BrickJournal #75 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Issue 75 • September 2022

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Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann’s 122 Hanger

INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!

Inside: Mechs by ZIO Chao Lu Sim Marco de Bon

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Issue 75 • September 2022

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

People Luigi Bombardiere’s Microscale Masterpieces.................................3 Ben Vijle: Belgian Brick Builder... ...................................7

Building Mech Spotlight: ZIO Chao’s XM-2 Reginleif... ........................11 Born of Unusual Circumstance.. ...............14 Mech Spotlight: Marco de Bon... ................................................22 Gol Plays with LEGO... ...................................26 Mech Spotlight: Lu Sim... ................................................................32 BrickNerd Instructions: Teddy Mech... .................................................39 You Can Build It: Rogue One: Erso Homestead MINI Diorama.................................................43 Minifigure Customization 101: Childhood Memories..................................50

Community Bantha Bricks: Tobias Nieder’s Jedi T-6 Shuttle..............56 Connecting More Than Bricks...................62 Project AMORsolo Event Report: Living the Legacy.........................................66 Project AMORsolo: From Canvas to Bricks................................68 The People of Project AMORsolo.............70 PinoyLUG: Building with Passion and Pride............72 Last Word.............................................................79 Classic AFOLs.....................................................80

From the Editor: September 2022 Issue 75

And we are going back to another theme: mecha! We have some builders returning and some new builders—as with each theme, new people and techniques come in as new elements and sets are released.

Editor in Chief Joe Meno

We also ran out of space, so there will be more mecha stuff coming in next issue. Some builders didn’t get a chance to be in this issue, so they will be coming later.

Publisher John Morrow

BrickNerd and Assistant Editor Dave Schefcik Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow

Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon

There’s also some microbuilding in this issue, with some great little builds (literally) from Luigi Bombardiere and Ben Vijle. And community building in the Philippines with PinoyLUG! And instructions? We have those, so sit back, relax, and take a look! Have fun! Joe Meno P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply.

Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth

P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf.

Contributors: Leslie Araujo, Luigi Bombardiere, Marco de Bon, Jared Burks, ZIO Chao, Didier Dambrin, Christopher Deck, Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann, Tobias Neiders, Lu Sim, Steven Smyth, Ben Vijle, Geoff Vlcek, and Greg Hyland.

Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader!

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Subscriptions

Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:

www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com

About the Cover: Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann’s mech bay is the main subject of his article, with his mech, the AMS B109 Blauer Teufel Imperator. Photo by Benjamin Cheh Ming Hann. About the Contents: ZIO Chao’s XM-2 Reginleif gets the spotlight. Photo by ZIO Chao.

Glossary AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces)

SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)

BrickJournalTM issue 75, September 2022 (ISSN 1941-2347) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BrickJournal, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Joe Meno, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BrickJournal Editorial Offices: 6701 Coachman Drive, Springfield, VA 22152, USA. E-mail: admin@brickjournal.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 US, $103 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only, and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com. LEGO ®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are © BrickJournal Media, LLC 2021, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.

People

Luigi Bombardiere’s

Microscale Masterpieces!

Article and Photography by Luigi Bombardiere Luigi Bombardiere has been building for about six years, when he joined an Italian community of LEGO fans on Facebook, Brickpatici. Initially fascinated by the LEGO Architecture theme, he started to try his hand at what bit of bulk elements he had at home (mostly coming from some of his children’s sets). It was there he remembers the first achievements, the challenges, and the nights spent building for pure pleasure… as he says, “Up trying to achieve what I wanted LEGO to be for me.” From the Architecture theme, Luigi went to Creator Expert sets, then to LEGO IDEAS, up to the latest themes, such as Art. He loves handling bricks. He also likes to collect some sets (the Pickup Truck, T1 Volkswagen, Ship in the Bottle, and Dinosaurs, for example). To replenish his bulk elements, he used to buy sets, but switched to buying parts directly from Bricklink.

An assortment of Luigi’s microscale models.

Inspiration comes from everything around Luigi, including buildings, architectural works, and LEGO sets in minifigure scale. There is also his passion for ancient history (especially the Greek and the Roman Empire). These can inspire him, but the strongest inspiration comes from the places and environments that have something for him to build and reproduce in a small way. From there, they become part of his daily life and home. Luigi’s challenge is an internal one to make something he likes and share it with the community. Depending on his initial ideas, Luigi may plan his creation or build organically. Sometimes he starts without a precise idea but with the desire to build, then the idea arrives—or that special piece a MOC picks for him comes to his hands. Ideas often come to him in the most surprising moments though (when he is shaving or driving his car), so to keep from forgetting, Luigi has learned to write his ideas down.

Luigi’s Roman ship.

Building takes only a few hours, during which time he likes to relax listening to music. The next day, he evaluates his work and revises. Building for Luigi is relaxing, stimulating, and rewarding. Building is a therapy for him. In terms of difficulty, Luigi lists his ancient ships, the Daily Bugle, but also his Starry Night micropainting. They were more than difficult, and he would say that they required a lot of parts. He doesn’t have many loose parts now, so the challenge of building is getting more and more difficult. Sometimes he gets angry because he is missing “that piece,” but he has learned to appreciate the aesthetic imperfection of some solutions. He’s most proud of his Roman ship with the legion onboard. He enjoyed building the crow’s nest, the oars, the anchor, and also the micro figures of the legionaries—built with the colors of the Roman armor. The Trojan Horse.

The Daily Bugle.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

A micro version of Vincent Van Gogh’s A Starry Night.

When asked why he builds, Luigi just says that he likes to build what he likes, and hope that others will like them too. Building relaxes, stimulates, and gratifies him. He emphasizes that building is, first of all, a wonderful way to disconnect, distract and recharge. Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

You can see more of Luigi’s models on his Instagram feed: https://www.instagram. com/luigibombardiere/ or you can scan the QR code below!

Future projects include Luigi’s fondness for paintings, as he would love to make a MOC with a Byzantine mosaic theme. Pompeii is another idea also, but as he says, “Enough spoilers.” For Luigi, historical themes always return. For advice, Luigi offers this: “Sit down and start building. Slowly you’ll learn and refine your building technique. Look and observe the works of others and learn from them and try to do better. Above all, have fun.”

People

Ben Vijle with one of his microscale models.

Ben Vijle, better known as BelgianBricks in the Instagram community, is a 33-year-old builder from—you guessed it—Belgium. After a visit to the Leicester Square LEGO Store in London in late 2017, he slowly got captivated again by his favorite childhood toy. He started collecting and building the LEGO Architecture sets, but quickly noticed that no Belgian landmarks were represented in the series. So by the end of 2019, he decided to try and design some himself, starting with the skyline of his hometown Ghent, consisting of three medieval towers.

Ben Vijle:

Belgian Brick Builder!

The complete Ghent layout.

Some of the details of Ghent.

This proved to be easier said than done, as Ben hadn’t made any LEGO creations of his own since when he was a child, and had little knowledge of the plethora of parts that have become available since then. Furthermore, building at such a small scale (1:500 or even smaller in some of his models) often requires specific building techniques and a bit of LEGO math, due to the limited space available. Ben took his time, discovering and gathering new LEGO elements that could come in handy, learning techniques from other builders in the community, and toying around with Micropolis modules. He prefers to design ‘by hand’ instead of digitally, which posed a challenge at first, because of his limited supply of LEGO elements. It took him about a year to gather the necessary bricks and figure out the best techniques to make the roof and tower of the first church building. In the meantime, he took on a couple of side projects, building models of two other towns.

“I had bought a load of orange 1x1 double slopes from the Pick-a-Brick wall, and thought these could perfectly represent terracotta rooftops. Although I’m well aware Dubrovnik is not situated in Belgium, the Mediterranean coastal town seemed a perfect match. At that time we were experiencing a full COVID lockdown as well, so it was nice to be able to wander off to a sunny holiday location in my mind. Next in line was Dinant, a picturesque town in the south of Belgium with a citadel towering above the church and waterside. The unique setting had always appealed to me, and I really enjoyed designing the cliffs in this model. The positive feedback I received was truly overwhelming. This motivated me to finish the first part of the Ghent skyline just one month later.” In 2021, Ben continued his journey to turn Belgian landmarks into LEGO form: The Bruges market square, the modern public library in Ghent, and the most well-known monument of Brussels, the Atomium. Each of these builds brought its own challenges, with complex structures and irregular angles. By the end of 2021 the second Ghent tower was finished, and the third one soon followed.

Dinant. Belgium.

Dubrovnik.

A close-up of Dinant. Bruges, Belgium.

The city library in Ghent, Belgium, De Krook.

The Atomium.

Ben’s advice for any aspiring microscale builder? Get to know your LEGO parts! When looking at photos of creations by another builder, or even a newly released LEGO set, try to identify all of the parts that were used. And when you have a specific project in mind and you already have an idea which colors you might use, check Bricklink to see which parts exist in that specific color. This is how Ben ended up using tan frogs, katanas, and even a Jar Jar Binks head in his microscale cathedral. “While the use of uncommon or specialized parts can add interest to any LEGO creation, it is almost a necessity when you’re building at this tiny scale and want to maintain a high level of detail.” 10

You can see more of Ben’s work in his Flickr feed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ belgianbricks/ or you can scan the QR code here! You can also go to his Instagram feed at @ belgianbricks.

Building

The XM-2 Reginleif.

ZIO Chao is a builder who was spotlighted in the previous mech-themed issue, and has also built other impressive models. For this issue, he was able to talk about his most recent build: the XM-2 Reginleif mech from the popular anime show “86” (reference link: https://86-eighty-six. fandom.com/wiki/XM2_Reginleif). He always enjoys recreating the models from his favorite animations, movies, or games, especially with sci-fi themes. And it is a lot of fun for him to have the subjects reproduced in LEGO.

Mech Spotlight: ZIO CHAo

xm-2 reginleif Article and Photography by ZIO Chao

It is a typical 4-legs mech; that concept can be found at many sci-fi works, but this one is with a unique streamline shape and high mobility. On the other hand, its wonderful performance in the animation is really exciting. That’s why ZIO was eager to build it, since he saw it in the animation. Typically ZIO can design and build one medium-size model, about 20x20 cm, in a week. However, in this case, the shape of XM-2 is unusual and is hard to recreate by LEGO pieces; there are a lot of smooth curves from legs to trunk. In the end, it took him a couple more weeks to complete the model, with most of the time spent figuring out the solution of the shape. The hardest part of this model is to build out its cockpit. Not only referring to the shape of it, he also needed to build a hatch with enough space for a pilot minifig and with the right mechanism for the opening; moreover, the hatch also needs to be matched with the main section without the gaps when closing. The body segment closed.

In the result, ZIO used two white round 6x4x2 windscreen pieces connected by parts with clips and overlapping a few on each other. The best part of it for ZIO is its crab-like legs. Due to their special shape, he used different types of parts combined to form the legs. From the top of the tip, there are two Bionicle pieces used to form the smooth horn; the rest of the section is built with common system pieces. Not only did he consider the shape of the design, but he also studied the mechanism of the legs. The leg mechanism is quite complex. There are three sections and they form a mathematical symbol “square root” shape. The second section is smaller and can be packed up into the first section.

