. It has curved corners, tape reels, a label, and even the little clear window that shows the tape inside.

Building this set is like hitting play on nostalgia. It’ll take you back to the days of making mixtapes for your buddies and recording your favorite song from the radio. And it ever implements a sweet little stud inversion on the sides to keep things interesting.

So get your pencils out because it is time to be kind and rewind!

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51 https://groups.io/g/twomorrows

Building

Creating Your Wonka Masterpiece Drawing inspiration from the beloved movie and story, in this issue I will cover how I constructed a minifigure that brings the magic of the Chocolate Factory to life.

The process begins with a custom minifigure featuring intricate details—from the distinctive top hat to the playful Golden Ticket, and of course, an Everlasting Gobstopper.

Key Design Elements • Detailed top hat/hair • Custom purple coat

• Custom Cane/Walking Stick • Custom Bow Tie © Paramount Pictures

• Custom Torso Design

• Expressive facial expression capturing Wonka’s mischievous spirit

• Wonka Bar/Golden ticket accessory • Minifigure scale Everlasting Gobstopper Willy Wonka.

Minifigure Customization 101:

Hold Your Breath, Make a Wish, Count to Three!

Whether you’re a LEGO enthusiast or a fan of the classic film, this guide will help you transform simple bricks into a miniature tribute to one of cinema’s most imaginative characters. Prepare to enter a world where creativity knows no bounds— just like Willy Wonka’s magical Chocolate Factory.

Article and Photography by Jared K. Burks

Hopefully with the explanation, you too can create the figure, just as I have.

“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.”

Detailed Top Hat/Hair

Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination. This is not those charlatans’ worlds, I am speaking of the “Wonderland” created by Gene Wilder, Roald Dahl, and David Seltzer. Many might not know that last individual because Dahl was credited with writing the screenplay for the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; however, David Seltzer was brought in to do an uncredited rewrite.

Against Dahl’s wishes, changes were made to the story, and other decisions made by the director led Dahl to disown the film. The musical numbers were written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley while Walter Scharf arranged and conducted the orchestral score. “There’s no earthly way of knowing which direction they are going.”

To start, we need to think about Gene Wilder’s hair in the film. It is curly, wispy, and a bit classically parted and brushed, as are the other male characters, especially the children in the film. It is very hard to capture this level of detail in the figure. In order to capture the best hat-hair combo, I went with the inspiration of the tilted top hat on the hair with a left head hair part. The issue is many of the LEGO hair styles use a right head hair part, so where to begin?

As we all know, this story focuses on Charlie Bucket, a child who is stuck in poverty, who doesn’t let his circumstance bring down his optimism, as he is a forever dreamer and innocent to the concepts of greed, lying, and misdeeds.

The panacea of amazements open once Charlie finds a Golden Ticket in a chocolate bar, thus wining the chance to visit Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory along with four other children from around the world. “Is it my soul that calls upon my name?”

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Well, since “Time is a precious thing.

Never waste it. Shall we press on?” I found a hair style; I refer to it as the Anakin hair, because it originally came out on an Anakin Minifigure

to my knowledge. Bricklink refers to it as, “Minifigure, Hair Swept Back Tousled” item number 61183. At issue is it has the wrong sided part, and I could have easily just flipped the hat tilt and moved forward, but I said no!

1. I found the hair piece in the LeoCAD program and exported the OBJ file and imported it into Meshmixer.

2. From here, I mirrored the hair piece and deleted the original and kept the mirror.

3. This was a quick way to make a LEGO part unique.

4. From there I did a plane cut on the hair piece to remove the bulk of the unneeded parts. I did augment one area on the side due to the wave of the hat brim I was using.

5. I now added a piece that was a cylinder that would sit inside the top hat that would not interfere with the brim.

6. Choosing to use the LEGO top hat, I exported the OBJ and imported it too.

7. From here I took the cylinder and subtracted it from the top hat to get the interior of the LEGO top hat.

8. I then cut a stud acceptor for the top of the LEGO head...

9. ...and added this to the LEGO mirrored hair piece that had been cropped at a 12.5 degree angle.

10. I now modeled the LEGO top hat on top or the hair...

11. ...and decided to add a stud to the top of the hair to further strengthen the hair-hat connection.

12/13. Having read an article on how Gene Wilder specifically made adjustments to his wardrobe for the film, I knew that the hat was much shorter than many top hats, and I performed another plane cut and patched the top.

14. From here it was time to test fit and the stud fit, but the hat did not rest at the correct height. Quickly deciding to expand the hat by 1% and shrink the hair by about the same, a second test fit was performed.

15. I was frustrated, but decided to remove part of the shelf where the little notches of the hat had to fit into the hair, and reprinted the hair piece.

16. This is where the final test design and test fit came into place! Willy now had a hat and hair!

“I don’t understand it. The children are disappearing like rabbits. Well, we still have each other. Shall we press on?”

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Custom Purple Waistcoat

The Silhouette cutting template.

Fabric stiffener.

The waistcoat cut from the fabric.

The final waistcoat.

Clearly Wonka isn’t Wonka without the purple waistcoat, and luckily I have made one before. These days, custom cloth is a bit easier to create.

