BrickJournal #86 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Issue 86 • August 2024

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Landscaping with LEGO® Bricks! Dragons Anu Pehrson’s White Wall

Building Environments to Enhance Your Creation Pirates of the Caribbean INSTRUCTIONS AND MORE!

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Issue 86 • August 2024

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

People Temples of Worship for Alien Gods............3

Building

Thunderbirds are GO!.......................................8 Building a Hobby... and a Wall!..................12 Victor van den Berg: The Castle Lounge.......................................20 Joel and Jonathan Neuber: Building Pirates of the Caribbean.........26 BrickNerd Instructions: Upsized LEGO Pine Tree............................34

Minifigure Customization 101: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland II..................44 Life is All About Ease!.....................................50 Donny Chen’s Golden Dragon..................52 Celebrating the Year of the Dragon!.......56

Community

Bantha Bricks: Luca Scheller and Pande Kryopoulos: Brickz Lab.........................................................66 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs....................................................................80

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From the Editor: Landscapes? There’s some landscaping in this issue. But wow, there’s a lot of dragons too—for the Year of the Dragon, more than a few builders made incredible MOCs of the mythical creatures!

August 2024 Issue 86 Publisher John Morrow

There’s also a ride in this issue—the Pirates of the Caribbean! And this layout uses water to push the boats along the attraction... like the real thing! Yo, ho, a pirate’s life for you!

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, Donny Chen, Kevin Copas, Christopher Deck, Branko Dijstra, Ian Hou, Pande Kyropoulos, Sean Kenney, Joey Klusnick, Ryan McNaught, Joel Neuber, Jonathan Neuber, Anu Pehrson, Robin Sather, Luca Scheller, Nick Tyler, Victor van den Burg, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:

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

About the Cover: The White Wall from Game of Thrones. Photo by Anu Pehrson.

About the Contents: A close-up of Donny Chen’s dragon. Photo by Donny Chen.

And interior decorating (it’s kinda landscaping) with a build of a lounge. A really beautiful lounge. Really. To wrap up, a Star Wars layout. This issue went all over the place. So sit back and relax or build a little... and see page 79 for why this issue (and next) are a month later than planned. We’re back to bi-monthly next issue! 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

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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)

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Subscriptions

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

BrickJournalTM issue 86, August 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.

Temples of Worship for Alien Gods

People

Article and Photography by Nick Tyler (@captain.pigheart on Instagram) Nick Tyler has been LEGO building for as long as he can remember. His first true love was Fabuland, but he also liked LEGO Space and Blacktron, as well as his brother’s Castle sets. His initial building was with those and lots of random bricks. His family also visited the original LEGOLand sometime around 1986-87, which was a very exciting trip.

Nick Tyler with some of his builds.

The following pieces are explorations of color, symmetry and texture, usually inspired by a handful of elements or striking colors. There is never a plan—the bricks lead the way until the structures are completed. These were displayed at the Museum of Making in Derby, United Kingdom from January 25 to April 21, 2024.

Drowned Shrine of the Piranha Gods

When LEGO released their Dots range, they introduced quarter tiles in gorgeous coral pink, a color I adored in LEGO Friends. This grew from a flat mosaic into shadowy construction to support the curves and whorls in coral pink and teal. The colors on black just pop beautifully, despite the structure being rather fragile. If you look closely, you can find various coral pink sea creatures, and even an upside-down rubber ring. The outer foliage all in rich yellow is made up of leaves, stars, minifigure heads, and hairbrushes…