The leg shell pivoted. The cockpit open. The leg shell closed.

Mech structure For mech builds, the joint sections are always the key point that should keep the stability and mobility at the same time. In this model, the joints of legs are also a tricky issue to build. Therefore, ZIO referred to the technique he learned from another (unknown) builder, which is using two 2x2 round plate clamp Technic connector parts instead of using usual joint parts. One usual joint part can sustain not more than 100g weight; otherwise it should use more joint parts to support heavier weights. However, one unit of this complex joint can sustain up to 200g weight, about twice that of usual joint parts. This technique is really useful when specifically applied to mech creations, which provide more stability and keep the same mobility. To further enhance it, he added a second connection to increase the stability.

The knee joint is shown with gray 2 x 2 round plates in place of black plates. #1 Technic connectors are placed between the plates with the holes creating a high-strength joint. A forward view of the mech.

13 13

Building

15 15

I have always enjoyed building dioramas for my mechas but have not been able to find time to create a new one because of my busy schedule. Last year, an invitation to display at Singapore Brickfest 2021 gave me the impetus to build one. However, the timing was less than perfect as I was in the midst of moving and my new house was not ready. I had to lug my bricks to my temporary residence and build my robot there. Looking back, it was truly by God’s grace that I managed to build AMS BI09 Blauer Teufel Imperator (“The Blue Devil”) and its home in time for the event.

THE SECOND STEP – 10 Hours

THE FIRST STEP – 0 Hour

THE THIRD STEP – 18 Hours

The event organizers required the piece to be 60 bricks high and to be able to fit into three 32-stud base plates. It was sort of a blessing in disguise as I had wanted to make something bigger, but that would be a bigger logistical challenge given my situation at that time. After confirming important details like the set-up date, I wasted no time in sketching my designs and gathering the parts I needed. It was a very time-consuming process that involved many calculations and much trial and error.

Once the floors were settled, I proceeded with the wall design which is always a challenge for me. For a sturdier build that will not break easily under pressure, I used Technic parts for the walls. I like to add in the “X”pillar— one of my signature features. I like how it acts as an additional support that prevents the wall from falling over. I also like to add pipes to my diorama, as I imagine them to transport gas and energy throughout the scene.

First, I built the diorama floor in the dimension that was required, and once I decided on a pattern and style that I was comfortable with, I replicated it for the rest of the floor. Each floor of the required dimensions took me roughly five hours to build. I emphasize a lot on details— especially for the floor and the walls of my diorama, because these little details help to create the overall feel. I really dig triangle tiles, which can be useful in creating a direction.

“I emphasize a lot on details – especially for the floor and the walls of my diorama, because these little details help to create the overall feel.”

Figurine out the diorama measurement

Designing my diorama base from 32 x 32 brick plate

AMS BI09 Blauer Teufel Imperator also known as “The Blue Devil”.

Initially wanted to add in a light effect, but scrapped the idea at the last minute.

22 hours later, this is how the diorama looks with messy parts laying all over the table.

A female Maintenance crew member flexes her muscle.

A ground crew with transport materials.

A maintenance crew updating the pilot on his mecha status.

A mechanical claw transporting goods.

Just another day in Die 122 Flugzueghalle (The 122 Hanger) site.

Setting up my diorama.

Preparing to set-up at SG Brickfest 2021-ION Orchard.

Even Kelvin aka Chubbybots lends me a hand during the set-up.

Standing next to my diorama and mecha creation. I hope to inspire the next generation in building mechas and diorama with this build.

“... couldn’t stop thinking of ways to enhance my creation and would have brainSTORMS randomly.” THE FOURTH STEP – 22 Hours With the foundation of my diorama done, it was time to start on the mecha. The last large mecha I built was the AMS JE Jebat, which is currently on display in Malacca, Malaysia. I hoped to build a version that allows for more arm and leg movements. During the process of building AMS BI09 Blauer Teufel, it fell and broke apart several times, prompting me to improve on its stability. At the same time, I had to make sure that my mecha was within 60 bricks height. After some ten modifications, I was finally satisfied with The Blue Devil’s design. At this stage, I also worked on fine-tuning the diorama design, adding in features like walkways for the maintenance crew, robotic arms, a lift, and linkages to the mecha. It was a challenge to build the walkways— that extend out from the back wall on both sides of the mecha—such that they do not collapse from the weight of the bricks. I would have created walkways on three stories if I had more time.

THE FIFTH STEP – 25 Hours At this stage, I couldn’t stop thinking of ways to enhance my creation and would have brainstorms randomly. Based on feasibility and the amount of time I had left, I

picked ideas that I could apply. It was also when I built the finishing touches, such as the vehicle and energy reactor.

THE SIXTH STEP – 26 Hours The last step was to check all the dimensions and take a photo for reference during the set-up, as I had to take it apart for transportation to the event venue. Unfortunately, I used a lot of cling wrap to hold these panels together during transportation, but I reused it when I dismantled my display. Because of my circumstances then, this diorama was also designed to be easy to dismantle and transport.

26hr 55min

5,000 +

10+kg

building

bricks

approx

Building

Mech Spotlight Marco de Bon Marco’s Hulkbuster shows its poseability.

My name is Marco De Bon and I am a LEGO MOC builder who loves to create mechs, robots, speedsters, microcities, and sci-fi related stuff. Since I was a kid, I’ve always watched Japanese Super Robots and Real Robots anime, and they are still in my heart. But I am also a big lover of more recent mecha designs. I think my building style is a mixture of all those influences. Being a collector of many figures, models and chogokins, some years ago I tried to create some mechs with LEGO and I found it could work surprisingly well! So, now, this is my favorite hobby, and I like to make original creations as well as mechs inspired by animation or films.

Hulkbuster moc After making a micro LEGO Iron Man, it came natural to me to think about the Hulkbuster project. Once I got the Hulkbuster 76105 set, I started immediately to work on it, so it heavily changed: now it is 280 mm tall, fully articulated and with the micro Iron Man as the pilot (100 mm). A good 70% of the bricks comes from the set, but this Hulkbuster is a completely new mech, not a modded set. Some detail inspiration for the chest, the back and upper legs come from other cool toys like Hot Toys and Threezero figures. The new torso is empty, as it is a real cockpit, so I had to work around it to create good stability. But the key joints are the waist and ankles, and I used a system of multiple ball joints and pistons to support the weight and to have a good range of movement at the same time. Pistons in the knees, instead, have only an aesthetic purpose, as the Technic joint disk (parts 44224-44225) works well alone. My intention was to create a heavy, brutal Hulkbuster with a dynamic touch in his poses.

A diagram of the micro Iron Man in the Hulkbuster suit.

“My intention was to create an heavy, brutal Hulkbuster with a dynamic touch in his poses.”

Mech structure

Left to right: Marco’s Hulkbuster, mini Iron Man, Iron Man minifigure, and LEGO Hulkbuster set.

An example of the Hero Factory ball joints used for the ankle.

The Hulkbuster’s waist mechanics.

FA-18 “LUCIFER” This kid is FA-18 ‘’Lucifer’’, and it is one of my favourite kind of MOCs: middle-sized (230 millimeters tall), with good poseability and solidity, and with a cockpit for a minifigure in the torso too. I have already tried this black and silver metallic color combo in the past, so I refined it with a touch of yellow for secondary details. If I can, I always try to hide the major joints and give a sort of human-like attitude. I had a good time making the weaponry: rifle, knives and a missile pod that can be oriented using some hinge joints. For the missiles I used three microphones. This time I’ve used two sets of mixel joints for each knee, which work well with a light compact body like this. The kneeling down pose is also possible by just opening a panel on the back, which lets the knee bend over 90°. I built the shoulders with two joints; the second one can be extracted allowing the arm to be extended even more horizontally. This is useful when gripping the rifle with both hands and pointing it in a specific direction. A look at the cockpit of Lucifer.

Mech structure

A look at the double-jointed knee in the mech.

Lucifer in various poses.

You can see more of Marc’s work at his Flickr gallery: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/144373023@N02/ or by scanning the QR code below! He’s also on Facebook: Marco’s Toys and Instagram: marco_debon

Building

Hello, I’m from Belgium, my name is Didier Dambrin, aka Gol. Now retired from programming, I used to be the main programmer behind a sequencer famous among e-musicians. I of course had my LEGO Dark Ages (timed perfectly to miss LEGO’s worst times), but for years I had been keeping an eye on MOC pictures, thinking I would one day return to LEGO to MOC, which I eventually did at around 40. And yeah, I’m old enough that for me LEGO means Castles and Classic Space. My inspirations include, well, other people’s MOCs obviously, but also anything I like. Sci-fi vehicles, cartoons—I build various stuff, from Brickheadz to mini modulars; anything but Technic and very large stuff. Another big inspiration is parts. Special parts, new parts, I spot them in announcements—and I quickly see what I could do with them. Nearly all of my MOCs are designed in 3D, still in my beloved LDD (and I really thank the community for maintaining it). I then gather the parts when it’s done, and when required I build prototypes while designing. A small amount of my MOCs never leave the 3D world—generally when they’ve been designed for contests, so that I don’t have to limit my color palette. I rarely do oversized MOCs, so they rarely take more than a few days to a few weeks to design. But of course, since as an adult I don’t find acceptable to “do with what I have” (as a kid I didn’t have the choice), my MOCs generally have to wait for orders to arrive, and end up being constructed months after the design. It’s always hard to wait.

Didier’s mech: Ruby.

Didier Dambrin:

Gol Plays with LEGO! Article and Photography by Didier Dambrin

But I also revisit older MOCs, when I think they’re still good and could benefit from updates, especially when new parts are released. So my longest build would be, by far, my pet project, a minifig-scaled AT-ST from Star Wars. I’ve been “updating” it since 2015, and it’s safe to say that the current version, after thousands of updates and a release nearly each year, has nothing to do with its original incarnation.

Yet, that AT-ST hasn’t been my hardest build. That would go to another Star Wars MOC of mine, nanofigure-scaled Millennium Falcon. 3000 parts have a weight, and the structure was a nightmare, but the worst was the assembly, because I had designed it for myself only, and “forgot” that adding the last parts in a closed structure would become very hard, with no more access to the interior. While I’m happy with the result, the assembly gave me nightmares. I will one day revisit that MOC though.

Didier’s AT-ST interior.

Didier’s AT-ST.

Rear view.

The Millennium Falcon.

Top view of the Falcon.

Various views of the walker roller. The walker roller open.

Walker Roller (that goes for all three of them—it’s always tempting to build variants when you’re happy with a MOC) most likely started with my love for legged mechs and vehicles, such as Ghost in the Shell’s Tachikoma. It’s a small enough build; I like it when I can complete the assembly without having to wait for parts. Like most, it/they were (not necessarily entirely, but nearly) designed in the LDD. I was also quite happy with the double-hinged opening action of the canopy. Being able to pose a mech (I love Mixel ball-joints; I even too often abuse them, in builds normally too heavy for them) and fitting a minifig in a vehicle/mech always makes me happy.