Many have gone to using ink jet printers and a Silhouette or Cricket to cut out the cloth elements. I have done a variance, just as I did in my Alice in Wonderland series (which I need to finish, oops!) and went a bit old school in how I created the cloth. Cloth frays, and you must add something to the cloth to keep it from fraying. I used fabric stiffener and draping liquid diluted in water to keep the cloth from fraying. I applied the diluted product like paint with a foam brush on the purple broadcloth while the cloth was resting on a glazed tile. Paints and glues generally won’t stick to the tile that is glazed, and after getting a good coverage, it is merely about letting the cloth dry by hanging it vertically. Once the cloth has been painted and is able to be cut, I use a Silhouette with a design that I iterated through many test versions to get the correct fit. I merely had to export these as a .png file and load them into the Silhouette software and cut away. While I am happy with the waistcoat for today’s article, I may lengthen it and add some accents in the future.

Custom Cane/Walking Stick “Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous.” This means the cane, and if you have seen the film, I would not describe the cane as “nothing dangerous,” given the way Gene Wilder swings the cane around in the first room containing candy in the Chocolate Factory! To create the cane I simply used a few different basic circles in Fusion 360 to create a series of ovals, cylinders, and tapers to create the cane. The biggest challenge was the scale, and as you can see, I wanted it to rest correctly at Willy’s side, as most 3L bars in LEGO are just too long. Luckily this was easily addressed: “No, no, don’t speak. For some moments in life, there are no words.”

Cane models.

Figure studies to determine cane height.

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Test cane and Everlasting Gobstopper.

Custom Bow Tie “Oh, you have questions? Let me drop everything.” For the Bow Tie, I could have used the LEGO version, but the colors were wrong and I needed the bow tie to interact with the waistcoat. This meant that the bow tie needed to hang a touch lower on the torso to help hold the top of the waistcoat. So I heavily modified one of Reddadsteve’s parts (Thingiverse) to create this and attached it to a neck ring that again would work with a head and torso.

Custom Torso Design “We have so much time and so little to see.” Seriously, Willy’s vest is the only clothing we are printing, as he wears this very colorful vest under the waistcoat. Since we are adding the waistcoat with cloth and the bow tie as a 3-D printed part, this means we only need the vest. Amazing!

“Stop. Don’t. Come back.” For this vest we have a simple collar and button set-up; what is most important is the flower design. The vest is much more complicated than we could ever print at LEGO scale, so I simplified the design into three different flowers and then randomly scattered them around the vest. This left the design a bit disorganized and irregular, which worked better for the overall design of Wonka. Remember we are only getting a peek at the vest through the middle line where the waistcoat doesn’t cover.

Vest reference.

Vest pattern.

Final vest print.

Expressive Facial Expression Capturing Wonka’s Mischievous Spirit “There’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going.” Willy’s face is a bit challenging. We want him to look a bit unhinged and magical at the same time. For this I was planning on two different expressions. I designed four and started asking people their thoughts.

These were simple enough to create in Corel Draw and then send to Geeky Ink Studios to have printed directly on the LEGO heads.

Face designs.

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Wonka Bar/Golden Ticket Accessory The critical accessory for Willy Wonka is the chocolate bar. For this I tried to keep it simple, and this is where I discovered the largest Easter Egg of the film; the back of the bar as Charlie turns it over to open, clearly states, “Packed by the Quaker Oats Company, Chicago Illinois.” While I would love to include this detail, printing on the back void of a LEGO tile is not possible, so only the art for the front was made to create Wonka Bars!

Design for Wonka bar wrapper.

“Oh, you should never, never, doubt what nobody is sure about.”

Minifigure-scale Everlasting Gobstopper “Why? Are you having fun?” We are nearly at the end, but please know, “We are the music makers; we are the dreamers of dreams.”

How would I ever make an Everlasting Gobstopper? These are tiny in the film and fit easily in the palm of a person’s hand. Well, I had to go after it the only way I knew possible. I had to attach it to a post so that the figure could hold the post and have the Gobstopper appear to be just above the Minifigure hand. Since there are many designs of Everlasting Gobstoppers on Thingivers and Thangs, I merely downloaded one and modified it in Meshmixer. In order to finish the Gobstopper I had to paint it and I merely used a set of acrylic paints and slowly painted each arm of the Gobstopper a color as inspired by the inspirational image.

Gobstopper reference image.

Minifigure with cane and Gobstopper.

Modified Gobstopper with figure grip.

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Painting the Gobstopper.

Well, “If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it.” While this figure is a complete figure, I will continue to work on it as there are many more details I would like to add. I also want to create an Oompa Loompa and perhaps a few of the kids. “Where is fancy bred? In the heart or in the head?” “There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.

Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.”

Hopefully this counts as my, “So shines a good deed in a weary world,” and you all enjoyed this article. I tried to add so many quotes from the film, I lost track. Please know, “Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.” Just imagine and strive for your goals, otherwise “You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!”

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

The completed figure with accessories.

Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization!

And don’t miss Jared’s two books (available now at twomorrows.com).

Final copies: $3 each!

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Tom Jacobsen ARC Brick Studios

Tom Jacobsen:

ARC Brick Studios

Article by David Strenzler, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Tom Jacobsen Galactic greetings! We are Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of one of the best LEGO Star Wars themed groups on Facebook, David Strenzler, Frank Averstegge and Eloi Parizeau witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis.

This time, we would like to introduce you to outstanding MOC builder and Bantha Bricks community member Tom Jacobsen (Arc Brick Studio).

David Strenzler: Hello, Tom. Welcome to the Bantha Bricks Files! The LEGO Star Wars community has been familiar with your creative and skilled Star Wars-inspired designs for some time. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do?

Tom Jacobsen: Thanks David, I certainly appreciate this amazing opportunity for my work to be featured in BrickJournal!

