Lego projects in 2013

From Boxing day until January 27th I’ll be at the Melbourne Museum building some huge James Bond themed LEGO mosaics, come down and help build them with me.

The Designing James bond (50 years of 007) is also at the museum where you can see some amazing sets and props from the movies.

Here’s the first, gotta love that car!

Here’s my LEGO Melbourne star observation wheel. At just over 3m in diameter it is unquestionably the most difficult thing I have ever built.
It is fully motorised using LEGO power functions using just over 30,000 bricks.
The hardest part was the maths and process in doing a 7 pointed star held by a flying buttress while being powered.

(I have no idea if there are bigger LEGO wheels around, if there is I’m yet to see one)

The model is mounted on permanent display in the gift shop after you ride the observation wheel.
The kids and I are in this shot just for scale!

The Melbourne star opens tomorrow (the 23rd of December, check it out!)
http://www.melbournestar.com/

Up at the Perc Tucker Gallery in Townsville my latest mystery mosaic has just been finished.
I’ve always wanted to do this picture in LEGO, and with 23 different colours and just under 50,000 bricks, it was unquestionably one of the most complex ones I have ever done! (Here is the original next to it for reference!)

Pop by the gallery to check it out and enjoy the lots of other activities there.

Over the last 12 months I’ve been busy updating the LEGO section in some MYER stores.

Here is some goodies from MYER in Adelaide.

(I really did have fun making the Adelaide over scoreboard! – Take that poms!)

I’ve recently been over in New Zealand at the coolest Toy store in Auckland – Toyco

Installing a giant LEGO Skytower, It is so tall I had to leave a bit off the top spire as it wouldn’t fit.

I had a great day installing it with my assistant for the day Jonathan who won the “Be my assistant for the day: competition.

A fantastic new exhibition has just opened at the Perc Tucker Gallery in Townsville.

Featuring quite a few of my works as well as 53 historical items which have been sent directly from the LEGO Idea House in Billund, Denmark.

I’ll be onsite building some cool stuff from the 13th of December up until the 19th of December so come along and join in the fun.

I’ll be back again in Townsville in February so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for dates and times.

I recently received some LEGO Books from No Starch Press for review.
Before I get into the books, No Starch Press are somewhat famous amongst LEGO circles now in that they have produced many great LEGO books and produce some amazing quality productions, so its always a pleasure to review their latest and greatest.

I have also travelled a lot recently so took them away with me to read. (timing was perfect!)

So 3 books, 2 of which are very similar (same Authors in fact)

I really enjoyed both of these books and it clearly shows when the authors are subject matter experts, these are very well laid out, great illustrations and really do step through each model well. (although I’m not sure about the character George who explains the book – perhaps he is aimed at a younger audience)

If you are into LEGO cars as a lot of people are, these are definite must haves.

The third book “Beautiful LEGO”

This book came with quite a reputation, not only from the name of the book, but also the Author who has made some amazing LEGO models (and photography) So I was really keen to check this one out. Sadly though I was left quite disappointed by this book, not by its quality or production values, as they are excellent, but rather the subject matter, there is some amazingly poor choices of subject matter in the book given the title.

If you are going to call a book Beautiful LEGO then make sure the subjects are indeed beautiful. don’t get me wrong the creations are special and amazingly well crafted and made by highly skilled craftspeople (way better builders than I), but some of them are far from beautiful.

Some of the selections are very niche AFOL orientated as opposed to mass appeal. If that’s the target market of this book then great, if its not and is aimed at the general public, there are some things which will amaze them and others which they will look at scratching their head wondering how these things made it into a grand sounding book.

I’m just waiting for a book whereby Mike Doyle’s work is featured on its own, that would be worthy of the title “Beautiful LEGO”

I’ve had a few LEGO stop motion jobs of late, here’s one I did some work on.

Click on the picture to head over to YouTube.

A bit of an update on a couple of events;

Saturday the 31st of August form 12-2pm at the Sydney Opera House concert hall southern foyer for the launch of the LEGO Sydney Opera House, be there or be compound curved 😉
Jamie Berard, the designer of the set will be in attendance and promises to be good times all round.

The other event is at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation on Thursday the 5th of September, for an evening of LEGO and fine wine.
Ill be giving a presentation on behind the scenes in my job in what is an amazingly cool secret art gallery.
Click here for SCAF info: http://sherman-scaf.org.au/

Here’s some LEGO recreations I made of some classic Sydney Opera House images.

Here’s a couple of small models which have been made for a department store over in Western Australia.

I’ve been wanting to recreate Australia II winning the Americas cup for a long time now, so this was pretty neat.
Also a real part of WA; a mining truck hauling away some riches. (if you see it in person look out for the secret cave!)

Following on from last years huge success the LEGO Colosseum,

This years model for the Nicholson Museum in Sydney is none other than the Acropolis!
120,000 Bricks and a couple of hundred hours of work.

here’s a picture of it just before it left the workshop, come and check it out (along with a host of real Greek treasures)
Opening day is the 6th of July at the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney.

I’ve just finished making some super cool trophies which will be awarded to each state Chima Speedorz Champion.
These were a lot of fun to make, I look forward to seeing each of the winners!