Dinobot is also a variant of the Walker Roller, even though this one only walks, I guess. But it was derived from it, keeping the same opening action, only with a dino head at the end of it. I was toying with Bionicle masks (or is it Hero Factory? I hardly know the difference, it’s an era I missed) and wanted to build something around one of them. The face could pass as a dino’s head; I’ll do a dino, simple as that. It’s not a build I’m particularly proud of (also it’s old), but I think it’s fine. This project is particularly tidy. Not many loose parts around; it’s generally much worse. But for larger projects I usually end up cleaning all the mess around the build when saving major steps.

The screenshot above of its LDD project, in all its glorious ugliness, is typical. First, the filename, “AutoDoor31_White2_RollcageTest12_BlueCanopy7_ Dino24_TailTest6.lxf”, tells a lot. It was derived from the Walker Roller project, named “AutoDoor” after its opening action. _White2 was appended to start the project of the derived white version of it. _RollcageTest12 & _BlueCanopy7, some of the many tests on it (& really, 90% of what I try in the LDD ends up being trashed), _Dino24 because it eventually became a dinosaur, _TailTest6 as I tried various designs for the tail. Various views of the Dinobot.

Now the Ruby mecha I’m still proud of. Starting from 2016, I was regularly releasing humanoid mechs and getting better at it, from the ”A.P.E Defense Mech” to the “Nexonome Gold” (which not many liked, but it’s still one of my favorites). Ruby evolved from them, and started a series of three MOCs in the same family—way too big for those weak Mixel joints, yet it stands up pretty well, and it all went fine. Certainly not a build that would pass LEGO’s QC, but I still like it. Also entirely designed in the LDD, I wouldn’t have been able to do it another way. It’s a mech which you would call spindly, perhaps feminine, and like pretty much all of my mechs, it has asymmetric arms, one being a gun. I won’t come up with a backstory for it because that would be a lie; at the end of the day it’s a mech! LOL.

Ruby in progress.

A slightly menacing view of Ruby.

The project shows the messy beginnings of Ruby, starting from the Nexonome mech project. I build both to create and replicate, really. I enjoy replicas less, because they’re much, much harder to do. When you don’t have a model to respect, you let yourself be guided by the bricks, and you can easily end up with something that looks good and smooth. When there is a model to follow however, you have to get there one way or another; studs will probably show, and you’ll never be fully happy with it and have to revisit it over and over. A replica MOC is never really finished. They, however, get the most attention. Ruby’s predecessor, Nexonome.

I do it for the art, I guess. I enjoy producing a finished product, which is why I sometimes create instructions as well. The AT-ST will always be my #1 pet project, and it’s gonna be improved again thanks to new parts in upcoming sets (providing LEGO is willing to sell them— I’m not too happy with the revamp of Bricks & Pieces, but that’s another story). I also need to update the Millennium Falcon. I’m not sure I want to, but I’ve finally been able to order a bulk of wedge tiles. Yes, wedge tiles—not from LEGO, but there I don’t mind cheating, because it’s really a part that LEGO needs to give us.

On a related note, I used to be a purist, and would never have allowed non-LEGO parts in my MOCs. Not (at all) because I’m a big LEGO fan, but because it was part of the art, part of the rules. But it’s too tempting, when you need a colored part that exists out there but it’s not LEGO that made it, so I stopped restricting myself starting from last year. For advice, these tips won’t work for everyone but: Step 1: Install the LEGO Digital Designer. Optionally, visit Eurobricks to update it (since LEGO has abandoned it). Step 2: Install Bricklink Studio. While I don’t like to design in it (but beginners might not have a problem with it), it remains a necessary tool for renders and manual design/tutorials. Step 3: Play with those tools, build something virtually, render it. Step 4: Only once you’re happy with a design, place orders on Bricklink, Bricks & Pieces or whatever. I don’t suggest buying sets purely for parts (only buy the sets you like), and I don’t suggest stocking many parts (even though you eventually will— but as a beginner you don’t know yet which parts you will use the most). This is a very cheap (well, free) way to start. Design in 3D, don’t limit yourself, then only purchase whatever you need (or find workarounds). Some prefer to play with a real pile of bricks, and that’s a way to do it too, if you wanna favor the fun aspect— but it will be harder to achieve good results that you’ll be proud of. You will also spend your time sorting and searching for parts, and that is much less fun. Step 5: Share your work. Flickr and Instagram are where MOCs happen. You can see more of Didier’s work at his Flickr Gallery: https://www.flickr. com/photos/137434519@N08/ or by scanning the QR code below!

Building

Mech Spotlight: LU SIM Article and Photography by Lu Sim

hyouga

My latest builds focused around creating and testing designs using my newest mech frame, the reFrame version 4.0. This inner structure has been in development for over two years now. I had to put it on hold several times as there were mechanisms I couldn’t do without—the newer parts LEGO released over the last two years, specifically from the Ninjago and Monkie Kid themes. I also focused a bit on making my own reFrame-style redesign of the bigger mech sets, starting with the Hyouga which is a rebuild of Zane’s Titan 71738. The goal was to take the essence of the design but rebuild it in my own style and scale while still using the minifigure cockpit reFrame v4. The Hyouga used the medium version of my reFrame v4.

A look at the cockpit of Hyouga.

Body views of Oushiza.

Oushiza

I then moved on to creating the Oushiza, a rebuild and redesign of the Demon Bull King 80010 set. This build came about as I needed a sample design to test my heavy v4 reFrame. It was the perfect choice to rebuild, as the official set version had a wide shoulder design and a menacing bulky look.

Cockpit view.

skalmold The last of the v4 test designs is the Skalmold. This is essentially a rebuild of the reFrame v2 Skalmold into the light v4 reFrame. Emphasis for this build was to construct it as lightweight-looking as possible.

Cockpit view.

Other views of Skalmold.

reframe version 4

light

medium

heavy

The other v4 designs (in gray) are going to be included as sample designs for the upcoming reFrame v4 instruction manuals. I built them to be as basic in part usage as possible while still offering a solid looking design per weight category.

jacQueline Sanchez jewelry design

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Mechs come in all shapes and sizes, and tiny and cute ones are some of our favorite ones at BrickNerd! Defenders against nightmares for kids around the world, the teddy bear was the inspiration of this mechanized suit. Using a series of 1x2 rounded plates, clips and brackets, this poseable mech will be ready to stand guard against all the creepy crawlies out there. The rod-arms of the teddy bear allow for quite a few connections and some rotation, so they can be equipped with a variety of minifig accessories--our favorite was having the teddy bear mech play a gnarly guitar! And one last special note: a LEGO bunny can also be used in place of the teddy bear. Enjoy!

Parts List

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

Qty Part Color 1 98382p01.dat Md. Nougat

2 1 6

3024.dat 3900.dat 15712.dat

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

20482.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

24078.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

25893.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

26047.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

30377.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

35480.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

4 2 2

36840.dat 36841.dat 42446.dat

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

54200.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

60849.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

85861.dat

Lt Bluish Grey

Description Minifig Teddy Bear with Arms Down with Tan Belly and Muzzle and Black Nose and Eyes Pattern Plate 1 x 1 Minifig Signal Holder Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole Minifig Mechanical Cuboid Torso with Stud on Front Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle Below Plate 1 x 1 Round with Horizontal Handle on Side Minifig Mechanical Arm with Clips Parallel Plate 1 x 2 with Round Ends and 2 Open Studs Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Thin with Stud Hole Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Minifig Hose Nozzle with Side String Hole Simplified Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud

Teddy Mech Mech Design and Instructions by Simon Liu from BrickNerd

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BrickNerd is a LEGO fan website that was started by Tommy Williamson. Relaunched in 2021 by Dave Schefcik and some of the best LEGO builders in the world, the site continues the mission started by Tommy: to show the best of the LEGO fan community online with builds, interviews and articles. BrickJournal is proud to continue its partnership with BrickNerd.

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You Can Build It MINI Build

Rogue One: Erso Homestead MINI Diorama Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck

Hello everybody, I am glad to be back for an exciting building session with you. Today we want to go back to the opening scenes of the Star Wars spin-off film Rogue One. This movie holds plenty of new fantastic locations. We now try to catch the atmosphere of the first minutes where we see a menacing black Imperial shuttle landing on the almost black soils of the planet Lah’mu. There lies the homestead and farm of the Erso family. It consists of a couple of domes, out of which the largest one is dug into the ground and is surrounded by a large parabolic dish. This was actually the trickiest part of the environmental part of the diorama. The new 4x4 plates with curved 3x3 corner cutout (part number 35044) did the job. They created a rounded cut-out in the ground where a standard 6x6 dish was embedded upside-down. A studless tile on the lowest level provides the needed depth. Of course, a brand-new designed and sleek-looking shuttle is included! Although being a micro model, it is fully functional with its wings being able to fold-up freely from flight into landing position. Have fun building, and see you soon!

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

Homestead Qty Color 4 White 2 White 8 1 1 1

White White White White

2 1 1 2 1 2

White White White Black Green Black

Part 36841.dat 33286.dat

Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Down Brick 1 x 1 x 2/3 Round with Scala Base 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 43898.dat Dish 3 x 3 Inverted 3960.dat Dish 4 x 4 Inverted 44375a.dat Dish 6 x 6 Inverted with Hollow Studs 90540.dat Minifig Ski Pole 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3710.dat Plate 1 x 4

Qty Color 1 Green 2 Black 1 Black 1 Green 8 Black

Part 3020.dat 3795.dat 91988.dat 2450.dat 35044.dat

2 1 4 6 1

Black 3958.dat Black 3028.dat White 85984.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 98138.dat Black 20482.dat

4 1 4 4 4 2

White Black Black Green Black Green

24246.dat 6178.dat 43723.dat 43723.dat 41770.dat 41770.dat

Krennec’s Shuttle

Qty Color Part 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 36840.dat 2 Black 47905.dat 1 2

Black Black

3024.dat 61252.dat

Dark-Bluish-Gray 78257.dat

1 1 2 1 1 1

Black Trans-Light-Blue Black Black Black Black

54200.dat 54200.dat 85984.dat 60481.dat 78443.dat 78444.dat

Description Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 2 x 14 Plate 3 x 3 without Corner Plate 4 x 4 with 3 x 3 Quarter Circle Cutout Plate 6 x 6 Plate 6 x 12 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole Tile 1 x 1 with Rounded End Tile 6 x 12 with Studs on Edges Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 2 x 4 Left Wing 2 x 4 Left

Description Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Two Opposite Sides Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) Plate 1 x 1 with Handles on Opposite Ends Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Brick 65 2 x 1 x 2 Wing 2 x 6 Left Wing 2 x 6 Right

45 45

Building Minifig Customization 101:

Childhood Memories

Rich Hunter in minifigure form.

Article and Photography by Jared Burks

Robotech and all related characters and properties TM & © Tatsunoko Productions.