Since my retirement from the pharmaceutical industry over three years ago, LEGO projects have become my new “career”, consuming much of my time. In early 2023, I was invited by Greyson Riley to build an exhibit of 9-10 MOCs and be a featured artist at twelve of his Brick Convention tour’s shows. For the 2024 tour, I agreed to participate in thirteen shows, and worked pretty much 24/7 from November 2023 through mid-March 2024 to build a whole new exhibit for it.

Would you say that Star Wars is your favorite theme, or are there others that we might not expect?

Owen Lars’ house.

Yes indeed, David, Star Wars is my favorite theme! I have embraced the franchise ever since its release in 1977. Most of my MOCs in the last seven years have been centered around the Star Wars theme, and particularly the original trilogy that I grew up with and am a big fan of. But lately, I have created MOCs based on other movies and the Clone Wars.

I am also a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings and really enjoy building MOCs of the latter. As an avid architecture buff, I have recently taken a real interest in building castles. The ARC of my studio name ARC Brick Studio is short for architecture.

Why have you chosen the LEGO brick as your medium of self-expression? What makes LEGO so special to you?

Well David, I think the correct answer to that question might be that perhaps the LEGO brick chose me. When I was a child in the 1960s and early 1970s, my parents were of modest means and I did not own any LEGO. When my son was born in the early 1980s, we purchased a few sets for him and I used to build them with him. Later, when my granddaughter was old enough, we pulled out my son’s old tub of LEGO bricks, and she loved building LEGO with me.

Then, around 2017, while visiting our local LEGO store’s Pick-a-Brick wall with my granddaughter, the store manager introduced me to the wonderful BrickLink website. Right around that same time, my wife and I were visiting Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin. While there, I purchased Tom Alphin‘s book titled The LEGO Architect, and I was instantly mesmerized by it.

Owen Lars’ house with lighting on.

The works and builds of several AFOLs and CLPs (Certified LEGO Professionals) were featured in the book, along with a few of their biographies. Adam Reed Tucker was one of those CLPs featured, and I Iearned that he, too, was from the Chicago area. It just so happened, at that very same time, that all of Adam’s models of large buildings were on display at my local library. So, after a visit to the library to see Adam’s exhibit, I was immediately hooked. And I have been an AFOL since then, really for only the last 7-8 years.

What makes LEGO so special to me is that it was my granddaughter that was indirectly responsible for setting me on the path to becoming an AFOL. I have always loved building with my hands, and I love the versatility of the LEGO elements—you can basically create almost anything from them, and what you can build is 59 only limited by your imagination.

Orson Krennic’s home.

You have brought us a fine selection of your work, including your artistic architectural models. These made us particularly curious as they are based on a unique idea: “What if the visionary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright had lived in a galaxy far, far away and had been commissioned to construct buildings there?”

Please tell us more about your models and the ideas behind them. What made you bring Wright and Star Wars together?

Orson Krennic’s shuttle waits for lauch.

Orson Krennic leaves his home.

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The simple answer to this question is that I brought together two of my favorite interests into a quite unique series of builds. Being from the Chicago area, I am a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. My wife and I are members of both the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust and the Foundation. While watching the Star Wars movies and seeing the architecture of locations such as Tatooine, Naboo, Coruscant, Mandalor, etc., it hit me: what would Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs look like in such locations?

If Frank Lloyd Wright lived in the Star Wars universe, and certain characters had hired him to build them a home, what might those look like? This idea was perfect because I wanted to do something that would kind of set me apart from other Star Wars MOC builders.

To date, I have done seven builds in the series of Star Wars/Frank Lloyd Wright “mash-ups”. My very first one, which I brought to Brickworld Chicago 2019, was the first version of the “Owen Lars House”, Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen’s house on Tatooine. The build was based on Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie style design. After Brickworld, it was quickly torn down after I received some constructive criticism from an architect who said the house did not blend organically with the base/landscape in my MOC, which Wright’s design did in real life. I took that criticism to heart for all future builds, and I rebuilt the “Owen Lars House“ to better organically blend the house with the landscape. I based the new MOC on a blend of Wright’s prairie style and Usonian Automatic style, and I used dark tan elements with tan trim and highlights in the construction, on a tan/medium nougat landscape. I took

this new MOC on the 2023 Brick Convention tour, and it was also featured at BrickWorld Chicago 2024.

Next was the “Orson Krennic House”, the Imperial character from the movie Rogue One. His house was based on Wright’s L-shaped Usonian style, and to give it that “Imperial” look, I mainly used dark bluish-gray elements in the construction, with dark blue trim and highlights.

I later added a landing pad to the build to accomodate Krennic’s black shuttle. This build won a nomination for Best Small Building at BrickWorld Chicago 2022, and I also took this MOC on the Brick Convention 2023 tour.

Wedge Antille’s house.

A front view.

The next build was the “Wedge Antilles House” which was built on Endor after the final battle in the movie Return of the Jedi. Wedge was the famous rebel pilot, and he flew Red 2 in the original trilogy. This was a house inspired by Wright’s Fallingwater design. This house was a three level house built using mainly white elements and dark bluish-gray trim. To bring the Endor landscape to life, I crafted a double waterfall surrounded by dense and cascading landscaping. Again, this MOC was part of the 2023 Brick Convention tour.

to build this chalet for the recreation of the rebel troops stationed at Echo Base. This build is constructed of white elements with light bluish-gray trim, and I used trans light blue elements in the windows to give the build a more frosty and icy look. Rebel Hoth Trooper minifigs on skis gliding down the slope in front of the chalet compliment that whimsical touch.