It took some time before Nick started building as an adult, beginning with digging his old LEGO bricks out of the loft to share with some kids at his first job—building the Space monorail was delightful! This was the early ’00s, when LEGO started to get really interesting again, as it embraced franchises. He started picking up some of the early LEGO Star Wars sets (being a sci-fi and Star Wars fan) like the collectible miniatures and Jabba’s Palace, in a very casual but excited way, and inevitably, it began to snowball. For Nick, it felt like LEGO was making pretty and intricate sets for the first time with the Lord of the Rings sets and modular buildings. He had forgotten how soothing it can be to follow instructions—like jigsaw puzzles, but better. He needed something calming and relaxing to add to his collection of creative activities. Nick is not a completist, so he hasn’t got a favorite theme— he bounces from theme to theme, picking up sets that look pretty and interesting to build. Although he loves Star Wars, those sets are mostly grey and wildly expensive, while the big modular buildings were a joy of intricacy and value to discover. He very much enjoyed Chima and was sad when the theme ended. Ninjago has also been awesome, especially the enormous Ninjago City sets, although he doesn’t have the room for the fourth set... or the second set. Monster Fighters and the LEGO Movie sets were awesome (Metalbeard’s Sea Cow might be Nick’s favorite set ever—at least until he looks at another set, like WALL-E). He may not have a favorite, but he does buy most of the Winter Village and modular sets. The Botanical range has some real treats too. He has an assortment of sets waiting to be built, from the Blacksmith’s Shop to Dreamzzz to Chinese New Year sets. If it’s pretty and detailed, he’ll probably want it. Nick started building MOCs when he got a collectible minifigure: the Dinosaur Suit guy, to be exact. He wanted to build a mini city environment for the minifigure to destroy. The build wasn’t very good, but it started him building environments and buildings for the figures to inhabit, from adding to sets like The Lone Ranger’s Colby City Showdown to making little Christmas displays and making his own Winter Village Toy Shop, because he hadn’t yet acquired the set. About ten years ago, he visited the Brickish Weekend (a LEGO fan event) at the National Space Centre in Leicester and saw the amazing heavily-greebled space work of Peter Reid and Tim Goddard (Peter’s LEGO Ideas Exo-Suit had just been released, as well as their book LEGO Space: Building the Future). It was the first time that Nick had really seen ‘adult’ LEGO building and was inspired. He still didn’t know what he wanted to build, though! It took a long time to find a style.

Abyssal Gold Temple

New shapes and colors are always exciting, and I ended up with a lot of gold LEGO (again)—this started with the central mandala and attempting to make a circle. The gold coils always feel as if they’re moving slowly, ever creeping out of sight. Apart from the mandala, this is a fairly straightforward construction, expanding outwards with complementary colors and shapes, until I reached the pink-flowered trees, of course. The new five-pointed grass stems suggested a dandelion clock structure, and perhaps that idea gave 4 direction to the whole temple.

Since Nick wasn’t very good at following directions or planning ahead, he took inspiration from some friends’ story podcast called Flash Pulp, illustrating scenes from their episodes. It took several more years to realize that he was enjoying shape and texture and detail more than the subject matter itself. He really wanted to want to make space things and spaceships like when he was a child, but he discovered that he wanted to make weird buildings instead, now that he’s older.

Shapes and colors inspire Nick’s builds. He is not a planner in any respect, and really struggles to conceive of an endpoint. Oddly, he finds the idea of having an aim vaguely crushing. It’s the same in his writing and improv comedy—what he enjoys is the discovery along the way of which parts fit together and how it all combines to make something new. In improv, Nick often says that you don’t know how the story is going to end, but you don’t need to. All you need is to know what’s happened so far and keep adding to it. Stories, conclusions, a finished build—they’re all inevitable and write themselves, as long as you keep returning to the initial inspiration and pay attention to what’s been added so far. Nick builds pretty slow, starting with a doorway or a gate and continually expanding on it, leaving the rest of the structure that it belongs to. He’s slow because he has lots of other activities competing for his time. Since he doesn’t have a real building goal, he’s dependent on inspired curiosity striking. He likes to play with a little tub of LEGO, make some fun shapes, and then leave them for ages before doing the next thing. Once a build emerges, from the chaos , he’ll grow more interested and spend more time on it. It can take months for Nick to build even a small thing. That said, he tends to build in bursts, having weeks and months of just sorting and building sets before engaging with a project and working hard on it.

Ebony & Ivory Towers

Both of these began by playing with new gold LEGO elements—the twirly plant pieces—inspired by the ancient, undying alien gods of the Lovecraft Mythos. There was a real joy in finding unlikely connections between the gold elements available. Once they existed with their non-Euclidean geometry, they naturally needed to be housed and worshipped. I rarely use black or white LEGO, so it was a fun exercise to see what symmetrical shapes could be built, taking pleasure in using unusual pieces such as the LEGO Sports “Subbuteo-style” pieces in the midsections, the creepily fleshy Bionicle plant shapes, and weaving branches together into spindly, unlikely towers buttressed with spine shapes.

