BrickJournal #61 Preview

The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages!

Issue 61 • April 2020

9.95

$

in the US

Making LEGO Figures with Jae Won Lee and Eero Okkonen Patrick Biggs Andrea Lattanzio

Instructions AND MORE! 1

82658 00369

2

Order @ Amazon.com or SUBSCRIBE!

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®

BRICKJOURNAL magazine spotlights all aspects of the LEGO® Community!

It showcases events, people, and models every issue, with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more.

Available in FULL-COLOR print and digital editions.

NEXT ISSUE: #62 SPOTLIGHTS LEGO® TRAIN BUILDING! SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Next issue ships May 2020!

GET THE NEXT SIX PRINT ISSUES PLUS FREE DIGITAL EDITIONS! o o o o

0 202 NEWATES R

SUBSCRIBE TO BRICKJOURNAL $67 Economy US Postpaid $79 Expedited US (faster delivery) $101 International $27 Digital Editions Only

Name: Address: City/Province: State: Country (if not USA): E-mail address:

Zip Code:

(for free digital editions)

#63 ships July 2020, and follows LEGO® under the sea!

TwoMorrows Publishing

10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • Order at twomorrows.com LEGO® and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. BrickJournal is not associated with The LEGO Group.

DON’T MISS AN ISSUE • ORDER TODAY! TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

For faster service, order online at:

www.twomorrows.com or by phone: 919-449-0344

Issue 61 • April 2020

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

People

Andrea Lattanzio: Different Places, Same Base!.......................3 Holly Webster: Making a Missing Link................................12 Eero Okkonen: Character Builder..........................................19 Riaan Pretorius: Building The Walk!........................................26

Building

Yvonne Strijbos: Dobby, the House Elf...................................34

Hongjun Youn: Bringing Bricks to Life! ...............................36 Patrick Biggs: Building Bionicle and More!....................40 Vincent Kiew: Building Figures and Animals! ...............46 You Can Build It: Rickshaw...........................................................50 Jae Won Lee’s The Romance of the Three Kingdoms..............................54 BrickNerd DIY Fan Art: Makerspace.....................................................59

You Can Build It: Mini Venator Star Destroyer....................64 Minifigure Customization 101: Making Vanda Darkflame!........................70 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs by Greg Hyland..................................80

People

Different Places, Same Base!

Article and Photography

by Andrea Lattanzio

I have always been intrigued by the architecture of the middle of the last century, also called Modernism, as I consider it a breaking point with the stylistic elements of the past, in particular those of before the World Wars. So it has come naturally to me over the last few years to use LEGO brick as a medium to create buildings, cars or settings that recall that architectural style. I think that style is very elegant; simple, but refined.

Those who follow me know, for example, my ESSO service station, the replica of the service station designed in 1954 by the Dutch architect Dudok. It was the first creation that started my series of mid-century themed buildings that you see in these pages.

I looked through many photographic books on the architecture of the second post-war period and found interest-

ing ideas for my LEGO creations. Thus was born the first MOC of the series: The Hot Dog Stand, which had great success in the AFOL community, so much that it was chosen by The Brothers Brick to enter the short list of the ten best creations of 2018. It was a great satisfaction for me.

Honestly, at first I didn’t think of using the same platform to build other street food-themed MOCs, but then, with the result of the Hot Dod Stand, in February 2019 I built the Coffee Stand that combined my passion for coffee with Modernism. The third in the series was the Hamburger

3

Stand which I conceived after seeing the film The Founder, the beautiful movie that tells the birth of the Mc Donald’s fast-food chain. The film was an inexhaustible source of ideas for my creations.

My creations are also heavily inspired by the Googie style, a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age. The style later became widely known as part of the mid-century modern style.

In the middle I also built the Agip Supercortemaggiore gas station—it is not a street food theme but has a typically Modernist architecture, with lots of glass all around. Agip is probably not familiar to you, as it is an Italian gasoline brand that built beautiful gas stations in the ’50s and ’60s.

Even those from LEGO seem to appreciate my creations of this type, so much that I had the honor and the pleasure of exhibiting my Modernist Shell Gas Station at the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House in Billund from September 2018–September 2019—a privilege for a few lucky builders.