For the 2024 Brick Convention tour, I decided to reprise the “Wedge Antilles House” on Endor, but I built an allnew MOC based once again on Wright’s prairie style design. This new MOC is a two-level design home, built using tan elements with reddish brown trim. Unlike the original Wedge house, I built an adjoining landing pad for his X-wing fighter, Red 2. Once again, I included several pine trees and dense vegetation as seen on Endor.

I really do not use any “special” techniques when I do my builds, as they are pretty straightforward. As can be seen with “General Veers Heads to Hoth” and the hangar of the “Executor”, I use quite a bit of SNOT building. I also use a lot of SNOT and sideways building when I assemble my control room and command center control panels and displays.

Also for the 2024 Brick Convention tour, I decided to go for a little more whimsical build, and I built the “Hoth Ski Chalet”. The story behind this build is that General Rieekan, the rebel general on Hoth, commissioned Wright

Can you tell us a bit about the construction of your builds? Did you use any special techniques?

Lighting is a very important and integral part of many of my MOCs, especially with the Star Wars builds. Done right, the lighting adds that special touch and dimension to the builds that makes the details 61

The Hoth Ski Chalet.

really stand out. Since I build freestyle, I always have to consider how I am going to handle the placement of the lighting and hide the wiring and power sources.

I primarily use lighting from both Brick Loot and Blinky Bricks.

Since I am on tour with all of these builds, one of my main concerns is facilitating their handling, set-up, and transportation. For these purposes, I have to build them more robustly and make the larger ones modular. I must stress that I do not use any glue in any of my builds!

Which of the design elements of your models are your favorite?

Chatting in the snow.

My style of building is very well known for its clean lines and highly detailed, yet uncluttered appearance. I am a very prolific user of tile, as I really do not like leaving many open or exposed studs in my builds, except for landscaping.

I have also received several positive comments on my detailed landscaping. One of my favorite design elements of landscaping is the use of wedge plates (as well as slopes) to create a “terraced“ effect with changes in elevations. This style is well-shown by the newer “Owen Lars House” and the “Hoth Ski Chalet”.

How did you know or figure out how to build such amazing and seemingly accurate scenes?

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Troops on patrol.

Since I have been a student of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work for so long, it is rather easy for me to translate his style accurately into my designs and builds, and his designs generally translate well into the LEGO medium. Also, I have worked very hard to develop the supporting scenes around the houses, which includes accurate landscaping,

landspeeders, and other accessories that are indicative of the daily life of a Star Wars character, as well as the planet or setting the building is located in.

“General Veers Heads to Hoth,” a diorama by Jacobsen.

How do you start your MOCs? Do you build the design in a freestyle way, or do you use a computer design program to lay it out first?

The truth is, I do not do any prior design work, either on paper or on a computer. I build in a freestyle way. I have a concept in my head of what I want the MOC to look like, and I order all the brick or elements that I think I might need, and in the quantities I think I need them. Once all the elements have arrived, I dig in and begin building.

Sometimes, after a couple days of building, and if the progress does not match the vision or concept in my mind, I tear it down and start over. Luckily, that does not happen too often. I do make modifications along the way as needed, and 99% of the time, I honestly have no idea what the final MOC will look like until the MOC is complete.

An interior view of the diorama.

“Imperial Tactical Operations,” another diorama by Jacobsen.

As an experienced builder, what advice do you have to offer to someone who would like to build a MOC of their own?

My new catchphrase for my ARC Brick Studio branding is “Unlock your imagination, and unleash your creativity,“ and I have this printed on a sign in my exhibit. I tell parents and kids at shows that, when it comes to MOC building, they just need to let their imagination and creativity run wild when they build. When asked, I tell young builders that whether you’re ten years old, or an older master builder like me, we all start a project from the same pile of bricks. It’s up to you and your imagination with what you then do with that pile of bricks from that point on.

Another shred of advice that I give to young builders is to get to know and get familiar with all of the LEGO elements that are out there and are available, and in what colors they are available. Getting to know what elements are available may make it easier to plan or visualize what one might want to build. I do mention to them that Bricklink is a great source for this 64 information.

You have also included two imperial dioramas for us, which are no less fascinating—a classic scene from Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, entitled “General Veers Heads to Hoth”, and the beautifully crafted “Imperial Tactical Operations”. Can you tell us a bit more about these?

These two builds are my latest Star Wars MOCs in what I call my “hangar” series, where the main scene is focused on what is happening on the hangar deck, and then little rooms and vignettes are built into the sides and back modules of the hangar.

“General Veers Heads to Hoth” depicts a scene from “Episode V: The Empire Stikes Back” on the super star destroyer “Executor”, where General Veers, the AT-AT drivers, and his snowtroopers are shown loading onto his AT-AT prior to transport to the planet surface for the attack on the rebel base on Hoth. In addition to the AT-AT, other supporting scenes on the flight deck include a squad of stormtroopers being briefed by their commanding officer, and scout troopers with their snow speeders having a conversation with an AT-ST crewman. The vignettes and scenes built into the side module of the build include a command/control room, snowtrooper staging

area, droid maintenance workshop, and the water utility room, which is an homage to my wife, who was director of our city’s water department for many years.

The lighting I used on the flight deck, and the different color lighting in each of the rooms, vignettes, and control panels again adds a lot to enhance and punctuate the build. The AT-AT model itself is not a LEGO kit, but a custom design I built from online instructions that I received from a fellow AFOL. This MOC was featured in my 2023 Brick Convention tour, and was later purchased by a LEGO Star Wars collector in Massachusetts to be the centerpiece of his LEGO UCS collection.