Temple of Quiet Contemplation

This was the first temple I made in this series. Of all LEGO’s colors, I love sand green almost as much as gold. For a while it was a very scarce color and I used as much of it as I could. This one started with the gates—a tangled close-knit mass of gold shapes and bars. The rest of the structure is in a shape LEGO doesn’t quite want to be—the angles of the hexagon are too sharp and the bricks are under a lot of stress. This was my first opportunity to use all kinds of shapes such as saxophones, swords from Lord of the Rings, and even the plastic stubs that join Ninjago weapons together.

Because of this, Nick’s builds are a matter of just starting a build with very little planning. He has favorite colors that will drive his building for a while. Gold is just lovely, as it contrasts so beautifully with almost any other color. He also wants more coral pink and teal (thank the LEGO gods for LEGO Friends!). He often leaves a build partway completed for weeks before returning to it. He builds when he feels inspired or has had a bright (and often disastrous) idea. He’s a big fan of constraints in art, and with LEGO the constraints are space, size, and part inventory. He has no room to build anything huge, and he tries not to buy specific parts for a build (though he does buy a fair amount of plant parts and gold in general). He likes to work with what he already has, and the compromises and alternative choices that happen often produce lovely results. As a result of not planning, Nick frequently builds himself into corners or into shapes that are entirely out of the LEGO system, and ends up stressing bricks to bend them into the shape he wants. The Chapel of Silence was a nightmare he brought entirely upon himself. Making the front and back in separate builds, he decided to combine them. He only realized after a considerable amount of progress that the back of the chapel was a brick wider than the front. He didn’t like going backward, but it caused him so many problems getting the sides and roof to line up. The chapel is hilariously

fragile and he’s exploded it countless times. The tree with the chapel is mostly shaped with various rifles and guns for wierd angles, and it’s a miracle that it holds together. A tough question for Nick is choosing his favorite build. Until he was offered the chance to display his models at Derby’s Museum of Making, he didn’t keep any of his builds intact for more than a few months. One of the major constraints he has is an acute lack of space. Anything he builds usually fits on a 32 x 32 baseplate, so that has driven him to make small, detailed sculptures, cramming as many bricks into a small space as possible. His current favorite build is the Abyssal Gold Temple, which features an intricate gold mandala using candelabras and swirling leaf pieces. It’s probably his favorite shape, and he loves how it looks against the dark gray and earth blue. Oddly, it’s one of the fastest builds he has done—following the shapes and textures worked really well. He also liked the pink trees. For Nick, it’s immensely satisfying to make LEGO not look like LEGO anymore, especially in organic shapes. Another build Nick is fond of is the hard-to-photograph Drowned Shrine of the Pirahna Gods, which is an allblack frame with coral pink swirls and shapes all over it. Against a black background, it looks like all the curves are floating. Nick builds because he believes we should all be creating something—anything—using any medium we enjoy. He adores the tactility of working with LEGO; it’s a wonderful sculpting medium, and it’s so rewarding to see how the elements fit together and create something new from the same parts. He enjoys finding a beginning and following it to its inevitable ending, and he also has a deep fondness for sorting and rooting through bricks, finding and establishing order in chaos, only to tear it all apart and return it to chaos again. There’s a nice circular path to all of it which he finds satisfying. Currently, Nick is painfully slowly building out a hexagonal structure which really doesn’t want to be that shape, and he has no idea where the build is going. He’s excited to discover what else it will become as the process of building continues. Another project he will be doing is a talk about being inspired by LEGO and running a “build something and take it home” workshop for adults. After that, he is hoping to display at a few local brick festivals later in the year. There’s going to be a lot of dismantling when he gets his models back from the museum, too. Nick’s advice for builders? “Go to a couple of LEGO shows and visit a LEGO Store to look at the cool stuff people have built. You might want to make something like those, or you might just realize that this medium has the potential for you to express something else entirely. When buying intriguing new elements from the Pick-a-Brick wall, don’t just buy half a dozen bricks—fill half a box! It took me ages to realize that my options increased by orders of magnitude once I stopped treating some bricks as ‘special’ and used them profligately instead of saving them as features. If it’s something that appeals to you, there are enormous fan communities online and in the real world that can be pretty great, too.

