BrickJournal #81 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Issue 81 • September/October 2023

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Building Ellis City

Grogu, The Mandalorian TM & © Lucasfilm.

Other Cities: New Hashima Sector 08 by Stefan Formentano Fabuland City by Steven Lauglin

Custom Yellow Convertible build, Grogu minifigure, & more! TM

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Issue 81 • September/October 2023

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

People Steve Laughlin’s Fabuland!.............................3 John Bucy: Building a Landmark Display..................10 From an Idea to a Set: Creating an A-Frame...................................17

Building

Gareth and Catherine Ellis’ Town Trolley Layout.....................................24 Building New Hashima Sector 08............30 Sky Lofts...............................................................38 BrickNerd Instructions: Yellow Convertible.......................................48 Minifigure Customization 101: Bad Baby!..........................................................54 You Can Build It: Lolthal City MINI Diorama........................60

Community

Bantha Bricks: Joachim Klang - Building Star Wars and more!.........................................................68 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Classic AFOLs.....................................................80

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From the Editor: Hi! There’s some City stuff in this issue, but not the normal fare:

September/October 2023 Issue 81

• We take a look at a Fabuland city, thanks to Steven Laughlin.

Publisher John Morrow

• We get to see a current town (or maybe a little older) thanks to Gareth and Catherine Ellis.

Editor in Chief Joe Meno BrickNerd and Assistant Editor Dave Schefcik Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow

Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon

Bantha Bricks Correspondent Steven Smyth

Contributors: Frank Averstegge, Jared Burks, John Bucy, Christopher Deck, Gareth Ellis, Catherine Ellis, Brian Everett, Stefan Formentano, Jon Knoy, Andrea Lattanzio, Steven Laughlin, David Strenzler, Michael Willhoit, Jordan Wolfman, and Greg Hyland. 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: Night falls on the layout built by the Ellis family. Photo by Gareth Ellis About the Contents: An overhead view of New Hashima. Photo by Jordan Wolfman.

• And we take a look at a future city, thanks to Stefan Formentano and Michael Willhoit. There’s also the regular columns from BrickNerd, Jared Burks, and Christopher Deck showing builds and mods—a little of everything, which I like, and I hope you do, too. So sit down in your favorite chair and take a look as what’s inside. And also take a look at all the lit layouts! Enjoy! 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. 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. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader!

Website

Twitter

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)

Facebook

Subscriptions

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 81, September/October 2023 (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: $73 US, $111 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only, and can be purchased at 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. Star Wars, The Mandalorian TM & © Lucasfilm. All articles, photos, and art © BrickJournal Media, LLC, 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

Steven Laughlin’s Fabuland layout.

For most LEGO fans the Fabuland theme is something of a hidden theme. Lasting only a few years, Fabuland only produced a few sets, and had figures of a different scale than the much more popular minifigure scale. With the rarity of sets and figures, Fabuland creations are hard to come by. When they do show up, they quickly get attention with their cute and colorful characters. Steven Laughlin built a layout with that theme. Dubbed Fabuland City, this layout is a combination of almost all of the Fabuland sets produced, and a celebration of the theme. He talked with BrickJournal about his building and his award-winning creation.

Steven Laughlin’s

Fabuland! Article and photography by Steven Laughlin

Steven is a life-long builder, having started in the late 1970s when he was an eight-year-old kid. His first set was the Moon Lander (546). He also had a motor set that went back and forth, and had a Technic motor chassis that came shortly thereafter. His dad helped him put most of it together, but Steven did a lot of the early stuff. Back then, he built Classic Space, which became his deep dive in LEGO building. His birthday and Christmas gifts for a number of years were Classic Space—that was pretty much where it was at for Steven. His brother was into castles and got Castle sets, and they had the Classic Space guys invade the castle at some point. Sets would be built, then torn down to create the alternate builds on the set boxes, or make something to invade the castles with. Steven had a break in building in his late teens—not a true Dark Age where he stopped building completely, but a Dim Age. He still got a set or two every so often, but he wasn’t building as much. He got back into building when he started looking for a LEGO convention in Texas. He had seen conventions around the country, so he did a Google search and found Brick Fiesta (now Brick Rodeo), a LEGO fan convention that was held in Austin. This became his first convention in 2015, and it opened his eyes to what someone could build with LEGO—one could do much more than just

A courtyard on the layout.

The set that started Steven’s layout idea—on the ground in the hangar. A view of the airfield in the layout.

Another view of the layout.

the set and the alternate builds. One could do really imaginative work with all the LEGO bricks they had, right? So at that point, he was thrown into the deep end of the pool and really started seeing what could be done right with LEGO, other than just the basic elements. Another factor played into his now growing building skills. Having been an engineer (first aerospace, then mechanical), and being a Classic Space fan, he was always leaning toward building air- and space-oriented models. Looking through some images, Steven spotted a LEGO sport plane, and was immediately smitten with it—he had been collecting parts, and the plane led him to think about an airfield and plane races. The plane set was 3630, a Fabuland set with Percy Pilot. Looking for the set, Steven went to Bricklink and later found it as part of a good bundle on eBay, which included another set. That set was a Country Cottage (set 3654), but there was also a poster from a series of books related to Fabuland that LEGO released in the 1980s.

A section of the layout with the poster that became a loose map of the project. A corner cottage.

The poster folded out to show what looked like one of the early marketing designs, showing all of the different sets laid out in a city layout. The art was hand-drawn and with many of the early sets, so he thought that the layout would be a cool subject to build. He started gathering parts in 2019, and then the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. During that time, Steven kept on collecting and looking for elements and parts. By this point, he was starting to think about building more than what was on the poster. He wanted to build a zoo and a proper airfield and add an oceanside with a sea wall. The poster became a starting point for a lot more. After three years of acquiring sets and parts, Steven started designing the layout. While the poster was a starting point, he wanted the layout to not be flat and stagnant. He wanted a layout that really fleshed out the poster design to show its very best. It took a year to plan, while getting more elements—and finally, six months of building to complete the layout. Most of the layout ended up using Fabuland-scaled accessories and specialized parts, like the Fabuland vehicle chassis. From researching and ordering these parts, Steven became familiar with the theme, and constantly bought from Bricklink. He acquired many figures, too—he may have acquired every Fabuland figure released except for a few specialty figures and keychains.

One twist that made things a little more complicated to build was that the Fabuland sets were made as playsets, so the buildings were facades that had to be completed. More parts were needed for this. There was also landscaping that needed to be built, so Steven bought Fabuland trees—at one point he nearly bought out all of the stores on Bricklink selling multiple Fabuland trees! With all of this detail being added on, he realized the easiest solution was to get LEGO bricks in the primary colors to finish the sets and, with the figures and trees, make the layout come to life. However, even with all of the parts and sets that Steven has bought, he doesn’t have the complete Fabuland range. One of the details that was needed to tie the layout together was the cobblestone streets that were shown in the poster. To make the streets and also make the baseplates stable enough to transport, the baseplates were built up to create a support structure, before then laying out the streets and building footprints on them. After that, buildings were positioned and landscaping detail was added. For the cobblestone, Steven made up a template to work on them. It took 12,000 pieces to build the roads, and his wife was the person behind them. While she wasn’t interested in doing a mosaic-type build, she completed the roads. A small cornfield on the layout’s edge. Bonnie Bunnie at her corner of the layout.

The building community helped flesh out his ideas and push his work forward indirectly and directly. Indirectly, the community helped him build the landscaping inspired by tree ideas and other ideas he saw from other builders online. He also took advantage of new elements, and learned techniques such as leaf weaving to make the greenery pop. He was helped directly when he was working on a dock on the layout and having problems with the tile spacing. The LUG he is in, the Houston Brick Club, helped provide the solution. He contacted some of the core big builders in his club, and it took one of them to suggest using the headlight brick differently to get the separation he wanted for the planks on the deck. With the deck problem solved, there was another problem: staggering and stacking the bricks to complete the pier. Again, he reached out for help and came upon a solution. For Steven, these two instances are good examples of using the experience and techniques fellow club members have used to help find solutions. The water around the pier was made by setting up 1x2 transparent bricks on the edge and pouring in 1x1 plates in transparent blue, transparent dark blue, and clear. The plates were then spread freeform to suggest depth and a fluid feel. This gives a little more life to the water and is a lot less work than stacking plates and elements. The element that ties together the Fabuland layout is the backdrop. Steven wanted a backdrop that looked like the artwork on the early boxes for the theme. The first thing he did was start looking for the colors and found out, with the help of his club members, the primary color was More of the seaside of the layout.

The pier and seawall.

light aqua. He bought a ton of plates and built them up thick, as the backdrop was going to be mounted with studs sideways pointed forward. This would allow for additional elements to be placed, including clouds.

building. It’s the next very large building adventure that will be another couple of years in the making. You might say Steven’s next stop is Star Wars Land!

The clouds were originally going to be built using slope bricks and the like, but Steven found a photo from a German convention that had clouds built with dish elements. Reverse engineering from the photos he found, he built clouds, and also a Fabuland logo built in LEGO brick. The logo was attached to the backdrop using brackets. Finally, a rainbow was added to complete the box effect. All of this was built to be free-standing and not need any metal barriers or anything else to keep it up. Luckily, it all worked out on the first try.

