Nothing to do over Easter? Live in Sydney? Want to come and play LEGO? I'll be in the harbour city over the next few weeks; 21 March 1st April 10am to 4pm every day Sydney Family Show In the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park. Come along to say hello and lets build some amazing things together! (My 250,000 brick LEGO Love boat has also set sail, for its first visit to Sydney! - come and check it out.) Click here for all the details.

Here's 100,000 Bricks with rotors!
Ok, well its a little bit more complicated than that.....

My latest model built for Brickvention 2013.
Come along and see it in all its glory.

At just under 4m long and over 1m high, its one of my larger creations, full of very difficult technical challenges it was a fun build and was a great month of all things orange!.

It’s not often that I look forward to getting home and opening my mail, like most mail nowadays its all bills or junk mail, but after a few weeks travelling to various places I had a rather heavy package waiting for me.

The package was from No Starch Press, who are a publisher of a lot of books about LEGO.  In the past they have released some real gems, so here’s a short review of the books which I received.

Firstly the updated “unofficial LEGO builders guide”

Many years ago I read the first edition of this book, it serves as a very good basic starting point for anyone getting into the hobby, and perhaps more importantly it shows to a younger builder some tips on expanding your modelling skills range.  Its not a reference book which I refer back to, but it’s a good read for a novice, and I would recommend it only to anyone who is new to the hobby and needs a basic introduction.

Secondly, the LEGO Adventure book, vol 1 (which assumes there will be others?)

This was a very good light read, and something which would appeal to children/teens, there is a neat story that flows along and introduces themes to builders, for any child who is into LEGO, this a great inspiration ideas book as well as some cool little models. As a side note you can tell when an author is passionate about a topic it really comes through, this book is a great example of that.

Lastly and the one which interests me the most is the “Unofficial LEGO Technic builders guide”

This book is a gem, I’m a bit of a Technic modeller and this book goes into some great practical details about what works best, including solutions to problems that you will inevitably come across at some stage in your Technic building.  Throughout the book are some great practical examples of ways to strengthen your models (that doesn’t necessarily apply to only Technic models either).

It introduces complex engineering issues and how they are solved, whilst not comprehensive it does cover the basics which most Technic builders will face at some point.

Out of the three, this is by far my favourite as it is an advanced level book aimed at those who are serious about their LEGO.

Like all No Starch Press books, the quality of the books are excellent and very well presented.

I think its great that there are an increasing number of great books about LEGO and perhaps more importantly to me in what I do, books aimed at adults, nice work all round I say.

I'll be up in Queensland from the 8th to the 19th of August at Ekka in Brisbane.
Come and see my giant Saturn V rocket and hep me build something for this yars Ekka theme:

The Farm of the Future!

So if you are in Brisbane make sureyou pop by and say hello!

My Latest Project is now live; A 200,000 brick LEGO Colosseum.

Without doubt one of the hardest things I have ever made given its shape and detail requirements.
I've given it my customary "cut away" treatment and split it in two time phases, current day ruins, and also at 80AD when it was opened for the first time.

Here it is on site at the Nicholson Museum in Sydney.



For many more detailed pictures check out my Flickr account.

My Latest LEGO creations have now hit the streets, quite literally in fact.

10 Mosaics; In which I and my team of helpers have converted 10 different Aussie artists works into LEGO.

For a sneak peak and a little bit more information about them, check out:

The Festival of Play Website

News.com.au

Incidentally I'll also be at the Powerhouse museum in Sydney for the Sydney brick show on the 2nd and 3rd of June. - So come down and say G'day!

Finally I can spill the beans on some models which I made earlier this year!

In case you didn't know this year, 2012 is the 50th Year of LEGO in Australia!  hooray!
To get a look at some of the things I have been working on head over to the Festival of Play website:

Check out the Introduction Video, it's full of my models. (The cuckoo clock is my Favourite!)

I've been locked up in the workshop for the last 2 months building a whole raft of things for the Festival of Play so make sure you stay tuned to see them revealed.

 

So the last few weeks have been kind of crazy, there has been a lot of projects on the go!
Sadly a few which I can't show yet until they "hit the streets"

but none the less, here's some of the crazy contraptions I've been commissioned to build in the last week or so.


A LEGO Cuckoo Clock, complete with working Cuckoo bird that pops out!


A LEGO Car with that "60's" look about it.