Temple of the Beasts

Availability of parts is often the driving force and the most significant constraint for what I can build. The LEGO Monkie Kid range introduced bananas in gold as well as the pentagon shield shapes. I picked up quite a lot of them… Again, the gateway was the first section to be built, and the walls echo the curves and gaps between the bananas. The dark red wolf heads came out with the LEGO Vikings in 2005 and had sat in a box for fifteen years, sadly unused. They contrast so well with the gold that they defined the rest of the color scheme. There’s something in the richness and strength of the tones which resonates for me.

Chapel of Silence

I’ve accidentally destroyed this one more times than I can count—it began as two separate structures which now form the front and back of the chapel. Unfortunately, they’re different widths, and that really inspired everything that followed to accommodate the shapes. I like making LEGO foliage look less stiff, and started using minifgure rifles to create more natural branch angles.

You can see more of Nick’s work at his instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/captain.pigheart/ or you can scan this QR code!

Building

Kevin Copas’ Thunderbirds collection.

Thunderbirds are GO! Article and Photography by Kevin Copas Kevin Copas has been building MOCs for seven years, but as a young child, he was always trying to recreate what he saw with bricks. He started building as an adult as he saw LEGO evolve and improve over the years. It got him thinking: What he used to build as a child in the ’80s—could he improve and build better as new parts and colors were introduced? For him, the answer turned out to be a positive one. Kevin’s main core of building is in military MOCs and TV-themed vehicles, but he’s happy to test his skills and try different things like animals and buildings, as they offer different challenges.

While the evolution of LEGO got Kevin into MOC building, attending brick events all over the UK inspired him to do more MOCs and show the skill he has building LEGO, as well as to inspire adults and children that their imagination can go as far as they wish and can achieve the impossible. Patience and perseverance are a must, and his creations demonstrate this. For Kevin, the outside world has always been an inspiration for him to build. He’s always looking for

Building Thunderbird 2 Thunderbird 2 is the most iconic craft and was a challenge to build. Here’s a look at the steps behind the construction of Kevin’s model.

The fuselage starts to take shape.

Initial builds of the stabilizer and engine.

Landing struts are tested.

Thunderbird 1.

Exhausts and stabilizer are added.

something with a Wow Factor. For him, creating a real-life thing in brick form with a good representation sure is satisfying, but it can challenge him.

Some of his best known MOCs are based on a Gerry Anderson series: Thunderbirds. Since he was a child, Kevin was always recreating the Thunderbirds Tracey Island base in bricks. Back in the ’60s, it was a captivating series that showed a lot of imagination and good morals. He was inspired to create brick versions of the Thunderbird crafts as well as the pod vehicles from the show. When he was a kid, he built them with incorrect colors. He now had the opportunity to recreate and revise the vehicles in correct colors—and to add that Wow Factor, make them in a good large size. Already his Thunderbirds have attended two LEGO shows in 2024 so far. Thunderbird 2 is by far the fans’ favorite, which fed into another reason to build: wow the crowd. Building the Thunderbirds happened over a five-year period, with each vehicle being a year-long effort. It wasn’t planned out to be an annual thing.

Thunderbird 2’s cargo pod under construction. Thunderbird 2.

The shaping of the front nears completion. The support crafts are built to fit the cargo pod.

Design was started digitally, then gathering and buying parts, then following the instructions created by Stud.io, Bricklink’s building app. This process took a lot of time, as Kevin is a perfectionist. If he’s displaying to the public, he needs the public to recognize his builds instantly. Kevin builds digitally first, as this allows him to see what parts work, as well as using correct colors (or as close as he can get). Researching is also important; looking at the real thing and working shapes and angles to find the profiles and key shapes to a build. Other factors include making sure a build is structurally sound, getting hatches or any mechanisms to work, or surfaces that need to be hinged. A lot of thought goes into not only making his builds look the part, but also be functional. Kevin started with Thunderbird 3, then Thunderbird 4, Thunderbird 1, and his personal favorite, Thunderbird 2. A smaller Thunderbird 5 was added, and the collection was completed by building the iconic Rolls Royce FAB1. While each model was planned over a year, Thunderbirds 1, 3, 4, and 5 only took one to two days to actually build.