You can see more of Steven’s work on his Instagram feed: https://www.instagram. com/bricks_by_steve/ or you can scan this QR code!

With all of this, there is still more to add to the Fabuland layout. One set has yet to be added—the Caravan—that will be added this summer at BrickWorld, a LEGO fan convention in Chicago, Illinois. The completed layout will grow over 16 feet by then, and take 24 crates to transport. After BrickWorld, there are other ideas for the layout, including building a stadium with Fabuland teams. Steven will need the figures to make and name the teams for custom printing. At this point, the field could be football or baseball, or eventually both. Other projects include a Star Wars-themed train display that will include elements and scenes from every film released. The train is already built, with Darth Vader’s head on the front. The montage scenes have been laid out, so Steven has begun buying elements and parts for The Fabuland zoo.

The Fabuland sign.

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People

John Bucy with his model of the Ross County Courthouse.

John Bucy:

Building a Landmark Display Article and Photography by John Bucy

I have always been creative. I played with LEGO as a child and loved to draw, but once I got into the real world, I did not do anything very creative for a long time. In 1999, I saw the LEGO Star Wars sets and I began buying them, then started building LEGO MOCs in 2003. At the same time I joined a LEGO Train Club in Columbus, Ohio. We built large train layouts to display at various venues. I designed and built three skyscrapers modeled after real buildings in Columbus, along with many smaller buildings for our layouts. That lasted for until late 2006 when life got in the way and I couldn’t participate any more. Building the skyscrapers really ignited my interest in architecture. I really loved replicating real buildings within the limitations of the LEGO brick! After that, I spent a lot of time building digital models using MLCAD and eventually moving to Stud.io. I digitally built anything from buildings to trains to mosaics. Anything that I saw that inspired me was fair game. Thanks to the train club, I got into photography so that I could learn to take better photos of my models. LEGO actually took a backseat to photography for a while. I still continued to build off and on (I would put a LEGO train under my Christmas tree every year, and sometimes the layouts would get quite involved!) until in 2019, I finally got a nice dedicated LEGO space in my house, and I was back into LEGO 100%!

My hometown is Chillicothe, Ohio, which has quite a few old landmark buildings. One of these is the Ross County Courthouse that was built in 1858. Every time I would drive by the Courthouse, all I could think of is how great of a LEGO® model it would make! In January 2020, I began this adventure. About a month-and-a-half was spent designing the model digitally, focusing on the scale and getting the overall building laid out. I left the smaller details for the actual build. I also began stocking up on any tan parts that I could find on the Pick A Brick wall at my local LEGO store. The Courthouse model was designed using photos from Google Earth, photos I took, and photos that I found online. I also found drone footage that proved quite valuable for modeling the roof. There are certain parts of the model that are not 100% accurate (the large rear wall and the tower, for example) due to how difficult it was to figure out exact dimensions from photos, and also because of the limitation of the LEGO bricks. In some cases, I chose to add more detail, as opposed to losing it if I made it in the correct scale.

The Ross County Courthouse.

Some details from John’s build.

Construction of the model started at the end of February 2020. It was a slow process, as the details that I hadn’t worked out before sometimes took hours to figure out. I spent an entire month on just the tower, trying to get it right. In the end it is a little bigger than it should be, but that is a compromise I chose to make in order to make it more visually accurate. If I recall correctly, the sides should have been two studs narrower, but that would have made

The Courthouse uses approximately 80,000 LEGO Bricks. It is in 1/38th scale which translates to 1 LEGO brick = 1 foot in real life. It is 72” W x 50” D and 44” H or 228 bricks W x 160 bricks D x 118 bricks tall. I used around 10,000 dark red 1x2 plates for the brickwork. The parts with the next highest quantities would probably be tan 1x1 bricks with 1 stud on the side and tan 1x2 jumper plates. I used so many of those bricks and plates for all of the detailing. The model is not complete yet. There are many enhancements that I would like to make, such as little details all around the building and add more detail on the roof, like the HVAC equipment, and tiling it to make it look more finished.

it very difficult to get the smaller details correct. Luckily, a lot of the details around the building are similar, so once I figured them out, it was just a matter of replicating them. I continued working on it until August 2020 when I got stuck and could not figure out how to build the pediment (the triangular gable on the roof over the front entrance), so I decided to take a break. The break ended up lasting a year.

During that break, I found another building subject: the Pump House, which is also in Chillicothe. The building is in a beautiful Victorian Gothic style that was originally built in 1883 as a pumping station to pump water from wells to a reservoir. Since then, the facility was restored and became an art gallery: the Pump House Center for the Arts. When I first saw this building in June 2021, I had to build it.

The review announcement!

The Pump House Center of the Arts.

John’s build of the landmark.

A look at the roof detail.

The Pump House uses about 11,000 pieces. About half of those are medium nougat 1x2 plates used for the exterior brickwork. Like the Courthouse, this is 1/38th scale. It sits on a 30”x30” base (96 x 96 studs) and the building is about 22” W x 17” D x 19” H or 70 studs W x 54 studs D x 44 bricks tall.

A couple of months later, in August, I approached the Pump House about exhibiting my work. It wasn’t long before a display was scheduled for August 2022. I had committed to displaying the Courthouse and Pump House models and enough mosaics to fill the room. I also knew that I had to build a mosaic of the Pump House logo. I immediately resumed work on the Courthouse. Getting ready for the exhibit meant building the two buildings, the logo mosaic, and preparing the other mosaics for the show in the span of a year. Design work for the Pump House had started in June and continued to the end of 2021. During the design phase, I was able to get elevation drawings of the building that really helped with the accuracy of the model. Previously, I had been relying on Google Earth and my photos. I continued working on the Courthouse on and off the rest of the year, and in January 2022 it became my primary focus. Then I began construction of the Pump House in February 2022 when I needed a break. I had to balance buying needed parts for each building, and building the two buildings simultaneously.

Some more detailing.

The biggest challenge with the Pump House was the roof on the tower and the landscaping! I had not done that kind of roof before, nor had I done much landscaping before, so it was definitely a learning experience! I finished the model in May 2022. I finally finished the Courthouse in July, about two weeks before my exhibit opened. I greatly underestimated the time it would take!

John’s logo mosaic.

Designing the logo was pretty straightforward and didn’t take too much time to replicate in LEGO. Building it didn’t take long either, with the original design requiring about 2,000 pieces. Once I got it done, though, it was missing something. The big black “ARTS” was not very exciting. It needed something to make it more interesting. I decided to try a technique that I had never used before on a mosaic called “greebling.” It means to add small things to a larger surface to make it look more interesting or complex. So that is exactly what I did; I added lots and lots of small black pieces inside the “ARTS” letters! It was a very tedious and time-consuming process, but I absolutely love the end result. I have no idea how many parts I added, but I would guess another 2,000 at least. To add a little extra fun, there are some objects and creatures hiding in the logo, including Spiders (four of them), a Paint Roller, a Rifle, a Scorpion, a Bat, a Shark Fin, a Camera, a Swim Flipper, an Owl, an Ax, and a Movie Camera. Go to Instagram.com/johnbtoys or scan this QR code to see more of my builds!

A look at the greebling in the logo.

John with some of his mosaics at the display... ...and at the Courthouse, figuratively.

Some Marvel mosaics at the display.

After the exhibit, my focus is still mostly on architecture and mosaics. I’ve digitally designed several other buildings from my hometown and hope to someday build them. I continue to design (and sometimes actually build) mosaics regularly as part of #mosaicsonmonday, a weekly building series that I help co-host on Instagram. I am working on redesigning the first skyscraper that I built back in 2003 (the LeVeque Tower in Columbus, Ohio) which was actually only the second MOC I had ever built. I’ve learned a lot over the years, so I figure that I can do it much better now. I am also currently working on a city and train layout in my basement, something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

People

Andrea Lattanzio with his initial submission.

From an Idea to a Set:

Creating an A-Frame Article and Photography by Andrea Lattanzio

Andrea Lattanzio has been in BrickJournal a few times already, initially showcasing a Vespa workshop and garage in issue #33, then a hot rod garage a few months later in #38. After that, it took a few years for him to return in issue #61, this time showing a series of diners and a gas station that were built on the same base display. He’s built a lot, and he became one of the privileged fan builders that released an official LEGO set through the LEGO Ideas platform: the A-Frame. Here he talks about making this set, from building his prototype to going on tour to sign sets! The A-Frame wasn’t the first IDEAS proposal that I submitted. My initial set idea was a Volkswagen restoration workshop in 2014, and a few months later, a Volkswagen Surfer pick-up. Both submissions did not receive the 10,000 votes needed for LEGO review and failed. LEGO Ideas changed in the years since, with the total number of users growing to almost three million presently. During that time I submitted a few more projects, but they, too, failed. One project submitted in 2021, the “Into the Wild” diorama, was very popular in North America, but was rejected by LEGO. By March 2021, I found myself at a crossroads: give up or try again.