A Life Sized LEGO Bowler hat!.  I tried it on, it certainly is prickly!

My latest model:

120,000 Bricks
5.7m Tall - The tallest LEGO model in Australia.
250 Hours to put this monster together.
A huge thanks to Andrew Campbell at the Melbourne Headshot company for some amazing pictures!

Come by and see the at Brickvention, Australia's Premier LEGO show, on the 21st and 22nd of January at the Melbourne Town hall.
Tickets MUST be pre booked!

Brickvention 2012 is almost here!
Australia's premier LEGO show is on again.

the 20th and 21st of January 2012 at the Melbourne Town Hall.

This year you MUST pre buy your ticket, so avoid dissapointment and get them here;
http://www.brickventures.org.au/

Each year at Brickvention I unveil a super new model for the first time to the public, and this year is no exception.
Whilst it is a secret until its launch, I can promise you it is big, in fact it will be the tallest LEGO model in Australia!!
So come on down, say g'day and enjoy my latest creation.

LEGO have just released their friends line for 2012!

I have to say I am impressed, whilst I do not normally make comment on the introduction of another product line,
this one is significant in my opinion.

Firstly The cool thing I really like about this is the fantastic new colours is that are available, the pinks and reds,
they have so much extra possibility for creativity. I'm actually really looking forward it. There are many new pastel
colours which will make the making of mosaics in particular a whole lot of fun.

Then of course is the new parts, again we have literally struck gold here, with fantastic new pieces in both new
and old colours. Lastly there is the minifigs, or Mini dolls as I heard them described, their hair and hand sockets all
are standard LEGO and make for great play interchange.

Overall LEGO has gone from strength to strength with their girls line, from Scala, to Belville, and now the friends line.

Speaking to hundreds of parents over the last week I think it is fair to say that there is a lot of excitement about its
release, with no negative feedback.

I have heard a few rumblings on the net about it, but personally I just don't get it, I don't see it.

Stay tuned for a creation or two from me using these amazing new parts and colours!

Well it is finally finished.

170,000 LEGO bricks!
It measures 4.2m wide and 2.3m high

I hope you all like it, I think its the best mosaic I've ever done.

It will remain in the Town hall in Sydney until early February 2012, pop in and have a look and get you photo with it.

Day 4 of the Sydney Mystery mosaic at the Town Hall.

The build just keeps motoring along, thanks to everyone who helped me today, Brick on!

The mystery mosaic in Sydney just keeps rolling along,

I think you can guess part of it after today's efforts!
Met lots of cool people today, thanks for everyone's help.

Day 2 of the Sydney Mystery Mosaic.

The mosaic is coming along, lots of guesses as to what it could be.

Come along for the next few days and help me out, down at the Art of the Brick in the Sydney Town Hall.

Up in sunny Sydney for a week this week doing a super cool mystery mosaic.
Come in to the Art of the Brick exhibition at the Sydney Town Hall, ill be there on site until Thursday the 15th of December.
Hep me put another brick in the wall.

Here is the mosaic after the VIP gala opening party, any hints as to what it is yet?

9 red roses.

Created for a VIP.

For the flowers I took inspiration from Mariann Asanuma's wonderful series of LEGO flowers, however I added a twist, a display box and a little "buzzy bee" as my children called it.

The Cult of LEGO book review.



I was recently sent a review copy of the new “the Cult of LEGO” book by John Baichtal and Joe Meno, by No Starch Press.

Firstly, it is a very well presented book, its solid and has a great feel to it. Those who get it in E-book form are missing out on something.

Like other No Starch Press LEGO books there is plenty of great pictures, you can tell that lots of Joe Meno’s experiences are contained here, and there is lots to pique your imagination with.

Its a very good introduction to LEGO, but sadly as LEGO is such a huge topic nowadays it really only just scratches the surface on the myriad of LEGO topics that are out there. To be fair though if you were to be detailed about every topic it would be an encyclopaedia as opposed to a book.

The book is very American based (it tried hard not to be) which means it misses out on other great parts of LEGO, but again, it does really cover a LOT of different parts of the LEGO Hobby.

Overall I give the book a 7.5 out of 10.
It is a worthy purchase which I think will sit rather nicely in anyone's LEGO book collection.

Likes:
Great pictures and photography
Excellent print and physical quality
Covers just about every LEGO topic known to man.
If you didn’t know anything about LEGO in the community, this book will introduce you to it in every way possible.
Good value for money.