For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s your first introduction to anime was likely the space opera Robotech. Robotech as it was released in the United States in 1985 was a show adapted from three original and distinct Japanese anime television series. Yes, I wrote that correctly; three similar shows were merged into one, which may explain why the plotlines were somewhat confusing. The three shows making up Robotech are Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. In the Robotech series, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. This technology allowed Earth to develop transformable mecha to help fight off extraterrestrial invasions. For kids, it was full of action and had robot airplanes, which were simply cool. If you can actually track the various shows and how they fit together, you are a true fan and better than I. I simply remember the stunning art and the simplicity of design in the outfits. When I was told this issue featured Mecha designs, I immediately knew (after being nudged by a friend or two) who I needed to create for this article: Rick Hunter. Richard “Rick” Hunter at the start of the Macross Saga was an amateur stunt pilot; however, throughout his numerous appearances and mentions in primary sources, he quietly evolves into an Admiral of Earth’s last fleet, as he attempts to lead the liberation of Earth from numerous alien threats.

Rick Hunter first appears in Robotech: The Macross Saga. The show opens with him arriving as a visitor to Macross Island to watch the launching of the Super Dimensional Fortress One (SDF-1) and to visit his “big brother,” Roy Fokker. It is at this time that the Zentraedi forces attack, and the SDF-1 takes the island and its inhabitants of Macross City (including Rick) to the orbit of Pluto on the edge of the solar system. Rick manages to rescue and falls for a young girl named Lin Minmei during this time and the two become close, although this is not his final love interest. Against his initial motivations, Rick signs up with the Robotech Armed Forces, becoming an ace fighter pilot. It is this step that starts his life in the show and takes him all the way to the rank of admiral.

Rick Hunter reference art and figures.

For this custom figure of Rick Hunter, there are a few key points to creating him. First, this was 1980s animation; if you have seen the show, there are like five pictures of Rick in his fighter. They reused these same photos over and over again. They also used very simple character designs in order to simplify the animation of the characters. Rick’s fight suit features a vertical and symmetrical from the centerline (for the most part). This means drawing the art was fairly simple as it was mostly boxes and some triangles. I kept it this way because in the original show there were no wrinkle lines in his outfit. Also, I wanted this figure to look like it may fit in with most any 1980s LEGO figure, which is when LEGO was making Pirates. So I kept the design very simplified. The most dramatic/modern bit of the design is the face and eyebrows, as they are the most organic in design. Rick’s belt buckle is also a bit of a rounded shape, as is the buckle on the back of the harness straps. Most of the inspiration for the figure came from toys, as there were limited angles of the character shown in the original footage. This includes maybe only one scene of the back of the character. I kept it simple, used color blocking, and made everything look angular. While I created a visor in the face design, this ultimately was not used.

The biggest trick to the art is the ability to get the design on to the figure perfectly centered. Because of the symmetry, this is not simple, especially as there is a blue line that runs from the neck through the middle of the hips. If it isn’t centered, it will be very apparent. Luckily Chris Campbell at Geeky Ink Studios (https://geekyinkstudios.com/) was up to the challenge of not only getting this alignment perfect, but also the arm and side body stripe, which also featured complicated alignments. Thanks, Chris!

Minifigure printing template.

The secondary characteristic is the wristwatch-like devices that Rick wears on both wrists. While this is a simple bit, it is critical in making him look appropriate. I happen to have these on hand from the company MinifigCat (https://www.minifigcat.com/shop/Iron-Black_Watch-JA-168.html) and these are as perfect for this figure as one is going to find. On top of this, they are very inexpensive as far as aftermarket parts go. This also makes the figure look quite unique. The third and final characteristic is Rick’s helmet. I decided to go a bit rogue on this as I didn’t want to create a helmet that was too far from LEGO’s work, especially after keeping an ’80s look to the design. The crucial bit in trying to pull this off was working with what LEGO has created and only slightly modifying the LEGO helmet design. In order to do this, I took the top portion of Rick’s helmet and merged it with a modified LEGO visor. This allows for the attachment of this new portion to the LEGO helmet of choice. I created most of these alterations in Meshmixer which, while an old and no longer supported program, is pretty easy to use. I also altered the LEGO visor by using a cone to create a clip in the visor for the character’s nose. I think this worked fairly well. I then 3D printed this on my Epax X1 4k printer in white resin.

MinifigCat’s wristbands.

Helmet visor and sheath in Meshmixer.

This was not the final bit for this part, as it would need a stunning paint job. In order to paint this part, it needed a base coat of white paint; this was easily applied via a can of spray paint. From there it needed to be masked out. I have been wanting a project to test out my Tamiya Masking Tape that I got in multiple sizes (1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, 6 mm, and 10 mm). For this project I used the 1, 2, and 6 mm sizes, if I am properly recalling. I started by masking off the fins vertically and then wrapped around the outside. Most was done with the 2 mm size, but I did use a few bits of 1 mm. The key is to work slowly and make sure you are pressing the tape down well. After masking out the areas that needed to be painted red, I used my airbrush to quickly paint and dry this area. When paint is applied with an airbrush, you can use such thin layers that the air propelling the paint can also dry it nearly instantly. I simply applied several very thin layers, building up the red color. After the red was dry, I had to remove the masking and remask the part for the black visor, which was also painted using my airbrush. The key here was that I was not going to be able to mask off the parts where the two parts actually merge into one, and knew I would have to touch up these areas with a paint brush.

Base coat of white applied.

Masking tape.

Red paint applied.

Masking tape applied.

Red details painted.

Masking for black visor applied.

The helmet and its source: a collectible minifigure.

Black paint applied.

Masking tape removed.

The key here is I did that with the black paint, which will help hide the brush strokes. You likely can’t find where I had to clean up a touch. Now that this is painted, it really makes the figure when added to the LEGO blue football player’s helmet from the Collectible Minifigure series. Rick’s helmet has a few configurations, and the most frequent version is with an open bottom, so this helmet was used, but any LEGO helmet would work with this visor part that I created.

With this final part created, we can take this very simple art design and significantly elevate it with two custom elements: the watches from MinifigCat, and the visor I created for the helmet. While he does wear his helmet in the show, he is also commonly seen with his wild hairstyle, which is nicely replicated by an official LEGO hair piece. So I have him with and without helmet in the photos below.

Visor attached to helmet.

Rick Hunter minifigure with hairpiece and custom printing.

I hope this article inspires you to revisit those childhood shows that captivated you. I hope you can see some of the fun I had as a kid watching these shows I didn’t understand, and still likely don’t completely to this day, because three different independent shows were cut together to make one television series. All that said, the art, and just the novelty, captivated me, and I hope you enjoy the figure. You can see Jared’s webpage by going to http://www. fineclonier.com/ or scanning this QR code!

Rick Hunter minifigure with helmet.

Get Jared’s two books on minifig customizing! On sale:

5 each!

Galactic greetings! I’m Steven Smyth from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. Since the community’s founding in 2016, on an almost daily basis, I have witnessed amazing and creative Star Wars builds in the best Star Wars-themed building brick group on Facebook. Tobias Nieder took on the challenge of building the T-6 Jedi Shuttle from The Clone Wars and the final build looks simply beautiful. I thought it would be great to learn more about this talented builder and his custom LEGO build. Steven Smyth: How’s it going, Tobias? I know you have quite a following on your Brick Collective page and members of the Bantha Bricks group have been stunned by your T-6 Jedi Shuttle, among others, but for the uninitiated, please introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do.

jed T-6 shuttle

Tobias Nieder: I have been a LEGO fan since my dad thought it was a good idea to give me LEGO—a nerd, and of course fan of everything science-fiction and fantasy. I studied mechanical engineering and received my diploma in October 2020. I started doing MOCs (My Own Creation) in 2019 with my AT-ST. I just wanted to rebrick it, but thought there is so much space for an interior, so I did one. One thing led to another and I remodeled it completely. That was my very first MOC.

In summer of 2020, I got in contact with Sebastian from Brick Moon. Sebastian became a really good friend, and he was absolutely convinced about my abilities to make MOCs and motivated me to go further with MOC creation. Since I have finished my studies, finding employment during the pandemic is difficult. I did not want to live on the German unemployment system, so I decided to start The Brick Collective. What is The Brick Collective?

Tobias Neider’s

Jedi T-6 Shuttle

Article by Steven Smyth, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Tobias Neider

A kind of a joint company with Sebastian from Brick Moon and Stefan Fischer, who crafts great stickers. After some months of programming a website, learning about laws and regulations and several discussions about everything with both Sebastian and Stefan, The Brick Collective was born. Since January 2021, my daily routine is working on MOCs; not only my own, but also from different designers like Cavegod. I modify the MOCs for the best possible building experience and make instructions which are top quality. I am very picky with my own instructions and I want to provide the best possible quality under the name TBC. My studies help me a lot in this regard, especially when it comes to adding mechanics or electric components to models. A lot of working with a computer is involved, as well as sorting LEGO, testing, taking photos for social media, and a lot of organizing between Stefan, Sebastian and myself. That is really cool. So, is this business you started, The Brick Collective, doing well? The business is clearly not designed to get rich; for us, the most important person in this process is the designer. We want to give something back, so a monthly percentage of the gains go to the children’s cancer department of the local hospital, and an amount goes to Frank Averstegge from Bantha Bricks to use for the children’s cancer charity fundraiser he organizes.

That is fantastic! Thank you for supporting those causes! So, inquiring minds want to know, is Star Wars your favorite theme? Or do you have a shocker for us? Let me put it like this, Star Wars is one of my favorite themes. I have to admit it shares a place with Harry Potter, which I read twice a year since the book’s release. From an engineering perspective, Star Wars definitely has more fancy technical vessels and objects. On the other hand, Lord of the Rings is cool too, and I am playing pen and paper role-playing games such as Dark Eye, and I like Lovecraft. So if it is science-fiction or fantasy, I am in. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium to express yourself? Tough question. LEGO reminds me of the good times in my childhood. I love the way it teaches simple mechanics and the possibilities you have once you build custom models. For me it is not just making a model to sell its instructions. It is kind of an art. It is challenging to look at the details, of a ship for example, and wrap your head around it until you find a great solution and build it with LEGO. At the end of the day, I cannot give a clear answer to this one, I just know LEGO is great! It provides fun and happiness, brings people together, and teaches basic skills. We know the Star Wars fandom is enthralled with The Clones Wars TV show, with a completed final season, and now The Bad Batch airing. Did your love of the show drive you to build this shuttle—or what inspired you to tackle this ship? Now the shocker: Until now, I have not seen The Clone Wars nor The Bad Batch. The reason for the delay is I do not care for the animated style. I tried watching the series several times, but have a difficult time following it completely. The reason I started with T-6 Jedi Shuttle was that someone on Instagram asked me to do it. At first, I did not want to, but then I looked at the ship and saw its beautiful shape, which reminded me of a moon fish. As we all know, making round shapes with LEGO is not easy, so I was initially seeking to do it for the challenge. The first prototype model was completed in about twenty-four hours, and it turned out to not be stable. Can you tell us a bit about the construction; any special techniques you used? I had several challenges. First the shape, but that turned out to be easy. Second, the stability, which I could solve with the integrated stand. Third, the rotating engine and cockpit combination. With techniques, I tried every SNOT (Studs Not On Top) technique I was aware of. Since the wings consist completely of plates, I had to find a way to change the building direction as small as possible. I decided to use a combination of plates modified and bracket tiles to bring the end points together. The engine was tricky too. I wanted a smooth line of slopes, which is not easy since the normal slopes have a little shift. I used a combination of headlights and those plated slopes to solve this. The toughest part was the integration of the small Technic turntable. The engines are so heavy, a simple axle was not enough to hold the weight, so I decided to add a Technic turntable, and located it exactly in the middle. I used a weird combination of brackets, which is unstable

A look at the front of the shuttle.

