Chris Giddens: Pre-Classic Space Master

Building

Chris Giddens: Pre-Classic Space Master!

Article by Joe Meno Photography by Chris Giddens and Joe Meno

In the early 2000s, a fan theme was born from revisiting the Classic Space sets of the ’80s. The question was posed: What did spaceships look like before the Classic Space models? This became the foundation of Pre-Classic Space, first created by Chris Giddens. Chris, now a Minister to Children and Families at Kennesaw First Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia, still builds. His building has slowed as his family and work commitments have grown, but in 2003, he launched an astounding array of spacecraft for the then-new Pre-Classic fleet.

Chris started LEGO building in the late ’70s when he got the Universal Building set (#400) and the yellow Spirit of St. Louis (#456), followed by his first space set, the Mobile Space Lab (#801). He continued building, focusing on building a space fleet inspired by Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

While building the fleet, he saw the LEGO space-oriented sets at the time, which included LEGO City Space sets (which included Space Shuttle-related sets), Star Wars, and the NASA Discover theme (which also had a space shuttle set). Chris didn’t like these sets that much, so he started thinking about a different direction: If LEGO’s Classic Space sets were the future, with spacecraft that could hop galaxies with one engine, what would the spaceships before that look like?

Chris thought about it and came up with some design ideas to transition from the LEGO City Space themes to Classic Space: • City Space sets in the ’90s were primarily white in color, while Classic Space in the ’80s was blue and gray. Pre

Classic Space would have white and gray with a little blue to hint at the future.

• Classic Space crafts had computer slope pieces. To Chris, this mean that the computers were incredibly sophisticated—if that slope could manage a jump anywhere in the galaxy, it was powerful! The same thought applied to the engine technology. Pre-Classic Space would bridge the technology by having larger computers and engines and also showing piping and construction details on the ships—they weren’t as smooth as the Classic

Space craft. 3

• By using curved transparent parts for LEGO’s Paradisa theme, Chris added another design hallmark: the rounded forward profile. There’s some Art Deco and ’60s futurism also added to the Pre-Classic Space look. Since the theme was set during the time of the Space Race, there were the good guys (the white and gray ships) and the bad guys (black and red ships, with skulls somewhere on their ships—they were called 3vil, as in 3 times as evil). The good guys needed a leader, and Chris created Fazoom, a cross between Flash Gordon and a redneck. His sidekick was Sterling, a very British butler droid. Both of them would make a hilarious combo, and in fact Fazoom appeared in BrickJournal in its very early online issues. From all of this came over a dozen spacecraft by Chris alone from 2003 to 2005. He has also displayed the ships at many US events, including BrickFest, Brickworld and BrickFair. His building was affirmed by the LEGO Group when he and the creator of the 3vil space faction Mark Sandlin were invited to make LEGO sets in their themes

P.E.Li.C.A.N. (Planetary Expedition Light Cargo Astro Navigation)

The PELiCAN is the backbone of planetary colonization in the PCS command. The PELiCAN can transport sensitive cargo with a soft touch, but she is fast enough to outrun many attack craft. She also can be equipped as a troop transport, science vessel, and temporary command base for new colonies. Chris can be found on Instagram (Fazoom7) and on Youtube as Fazoom. You can see his videochat on Youtube, Old Gray Bricks, Thursdays at 7pm EST at https://www.youtube.com/user/ legoober or scan this QR code! for the LEGO Factory theme in 2008. Chris’ set was Star Justice (#10191), while Mark’s was the Space Skulls set (#10192). In 2013 Chris developed Testicular Cancer, and realized just how sick he was getting at Brickfair 2013. He felt such support from the LEGO community. Many friends from across the country and even the world supported him... some even shaving their heads as Chris lost his hair to chemo. Brickfair 2014 became a goal and finish line for Chris. He returned there having finished his biggest ship to date, The Atlas. But it was the friends he wanted to see, and thank. The LEGO community is always more than the sum of its parts. Always. Here’s a gallery of some of Chris’s Pre-Classic Space models. In the years since, he has revisited some of his spaceships and rebuilt them. You can find those ships on his Flickr feed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fazoom/.

People

Jim Demer, Lisa Welchel (host of Collector’s Call), Jeffery Viens, and his girlfriend Julie Blair.