4

People

Article and Photography by Holly Webster

Holly Webster:

Making a Missing Link 12

Promotional art for the movie, with Susan.

Holly Webster previously talked in BrickJournal #53 about her Coraline-inspired house that was submitted to LEGO Ideas.

Since then, she worked on another film from LAIKA, Missing Link. She was inspired to build one of the characters from the movie, and was gracioous enough to talk about it here!

As a follow-up to Coraline’s house, which I built to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the film and my own time served as an artist at LAIKA’s stop-motion animation studio, I wanted to do something just as special for this year’s release of Missing Link, which I spent a couple of years working on.

Susan in the movie... ...and the full model.

I initially planned to build a scene because there are some really stunning sets from the film that would be so much fun to recreate, but I couldn’t think of any existing minifigures that could properly represent the highly stylized characters of the film. As an alternative, I considered building a microfig vignette, but I really wanted to capture the personality of Susan (aka Mister Link), so I figured a brickbuilt figure would be a better way to accomplish that. The scale I had in mind was closer to that of the actual puppet from the film (around 16 inches tall); but as I started considering parts, I saw a magenta macaroni tile (part #27925) that reminded me of Susan’s nose, and LEGO had just released newly printed eyes with the perfect iris color (part #49479).

The scale was pretty much set by just these couple of parts and I began working on the face. I don’t think I’d intended to go full body at that point, but what’s a Bigfoot without feet?! I soon realized I had to build a full body also, and next thing I knew he was looking to be about three feet tall!

The biggest design challenge was getting the overall proportions, shapes, and silhouette right. The character’s proportions are cartoonish; I kept having to make adjustments to compromise between the puppet proportions and what worked with the brick-built aesthetics. LEGO can be a particularly challenging medium when trying to make rounded things. You’re sometimes limited by types of parts in certain colors, and I’ve learned to let some things go that I know don’t look perfect if I’m ever going to finish anything. He ended up not being as robust as he should have been, but trying to make him more rotund was presenting too many challenges for my deadline and budget.

13

People

Eero Okkonen and some of his work at the LEGO House.

Photo by Caz Mockett

I’m Eero Okkonen. I was born in 1995 in Joensuu, in eastern Finland. I have been a LEGO builder since I was a kid, and I never had a major Dark Age. I joined the online community in 2007 and took part in my first event in 2009.

It was also the first event of my LUG Palikkatakomo, the national LEGO User Group of Finland. I’m a LUG active, and participated in dozens of exhibits and events.

I’m currently displaying my Circle band creation in the LEGO House’s Masterpieces Gallery in Billund, and last September I participated in my first international event (Skærbæk Fan Weekend) meeting many members of the AFOL community. I gained several new friends and had an amazing experience.

Eero Okkonen:

Character Builder Article and Photography by Eero Okkonen

I’m best known for my character builds. This is slightly confusing, as I’m a fourth-year student of architecture in Tampere University and career-wise I’m mostly attracted to buildings, which are the much more traditional subject of MOCs than little, often poseable people. There are several reasons behind this. Making character builds is rare, and it’s interesting to take the less-beaten path. I’m an old Bionicle fan, so the idea of buildable LEGO action figures has been part of my life since I was a kid. But foremost, I really like the challenge of capturing something with personality and life in it in a brick form.

19

The Samurai of the Garden

Medieval Japan is a constant source of inspiration for me.

It’s not a very familiar subject to me, it just has such unique aesthetical traits that I find both beautiful and fascinating.

The Samurai of the Garden is part of a larger diorama, “Tea Ceremony in Japanese Garden,” which also includes a character model of Maiko, an apprentice Geisha. The model reflects the difference of the world perceived by these two characters; the Maiko’s serene and peaceful world of dance, art and singing manifesting as a garden with flowers and bright lime-coloured grass, and on the other side, the old Samurai’s ragged stone garden environment of the military class, with his dual swords lying on the stones, built in dark tan, olive green and greys.