“Imperial Tactical Operations” was built as the centerpiece for my 2024 Brick Convention exhibit. It is by far the largest Star Wars MOC I have built to date, and it measures 39” x 50”. It depicts a typical busy day in a Death Star hangar, where there is a constant hustle and bustle of activity that supports Imperial military operations.

Interors of the diorama.

Operations on the flight deck include maintenance and loading of cargo onto an Imperial Landing Craft, and a squad of stormtroopers being briefed by their commanding officer prior to loading onto the landing craft. An Imperial shuttle is awaiting maintenace, and another Imperial shuttle is shown being guided into the hangar by a flight deck officer. As with the “Veers” build, several rooms and vignettes have been built into the side and back modules of the build, and they include a command center, stormtrooper training room, main weapons firing room, droid maintenance, TIE fighter pilot training room, turbo laser room, a larger water department, and general hallway scenes as seen on the Death Star. This was a very enjoyable build, and I loved crafting all of the little details into each and every vignette and room.

Once again, I used LED lighting from Brick Loot and Blinky Bricks to bring the MOC to full and vibrant life, using different colors of lighting to augment the particular vignettes and all of their wall and control panels. The two Imperial shuttles and the Imperial Landing Craft are the base LEGO kits with no modifications. For transportation and handling between shows, the MOC comes apart in seven sections.

A monitor station.

“Imperial Tactical Operations” won Best Star Wars build at AtlantaBrickCon in February 2024, and was featured in an interview by Josh and John from “Beyond the Brick”, which can be seen on YouTube.

What inspired you to design these builds?

With my Star Wars MOCs, I always try and build “scenes behind the scenes” that could be part of the story in the movie or TV show, but are not actually shown or presented on the screen. Using this approach to building Star Wars MOCs, it really gives me more artistic license and freedom to basically do what I want, and not have to worry about duplicating a specific scene from a movie.

A look at the landing bay.

This then avoids the inevitable comments or criticism such as, “Well, it’s a good build, but... this section or part of the MOC does not match what’s in the movie.”

This is what I did with my “General Veers Heads to Hoth” build. In The Empire Strikes Back, after Darth Vader tells General Veers to prepare his troops for a surface attack, the very next time you see the Veers character in the movie is in his AT-AT on Hoth attacking the rebel base.

You obviously know and assume that, before the attack, Veers and his men had to load up onto the AT-ATs on the “Executor” prior to departing for the planet surface, and this is the scene portrayed in my MOC. “Imperial Tactical Operations” is yet another example of this approach to MOC building. The Death Star was a big place, and in addition to the scenes you see in the movies A New Hope, Return of the Jedi or Rogue One, there has to be other operations and things going on in the rest of the Death Star that you do not see in those movies!

Another monitor station.

Can you already tell us something about your next project? Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share with our readers?

The upcoming year will be spent preparing for the 2025 edition of the Brick Convention tour, the MOCs of which will definitely span the themes of Star Wars, Frank Lloyd Wright/Star Wars mash-ups, castles, and Lord of the Rings.

The “Padme Amidala House” will be my next Star Wars/ Frank Lloyd Wright creation, depicting her home on Naboo after she becomes a senator in Episodes II and III. This house will feature dark tan elements with dark brown trim, and sand green roofing, which will be consistent with the architecture and colors you see in Theed on Naboo.

The design of this house will be inspired by the Unity Temple, built by Wright in Oak Park, Illinois. This build was shown at BrickWorld Chicago 2024, and will become part of my 2025 Brick Convention exhibit.

Turbolaser station.

Stormtroopers ready to march.

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Please follow and support my work on Instagram at @ ARC_brick_studio. And in closing, I would like to reiterate my mission statement to all the young and upcoming MOC builders out there: Unlock your imagination, and unleash your creativity!

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, Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/banthabricks/ , their webpage at banthabricks. com or scan the QR code here!

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Emily Corl with her completed Bath Assembly Room LEGO Brick Painting.

Brick Galleria:

From Saturday, July 27 until Sunday, September 1, 2024, a brand new free exhibition of LEGO brick paintings was on display in the magnificent Tea Room of the Bath Assembly Rooms. This was a six-week partnership with Brick Galleria and the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty (located in the United Kingdom) to bring LEGO brick paintings to visitors and families in Bath over the Summer of 2024.

Article and Photography

by Nicole Honeycomb

Pieces featured included “A Georgian Day Out,” based on the nearby National Trust property Dyrham Park. This painting, along with 15 others, have never been displayed before, so this was the first time anyone had seen Emily Corl’s new collection.

Exhibiting and Building LEGO Brick Paintings Article by Brick Galleria Photography provided by Brick Galleria, Andreea S photography and Paul Kelly

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“As an artist, I love to push the boundaries with my art and I am so excited to be working with Bath Assembly Rooms to bring my painting to the public,” said Emily Corl, LEGO Brick Artist. “ I am inspired by the amazing countryside and architecture in the British Isles, and showing my exhibition will hopefully encourage others to be creative and get inspired as well.”

The exhibition provided inspiration to the rest of the summer activities. Kevin Hall, Brick Galleria’s professional LEGO Brick Artist, ran free LEGO Brick Painting Workshops every Wednesday and Saturday.

Families, visitors and LEGO loving adults came and had a go at creating LEGO Brick Paintings using thousands of different LEGO parts.