The initial IDEAS submission.

I decided to submit the A-Frame Cabin, a MOC that I had built and presented in the Fall of 2020 and had become very popular with the international AFOL community. From my submission in March 2021, it took only 42 days for the project to reach 10,000 votes. I became one of the exclusive members of the much coveted LEGO IDEAS 10K member club!

A look inside the cabin.

Creating the Project I built an A-frame because I was looking for something new and came across a book with many strange houses from all over the world. I discovered the A-frame houses and it was love at first sight! While researching, I discovered that they are highly sought after and fashionable in the US, and there are dozens of Instagram pages about A-frame houses with hundreds of thousands of followers. I thought a house like that had never been produced by LEGO, and its time had come. Turns out I was right!

Building the submission model started with a paper sketch of what I was going to build. It only took about ten days to complete the project. I had clear ideas about both shapes and colors: a big “A” as a shape and reddish brown for the roof, medium nougat for the faced and light

bluish gray for the base. The result rocked! Using my past experience in building rural houses (including Sheriff Hopper’s shack from the Netflix series Stranger Things) made my building easier and faster to make. For presentation, photography played a very important role in giving a touching atmosphere to the project. For the A-Frame itself, I wanted to do something unique for the drywall of the cabin. While I initially used 1x2 ingots to good effect, I thought this was an easy effect using a pretty common part. I remembered one of my favorite builders Letranger Absurde using hammers to create a castle wall. Since I happened to have a lot of hammers on hand from an event at LEGO House, I tried the same technique, which seemed to work better than the ingots. The most difficult part of building was probably setting the right proportions for the cabin. I tried different sizes of the roof before I found the right size and balance. I also spent a lot of time searching for the right details for the diorama.

Hammer Time!

The initial front face and porch.

The porch wall was made of hammers that were inserted into bricks with open side studs. Plates were used to space the hammers evenly. The clips seen in the rear attach the wall units to the base of the model.

More details.

Passing LEGO Review

The review announcement!

The completed set model.

After reaching 10,000 votes, I was very anxious to learn the final LEGO review result; however, I had to wait many months. The official announcement from the LEGO IDEAS team came on February 22, 2022, and I was overcome with joy—my set was approved! From that moment on, I shared my now-public set with the world, including my family. I hadn’t said anything to them for fear of leaking the set out—the only person I shared the news with was my wife. It was truly an incredible thrill, and I still can’t believe it—even when there has been a shower of messages from AFOLs and communities of enthusiasts from all over the world! I was thrilled again when the set release date was revealed to be January 13, 2023—once more I received thousands of congratulatory messages and comments on social media. Between the approval and the release, though, my set had to be fine-tuned to meet LEGO standards. The LEGO IDEAS design team scheduled a series of remote meetings to finalize the final set together. They immediately involved me in the refining of the set, not only informing me of the progress, but always asking for my opinion, my impressions, and above all, ideas and suggestions. It was a unique and very fun experience that I wouldn’t mind repeating again.

I am very satisfied with the final set. I was aware that some features needed to be changed. It was necessary to go from my MOC, which was basically a prototype, to an official set that would end up on store shelves around the world. For the set to be marketable, it had to fit the company parameters of stability, safety, playability, and budget constraints. With those limitations, almost everything from the original design was preserved. The trees are obviously different but it couldn’t have been otherwise—the original pine trees were very beautiful, but too fragile. They were also too expensive to include in the set. On the other hand, fans will be delighted to see that the hammers were used in the dry stone wall at the base of the house, retaining the shapes and colors of the original MOC. Other items that remained from the original include the woodshed and the rocking chair that was made with LEGO whips! The storytelling and the general mood of the set were also changed, from a sort of post-apocalyptic setting to a much more friendly environment, reflecting the spirit and values of the LEGO Company. Changing the initial animals from black bear and skunk to moths and a squirrel also made the set more family-friendly. Adding Easter eggs to insert in the set was something that I was very involved in with the designers, and a lot of fun. The most beautiful hidden detail is the tile decorated with one of my models that I am fond of: The Blue Cottage. It’s upstairs above the bed, and it’s a nice tribute! There are also three microscale IDEAS sets: the typewriter (it’s black, but the table is sand green, the same color as the actual set) and the Treehouse, one of my favorite sets! Finally, there’s a Caterham Seven on a shelf on the upper level.

Andrea’s rocking chair!

The set is a project I totally love and am satisfied with. Even if it’s different in some ways, I think the LEGO designers made the most of my idea. In some ways the original design was improved. For example, the roofs and the first floor are removable—it’s playability at its best! They also made my ‘illegal’ building style something that can be found in an official LEGO set, which is great! Can you see the treehouse in the front and the Caterham in the background? The house painting above the bed with its inspiration in the inset. The typewriter is ready to be used.

The Signing Tour A few weeks before the set was released worldwide, the LEGO Italy team contacted me to schedule a copy signing tour. I couldn’t believe it—it sounded amazing. After some video calls, the tour was finalized to seven dates in seven cities in Italy and France. As a result, I visited LEGO stores from February 1 through mid-March to sign sets. For each visit on the tour, I was greeted by the local LUG, which I already knew as I have been an active member of the AFOL community for many years. The cities on the tour were: Grenoble and Nice in France, and Milan (San Babila), Florence, Naples, Milan, Assago, and Turin in Italy. With the tour, I gave many interviews, not only to LEGO related media, but also to the general press, as I was the first Italian to create a LEGO IDEAS set. As for the signings, they were an incredible experience. I met hundreds, maybe thousands of people. I signed everything: the set, the bags, the brown boxes, tiles and bricks, the roof of the completed set, LEGO passports, postcards, flyers, and a lot of other things that I don’t even remember—it was insane! I never imagined something like this could happen to me. Reality surpassed imagination.

Signing sets!

Some photos from the store tour!

Black Panther.

Andrea with his model (left) and the set (right).

Finishing and Starting When my project was chosen, I said that a dream was coming true. Now I can confirm it: My dream did come true; indeed it has gone beyond a dream! I’m a little sad now that it’s all over, but the memory will remain forever in my heart. For those who want to create a LEGO IDEAS set, I can offer you this advice: First of all, you have to follow your gut feeling and your passion. Next, come up with an original idea—something that LEGO hasn’t produced yet. That’s hard, because LEGO has done so much already. Finally, build something that doesn’t look like a LEGO set; something that can attract attention and is eye-catching. I know, it’s not easy at all. Good luck! Sets and designer.

Building

An overhead look at Gareth and Catharine Ellis’ layout.

Gareth and Catherine Ellis’

Town Trolley Layout Article and Photography by Gareth Ellis 24

One of the displays seen at Brick Rodeo 2022 was part of a train display by Texas Brick Railroad. This section was a LEGO city block’s length of buildings, with a street and two railroad tracks. Built by both Gareth and Catherine Ellis, this section not only has buildings and landscaping, it also lights up to make a beautiful night scene. The windows of the buildings show their interiors, from the townhouses to the pub—which has a couple of people outside. The railroad crossing gates are down waiting for the trains that regularly pass by, and people are walking through the natural trail.

The trolley.

Another view of the layout.

A courtyard.

The layout brings to mind a smaller town, with a pub and diner along with a shop or two. The largest building is the Pacific Electric station, with trolleys inside. Another trolley travels back and forth on the street track in front of the buildings. A few people may recognize the building. When asked about these, Gareth tells the story behind them: “The trolley and building is from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the movie based the trolley car on the Pacific Electric Trolleys out of Los Angeles. This all came about for the 2017 BrickWorld Chicago show. I used to live in Kansas and was a member of the KC Bricklab

The trolley by the station.

The pub, with some people outside.

A night time view of the layout.

The trolley station.

LUG, which at the time was operating out of the magnificent Union Station in Kansas City. Some time before the show, I had moved to TBRR (Texas Brick Railroad) and become an active member, participating in shows. KC Bricklab decided to do a collaborative layout for Brickworld Chicago 2017. It was going to be a Roger Rabbit-themed display, touching on many of the elements of the movie. I was known at the time as being a train guy, so got invited to be a part of the display with the KC Bricklab, and specifically got asked to do the trolley and trolley station. I bought the DVD and over many weeks/months, studied freeze frames of the part that had the two in them, and started to digitally model the two. Once I was happy with the

Bonnie Bunnie at ber corner of the layout.

A small cornfield on the layout’s edge.

scaling of the models, it was time to make them in real brick. One thing I always say to folks, is that the computer-generated models never work in real life. It is a second fun challenge to make it work in the real world. The original building is pretty much what you see; however, it has gone under some major internal re-building and lighting. The interior rebuilding included converting the building to MILS (Modular Integrated Landscaping System—a standard that allows different builders to build layouts with compatible modules), by raising it up by a brick and a plate.

The pier and seawall. More of the seaside of the layout.

A lower view of the layout.

The lighting included adding more lights, specifically to the exterior main entrance wall lights and to the trolleys parked underneath. The trolley car itself, again, is mostly original on the outside; however, the inside has had a recent retrofit. The main control system is an arduino nano; this triggers a mylocosound sound card that has trolley sounds on it. There is a reed switch pointing down underneath, which picks up magnets under the track that triggers the reverse sequence in the arduino program. The trolley has a smaller 7.2v LiPo battery in it that will last a whole show. The whole city has a 12v power bus system running down underneath the street next to the trolley track. Each base plate section has magnet couplers to transfer the power from one to the next. I then use a buck converter to bring the voltage down

A street artist at work.

The Fabuland zoo.

A dog has second thoughts about going out.

to 5v to each building that connects into the bus.” With the lighting system and trolley, the section has constant motion and sound. With the minifigures and vehicles placed on the layout, the town comes to life. Here’s a look at the layout in daylight and night.

The street is busy with traffic.

Building

John Bucy with his model of the Ross County Courthouse.

New Hashima at BrickFair Virginia 2022.

Building New Hashima Sector 08 Article by Stefan Formentano and Michael Willhoit

Photography by Jordan Wolfman 30

Seen at BrickFair Virginia 2022, New Hashima is a growing community-build that depicts a cyberpunk city complex inspired by Neo-Tokyo from the movie Akira, Los Angeles from the movie Blade Runner, and even Night City from the video game Cyberpunk 2077. However, the beginnings of New Hashima came from a collaborative build from 2013. A group called BroLUG built a Cyberpocalypse display that was shown at Brickworld 2013 in Chicago, Illinois, and later at BrickFair Virginia. This build was the inspiration for Stefan Formentano, who had seen the Cyberpocalypse build online, loved the concept, and wanted to build his own version. Having visited Japan in 2015 and 2016, Stefan knew that he wanted to build new MOCs using Tokyo as inspiration. There was also a lot of hype around the Cyberpunk 2077 video game that brought the genre back to the forefront of people’s minds, which ignited his interest in building the city.

Next page: A look at the skyline.

The Ross County Courthouse.

New Hashima’s Inspiration: BroLUG’s Cyberpocalypse 2013 In 2013, members of BroLUG created a collaborative layout that had a dystopian cyberpunk-oriented theme. The builders behind this massive project included Carter Baldwin, Chris Edwards, Nate Brill, Kyle Vrieze, Forest King, Ignacio Bernaldez, Sam Wormuth, and Alex Valentino.

Some views of Cyberpocalypse City at Brickfair Virginia 2013.

Brett’s windmill,

To make New Hashima, Stefan had to reverse-engineer the modular cube building system that was developed for the Cyberpocalypse display. After developing an overview document with his ideas for the New Hashima collaborative project, he presented the idea to his club, Magic City LUG (based in Birmingham, Alabama). Stefan and club member Peter Bradberry built the first version of New Hashima for BrickFair 2020, which had a 40” x 40” area. A planned expansion to New Hashima was delayed when the pandemic hit in 2021. The delay gave Stefan plenty of time to plan, and New Hashima became his quarantine project. Stefan and Peter quadrupled the area of the layout in 2022 to 80” x 80”. By this time, some of the original builders (Carter Baldwin, Simon Liu, and Michael Willhoit) of the original Cyberpocalypse City began planning to make a tenyear reunion display. They saw Stefan’s work and asked about bringing his city to BrickFair Virginia in Summer 2022. Other builders were recruited to build parts of New Hashima, and for the Brickfair Virginia display, eleven builders eventually came to contribute (Stefan Formentano, Simon Liu, Michael Willhoit, Jesse Mims, Tobias Whelan, Mason Ricks, Logan Petrin, Jordan Wolfeman, George Hawes, Brian O’Leary, and Brailey Lee). The project quickly gained traction, and many of the builders had only about a month to build their sections. School and travel also shortened building time, and much of the final construction happened onsite the night before BrickFair’s public display hours. A night time monorail run.

Michael Willhoit’s helicopter lands.

Monorail testing for height.

A look at the roof detail.

One of the leading contributors to New Hashima is Michael Willhoit, who built one of the towers on display. New Hashima is a cluster of islands made up of cube frames that are 32x32x32 studs and have towers and buildings on top. Mike’s tower was designed around a few concepts and some challenges Mike set for himself. For structure, he ordered 1x16 Technic bricks through his club, but he also ordered something a little less conventional: tan Duplo cushions. With his materials, he set out to construct his tower. A helicopter Mike previously built served as inspiration for the tower. Photography of Chinese industrial buildings defined the aesthetic he was trying to achieve. He built a helipad that housed a motor to drive the rotors on the chopper, and afterwards the tower body, making this a top-down build. Another element that adds movement and brings the display to life is the monorail, which was modeled from monorails designed by Masao Hidaka. Using the classic LEGO monorail was impossible due to the lack of variety of track pieces. The buildable track provided a perfect solution to route the monorail through the entire layout.

Previous page: New Hashima with lighting. A look at the interior area of the city.

Adding the helicopter. A minifigure view of New Hashima.

New Hashima ended up being larger than it was at BrickFair Alabama, with towers that were over nine feet tall. Lighting was also an integral part of the build, with interior lights and electroluminescent wire (or EL wire) adding a neon-like effect, which is a staple of cyberpunk media. Custom video screens and LED matrices were also built into the walls of some of the towers, lighting the display with ads and other footage, with many of the ads being designed by Stefan himself. At one point during the event, the lights in the BrickFair exhibit hall were turned off in order to show the lit displays. New Hashima shone brightly in its corner, mirroring Times Square or Shibuya City set in the near-future. With all of the excitement surrounding this group effort, there are plans to expand the New Hashima build for 2023. This year, the number of contributors has jumped from eleven to nearly eighty, and the area will be quadrupling again. The original display is now The Corporate Sector, with three more sectors being added: The Old City (managed by Michael Willhoit), The Docks (Simon Liu’s section), and The Inner City (managed by Mason Ricks and Stefan Formentano). The new complex will make its first appearance at Brickworld Chicago 2023.

A section being built, showing the black support frames for all the buildings and wiring for lighting. Another look at the detail that was made for the layout.

Next page: Another view of New Hashima at night.

Building

Sky Lofts Article and Photography by Jon Knoy Starting This Project

LEGO was one of my favorite toys as a child, since I was interested in becoming an architect one day. My LEGO building stopped in middle school, but returned as a hobby in 2013 when the LEGO modular building line piqued my interest. My focus has been on city building, and I have always wanted to construct a tall building. I slowly acquired parts over the years to build something at this scale, but without an actual design in mind. I started building a proof of concept for the Sky Lofts in December of 2022 and was able to complete the exterior of the building in about two months. I had attempted different designs in the past, but they didn’t work well at the scale I was trying to achieve.

Selecting Characters

My original plan was going to have minifigures from the LEGO City line as residents of all the condos. However, when I started working on the interiors, I thought it would be fun to create scenes with characters from various movies, TV shows, and LEGO sets I had as a kid. I chose characters based on minifigures I already had, but with the potential to create stories within the scenes I was planning. I also added a different color theme for each floor to reduce the amount of gray. When possible, characters were paired with certain colors that would complement their story.

The residents of the Sky Lofts live on the second through the seventh floor:

Sky Lofts.

Second Floor: Residents from LEGO City Third Floor: Cat Lady and Scooby-Doo Fourth Floor: Jurassic Park and the Mandalorian Fifth Floor: Scrooge McDuck and Johnny Thunder Sixth Floor: Space and Iron Man Seventh Floor: Iron Man and Batman

The Design Process

While the Sky Lofts isn’t modeled after any specific building, I was inspired by various condo and apartment buildings I had seen or visited. Frank Lloyd Wright was also an influence on the design, specifically the balconies. Getting the correct scale for the building was one of the biggest challenges I faced. I wanted it to be minifigure scale to fit in the LEGO city I have been working on for nearly ten years. I also strived to create a design that was both modern

and had a lot of detail. Using vertical and horizontal lines at various depths helped add visual interest to the building. I also chose dark orange and navy blue, with the two shades of gray as accents to help the building stand out. I started building a proof of concept once I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like. I started building the facades and the second floor. I returned to the design of the first floor once the overall design of the facades was finalized. The facades ended up being built three times, with the first being a proof of concept, and the third to make structural improvements to the design. Stud.io or other LEGO digital design software was not used, but I’d like to explore this more in the future. While my focus on this building was on the exterior design, I factored the interior floorplans early on in the design process. I was also able to create a working elevator using a manual crank on the rooftop. Since I wanted to be able to do the full interiors of the building, I tried to hide all of the connection points the best I could, while still trying to make the building structurally sound. The color-blocking design made it challenging to make the building structurally sound.

The gym.

Sky Lofts Tour: First Floor

The floor plan of the Sky Lofts is centered by an elevator shaft. The front entrance (seen at the bottom) leads directly to the elevator and to the lobby. The concierge’s desk is to the left of the elevator and leads to the mailboxes. A door on the right leads to the gym room and the pool in the rear of the floor.

The elevator lobby.

The indoor pool.

Another look at the pool.

The concierge’s desk and mailboxes.

Sky Lofts Tour: Second Floor

The second floor has two condos occupied by LEGO City residents. The entrance to each condo from the elevator lobby is by the dining room, which is connected to the kitchen and living room. The back of the condos is where the bedrooms are separately located. Bathrooms are adjacent to the bedrooms, directly behind the elevator.

Second floor bedrooms.

View of second floor condo on the left side.

View of second floor condo on the right side.

Sky Lofts Tour: Third Floor

The third floor is split between Sherry Scratchen-Post (Cat Lady from The LEGO Movie) and Shaggy and Scooby. Shaggy and Scooby’s condo has enough space in the dining room and kitchen for lots of Scooby snacks, pizza, and sandwiches! A few uninvited guests come to visit. The bedroom is decorated with items from previous adventures, along with some other surprises… The Cat Lady’s condo is perfectly suited to her and her many pets. Her rooms are decked out in blue tones.

Shaggy & Scooby’s living room and kitchen, with snacks and sandwich.

Shaggy & Scooby’s balcony, with a guest.

Shaggy & Scooby’s bedroom.

The Cat Lady’s living room. The Cat Lady’s bedroom.

Sky Lofts Tour: Fourth Floor

The fourth floor also has two occupants: Alan Grant from Jurassic Park and The Mandalorian. Alan Grant’s condo has a small infestation problem: raptors. This is only a minor issue for Grant, as he starts capturing them, starting at his bedroom. On the other side, the Mandalorian settles down with some porgs nesting in his condo. Grogu is in the kitchen, practicing Force-lifting a Razor Crest model. Blue macarons and frogs are all over the living room, ready for Grogu to snack on.

Alan’s living room, with raptors roaming.

Catching a raptor in the bedroom.

The Mandalorian’s bedroom.

The Mandalorian’s living room and kitchen.

Sky Lofts Tour: Fifth Floor

The fifth floor’s occupants are: Scrooge McDuck and Johnny Thunder. Scrooge McDuck’s condo is what one would expect from one of the richest ducks in the world: Gold furniture and jeweled fixtures. A custom item that was requested by Scrooge was also fulfilled: A hot tub on the balcony! This was filled with golden coins. Johnny Thunder’s condo reflects his travels and adventures, with a guest waiting at his door. His bedroom has his equipment and tokens from his adventures.

Scrooge’s living room.

Scrooge’s hot tub.

Scrooge’s bedroom.

Johnny Thunder’s living room.

Johnny Thunder’s bedroom.

Black Panther.

Sky Lofts Tour: Sixth and Seventh Floor

The sixth floor’s occupants are the Classic Spaceman and Iron Man. The spaceman has a condo that matches his spacesuit. His bedroom has many mementos of his missions, from model rockets to computer consoles. His living room table has a geode from a past mission, as well as an old blaster. Iron Man, or Tony Stark, has a penthouse that takes two floors of Sky Lofts. Stark’s work room, living room, and dining room are on the sixth floor. The living room extends up to the seventh floor with a painting and mini-armory of Iron Man’s suits.

Tony Stark’s dining table.

Stark’s workspace.

Spaceman’s living room.

Spaceman’s bedroom.

Batman’s living room.

Sky Lofts Tour: Sixth and Seventh Floor

Stark’s bedroom is on the seventh floor and is accessible by a spiral stairway. The bathroom is also on this floor, opposite from the bedroom. Batman is the other occupant on this floor and has direct elevator access. He has a smaller condominium, with a kitchen and dining area for his lobster thermidor. Stark’s living room.

Batman’s bedroom.

Stark’s bedroom.

The walkway to Stark’s bedroom and bathroom.

Sky Lofts Tour: Eighth Floor

The eighth floor is the entertainment level, with tables and a kitchen for events. There is a hot tub on the corner, and a putting green. A covered firepit provides warmth and a place to chat during the cooler nights.

The dining area.

The kitchen and serving table.

The putting green.

Having a fun chat! The covered firepit.

Sky Lofts Tour: Roof and Other Areas

The rooftop houses the air conditioning and heating machinery. The elevator cable drive is also located here. Here’s some other Sky Lofts areas and views. You can see more of Jon’s work at his Instagram feed: https://www. instagram.com/brickcityplanner/ or scan this QR code or see his Flickr gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brickcityplanner/

A look at the rear of Sky Lofts.

The elevator.

An overview of the entrance.

Parts List

Yellow Convertible

Design by Brian Everett from BrickNerd Recently I completed the design of a narrow modular building with a working garage door, and something important was missing—a car for the garage! I suppose I knew all along I would need a car, but waited until the end because, being honest, I had never designed a car MOC before. To get started, I did what I figured anyone else might do, and look at sets to give me a good base model. In this case, I chose Tony Stark’s convertible from set 76216 Iron Man Armory. It had the general look I was going for, and included the specific mudguards I was hoping to use. The base gave me some inspiration as I created my own convertible in a completely different style. I settled on a more rounded look, and I wanted to utilize some fun SNOT techniques for the bumpers and windshield. I also love the use of minifigure roller skates as door handles! Overall, the design of this convertible is one that can easily be color-swapped to make it complement whatever you are building, or stand out on its own, which I’m quite happy with. Enjoy!

You can go to the BrickNerd website by typing: https://bricknerd.com/ on your browser or by scanning this QR code!

(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Part Color Description 1 2412b.dat Flat Silver Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove 4 11208.dat Flat Silver Wheel Rim 10 x 14 with Fake Bolts and 6 Spokes 2 11253.dat Flat Silver Minifig Roller Skate 2 2436a.dat Black Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 4 3 3710.dat Black Plate 1 x 4 1 3829c01.dat Black Car Steering Stand and Wheel 4 4488.dat Black Plate 2 x 2 with 1 Wheel Pin 4 11209.dat Black Tyre 10/ 32 x 14 1 30029.dat Black Car Base 10 x 4 x 2/3 with 4 x 2 Centre Well 1 3020.dat Green Plate 2 x 4 1 3022.dat Green Plate 2 x 2 1 3021.dat Yellow Plate 2 x 3 3 3023.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 2 1 3068b.dat Yellow Tile 2 x 2 with Groove 2 3069b.dat Yellow Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 4 3070b.dat Yellow Tile 1 x 1 with Groove 2 3623.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 3 5 3710.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 4 2 6541.dat Yellow Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole 2 6636.dat Yellow Tile 1 x 6 4 25269.dat Yellow Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round 2 27925.dat Yellow Tile 2 x 2 Corner Round 4 35480.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 2 with Round Ends and 2 Open Studs 4 35789.dat Yellow Car Mudguard 4 x 2.5 x 2 with Rounded Ends 4 85984.dat Yellow Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 2 93273.dat Yellow Slope Brick Curved 4 x 1 Double 2 93604.dat Yellow Slope Brick Curved 3 x 4 x 0.667 Rounded 1 57783.dat Trans Black Windscreen 3 x 4 x 1.333 2 2431.dat Dark Tan Tile 1 x 4 with Groove 1 3004.dat Dark Tan Brick 1 x 2 1 3020.dat Dark Tan Plate 2 x 4 5 3023.dat Dark Tan Plate 1 x 2 1 3069b.dat Dark Tan Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 1 15068.dat Dark Tan Slope Brick Curved 2 x 2 x 0.667 2 54200.dat Dark Tan Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 1 99780.dat Dark Tan Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up 2 98138.dat Trans Red Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove 1 3003.dat Red Brick 2 x 2 1 11211.dat Red Brick 1 x 2 with 2 Studs on 1 Side 2 98138.dat Trans Clear Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove 1 3023.dat White Plate 1 x 2 2 86996.dat White Plate 1 x 1 x 0.667 1 85984pc2.dat Lt Bluish Grey Slope 1 x 2 x 2/3 with Dashboard, Speedometers Print 2 2420.dat Dk Bluish Grey Plate 2 x 2 Corner 2 3023.dat Dk Bluish Grey Plate 1 x 2 1 3069b.dat Dk Bluish Grey Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 2 11477.dat Dk Bluish Grey Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 1 29119.dat Dk Bluish Grey Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right 1 29120.dat Dk Bluish Grey Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left 2 99780.dat Dk Bluish Grey Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 49

Building Minifigure Customization 101:

Bad Baby!

Grogu, who was originally referred to as “Baby Yoda” or “The Child,” is a character from the Star Wars Disney+ television series The Mandalorian. He is a toddler of the same species as Yoda and Yaddle, the only other two known members of this species in the Star Wars Universe. This species ages very slowly, which was known from Yoda’s long life; however, the implications of this long life were never really explored with the senior Yoda and Yaddle and are on full display in The Mandalorian as we watch Grogu grow up. Recently, it was even revealed as to how Grogu escaped the Jedi temple during Order 66, showing just how slow Grogu ages, but also and more importantly, how slowly he matures. This later bit, I believe, is the most critical, especially given his early childhood trauma.

Article and Photography by Jared Burks

The show has never declared that Din Djarin is The Mandalorian for which the show is named, and many Mandalorians appear in and throughout the show, even though he is the central Mandalorian. Of note, Grogu’s actual parents are never named, and it is not hinted that Yoda and/or Yaddle are his parents. This means there are others of this species out there somewhere. Din Djarin becomes Grogu’s surrogate Father, and I suspect that Grogu will develop into “The Mandalorian” through the course of the show. Grogu has taken the first steps in becoming a Mandalorian, as he was designated a “Foundling” and left Master Luke Skywalker’s Jedi training. There are even many articles thinking along this line as well (www.starwarsnewsnet. com/2021/02/editorial-grogu-will-become-the-mandalorian.html).

Grogu with a wrist training gauntlet.

In previous issues of BrickJournal, I have created Grogu’s head and I have recreated the LEGO baby body, but modified it to be fully articulated at the arm and hands. This is critical for what we are going to create in this issue. In a different previous issue, I have also created Grogu’s surrogate Nanny, the IG-11 droid originally sent to kill him. So I have many elements of Grogu’s life with Din Djarin created, and as this current season is continuing, I have jumped a bit and created Grogu’s chest plate, a beskar spear, a miniature Darksaber, and a Mandalorian helmet. I have also created several Anzellan, a series of aliens particularly good at building robotics in the Star Wars Universe. Babu Frik is an Anzellan who appeared in The Rise of Skywalker. I have made these Anzellans to explain how Grogu’s mini-Darksaber was created, as I think it would have taken both the Mandalorian Armorer and the Anzellans to shrink the Darksaber. So let’s get started going through how and what I have created for today’s article.

Grogu’s chestpiece, made by the Armorer.

With Luke Skywalker.

So let’s start with where we begin, which is with the Grogu that I previously created. That figure is important as I used this figure to determine the sizes of everything that I created for Mandalorian Grogu’s weapons, armor, and helmet. Now that we have Grogu and understand where we are starting from, we have to take some measurements of the new custom articulated “baby” hand that I previously created. This diameter will be the size needed to create anything that Grogu needs to hold. Given the importance of the Beskar spear in the show and the number of fights where Din Djarin used the spear to fight against Moff Gideon, I thought this would be a great weapon for someone of such small stature. Spears dramatically extend reach, so a spear for Grogu makes sense. This was fairly straightforward to draw in Fusion360. I created a circle that I extruded. I then created a slightly smaller and larger diameter circle that I extruded with an offset. This allowed the subtraction of this ring from the central spear shaft as a detail. I then made two triangular shapes, one that

Grogu with a helmet.

merged into the shaft of the spear, and one as the spear’s point. This allowed for the connection between the shaft and the spear point. I added a slight fillet around the edge of the spear point. The next weapon was a bit easier, which was creation of the smaller Darksaber. For this I found a Darksaber stl on Thangs (thangs.com/). I found a Darksaber that I liked and then merely opened it in Meshmixer and resized it to the diameter of the custom baby hand. This was a bit challenging, as the guard is larger than the hand. To size it appropriately I merely cut the Darksaber hilt in half and kept the side without the guard. From there I could resize to the needed diameter and noted the percent decrease needed. I then re-imported the original file and sized it down to the needed size. This allowed me to very quickly create a mini-Darksaber.

The mini Darksaber.

The beskar spear.

Grogu Both weapons printed.

The Mandolorian’s helmet.

Modified for Grogu.

Next, the Mandalorian helmet was needed for Grogu. Given the relationship and helmet style between Ragnar Vizsla and his father Paz Vizsla as well as between Jango Fett and Boba Fett, we see that Father and Son helmets share many similarities. This means that Grogu’s should resemble Din Djarin’s helmet. So I have a style down, but the big question is how do we get a helmet to fit over his head? Arguably, we have never seen a Mandalorian that I am aware of, that doesn’t have a very humanoid sized head. Since I haven’t seen a bulging helmet, this left me guessing a bit, but ultimately I decided the alteration was easy. The easy fix was to allow Grogu’s ears to protrude from the sides of the helmet. In order to create a helmet allowing Grogu’s ears to protrude, I had to create a Din Djarin helmet, which took many steps, which are beyond this article. Once I had this created as you can see in the photos, I had to rescale the helmet to fit Grogu’s head, which is a bit of an odd proportion to the baby body. Once I had it twisted and scaled, I had to figure out if the side parts were going to align with Grogu’s ears, and luckily they did. I couldn’t merely cut Grogu’s ears from the helmet because this would make it hard to put on and take off; therefore, I had to create a rectangle and partial circle to cut away portions of the helmet. I did it in Meshmixer, as I wanted this look to the helmet. I then cut Grogu’s head from the interior space for the helmet. I made Grogu’s head 2% larger to give a touch of extra space before performing the subtraction, so that if the resin I print it in shrinks, the helmet would still fit on the head. This allows the helmet to snap on to Grogu’s head that I previously created.

Testing for ear space.

Now we have Grogu’s two weapons and helmet, but as we saw in the “Foundling” episode, Grogu received a chest plate featuring the mudhorn emblem. This was very easily created in Meshmixer, as I created a circle that I cut; this gave the shield-like curve that this chest plate appears to have. I then created a donut and placed this around the central shield. I then cut the back away and added an extruded mudhorn. The Mudhorn had to be tapered to match the curve of the plate. Instead of performing a classic cut, I brought the rounded shield portion forward to cover part of the mudhorn shape. Once I had overlap between the two, I merely performed a Boolean Intersection as opposed to a Boolean Union or Boolean Difference. This means only where materials overlap was the Mudhorn preserved, which caused the mudhorn to taper just as the shield portion does, and finishes the chest plate. Given that we now have created all these elements, they need to be painted. To finalize the figure, I taped out the legs of the custom baby body. This allowed me to spray paint the torso dark tan, playing off a color in Din Djarin’s outfit. I painted the arms dark red and I left the hands and legs dark grey. I left the hands dark grey (resin color) to avoid paint chipping or rubbing off as the hands flex to hold the various created items. The helmet and spear were painted a silver chrome paint and the Mini-Darksaber was painted black. I used black to paint the visor via a paint brush. In hindsight, I should have painted the visor with black spray paint and then covered it with Silly Putty to mask the black area. This would have allowed me to easily spray the rest of the helmet and have created a sharper edge between the visor and the helmet. Hindsight is always easier, and I mention this here to get you to think about these steps. IG-11, Grogu, and Mando.

Chestpiece design.

Making the chestpiece. Grogu ready for painting.

Grogu and the Anzellans: “Bad Baby!”

While creating this figure, I also used the custom baby body to create Anzellans that I hypothesize are key in shrinking the Darksaber for Grogu—mainly so I could call this article “Bad Baby.” I haven’t yet painted these Anzellans, but will shortly, and I will vary them slightly to make a few versions of the species. I decided to size-up my original IG-11 that I previously created as well. I couldn’t merely size him up without a weapon, so I found a DLT-19 heavy blaster model that was created for use with LEGO figures. I then had to scale it the same percentage I did my IG-11, and amazingly enough, this fit the Bigfig IG-11’s hand. I plan on having IG-11 sort of looming over Bad Baby Grogu in the final display I create to house all of my figures from the show. The models in progress. A group shot.

I hope you all enjoy seeing all of these modifications to Grogu. I also hope everything makes sense in how I created it. Be sure to check out the next issue where I am going a bit Disney crazy, so who knows? We may see some Bad Baby show up there, too.

You can view Jared’s webpage by going to http://www.fineclonier.com/ or scanning this QR code!

ID-11 sized up.

Mando with Grogu and IG-11.

Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization! Don’t miss Jared’s two books Minifigure Customization: Populate Your World! and its sequel Minifigure Customization: Why Live In The Box? (available at twomorrows.com). On sale: $5 each!

You Can Build It MINI Build

Lolthal City MINI Diorama Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck

Hello everybody, and welcome to another mini building session! In accordance with this issue’s feature topic— Cities—we will build a mini-diorama of Lothal Capital City, as seen in the animated Star Wars TV series Rebels. The planet Lothal and its capital city play a central role throughout the entire series, and will be remembered by everyone who watched it. It’s an elegant looking and lightflooded city with sky-scraping towers, surrounded by wide grassy plains with spots of cone-shaped rocks—and since the occupation by the Empire, also with industrial facilities and the dominant spherical Imperial complex. A typical Imperial starship seen here is the Imperial Light Cruiser, a ship that also accompanies the entire series. I’d like to invite you to dive into this fantastic world of Lothal by building this diorama with you. I wish you happy building and see you next time!

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

Lolthal Capital City Qty Color 1 Olive-Green 12 White 2 1 1 2 4 1 2 1 1 2 1 4 1 4 2 1 1 4

Part 3005.dat 3062b.dat

Description Brick 1 x 1 Brick 1 x 1 Round with Hollow Stud Olive-Green 3004.dat Brick 1 x 2 Olive-Green 3622.dat Brick 1 x 3 White 6143.dat Brick 2 x 2 Round Reinforced Olive-Green 3001.dat Brick 2 x 4 Light-Bluish-Gray 88293.dat Brick 3 x 3 x 2 Round Corner with Dome Top Olive-Green 95188.dat Brick 6 x 6 Corner Round with Slope 33 Chamfer (Needs Work) Tan 4589.dat Cone 1 x 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated White 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated Tan 3942c.dat Cone 2 x 2 x 2 with Hollow Stud Open White 3942c.dat Cone 2 x 2 x 2 with Hollow Stud Open Light-Bluish-Gray 3942b.dat Cone 2 x 2 x 2 with Hollow Stud and Axlehole Teeth White 6233.dat Cone 3 x 3 x 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 30367a.dat Cylinder 2 x 2 with Dome Top with Blocked Stud White 30367a.dat Cylinder 2 x 2 with Dome Top with Blocked Stud White 49308.dat Cylinder 3 x 3 with Dome Top with Open Stud Tan 1744.dat Cylinder 3 x 3 x 3 Dome Elongated Light-Bluish-Gray 15395.dat Dome 2 x 2 Inverted with Stud and Tube White 85975.dat Minifig Hat Fez

Qty Color Part 1 Dark-Tan 3023.dat 2 Dark-Tan 3623.dat 2 Dark-Tan 3666.dat 1 Dark-Tan 3460.dat 1 Dark-Bluish-Gray 4032a.dat 11 Dark-Tan 3021.dat 1 Dark-Tan 3020.dat 4 Dark-Tan 3795.dat 1 Dark-Tan 3034.dat 1 Dark-Tan 2450.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 60474.dat 2

Dark-Bluish-Gray 60474.dat

Dark-Blue

Light-Bluish-Gray 11213.dat

3 2 4 1 1 1

Dark-Blue 3036.dat Olive-Green 3298.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 18654.dat Dark-Tan 43723.dat Dark-Tan 54384.dat Dark-Tan 54383.dat

6179.dat

Description Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 3 Plate 1 x 6 Plate 1 x 8 Plate 2 x 2 Round with Axlehole Plate 2 x 3 Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 6 Plate 2 x 8 Plate 3 x 3 without Corner Plate 4 x 4 Round with Hole and Snapstud Plate 4 x 4 Round with Hole and Snapstud Plate 4 x 4 with 4 Studs on One Edge Plate 6 x 6 Round with Hole and Snapstud Plate 6 x 8 Slope Brick 33 3 x 2 Technic Beam 1 Wing 2 x 3 Left Wing 3 x 6 Left Wing 3 x 6 Right

Imperial Light Cruiser

Qty Color Part 2 Light-Bluish-Gray 4070.dat 1 Light-Bluish-Gray 4733.dat 2 2 3 3 5 7 1

Light-Bluish-Gray 52107.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3622.dat Trans-Light-Blue 46296.dat Dark-Bluish-Gray 28621.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3024.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3023.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 15573.dat

Light-Bluish-Gray 3794a.dat

5 2 2 2

Light-Bluish-Gray 60477.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 54200.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 85984.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3665b.dat

4 1 2 2

Light-Bluish-Gray 92946.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 6541.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 98138.dat Light-Bluish-Gray 3069b.dat

Description Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Four Sides Brick 1 x 2 with Studs on Sides Brick 1 x 3 Clikits Ring Minifig Head with Vented Stud Plate 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud, without Understud Plate 1 x 2 without Groove with 1 Centre Stud Slope Brick 18 4 x 1 Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Slope Brick 31 1 x 2 x 0.667 Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Inverted with Inner Stopper Ring Slope Plate 45.73 2 x 1 Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Tile 1 x 2 with Groove

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www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com UPDATE #2

THE

PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION

by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE

Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. SHIPS NOVEMBER 2023!

WORKING WITH DITKO by JACK C. HARRIS

WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! SHIPS OCTOBER 2023!

Star Guider TM & © Jack C. Harris.

Shade TM & © DC Comics.

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9

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THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF

MATT FOX

by ROGER HILL

MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2023! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

Joachim Klang 6868

Joachim Klang’s motorized Death Star trench.

Joachim Klang:

Building Star Wars and more! Article by David Strenzler and Frank Averstegge, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Joachim Klang Galactic greetings! I am David Strenzler from Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of the best LEGO Star Wars themed group on Facebook, Frank Averstegge, Eloi Parizeau and I witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis. Joachim Klang, a.k.a. “Der Joe” is an active member and popular MOC designer in our community. I thought it would be great to learn more about this skilled master builder and some of his amazing creations.

David Strenzler: How is it going Joachim? The LEGO Star Wars community has known you for some time through the Bantha Bricks Facebook group, where you have impressed everyone with your diverse and masterly Star Wars builds. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do? Joachim Klang: Hello David, thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview. I am pleased to make a few other fans happy through my humble contributions to my favorite subject: Star Wars! I was born in 1967 and went to the movie theatre as soon as the first Star Wars movie premiered. Since then, this series has hugely affected my life. As a child, my favorite toys besides Kenner Star Wars action figures were the Danish interlocking toy bricks of the LEGO brand. So, it was quite logical that I started mixing both themes. Long before LEGO came up with a license, I built my first huge AT-AT and a Sandcrawler. Since 2012, I have authored fifteen books that have been published by Heel Verlag, and some of these have been translated into 12 languages. Would you say that Star Wars is your favorite theme? Or do you have a surprise theme for us? As I mentioned before, Star Wars is one of my favorite themes, but I equally enjoy building vehicles and settings in which to stage minifigures that I assemble to resemble

actors, bands, and other celebrities. I frequently include small caricatures of my friends in my books as well. Building everyday objects and surprising visitors of LEGO shows in this way is great fun. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium of self-expression? What makes LEGO so special to you? I don’t think my answer will surprise anyone—it is simply the possibility to unfold one’s creativity in a way that leaves no wish unfulfilled. I always say that you can build everything, it is just a matter of scale and available parts. I also wrote a book on how to design classic everyday objects, such as a Sony Walkman, an Atari gaming console, Haribo candy, pencils, and so on. By the way, this book is my personal favorite. Your latest build of a mini-diorama of the Trench Run scene as seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is definitely a masterpiece. What inspired you to build that classic Star Wars scene? During a building phase of LEGO Star Wars micro-models, I was reminded of how I had desired to build some parts of it in motion for a long time, but hadn’t due to being inexperienced with motors and electronic building blocks until then. Besides, the LEGO Technic theme is not necessarily part of my collection area. However, since one of my co-authors, Eugen Sellin, is more experienced with LEGO Technic, we realized the Trench Run’s design together. To set the X-Wing Starfighter smoothly into focus, I connected a big tire as flywheel with a worm.

The microscale X-Wing with pilot and support.

Can you tell us a bit about the construction of your build—did you use any special techniques? In the end, it was quite easy; however, we used classic Technic elements from the ’80s and drove them with modern motors. The old Technic chain links have two studs on their side and can be perfectly equipped with 1x12 plates.

Front view.

Filming the trench.

A TIE fighter in pursuit! The X-Wing flying down the trench.

Which of the design elements of your Trench Run are your favorite? This makes me smile a bit, as it is the ski poles, the trans purple 1x1 plates, and the 1x5 plate in red that I added to the X-Wing afterwards. How did you know, or figure out how to build such an amazing and seemingly accurate scene? There is no easy answer to this question, since I somehow had an instant vision that the background would work well if it had a rotating screen. Eugen then technically implemented a second horizontal screen floor. I could have probably built this on my own, but working on this thing together was so much fun. Did you freestyle build the design, or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first? Another view of the diorama.

Actually, I never work with a computer design program. The ideas naturally mature over a few days up to a few weeks in my head before I begin building. At some point, the final impulse to devote myself to building a specific thing kicks in, and then there are a few trial-and-error moments. Frequently, while holding a special element in my hands, I will find it resembles something else. For example, a white ski pole might remind me of the weaponry of an X-Wing. In terms of proportions, I have mostly the right eye and intuition. While making this build, were there any moments when you felt stuck? If so, how did you overcome that obstacle? Not at all. I had very clear ideas of the whole thing and could surprisingly reach that inner representation very closely. What advice would you give to someone who would like to build such a Star Wars scene of their own? Have a look at the prominent details of a model and evaluate with which elements you can recreate them. Then, simply try it out. Even if your build doesn’t resemble it during the process, finish it. If the result is not satisfying, keep on improving it.

And a view of the bottom of the X-Wing.

Scout walkers and troopers.

Imperial Shuttle.

Joachim’s model of the Imperial landing pad with walker and shuttle. AT-AT walker.

Can you tell us about your other mini-builds from the Star Wars universe? My all-time favorite vehicle of all the movies is the AT-AT. This has always been the case, and this is certainly not going to change. I can barely remember in how many sizes I have already built it. In my younger days, I even built models of it from cardboard and wood. However, I never built model kits because I always wanted to be fully creative on my own.

A snowspeeder by Joachim.

Another build and layout by Joachim.

I always describe my building sessions as phases. When I build cars, I build the same type in different colors and variations. When I build minifigures, I always build many of them at once because one idea chases another. That is particularly the case with my micro-models from Star Wars: a Snowspeeder, a TIE Fighter, an AT-ST, maybe some dioramas on top, and so on. Sometimes a totally different theme overtakes me, and I change genres. Other times, there are building contracts, deadlines, or something similarly responsible for what is being created. It is not uncommon for me to return to a previous theme several months later.