Dislikes:

American centric.
Each section is very short and introductory on each topic.

Info on the book can be found here:
http://nostarch.com/cultoflego

I was recently lucky enough to work on a rather different and unique way to use LEGO bricks, that to be able to create a model of a real life Gold mine!.

The great guys from Minesight over in Western Australia asked me to create an exact replica from their ground breaking Minesight 3D software.
Using a specific scale of a 1x2 Brick to represent a block of earth and the LEGO colour gradient to determine gold density within the ground allowed me to create a physical replica of geological information.

The model is also split in half so you can see the depth to which the seam of gold runs, along with the three phases of the mining operation, all of which are removable.



The LEGO version:


You can see from the removable sections the depth of the model where every brick is accurate to the plans gold density.
This part I am holding is the 3rd phase of the mining operations.

100,00 LEGO brick mosaic of Andrew Walker's spectacular mark from the 2011 AFL season.
2.6m high and 2.2m Wide.

This mark was created for channel 7's Sunday Football show "Game Day"
The mosaic has since been auctioned off for the charity "Defib for life" which gives heart Defibrillators to community football clubs.

Rather embarrassingly I featured on the TV show explaining to several people its not pronounced "Laygo"

The Star Wars Blu-Ray Box set was launched on the 14th of September.
Twentieth Century Fox had me create a Mosaic of one of the Box set covers, with over 110,000 Bricks!
The launch event was held in the Pitt Street Mall, with Live TV coverage from the Today show.

It was an amazing morning, and a heck of a lot of fun to build in an amazing location!

A huge thanks goes out to the Melbourne and Sydney LEGO users groups for all their help in putting it together.

Here's my latest creation, 101 Collins street. Melbourne's premier office building address.  I recently took it up To Brick Expo in Canberra over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of August 2011 At just over 3m tall (without the table) its certainly the tallest thing I have every built. A touch over 20,000 LEGO bricks were used, and I even managed to get in a small cutaway section of the building. The Model itself will be shown in the foyer of 101 Collins street in the upcoming weeks. I have also been working on another building, which is a pretty amazing model, I hope to be able to show it later this month after its grand unveiling.

Brickworld Chicago 2011 is over, and what a brickworld it was!

Not only did I manage to catch up with some super cool LEGO folks, see some amazingly brilliant creations, but I was also paid a surprise visit by Gavin McLeod, the actor who played Captain Stubing from the TV series.

The Love Boat model was also very fortunate to also win the Brickworld 2011 award for the best Mega Creation.

Here's the Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s3M8kIlVCY

The Flinders Street Station mosaic at Federation Square is now complete.

170,000 LEGO bricks, added over 6 days.  A great event and thanks to everyone who helped out and came along.

It will remain at the Art of the brick exhibition until the exhibition closes.

The giant mosaic at Fed Square is almost complete.

Not long to go now, Tomorrow it will be finished then a few hours of minor corrections and hey presto.

The end of Day 4 of the mosaic build.

Not far away from being completed now, I would estimate some 140,000 1x1 bricks have been used thus far.

Huge thanks to everyone who has helped thus far, it has been awesome fun!

The mystery mosaic well on its way to being revealed.

Day 3, A huge crowd and an awesome time.

Day 2 of the Mystery Mosaic build.

After 2 days and thousands of hands busy building away the Mosaic is taking shape.

At the rate everyone is building it looks like being finished on Sunday. - Head on down to Federation Square and be part of the action.

I think its easy to guess what it is a picture of now!

Come and help me build a monster! A monster Mosaic that is, at over 4.4 meters wide and 2.2 meters high, this will be the largest mosaic in Melbourne. I’ll be building onsite from the 2nd of June for about 5 days (or less if it gets finished earlier) at the Art of the Brick exhibition in Fed Square. Come along and help me put all 168,000 bricks together, where it will ever so slowly materialise before your eyes. The art of the brick exhibition features the work of Nathan Sawaya,  there is also a load of way cool stuff from the Melbourne LEGO users group on show as well! Come on down, say hello and be a part of an amazing build.

Well April has been an amazingly busy month, and as always I am way behind on posting something cool, unless of course you have peeked at my FLICKR account of late.