The creations were displayed for a limited time in the Tea Room, while in the Great Octagon, workshops were open to everyone aged 4 and older. For younger visitors, there was a DUPLO pit in the card room alongside other Trust-run crafts that kept everyone entertained.

“We’re so excited to be partnering with Brick Galleria this year,” said Alana Wright, Bath Assembly Rooms Visitor and Programming Manager. “This summer program was something for everyone, whether a LEGO fan or not. We had a brilliant new exhibition and lots of activities with the workshops, plus the school holiday crafts that people have started to associate with Bath Assembly Rooms.”

Vital conservation funds were also raised during the exhibition as Emily Corl created a custom LEGO Brick Painting of Bath Assembly Rooms.

People were invited to sponsor Emily for a donation of £2 per LEGO part. She then placed the part on the painting when she was onsite on Wednesday and Saturdays during the

“A Day in the Snow” was one of the works on display.

Emily with a couple of her LEGO Brick Paintings.

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Working on a LEGO Brick Painting.

summer. During the final week of the exhibition, the finished artwork was on display for people to see.

BrickJournal talked to Emily about her work and the exhibition.

BrickJournal: Tell us a bit about when you started creating with LEGO. Emily Corl: Even though I played with LEGO as a child, it was when I was a teenager I started using LEGO at workshops in public live building to inspire creativity.

How did you first get into creating with LEGO professionally?

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A look at some of the elements that are used for a Brick Painting.

Once I was known locally where I lived hosting events and live builds, I had companies commissioning me to create models for them and hiring me to run workshops.

The collections on display in the over 200-year-old Tea Room.

How do you approach a new LEGO brick painting? How long does it usually take to complete?

Once I have chosen the subject, I draw from either places I have been or things I have seen to put together a rough idea for the composition of the artwork. I then work on the design by utilizing my knowledge of LEGO parts and colors.

After ordering the parts, I construct the final piece of art. It can take up to a few months to conceptualize design and create a LEGO Brick Painting.

You’ve recently launched an exhibition at Bath Assembly Rooms. What are the key themes in your LEGO Brick Paintings and where did you draw inspiration from?

The two collections I have on display currently in the Bath Assembly Rooms are based on the countryside and architecture. Due to my work, I get to travel a lot around the British Isles and I find inspiration in different landscapes, from the rolling hills to rugged mountains, and the numerous villages, towns, and cities dotted around. Whether the subject is an elegant country manor, an ancient castle, or serene valley, I see the beauty in it and turn what I see into art that everyone can enjoy and be inspired by.

Why is this exhibition unique and what are the challenges?

Using a medium that is recognized globally, I produce and create my own art style in LEGO Brick Paintings. My work is produced from specifically chosen LEGO parts to represent the different aspects of the scene. Rather than creating a 3-D image or model, the artwork captures the elements of the scene and its perspective using shapes and tones. The art is unlike other mediums such as paint or pencil, as the available shapes and colors in LEGO are finite. Using LEGO parts creates an immense challenge to create a believable scene using only what is available.

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Who is the target audience for the LEGO Brick Painting exhibition?

Everyone, no matter who or how old, will enjoy my exhibition of LEGO Brick Paintings. I use my creative skills and vision to push the boundaries with my art and design, which I want to share and encourage others wanting to further their creative skills.

What types of activities were available for visitors?

During the month that my exhibition was showing, there were National Trust arts and crafts every day from dress-ups, coloring and drawing your own piece of artwork to a big DUPLO pit to get building with. Also, my fellow Brick Galleria LEGO Brick Artist, Kevin Hall, was hosting workshops every Wednesday and Saturday where guests were invited to create their own small LEGO Brick Painting using the hundreds of thousands of LEGO parts available, and then have their artwork put on display in the Bath Assembly Rooms.

This was an exciting opportunity for families (children aged 4 and over) as well as LEGO loving adults to get creative and be inspired by the LEGO Brick Paintings exhibition.

Do you have any favorite pieces from your collections?

All of my LEGO Brick Painting from each collection is special to me in different ways. Each piece of artwork has a place in my heart, as they are all from my actual experiences over the years.

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“Summer in the Countryside.”

Your exhibition invites visitors to become a future LEGO Brick Artist.

What advice and tips do you have for anyone wishing to pursue this dream?

I always advise anyone interested in what I do to never stop building and challenge yourself with different LEGO parts and new build techniques. Think outside the box and create your own artwork.

Anything else that you wish to add, such as future projects?

Keep an eye out on our Brick Galleria social media channels to see what we have in store for the future, and I hope to see you at an exhibition soon!

You can go to Brick Galleria’s website at https://www. brickgalleria.com or scan this QR code!

“Sunset on a Perfect Day.”

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#58: LEGO warbirds, past and present!

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#54: Top secret LEGO!

#53: Video games LEGO-style!

#52: LEGO Certified Professionals!

#51: LEGO Steampunk!

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JACK C. HARRIS recalls collaborating with STEVE DITKO on The Creeper, Shade, Demon, Wonder Woman, The Fly, & more, plus Ditko’s unused Batman design!

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence: Two unused 1970s DC DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE & SOUL LOVE mags!

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Compiles the sold-out DITKO, KIRBY, and LEE issues, plus new material on each!

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Last Word And another issue is completed!

It’s springtime when you read this, but I am completing the issue before Christmas. My mind is actually on buying gifts—and the people I need to buy gifts for don’t build.

In their defense, there are other hobbies out there, but this is a hobby that allows most anyone to create. The elements are simple enough, but also complex enough to let people playing with it to go as far as they want to.