The Samurai was designed for this particular scene, and the legs are built for a sitting position. However, I wanted to be able to pose it in normal, standing posture too, so I made completely poseable legs with quite realistic points of articulation. There is a double joint in the knee. It uses boat studs with TECHNIC pieces: 15100 “Technic, Pin with Friction Ridges Lengthwise and Pin Hole” and 32013 “Technic, Axle and Pin Connector Angled #1”. The former is especially very useful in poseable figures. Its pin has enough friction to keep the turning joint stable, and studto-Technic-hole connection is very sturdy overall, making the figure easy to handle. Making models sturdy helps displaying them and makes the building process much more enjoyable, as one doesn’t have to replace the falling pieces all the time. It’s one aspect of building where I’ve been getting better during the last couple of years.

20

As the knee needs around 150 degrees of articulation, some mass has been removed from back of the upper legs, and the knee joint connects to the very back of the lower leg.

The armour under the knee is adjustable and hides this connection without adding mass to the back. As a result, the model looks bad from the back when standing; in the sitting position, which is the main way of displaying the model, this area is completely hidden. I think this example shows how posable LEGO character builds differ from more traditional fields of sculpture: they are more alive, in

This model was part of a series featuring futuristic warrior women clad in black and red armor with trans-pink details.

In this series, one of the key points was using unusual, exciting-shaped parts to create cool and dynamic designs.

For example, on the skirt, macaroni tubes and dinosaur tail parts are used to create the feel of synthetic, flexible fabric, while the triangular studded slopes (originally used to make roofs on classic castle sets) form starkly geometric shape of an armor plate. The difference of the texture is as striking as the bold contrast between red and black.

One of the most enjoyable aspects in LEGO building is the nature of the medium: It is partly ready-made stuff, boat hulls and wigs and vegetables and rocket engines and roofs, but also akin to sculpting, and spiced up with limited but still diverse pool of colors. It has features from collage making and puzzle solving, with a constant sense of invention. This creation, for example, is sci-fi warrior in suit of armor, but it uses a big castle door, hot air balloon panels, bird wings, skeleton minifigure arms, sausages, dinosaur tails, Bionicle ankle guards, minifig hands, helmet plumes and Clickits real-life bracelet strings… just to mention a few things.

On HAVOC-DISSECT IV, the head and the hair are among my favorite bits. The earlier characters in this series had natural hair colors—black and reddish brown—and I wanted to preserve this aspect, as a thematical contrast to synthetic, stark armor and transparent pink weapons. Dark orange was a good hair color choice. I had had those balloon panels hanging around for some time, and as usual with new, flowing parts, hair was among my first ideas. This happens often to a character builder. I made the standard stylized female face with minifig hands as eyes. This is a technique I developed some three years ago. Making eyes on this scale is not easy.

Eyes and their surroundings strongly define the facial features. I use headlight bricks for some characters, but they give often a humorous, or at least slightly caricature-like look to the character. It works well in some cases but is far from elegant; that is my goal on models like this one. It’s not an ideal situation that several builds have almost identical faces, but I try to add slight variations to it. Composition of hair and other headgear accessories also change the way the head is perceived. Here it’s tightly framed with a visor and a pair of bangs.

22

The balloon panel parts have an interesting set of

People

Riaan Pretorius:

Building The Walk!

Article by Riaan Pretorius Photography by Santa Bylsma The Walk shopping center is located within arm’s reach of town, making it an ideal place to meet and relax with friends. For families with kids, The Walk has a LEGO store. There are options for snacks and meals, as well as services such as mail and banking. There is ample parking and a bus station for those who use public transportation. Convenience, services, and fun, it’s all at The Walk… and on a table.

The Walk is actually a model that was created by Riaan Pretorius, inspired by his local shopping malls in his home country of South Africa. He has been building MOCs since 2014, but has been building sets way before then—35 years ago, when he was only 7. Back then, he played with LEGO right through primary and secondary school. When he left school he stopped building because he thought he was grown up and couldn’t do any more—he entered a Dark Age. Still, he always checked out the new LEGO sets in the local toy shops.

As Riaan recounts, “Then came the year 2006 and I told myself I’m just going to buy one little set… one set became two and two became three sets, and on it went. I only built the sets and displayed them in a showcase. In 2012, I saw a LEGO exposition and I thought ‘let’s take part.’