So what have i been up to?
I spent a week over in the USA at LEGO HQ in Enfield, where I got together with the other 12 LEGO Certified Professionals and we all worked on new and exciting ways to use the product.
I also had the opportunity to hang out with a whole bunch of LEGO gurus and superstars.  Needless to say look out for many new and never before seen creations!

So What have I built of Late?
Quite a lot actually, firstly for an upcoming issue of BRW I created a couple of vignettes for thier guys to take pictures of symbolising corporate profits hitting tough times, and also that production was up, here's a couple of my versions of the scene. I have also done a groovy time lapse video of a magazine cover being made, CLICK HERE to check it out!, its pretty cool and one of my favourite mosaics I have done yet.

I also have done another sweet episode for the LEGO club magazine which is due out in June, look out for my latest little creation for you to make in there.

Some of you may have also heard my on 774 ABC Melbourne, I have put a link to the podcast in the media section, that was a total blast!

Lastly I have been doing some real building, no not with LEGO bricks, but rather the New LEGO studio is almost finished, this will be my new hideout for all things LEGO, watch out for the grand opening in mid May.

 

Something different and challenging.

I have put in an entry for the 2011 Archibald prize for portraiture, with a mosaic of Daniel Grollo.
Daniel is a rather famous Melbourne corporate identity as CEO of Grocon, Australia's largest privately held property development firm.
They are responsible for Melbourne’s main landmarks, Eureka Tower, The Rialto, 101 Collins Street and the MCG.

Daniel very generously gave up his time for a sitting several weeks ago and allowed me to use him as my subject:

"The Building of the Builder"  Approx 20,000 Pieces.

Valentines day!

Well valentines day is almost approaching, so I thought I would do something special for my darling wife.

A 60,000 brick love heart sculpture.

I set it up in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the city, a true hidden gem, and a very romantic spot!

I am also going to rebuild the heart in Myer on Sunday the 13th of Feb in the valentines day section of the store, come along and say g'day!

The Love Boat!

Well my latest and greatest project has now had its grand unveiling, or should I say its launch!

• My largest ever creation, just over 250,000 pieces.
• Just over 3 meters long and over 1 meter high.
• Over 450 minifigs enjoying a fabulous cruise and the best holiday they have ever had!
• Full of power functions, the anchor, bow thrusters, the lifeboat raise/lower, the propeller, and the rudder at the rear.
• The ship of course has all the Love Boat crew on-board as well as a whole series of 80’s washed up TV stars including none other than the Hoff!

I plan on taking the ship to Chicago in June for Brickworld.
If anyone wants to have the boat shown at an event, I’ll have it in decent condition up until the end of February when I’ll get it sent state side.

Enjoy more pics in my Gallery or in my Flickr pages.

Well Brickvention is now over for 2011.

It was an awesome event, on the convention days over 140 fans of LEGO played games and did all things LEGO related, great fun I know I had a blast!

The public day on the Sunday was just insane, over 8,000 people came to see all of our models, given last years event was 2,700 the growth was crazy!
A huge thanks to everyone who was so patient in waiting in the queue to get in, I hope that seeing the models was worthwhile.

Lets hope that 2012 with the right support we can be in an even bigger venue which will allow for unprecedented crowds to come and check it all out.

I hope everybody enjoyed seeing my LOVE boat!

A few new galleries have been added.



The coolest is pictures from the Sydney Attractions Group installation.
I was lucky enough to help out some LEGO USA guys with the installation, they unquestionably made the coolest models to hit our fair shores!

They were also really great guys, I look forward to them coming back.
For those in Sydney head down to the aquarium in darling harbour on the 16th of January for the build of the worlds largest LEGO mystery mosaic.

Huge thanks to Dale, Chris and Martin from LEGO, you guys rock.

Brickvention 2011 is almost here.

Australia's Premier LEGO convention, where people from all over Australia join in for a couple of days of fun for all things LEGO.

The public day the 16th of January promises to be truly massive.
This year we have taken over the Melbourne town hall in Swanston street and will fill it full of the most amazing LEGO creations!

It will also be the unveiling of my latest model - which is the largest thing I have ever attempted

I look forward to seeing you all there!

For all information visit the brickvention website: www.brickventures.com

Payment form for Dale Chasse. For the Sydney Attractions group installation. Credit card payment through PayPal gateway.

There are two special Starlight foundation LEGO days coming up this week and next at both the Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne, and the Westmead Childrens Hospital in Sydney.