Data File: Jedi T-6 Shuttle An unarmed transport used by the Jedi Order. An older design, it saw greater use during the Clone Wars. By the time of the early rebellion against the Galactic Emipire, the shuttle cockpit was used in the design of the B-wing starfighter. Source: Star Wars Wookieepedia

Star Wars and all related characters and properties TM & © Lucasfilm.

at first glance, but when everything is built, it is strong enough to hold the weight. In the end, the build is not easy, and it is a heavy model. The integrated stand was the only way to guarantee stability. But in my opinion, it is definitely one of the cleanest and best-looking models I have ever designed. What are your favorite design elements you created for the build? I would go for the engine because it is nearly symmetrical, and it shows best the capabilities of LEGO once one understands the mathematical pattern behind it. Except for the wedge plates on the wings, there are only sixteen studs visible, four which are necessary to hold the weight of the rear engine: one on each fin, and the other twelve are on the cockpit where I was not able to find a better solution. Did you freestyle build this or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first? I always use a computer program first. I learned working this way during my studies and it gives me more freedom and access to all possible parts. I honestly cannot imagine building physically first. I have so many ideas and creative energy, and when I order parts and must wait for them, I feel that energy leave. With digital building I can use trial and error, have all possible parts, and am able to do what I want, when I want. I often jump between different construction areas of a model. That means I do something on the fly, and then if I get an idea for another section, I jump back to those and so on. Of course, it is a matter of money at the end; physically having tons of parts to build with is expensive. Were there any moments in this build where you felt like, “Aww man, I’m stuck!” If so, how did you overcome that obstacle? On the first prototype, no. I was in a wonderful kind of flow of creativity and everything I tried turned out great. Later I had a strong feeling of something being wrong, and as it turned out, my test builder Xavier video conferenced me to show the issues with stability and the

model fell over the moment he touched it. Overcoming this challenge, I used trial and error and talked to my friends. It is not about getting a solution from someone else, it is just about talking to someone, explaining the problems, and I normally come up with a good solution while talking. Of course, the key is to never give up. I cannot accept a problem or struggle being mightier than me. What would be your advice to anyone looking to build a unique starship on their own? Patience and courage. There is no need to hurry and there is no need to fear something. Basically you cannot do anything wrong, there are always solutions to any problem. There is one thing I need for starting a model, and that is a good idea for a particular detail. If I look at a ship and can say, “Hey, I use these slopes to create the ship’s nose,” then I have a start and the rest of the ship will come to fruition. I think about scale at the beginning, and in my opinion minifigure scale just cuts down creativity because there are some details which are hard to design in a certain scale. If the person has a good idea for a detail, no matter the scale, they should definitely go for it. If you do not believe in yourself to complete the model, tell someone about it and maybe you will find a good solution together. Isn’t that why we all love LEGO and Star Wars?

The cockpit pod.

You have instructions available for people to follow along and build the amazing MOC you designed—how would our readers go about finding these and purchasing them? That is easy: www.brick-collective.com, is my own web shop for instructions, which contains my designs, the other designers I made instructions for, and some other brilliant builds and top quality instructions. One can also request the model as a building kit provided by Brick Moon, and you can get a matching display sticker. The cockpit pod in place.

The cockpit pod opened.

Any final things you would like to add? I want to thank Sebastian for his trust in me and my skills; he became not only a business partner, but also a good friend. I have to thank the interviewer, Steven Smyth, too, for not only the chance to do this, but also for the kind invitation to the Bantha Bricks group. That invitation gave this MOC business I started a whole new dimension, with exciting new possibilities like working on a model design with David Strenzler (Force of Bricks). I also want to add that sometimes I have the feeling that people think instructions for MOCs are too expensive— not speaking about the LEGO parts themselves—but I would ask everyone to think about the work and efforts that go behind creating building instructions. It is not just putting some bricks together and everything is good to go. It is hard work, and every designer puts in many hours to get to a point where a prototype can be built. It takes even more time to craft instructions into a final state where it can be sold. Salaries in the CAD construction industry, for example, would start laughing at what a MOC designer makes selling instructions for similar design work. So, in the end, every designer does this work for the LEGO building community, to make them happy and have fun building something LEGO does not offer. Please appreciate this work by purchasing the instructions from the original designers. Knock-off companies do not have a deal with the designer, and the theft of instructions hurts the entire community. Thank you for your consideration of this marketplace dilemma. To see more amazing builds, cool contests and giveaways and family-friendly discussion about everything Star Wars brick, check out the Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/starwarsLEGOgroup or banthabricks.com or scan the QR code here! A rear view with the engines swiveled.

MOC nameplate and minifigure.

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Connecting More Than Bricks Article and Photography by Geoff Vlcek

Inez’ Raffesia leonardi. Taylor Horowitz’s mosaic of Washington.

Blair Archer shows off his badges and his mask at Bricks Cascade 2022.

Connecting Elements LEGO bricks connect, but building with them actually does more than just connect together. Minifigs tell stories that can make us feel like we are inside a scene. Creating MOCs with all the possibilities that our imaginations can come up with, brings us together to see their story. Bricks connect to humans and make human connections easier and stronger. Recently I had the pleasure of attending Bricks Cascade 2022. While trying to find some MOCs to photograph and write about, I noticed how hard it was to just get some builders to talk about their projects, or where their inspiration came from. I also observed many builders sitting inside the tables and staying away from engaging with the crowds of people who were in awe of the amazing work they had done. I decided to watch other builders who were engaging with the public. They were completely comfortable answering questions and inspiring minds of all ages.

Another display at Bricks Cascade.

Brick builders come in all ages, all backgrounds, all colors, and all types of personalities. Those who are extroverts have no issue speaking about their MOCs with others. They might be humble about how great their work is, but enjoying what they’ve done is what art is all about. For the extrovert, building is trying to tell a story that resonates

Paul Hetherington’s Greased Lightning.

with the viewer. Introverts, on the other hand, might think their work should speak for itself and not need them to talk about it. Artists are all different, as are AFOLs. As a photographer and an AFOL, I feel all of this inside. Do I enjoy taking photos of MOCs? Sure! Do I want to know more about the stories that are being told at conventions? Of course! Do I want to interrupt someone who is sitting with their attention elsewhere? Not really. Will I go out of my way to ask questions if I want to know something? Well, being an extrovert, I enjoy hearing the story of inspiration or the tiny details that maybe not everyone would know to look for. How could I make a connection point for me, other builders, and other fans?

Making a Connection Point In 2015, I had been taking photos and posting about cool experiences I had been having getting to go behind the scenes at events, or going up into the rafters at sports stadiums. My fans were saying that they wanted to see these interesting places, but I am not a selfie-taker. Plus, how does it look taking a selfie sitting on the floor at a pro sports event? So I needed to come up with a way to connect with my followers, more than just through my images. One day, as I was on my way out the door to photograph a sports event, I noticed a stormtrooper minifig and a camera sitting on my dresser. I put them both into my pocket and on my way to the game, I decided to take some photos of this minifig taking photos at the game.

LEGO Geoff taking a photo of one of Nathan Sawaya’s sculptures. Brandon Jones photographing creations.

LEGO Geoff photographing a beautiful sunset.

While his full story hasn’t been fully explained before, it is very interesting to me how LEGO Geoff has connected me to people all over the world through his Instagram posts. A mom and her son met me inside a LEGO Store and heard the story of LEGO Geoff. Later that mom wrote to me and said her son said to her, “That adult is using his scratch brain.” She said that meant that I was creating from scratch. He got so inspired seeing an adult using their imagination! A few weeks later, a ten-year-old girl in Germany enjoyed the posts so much that she made her own LEGO Geoff minifig and named him LEGO Geoff in her posts. Later we chatted and she changed the name to LEGO Bunny. It was connecting with people and connecting me with those people all over the world! Over the next couple of years, I would get asked if I had LEGO Geoff with me and if they could see him or take a photo of him. To this day I still get asked about him. LEGO has a way of making people remember their childhood and want to enjoy a moment with another human. The look that slowly sweeps over a person’s face if they notice that I am taking a photo of him during a sunset or at a sports event... well, it is so much fun to see that recognition in their eyes.

You can see more of Geoff’s photography on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/ photos_by_geoff/ or by scanning the QR code! Thomas Clarkson’s fighter model. Ryan Van Duzor’s lionfish.

Bricks Cascade—that’s the name of the build!

Life-size Bathroom/Restroom by Erik Mattson.

Reaching and Connecting Back at Bricks Cascade 2022, I started asking attendees what inspired their MOCs, but some (most) artists are introverts, so getting information out of them can be difficult. I did learn about one of the builders who made a 1:1 human scale restroom mirror, cabinet, and corner wall. His name is Erik Mattson and he is creating a foundation focused on bringing art into less affluent neighborhoods and schools. You can find the Instagram page @subcultureaf to follow its progress. Then after the convention was over, I got up the courage to ask former LEGO Masters contestant Corey Samuels about diversity in the AFOL community. He stayed and talked to me for 20 minutes. I was truly inspired by him and all that he does to try to bring more representation and diversity into the LEGO community. The main project he showed me is found on Instagram @_ brick_alliance where they have great ways to get involved and participate. One never knows the people who can be connected together through a plastic brick made thousands of miles away. LEGO connects more than just bricks and pieces together. It also makes human connections stronger. Inspiration is all around and inside each of us. One just has to dig a little to find the parts that make the correct connections.

Corey D. Samuels - @samzbrego on Instagram.

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Event Report:

Living the Legacy 66

Not all things that happen unexpectedly turn out to be unwelcomed. For instance, when our country was drawn into the Covid-19 pandemic and people were rendered clueless about what to do and how to go about their lives, families became closer and more in touch with one another. The period of great uncertainty, when one may expect death to knock on his door at any moment, became an opportunity for families to look back together, and remember those whom they have lost in the past. This much we are able to do to ensure that memories of our lives on Earth will go on through the recollections of those we leave behind. We all want to be remembered. Even pre-historic men left drawings in their caves as a record of their history and culture, and to let people know that they have been here.