I displayed all my now vintage LEGO sets that year and won a prize. Just then and there I decided that I was not going to be shy anymore for being an adult and wanting to build with LEGO. Since then, I switched from building sets and collecting vintage LEGO sets to building my own creations, which I enjoy a lot.”

A big reason why Riaan enjoys LEGO building is that he had a dream of becoming an architect or model builder, as he is a huge fan of commercial architecture. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen—he now is a business owner. He always wanted to LEGO build as an adult but thought people would ‘think funny’ of him. When he saw all the adults displaying their models at the first LEGO exhibition he attended, he just started building and couldn’t care less what others thought about it. To his surprise, many more adults love LEGO just as much as he did. LEGO let him live his dream of designing and building amazing looking buildings.

From Riaan’s creation, it’s not to hard to figure out that his favorite theme is LEGO City. He loves the realism and what could be done in LEGO. He’s not a super-hero fan or space fan, as he sees himself as a realist. City is, for him, amazing and he would love to one day have a huge city built in LEGO. Starting such a large project was originally a problem for him. For many years, Riaan did not have the parts to build his own creations. After joining his local LEGO Users Group (LUG), he got help from some of the LUG members and was able to start gathering a collection of parts together. From there, the fun began—he was able to start building his own ideas! He recalls, “As a kid, I always built my own creations but as an adult, I wanted so much more from my model and therefore needed so many more parts to get that model to look as realistic as it could get.”

Riaan’s building process begins by starting to visualize his model design in his head. From there, he will make some sketches and take notes of things that he wants to remember to add to the model. Taking notes can happen at any time—on many occasions, he will wake up with an idea for his build and have to make a note before forgetting about it.

Riaan Pretorius and his shopping center model, The Walk.

27

Yvonne Strijbos:

Building

Dobby, the House Elf Article and Photography

by Yvonne Strijbos

Building a House Elf isn’t easy. Yvonne Strijbos should know, as she built a model of Dobby, the House Elf that befriends Harry Potter in Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets. What makes her model more amazing is that this is the first time that she tried to build a sculpture. Dobby was built on LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) as a digital entry for a Harry Potter contest, and while it wasn’t a finalist, she built him anyway. She had to modify her build, as the availability of specific parts and colors differed between LDD and actual parts.

Yvonne has been a prolific builder before Dobby, though.

She’s a big fan of the modular, Architecture and Castle themes. Generally, she likes highly detailed sets with many bricks. For her, the fun is in building, so as soon as a model is completed, she starts looking for the next set to build.

She’s also a big science-fiction fan, so space-related sets are another favorite of hers.

As a young child, Yvonne used to play with LEGO. She and her brothers used to build a town on a salon table.

Back then, she thought it was a huge space to fill with houses, cars and railroad tracks, but in reality, it was only a square meter. She went into her ‘Dark Ages’ in her teenage and early twenties, although she occasionally bought space-themed sets. Her interest in LEGO was rekindled when her niece and nephew were born, followed later by her own children. Many sets were built from then on.

Building her own models is a relatively new thing for Yvonne, as she has only been doing that for four years. She started when her mother passed away. Yvonne had a hard time dealing with this, so started building on her own to The initial version of the elf on LEGO Digital Designer.

34

Yvonne’s rendition of Dobby.

Building

36

Hongjun Youn:

Bringing Bricks to Life!

Building

Jayfa.

Building figures can be one of the most challenging things to do with LEGO elements. The LEGO building system did not have many parts for building things other than buildings and vehicles until the creation of the Bionicle LEGO theme. With that theme came a primary usage of something other than the LEGO stud and tube for attaching parts: The ball and socket. Possibilities for organic builds multiplied tremendously, and a few builders took advantage of the new medium to create new models and new techniques.

The Caretaker.

Patrick Biggs:

Building Bionicle and More!