The two days will be a lot of fun and a chance for the kids who are currently in Hospital & are less fortunate in life to get to play with their favourite toy!
Proudly supported by LEGO Australia who are donating lots of goodies as well as use of several huge barrels of bricks are sure to be a lot of fun! We have many games, activities and of course lots of building planned.

A big thank you goes out to all those who are helping on the days: Sue Ann, Travis and Derek in Melbourne and Richie, Robb and Pete up in Sydney.

 

 

I was just playing around tonight and I made up a few picture frames.

I have plenty of ideas for different ones, but these seemed like a little bit of fun.



I did ask my darling wife if I thought they looked cute, the response was immediate: "LEGO is not cute!". I think its clearly because she has stepped on too many 1x1 bricks.

Some exciting news!

I am now a LEGO Certified Professional, the first in the Australia, and the 12th in the world!

So what does that mean?

LEGO Certified Professionals are officially licensed by The LEGO Group to engage in certain types of commercial activities involving LEGO products.
They exemplify the creative possibilities of the LEGO building system and focus on business opportunities outside the LEGO core products.

Essentially I'll continue to try and builder super cool models, taking them to a new level as well as being able to offer my LEGO services to new markets and provide a level of professionalism embodied by LEGO.

For more information on the LEGO Certified Professional program click here: http://aboutus.lego.com/en-US/programs/default.aspx

Well, it seems that the next big thing is under way, literally that is!

After last years Airbus model, ive been thinking about a cruise ship, and of course there is none better than the Love Boat!

Split in half to reveal a fully detailed interior it will be just over 3.2 meters in length and around the 300,000 peice mark.

Enclosed are a few Work in Progress happy snaps which people have been asking for! - Of course all the details and the fun bits are not included yet, I always save the stuff i love to work on the most until last!

 

Here's a scan of whats now probably my most favourite document.

My mum found this when going through stuff from when i was a kid!

Well folks, Brickworld has been and gone, I’m back from the good old US of A

I have to say it was an amazing show, so many great models, so many great people, I had a real blast, also a huge thanks to my mum and father in law; Alan  who helped me! Couldn’t have done it without you both, and of course Qantas for getting me over there!.

So now where do I start well I think this picture explains a lot:

Yes the good people (yeah right!) at American Airlines totally destroyed one of the boxes from the airbus, as you can see they sure gave it a working over. (over 3,000 pieces missing) – it was clearly my fault for marking it “fragile!”

 So after several long days and nights, and calls & favours with people for parts, the plane was able to be re-assembled.

The Lego exhibition went very well,  with just over 800 exhibitors building some of the most amazing creations it was an amazing event, they do an academy awards style competition with the top 4 exhibits in the running for the grand prize, which I was lucky enough to be one of the four nominated! I didn’t win, but felt very honoured to have at least made it in the top 4, and it has inspired me to do better next year!

 
They had over ten thousand people come through on the public days, an amazing experience, and as Qantas had sponsored me I had a box of A380 brochures which people could take, they all disappeared very quickly and I had a constant stream of people over the public days tell me they always wanted to go to Australia, and everyone was very impressed by the flying kangaroo. I even had a couple from Canada who were booking their flights to Australia, and decided to change it to fly on Qantas so they could fly on the A380.

Watching the jaws drop of both children and parents alike when seeing the Qantas A380 is a great feeling. Having the touch screen active which allows everyone to control different functions on the plane made it even more special; watching a 5 year old fly a plane was very special and made the model even more fun.

Along with Australia’s Lego show in Melbourne in January – Brickvention, I’ve been invited back for next years event, and all going well I’ll be making another large model, this time the ship from the 80’s classic TV show, the love boat!   How I’ll get it over to the USA, well that is another question........

Reported in todays tabloids:

DAVID Beckham wants to be a professional Lego builder. The soccer star, who raises three sons, Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight, and five-year-old Cruz, with his singer-turned-designer wife Victoria Beckham, loves playing with the toy bricks and admits it would have been great to turn his hobby into a career.

He said: "What would I like to do if I wasn't a footballer? I love drawing cartoons and building Lego with my sons. "When I was in Milan I had such a big amount of spare time. I found online that you can buy a Lego model of the Taj Mahal so I bought it and started building it."

I think that means that my wife is now an official WAG!   - see i told you honey, LEGO is in fact for the rich and famous!

