News

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!

With the release of the new LEGO Sydney Opera House, I have decided to offer its companion, the Sydney harbour Bridge as its own LEGO set.
This is a very rare opportunity for you to own one of my designs and also have an amazing part of Australia made out of LEGO.

All you need to do is click “support” and once it his 10,000 likes it is on its way!

Here’s the details:

LEGO has recently released its new CREATOR expert model, the world famous Sydney Opera House
However there is only one problem, it is missing its equally as famous and just as significant twin, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
These two inseparable icons form the backdrop to one of the most famous harbours in the world.
So here is your chance to have the companion model.
Designed by Australia’s own LEGO Certified Professional; Ryan McNaught.

The Bridge brings new and interesting modelling techniques as well as an amazing looking model.
• Partner model of the new #10234 Sydney Opera house
• Each tower whilst looks the same uses a different construction technique, thus avoiding the dreaded x4 often seen in LEGO instructions.
• Includes Sydney ferries and a myriad of mini cars and trucks.
• Teaches important concepts such as making curved models out of rectangular bricks.
• Advanced Half stud offset technique used in all 4 towers.
• Measures over 90cm long, 30cm wide and 30cm high.

Click HERE to support it!

Here’s a bit of a behind the scenes look at my latest model.

A giant LEGO minfig called Laval from LEGo Legends of Chima.
He is just under 6 Ft Tall and with his sword its over 8 feet tall, and well over 100,000 LEGO Bricks!
Here’s a picture of him in the loading dock just before he heads off to a department store.
To give you an idea of just how big he is, on top of his left hand is a normal LEGO minifig (That tiny pink dot!)

All up he was about 280-300 hours worth of work, and a hell of a challenge.