This issue is slightly different because some of the artists here stepped outside of the brick to use other media to create, whether with paint or ink. It was a fun issue to do, and I hope that you enjoyed it!

Remember these guys?

Now get ready for next issue, focusing on BIG building! See you then!

Joe

Next Issue

Next issue, we take a look at some truly massive creations! Whether it be a layout or model or something else, we’ll take a look at the people and creations that went BIG!

80

CRYPTOLOGY #2

CRYPTOLOGY #3

CRYPTOLOGY #4

CRYPTOLOGY #5

CRYPTOLOGY #6

ROGER HILL’s conversation with diabolical DON HECK, severed hand films, pre-Code comic book terrors, the otherworldly horrors of Hammer’s Quatermass, a Killer “B” movie classic, plus horror-inspired covers of the Shadow’s own comic book, and more!

Start the ghoul-year with retro-horror done right by FORSHAW, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, RICHARD HAND, VON SHOLLY, and editor PETER NORMANTON.

See MARS ATTACKS banned cards, model kits, comics, and a few words from the film’s deranged storyboard artist PETE VON SHOLLY! Also, the chilling poster art of REYNOLD BROWN, terrifying puppets from film, and more comic books they’d prefer you forget! Plus, more Hammer Time, JUSTIN MARRIOT on obscure ’70s fear-filled paperbacks, another Killer “B” film, and more to satiate your sinister side!

Get ALEX ROSS’ gory lowdown on his Universal Monsters paintings! Spend Hammer Time with the “Brides of Dracula”, and 3-D horror movies and comics of the 1950s! Learn the origins of slasher films, chill to pre-Code artwork of Atlas’ BILL EVERETT and ACG’s 3-D maestro HARRY LAZARUS, see a Killer “B” movie, and more

by NORMANTON, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, VOGER, and VON SHOLLY!

SKULL & BONES ISSUE! Ghost Rider from comics to movies, skeleton covers from Atlas Digests and pre-Code horror comics, HY FLEISHMAN’s 1950s skeleton covers and stories, Disney’s skeletons, ’70s Pirates of the Caribbean models and Last Gasp’s Skull Comics, the films of William Castle, and Killer B films: House on Haunted Hill, The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake, plus our Hammertime section!

ZOMBIE ISSUE! The films White Zombie and I Walked With A Zombie, GEORGE ROMERO and LUCIO FULCI’s zombie apocalypses, zombie pre-Code comics, BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s undead creations, horror comics of Brazil, the contributions of black stars of classic horror cinema, Hammer’s The Plague of Zombies, Fantaco’s Night of the Living Dead, France’s Revenant, and more!

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ALTER EGO #193

ALTER EGO #194

ALTER EGO #195

ALTER EGO #196

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #38

An abridgment of EDDY ZENO’s “Drawn to Greatness” book, showcasing Superman artists who followed JOE SHUSTER: WAYNE BORING, PAUL CASSIDY, FRED RAY, JACK BURNLEY, WIN MORTIMER, and others. With appreciations by ORDWAY, KUPPERBERG, ISABELLA, JURGENS, WAID, MACCHIO, NEARY, NOWLAN, EURY, THOMAS, and more! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

ROY THOMAS celebrates 60 years in comics! Career-spanning interview by ALEX GRAND, e-mails to Roy from STAN LEE, the history of Wolverine’s creation, RT’s 1960s fan-letters to JULIUS SCHWARTZ, and his top dozen stories compiled by JOHN CIMINO! With art by BUSCEMA, KANE, ADAMS, WINDSOR-SMITH, COLAN, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and cover by TONY GRAY!

NEAL ADAMS REVISITED! Interviews by ALEX GRAND and BILL FIELD, as well as EMILIO SOLTERA—and an overview of Neal’s merchandising art for Marvel and DC Comics and in other fields, conducted by JAMES ROSEN! Plus Adams art, as inked

by PALMER, GIORDANO, VERPOORTEN, ROUSSOS, SINNOTT, DEZUNIGA, and others! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

Concluding our presentation of EDDY ZENO’s book on the early SUPERMAN artists from ALTER EGO #193—with a focus on style-setting WAYNE BORING and classic cover illustrator WINSLOW MORTIMER! Featuring a fabulous, previously unprinted cover by BORING! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

RICK VEITCH discusses his career from undergrounds and the Kubert School; the ’80s with 1941, Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal; to Swamp Thing, The One, Brat Pack, and Maximortal! Plus TOM VEITCH’s history of ’70s underground horror comix, part one of a look at cartoonist ERROL McCARTHY, the story behind Studio Zero— the ’70s collective of artists STARLIN, BRUNNER, WEISS, and others, and more!

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #39 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #40 KIRBY COLLECTOR #93

THOMAS YEATES career-spanning interview about the Kubert School, Swamp Thing, Eclipse Comics, and adventure strips Zorro, Tarzan, and Prince Valiant! GREG POTTER discusses his ’70s Warren horror comics and ’80s reboot of Wonder Woman with GEORGE PÉREZ, WARREN KREMER is celebrated by MARK ARNOLD, plus part one of a look at the work of STEVE WILLIS, part two of ERROL McCARTHY, and more!

DOUBLE-SIZED DAVE STEVENS ISSUE! Friends, fans, and family share testimonials, photos, and fascinating artifacts; gallery of amazing artwork by the Rocketeer creator; three interviews with Dave (one recorded during the making of The Rocketeer movie); KELVIN MAO on his 2022 film documentary, Dave Stevens: Drawn To Perfection; a chat with Dave’s sister JENNIFER BAWCUM; & more!