28 May 2010

Part 1. Airbus June 2010 tour!

As part of a trip to Dallas in June for a wedding, I’m also taking over the giant Airbus A380 (flights courtesy of Qantas!) to Brickworld in Chicago!

This of course poses huge challenges, getting it there, getting it around, setting it up, making it all work, all some 10,000 miles away from home.  I’m going to post every few days with how its all going, and it promises to be quite the challenge.

So ill start off with posting and talking about trip preparation!

Getting it all organised has been quite the effort, I didn’t design the airbus to be taken anywhere except to Brickvention (5 miles down the road), and it does break down into smaller parts ( approx 1ft x 1ft)  but of course it is VERY fragile, and wasn’t designed to be shipped all over the world.

So with some squeezing I have managed to get most of it down into 3 large boxes (as per the picture which is all padded by foam (got offcuts from the local foam store!)  which will protect it as much as can be from what its going to go through.

One of my suitcases will also be half full of parts and packaging for it too, also my father in law Alan will have half his case full of stuff too!

Now Brickworld is the crème de la crème of lego shows and there will be some of the most amazing models on show, and I hope mine is good enough to be shown along with them.

Stay tuned for the blog from the airport where i have to check it in!  The guy from Qantas has assured my that its all good to go, the excess baggage is in play, the internal American Airlines flights are lined up, and even the Captain of the my flight knows what the special cargo is! Way to go Qantas!

Another Time lapse  Mosaic, this time a proof of concept for the ABC.

Thier Kids logo done in medium scale, some of the details are not correct but i wanted to show how it would and could look when done,
it does of course need correct lighting and some colour adjustement, but none the less looks cool.

Youtube link:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IFbvbbtyb8

I would like to welcome aboard a new client, Sapience Financial Services.

Sapience have engaged with me a project that involves several different mini projects:

• Desktop Custom set (4WD ute and trailer) with Sapience printed branding. including custom developed instructions and packaging.
• Sapience Man - A series of custom printed minifigs with thier logo and website/phone details on the reverse (pictured).
• Bulk collection of items for use in creating client interaction pieces: a Birthday card (pictured), Welcome, Relax, Review and Refer cards in line with their marketing goals.
• Time lapse photography mosaic of thier logo.  CLICK HERE TO SEE IT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwA8A-jrvho

 

Airbus A380 Follow up,

Well The airbus it seems has literally “taken off” i have been very lucky to have been blogged by about a dozen different sources, including by Tim at The brothers brick: www.brothers-brick.com  which is my favourite Lego blog site, and one which i check and read every day.

 I have a few mini airbus sets still for sale i am taking them with me to Brickworld in Chicago in June, there is not many left so grab them while you can.

 

 I have also started work on my next couple of Projects, a travel company has asked me to do a large mosaic for them, which needs to be done by mid march, and I am also working on two new custom sets, a combination retro lego 80’s product with a new concept and a modular building in keeping with LEGO(tm)’s theme, which I hope will gain some publicity.

 I have also been thinking about applying to join the LEGO(tm) certified professional program, given the volume of corporate work i am doing, but i have no idea where to start and if they would be even interested, I am guessing most probably not, but there is no harm in asking and as there is nobody from Australia in the program, I think its about time they got their act together.

 Oh, also i have ordered another 100 of the brickman custom minifigs from Denmark, these little people sold out in about 45 minutes at brickvention, so as soon as i get them in stock and put together, you can grab them.  

 

Well Brickvention 2010 is now over for another year!

It was unquestionably the best brickvention ever, with over 2700 people coming throught he doors on the public day!

The queue to get in went down flinders street, and around into Elizabeth street!.

I was lucky enought his year to be crowned the best in show for 2010 as voted for by the registered attendees on the saturday,
i feel honored and proviliged to win such a title given the amazing stuff that people had built, i have never in my life seen such amazing LEGO creations before.
Thank you to everyone who voted for me, i am truly humbled.

Please check out the gallery for the full pictures of the Airbus,  I am taking it to Brickworld in Chicago in June, which will be a marathon effort, given it weighs 55kgs.