Our ancestors have left pieces of themselves in photographs, books and manuscripts, music, and other objects that they used, for their descendants to remember them with. Fernando Cueto Amorsolo, a painter, left his artworks, some ten thousand pieces of them, as his own legacy to his family and the Filipino people. And we remember him this year on the 50th anniversary of his proclamation as the first National Artist of the Philippines in Visual Arts. This, in essence, is the legacy of great art that PinoyLUG would like to preserve and extend to everyone who enjoys LEGO®. Project AMORsolo is perhaps the most significant display execution of PinoyLUG builders. Described as quaintly ambitious and revolutionary, PinoyLUG (a Filipino community of LEGO® users) considers the project as a passionate tribute to a great painter who expressed his love for country and its people through his works—leaving images of Philippine history, culture, and landscape, for future generations to remember their motherland with ardor. Transposing his works into LEGO® bricks mosaic was reliving the life of Amorsolo in the new millennium. The spirit of “Bayanihan”, the captivating beauty of the Filipina in “Dalagang Bukid”, the candor of our countrymen as “Early Traders” during the galleon trade are historical artifacts—none of which revealed themselves to the LEGO® building teams until the finished plates were put together to form the mosaics. This project, done with passion and resilience, is an embodiment of modern “Bayanihan”—of achieving one goal as a team. This is the story of PinoyLUG that future generations of LEGO® lovers would remember one day, when their turn comes to execute new ideas that will surpass and continue the legacy of their forebears. That legacy is propelled by our vision of cultural stimulation, social responsibility, and inclusivity. It is a legacy of sharing, building, and making new ideas come to life. That is how PinoyLUG would like to be remembered.

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To open the Project AMORsolo display, PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo gave the following speech. Magandang Hapon at Maraming Salamat po sa inyong lahat. Please allow me to tell you the story of Project AMORsolo. It all started with a dream. In 2017, when I was privileged to visit the LEGO® House in Billund, Denmark before it formally opened to the public, I was amazed by the awesome exhibits I saw there and was stunned beyond words. Each country chosen to participate in the exhibit had magnificent displays of their LEGO® creations, and I was filled with admiration and envy. How could we, still a fledgling, loose association of LEGO® enthusiasts trying to weave our way into the international arena, make the grade? We were not even the first LEGO® Users Group (LUG) to be recognized by the LEGO® Ambassadors Network (LAN). My own group, PinoyLUG was already a trailblazer in the toy community, but so were all the other much older LUGs of the world. And we were all just creating, building, innovating, and having fun. The dream was to have an awesome display from the Philippines that LEGO® fans all over the world would be talking about. It will be one that speaks of our historical legacy as a nation—a creation that reflects our traits as a people— generous and helpful, gracious and beautiful. We needed to be more—as the LEGO creed goes, “LEGO® beyond play. Beyond what it is known for.”

PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo, with one of the three mosaics built for Project AMORsolo, Dalagang Bukid.

Project AMORsolo:

From Canvas to Bricks Article and Photography by PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo

In 2021, during the desolate hours of a second pandemic lockdown, when everyone turned to family as a source of comfort, memories of my departed father came to haunt me. It was him, the source of my strength and inspiration, who has been driving me to achieve much more than I am able to accomplish. For him, I dedicated PinoyLUG’s BrickRunPh—a full range LEGO®- themed fun run with over 3,000 runners participating. It was the first of its kind to be produced and conducted by a LEGO® Users Group in Southeast Asia that was officially supported by LEGO®. Looking back at all the families during that fun run, I think I missed my dad more than I ever did since we lost him. Searching for mementos from my dad, in the same house where he and my grandparents and my great grandparents had lived before I was born, I found his collection of postcards with prints of Amorsolo’s paintings. Everyone in my father’s family was a fan of the great painter. When I was growing up, I would hear them talk about how the old man used to come and visit my great-grandparents, who were both painters like him. In fact, my great-grandmother was one of his students at UP. I guess my father had hopes that one of his children would be an artist inspired by Fernando Amorsolo. I looked at the prints on those postcards closely, and then the spark of an idea came to me. This was going to be PinoyLUG’s next big project, the biggest and most challenging one. My LEGO® family would work together to fulfill the dream, based on the legacy of a great Filipino artist. At PinoyLUG, we work together as one. Therefore, I am confident that the vision I have of continuing the legacy of Fernando Amorsolo is appreciated and shared by the group. In fact, we have made it happen. Each participant in Project AMORsolo has accomplished his mission with pride. Each piece of brick that they have put together are

PinoyLUG Ambassador Leslie Araujo’s great-grandfather looks over some Amorsolo postcards.

like fragments of the dream that I nurtured in Denmark and eagerly shared with them. Together, the pieces have reflected the images from the brushstrokes of the grand old dad. They are indeed Amorsolo come to life in LEGO® Bricks Mosaic! In doing this project, we are continuing to bridge the past with the present through the legacy of art that speaks of our history, patriotism, and cultural pride. And we are doing so with fun. Years from now, our children and those that follow after them would accomplish more—looking beyond what we have done today. That is the legacy that we at PinoyLUG would like to leave to our LEGO® families. Creativity and Change. To look beyond play, with remembrance, with love, and with pride. Looking at the brick mosaics of Amorsolo’s Early Traders, Dalagang Bukid, and Bayanihan—I am filled with pride at the amount of work and dedication that PinoyLUG teams have put there, and humbled by the magnanimous support that people have given to us. This is another manifestation of God’s goodness. He makes things happen in His time. I am deeply grateful to the Cultural Center of the Philippines for partnering with PinoyLUG on this project and opening a portal for the fulfillment of my dream, and to the Amorsolo Foundation for recognizing the merits of this project that hopes to promote and preserve the legacy of a great Filipino artist. I wanted to go back to the

postcards of my father and say a prayer of thanks. But for some strange reason, I could not find them anymore. It is as if the house that has kept them, our house—where Fernando Amorsolo had once visited and dined—just wanted me to discover them. If that was just a dream, then I am glad to have awakened and made it part of my LEGO® reality. We, at PinoyLUG, believe that we must build with passion and pride. As one of my colleagues wrote: “Build… and they will come!” and I say to him “Yes! But don’t forget to have Fun!” Maraming salamat po!

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The People of Project AMORsolo Project AMORsolo exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) from April 29–May 29, 2022 was the result of the combined efforts of PinoyLUG members, official in-country LEGO® distributors, and LEGO® hobbyists and enthusiasts from various sectors of the Filipino community.

Posing in front of “Dalagang Bukid” the LEGO® bricks mosaic of Fernando Amorsolo’s painting, are some of the moving forces behind the AMORsolo exhibit. Standing behind on extreme left is Noemi Gatarin-Dimaranan, Sr. Culture and Arts Officer (VAMD - CCP); with PinoyLUG President Leslie Araujo, and Eric Bautista, Official LEGO® Distributor in the Philippines, respectively on extreme right. Standing behind them is Michael John Ng Cha, who worked with Jefferson Herrera on framing and mounting the mosaics.

The team behind the Bayanihan mosaic.

Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo, (seated) daughter of the late famous painter Fernando C. Amorsolo, the first National Artist of the Philippines, is flanked by her immediate family in front of the LEGO® bricks mosaic that honors her father’s memory for today’s generation. (Standing from L-R: grandson Timothy L. Romero, daughter Winnie L. Romero, and son Fernando Amorsolo-Lazo)

The team behind the Early Traders mosaic.

The team behind the Dalagang Bukid mosaic.

Community

PinoyLUG:

Building with Passion and Pride!

The two towers. A closer look at one of the towers.

The acronym in PinoyLUG stands for “LEGO® User Group”—but perhaps only LEGO® enthusiasts would be aware of that. LUGs are informal hobby groups who share the same interest in LEGO® and meet at certain places to connect with each other and visit LEGO® exhibits and conventions, if there are any. Some LUGs formalize their group and establish regular meetings, where members can have more interactive activities as LEGO® hobbyists. There are only two RLUGs (Recognized LUGs) in the Philippines, and one of them is PinoyLUG. It started with a few core members back in 2014, and its numbers have grown steadily through the years, especially after it was recognized by the LEGO® group as part of its global network of RLUGs. Its founding President, Leslie Leshen Araujo, remembers the difficulty of holding the group together without a permanent meeting place: “We communicated mainly through Facebook group chats to plan sporadic meet-ups or visit LEGO® displays and other events.” But Leslie’s core group—an interesting array of professionals, office workers, lawyers, and college students—was determined to hang on. They decided that in order to pursue their interests and build bigger ideas for their displays, they would apply to become an RLUG and be a part of an official program for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO®). This required them to have a representative or an “Ambassador” from their LUG, and Leslie was voted for the job. He became the first Asian AFOL of the LEGO® Ambassador Network (LAN) to set foot in the House of Bricks in Billund, Denmark. Leslie looks back with a smile. “I was reluctant to lead the group; I had no idea and little knowledge on how to run it. I agreed to do it only for a year, but going to Billund was a truly remarkable feeling and an honor.” One of the first things he did was to name their group. PinoyLUG was chosen because it sounded friendly and described who they were—proudly Pinoy with a passion for LEGO. From the beginning, PinoyLUG would be a fun group—vibrant, inclusive, and transparent. Everyone would be open to suggestions, share ideas, and work as a team. “We put our heads together to plan our next display—putting aside our own personal interests and always considering the ultimate goal of the group. I planned to stay only for a year. And now we are going on our eighth. We are doing our biggest and most significant display yet.” Today, PinoyLUG is known in the toy community as trailblazers. They are a strong, innovative, and very creative force, always making sure that their displays are presented in a unique and amazing way for better appreciation. They have regular displays at ToyConPh, and several big pop-culture conventions. They also conduct movie screenings and produce fun videos and promo reviews.

PinoyLUG also earned a reputation for producing larger-than-life events with an international feel to them. “Bricktober” is an annual all-LEGO® event to celebrate and commemorate their anniversary as an RLUG. They even held one at SMX convention center, a solo feat that no other LEGO/Brick related group had ever done locally at that time. They also organized “BrickRunPh”, the first full range LEGO® themed Fun Run ever conducted by an RLUG in Southeast Asia, which gathered 3,000 runners— officially supported by LEGO®. Social Responsibility is also high on the agenda of PinoyLUG. It is considered as a special mission set by The LEGO® Group (TLG), for every LUG all over the world. PinoyLUG does its share annually. It has collaborated with various organizations like CHILD Haus, World Vision, Association De Damas Filipinas, Inc. in conducting programs focused on children, instilling in them the aspiration to become future builders of tomorrow. The group also supports religious organizations and shelters as its way of giving back to others for all the successes they have been blessed with. With PinoyLUG representing the Philippines, in LEGO® exhibits or Toy Conventions, the best display could come from anyone, and PinoyLUG strives to do its best according to what the group deems best. The group has envisioned its numbers to grow by encouraging its members to push the boundaries of what they can do in order to reach greater heights. In doing LEGO® together, everyone is guided by the values the group places on creativity, camaraderie, inclusivity, and social responsibility. To them, every member is important and plays a key role in building. They are like LEGO® interlocking bricks held tightly together and collectively connected. No brick is too small, or too big. They all represent a structure that looks beautiful, strong, and resilient.