Article by Joe Meno Photography by Patrick Biggs 40

One of those builders was Patrick Biggs. Now 32, he has been one of the leading figure builders on the LEGO scene. Even before Bionicle and his figures, though, he was always building. His parents started him on DUPLO as a young child, and he would constantly build a big robot with roller skate feet over and over. As he only had two bricks with wheels, this was his go-to design. In the years since this simple beginning, his figure building process has, he hopes, improved. He recalls as a child being on a family trip to another US state, where he was gifted a Forestmen’s Hideout set, which became the first non-DUPLO set to mesmerize him. He was young enough that he remembers the pictograph instructions being a touch confusing. Needing to come back to them at a later period, he opted to instead simply free-build with the parts available in the set.

a forest in the late autumn, as the sun sets and the wind blows and you zip up your jacket due to the sudden chill? Maybe he wants his creation to feel like that. Patrick is drawn to character and mood, and he wants his creations and photos to convey the same. His desire is to tell a story of expression in a build, with as little accompanying text as possible.

Inspiration leads to realization, and while Patrick will start building a model with an idea or concept in mind, he has never sketched a model beforehand. Instead he usually starts at the top of the model, either by finding a good mask for a more Bionicle-inspired character, or building a unique head, and then working his way down. Work is often done in a trial-and-error manner, building up a portion just to break it back down and start from scratch. He’s notorious for fiddling with small bits for a few days after “completion” before photographing (when not working on deadline).

Patrick is fascinated by people who build from a sketch—especially when the sketch and the final model align so closely! His concepts and final products often diverge greatly, though he’s usually more than okay with that.

He likes his characters to tell him who they are as he builds, and sometimes he stumbles on something that isn’t what he set out to discover. That’s a part of the creative process he really enjoys.

His building process can sometimes vary wildly. Patrick has had parts of MOCs sit for years after he hit a design wall, and he’s had MOCs go from start to finish in a total of four to five hours. To wit, some of his best received creations over the years have been quick-builds that were put together in small bursts of frantic inspiration; an hour one night, two hours the next day, an hour the next, and then completed! Others have been slow burns, taking days at a time just to adjust a few minor details as something just doesn’t feel right.

Ekimu.

Previous page: Captain Salvador.

43

Building

The characters of the Chinese animated series Journey to the West.

This display will be touring in major shopping malls in Malaysia in conjunction with the LEGO Chinese New Year 2020 series.

Vincent Kiew:

Building Figures and Animals!

Article by Joe Meno with Vincent Kiew Photography by Vincent Kiew

Once upon a time, when Vincent Kiew was six or seven years old, his father bought him two LEGO sets to cheer him up when he was sick with a high fever. The sets were Classic Space sets 926 Space Command Center and 920 Alpha-1 Rocket Base. Vincent was over the moon after receiving these sets and his high fever became a LEGO fever. He was immediately hooked, as he never played with building toys before.

LEGO was a childhood toy to Vincent until he saw the Ninjago 7419-1 Dragon Fortress in 2004. The set opened his eyes to seeing that LEGO bricks could be used to build Oriental architecture. As a result, this was the first LEGO set he bought for himself as a 30-year-old kid.

It took four more years before he began to build his own creations. After watching The Dark Knight, Vincent really wanted a LEGO Bat-Pod. However, the LEGO Group didn’t produce one, so he built his own.

He didn’t build much after he completed his first creation.

At the time, he didn’t know that there was a LEGO building community. He just thought everyone was more into collecting and building LEGO sets. It took another event to build more.

46

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

Rickshaw

Design and Instructions

by Vincent Kiew Vincent Kiew is a builder of many themes, including City builds. Here, he has created an easy-to-build rickshaw for one of his dioramas he built in 2016. Have fun building!