Thunderbird 3.

Thunderbird 4. Also shown are the Tracy brothers (from left to right): Scott (Thunderbird 1 pilot), Virgil (Thunderbird 2 pilot), Alan (Thunderbird 3 pilot), and Gordon (Thunderbird 4 pilot).

FAB1.

Thunderbird 5 with John Tracy.

Kevin’s collection of models from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Thunderbird 2 took a week to complete, as it was by far the trickier build due its shape and size. For Kevin, it was important to make sure that he used reliable methods to support the weight and be able to stand while the pod was on display separately. Despite being his hardest build, the end result is very satisfying. Photos do not do the build justice with its size and accurate rendition of an iconic machine. Kevin has some other favorite builds besides Thunderbird 2, which takes his top spot. He has built MOCs from another Gerry Anderson TV show, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, including the Spectrum Pursuit Royal Navy Rescue Sea King. Vehicle (yet again a tricky shape), Spectrum Patrol Car, Maximum Security Vehicle, and the Angel Interceptor aircraft. Another favorite build is from his military MOCs: a Royal Navy Rescue Sea King helicopter with lights that covered the Cornish coast in Cornwall, UK.

A couple of glimpses of an upcoming layout: Tracy Island!

Kevin builds for three reasons: to make a replica of something, to display at LEGO shows, and to get commissions, which is always great to have. His current project is his biggest: a full functioning Tracy Island from Thunderbirds. It will be in a much smaller scale than the Thunderbirds vehicles he built, but he wants enough detail so the crafts are included (and rebuilt to the smaller scale). Launch sequence for each craft will be replicated to the show, so one can see each Thunderbird coming out of their hiding places as seen on TV. Kevin’s advice for builders? “Buy a LEGO set and get familiar with the techniques that are used. Modify the set to see if you can change or improve its look. Also, get Stud.io from Bricklink. It’s an app that is tricky at the start, but as you use it more, you’ll get to see what it truly can do. “Start small and work your way up to bigger builds. If you want to be really adventurous, start working on making things move with motors. You’re only as good as your last build, so always push your boundaries. Most of all, have fun building—that is the most important thing!

Building Most children grow up with toys and books and movies, comics being part of books. Superman, Spider-Man, Darth Vader, or Spock are normal everyday characters in their lives— but why am I speaking of children? Pop culture is important to adults, too! This is something I learned much later in life. Growing up in India in a kind of traditional way, my exposure to comics and movies was limited. Think Asian Tiger Mom. Comics, movies, fictional books, and cartoons on TV were all a waste of time. I would love to read mysteries like Sherlock Holmes or Perry Mason, but had to do it after everyone was asleep, under the covers with a torchlight. Amar Chitra Katha were the only comics available to me to read, which did make me an expert in Akbar and Birbal stories. Fast-forward twenty or so years, and I moved to the USA and realized that pop culture references were everywhere! There wasn’t a day when I wasn’t completely lost during a normal conversation, because of a reference to something I didn’t know. Oh, I did know of Superman or Spider-Man, but if I was told, “These are not the droids you’re looking for,” I’m like, “What are droids?” and “No, I’m looking for my keys.”

My first build from Game of Thrones was Pyke Castle, as featured in BrickJounal #45.

Building a Hobby... and a Wall! Article and Photography by Anu Pehrson

Then the problem became more acute as an AFOL. LEGO and pop culture go hand-in-hand. It’s all good for a while if you’re building Architecture, Landscaping, and City, but a large part of LEGO sets and MOCs (my own creations) are based on some sort of pop culture. When I displayed at LEGO conventions, I realized that it was definitely sacrilege not knowing who Captain Kirk or ObiWan Kenobi were. Imagine what happened to me when I joined my local LUG (LEGO Users Group) to display at Comic-Con! This was a defining moment when I realized that I had to educate myself. A friend’s 8–9 year old son took me under his wing and began teaching me. I watched all the Star Wars movies, Spider-Man, and so many others. I finally understood the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, but it was brutal! Honestly (and please don’t hate on me), some of it is just not interesting to me. I like Grogu now, if that helps. And Mickey Mouse and Tom & Jerry are the best! Master Yoda, like I do.