Some Specs on my Qantas Airbus A380:

35,000 Peices
2.2 meters long and 1.8m wide.
Fully automated touchscreen controlled Functions:
Front landing gear door (hitechnic servo)
Front landing gear (NXT motor)
Two rear landing gear dorrs (Hitechnic servo)
Both landing gears powered by one NXT motor.
Front Cargo Door (Hitechnic servo)
Airbrakes on wing (Hitechnic servo)
Landing flaps (NXT motor)
tail fin an rear wing (Hitechnic servo)
Engines (power functions with IR remote)
Landing lights (power functions lights)

Also a huge thanks to Alan my father in law who helped me show it off, he was busy giving the remote control to the kids to fly the plane,
while i was talking about it and answering the myriad of questions.

And Qantas if you are reading this i would LOVE just a little bit of help in getting it stateside :)

 

Airbus Update,

Well its about time i posted an update on the Airbus,  and posted a little picture :) 
It is going along really well, i have been very focussed on the NXT side of things, and a bit of programming work for the controlling systems, i had to get some help from some external forums, the guys over at: http://nxtasy.org/ were awesome and really helped out a lot.

Anyways as you can see the wing is pretty much done, and it weighs a lot!  i have to have quite a few supports underneath it, as none of it is glued, there is a lot of technic inside the wing so it is really quite sturdy, it also breaks down into 4 sections for transport.

It easily been the biggest thing i have ever built, im well over 30k parts now, and i have cleaned out a few bricklink stores of certain types of parts, and im still not sure what i am going to do with it at the end of brickvention. I hope that myabe Qantas are interested in showing it somewhere?   I would also love to take it over to the USA and show it at brickworld, nto sure if they would like me to have it or not.

Enjoy the sneak peek :)

 

Well, i dont want to open a can of worms, but: I really do not like putting stickers on my LEGO(r) bricks, simply because it further limits what i can do with those bricks, and mainly because, well they end up getting tattered and battered, and the look ordinary.  Printed bricks on the other hand are awesome in that they last and last and last, and they look a whole heap more professional!

So, for my latest Brickvention project, the Airbus A380, i thought it would be a great opportunity to see how they turn out, and the costs involved around it.

So i made contact with a guy who works for LEGO as a master model builder, who does some work on the side, printing and engraving bricks, so we thrashed out the printing needs, and had a lot of different stuff done, here is a few pictures.

As you can see the quality is brilliant, im extatic witht hat, and the whole look of the model has now gone to a new level of professionalism.

Yes it did cost a lot, but as you can see, lookes great!.

I also had some minifig torso's done up, so if you want to buy one off me, you can get one at brickvention, or grab me via e-mail.

Lots more news to be posted including our first set will be for sale shortly, mini Airbuses!

- TheBrickMan

Registrations are now open for Brickvention 2010!

Brickvention is Australia’s own LEGO convention and it’s only a few months away so now is the time to register for the event.

Brickvention 2010 will be held over the weekend just before Australia Day (January 22nd to 24th) in Melbourne, Australia and promises to be an exciting event.

Following on from the success of the previous years, there will be new competitions, presentations, demonstrations and lots of interesting things to see and do.

MOC competitions for 2010 include:

·      Best in Show
·      Modular Houses
·      Town Layouts
·      Trains
·      Castle
·      Space
·      Moonbases
·      Other (doesn’t fit into any other category)

Apart from the awesome MOC display, there will be some old and new competitions; trade tables and a special Brickvention Set inspired by Princess Mary of Denmark.

We have twice the display space for 2010 so make sure you register early to guarantee enough room for your MOCs, dioramas and sets. We want this to be the best Brickvention ever!

The organising committee are all really excited about the event and can’t wait to meet lots of other AFOLs from all over Australia and around the world.

Want to know about the event? Want to Register?
Check out the website at http://www.brickventures.com

I've been asked by a lot of people to share my progress on my latest large MOC, my Airbus A380.

Normally i am loathed to take and share pictures of Work in Progress, as so much can change and may not have finished parts or certain details.

Which is the case here, i have just done the basic outer shell.



The final model is around 2.8 Meters long, split down the middle to show the interior, has funny integrated NXT functions:

• Front Landing Gear doors
• Front Lowering/Retracting Landing Gear
• Front Cargo Doors
• Twin Rear landing Gear Doors
• Twin rear Lowering/Retracting Landing Gear
• Tail Ailerons
• Tail Rudder
• Landing flaps on wings
• Airbrakes

Its so far used around 35,000 peices with at least that much again still to come.

This thing is going to easily going be the largest MOC i have ever created.