SUPPORTING PLAYERS! Almost-major villains like Kanto the Assassin and Diablo, Rodney Rumpkin, Mr. Little, the Falcon, Randu Singh, and others take center stage!

Plus: 1970 interview with Jack by SHEL DORF, MARK EVANIER’s 2024 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con, neverreprinted Simon & Kirby story, pencil art gallery, and more! Unused Mister Miracle cover inked by MIKE ROYER!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #94

SPACE RACES! Jack’s depictions of cosmic gods and life on other planets, including: how Ego, Tana Nile, and the Recorder took Thor to strange new worlds, OMAC’s space age future, time travelers in Kirby’s work, favorite Kirby sci-fi tropes in his stories, plus: a 1967 LEE/KIRBY interview, MARK EVANIER and other columnists, never-reprinted Simon & Kirby story, robotic pencil art gallery, cover inked by TERRY AUSTIN! (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Summer 2025

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RETROFAN #38

RETROFAN #39

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BACK ISSUE #158

Can your mind stand the shocking truth of… ED WOOD CAST CONFESSIONS? Plus: Ideal Toys’ Zeroids, television Tarzan RON ELY, Planters® Peanuts’ Mr. Peanut, CHARLES ADDAMS, TV’s The Fugitive, the forgotten 1981 Spider-Man cartoon, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, ED CATTO, and MARK VOGER.

Here comes TV’s Dennis the Menace, with stars JAY NORTH, GLORIA HENRY, and JEANNIE RUSSELL! Plus: Hogan’s Heroes turns 60, TV Western Have Gun–Will Travel, Big Little Books, The Incredible Hulk in animation, MICKY DOLENZ as Circus Boy, and more! Featuring columns by ED CATTO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER.

We kick off with TV’s original Kung Fu starring DAVID CARRADINE, a NANCY DREW history, Disney animator FLOYD NORMAN, TOM CORBETT: SPACE CADET, collectible ’60s and ’70s cereal premiums, in search of SAM GOODY, and more! Featuring columns and contributions by HERBIE J PILATO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, and editor ED CATTO!

HEY, MISTER ISSUE! The FF’s Mr. Fantastic, STEVE DITKO’s Mr. A, the 40th anniversary of MICHAEL T. GILBERT’s Mr. Monster, Mr. X, the Teen Titans’ Mr. Jupiter, R. CRUMB’s Mr. Natural, Archie’s Mr. Weatherbee, and a Mr. Freeze villain history! Featuring BYRNE, CARDY, CONWAY, DeCARLO, DINI, ENGLEHART, the HERNANDEZ BROS., MIGNOLA, MOTTER, and more!

Cover by ED McGUINNESS.

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

Tune in to Saturday morning super-heroes Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Mod Squad, Hanna-Barbera cartoonists, Jesus Christ Superstar, Mr. Potato Head, ‘Old Yeller” actress BEVERLY WASHBURN, Flying Nun collectibles, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

BACK ISSUE #160

BACK ISSUE #161

BACK ISSUE #162

BACK ISSUE #163

SUMMER FUN ISSUE! Marvel’s Superhero Swimsuit Editions, Betty and Veronica swimsuit gallery, DC’s Strange Sports Stories, the DC/Marvel softball rivalry, San Diego Comic-Con history, Impossible Man Summer Vacation Specials, DC Slurpee cups, DC/Whitman variants, and more!

Featuring BATES, DeCARLO, HUGHES, JIM LEE, LOPRESTI, MAGGIN, ROZAKIS, STELFREEZE, and more! GUICE cover.

MUTANT MAYHEM ISSUE! BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH’s Weapon X Wolverine, the romance of Havok and Polaris, Rogue and Nightcrawler limited series, Brood and Arcade villain histories, “Mutant Massacre” crossover, and more! With JON BOGDANOVE, JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, LOUISE SIMONSON, MIKE WIERINGO, and more!

WINDSOR-SMITH cover.

BACK ISSUE GOES MAD! Things get crazy this issue as we cover Madman, Batman: Mad Love, MAD superhero movie parodies, the Mad Hatter, Madballs, and more! Featuring the work of MICHAEL ALLRED, BRUCE TIMM, PAUL DINI, GERRY CONWAY, DOUG MOENCH, MIKE W. BARR, JEPH LOEB, and others. Madman cover by MICHAEL ALLRED! Edited by ROGER ASH.

MONKEYING AROUND! Featuring simian favorites including Gorilla Grodd, GorillaMan, King Kong, Angel and the Ape, and more monkey business. With the work of CARMINE INFANTINO, JOHN BROOME, CARY BATES, GERRY CONWAY, MARK WAID, STEVE ENGLEHART, SAL BUSCEMA, DON SIMPSON, PHIL FOGLIO, HOWARD CHAYKIN, PHILIP BOND, and others.

Gorilla Grodd cover by ARTHUR ADAMS!

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BACK ISSUE #159

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 40th ANNIVERSARY! Pre-Crisis tour of DC’s multiple Earths, analysis of Crisis and its crossovers, Crisis Death List, post-Crisis DC retro projects, guest editorial by MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Featuring BARR, ENGLEHART, GREENBERGER, LEVITZ, MAGGIN, MOENCH, ORDWAY, THOMAS, WAID, and more! With GEORGE PÉREZ’S Crisis on Infinite Earths Index #1 cover.