50

Qty Color

Part

Description

2 2 1 1 1 4 4 1 1

Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown Reddish Brown

2412b.dat 2420.dat 3020.dat 3021.dat 3022.dat 3023.dat 3024.dat 3710.dat 4871.dat

2 2

Reddish Brown 13965.dat Reddish Brown 15706.dat

2 2 1 4 1 2 2 4 1

Reddish Brown Dark Brown Tan Tan Tan Tan Tan Dk Bluish Grey Black

30136.dat 11477.dat 3031.dat 3069b.dat 3710.dat 11477.dat 30136.dat 99780.dat 2397.dat

1 2

Black Black

3069b.dat 4489a.dat

1

Black

11002.dat

2 1

Blue Blue

11477.dat 87079.dat

Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove Plate 2 x 2 Corner Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 3 Plate 2 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 4 Slope Brick 45 4 x 2 Double Inverted with Open Centre Arch 1 x 3 x 3 Plate 1 x 4 with Plate 1 x 4 at 45 Degrees Brick 1 x 2 Log Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Plate 4 x 4 Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Plate 1 x 4 Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Brick 1 x 2 Log Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up Plate 2 x 2 with Angled Bars and Attached 1 x 2 Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Wheel 2.8 x 34 with 8 Spokes with Round Hole for Wheel Holding Pin Plate 2 x 2 with Wheels Holder Wide with Wishbones Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Tile 2 x 4 with Groove

Building

Jae Won Lee’s

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Article and photography by Jae Won Lee 54

Jae Won Lee is a Korean builder based in Korea that became a LEGO Certified Professional (LCP). It took him 35 years of building to get to this point—he started at the young age of four. Before he became a Certified Professional, he was an architect.

His first LEGO Castle set was the spark for what was to follow. Inspired by his father, also a LEGO fan, he began to build and was sketching and building his own ships by the age of five. His creations back then were with his favorite themes: LEGO Castle, Space, then later Star Wars.

For the Certified Professional Program, Jae Won designs art figures. This is different from other LCPs, who build LEGO sculptures and models for the LEGO Group for company-related displays and events, such as building

You Can Build It MINI Build MINI Venator Star Destroyer Design and Instructions

by Christopher Deck

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

Qty Color Part 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 87087.dat 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 30414.dat 4 Trs-Neon-Orange 59900.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3942c.dat 5 3 3 2 6 3 2 8 4 2 2 4 2 1

Hello everybody, I am very happy to join again for another building session in BrickJournal! As most of you will already know, I am not only a passionate mini model builder, but also a huge fan of the Creator theme. I enjoy the challenge to build something with a limited number of parts, and I would like to encourage everyone to try this on your own!

A very common and popular set of the current Creator line is set no. 31086: Futuristic Flyer. It contains 162 pieces, out of which 60% can be used to build a neat looking Venator Star Destroyer, a quite recognizable ship from Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. The yield of the parts used is quite high, as only the main model of most Creator sets use all pieces.

Most secondary models use many fewer pieces than there are available.

Although some color variations had to be taken into account, the resulting Venator Star Destroyer is accurate enough to be easily identified by every eagerly interested Star Wars fan. So, if you wanted a Venator set for Christmas this year, but received the Futuristic Flyer instead, you know can build your own instantly!

I wish you happy building and see you next time!

1 3 1 1 4 4 2 1 2 3 2 2 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Description Brick 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side Brick 1 x 4 with Studs on Side Cone 1 x 1 with Stop Cone 2 x 2 x 2 with Hollow Stud Open Light-Bluish-Gray 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Trans-Green 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Trans-Red 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Dark-Red 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 4085c.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical (Thick U-Clip) Dark-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 Dark-Bluish-Gray 14417.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Ball Joint-8 on Side Dark-Red 3794b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud Dark-Bluish-Gray 2540.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Light-Bluish-Gray 14704.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Socket Joint-8 with Friction Centre Light-Bluish-Gray 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 2420.dat Plate 2 x 2 Corner White 2420.dat Plate 2 x 2 Corner Light-Bluish-Gray 99206.dat Plate 2 x 2 x 0.667 with Two Studs On Side and Two Raised White 3020.dat Plate 2 x 4 Dark-Bluish-Gray 3795.dat Plate 2 x 6 Dark-Red 3795.dat Plate 2 x 6 Light-Bluish-Gray 3034.dat Plate 2 x 8 Dark-Red 85984.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Light-Bluish-Gray 11477.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 24201.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Inverted Dark-Red 61678.dat Slope Brick Curved 4 x 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 3700.dat Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole Dark-Bluish-Gray 3070b.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove Dark-Red 2431.dat Tile 1 x 4 with Groove White 3068b.dat Tile 2 x 2 with Groove Dark-Red 33909.dat Tile 2 x 2 with Studs on Edge Dark-Bluish-Gray 3464.dat Wheel Centre with Stub Axles Dark-Bluish-Gray 60208.dat Wheel Rim 16 x 31 with 6 Pegholes Light-Bluish-Gray 51739.dat Wing 2 x 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 50305.dat Wing 3 x 8 Left Light-Bluish-Gray 50304.dat Wing 3 x 8 Right Light-Bluish-Gray 47397.dat Wing 3 x 12 Left Light-Bluish-Gray 47398.dat Wing 3 x 12 Right Dark-Red 47407.dat Wing 4 x 6 with 2 x 2 Cutout