Jeffery Viens: Answering the Collector’s Call!

Article by Jeffery Viens Photography by Jeffery Viens and MeTV

Jeffery Viens is a LEGO fan whose collection was featured recently on the MeTV Network show Collector’s Call. Here, he talks about collecting and having his minutes of fame on the show. I started collecting in the late ’90s. I was buying sets for my nieces and nephews, saw what LEGO was doing with the Model Team and Technic themes, and was hooked. My family gave me a few of the construction equipment sets as gifts, including the pneumatic combination backhoe set (#8862). In the early 2000s, I started a new career as a heavy equipment operator and my LEGO fund grew quickly. I began spending between $5000–10,000 a year on LEGO, buying anything that struck my fancy: City, trains, and even bulk sets at flea markets and garage sales. My dining room table became a LEGO train layout and I began to let my creativity flow. My collection grew quickly and started to take over more parts of my house. At the time, the running joke was that I ran Tonka trucks at work and came home to build with LEGO.

In 2007, I saw an advertisement in the LEGO store for Brickworld, a fan convention. The manager suggested I look into it, and I began attending. It didn’t take long before my building would be noticed. In 2009, I achieved two world records in LEGO when I built the world’s largest LEGO Trebuchet and a smaller trebuchet that has the title “furthest Distance Thrown by a LEGO siege Weapon,” having thrown four 2x4 bricks 38 ft, 7 in. In 2014, I was one of the many builders credited in The LEGO Brickumentary film. Since that LEGO store visit in 2007, I have displayed at Brickworld every year, but I almost didn’t make it to Brickworld 2013.

People

Andrea and a few of his music boxes.

Andrea Girotto: Making Music and Motion with Bricks!

Article by Joe Meno Photography by Andrea Girotto

Andrea Girotto (known online as JOLLY “3ricks”—3ricks means Bricks as well as Tricks) is a 40-year-old builder and a legal assistant at a transport company in Italy. He started LEGO building in his childhood, building Space and Light and Sound sets. He stopped building at the age of 12, becoming more occupied with video games and then girls. 23 years later, he got out of his Dark Age when he found out there was so much more beyond buying and building a regular set. By then he was building Creator Expert and Architecture sets. His adoration for the Light and Sound sets returned in a very unique way. He was thunderstruck by talented builders like JK Brickworks (Jason Allemann) and Teun de Wijs, who build animated LEGO models. One day, he saw a beautiful Laputa-inspired music box by Bangoo and he decided to build his own music box with LEGO as a gift for some friends. Then he built another for his wife, then another, and another… As seen here, Andrea likes to build kinetic sculptures and automata. He calls himself a beginner since he started out with only a limited amount of mechanical knowledge. Yoshihito Isogawa’s building guides have helped Andrea a lot in the mechanical area.

Andrea gets inspiration from classic automata makers and he tries, with LEGO bricks, to make something all his own: Musical, dynamic, and communicative. Creating these musical automata has become a way for Andrea to express himself.

Andrea makes his creations by combining a kinetic LEGO MOC with a music box mechanism. He is inspired by different subjects, depending on his mood. Usually, his building begins when he starts thinking about an ideal movement he wants to reproduce, along with a scene and an appropriate melody or song.

From there, he starts sketching and building. He doesn’t use software to virtually build. Instead, his creations grow step by step, often changing many times from its initial design due to lack of pieces or movement not working as hoped. In his first creations, he couldn’t help ‘hurting’ some brick in order to incorporate a music box mechanism into his MOCs, but he later found ways to integrate them without altering parts. The end result is worth the effort, with Andrea’s efforts recognized online and at events. Here’s a collection of Andrea’s creations. While they do not show the motion in his work, they do show the detail and effort he places in each of his MOCs. Two of his models also have their development sketches, so you can see how Andrea progressed from idea to final model. He also gives a little background on these.

THE NUTCRACKER

One of Andrea’s oldest MOCs. Movement is simple: the two minifigs just spin as they dance. It represents a little theatre and the ballet. The music box plays Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite. This was built as a gift box for his wife, with two tickets for the ballet inside the little hidden drawer.

The Nutcracker music box.

The Nutcracker’s music box opens its hidden drawer.