It will be unveilled at Brickvention 2010:   www.brickventures.com

Stay tuned for more pictures, also your chance to own MINI airbus A380's which ill be makign and have for sale :)

Three new Galleries have been added! These Galleries are from items i made for our Local LEGO(r) users group meetings. Each month we have a different theme which forces us tot hink outside the box! - pardon the pun. Check out: Cher's famous Music Video! Nintendo Manhole Zombie SentryBot 1.0

 

There are 5 new galleries available, all minifig scale. Including one of my favourite MOC's from the classic movie Ferris Beullers Day Off. Also watch out for a classic scene from the movie Rainman

Touring Bus Cameron, You Killed the car! Catch of the day Lots of Queens Big Wheels See the galleries section for all the pictures. There are a few other very large scale projects i am working on right now, including a 50,000 piece monster, which includes some NXT functions, this will be the largest work I have ever done and will be shown at Brickvention in 2010  I am also in the process of sortingf several hundred thousand bricks which have been sitting in tubs, I so need to get organised!  I need Brickman Jr to come to the rescue!

The brickmans store is now open.

This is where i sell all my Lego that is surplus to requirements, thousands of bricks and parts from the large scale mocs that I have made in the past, or I simply do not need the parts for anymore.

They are in very large quantities and are priced to clear.

check out my store today:

http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Reload

Buying these parts helps me raise funds for my new projects, such as the 30,000 part model im working on right now!

cheers

The Brickman

Well its over!  Brickvention 2009 has finished.

And i have to say what  brickvention it was, we had a new record attendance on sunday just over 1000 people coming through the doors, a totally amazing number, and i have to say a couple of special moments for me, especially seeing the mums and dads looks on thier faces as they saw the MOC's we had all put together, was awesome.

I've put up a few photo's of my MOC's from BV'09 in their respective categories, the Eiffel Tower, the Oil Rig and the Team Castle build, they have all the finished and final details added.

I learnt so much From brickvention some amazing new build techniques, some amazing moc's and most of all and amazing few days.

Thanks to everyone involved it rocked!.

Well Brickvention 2009 is half over, with just the public day to go.

As always some utterly brilliant MOC's made by people, and a lot of people i have not met before, so was totally great.

I counted at least 20 new build techniques that i have not seen before, nor even remotely thought of using, peoples creativity totally amazes me!

A huge thank you goes out to the organisers of brickvention, being a volunteer is never easy and they have done a wonderful job, kudos to Sue Ann (and her husband), Derek, Trav, Scott, Rosco and anyone else i have missed.  Thank you! 

Some Highlights:

Teunis's cathederal, the Team castle build, amazing stuff!
David's Moonbase.
Pauls giant Space Ship
The ultimate Belville collection.
Tim's amazing cars, such detail!
the Spirit of Tasmania
Aaron's Eureka Tower
All the way cool Star wars sets, many i had never seen before.

Brickvention 2009 is but a couple of days away!

I have completed most of my sculptures for the event, and will begin transporting them tomorrow!

Many dozens of photos will be forthcoming, Or you can see them in person, Victoria University, level 12 300 Flinders Street, Melbourne

www.brickventures.com has all the details.

 

 

I have updated the Castle Team build Moc page with shots of the Banquet hall.

I have also added my 5 Power function oil rig! in all its glory.

See the gallery section for photos

Ok, there are plenty of you out there no doubt!

What i am looking for is a talented graphic designer to come up with a logo for me to use, have plastered on the website and generally be cool to stick everywhere.

Im willing to pay for it with Paypal or some sort of lego/brick services

Either way, use the contact me form, and lets make this play funky!

I have added 4 Galleries of my current projects as well as my just finished ones, ill try get through the archive of my old stuff and post them too, lots of goodies!

Here is a list of the Set reviews i have conducted.

How do sets score? I hear you ask.....

Well,  Each review gives a score out of 100.  This is made up of a secret forumla only known to the Brick man, and his closest Ally, Brick Woman!, Ok, so not really
the score is brocken up into 7 sections where the set can earn marks, then this score is added up together to form the total out of 100 score, these sections all have different weights, and can change between product lines, however they all remain consistent within thier product groupings

Factors Looked at include: Parts used, Build techniques, Set presentation, Set playability, Instructions & Packaging, Value for money and wow factor.

 Sets reviewed broken down by theme: