BrickJournal #83 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Issue 83 • January/February 2024

Goes to Space!

Space Build Challenges:

SHIPtember FebROVERy NoVVember

Dana Knudsen’s Baby Space!

$10.95 US $12.95 CAN

INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!

Find us @Barnes & Noble or Subscribe!

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEGO ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL AGES! ®

BRICKJOURNAL magazine spotlights all aspects of the LEGO® Community! It showcases events, people, and models every issue, with contributions and how-to articles by top builders worldwide, new product intros, and more. Available in FULL-COLOR print and digital editions.

#82 is now shipping!

NEXT ISSUE: ONE OF THE BIGGEST LEGO COMMUNITY FAN BUILDS EVER DONE! SUBSCRIBE NOW!

#84 ships February 2024!

GET THE NEXT SIX PRINT ISSUES PLUS FREE DIGITAL EDITIONS!

K-IN S LOC RATE 3 202

SUBSCRIBE TO BRICKJOURNAL

o $73 Economy US Postpaid (backing board, poly bag) o $100 Premium US (rigid mailer, faster delivery) o $111 International o $29 Digital Editions Only Name: Address: City/Province: State: Country (if not USA): E-mail address:

Zip Code:

(for free digital editions)

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

TwoMorrows Publishing

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

For faster service, order online at:

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

Issue 83 • January/February 2024

Contents

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

People Jason Wolfson’s Eagle Transporter............................................3 Joe Chamber’s Battle of Endor..................................................6 Dana Knudson’s Classic Baby Space.......................................14

Building

You Can Build It Baby X-1 Patrol Craft...................................19 442-B Space Shuttle....................................22 Is FebROVERy the Best Month of the Year?......................................................24 SHIPtember Going BIG, or... ...............................................30

NoVVember Vic Viper Month.............................................40 Brian Williams: How to Light a Fire — Without Rubbing Two Bricks Together...................................44 Minifigure Customization 101: The Return of the Ocelotl..........................48 BrickNerd Instructions: MINI Vic Viper.................................................52 MINI Space Rovers........................................57 You Can Build It MINI Crimson Firehawk.............................58

Community

Bantha Bricks: Corey Schaaf’s Kintan Strider Speeder Bike...................................................62

Sneak Peek: Avatar’s Pandora by ILUG..........................70 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Next Issue............................................................80

From the Editor:

January/February 2024 Issue 83

In space no one can hear you scream. I say that because this issue was a tough one. I would have thought that a spacethemed issue would have been easy to do—there’s a lot of space builders online and off.

Publisher John Morrow

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 David Strenzler Contributors: Jared Burks, Joe Chambers, Christopher Deck, Shawn Denowh, Greg Fastabend, Dana Knudson, Andreas Lenander, Corey Schaaf, Brian Williams, Jason Wolfson, the contributors to SHIPtember and NoVVember, and Greg Hyland.

But... ...other circumstances made things a bit more complicated. Most are my fault, but there were just enough setbacks for me to want to scream. It happens. But oftentimes, when it happens, plowing forward creates new opportunities and ideas to try, and some make the magazine better. And I can’t scream at that. There’s some neat stuff in this issue. Hope you enjoy it! 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

Facebook

Subscriptions

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

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

About the Cover: Dana Knudson shows one of his Baby Space models. Photo by Dana Knudson. About the Contents Page: More of Baby Space. Photo by Dana Knudson.

Glossary: AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top)

GREEBLING (adding small parts to a surface to create visual interest) 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 83, January/February 2024 (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.

Building

Jason Wolfson’s

Eagle Transporter Article and Photography by Jason Wolfson, PhD

Jason’s Eagle cockpit.

As a young kid, I was always into science-fiction and fantasy. In the mid-’70s, the show Space: 1999 hit TV screens, and I was hooked. Essentially there is an international base on the moon and the adventures of the crew. I didn’t fully grasp the concept of the show until I was older and watched it again: September 13, 1999, there is an explosion on the moon, the moon gets torn out of Earth’s orbit, and hurtles into deep space. The one thing about the show that many people remember is their iconic spacecraft, the Eagle. The design of this ship, to me, is realistic, practical, and above all, really cool looking. I have always wanted to build this out of LEGO bricks, and in order to do it justice, models had to be extremely large to capture the amazing details of this spacecraft. However, at the beginning of this year (2023), I was looking at the various new LEGO pieces available, and that, coupled with being invited to Doctoberfest 2023 (primarily a Doctor Who convention) to display and talk about my Doctor Who LEGO creations, I decided that I would build the Eagle (the show promoter loves Space: 1999 Eagles!). First thing I worked on was the cockpit of the ship. Like most things I work on, I concentrate my efforts on the part of the model that draws you in, like the face of Gonzo or the head of the Jabberwock, two models that are some of my favorite MOCs I have built in the past. For reference, I used a small die-cast model of the Eagle to gauge the proportions of the model and make sure what I built matched well. I also had Space: 1999 episodes playing in the background for more inspiration. Following the construction of the cockpit, I worked on the main body of the ship. Using the model as reference, I figured out how many studs long and wide I needed to build the main body of the craft. The Technic connector pieces were the perfect pieces to use to match the pipe-like support structure that gives the Eagle its iconic look. My first iteration of this was very weak structurally, so inside I reinforced it with several of the newer Technic modified frame (11 x 15) inside to keep it stable and more easily transportable. It is very stable when I hold it in the center there. Many people have asked me if the center part of the ship can be swapped out for other modules (like in the TV show). Unfortunately, the answer is no at this time. To do this would make 3

The Eagle body.

the model weak and difficult to transport. As nice as it would be to have the center module swap out from the standard to the many other modules (medical/rescue, laboratory, transport, etc.), I kept it to the most commonly seen one to keep it structurally sound. After I was satisfied with the construction of the main body, I started working on the support feet. I thought that an ideal piece to use to match the design was the corner convex panel 3 x 3 x 3, in white. To do the model justice, I needed 32 of this part (8 for each foot), which was only available in sets in 1997. Also, there was no inverted version of this piece in white, so I had to be clever with some SNOT techniques to incorporate this piece. I think it worked out quite well. Finally, the rocket engine in the back was built, and I had fun with getting some details which worked out nicely in the final model. I used Cone Half 8 x 4 x 6, and filled it with some details and took advantage of the holes/grooves that allow for some Technic axles to be used to help hold things together more securely. For some final finishing touches, I found some images of the Moonbase Alpha logo and I made small vinyl stickers to apply to the model.

The Eagle’s rear.

There are some issues with a model like this, being that it has some slight misaligned connections due to the angles in the Technic connector areas. However, with some use of reinforcement in strategic areas, the model stays together quite well. All told, this was built in about 60–80 hours. The story doesn’t end there, as I wanted a swoosh-able model of an Eagle; one that I could hold in one hand, and... well, swoosh! To do this, I noticed several new pieces that LEGO has made that could be used in the same places I used larger discontinued pieces in the big model.

Jason’s Eagles on display.

Again with this model, I started with the cockpit. Some of my favorite new pieces to use are the modified bricks that are 1 x 2 x 1-2/3 with studs on the side or the side and ends. For the smaller model, I could do similar, yet more compact SNOT work, which I used in the cockpit. Building the main body was a little simpler with this model, as the structure is easier to make stable when it is smaller. I still needed to make the structure solid enough, so the model body is not interchangeable. The good news is that since the model is smaller, I can easily replicate this model and let those have the different center modules.

Eagle engine pods.

For the landing feet, I used a similar SNOT technique to construct them, but instead of using the large convex panel, I used the much smaller and easier to obtain wedge 2 x 2 (slope 45 corner). With the rockets in the back, I was able to scale things down easily with some cone pieces and macaroni bricks. The end result was a very swoosh-able model one can hold with one hand without fear of it falling apart. I was encouraged to submit this model to LEGO Ideas, and hopefully this smaller model will get the support from a bunch a guys like me who were influenced at a young age by this wonderful science-fiction show. The link is here: https://bit.ly/Dr_W_Eagle or at the QR code at the left.

Cockpits small and large.

Please support it if you want to own your own version of the ship!

Landing gear.

Building

Joe Chambers:

Battle of Endor Article and Photography by Joe Chambers 6

The blast from the Death Star’s super-laser vaporized another Mon Calamari Cruiser. The Death Star wasn’t supposed to be operational. Of immediate concern, though, was the full Imperial Navy battle formation sprawled out before General Lando Calrissian as he maneuvered the Millennium Falcon through a flurry of blaster fire. “…Yes, I said closer!” he yelled. “Move as close as you can, and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range!” Admiral Akbar recoiled at the thought. A single one of those kilometer-long Imperial-II class Star Destroyers had almost twice the firepower of any ship within the Alliance fleet. “At that close range, we won’t last long against those Star Destroyers.” As true as that was, they desperately needed to buy time. “We’ll last longer than we will against that Death Star,” Lando replied, “and we might just take a few of them with us!”

I’ll readily admit that I’m a sucker for space-battles. Of all the ones from film and TV that I have consumed, the battle of Endor, and specifically this moment from Return of the Jedi, is hands-down my favorite. It’s the “all is lost” moment of the climax of the original trilogy. And the Alliance fleet, in the end, proved to be more than a match for the Empire.

Joe’s multifaceted creation.

This MOC that I title “…And we might just take a few of them with us!” is something I have wanted to create for the better part of my life, and is the second iteration of it, being a full two years in the making. I had the pleasure of displaying this 60,000 piece mid-life crisis at Brick Slopes in Sandy, Utah in late August of 2023, and it’s my pleasure to share some of it with you. My name, by the way, is Joe Chambers, the mind behind Skylab Bricks. While normally I do space history and NASA MOCs, I have recently ventured into another love of mine with Star Wars spacecraft. So, let’s listen to me ramble incoherently on about this creation, shall we?

Anyway, this MOC depicts a forcedperspective scene, possibly a couple minutes after Lando leads the Rebel fleet into their fight for survival against the Imperial Navy. On one side are three Alliance Mon Calamari Cruisers, two Nebulon B class Frigates, and a few other smaller support ships facing off against two Star Destroyers and a pair of smaller Imperial ships. It is a small slice of the battle, but one that shows just how outclassed the Alliance was against the Empire.

Another view showing the mosaic background.

The large, 13-foot-wide mosaic backdrop depicts the forest moon of Endor, with the incomplete Death Star on the lefthand side. Behind the two foreground Star Destroyers, attached directly to the mosaic backdrop, is the Executor Super Star Destroyer, as if the massive ship were far in the background. Surrounding the Executor are several sizes of small Star Destroyers added to show three-dimensional depth to the battle and convey the overwhelming size of the Imperial Fleet. The Executor model was a more recent addition. Originally I had a twodimensional mosaic of it, but then LEGO released the Executor set this year, and of course, that design decision was essentially made for me. The Mon Calamari Cruiser is my favorite ship in all of Star Wars, but it presents a couple of challenges to a LEGO creator. First, their shapes are very organic and curvy, with lots of seemingly random blisters, warts, and rounded protrusions. They are sleek, but also bulbous at the same time. These shapes are not necessarily easy to make in LEGO, though I certainly had a fun time finding ways to do it. And secondly, according to Star Wars lore, each Mon Cal ship is entirely unique, with no two being alike. Therefore, deciding to have three of these ships meant I would be committing to three different builds. Due to constraints on time, I decided to use a design from another creator for one of them and I am very pleased with the results. The Rebel command ship, Home One, is a design I purchased from a very talented creator under the name Jorstad Designs. Their Home One cruiser is very well thought out and beautifully faithful to the on-screen version of the ship. I recommend checking out their website to see this and their other designs.

Two of the Mon Calamari models with lighting.

The first one of the Rebel cruisers I tackled was the Liberty type, or “winged” cruiser. This sub-type has a pair of broad, wing-like extensions on either side of the main hull. Now, I say Liberty type because in the movie, the actual ship named Liberty is the first rebel cruiser that gets whacked by the Death Star. Later in the battle, though, other “winged” ships are seen, so it is generally considered a sub-type of the Mon Cal Cruiser. This one I unofficially named the Valiant to differentiate it in my planning. With this ship, I randomized the blisters and warts in location, size, and color as much as I could, but the first few iterations looked a bit too random. It was a fine line between making it look organic and making it look busy and confusing, but I think I got to a happy medium. The engines were also fun to place, tucked up under the curves and overhangs of the ship’s hull. I also added a flight deck on the underside of the ship that I eventually back-lit with LEDs.

The third type of Mon Cal I named the Ardent. In the Star Wars universe, it is of a type that is colloquially known as a “wingless” cruiser. When making the original film, Industrial Light and Magic made the model for the Liberty type,

shot all its scenes, then removed the wings, and shot all of the scenes for that cruiser. In the same way, I started with my Liberty type, removed the wings, and proceeded to modify it until I was content. The story in my head about this particular ship is that it is a faster, more lightly armored variant with a few more engines. In the MOC scene, it is even set behind the other two more heavily armored cruisers, waiting for its moment to dash ahead.

Rebel forces on the move.

The Nebulon B frigates are based on the rare LEGO set that was intended to be sold exclusively at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2020. I say that they are based on that, but I used that more as a template. In fact, the two frigates in the MOC are different from one another, as one represents my first attempt, and the other represents my final iteration. My one mistake is that their scale is wrong. They should be about two inches shorter than they are, and my inner Star Wars nerd is still screaming about it. The various Rebel support ships, like the GR-75 transports and the CR-90 Corvettes, were designed and assembled near the end of the process. They really help fill out the fleet visually.

A view of the lighting used by the models.

An Imperial Star Destroyer suffers a direct hit.

The centerpiece of the whole display is the two Star Destroyers, specifically the one in the process of Rapid Unplanned Disassembly. These two are the result of an experiment I started a couple years ago and have still not fully finished. I got the LEGO UCS Star Destroyer and had a fun time building it, but if I might be honest, I was not impressed with it. Yes, it was huge and imposing, like a Star Destroyer should be, but it also had entirely too many studs showing and was structurally unstable to the point of being at risk of spontaneous disassembly if you so much as sneezed on it. In fact, I accidentally nudged the conning tower of one and it just plain fell off, as if my elbow was a screaming A-Wing pilot spinning out of control.

Another view of the Star Destroyers.

These ships did start off as the UCS set, but were modified extensively to specifically address these two issues with a liberal application of tiles and new supports, all while using as many of the parts from the original set as possible. What I ended up with was a version that has 1.5 times the number of parts and a good

deal of leftovers. It certainly isn’t swooshable, but it is much stronger and looks a whole lot better than the original. And I’m close to finishing modification instructions, if you are so inclined to that sort of abuse. These two ships in particular were further modified so that they could handle the structural rigor of being suspended within the MOC scene. The exploding Star Destroyer—which I named the Imperator—even has a couple of aluminum extrusions installed inside for an extra dose of “please don’t fall apart.” Now, I’m an electrical engineer, so I usually don’t do things without calculating, designing, and re-designing, often using CAD programs. So, it was a bit unlike me to look at a Star Destroyer that needed exploding and just winging it. But that’s what I did. The explosion is my favorite part, of course, and seemed to be the thing that attracted the most attention while at Brick Slopes. It consists of many hundreds of trans-yellow, trans-orange, and a few trans-black 1x2 plates all arranged in a criss-cross pattern. Debris and other randomized geysers of fire were added where appropriate. I used hinge and ball socket pieces to make it look like parts of the hull were peeling back with the force of the explosion that was coming from the inside of the ship. The turbo-laser turrets can be seen blowing off of their mounts and disintegrating within the flames. I used sticker-backed LED light strips, cut them to length, and soldered them together to backlight all of the transparent flame pieces. It came together as if I had been training my whole life for this very moment. I added some additional touches to complete the story of the scene. I lit all the engines on the ship with LEDs, but on the port side engine, the side that is blowing up, I put a flickering LED, giving the impression that this engine was failing. Additionally, I removed one of the shield generators on the conning tower and replaced it with transparent blue plates. Again, lighting this with a flickering LED, it looks like this shield generator had been destroyed by fighters, making the rest of the ship vulnerable to attack.

A look at the mosaic sections.

Another angle of the Rebel ships.

Another view of the Star Destroyers with the lights down.

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps!

& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!

I suspended the Imperator using a stand I made with a wooden base and t-slot 2020 aluminum extrusions. All of the large ships were likewise suspended above the ground using aluminum supports extending from armatures behind the mosaic wall. Honestly, I wish I could have accomplished this with Technic bricks, but many experiments and testing found that no natural-born LEGO configuration is remotely strong enough to hold a 22lb Star Destroyer. I don’t know if that is “cheating”—whatever that means—but using good oldfashioned metal brackets and [gasp] drilling holes through LEGO pieces was what was needed to make it look like the ships were floating in space. My most sincere apologies to the purists, but, well… look how cool it is! The absolute last ships I added were just for fun. As a wink to all those old-school Star Wars Extended Universe fans like myself, I quickly found instructions for a Carrack Cruiser from designer KY-e Bricks, and a Lancer class Frigate designed by Kdapt-Preacher (both of whom have great stuff on Rebrickable), and ordered parts from a Bricklink store that is in town. These ships were both literally added the morning that the Brick Slopes convention started, and were a great addition to the Imperial side of the battle. The last non-standard modifications were the LEDs I installed inside the engines of all of the cruisers and Star Destroyers. While this did require modifying some pieces to rout wires, and a few dabs of hot glue here and there, the result blew me away. I love the look of the cruisers with their engines lit up. For the mosaic, I used a color-corrected picture of Earth as a stand-in for Endor, and a stock photo of the Death Star, and put them through Studio’s Mosaic Maker. The resulting mosaic was then added to a wall structure that is mostly made up of 16x16 Technic bricks—approximately 336 of them on the

face alone—with an additional 84 used as rear-facing support columns on the back. There are an estimated 5,000 black Technic friction pins and 2,000 blue 3L friction pins in the wall. The seven mosaic sections were all placed on a pair of cheap Ikea bookshelves laid end-to-end on their sides. This allowed the whole scene to be elevated above the floor by 18 inches for better viewing, and with the addition of some screw-in feet, I was able to keep the whole mosaic level on the sometimes-uneven concrete floor of a convention center. The bookshelves also let me tie the entire mosaic wall to something so that it wouldn’t fall over, as two of the panel columns did just a couple of days before Brick Slopes. The final touches included a placard with “…and we might just take a few of them with us!” built by my son, Clark, and my eternally patient wife, Emily—and lastly, my usual running gag, hiding Princess Unikitty somewhere for kids to find. Overall, I had a great time with this build, as stressful and insane as it was. Even more so because I am literally in the middle of moving my family from Utah to Massachusetts. All that being said, come check out my wares and sundries at my Etsy shop under SkylabBricks and see more of my creations on Instagram under Skylab_Bricks. And if all goes well with the move, I’ll have some instructions for these ships to be released quite soon. Happy building, everyone! The mosaic sections with the IKEA bookshelf and metal model stands.

Joe’s wife and son building....

...Unikitty in an inopportune place....

...and Joe with another of his models!

Building

A selection of Knudson’s builds.

Dana Knudson:

Classic Baby Space!

Article and Photography by Dana Knudson 14

Classic Space is one of a few LEGO themes that is a touchstone to many LEGO builders. Recognized by its color scheme of blue and gray, the sets were simple spacecraft piloted by minifigure spacemen. 74 sets were produced under the theme, which became the inspiration for Dana Knudson’s Space Baby models. Dana Knudson is a builder and LEGO ambassador for PeachLUG, a LEGO users group based in Georgia. He was a child of the ’70s, and grew up during the golden age of toys: Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, and LEGO. Most of Dana’s childhood toys ended up in resale shops or sold on Yahoo Auctions when he needed money in his twenties, but he always kept his LEGO space sets. At that time, he had only seven Classic Space sets and one Futuron set. As with most kids, Dana went into a Dark Age, but every so often, he would pull his sets out of storage to rebuild them. He was able to build most of the old sets from memory. When LEGO started releasing Star Wars sets, Dana couldn’t help himself from getting the Slave 1 (Boba Fett’s spaceship) and a couple of other sets. For him, it was like someone got chocolate in his peanut butter; they were fun sets, but he had other interests at the time, so he didn’t get any more sets. However,

The Ross County Courthouse.

every few years, he would find himself in the LEGO aisle and end up getting something: a Millennium Falcon one year or another Slave 1... oh look, an AT-AT! Buying was just casual—nothing crazy. It was Spring of 2014 that Dana found The LEGO Movie. Benny the Spaceman was the man! When LEGO announced the release of 70816: Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP!, he pre-ordered it immediately. Dana’s love of Classic Space was reignited, and with it, his joy of LEGO building. He became a regular at his local LEGO store, where one of the employees introduced him to the local LUG. His Dark Age officially over, Dana started gathering parts for building his own creations. He also started picking up the Classic Space sets he didn’t have in childhood. His AFOL life was awakened. LEGO building became his artistic outlet, as Dana works in Information Technology. Most of his day is composed of very analytical problem solving and not so much creativity or art. Building lets him step away from problem solving and do something to relax.

6927B All-Terrain Vehicle.

Dana’s inspiration for his Space Baby MOCs came from Series 24 of the Collectible Minifigures. While most were excited about the Reddish Brown Classic Spaceman, for Dana it was all about the Blue Space Baby that was the accessory to the Spaceman.

6861 X-1 Partol Craft. 483-B Alpha-1 Rocket Base.

442-B Space Shuttle.

889-B Radar Truck.

LEGO has been releasing more Spaceman colors, but the Space Baby was something new. Dana saw a friend get a baby and build a little spaceship for it, albeit in Friends colors. Dana knew that when he got one, he would build it a proper spaceship. He ended up building his baby an homage to one of his favorite sets growing up: 6861 X1 Patrol Craft. A friend then joked about building a homage to 442: Space Shuttle, so naturally he had to build it as well. This is the moment where Dana crossed the point of no return, and began to build homages to all the Classic Space sets. He already loved the Classic Space sets, so this was an opportunity to dive in and pay tribute to each of them. His goal was

to include many of the details from the original sets in his baby versions. Play features were also important. For Dana, picking a favorite model is like asking which is his favorite child. All of the models have bits that are special to him, such as the rocket gantry from 486 or the transparentclear shields on the 452, or even making sure the rover fits on the back of 497. Part of the fun was finding elements to make the reduction in scale still look right, like the round 1 x 1 with bar handle for the monorail car in 6970, the new 1 x 1 plate with bars on two sides for 6801, and Technic ball joints for his beloved balloon tires. Other challenges were building scaled-down versions of the

1558-B Mobile Command Trailer.

497-B Galaxy Commander.

6750-B Sonic Robot.

6950-B Mobile Rocket Transport.

6972-B Polaris 1 Space Lab.

metal detectors for 6928 and using bucket handles for control levers. He used 1 x 1 bracket plates and 1 x 1 hollow round plates by the handful. He thanks the company for making 1 x 2 x 2 windows in blue again—in a Friends set, of all places. Dana found so many uses for 1 x 5 plates. Many builds would not have been possible without the use of one of his all-time favorite elements, the 1 x 2 hinge brick. For the most part, Dana tried only using parts and elements currently in production, but unfortunately, he had to use some retired elements in a few places, such as in 6985: he used 2 x 2 inverted corner slopes in blue, which were only released in two sets, including the original 6985. The end result is a whimsical version of Classic Space, where babies explore the final frontier. The 74 Classic Space sets have been adapted to Baby Space, so Dana is done here. But there’s so much more to build.

You Can Build It

Baby X-1 Patrol Craft Design and Instructions by Dana Knudson

There are other iconic sets that come to people’s minds when they think of Classic Space, but the X-1 Patrol Craft was Dana’s first Classic Space set when he was a kid and holds a special place in his childhood. Naturally, it was the first of the Baby Space builds he made. For him, the original set was a perfect build. Simple enough to build from memory, swooshable, and with great parts to build something from your own imagination. He didn’t realize it at the time, but when he built it, he was essentially setting the scale for the rest of his builds and his own fan theme: Baby Space.

Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Color 1 Black 1 Trans Green 2 Trans Red 2 Trans Red 6 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 6 Lt Bluish Grey 4 2 2 2 2 2 2

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

17 4 1 2

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

Part 98138.dat 3070b.dat 3070b.dat 6141.dat 2420.dat 2431.dat 3020.dat 3023.dat 3040b.dat 3710.dat 3794b.dat

Description Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Plate 1 x 1 Round Plate 2 x 2 Corner Tile 1 x 4 with Groove Plate 2 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 15712.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) 32828.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar 43722.dat Wing 2 x 3 Right 43723.dat Wing 2 x 3 Left 59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 73587p02.dat Hinge Control Stick Base with Control Stick 85861.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud 87994.dat Bar 3L 92946.dat Slope Plate 45.73 2 x 1 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated

You can see more of Dana’s work at his Instagram gallery: @troublesbricking and/or his Rebrickable account: Rebrickable https://rebrickable.com/users/ TroublesBricking/mocs/ which can be scanned with the QR code here!

You Can Build It

442-B Space Shuttle Design and Instructions by Dana Knudson Another set that Dana built in Baby Space is this shuttle. Seating two babies, this shuttle is a small, swift spaceship that is also easy to build. The finished model is a cute, swooshable version of the Classic Space set. Have fun building!

Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Color 2 Black 1 Trans Green 2 Trans Red 2 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 5 Lt Bluish Grey 1 4 3 4

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

4 2 1 1

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

Lt Bluish Grey

1 2

Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey

Part 98138.dat 30153.dat 3070b.dat 2420.dat 3020.dat 3021.dat 3022.dat 3023.dat 3024.dat 3040b.dat 3710.dat 3794b.dat

Description Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Rock 1 x 1 Gem Facetted Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Plate 2 x 2 Corner Plate 2 x 4 Plate 2 x 3 Plate 2 x 2 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 1 Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 3795.dat Plate 2 x 6 4081b.dat Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2 15712.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) 20482.dat Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole 26601.dat Plate 2 x 2 without Corner 32828.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar 54200.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 54200pc1.dat Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 with 1 Yellow and 8 White Squares Pattern 58176.dat Cylinder Domed 1 x 1 x 1.667 with Bar 73587p02.dat Hinge Control Stick Base with Light Bluish Grey Control Stick 85861.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud 87580.dat Plate 2 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud

The short and simple answer is… yes! FebRovrey is clearly the best month of the year, and let me tell you why. Now, before you go crazy and start making arguments for SHIPtember (yes Simon, it’s awesome as well) or NoVVember (that is actually a pretty awesome month too, by the way), let me explain why I love FebROVERy so much that I decided to build an army of rovers and write an article about it.

Building

Origins of FebROVERy

The legend of FebROVERy can be traced back to sometime in 2011 where the person behind this whole thing, Crimso Giger, first wrote this on Flickr: “I’ve created a new group called ‘LEGO Classic Space Rovers,’ dedicated to... well, Classic Space Rovers! You know, those silly little ground vehicles which were so common in the ’80s to mid-’90s Space themes. The purpose of the group is to have fun!” Some of Andreas’ rover builds: OCS-82.

Is FebROVERy the Best Month of the Year? Article by Andreas Lenander of BrickNerd.com

HA-2M.

2011 seems to have been the official starting point, meaning that we are over a decade into marking this magnificent theme-month—which makes it even more fitting to write this article now! However, in 2011 the group was still called “LEGO Classic Space Rovers,” so we need to jump forward a year before the first mention of the term FebROVERy appears. That was the first year people started inviting other builders to join the group and share in the fun that is now synonymous with FebROVERy. Since then, the number of rovers in that group has reached some seriously impressive proportions, with around 3500 photos!

When I first got into the AFOL community, I was pretty quickly fascinated with all the different thememonths. (Come on, slightly changing the name of the month to match it with a specific LEGO challenge? That’s pure comedy gold right there!) Like most “new” AFOLs, my collection was fairly limited at that time, and FebROVERy was the perfect MCR-44. “gateway drug” to really get into the community, as it doesn’t require a large number of pieces. Another aspect is that it has never really been a contest. Don’t get me wrong, contests are a lot of fun (I mean, did you see all the fun stuff submitted to Nerdly Strikes Back?!) and a great way to sharpen your skills as a builder, but sometimes you just want to kick back and build a silly little rover. In 2021, in honor of the 10th anniversary of FebROVERy, I built more than ten rovers.

It’s All About the Wheels So what the heck is FebROVERy? Well, if you’ve read this far, I assume you want some more insight. So let’s get into it. To me, the most important aspect of FebROVERy is having a lot of fun (a very controversial stand, I know). Aside from that, FebROVERy is all about the wheels! LEGO has produced a lot of wheels over the years, so there’s no shortage of options to choose from. However, what’s become sort of a hallmark of this challenge is to make brick-built wheels (or tracks if that’s more your thing). After going through some of the pictures in the group, it is truly mindblowing how many ways there are to build wheels out of LEGO. This year, I built quite a few rovers, and I decided early on that I wanted to focus on that particular aspect when building them. I did “cheat” a few times as I found some cool older wheels that I just had to use, but I have to admit that making brick-built wheels is a lot more fun.

Q-21-R.

Fair warning: making a round shape out of LEGO is not for the faint of heart. There is a really good chance that you may experience some slight frustration when you build with illegal connections… or so I’ve heard from other people…. not me… okay, it was me.

The Original Rover So let’s jump back a bit and have a deeper look at the history of FebROVERy as we celebrate the month! I reached out to some of the more prolific contributors in the FebROVERy group on Flickr and got a lot of great responses. So let’s start with Crimso Giger, aka the man, the myth, the legend. “Well first off, thanks for this great project! I’m not sure I’m the mastermind of FebROVERy, I’ve just started the thing in a really improvised and simple way. And if people didn’t follow so brilliantly, it wouldn’t have gone very far. Today, it’s mostly builders like you, or Frost, or David Roberts (amongst others) that make the show, and it’s quite cool for me as I don’t have to run everywhere like I used to do some years ago with my big production.

CDX-21.

Another of Andreas’ rovers.

“What I really want to emphasize, and what brings me a lot of joy, is that 2021 can already be called a great FebROVERy... with this real-life crown achievement that is Perseverance! And I’m happy to be a part of this army of artists that contributes to a certain sense of dream that is FebROVERy!” On the left are just a few of Crimso’s rovers from over the years.

The Spirit of FebROVERy In an interview with David Alexander Smith from 2017, Crimso gave some additional insight to the spirit of FebROVERy: A few of Crimso’s rovers.

“To be perfectly honest, the whole thing happened as a kind of accident. I’d uploaded some Classic Spacestyle rovers on Flickr, saying humorously in the description, ‘I could build these all day long.’ People seemed amused by the idea and someone proposed it could be a theme for a month-long challenge, another that a cool name for it would be FebROVERy… So from that simple beginning, it became a collective effort. “That said, I think I’ve provided the true impulse for the process, through the numerous creations I’ve made for that event over the years. I also put the emphasis on fun, where other month-long building challenges choose a more serious tone. The main point was not to create a contest; more a kind of party, with a theme that didn’t require too much time or parts to produce cool creations. I also avoided too precise guidelines, in order to give builders more freedom. “I really hope that this month-long challenge will remain popular in years to come! It’s probably this month that gives me the most fun and pleasure; sharing my models with such a creative and friendly community.” I think it’s safe to say that Crimso’s wish came true as FebROVERy is still attracting new builders and is still— more than ten years into it—one of the most popular theme-months we have in the LEGO community. And more importantly, as Crimso himself was eager to emphasize when I chatted with him, the main focus

of FebROVERy remains having fun and promoting whimsical creativity—something illustrated perfectly by Walter Whiteside Jr. and his radio rover.

Nostalgia and Invention Moving further into the FebROVERy lore, we find the above-mentioned David Alexander Smith, an avid rover-builder, who was kind enough to share his thoughts about this magnificent month. “FebROVERy has always been the most joyous occasion for me, pulling together so many things that are great about the LEGO community. It’s a heady mixture of nostalgia and innovation all wrapped up in a fun, unpretentious community event. For a few weeks each year, it gets me on my knees building like a child again. There is little planning, but is mostly just the scattering of bricks and the serendipity involved in discovering crazy new ways to build. Finding a familiar element and suddenly seeing how it can be adapted to rover design is the thrill that keeps me feverishly building through the month. “For those of us who have children, it also gives us a chance to build together with our kids, explore the nature of construction conventions with them, as well as sharing the unparalleled wonder of the Classic Space theme. And when the community gets behind an idea like this, it brings out the best in us AFOLs. Checking the FebROVERy feed during this period is like watching a fireworks display of childhood magic and unrestricted imagination.”

Walter Whiteside’s radio rover.

A few of the rovers David Alexander Smith has built over the years.

Classic Space Makes You Smile Another guy synonymous with small rovers, often accompanied by a smiling Classic Space figure, is David Roberts, who had this to say on the topic. “I enjoy how the first Classic Space sets were small and simple and had a very limited palette, yet the variations which can be built in that style are huge. I also like how the Classic Spacemen were always smiling, always busy, always purposeful, yet we never found out what kept them so busy.

Some of David Roberts favorite rovers.

“FebROVERy is fun because it’s not a competition, so there’s no pressure. You just build a LEGO space or sci-fi vehicle and that’s it. The world is your oyster! You can build whatever happens to inspire you that month: sensible or silly, big or small. There’s a lot of freedom and friendliness. You don’t need loads of bricks to build something SHIP-sized or even the latest colours or parts. I’ve discovered several builders to follow this year, and do every year, and it’s often folk who’ve done something creative with just a handful of bricks. “Regarding the most important feature on rovers, the Vehicle Design Department of Llwyngwril Systems would probably tell you it’s something that makes the vehicle impractical or just downright dangerous (if a lot of the rovers I’ve made over the years are anything to go by, ha-ha!). Aside from that, wheels!”

Building a Story Last, but by no means least, I got ahold of Frost—one of the most prolific rover builders that roam Flickr these days, and someone that often tells a story with his builds.

Some rovers by Frost.

“I have such fond memories of the LEGO Space sets of the late ’80s and early ’90s. I was always so excited to see the new catalog and find a new faction being introduced. Wheeled space vehicles have always appealed to me—something about trundling around and exploring the surface of some strange alien world. “FebROVERy is about that same childlike excitement and boundless imagination. It is not a contest, and there are no strict constraints on form or features. This is a place for me to build what I enjoy building, and an opportunity to share it with others who appreciate the same things. In 2015, and every year since, I have challenged myself to publish a new rover for each day in February. I guess the best word to describe my motivation to build a rover-a-day is compulsion, ha-ha!

“I enjoy the silly storytelling, creating new characters, and have lately moved into building one continuous story for FebROVERy. I start off

with a basic outline of the plot in my mind, but I like to improvise along the way and see where it takes me. I often start with a character, or a color scheme or an idea for some new strange wheel combination, and the build begins there. Sometimes the whole rover is built to illustrate a joke or a pun. “

Why FebROVERy Is the Best I’ll try and wrap this thing up, as most of you are probably tired of hearing me go on about FebROVERy, and would much rather just sit down and build a silly rover! At least I hope you do, because it’s a really great way to relax and find some joy in an otherwise really stressful time. But I think it is clear why FebROVERy is still going strong. FebROVERy brings out the creativity and wonder in each of us. It gives us an excuse to play, to build with unconventional parts, to be inspired by our fellow LEGO fans, and have fun in a non-competitive atmosphere.

More rovers by Frost.

I feel very honored to have been able to write this article as a tribute to all the wonderful people in our community that contribute to making February into FebROVERy—the best month of the year! And that’s why FebROVERy is the best month of the year!

Building SHIPtember:

Going BIG, or...

September is when Space builders (or Spacers) go big! For them, the month is SHIPtember—which has a double meaning. The month is devoted to building and showing spaceships that are 100 studs or longer in length, which are Seriously Huge Investments in Parts. A green baseplate is 32 studs or 10 inches long, so 100 studs is over 30 inches—a pretty large size and scale to start a build. Traditionally, this month-long challenge is hosted on Flickr, with many Spacers contributing ships to the SHIPtember armada. In 2022, 63 builders built 73 SHIPs. Here’s a gallery of some of the builds, with comments and a little history from the builders (known by their Flickr handle) about their SHIP and how they became part of SHIPtember.

Article and Photography by the builders of SHIPtember

Red Spacecat: Frigate About ten years ago, Simon Liu (Si-MOCs) reached out to me with the request to create a poster for his “space themed month” idea. I thought that sounded like a great event and gladly made a poster design for him. With me being a slow builder, especially with larger projects, it took me until 2018 to even attempt an entry myself. That time my idea didn’t really come to fruition, and I opted out without having completed the build. Come 2022 and already one week into SHIPtember with no intention of entering, I suddenly got inspired and hastily took to Studio to begin sketching out the ideas I had in my mind. Before I knew it I was ordering parts and committed to see this iteration through. I barely finished before the deadline and was proud to score second place in the people’s choice awards. The main inspiration for my SHIP, and indeed the reason why I completed my entry this time, was the many new parts that had come out over the span of 2021 and 2022. Many seemed tailor-made for my specific style of building, and I set the goal of using as many of them as possible in this one build. This did mean my SHIP would be predominantly white, because most of these relatively new parts weren’t available in many colors by the time I started building. As the project developed, the design leaned more and more towards the classic Japanese aesthetics of “Space Battleship Yamato” and the like. This realization dictated my direction moving forward and gave me a clearer endpoint for the project. I was very happy with the end result, enough so that I keep updating the build when new colors become available to further enhance it. emklement • Pegasus 6o In September 2021, I joined the LEGO SPACE! Discord where SHIPtember is held. This is where I also found out about SHIPtember for the first time. When I saw all the amazing WIPs of the SHIPs, I wanted to participate. At this time, I didn’t have enough time and pieces to build a SHIP, but in 2022 I finally had enough of both to build.

My main inspiration for the SHIP was the 2x2 Curved Slope (part number 15068), of which I bought a ton of extras for SHIPtember. My other inspirations were a lot of different vertical spaceship’s concept arts that I found on Flickr.

janhonho • Odonata I started building with SHIPtember back in 2018 after hearing about it on the Swebrick (Swedish RLUG) forums. After that, I got bitten and made sure to participate every year since then. In 2022, I got inspired by dragonflies and I tried to mimic their broad shape, but also freely adapt it: long tail, rotors for wings, cockpits in the eyes, legs (but only four of them), patterned and colorful surfaces. I also wanted to include some play function: The front and back rotors tilt together when moving the lower part of the tail. The result is Odonata and I like to imagine it being used for recon missions in unstable spatial environments requiring extra maneuverability and visibility. oOger • Juno

Blue Skined Beast • LL480 Aegirocassis-class Cruiser I’ve known about SHIPtember for several years but I was always a bit confused about how participation was counted, so while this wasn’t my first SHIP or even my first built in September, this was the first time I made it onto the poster. My own idiot fault for not trying to find a Flickr group specific to SHIPtember, but I’m a bit backwards about Internet things sometimes. Still, we made it at last! Yay! The name and design inspiration for this build—Aegirocassis—is taken from an ancient filter-feeding marine bug related to the famous predator Anomalocaris from the Cambrian Period. I’m something of a paleo nerd (though this seldom makes it into a build) and the shape of Aegirocassis seemed like it would make for an interesting SHIP. It’s Neoclassic Space because that’s relatively easy for my brick inventory. I was building as a kid when Classic Space was new and it was always my favourite theme. At only 102 studs it’s pretty puny as SHIP sizes go, but it was still a bit of a stretch for me. Still, it was my best SHIP to date, and a far more interesting and integrated design than any of my previous attempts.

One of my first bigger projects as an AFOL was to build a big spaceship. This was in 2013. I started uploading some digital teasers and someone mentioned I should try to have it done for SHIPtember. That was the first time I heard about it. I got some great feedback and response to that ship and I was quickly embraced by the community. It was just too fun to not be a part of, and I’ve participated in the event every year since then. The ship I built for SHIPtember 2022 was based on an image I found on Instagram by an artist and LEGO designer named Jonas Norlén. I just really liked the shape and the colors of his design and decided to give it a shot. After I had done some tests and calculations, I realized I would need to buy a lot of green curved slopes. I don’t remember the exact amount, but it was over 2000. When I started building, it quickly became obvious that my design would not be able to sustain the weight of the ship if I held it vertically. So after some discussions on Discord, I decided to build a hanging SHIP. It was a really challenging SHIP in many ways, but I am happy with the result.

Dream Dynamic • Starburst Starship Much like Benny, I will turn anything LEGO into a spaceship. I found the SHIPtember activities after joining the AFOL community around 2016 as a builder/streamer, but wouldn’t have the parts and space to try a SHIP until 2019. My intention for any project of this scale is to push my own limits, and this began with a physical SHIP that included a rotating gravity wheel and internal working LEDs. The gravity wheel and lighting FX carried over to each SHIPtember, where I would advance the process and style for each SHIP. The Starburst Starship was born out of a digital freebuild intended to continue work in Blender, where I was learning animation processes to make my SHIPs move. Built in Studio in just over a week, the remainder of the month was spent refining the lighting effects, Blender animations and compositions. It represents the fourth Interstellar starship in the series, designed for long voyages; these SHIPs accelerate for the first half of their journey and then spin 180 degrees to slow down for arrival.

stevenwhoward.techillustration • Hóng Hăi I got into SHIPtember in 2020 with my digital build of Ebirah. I saw a lot of fellow AFOLs doing SHIPtember and I wanted to try the challenge myself, and made my first ship in 12 days. I then made a Lord of the Ringsinspired Mouth of Sauron in 2021 and then created Hóng Hăi in 2023. Hóng Hăi was a fun challenge as I collabed with the phenomenal concept artist and my friend, Till Freitag. We used Midjourney AI to give us an image to build (and him to draw) off of. We documented the process for a video on my Youtube channel Digitally Assembled. It was challenging to match the extremely odd image AI produced, but that was the fun of it, and I think it produced a really unique and cool spaceship.

Xavier Clement • White Star I participated in the SHIPtember contest because I so much like the beautiful SHIP and the production of the other candidates. I have no intention to win, but when I see the others, I think to myself: why not me? And it’s so funny to make a ship with so many, or not so many, LEGO parts. Sometimes I really want to use some parts, and sometimes it’s a fail. So it’s a very good contest for beginner builders or experienced, and if you already have a good LEGO collection. This contest links three things I like: LEGO, building, and science-fiction. I find my inspiration in science-fiction movies (Star Wars and others), video games, and with other creators. I create a backstory to define the function of the SHIP; for the 2022 contest, I built a long distance transport. For the building, I also wanted to make a modular ship, so I can make another model with ship parts which have the same modules. Maybe it’s what will be happen for contest 2024, because in 2023 I want to do something else. For the future, why not re-use the body part of this ship to make another one?

[Julie v] • B.E.A.T. 82 I’ve been involved with SHIPtember since the beginning back in 2013. Si-MOCs had convinced me to try my hand at a spaceship, and then later that year came the very first SHIPtember, so I of course had to build my second SHIP ever the same year. I’ve participated in every SHIPtember since. For 2022, I started with a pile of Vidiyo sets. So naturally the colour palette had to be built around teal, purple, and vibrant coral. From there I took inspiration from the Millennium Falcon-style offset cockpit cargo pusher, and mashed it with the music theme of Vidiyo to create the Big Engine Auxiliary Tug (B.E.A.T.), an old tug converted into a music playing space yacht owned by an eccentric DJ. Coming up with an acronym for the name is an important part of the design process!

[Julie v]• ~TheBricker~• AL13N163NA• Andreas Lenander• BetaNotus• BlueSkinnedBeast• Brick-Fil-A• carrier lost• Charlie Jones• Crescentius SH• Daughter of ito• David Roberts• DJ Quest• Dmanw100• DreamDynamic• Elephant-Knight• Entertainingly lame• Eric Landreneau• Eric TheSkeleton• Exar66• Greeble_Scum• Greeblelord• Henjin_Quilones• Henry• Isaac Snyder• ito• Jan Kusters• Jason Corlett• Jean-Noël Monette• Joshua Dinklage• Klement Elias•

ktorrek• Kyle Peckham• LegOH!• LegoRockets• levin.mocs• Lysander’s Stud Studio• Martin Spunkt• MaximusMatrix• Mike Snethen• neocalbee• ninja_bait• Noodle• o0ger• pasukaru76• Perry β• Pohaturon• Red Spacecat• Rphilo004• S. K. Canuck & Sons• SalmonBrick• Shannon Sproule• Simon Liu• Space Glove• Space Kook• SpaceBunny609• SpaceMan Nathan• Steven W. Howard• Umbra-Manis• Wedge09• Werewolf Studios• Xavier CLEMENT• Yinx.

Rphilo004 • Hiigaran Support Cruiser I’ve participated in SHIPtember since the first year back in 2013, although at the time I didn’t realize the significance of the event, having only recently gotten back into LEGO as an adult the year prior in 2012. While not building every single year, I have participated a total of eight times including this year’s challenge. The comradery, constructive feedback, and encouragement of the other builders is what draws me back in year after year. Whenever I’ve gotten stuck on a section of a build, it’s been fantastic to see the encouragement and advice of other builders pour in. My ship for 2022 was the Hiigaran Support Cruiser. This ship was inspired by the art style of ships from the PC game Homeworld 2 and was not the first time I’ve built in this style, as my SHIPtember build from 2015, the Hiigaran Battlecruiser, was also taken from this series. The Homeworld series has been an evergreen source of inspiration for many ship builders like myself. The Support Cruiser also takes inspiration from fellow builder Pierre E Fieschi’s work, who has built many similar styled ships over the years. I particularly love the asymmetry and bright colors of the style.

Space Glove • Astar Dau I started building for SHIPtember in 2019. Designing a large-scale spaceship is a great challenge on its own, and using software helped me to explore some concepts I would’ve been unable to turn into reality. Hopefully I can manage to build a physical ship someday—there are certain design solutions such as paper cutouts or kitbashing I’d like to experiment with. The build itself is heavily inspired by prehistoric Cambrian fauna such as Leanchoilia. I’ve always been fascinated by weird extinct creatures, and a lot of my MOCs might have been subconsciously influenced by them without me realizing it.

Shannon Ocean • Sweeper I remember seeing Simon Liu’s SHIPtember 2013 post (with Red Spacecat’s artwork) poster and I was really enjoying watching all the SHIP-building action from the sidelines until 2015 when I got the urge to give it a go. I reckoned I didn’t quite have enough bricks to get to 100 studs, but I did have some large pieces like #58827 supports, #98115 Cylinder hemispheres, and #92591 cylinder halves, and wondered if I could use these to provide most of the length. Then I could use bricks to fill in the gaps. Assembled together, these types of LEGO pieces lent themselves to a NASA-style aesthetic, and my first SHIP was complete (I called it the SS Alan Turing). Having built my first SHIP in this way, it gave me confidence to try again the following year and expand on what I had done earlier. And the more amazing SHIPs that I saw builders were doing each year inspired me further. A mindset that I settled on in 2017 was to divide my SHIP into three sections length-wise. This helped me mentally break down the large size into more manageable chunks, typically a front, middle and engine section at the back, and it became less daunting. Nearly all of my SHIPs (and SHIP concepts) since then follow this custom. Also, with every year I would slowly acquire more bricks so that as my confidence grew, so did my part inventory. For last year’s SHIPtember, I was inspired by the release of LEGO’s 10497 Galaxy Explorer and decided to build a tribute to my favourite and biggest Classic Space set I owned as a kid: the FX-Star Patroller 6931. Going back to look at the old Star Patroller for research, I noticed that the shape was very obviously in three sections, which was a nice surprise. I wanted to build a larger version, not being super-accurate to the original, and also shying away from a more realistic and SNOT-heavy style. I was aiming for an old-school look: all studs up building and lots of trans-coloured elements to evoke a very nostalgic vibe. pakusaru76 • Bubblegum Express I’m involved in SHIPtember mostly as a builder, with a speciality of using huge pieces to make quick work of the 100-stud requirement. I like supporting challenges and contests that are arranged by people I know and consider to be a great inspiration to myself and the community at large; so when Simon announced the first SHIPtember, I knew I had to take part in it. I guess I like to bend rules a bit (SHIP equals Singularly Huge Individual Pieces, right?). Other than that, I’m an administrator for the SHIPtember group on Flickr, from time to time checking on the group’s content to remove anything nonSHIP related. After a couple of microscale SHIPs, the Bubblegum Express is my first minifig scale SHIP. I didn’t make a full interior that extends through the entire build, but tried to make it so that there could be enough room inside to contain corridors that connect the various canopies. The bright color scheme is inspired partly by the artwork of Chris Foss, and partly by the desire to use some colors we don’t often see in SHIPs.

choopyjups • The Festive Grain I have been vaguely aware of this community event since late 2018, whether it be through word of mouth, video format or magazine article, and decided I’d have a shot at it when I thought I could make a passable SHIP. That occurred in September 2022, eighteen months after I caught the building bug during the pandemic. As for the SHIP itself, I took massive inspiration from Tinnenmannetje on Deviantart—I loved the shaping, colour blocking and concept, and then I set about making it in a 3-D form. I started with a thin section near the front, to get a scale for how the rest of the SHIP would pan out. I proceeded to work my way forward to finish the bridge, before making a skeletal frame of the hull and constructing the engines. Then it was just a matter of filling in the gaps with as much greebling as I could feasibly get away with. Despite taking advantage of the digital realm (no restrictions on space, money, or structural integrity), this still took 80-odd hours to complete through the month of September.

Crescentius SH • L-12 Orange Falcon I had been following SHIPtember for a few years from the sidelines before I decided to join in. Due to the size requirements and being a different theme than most of my creations, I found it inspiring to try something new. My SHIP was inspired by the Lockheed A-12, but I felt it had to have a bigger main engine to be able to travel in space. Also, I gave it a couple of small guns to be able to protect itself, should it be discovered during reconnaissance missions.

Space Bunny 609 • Sogeki-Hei Class Heavy Frigate Having joined the LEGO community in 2019 through the space community, SHIPtember was always talked about as a ‘rite of passage’, and therefore I needed to give it a try. In 2020, I had my first attempt at SHIPtember, and although I had made many mistakes (and had many, many accidents), the community and members had been super supportive, getting me back to try again in 2022.

For 2022, I decided to build it in microscale and wanted to emulate the early 2010s style of builds, drawing major inspiration from builders such as Dasnewten and Fateheart. This mainly consists of simple and affordable parts, which made SHIPtember a lot more possible on a budget!

carrier lost • HSV Oxford My first SHIPtember was 2020. I’d been aware of the event for a few years, of course, and had built for some other annual events like FebROVERy and the Summer Joust. But 2020 was the first year that I had a really good idea for a ship I wanted to build, and the parts after finally disassembling some other MOCs. It’s a lot less daunting once you just get into it. The HSV Oxford is, as I recall, the third ship I’ve ever built for SHIPtember. My primary design mandate for it was to put to use all the new 1x10 plates in vibrant yellow I’d just picked up from the Pick-a-Brick wall. Structurally, it’s based around two Technic-brick frames, one studs-up and one studs-down, fixed together with H-beams. The stacks of girders along the sides help cover over the gap, and are a bit of an homage to the USS Cygnus from the 1979 film The Black Hole.

Space Kook • LSS Beagle I have always loved LEGO Space themes, with Classic Space being a nostalgic favorite. From an early age I was particularly fond of building space ships, and I was probably 13 when I broke the 100-stud barrier. I eventually went through my Dark Age, and then my second Dark Age, emerging to learn after several random online searches for ship MOC inspiration from fellow AFOLs, that there was this event called “SHIPtember.” “What is this,” I thought to myself? “Other people who like to build large spaceships? And they do this every year?!” I was hooked. Finding inspiration for my SHIP builds is a process of regularly scouring concept artwork, sci-fi related media and real life. Concept ship art is excellent for aesthetic appeal and great for breaking boundaries. Sci-fi media such as games, TV shows or movies extends on this point, but often adds an element of realism about how people would interact within a SHIP. Images of real spacecraft as well as of large naval vessels is very useful, because at the end of the day, a SHIP needs fuel, energy production, life support, etc. It can be tricky to strike a balance between designing systems, and asking oneself: “But... does it look neat?” All of these sources come together to form a string of ideas that I want to put into brick form. It is real fun!

Next issue will have more of the SHIPs of SHIPtember!

Building NoVVember:

Vic Viper Month

Article and Photography by the builders of NoVVember November is the month for another build challenge for Space builders. This time, the objective is to make a Vic Viper, which is a fighter craft used in the classic video game Gradius. Dozens of builders participate, and here is a sample of their work!

donuts_ftw • Y-22 Tunnel Viper I’ve been participating in NoVVember for a few years now. I’m mainly a space/sci-fi builder, so building spaceships is something I’d be doing anyway. To me, the fun part of NoVVember is taking the design pattern (two prongs, two wings, a cockpit, and a tail), and seeing what kind of different things you can do within those limits. Sometimes, constraints force you to be more creative! Plus, it’s less of a commitment than SHIPtember... I was initially inspired by the Hero Factory shells that make the engine cowlings. I also wanted to use the “maxaroni” pieces for thick cables/hoses, and the most of any color I had available at the time was teal. These two things gave me Rock Raiders vibes, so I decided to lean into that, by adding some yellow and silver details, and a open roll cage-like cockpit in brown. Add in a rocky brown base with some trans-neon green crystals, and the Tunnel Viper was complete!

BricksandBoosters • LSS Beagle I found out about the LEGO online community around 2007 from a co-worker, who turned me on to the LEGO group on Flickr, and The Brothers Brick. Since the VV group on Flickr started in September of 2008, and Nnenn was a regular subject of TBB, I was likely familiar with it from early on. From 2006–2014 I was living away from the bulk of my collection and didn’t have enough bricks with me to build much until 2012, when I joined Flickr (as BricksandBoosters) and started my occasional posting. I’ve built at least one Viper every year since 2012 excepting 2014, when I moved cross-country in November, but that led to the unification of my collection. I tend to gravitate towards Blacktron-themed Vipers, but have built a variety of themes, including chickens! I like the creativity that the constraints of the specific VicViper platform inspire, and that it isn’t a contest. My Red-Tron VV I built in 2022 was largely inspired by my “The Lost Themes of LEGO: Sets That Could Have Been” article for BrickNerd (I write as Michael J—see it at bricknerd.com/home/the-lost-themes-of-lego-sets-that-could-havebeen-7-8-22). The article collects pictures and thoughts on themes that were conceptualized at LEGO but not released, although some did come out in different forms. A lot of the article is based on what Mark Stafford wrote in his BrickJournal #6 article in 2009 on Space themes that weren’t produced. I gravitated towards the theme I called Red-Tron in the article for last year’s VicViper. The aggressive, industrial feel of that theme felt right for a Viper. That’s likely why several of my previous VV’s have been Blacktron. I think the nature of a VicViper lends itself to an aggressive story, especially when looking at the Gradius games, that doesn’t work as well for Classic Space and some other themes. That being said, I have built less aggressive VV’s, but I like them the best when, like my Red-Tron VV, they have a “give no quarter” appearance.

AL13N163NA • Gradius Benny VV 02 I decided to participate in as many NoVVembers as I could because one of the first people I started following on Flickr was nnenn. I was fascinated by his clean way of building and his incredible designs. As I investigated, I discovered the whole story behind the myth. and I decided that I needed to participate in this tribute. My first participations in NoVVember were not very well received, either because they didn’t look like Vic Vipers or because I always have an interest in using pieces that are difficult to connect or juniorized to be able to use them in another way, but this time I wanted to return to the path of the purist and design a Vic Viper based on the classics, like the 1985 Konami game Gradious and Benny from the Lego Movie, good tandem....

One and Only Mr R • Viridian Veilstrom I’ve been a sci-fi builder since I first joined the online LEGO community in 2009, so a spaceship building theme like NoVVember was perfect for me. The early years of NoVVember saw participation from so many builders, and the annual NoVVember “map” was always a great source of inspiration—and after two years of seeing others build amazing space ships, in 2011 I finally participated myself. I’ve sadly missed a lot of years of NoVVember, only participating in five out of 11 years since 2011, but if I do build something in November, it’s gotta be a Vic Viper! The Vic Viper that I built for NoVVember 2022 was the Viridian Veilstrom. It follows my typical spaceship design philosophy of a gray base and some flashy accent color, this time being lime. The amazing works of Nick Trotta introduced me to using panels to create smooth angles, and that technique is on display again on this spaceship, and is the main technique that allows the lime striping around the whole ship. Almost all of my Vic Vipers that I’ve built for NoVVember include a rubber band holder “Nnenn brick,” in honor of the late Nnenn who founded NoVVember and inspired many builders with his creations. Typically I leave the grill side of the brick out, but I wanted to try something different and used the edge for the intakes of this ship. Overall I’m very happy with how this one turned out, and am looking forward to building more Vic Vipers for this year’s NoVVember.

Gregory Brick • Vic Viper 2022 I had been posting MOCs to Flickr for several years but hadn’t participated in NoVVember until 2021. I had always liked building spaceships generally, and the non-competitive challenge of working within the Vic Viper requirements appealed to me, so I posted my build to the Flickr pool. The specific design constraints don’t seem to be limiting; I see great new ideas and new builds from participants every year. There’s a real positive enthusiasm about what everyone comes up with. In 2022, I put together a larger build with a few distinctive characteristics. I like all my LEGO creations to be things you can handle and play with. You could pick up this ship by the wings or the tip of either prong without any issue at all. I’m proud of those forward prongs in particular, as there’s some careful inversion going on in order to make the tips symmetrical on top and bottom. I don’t shy away from visible studs, with the dark grey studded parts ‘emerging’ from the smooth medium grey sections. I also put some effort into arranging the cockpit’s transparent elements, centred on a large neon flag from a Nexo Knights set.

Harding co. • Soosan MCLegoboy • Template Vic Viper You wouldn’t know from looking at this 39-piece Vic Viper that it took a month to build, but it did. In 2022 I was still in a bit of a building slump for a couple years, but wanted to participate in one of the Space Community’s many themed months to help get me out of it. I could never seem to really get past Day One or Two, and so was the case for NoVVember. I’ve attempted to make Vic Vipers in the past, but I never found myself passionate for what I was building. 2022 was different, though. I finally had a good idea: Replicate the template Vic Viper from Nnenn’s free online instructional course with some additional detailing. To my knowledge, nobody had done this before (much to my horror, I never realized a digital rendition represents the Vic Vipers group on Flickr), and I thought it would be funny to have this Vic Viper we all know juxtaposing all the epic, speedy, and fierce fighters that would eventually populate the annual collage image at the end of the month. Well, my slump wasn’t really allowing me to do that. I started something, and most of it sat for weeks as I pondered if it was the right move going tongue-in-cheek, and with the arbitrary scale I picked, the wings were also giving me trouble. There are some Vic Vipers that have every different shape, size, and texture on one build and it works, but my attempts at greebling were abhorrent, the parts in the colors I was using were in limited supply (mainly medium lavender), and this was different because we’ve all seen that instructional course; it had to be right. Not only had I practically stopped building for a couple weeks, but in the time I had built, I deviated too much; it was a disaster. With NoVVember quickly coming to an end, I reset from a roughly A-Wing playset-sized hodgepodge to just the core of a couple of Travis Bricks, and within a day, everything came together. By going small-scale, I finally had a completed build to break my streak, the simpler build was more faithful to the source, and on the last day of NoVVember, it was a hit! I couldn’t be happier with the results.

I started taking part in NoVVember not long after I actually discovered Flickr in the first place, back in 2012. I think the Vic Vipers group was one of the first groups I joined, and I felt very welcomed and encouraged. When November came around, of course I saw all the activity and decided I’d give it a go! I’ve contributed to the fleet every year since, apart from 2015. The ‘Soosan’ started from the very cool canopy piece from the Lightyear spaceship set. I also had the Creator “Street Racer” set, and I thought the trans-yellow canopy would look good next to all those lovely teal pieces. Originally I intended to build at minifig scale, but as often happens with my builds, it didn’t quite work out that way; so I substituted the cat in (also from the Lightyear set) as a last-minute replacement. Fabuland Vipers

The story of my trio of little Fabuland Vic Vipers started in Billund, Denmark in November last year. I was over there for a few days, and on the day I was coming back, I went over to Grindsted, the nearest town, to see if I could hunt down any last-minute vintage LEGO goodies. There was a little secondhand shop that had all sorts, including a bunch of Fabuland figures, so I grabbed a handful. When I got back, of course NoVVember was still in full swing, so I thought, “What better to celebrate than by building some little ships for my new Fabuland crew?” Leaving the cockpits open was partly a practical decision—the Fabuland heads are quite awkward if you want to use a canopy—and partly an aesthetic one. I felt that having them open better matched the sort of “juniorized” nature of the original Fabuland sets, making it easier to get the characters in and out, and therefore easier and quicker to play with. I’m happy with all of them, but Lisa Lamb’s Launch is definitely my favourite of the bunch.

pyrefyre • GV-22 Velocity Impulse Pack [Exo-Reactor] - “Atradenia” I remember over a decade ago being so amazed at the community spirit led by nnenn and others around the first NoVVember, and knew I had to be a part of it immediately. Fast forward to today and NoVVember is the one thing I’ll always participate in, and is one of the main reasons why I got back into the hobby! This year’s entry was a thought experiment: does a giant thruster pack on a mecha count as a VV? As long as the criteria are met, why not?!

Peter L Morris • Welterweight ln early October of 2008, Nate Nielsen (nnenn) sends me Flickrmail about a theme build month, where we’d invite a bunch of builders to post builds inspired by the Vic Viper from the Gradius series of video games by Konami. He pointed out that if we were going to get people to join in, we’d need to lead the way and post a bunch of different builds. He planned on showcasing one a day for all of NoVVember. I knew I couldn’t get that many ready in time, but via his encouragement, I built as many as I could. The Vic Viper is my favorite starfighter of all time, so back then it wasn’t hard for me to crank out variations of it. For the Welterweight, one day my daughter Zoe brought me a few pieces and asked me to build her a custom Vic Viper using those colors. They just happened to be white, lavender, and pink. I knew it would be a challenge, since pink and lavender have a limited parts palette. The general shape I wanted to match was this one particular model of the Vic Viper from Gradius 3. Once I had that, it was just a matter of trying to figure out how to add the pink and lavender, then balance them out. I was nervous she wouldn’t like the finished product, but she loves it, and that’s good enough for me.

BlueSkinnedBeast • LL731 Valour Victorious Actually finding the SHIPtember Flickr group led to finding the LEGO Space Discord, and that led to finding the Vic Vipers group that hosts NoVVember. Vic Vipers aren’t something I build very often or particularly specialize in, but having just found the group, it seemed almost ungrateful not to participate. Two forward prongs, two rear wings, one Big A** Vertical Stabilizer. Should be easy, right?

This build got rebuilt and modified several times (unusual for me as I tend to adapt my ideas as I build) as I brought the model to completion, swapping the forward prongs from blue to grey and attempting eight or nine different vertical tailfin designs. It’s relatively conventional space fighter-shaped, but sometimes that’s okay. It’s quite swooshable and not particularly fragile, which is nice.

Building Building

Brian Williams:

How to Light a Fire —

Without Rubbing Two Bricks Together

You have just built your best MOC yet—the perfect blend of design, NPU (Neat Part Usage) and story. But there’s one thing still lacking: it needs fire. That is to say you literally need to model actual fire, but the usual brick techniques just look flat. That’s where lighting can help. This article will show you techniques for lighting three popular use cases of fire that can really add impact to your MOC. Some of these use only LEGO elements, while others use lights made specifically for use with LEGO, sold by third party lighting manufacturers. Such lights require no drilling, and can be removed later to restore your LEGO bricks to their original condition. If you are new to LEGO lighting and want to see more cool lighting techniques, check out my book The LEGO Lighting Book or subscribe to my “brick_lighting” channel on Instagram.

1. Torches Article and Photography by Brian Williams

Let’s begin with a simple torch. The LEGO #64647 flame and #6126b wave elements come in translucent colors and are popular choices for small fires and torches. The LEGO #88005 Powered Up (or older #8870 Power Function) light can be attached underneath using a #3062b 1x1 Round Brick with Open Stud (left side in Figure 1). This light is a bit difficult to hide, and you may want to instead opt for a small LED sold through many third party lighting manufacturers (right side in Figure 1). Brickstuff calls them ‘Pico Leds’, Game of Bricks and Light My Bricks call them ‘Bit Lights’, while Vonado and Bricksmax call them ‘Dot Lights.’ But they are all functionally the same. Each features a 5v LED attached to a thin board that fits under a 1x1 round plate, thin wires that fit between bricks, 0.8mm connectors, and can be used interchangeably. I’ll refer to them generically as pico lights since Brickstuff first introduced them and coined the term.

Figure 1, showing how to make a torch. Figure 1a, showing more examples of torch lighting.

Simply place a pico light (orange, yellow, or warm white) on top of a #86208 Space Gun and then lock it on using a #85861 Inverted Round Plate with Open Stud and place the flame or wave atop. Then attach these to a flicker lighting effects controller (LEC) board to add a realistic flicker. Most of the third party lighting manufacturers sell flicker LECs with three output channels that flicker with slightly different patterns to give several torches a more natural, varied appearance. For large installations, Brickstuff even makes a high capacity flicker LEC with variable flicker intensity that supports 6 and 30 channels. They also sell pre-wired torches with pico lights that flicker all on their own—no separate LEC board required.

2) Explosions

Explosions usually feature large fireballs made from transyellow and/or trans-orange or other translucent bricks (see figure 2). When building fireballs, make sure to make it hollow to run lights inside. Use the brightest lights that you have available. Older LEGO 9v lights can be used and have a flashing mode, but will draw a lot of current. Another option is to use several ‘strip lights’ offered through most third party lighting manufacturers in many colors. These feature two bright LEDs attached to a flexible adhesive strip with connectors on each end, so they can be daisy-chained. In fireballs, I like to use several lights with a mix of warm colors. Combine orange strip lights from Light My Bricks with red and yellow from Game of Bricks. Hook up half to be always on, and the rest to an LEC to animate them. You can use the flicker LEC mentioned for the torches above, but for fireballs I find a fast moving marquee or machine gun LEC looks better. Note that Lifelites sells the Elite Advanced LEC with eight channels offering several patterns and speed options that works well for this. The fast lighthouse pattern works well. The Elite Advanced uses 3mm barrel LEDs which have thicker cables, but work well for this application.

Figure 2, showing a fireball.

Figure 3, showing the flickering effect with reflective plates.

3) Infernos

The resulting visual.

Infernos depict large walls of flame ranging from bonfires to entire buildings on fire. Such builds often incorporate large numbers of translucent elements for both the fire proper, as well as burning/glowing parts of a larger structure. The same lighting techniques described above for explosions apply to infernos too. Beyond these, there are a couple of specific techniques to project animated fire onto walls and inside of windows of buildings. A pure LEGO way to do this is shown in figure 3 above by reflecting red and yellow light off rotating bricks wrapped with mirrored stickers. An impressive animated effect

can also be created by using LED arrays that simulate fire (google ‘5v LED fire board’). This could require a little soldering. You can also scavenge these from disassembled LED flame bulbs. The flame LED arrays lighting the warehouse in figure 4 were scavenged from a Halloween decoration bought on clearance. You can watch videos of these techniques in action on my “brick_lighting” channel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brick_lighting/

Figure 4, showing an LED array.

The resulting visual.

And for more information on lighting techniques, check out my book The LEGO Lighting Book from No Starch Press.

NEW FROM TWOMORROWS:

IT ROSE FROM THE TOMB by PETER NORMANTON

Rising from the depths of history comes an ALL-NEW examination of the 20th Century’s best horror comics, written by PETER NORMANTON (editor of FROM THE TOMB, the UK’s preeminent magazine on the genre). From the pulps and seminal horror comics of the 1940s, through ones they tried to ban in the 1950s, this tome explores how the genre survived the introduction of the Comics Code, before making its terrifying return during the 1960s and 1970s. Come face-to-face with the early days of ACG’s alarming line, every horror comic from June 1953, hypodermic horrors, DC’s Gothic romance comics, Marvel’s Giant-Size terrors, Skywald and Warren’s chillers, and Atlas Seaboard’s shocking magazines. The 192-page full-color opus exhumes BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s darkest constructs, plus artwork by FRANK FRAZETTA, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE KALUTA, STEVE DITKO, MATT FOX, WARREN KREMER, LEE ELIAS, BILL EVERETT, RUSS HEATH, THE GURCH, and many more. Don’t turn your back on this once-in-a-lifetime spine-chiller—it’s so good, it’s frightening! (192-page SOFTCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-123-3 • SHIPS MARCH 2024!

CHARLTON COMPANION

JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more! (272-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-111-0

DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

TEAM-UP COMPANION OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic Examines US War comics from EC, MAINLINE COMICS (1940s-1980s) books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

Collects 1954-1956’s complete BULLSEYE, series, plus all the Simon & Kirby stories from FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE, with fully restored art!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-112-7

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-107-3

(262-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

ALTER EGO

CLIFFHANGER!

BRITMANIA

GROOVY

COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

STEVE GERBER and JACK KIRBY’s DESTROYER DUCK series reproduced from Kirby’s uninked pencil art!

Compiles the sold-out STEVE DITKO, JACK KIRBY, and STAN LEE issues of ALTER EGO magazine, plus new material!

CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the cinematic superheroes of the movie serials from 1941–1952, and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life!

Explores when America went wild in the 1960s for ALL THINGS BRITISH in pop culture: movies, TV, collectibles, comics, music, and more!

Relive the flower power ’60s with PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, DAVID CASSIDY, THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, THE MONKEES, and more!

(136-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SERIES

documents each decade of comics history!

8 Volumes covering the 1940s-1990s

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA

Ladies and gentlemen, we just received a new bulletin a moment ago. The Government Meteorological Bureau has requested the large observatories of the world to keep an astronomical watch on any further disturbances occurring in our atmosphere. Due to the unusual nature of this occurrence, we have arranged an interview with noted astronomer Professor Smith, who will give us their views on the event. We take you to the SIGGI Observatorio in Guatemala where Jared Burks will interview Professor Beatrice Francis Smith, famous astronomer. We take you now to San Miquel Duenas, Guatemala.

Minifigure Customization 101:

Article and Photography by Jared Burks Professor Smith and Correspondent Jared Burks.

JARED BURKS: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Jared Burks, speaking to you from the observatory in Guatemala. I am standing in a large semi-circular room, pitch black except for an oblong split in the ceiling. Through this opening I can see a sprinkling of stars that cast a kind of frosty glow over the intricate mechanism of the huge telescope. The ticking sound you hear is the vibration of the clockwork. Professor Smith stands directly above me on a small platform, peering through a giant lens. I ask you to be patient, ladies and gentlemen, during any delay that may arise during our interview. Besides her ceaseless watch of the heavens, Professor Smith may be interrupted by telephone or other communications. During this period, she is in constant touch with the astronomical centers of the world... Professor, may I begin our questions? PROFESSOR SMITH: At any time, Mr. Burks. BURKS: Professor, would you please tell our audience exactly what you see as you observe the atmospheric disturbances through your telescope? SMITH: Nothing unusual at the moment, Mr. Burks. A red disk swimming in a black sea. Transverse deep purple stripes across the disk are unique, but not bothersome. Quite distinct now because the object seems to be entering the Earth’s atmosphere. BURKS: In your opinion, what do these transverse stripes signify, Professor Smith?

SMITH: Not canals, I can assure you, Mr. Burks, although that’s the popular conjecture of those who imagine this object originated from an inhabited planet, stating they can’t be random. From a scientific viewpoint, the stripes are merely the result of atmospheric conditions peculiar to the object.

(OFF MIKE) Thank you. (PAUSE) BURKS: Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen, someone has just handed Professor Smith a message. While she reads it, let me remind you that we are speaking to you from the observatory in San Miquel Duenas, Guatemala, where we are interviewing the world-famous astronomer, Professor Smith... One moment, please. Professor Smith has passed me a message which she has just received... Professor, may I read the message to the listening audience? The interview continues...

BURKS: Then you’re quite convinced as a scientist that living intelligence as we know it does not exist on other planets? SMITH: I’d say the chances against it are a thousand to one. BURKS: And yet how do you account for those gas eruptions occurring on the surface of the object at regular intervals? SMITH: Mr. Burks, I cannot account for it. BURKS: By the way, Professor, for the benefit of our listeners, how far is the object from entering the Earth’s lower atmosphere? SMITH: Approximately four thousand miles. BURKS: Well, that seems a safe enough distance.

SMITH: Certainly, Mr. Burks. BURKS: Ladies and gentlemen, I shall read you a wire addressed to Professor Smith from Dr. Red of the National History Museum, New York. “9:15 P.M. eastern standard time. Seismograph registered shock of almost earthquake intensity occurring within a radius of twenty miles of Tikal, Guatemala. Please investigate. Signed, Sam Red, Chief of Astronomical Division”... Professor Smith, could this occurrence possibly have something to do with the object you were tracking? SMITH: Hardly, Mr. Burks. This is probably a meteorite of unusual size and its arrival at this particular time is merely a coincidence. However, we shall conduct a search, as soon as daylight permits. BURKS: Thank you, Professor. Ladies and gentlemen, for the past ten minutes we’ve been speaking to you from the observatory in Guatemala, bringing you a special interview with Professor Smith, noted astronomer. This is Jared Burks speaking. We are returning you now to our New York studio.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is the latest bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. Toronto, Canada: Professor Morse of McGill University reports observing a total of three explosions in the country of Guatemala this evening, between the hours of 7:45 P.M. and 9:20 P.M., eastern standard time. This confirms earlier reports received from American news media. Also comes a special announcement from Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is reported that at 8:50 P.M., a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Canalitos, Guatemala, twentytwo miles from Tikal. The flash in the sky was visible within a radius of several hundred miles, and the noise of the impact was heard as far north as Chinautla. We have dispatched a special mobile unit to the scene, and will have our commentator, Jared Burks, give you a word description as soon as he can reach there from Guatemala. (To be continued …)

Working on the head in Meshmixer.

A 3-D-printed head.

What you just read is a version of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, modified as inspiration for this custom LEGO minifigure build, the Ocelotl’s Return. Working out inspiration for a custom figure is insanely important so you keep your theme clean and well-defined. For this issue and the next, I will be creating several members of the alien race called the Ocelotl. The concept here is that the Ocelotl visited Earth in C. 700, when the Mayans built the pyramids in Central America, specifically Guatemala. I won’t finish these figures today, but will get them started. Ocelotl means Jaguar and is a day on the Aztec calendar associated with the god Tezcatlipoca, who is the god of the night sky, ancestral memory, and of time. He is associated with change brought about by conflict, and the Ocelotl is a day to honor brave warriors. So choosing these details, I have a foundation to create these Jaguar-like alien figures that are returning to Earth. Let’s get started with the Jaguar humanoid aliens. They need a custom head and a space helmet. While it would be amazing to have their helmets fit on their heads, I really like the Chima heads as a possible space helmet. These are oxygen breathers, so they, like us, would need a space helmet. As there are black helmets, orange helmets, and others, I want to use Black, Orange, and Lime Green. This means I am going to have to paint a helmet to get this lime green color. So I have my space helmets that I need to customize with some hand painted tribal-like patterns on the side, this will be done in the next issue. The helmet was easy, and the tail will be equally easy. LEGO has made this part for us, and it will also need to be painted Lime Green, but the black and the orange exist and can be used as-is. So we have a helmet, tails, and I am using all-black as the body color, since these are elite

A group of Ocelotl with a Chima hea... er, helmet.

stealth warriors, so this is also done. The big piece for today is the Jaguar head. In order to create this head and attach it to a LEGO body, I had to find a jaguar stl. Off to thingiverse where I found this yin yang jaguar (https:// www.thingiverse.com/thing:3531533). This model works well, but has many defects for what we need. So I loaded it up in Meshmixer, and used a plane cut to remove the head from the body. While this is a start, the head is turned at an angle, and we have to work on correcting that bit. I started by placing it near a LEGO torso for scaling. The next step is to use the sculpting tools to remove the unneeded bits from the neck that now just stick out at the wrong angle. I also need to fill in the back of the head to round it out to give it the best shape. This can easily be done by adding a Meshmixer shape; I used a ball and then distorted it slightly. Next is the neck; every head needs a neck, or at least a cylinder, so I grabbed one of those from the Meshmix shapes. It is now starting to look like something, but still isn’t quite right. I have to revisit the sphere a bit more and reshape it. The next step is to merge the sphere into the back of the head. Because the jaguar had its head turned, the next issue is a symmetrical one. This is a bit tricky to solve, but we can try and find as close to a center line as possible and perform another plane cut. This leaves us with half a head. With a quick mirror command, we can then create a symmetrical head. We now have our Ocelotl head, and it is time to run off to the 3-D printer to test it out. There were a few more steps where I subtracted a neck stud from the head so it would go onto the torso, but this is a simple subtraction step. In the next issue we will design the outfits for these warriors. I am thinking three different classes based on helmet color. We will also have to find some older, but still high-tech weapons. This will be something else to investigate. Finally, we will have to accessorize the figures. I have many parts on order for this. So most of this article, was finding inspiration. If you are making something up from scratch, be sure to imbed as many details as possible. This gives you a world to play in to create your custom figures. I can’t wait till next time to see how the story and all of this turns out.

Adding tails (above) and painting parts (below).

Heads and tails and helmets!

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

And 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!

Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization!

Vic Viper Parts List

Mini Vic Viper and Classic Space Rovers

Designs by Oscar Cederwall and Dave Schefcik from BrickNerd This whole issue is about celebrating the space-themed building challenges in the LEGO community: FebROVERy, SHIPtember, and NoVVember. It would be presumptuous of us to publish SHIPtember instructions, but we wanted to contribute a mini-Vic Viper and Rover for your custom collection. When I build MOCs like the Vic Viper, it all starts with a specific new part that I want to use in an interesting way. This time it was the stud shooter. I just really liked its shape, and it looked like it would be perfect for rocket nozzles! I also used long curved slopes to build the forward prongs. Another trick I use often is to cover visible undersides with rocker plates. That gave me the idea for the big guns. When I build ships in this size, I usually use flags for wings. I love how thin and smooth they are. Like many times before, I used the hexagonal flag and put it at the same angle as the rest of the ship. Lastly, for the dorsal tail fin, I also used a flag for the same reasons. I experimented a while to get the right angle I wanted, and I am pleased with how it turned out. For our mini-Rover, the design is based on using the new round double 1 x 2 element with two bars as the treads. You can build both the Vic Viper and the Rover in as many different color schemes as you like to match whatever look or Classic Space faction you love most!

(Parts can be ordered through Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Part Color Description 2 577b.dat Black Minifig Lightsaber Hilt with Bottom Ring 1 3023.dat Black Plate 1 x 2 2 3024.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 1 3794b.dat Black Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 4 3938.dat Black Hinge 1 x 2 Top 1 3960.dat Black Dish 4 x 4 Inverted 3 20482.dat Black Tile 1 x 1 Round with Pin and Pin Hole 2 24201.dat Black Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 Inverted 2 30162.dat Black Minifig Binoculars with Round Eyepiece 1 30602.dat Black Slope Brick Curved Top 2 x 2 x 1 1 48729b.dat Black Bar 1.5L with Clip with Truncated Sides and Hole in Shaft 1 64644.dat Black Minifig Telescope 1 65578.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 Round with Angled Bar 2 78257.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 with Handles on Opposite Ends 2 69754.dat Pearl Dk Grey Projectile Launcher, 1 x 2 Mini Blaster 4 6141.dat Trans Brt Green Plate 1 x 1 Round 1 3023a.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 2 1 3070b.dat Yellow Tile 1 x 1 with Groove 1 3710.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 4 1 3794b.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 2 6019.dat Yellow Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick U-Clip) 2 15571.dat Yellow Slope Brick 45 1 x 2 Triple with Bottom Stud Holder 4 36840.dat Yellow Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up 1 41855.dat Yellow Slope Brick Rounded 2 x 2 x 0.667 1 44676.dat Yellow Flag 2 x 2 Trapezoid 1 54200.dat Yellow Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 2 85970.dat Yellow Slope Brick Curved 1 x 8 with Plate 1 x 2 2 99207.dat Yellow Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2 Up 4 36840.dat Brt Lt Orange Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 1 Up 2 51000.dat Brt Lt Orange Flag 5 x 6 Hexagonal 2 98138.dat Brt Lt Orange Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove 2 85861.dat Orange Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud 2 96910.dat Orange Tile 1 x 2 Chamfered with 2 Top Indentations

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

Mini Rover Parts List Qty Part 1 4070.dat 1 25269.dat 1 32828.dat

Color Blue Black Black

Description Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar Black 1 61252.dat Black Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal (Thick C-Clip) 1 54200.dat Trans Neon Green Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 1 54200.dat Trans Neon Orange Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 1 4070.dat Red Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 1 4081b.dat White Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Lt Type 2 1 25269.dat White Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round 2 35480.dat White Plate 1 x 2 with Round Ends and 2 Open Studs 1 32828.dat Light Bluish Grey Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar 1 77808.dat Dark Bluish Grey Brick 1 x 2 with Rounded Ends and Central Bars

You Can Build It MINI Build

MINI Crimson Firehawk Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck

Hello everybody, and welcome to another building session in BrickJournal! Today we want to build the Crimson Firehawk, a brand new starship design of the very latest Star Wars animated television series: Young Jedi Adventures. The series is for the younger Star Wars fans and is set during the so-called High Republic era, reaching from ca. 500 to 100 years before Episode 4: A New Hope. There is not much known yet about the Crimson Firehawk as the series has just begun this year. It’s obviously a space transport with a red and white color scheme typical for the Republic eras. It has a crescent shape with an interesting rear section, featuring a broad entry ramp. To realize this shape in bricks, the entire rear and bottom section is built studs-down due to the inverted use of the modified 1x2 tile with bar handle (part number 2432). Another tricky point of the transport ship is that the engine cylinders are embedded in the flat wing structure. Fortunately there are the relatively new 1x2 plates with pin hole on top (part number 11458) which can be assembled in a way that there is a 1x1 plate leftover on each side of the engine tube by fixing them with a friction pin. Another nice greebly detail is the inverted turntable on top of the ship. This came in handy as we already had a studsdown section as part of the construction. I hope you will enjoy building this very recently released starship!

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

Qty Color Part 2 Dk-Bluish-Gray 99780.dat 2 White 26604.dat 4 1 1

Dk-Bluish-Gray White Lt-Bluish-Gray

2 2 3 1

White Dk-Bluish-Gray White Dk-Bluish-Gray

White

1 1 4 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2

Dk-Bluish-Gray Lt-Bluish-Gray Dk-Bluish-Gray White White Red Lt-Bluish-Gray White Lt-Bluish-Gray White Red

White

1 2 2

White White Red

Red

1 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 1

Trans-White Lt-Bluish-Gray Red Dk-Bluish-Gray Red Lt-Bluish-Gray Dk-Bluish-Gray White White

1 1

Lt-Bluish-Gray Lt-Bluish-Gray

Description Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Two Adjacent Sides 59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated 30162.dat Minifig Binoculars with Round Eyepiece 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 60470b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Clips Horizontal (Thick C-Clips) 3794b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 48336.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type 2 3839b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handles Type 2 11458.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Offset Peghole 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2 26601.dat Plate 2 x 2 without Corner 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 3176.dat Plate 3 x 2 with Hole 30565.dat Plate 4 x 4 Corner Round 28192.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 with Cutout and without Stud 28192.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 with Cutout and without Stud 4861.dat Slope Brick 45 3 x 4 Double / 33 11477.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 29120.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right 30602.dat Slope Brick Curved Top 2 x 2 x 1 32054.dat Technic Pin Long with Stop Bush 25269.dat Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round 2412b.dat Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 2432.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Handle 3680c01.dat Turntable 2 x 2 Plate with Light Grey Top 65429.dat Wing 2 x 4 Left with Truncated Tip 65426.dat Wing 2 x 4 Right with Truncated Tip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 59

14 15 16 17 18

Advertise In FULL-COLOR Ad Rates: Color Back Cover (8.375" x 10.875", full color): $1200 Inside Front Cover (7.5" x 10", full-color): $1000 Inside Back Cover (7.5" x 10", full-color): $1000 Full Page interior (7.5" x 10", full-color): $800 Half Page interior (7.5" x 4.875", full-color): $500 Quarter Page interior (3.625" x 4.875", full-color): $300

These rates are for ads supplied digitally (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, or Quark/InDesign files accepted). No agency discounts apply. We accept check, money order, and all major credit cards; include card number and expiration date.

Send ad copy and payment (US funds) to: TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Dr. • Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 • fax 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

kintan strider speeder bike 62

Corey Schaaf’s

Kintan Strider Speeder Bike Article by David Strenzler, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Corey Schaaf

Galactic greetings! We are Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of the best LEGO Star Wars-themed group on Facebook, David Strenzler, Frank Averstegge, and Eloi Parizeau witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis. Corey Schaaf is a very active member of our community and devoted moderator of the Bantha Bricks Admin team, as well as a passionate MOC builder. Some of you might recall that BrickJournal #73 featured an interview with Corey that was focused on his Resistance Troop Transport Ship. It was our pleasure to speak to Corey once more to learn about his latest design: a Kintan Strider Speeder Bike, as seen in The Book of Boba Fett.

problem solving. From the initial idea to the creation of instructions, my background in design meshes well with the entire lifecycle of my LEGO projects. Does Star Wars remain your favorite theme, or have others recently surfaced? My answer has not changed since the last time you asked. Star Wars is still my favorite. It’s an exciting time to be a fan because of the recent announcement of the three new Star Wars movies in addition to the already popular live action series, such as The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ahsoka series. However, while I’ve always loved designing vehicles from the Star Wars universe, I’m really starting to dig some of the LEGO dioramas from independent creators like Anthony Bill (@billsbrickz) and Hauke Jürgensen (@codyaner.bricks). It’s a perfect way to capture memorable moments from Star Wars while also being able to display a few of the minifigs in my collection. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium of self-expression? What makes LEGO so special for you? I have been creative since my childhood. I always gravitated towards the fine arts, such as drawing, painting, or performing music. My parents recognized this interest and helped to nurture it. Some of my earliest memories as a child involve me playing with large tubs of LEGO with my older brother. We were always building bases for our G.I. Joe and Cobra battles out of Lincoln Logs and, of course, LEGO bricks.

Data File: Kintan Strider Speeder Bike The Speeder Bikes of the Kintan Striders Gang are overpowered repulsorcraft that are as dangerous as the Niktos often found riding them. With many of the comforts and safety features of civilian models stripped away, the speeders are crafted for maximum speed and marked by the skeletal gang symbol.

As I grew older, my love for creating things continued even when my LEGO hobby was on pause. I got into woodworking when I moved into my first home because I enjoyed being able to create things.

Source: StarWars.com

Bantha Bricks: How is it going, Corey? The LEGO Star Wars community has known you for some time through the Bantha Bricks Facebook group, where you amazed us with your skilled Star Wars-inspired designs. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do? Corey Schaaf: You’re too kind! I’m happily married to the love of my life, Erica. I’m also the father to two amazing children; Lincoln (8) and Lillie (6). When I’m not spending time with them, I’m usually visiting my locally owned Minifig Shop, sorting LEGO, or enjoying some St. Louis Cardinal baseball. Professionally, I’m a Design Manager with a focus on user experience and user interface design. Similarly to my day job, designing my own creations (MOCs) involves a lot of

A rearward view with the speeder hood open.

A lowered view with the speeder hood open.

It wasn’t until the first Christmas before Covid that I resumed my LEGO hobby in full swing. But this time around, I discovered the subculture of MOC-making and the availability of programs like LEGO Digital Designer and BrickLink Studio. This took my hobby in a completely new direction and opened my eyes to the possibility of designing my own MOCs in addition to instructions for them. Your latest build of a Kintan Strider Speeder Bike as seen in The Book of Boba Fett struck us as being highly professional. What inspired you to build that particular ship?

The speeder drive engine revealed.

I sincerely appreciate the compliment. When I finished building the Resistance Troop Transport MOC, I wanted to take a break and do some smaller projects. I loved the buildable figures that LEGO released of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. I thought it would be interesting to apply the techniques used for the buildable figures into characters from The Bad Batch. I had finished Tech and Crosshair but had just started work on Hunter. During the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett, Boba steals Speeder Bikes from the Kintan Strider gang. In one scene, the bikes are delivered to the Tusken Raiders. We are then treated to this incredibly detailed side profile shot of the bikes. They reminded me of heavily modified versions of Harley Davidson motorcycles. I immediately thought to myself: “Someone will surely create a MOC of

these bikes.” So, I put it out of my mind and continued working on Hunter. When I finally finished Hunter, I decided to work on a larger UCS style project. Similarly to when I started my first UCS build of the Resistance Troop Transport, I went to my local library and started researching vehicles. While flipping through some books, I came across the Speeder Bike that the Scout Troopers rode from Return of the Jedi. It jogged my memory, and I started researching the Speeder Bikes from The Book of Boba Fett.

My stand is also built using LEGO Technic parts. I wanted to capture a sense of motion and movement akin to the official LEGO build of the UCS A-Wing. To achieve this effect, I created a similar stand to position the bike’s profile towards the viewer. Since both the stand and structure of the bike are made up of LEGO Technic parts, I was able to create a snug friction fit for the main stand. With the addition of a front stand, I ended up with a very sturdy bike that looked like it was racing through the sands of Tatooine.

To my surprise, I hadn’t seen any scaled-up versions of the bike—only minifig versions. I was confident that the side profile shots of the Speeder Bike, in addition to the many stills that I took of the raid on the spice train, would be sufficient for properly up-scaling the bike and getting the proportions correct.

Which of the design elements of your Speeder Bike are your favorite?

Can you tell us a bit about the construction of your build? Did you use any special techniques? Like my Resistance Troop Transport, I used LEGO Technic parts to create an incredibly solid structure. Nothing bothers me more than working on a build that is fragile, so I like to focus on the build’s overall structure as much as possible at the beginning. Once the structure is established, intricate greeble and detailed work can begin. While the Speeder Bike is of considerably less mass than my Transport ship, I believe it is incredibly solid, even with all of its details.

It’s hard to just pick one element. I think my favorite parts of the bike are the side profile details, the weathering colors, and how it displays when it’s completed. I used orange as a pop color for details I wanted to stick out. I also think the seat turned out really well. However, the greeble engine work is what people always seem to comment on the most. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to match the side profile shot from The Book of Boba Fett. It was also important to capture a weathered color scheme from the desert. The bikes in The Book of Boba Fett looked worn and used. I wanted to capture that look as much as possible. I also wanted the bike to match the environment it was found in. The display base intentionally uses many of the same colors found on the Speeder Bike.

A look at the side details of the speeder.

Can you tell us a bit more about your process of designing such an incredibly accurate draft of a Speeder Bike and determining how it could be built? That’s a great question. I took a different approach to this build. When I started, I didn’t have any experience with scaling up a MOC. As a designer, I’m incredibly horrible with math, so I did what anyone else would do: I googled it. During the process of researching up-scaled builds, I discovered a content creator named Rebel Builder on YouTube. He was demonstrating how he built his minifig scale version of the AT-M6. During his design phase, he made schematic prints of the build in the scale he was working in. This allowed him to create panels directly on the schematics and see how they fit at scale.

A Kintan gang member and a Tusken Raider minifigure.

Even though I wasn’t building at minifig scale, I decided to adopt his approach and print three versions of the bike at different scales. While I always think big is better, I chose the medium-scaled version (1:5.525) of my schematic printouts. My intention was for this to be a display piece that fits well on a shelf. I also needed to consider the weight of the front fins and how they would be supported. Did you freestyle build the design or did you use a computer design program to lay it out first? I built the rails and fins of the bike in addition to a portion of the structure freestyle. I learned some valuable lessons from my previous UCS build. If you build almost entirely in digital from the start, you are less likely to discover that your build isn’t structurally sound during the early stages of the build sequence. When this happens, you spend more time trying to retrofit structure into an already established design. This can be incredibly frustrating.

Some more details of the front speeder pod.

By taking a hybrid approach, you are more likely to establish a more solid structure. You can then be more confident when building digitally during the later parts of your MOC. Any structural issues that might have arisen are more likely to be caught when building both hybrid and digitally. Obviously, this rule doesn’t apply to everyone. There are plenty of experienced builders out there who build almost exclusively in digital before laying down any physical bricks before testing. One of my favorite designers, Anthony Bill, is one of those individuals. While making this build, were there any moments when you felt stuck? If so, how did you overcome that obstacle? I envisioned creating two Speeder Bikes with three buildable Tusken Raiders, one of which would be jumping from one bike to the next. The part count (which would have driven up the overall cost of the MOC considerably), coupled with the technical limitations of my skills, meant that I needed to make some sacrifices.

I found myself making considerable compromises just to add the buildable figures. The scale I was working on was also proving to be difficult. While the bike itself was coming along, the figures were drawing too much attention for all the wrong reasons—they just looked awful by my standards.

So, I took a break and stepped away from the design for a few days. Sometimes, I can get too buried in the “weeds’’ and a fresh perspective is needed. Stepping away allowed me to consider what the most important elements were. In my case, it was my original vision—an incredibly detailed UCS version of the Speeder Bike. By simplifying my design and focusing on the bike itself, I ended up with an incredibly accurate MOC, both in scale and design. When I stopped forcing elements into the build, any creative blocks I had ceased.

A look at the rear of the speeder.

As an experienced builder, what advice would you give to someone who would like to build a Star Wars vehicle of their own? I’m going to start by repeating a portion of the answer that I gave when I was previously asked this question: “Just build.” Build anything and everything you can get your hands on. The parts you choose and types of connections you use are influenced by your previous building experience. This will have a profound impact on your approach to your builds. The more you build, the better builder you’ll become. If you are curious about a technique from an official LEGO set, download the PDF instructions from LEGO.com. If you’re interested in a MOC designer’s technique, try to reverse-engineer it. If they sell instructions for their MOC, purchase them. You’ll not only learn something, but compensate the designer for teaching you a new technique.

Seat detail.

One of the pages from Corey’s instructions for the speeder.

Also, when you’re ready to build something, do research. Larger builds require more planning. I usually spend a few weeks picking out ideas and creating a dossier of them (screenshots, videos, and books). After that, take a week or two to reflect on what your approach to each build will be. Whatever you do, the best experience comes from building. Are any instructions of your designs available to the public? If so, where can they be found? Instructions for my builds can be found on my own website, BrickWars.net. My larger UCS builds, like the Kintan Strider Speeder Bike featured in this article, are only available as a limited edition UCS print manual (only 150 copies of my Speeder Bike were produced). They include a unique serialized tile, and my books are individually numbered (001/150). A UCS sticker or UCS printed plaque are also included. However, once my print manuals are sold out, they are never reproduced. So those that purchase one of my designs end up with an incredibly rare MOC that very few people in the world will have a chance to build. As of this writing, half of the manuals sold in the first month.

In addition to my Speeder Bike, I also have other designs available on my site, including my

previously featured Resistance Troop Transport ship. That build is also available as a limited print edition manual. Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share? If you love LEGO MOCs, be on the lookout for LEGO conventions in your area. I like to attend Brick Universe in St. Louis, as well as Brick World in Chicago. Also, if you’re not part of the Bantha Bricks Facebook group, check it out! It’s one of the most family-friendly LEGO groups you will find on Facebook. It’s run by an amazing group of people who give back more to the community than they take. This past year it raised over $3000 for the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center through donations and prizes from its members and sponsors. Enjoy the build! 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!

TwoMorrows 2023 www.twomorrows.com • store@twomorrows.com

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. NOW SHIPPING!

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! NOW SHIPPING!

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

(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6

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 FULLCOLOR 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. NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

Community

Sneak Peek:

Avatar’s Pandora by ILUG What happens when you get ten Team Leaders, over 100 builders, several hundred schoolchildren, and over 1.2 million LEGO elements together? The answer would be an enormous LEGO diorama inspired by Avatar, built by the members of the Idaho LEGO User Group (ILUG). The

project was originally posted as an opportunity on the LEGO Ambassador Network (LAN), inviting LEGO User Group Ambassadors worldwide to submit proposals for a build they would like to do that references the World of Pandora. They wanted to identify the community that had the passion, creativity, and the ability to meet the project objectives and construction deadline. ILUG was selected to build their proposal, which resulted in the layout seen at the right. There’s more to the story, though. BrickJournal and ILUG will tell the whole story behind their Pandora next issue. Until then, take a look at the finished diorama in the following pages!

ILUG’s Pandora. Photo by Shawn Denowh.

ILUG’s view of Pandora Photography by Greg Fastabend 72

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 #79

BRICKJOURNAL #78

BRICKJOURNAL #81

BRICKJOURNAL #80

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

Head to the city: Ellis City by GARETH and CATHY ELLIS, New Hasima by STEFAN FORMENTATO, and Fabuland City by STEVEN LAUGHLIN! Plus a wealth of other MOCs (”My Own Creations”) are showcased, along with: 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!

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.

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

BRICKJOURNAL #77

BRICKJOURNAL #76

BRICKJOURNAL #75

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!

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!

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

BRICKJOURNAL #74

BRICKJOURNAL #73

BRICKJOURNAL #72

BRICKJOURNAL #71

BRICKJOURNAL #70

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.

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!

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

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

#69: LEGO Starship builders!

#68: Women of LEGO building!

#67: Best friends & Disneyland Paris!

#66: LEGO brick photography!

#65: Happy holiday building!

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

#64: Classic LEGO themes re-imagined!

#63: Undersea LEGO building!

#62: LEGO Trains!

#61: LEGO figure building!

#60: Spooky LEGO building!

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

#59: Star WarsTMthemed builders!

#58: LEGO warbirds, past and present!

#57: Microscale LEGO building!

#56: Life-size LEGO!

#55: LEGO heads & tails!

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

#54: Top secret LEGO!

#53: Video games LEGO-style!

#52: LEGO Certified Professionals!

#51: LEGO Steampunk!

#50: double-size Anniversary Book!

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

(144-page paperback) ONLY $10 (Digital Edition) $8.99

#49 & earlier:

3 each

2.99 DIGITAL

Get this bundle:

$ plus shipping

(only $2.25 each when bundled together—digital editions not included)

#49: LEGO Technic!

#48: LEGO Mecha!

#47: Undersea LEGO!

#46: LEGO Trains!

#45: Female LEGO builders!

#44: LEGO Theme Park issue!

#43: LEGO Gaming!

#42: LEGO Education!

#41: Spacethemed LEGO!

#40: LEGO Mecha!

#39: LEGO Dinosaurs!

N ITIO! D E T OUT PRIN D SOL #38: LEGO Cool Cars & Hot Rods!

#37: LEGO Star WarsTM!

#36: Microscale LEGO building!

#35: History in LEGO bricks!

#34: LEGO Comics!

#33: LEGO Robots!

#32: LEGO Art!

#31: LEGO bricks with character!

#30: LEGO Architecture!

#29: TECHNIC Building!

#28: The LEGO Movie!

#27: LEGO Iron Builder contest!

#26: LEGO Creatures!

#25: LEGO Medieval Castle building!

#24: LEGO Trains!

#23: LEGO Star WarsTM!

#22: LEGO Plane building!

#21: LEGO Car building!

#20: LEGO Superheroes!

#19: LEGO Events issue!

#18: Japanese LEGO creations!

#17: LEGO Space War!

#15: LEGO Mecha!

#13: Event issue!

GET THE BUNDLE!

39 issues: #3, 5, 9, 11-13, 15, 17-36, 38-49! $ 87 plus shipping (just $2.25 each) (Digital editions not included in the Bundle. If an issue is sold out when you order, we will refund $2.25 per missing item.)

#12: Back-to-school LEGO sculptures!

#11: LEGO Racers!

#9: LEGO Disney sets!

#5: LEGO Mindstorms!

#3: FIRST® LEGO League Festival!

NO SUBSTITUTIONS or DELETIONS!

GET THE NINE ORIGINAL DIGITAL ONLY ISSUES! Before becoming a print magazine, there were nine DIGITAL EDITIONS of BRICKJOURNAL, which are also available for $2.99 each! (NOTE: These are DIFFERENT ISSUES than the ones shown above.)

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

store@twomorrows.com

MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION #1 AND #2

YOU CAN BUILD IT, BOOK 1 and BOOK 2

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!

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

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

Order online at twomorrows.com

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

Community Ads

Advertise With Us! RetroFan & BrickJournal Ad Rates: Back cover or inside cover: $1000 ($900 for two or more) Full-page interior: $800 ($700 for two or more) Half-page interior: $500 ($425 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more)

Back Issue • Comic Book Creator Alter Ego • Jack Kirby Collector: Back cover or inside cover: $800 ($700 for two or more) Full-page interior: $600 ($500 for two or more) Half-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $150 ($125 for two or more) AD SIZES: COVERS & FULL-PAGE: 8.375” wide x 10.875” tall trim size, add 1/8” bleed. (7.625” x 10.125” live area.) HALF-PAGE: 7.625” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds). QUARTER-PAGE: 3.6875” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds).

Call or e-mail for frequency discounts! Send ad copy and payment (US funds) to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

We accept check, money order, and all major credit cards; include card number and expiration date.

These rates are for digital ads supplied (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, or InDesign files accepted). No agency discounts apply.

FOR SALE!

ORIGINAL MINIFIGURE COMIC BOOK COVER REPRODUCTIONS by GREG HYLAND

Commission LEGO™ illustrator, Greg Hyland, to draw a full-size, production-quality recreation of any Marvel or DC comic book cover using LEGO™ Minifigures!

STAR WARS #7

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

Last Word Just got back from BrickCon. BrickCon is in Washington, and just moved from Seattle to Bellevue, which made the event have an excitement and nervous energy. The staff was experienced, but a new show at a new time and place? Hmm... Turns out things worked out really well. Both public days were sold out, and the crowds found out about the magazine... in fact, a lot subscribed. By the end of the event, we sold out of all of our magazines—which doesn’t happen very often. And we had more than a few subscriptions.

Paul Hetherington (the builder of this MOC) and me... it is a small world after all!

All in all, it was a fantastic event! And yes, the MOCs were great, including this one to the left. A build like that is inspirational—I want to build more Disney things! Next issue, we go to a place we visited earlier: New Hashima! This time, though, it’s much bigger! Til then, build on! Joe Meno

NEXT ISSUE...

we go to space.

photo by Greg Fastabend.

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 #25

RETROFAN #30

RETROFAN #31

RETROFAN #32

RETROFAN #33

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!

Featuring a profile of The Partridge Family’s heartthrob DAVID CASSIDY, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, LEGO blocks, Who Created Mighty Mouse?, BUCKAROO BANZAI turns forty, Planet Patrol, Big Little Books, Disco Fever, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the Bionic Duo, LEE MAJORS and LINDSAY WAGNER! Plus: Hot Wheels: The Early Years, Fantastic Four cartoons, Modesty Blaise, Hostess snacks, TV Westerns, Movie Icons vs. the Axis Powers, the San Diego Chicken, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2024

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships April 2024

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships June 2024

RETROFAN #26

RETROFAN #27

RETROFAN #28

RETROFAN #29

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.

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 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.

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.

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

RETROFAN #20

RETROFAN #21

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

RETROFAN #24

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.

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.

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

Go to www.twomorrows.com to preview and order, including RetroFan #1-19!

New from TwoMorrows!

KIRBY COLLECTOR #88

KIRBY COLLECTOR #89

ALTER EGO #185

ALTER EGO #186

ALTER EGO #187

KIRBY CONSPIRACIES! Darkseid’s Fourth World palace intrigue, the too-many attempted overthrows of Odin, why Stan Lee hated Diablo, Kang contradictions, Simon & Kirby swipes, a never-reprinted S&K story, MARK EVANIER’s WonderCon 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel (with MARV WOLFMAN, PAUL S. LEVINE, and JOHN MORROW), an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, 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!

Spotlights ANGELO TORRES, the youngest and last of the fabled EC Comics artists—who went on to a fabulous career as a horror, science-fiction, and humor artist for Timely/Marvel, Warren Publishing, and MAD magazine! It’s a lushly illustrated retrospective of his still-ongoing career— plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more

Focuses on great early science-fiction author EDMUND HAMILTON, who went on to an illustrious career at DC Comics, writing Superman, Batman, and especially The Legion of Super-Heroes! Learn all about his encounters with RAY BRADBURY, MORT WEISINGER, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, et al—a panoply of titans! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more!

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Spring 2024

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2024

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships April 2024

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!

BACK ISSUE #149

BACK ISSUE #150

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #33

’80s INDIE HEROES: The American, Aztec Ace, Dynamo Joe, Evangeline, Journey, Megaton Man, Trekker, Whisper, and Zot! Featuring CHUCK DIXON, PHIL FOGLIO, STEVEN GRANT, RICH LARSON, SCOTT McCLOUD, WILLIAM MESSNER-LOEBS, DOUG MOENCH, RON RANDALL, DON SIMPSON, MARK VERHEIDEN, CHRIS WARNER & more superstar creators. Cover by NORM BREYFOGLE!

ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Our oversized 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR sesquicentennial edition, featuring BATMEN OF THE 1970s! Exploring the work of Bronze Age Batman artists BOB BROWN, DICK GIORDANO, IRV NOVICK, FRANK ROBBINS, WALTER SIMONSON, ALEX TOTH, & BERNIE WRIGHTSON. Plus: revisit FRANK MILLER’s first Batman story, and more!

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!

STEVE GERBER biographical essay and collaborator insights, MARY SKRENES on co-creating Omega the Unknown, helping develop Howard the Duck, VAL MAYERIK cover and interview, ROY THOMAS reveals STAN LEE’s unseen EXCELSIOR! COMICS line, LINDA SUNSHINE (editor of early hardcover super-hero collections), more with MIKE DEODATO, and the concluding segment on FRANK BORTH!

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Jan. 2024

(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $12.95 (Digital Edition) $5.99 • Ships March 2024

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

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Spring 2024

2023 RATES

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

Print subscribers get the digital edition free!

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

Poly mailer, backing board

ECONOMY US

Faster delivery, rigid mailer

PREMIUM US

Non-US orders, rigid mailer

INTERNATIONAL

DIGITAL ONLY

$73 $97 $73 $53 $53 $73

$100 $130 $100 $70 $70 $100

$111 $147 $111 $78 $78 $111

$29 $39 $29 $19 $19 $29

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

No print issue

Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com Don’t miss exclusive sales, limited editions, and new releases! Sign up for our mailing list:

https://groups.io/g/twomorrows

Download our Free Catalog of all our available books and back issues! https://www.twomorrows.com/media/TwoMorrowsCatalog.pdf

PRINTED IN CHINA

BACK ISSUE #148

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!