Building Minifig Customization 101:

Making Vanda Darkflame!

by Jared K. Burks

Projects start and stop as time, resources, creative ideas, interest, and life gets in the way. Luckily, projects can be restarted in a moment when someone finds the spare time or unlocks that one detail that derailed the project originally. When enough time has passed, these projects IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, then become nostalgia pieces.

The of this CLICK THE LINK TOfocus ORDER THISarticle today is a project that has been sitting in a near-completed ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! state for some time. I uncovered it as I unpacked more “Harvey” boxes. For those that don’t recall, my home was flooded by Hurricane Harvey. While we were in the early days post-Harvey, we had many people helping my family to recover anything salvageable and pack it up. I am still working my way through some of these boxes. Recently I came across my Vanda Darkflame figures that I had been working on for a friend, that I had never quite finished.

I forget what got in the way, but most likely, it was life. I had always liked that character, so I decided to finish her for this article and describe the process in this BrickJournal article. For those that played LEGO Universe, this will be a walk down memory lane, and I hope you enjoy it.

BRICKJOURNAL #61

LEGO Universe: Home of Vanda Darkflame.

FIGURE BUILDING! JAE WON LEE’s historical and leg- a For those thatLEGO don’t recall LEGO Universe, it was endary characters, EERO OKKONEN’s stunning mythic figures, massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) that was ANDREA (“Norton74”) LATTANZIO’s new ultra-realistic builds classic food stands gas stations),2012, “AFOLs”almost by available from(including October 2010 toandJanuary 10 GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOyears ago now!

LEGO Universe waswith anJARED alternate PHER DECK, Minifigure Customization K. BURKS, universe more! populated byand LEGO minifigures. Years ago, a team of four (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 minifigs went on a great journey to$4.99 seek the last essence (Digital Edition) of pure imagination!

Doctor Overbuild, Duke Exeter, http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_78_166&products_id=1526 Hael Storm, and Baron Typhonus representing each of the factions went looking. This group found the mysterious planet Crux, the location of essence of pure imagination.

On the planet, the greedy tycoon, Baron Typhonus, was pulled into the source, fusing with it to create a maelstrom of chaotic dark energy. Doctor Overbuild quickly plugged the hole created by the chaotic dark energy; however, the stress caused Crux to explode into thousands of other worlds. After the incident, the explorers decided to form their own factions—Doctor Overbuild creating the Assembly, Duke Exeter forming the Sentinels, Hael Storm leading the Venture League, and the Baron’s protégé Vanda Darkflame creating the Paradox. These factions worked together to create the Nexus Force in order to destroy the Maelstrom and its minions. At the beginning of the game, the Maelstrom is attacking the Venture Explorer, a ship carrying new recruits.

Assembly “Imagination is the living foundation and power of all that is possible and impossible in the universe.”

- Doctor Overbuild Assembly is composed of builders who believe in the power of imagination and creativity. Doctor Overbuild leads them and they use amazing creations and summoned creatures to defeat the Maelstrom. The Faction logo is an orange Penrose triangle, and the specialties consist of the Engineer, the Summoner, and the Inventor.

LEGO Faction Leaders.

70

Previously I created a Doctor Overbuild figure, where I sculpted, molded, and cast his armor, backpack, helmet, and visor. I also created a custom waist cape, decals, and painted many elements to complete the figure. He still is one of my favorite customs to date, simply because of how well he came together.