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LEGO® photography with Toy Photographers Blog founder SHELLY CORBETT, and photographers ASTRID HEYLAND, NATASJA VOS, and MARCO ZANCONI offer their favorite tips and tricks to make your creations look great! Plus, STEVEN SMYTH’s Star Wars builds, instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

BRICKJOURNAL #66

LEGO® brick-built Edwards Island by DALE HARRIS of HarrisBricks! The hot rods of PAUL SLUITERS! Rocket to outer space with SCOTT BOWMAN and JOE CHAMBERS’ Space Shuttle Discovery set! Plus, Star Wars builds with STEVEN SMYTH of Bantha Bricks, BrickNerd, step-by-step building instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

Starship builders NICK TROTTA and ATTILA GALLIK, TIM GODDARD’s space builds which have been featured online and showcased in the book LEGO Space: Building the Future, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, “AFOLs” by Greg Hyland, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, and more!

ALICE FINCH’s art/architectural models, the WOMEN’S BRICK INITIATIVE and the BRICK ALLIANCE (bringing more builders to the community), the WOMEN OF PHILIPPINES LUG (LEGO Users Group) and their creations, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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BrickJournal celebrates the holidays with acclaimed brick sculptor ZIO CHAO, takes a offbeat look at Christmas with our minifigure customizer/columnist JARED K. BURKS, and decks the halls with the holiday creations of KOEN ZWANENBURG! Plus: “AFOLs” by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

Classic LEGO themes re-imagined! PIET NIEDERHAUSEN’s creations based on the Classic Yellow Castle, CHRIS GIDDENS (originator of Neo-Classic Space theme), and tour the Masterpiece Gallery at Denmark’s LEGO House! Plus: “Bricks in the Middle” by HINKLE and KAY, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

UNDERSEA LEGO BUILDING! RYAN VAN DUZOR’s Coral Reef, the many creations of COLIN HEMMEN’s Brickiverse, plus a look at JOHN KLAPHEKE’s scenes from the Indiana Jones movies! Also: “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO TRAINS! CALE LEIPHART’s Blue Comet, GLENN HOLLAND introduces us to the L-Gauge Modular Building Standard, a look at PennLUG’s Train Roundhouse, and many other train-related surprises! Plus a “Bricks in the Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO FIGURE BUILDING! JAE WON LEE’s historical and legendary characters, EERO OKKONEN’s stunning mythic figures, ANDREA (“Norton74”) LATTANZIO’s new ultra-realistic builds (including classic food stands and gas stations), “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

BRICKJOURNAL #60

BRICKJOURNAL #59

BRICKJOURNAL #58

BRICKJOURNAL #57

BRICKJOURNAL #56

MYSTERIOUS, SPOOKY LEGO BUILDING! FLYNN DeMARCO’s motorized Treasure of the Snake Queen, Laika’s MISSING LINK by HOLLY WEBSTER, STACY STERLING’s HAUNTED MANSION, “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

STAR WARSTM THEMED BUILDERS! Travel to a galaxy far, far away with JACOB NEIL CARPENTER’S DEATH STAR, the galactic work of MIRI DUDAS, and the LEGO® Star Wars-inspired photography of JAMES PHILIPPART! Plus “You Can Build It” instructions, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LEGO WARBIRDS, PAST AND PRESENT! JEFF CHERRY’S WWII and modern fighters (P-51 Mustang and F-14 Tomcat), RALPH SAVELSBURG’S BrickJournal exclusive X-plane, MICHAEL BROWN’S F-14 Tomcat “Vandy One”, step-by-step LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

MICROSCALE LEGO BUILDING! Tour WAYNE TYLER’S National Mall (Washington, DC) layout, skyscrapers from ROCCO BUTTLIERE, BLAKE FOSTER’s Ugly Duckling spaceship, step-by-step “You Can Build It” LEGO instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art with TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

LIFE-SIZE LEGO and what it takes to build them (besides a ton of LEGO brick)! HELEN SHAM’s sculptures of giant everyday items, MAGNUS LAUGHLO’s GI Joe®-inspired models, military builds by ERIC ONG, plus “Bricks In The Middle” comic by KEVIN HINKLE, “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

BRICKJOURNAL #55

BRICKJOURNAL #54

BRICKJOURNAL #53

BRICKJOURNAL #52

BRICKJOURNAL #51

LEGO HEADS & TAILS: FELIX JAENSCH’s remarkable LEGO sculptures, from realistic animals to the human skull and amazing face masks! BRYAN BENSON’s detailed Kermorvan Lighthouse and how he built it from LEGO bricks. A spectacular Winter layout by DAVE SCHEFCIK! Plus: Minifigure customizing, step-by-step instructions, BrickNerd, & more!

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: HSINWEI CHI and his revolutionary LEGO animals and giant robots! We also declassify other top LEGO builders’ creations, including MICHAEL BROWN’s Technic-scale F-18 Hornet! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

TYLER CLITES and SEAN MAYO show you LEGO hacks to twink and juice your creations! Also, see big bad game-inspired models by BARON VON BRUNK, and Pokemon-inspired models by LI LI! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

Russian builder TIMOFEY TKACHEV, plus what it takes to become a LEGO Certified Professional (an elite group of builders officially recognized by LEGO), with New York’s SEAN KENNEY and Australian RYAN McNAUGHT! Also: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

STEAMPUNK, with builder GUY HIMBER! PAUL HETHERINGTON talks about his cover model “Unchain My Heart,” ROD GILLIES’ latest Steampunk work, and a look at the creations of other top Steampunk builders! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

NOW ON SALE! BRICKJOURNAL’S ACCLAIMED BOOKS FOR LEGO FANS!

BRICKJOURNAL #50

MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION 1 & 2

YOU CAN BUILD IT, BOOK 1 and BOOK 2

DOUBLE-SIZE BOOK! JOE MENO discusses the beginnings of BrickJournal, LEGO Group’s TORMOD ASKILDSEN interviewed, fan community growth over 10 years, and the best builders of the past 50 issues! Plus: Minifigure customizing with JARED K. BURKS, instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

JARED K. BURKS shares his knowledge of the techniques he uses to alter the lovable LEGO® Minifigure into any character you can imagine! With step-by-step tutorials on decal design and application; color alteration; custom part modification and creation; plus tips on minifigure displays and digital photography to capture your custom figures in the best light! Book 2 features advanced techniques on virtual customization; designing decals and advanced decal application; custom part modification and creation; 3-D printing; advanced painting techniques; lighting figures with LEDs or EL wire; tips on minifigure displays; and a Gallery from top customizers, with their best tricks and tips!

From the producers of BRICKJOURNAL MAGAZINE comes a new series of books, compiling STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS by the LEGO fan community’s top custom builders! BOOK ONE is for beginning-to-intermediate builders, and features instructions for LEGO creations from a fire engine and Christmas ornaments to miniscale models from a galaxy far, far away! BOOK TWO is for intermediate-to-advanced builders, with more detailed projects to tackle, from a miniscale yellow castle and miniland people, to a mini USS Constitution! Together, these books take you from novice to expert builder, teaching you key building techniques along the way!

(144-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $17.95 NOW ONLY $10 (Digital Edition) $8.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR trade paperback) $10.95 NOW ONLY $5 each (Digital Editions) $4.99 each

(84-page FULL-COLOR trade paperbacks) $9.95 NOW ONLY $5 each (Digital Editions) $4.99 each

BRICKJOURNAL #49

BRICKJOURNAL #48

BRICKJOURNAL #47

BRICKJOURNAL #46

BRICKJOURNAL #45

40th ANNIVERSARY OF LEGO TECHNIC! GEOFF GRAY explores Technic history, JOE MENO interviews former LEGO Set Designer SØREN HOLM about the classic Technic Space Shuttle, MICHAEL BROWN shows off his Technic-scale AH-64, and more! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

THE WORLD OF LEGO MECHA! Learn the secrets and tricks of building mechs with some of the best mecca builders in the world! Interviews with BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, FREDDY TAM, DAVID LIU, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

LEGO GOES UNDERSEA! Builder MITSURU NIKAIDO shows us his undersea creatures and organic builds! Then jump aboard MARCELLO DeCICCO’s minifigure-scale warships! And see amazing architectural creations by PEDRO NASCIMENTO! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

LEGO TRAINS! Spotlight on train builder CALE LEIPHART, a look at the train layouts and models from the PENNSYLVANIA LEGO Users Group (PENNLug), BRICK MODEL RAILROADER (a new LEGO Train fan website that launched this year), and more locomotive action! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

FEMALE LEGO BUILDERS! US Architectural builder ANURADHA PEHRSON, British Microscale builder FERNANDA RIMINI, US Bionicle builder BREANN SLEDGE, and Norwegian Town builder BIRGITTE JONSGARD discuss their work and inspirations! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #44

BRICKJOURNAL #43

BRICKJOURNAL #42

BRICKJOURNAL #41

BRICKJOURNAL #40

THEME PARK ISSUE! ERIK JONES’ custom LEGO version of Cinderella Castle, STÉPHANE DELY’s Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle, and JOHN RUDY’s brick-built versions of your favorite theme park rides! Plus: Step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons and more!

LEGO GAMING! IMAGINE RIGNEY’s Bioshock builds, NICK JENSEN’s characters and props from HALO and other video games, and GamerLUG member SIMON LIU builds LEGO versions of video game characters, spaceships and more! Plus: “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, MINDSTORMS robotics and more!

LEGO EDUCATION! See how schools and AFOLs build with the new WeDo, FIRST LEGO LEAGUE’s 2016 season explored (with national competitions at LEGOLand California), and robotics builders the Seshan Brothers take LEGO MINDSTORMS to the next level! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, & more!

OUT OF THIS WORLD LEGO! Spacethemed LEGO creations of LIA CHAN, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Orion space plane by NICK DEAN, and Pre-Classic Space builder CHRIS GIDDENS! Plus: Orbit the LEGO community with JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

LEGO MECHA! Build giant robots and mechs with BENJAMIN CHEH MING HANN and KELVIN LOW, and SETH HIGGINS shows us his amazing transforming LEGO robots! And even cyborgs love Minifig Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #39

BRICKJOURNAL #38

BRICKJOURNAL #37

BRICKJOURNAL #36

BRICKJOURNAL #35

LEGO DINOSAURS! Builder WILLIAM PUGH discusses building prehistoric creatures, a LEGO Jurassic World by DIEGO MAXIMINO PRIETO ALVAREZ, and dino bones by MATT SAILORS! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons, and more!

LEGO COOL CARS AND HOT RODS! LEGO car builders STEPHAN SANDER, JORDANIAN FIRAS ABU-JABER, and ANDREA LATTANZIO! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd Pop Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

STAR WARS! Amazing custom ships by ERIC DRUON, incredible galactic layouts by builder AC PIN, a look at the many droid creations built by LEGO fans—truly, the LEGO Force has awakened! Plus JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

MICROSCALE BUILDING! JUSTIN McMILLAN’s micro house, a look at the MICROSCALE Standard by TwinLUG, and featuring some of the best microscopic LEGO work from around the world, plus JARED K. BURKS’ minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

HISTORY IN LEGO BRICKS! LEGO pro RYAN McNAUGHT on his LEGO Pompeii and other projects, military builder DAN SISKIND on his BrickMania creations, and LASSE VESTERGARD about his historical building, JARED K. BURKS on minifigure customizing, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #34

BRICKJOURNAL #33

BRICKJOURNAL #32

BRICKJOURNAL #31

BRICKJOURNAL #30

TOMMY WILLIAMSON on the making of his YouTube sensation BATMAN VS SUPERMAN, BRANDON GRIFFITH’S COMICBRICKS PROJECT recreates iconic comic book covers out of LEGO, JARED BURKS and his custom Agents of SHIELD minifigs, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons by DAMIEN KEE, and more!