What inspired you to design these builds? Precisely the possibility of improving them at a later point. When you already have models at home and you think you can build them better with new elements, then you simply re-build them eventually. Are any instructions of your designs available to the public? If so, where can they be found? How would our readers go about finding your latest work? The most important things you can find on my Instagram account. Some of my books are already out of print, but you might still find them in used condition. Generally, all of my books in German and English are directly available at the publisher Heel Verlag, from any well-stocked booksellers, Amazon, etc. From time to time, some of my models are available at JB Spielwaren, or you can find my column “Joe’s Part” at Promobricks. CphBricks from Denmark did instructions for my micro AT-AT. I might eventually use Rebrickable. Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share? I’m always very pleased to see others adopting my ideas and refining them. Since I enjoy taking a closer look at these, I encourage others to tag me on their posts, and if I have the time to, I will respond with a comment. A toy robot by Joachim.

Statler & Waldorf’s balcony (made before the Muppet minifigures were released.)

Joachim with his collection.

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!

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES!

2023

BRICKJOURNAL magazine (edited by Joe Meno) spotlights all aspects of the LEGO® Fan Community, showcasing events, BRICKJOURNAL #82 people, and models every issue, with Disney’s 100th anniversary contributions and how-to articles by top Celebrating in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN builders worldwide, new product intros, HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, and more. Available in both FULL-COLOR by instructions to build characters, plus: print and digital editions. Print subscribers Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can get the digital version FREE!

SUBSCRIBE! Six issues: 73 in the US $ 111 International • $29 Digital Only $

BRICKJOURNAL #78

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Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

Explore the CASTLE theme with builders GUILLAUME GREUZARD and AMENK SACHO! And building castles with some of the best castle builders in the LEGO fan community! Plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS! Edited by JOE MENO.

Create Brick Art with builders ANDREAS LELANDER and JACK ENGLAND! Learn how to build mosaics and sculptures with DEEP SHEN and some of the best LEGO builders around the world! Plus: AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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

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

BRICKJOURNAL #76

BRICKJOURNAL #75

BRICKJOURNAL #74

Celebrate Spring with AMADO PINLAC and JAMES ZHAN’s botanical LEGO® builds! Learn how to grow a brick garden of your own with some of the best builders in the LEGO community! Plus: AFOLs by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

LEGO® PHOTOGRAPHY, with guest editor SHELLY CORBETT! SCOTT MURPHY on how he brings his whimsical ideas to life, WENDY VERBOOM photographs LEGO minifigures meeting nature, and ARVIN COLOMA shows how to photograph LEGO in unexpected places! Plus BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, building instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and JARED K. BURKS’ Minifigure Customization!

Visit the BRICK ANIMAL KINGDOM with with KEN ITO’s amazing ocean creatures, fascinating woodland creatures by MIRO DUDAS, and the animal creations of FILBRICK! Plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

The fast-changing world of MECHA! Learn how to build mechs with some of the best mecha builders in the world: BENJAMIN CHEH, KELVIN LOW, LU SIM, and SAM CHEUNG! Plus: AFOLs (“Adult Fans of LEGO”) by cartoonist GREG HYLAND, step-by step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

Amazing LEGO® STAR WARS builds, including Lando Calrissian’s Treadable by JÜRGEN WITTNER, Starkiller Base by JHAELON EDWARDS, and more from STEVEN SMYTH and Bantha Bricks! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, stepby-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK (including a LEGO BB-8), and more! Edited by JOE MENO.

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

BRICKJOURNAL #73

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BRICKJOURNAL #71

BRICKJOURNAL #70

BRICKJOURNAL #69

Board ANTOINE HUGUERRE’s Big Thunder Mountain! Go to Monstropolis to help Sully find Mike Wazowski in BRANDON JAMES’ Monsters, Inc factory! Plus, more intricate STAR WARS creations by builder LEE GOLDMAN, nerding Out with BrickNerd, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

LEGO® COLOR! A mosaic by Bricknerd’s DAVE SCHEFCIK, CAZ MOCKETT and her monocolor habitats, flowers and other creations by INEZ VAQUEZ, STEVEN SMYTH’s intricate Star Wars builds, “AFOLs” by GREG HYLAND, step-bystep “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS, and more!

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!

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!

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#55: LEGO heads & tails!

#54: Top secret LEGO!

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#28: The LEGO Movie!

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#26: LEGO Creatures!

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#23: LEGO Star WarsTM!

#22: LEGO Plane building!

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MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION #1 AND #2

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JARED K. BURKS shares his knowledge of the techniques he uses to alter the lovable LEGO® Minifigure into any character you can imagine! #1 offers 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! #2 presents advanced techniques: 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!

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Last Word Another issue down! Hope y’all liked it—it was a tough issue this time. But next issue is going to be a lot of fun, as we do a Disney-themed issue. There’s going to be some really neat stuff to see and build! And you’ll learn about this build at left—it’s got a great backstory that I only learned out about at Brickfair Fredericksburg 2023, in Virginia! There will also be features on some great Disney builds, and maybe a surprise... as I am a Disney fan! So get ready for issue #82! That Joe Meno Guy

Hmmmmm.....

Classics

Get RetroFan back issues! Many early issues are close to selling out!

Order online, or by mail include $4 US postage for the first magazine, and $2 for each additional magazine on the same order. See back cover for subscription rates.

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #27

RETROFAN #29

RETROFAN #30

RETROFAN #31

Interview with Captain Kangaroo BOB KEESHAN, The ROCKFORD FILES, teen monster movies, the Kung Fu and BRUCE LEE crazes, JACK KIRBY’s comedy comics, DON DRYSDALE’s TV drop-ins, outrageous toys, Challenge of the Super Friends, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Magic memories of ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY for the 60th Anniversary of TV’s Bewitched! Plus: The ’70s thriller Time After Time (with NICHOLAS MEYER, MALCOLM McDOWELL, and DAVID WARNER), The Alvin Show, BUFFALO BOB SMITH and Howdy Doody, Peter Gunn, Saturday morning’s Run Joe Run and Big John Little John, a trip to Camp Crystal Lake, and more fun, fab features!

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RETROFAN #23

RETROFAN #24

RETROFAN #25

RETROFAN #26

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.

The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY.

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RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #18

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

RETROFAN #21

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.

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.

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Go to www.twomorrows.com to preview and order, including RetroFan #1-16!

New from TwoMorrows!

ALTER EGO #183

ALTER EGO #184

ALTER EGO #185

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #31 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32

Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!

Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!

Career-spanning interview with Bane’s co-creator GRAHAM NOLAN! Plus, STAN LEE’s Carnegie Hall debacle of 1972, the Golden Age Quality Comics’ work of FRANK BORTH (Phantom Lady, Spider Widow), and GREG BIGA talks with ex-DC Comics co-publisher DAN DIDIO on his current career as writer/creator on the FRANK MILLER PRESENTS comics line, as well as that new comics line’s publisher!

WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay. Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!

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Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist IRV NOVICK (Shield, Steel Sterling, Batman, The Flash, and DC war stories) is immortalized by JOHN COATES and DEWEY CASSELL. Interviews with Irv and family members, tributes by DENNY O’NEIL, MARK EVANIER, and PAUL LEVITZ, Irv’s involvement with painter ROY LICHTENSTEIN (who used Novick’s work in his paintings), Mr. Monster, FCA, and more!

BACK ISSUE #147

BACK ISSUE #148

KIRBY COLLECTOR #88

RETROFAN #28

Great Hera, it’s the 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF BACK ISSUE, featuring a tribute to the late, great GEORGE PÉREZ! Wonder Woman: The George Pérez Years, Pérez’s 20 Greatest Hits of the Bronze Age, Pérez’s fanzine days, a Pérez remembrance by MARV WOLFMAN, a Wonder Woman interview with MINDY NEWELL, and more! With a stunning Wonder Woman cover by Pérez!

DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!

THE COLLECTORS! Fans’ quest for and purchase of Jack’s original art and comics, MARV WOLFMAN shares his (and LEN WEIN’s) interactions with Jack as fans and pros, unseen Kirby memorabilia, an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER moderating the 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International, plus a deluxe wrap-around Kirby cover with foldout back cover flap, inked by MIKE ROYER!

The BRITISH INVASION of the Sixties, interview with Bond Girl TRINA PARKS, The Mighty Hercules, Horror Hostess MOONA LISA, World’s Greatest Super Friends, TV Guide Fall Previews, the Frito Bandito, a Popeye Super Collector, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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BACK ISSUE #146

MEN WITHOUT FEAR, featuring Daredevil’s swinging ’70s adventures! Plus: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age, JEPH LOEB interview about his Challs and DD projects with TIM SALE, Sinestro and Mr. Fear histories, superheroes with disabilities, and... Who Is Hal Jordan? Featuring CONWAY, ENGLEHART, McKENZIE, ROZAKIS, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, & more! GENE COLAN cover!