LEGO ROBOTS! A talk with MINDSTORMS EV3 builders MARC-ANDRE BAZERGUI and ANDY MILLUZZI, designer LEE MAGPILI, CHRIS GIDDENS with his amazing robot sculptures, plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, other looks at MINDSTORMS building, and more!

LEGO ARTISTRY with builder/photographer CHRIS McVEIGH; mosaic builders BRIAN KORTE, DAVE WARE and DAVE SHADDIX; and sculptors SEAN KENNEY (about his nature models) and ED DIMENT (about a full-size bus stop built with LEGO bricks)! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, MINDSTORMS building, and more!

Building LEGO bricks WITH character, with IAIN HEATH and TOMMY WILLIAMSON, Manga-inspired creations of MIKE DUNG, sculptures by Taiwanese Brick Artist YO YO CHEN, Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS building, and more!

LEGO ARCHITECTURE with JONATHAN LOPES, a microscale model of Copenhagen by ULRIK HANSEN, and a look at the LEGO MUSEUM being constructed in Denmark! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS building with DAMIEN KEE, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

BRICKJOURNAL #29

BRICKJOURNAL #28

BRICKJOURNAL #27

BRICKJOURNAL #26

BRICKJOURNAL #25

Technic hot rod builder PAUL BORATKO and editor JOE MENO diagram instructions on adding functions to your models, shop-talk with LEGO Technic designers, and more surprises to keep your creations moving at top speed! Plus Minifigure Customization by JARED BURKS, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd DIY Fan Art by TOMMY WILLIAMSON, and more!

Learn what went into the making of The LEGO Movie and other brickfilms with moviemaker DAVID PAGANO, chat with brickfilmers The Brotherhood Workshop, sit in on a talk with the makers of LEGO: A Brickumentary, a look at MINDSTORMS building, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

GUY HIMBER takes you to the IRON BUILDER CONTEST, which showcases the top LEGO® builders in the world! Cover by LEGO magazine and comic artist PAUL LEE, amazing custom models by LINO MARTINS, TYLER CLITES, BRUCE LOWELL, COLE BLAQ and others, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, & more!

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL with builders SEAN and STEPHANIE MAYO (known online as Siercon and Coral), other custom animal models from BrickJournal editor JOE MENO, LEGO DINOSAURS with WILL PUGH, plus more minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

MEDIEVAL CASTLE BUILDING! Top LEGO® Castle builders present their creations, including BOB CARNEY’s amazingly detailed model of Neuschwanstein Castle, plus others, along with articles on building and detailing castles of your own! Also: JARED BURKS on minifigure customization, AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

TwoMorrows TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

BRICKJOURNAL #24

BRICKJOURNAL #23

BRICKJOURNAL #22

BRICKJOURNAL #21

LEGO TRAINS! Builder CALE LEIPHART shows how to get started building trains and train layouts, with instructions on building microscale trains by editor JOE MENO, building layouts with the members of the Pennsylvania LEGO Users Group (PennLUG), fan-built LEGO monorails minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, microscale building by CHRISTOPHER DECK, “You Can Build It”, and more!

STAR WARS issue, with custom creations from a long time ago and far, far away! JACOB CARPENTER’s Imperial Star Destroyer, MARK KELSO’s Invisible Hand, interview with SIMON MACDONALD about building Star Wars costume props with LEGO elements, history of the LEGO X-Wing, plus our regular features on minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

LEGO PLANE BUILDING! Top builder RALPH SAVELSBERG takes off with his custom LEGO fighter models, there’s a squadron of articles on Sky-Fi planes by FRADEL GONZALES and COLE MARTIN, find instructions to build a Sky-Fi plane, plus our regular feature on minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, other step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions, and more!

LEGO CAR BUILDING! Guest editors LINO MARTINS and NATHAN PROUDLOVE of LUGNuts share secrets behind their LEGO car creations, and present TECHNIC SUPERCAR MODELS by PAUL BORATKO III and other top builders! Plus custom instructions by TIM GOULD and CHRISTOPHER DECK, minifigure customization by JARED BURKS, step-by-step “You Can Build It” section, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $3.00 (Digital Edition) $2.99

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LEGO®, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. BrickJournal is not affiliated with The LEGO Group. All characters shown are TM & © their respective owners.

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Artwork will be a black & white ink drawing on 11”x17” comic book illustration board. Art will include paste-up cover copy, logos, and trade dress. Email greg@lethargiclad.com for |NCREDIBLE HULK #181 information on pricing and timeframe.

Last Word And issue #75(!) is done! For me, it’s Easter weekend, and Tax weekend, so I will be busy. By the time you get this, there will have been more sets released (such as the Lightyear sets, which I am looking forward to). There’s more and more things coming out; it’s hard to keep up, especially financially. The LEGO Group has started focusing on adult builders, which is a nice thing to happen to the community—but it also means spending more for these higher-end sets. There is a market for a model of the Titanic, apparently. There’s also a market for builders. Many new people joined the hobby through building sets and MOCs. With events now coming back, there will be more new things and people than ever before. I welcome them and their energy. And I welcome and invite you to go to an event as a visitor or attendee. See and be inspired by the builds and people there. And if I am there, say hi! Build on! That Joe Meno Guy Hi Cody!

Classics

RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, TwoMorrows’ new magazine is just for you! Editor MICHAEL EURY (author of numerous books on pop culture, former editor for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, and editor of TwoMorrows’ Eisner Award-winning BACK ISSUE magazine for comic book fans) has assembled an unbeatable roster of regular and rotating Celebrity Columnists to cover the pop culture you grew up with: • ANDY MANGELS (best-selling sci-fi author and award-winning pop culture historian) • ERNEST FARINO (Emmy Award-winning visual effects designer, animator, and director) • SCOTT SHAW! (acclaimed cartoonist, animator, Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, and historian) • WILL MURRAY (pulp adventure novelist and pop culture historian) • SCOTT SAAVEDRA (graphic designer, cartoonist, and COMIC BOOK HEAVEN creator) • MARK VOGER (renowned pop culture newspaper columnist and book author), and others!

RETROFAN #21

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

RETROFAN #24

RETROFAN #25

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features! Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Aug. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2023

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #18

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

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ALTER EGO #177

KIRBY COLLECTOR #84

BACK ISSUE #138

BACK ISSUE #139

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #29

STEVE SHERMAN TRIBUTE! Kirby family members, friends, comics creators, and the entertainment industry salute Jack’s assistant (and puppeteer on Men in Black, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and others). MARK EVANIER and Steve recall assisting Kirby, Steve discusses Jack’s Speak-Out Series, Kirby memorabilia from his collection, an interview with wife DIANA MERCER, and Steve’s unseen 1974 KIRBY/ROYER cover!

CLASSIC HEROES IN THE BRONZE AGE! The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Zorro and Lady Rawhide, Son of Tomahawk, Jungle Twins, and more! Featuring the work of DAN JURGENS, JOE R. LANSDALE, DON McGREGOR, FRANK THORNE, TIM TRUMAN, GEORGE WILDMAN, THOMAS YEATES, and other creators. With a classic 1979 fully painted Gold Key cover of Flash Gordon.

NOT-READY-FOR-PRIMETIME MARVEL HEROES! Mighty Marvel’s Bronze Age second bananas: Doc Samson, Jack of Hearts, Thundra, Nighthawk, Starfox, Modred the Mystic, Woodgod, the Shroud, Thunderbird and Warpath, Stingray, Wundaar, and others! Featuring the work of BUSIEK, DAVID, ENGLEHART, GERBER, GIFFEN, GRANT, MANTLO, MICHELINIE, STERN, THOMAS, and other A-list talent!

DON McGREGOR retrospective, from early ’70s Warren Publications scripter to his breakout work at Marvel Comics on BLACK PANTHER, KILLRAVEN, SABRE, DETECTIVES INC., RAGAMUFFINS, and others. Plus ROBERT MENZIES looks at HERB TRIMPE’s mid-’70s UK visit to work on Marvel’s British comics weeklies, MIKE GOLD Part Two, and CARtoons cartoonist SHAWN KERRIE! SANDY PLUNKETT cover!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships August 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Summer 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Sept. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2022

THE LIFE & ART OF

JOHN SEVERIN

OUR ARTISTS AT WAR

AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS

Celebration of veteran artist DON PERLIN—artist of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, THE DEFENDERS, GHOST RIDER, MOON KNIGHT, 1950s horror, and just about every other adventure genre under the fourcolor sun! Plus Golden Age artist MARCIA SNYDER—Marvel’s early variant covers— Marvelmania club and fanzine—FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Cracked Mazagine, & more!

Follows his career from fandom to redesigning the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and his introduction of X-MEN characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird (plus his design of Wolverine’s alter ego, Logan). Includes later work on THE FUTURIANS, unused character designs, and other rare material! Written by GLEN CADIGAN with introduction by ALEX ROSS. (160-page COLOR softcover) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 Now shipping!

TWO-FISTED COMIC BOOK ARTIST

A spirited biography of EC Comics mainstay (with HARVEY KURTZMAN on Mad and Two-Fisted Tales) and co-creator of Western strip American Eagle. Covers his 40+ year association with Cracked magazine, his pivotal Marvel Comics work inking HERB TRIMPE on The Hulk & teaming with sister MARIE SEVERIN on King Kull, and more! By GREG BIGA and JON B. COOKE. (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

2022

Print subscribers get the digital edition free!

Alter Ego (Six print issues) Back Issue (Eight print issues) BrickJournal (Six print issues) Comic Book Creator (Four print issues) Jack Kirby Collector (Four print issues) RetroFan (Six print issues)

Examines US War comics: EC COMICS (Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat), DC COMICS (Enemy Ace, All American Men of War, G.I. Combat, Our Fighting Forces, Our Army at War, Star-Spangled War Stories), WARREN PUBLISHING (Blazing Combat), CHARLTON (Willy Schultz and the Iron Corporal) and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others! By RICHARD ARNDT and STEVEN FEARS, with an introduction by ROY THOMAS.

PETER BOSCH’s history of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades, from well-known series (STAR TREK, THE MUNSTERS) to lesserknown shows (CAPTAIN GALLANT, PINKY LEE). With profiles of artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and more!

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99

ECONOMY US

(1940s-1980s)

PREMIUM US

CBA BULLPEN

Collects all seven issues of JON B. COOKE’s little-seen fanzine, published just after the original COMIC BOOK ARTIST ended its TwoMorrows run in 2003. Interviews with GEORGE TUSKA, FRED HEMBECK, TERRY BEATTY, and FRANK BOLLE, an all-star tribute to JACK ABEL, a new feature on JACK KIRBY’s unknown 1960 baseball card art, and a 16-page full-color section! (176-page TRADE PAPERBACK with COLOR) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $8.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-105-9 Now shipping!

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

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