Since I loved reading, I came across George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. That was an interesting story and very popular. It was the first time I was in-sync with current pop culture. I loved the story, but the descriptions of the locations and castles immediately sparked an interest in me as an AFOL to build scenes from it.

Another view of Pyke Castle.

I personally don’t believe in catering to the likes and wants of others. I feel I get the best result if I build things that are interesting to me. That said, the popularity of this MOC did point to the fact that building a genre where a larger number of people associate or identify with, does create more interest. If this genre is also interesting to me to build, then everything works out!

Case in point, I built Tiger’s Nest Monastery, which in my opinion in visually more interesting than Pyke, but since it’s not a well known place, it wasn’t as popular.

Tiger’s Nest Monastery.

The Wall.

Being a GOT fan and a LEGO fan, building the Wall was an obvious choice, but, the Wall as it is, is boring. Besides, I would need a huge number of white bricks which are not easy to find. For some reason, white bricks are not very common, so Pyke Castle was completed before the Wall. I started the process of slowly acquiring slope bricks of all sizes. At this time, I had committed to building the slope, brick and plate kind of rockwork. The next step was to decide the parameters of the diorama around the Wall. Castles on the south side were very interesting to build, but many scenes in the show happened Beyond the Wall, so I decided I needed to build both sides of the Wall. The different thing I did in this MOC vs. other MOCs is I mechanized the elevator. Yes, I know in the show or books it’s not mechanized, but I learned how to use power functions and gears. Yipee! I now know how to make things move.

Some of the forestry built by Anu.

The Wall’s south side.

For the south side, Castle Black and iconic scenes within were a must. Then I added the Shadow Towers and another dilapidated structure. These gave me an opportunity to play with different techniques to create worn out crumbling structures.

Castle Black.

Night’s Watch approaching.

Shot from above—Samwell Tarly, Pip and others training.

Inside Castle Black.

Ser Alliiser Thorne, watching Eddison Tollett.

A look at the detail in the Shadow Towers.

Broken Bridge between the two towers.

I loved building the Shadow Towers and other dilapidated buildings. These were mostly from my imagination, and I played around with the jumper plate offset technique.

Shore detail.

Building a Tower There are some interesting techniques that are used to make the towers look aged and weathered. Here’s a glance at some of the features and how they were built. Tiles were placed on the sides of bicks with side studs to break the smoothness of the walls. Jumper plates (1 x 2 plates with one center stud) and I x 2 door plates are also used to add texture. For the windows, jumper plates were used to shift the frames a half-stud outwards. 17

North of the Wall was a lot of landscaping (my forte, if I may) and iconic scenes from the show.

Soldiers got to drink!

Stannis’ army approaching.

Wildlings ready for war.

Wildlings killed while trying to scale the Wall.

Mance Rayder’s Camp Freefolk.

I also played around with a few tree techniques.

Some tree built by Anu. Taking the oath, Godswood Tree (I hate this tree, but I was burnt out at this point. I’ll rebuild it one day).

Top of the Wall, Nights Watch on Guard.

Overall, I enjoyed building this MOC. I admit that the Wall itself was monotonous, but the other aspects like the castles, dilapidated structures, and landscaping got the creative side of my brain working. I experimented with new techniques and I made a working elevator!

Another look at the top of the Wall.

While deciding what I should build, these aspects are the most important, I think, because I can build a very popular genre or subject, but if I don’t enjoy the process, the end result will not bring joy. Master Yoda would probably say, “Happy, be you must!”

Building

Victor van den Berg:

The Castle Lounge Article and Photography by Victor van den Berg

Victor van den Berg does a lot—he works with children in afterschool programs. As ‘Vicbrick’ he teaches them all kinds of building techniques with LEGO. With them, he builds robots, future cities, castles and much more. He also has a small webshop with LEGO-related gifts. Additionally, he works as a ‘Professor’ named von Frobel for an organization called Mad Science. There, he teaches science to children and does all kinds of exciting stuff with explosions and smoke! He also does promotional shows for Mad Science. Victor has been LEGO building all his life. His mom thought it was the perfect toy to play with. He recognized some sets from the ’70s he had, but doesn’t recall where they went. At the age of 14, he entered his Dark Age and stopped building when he started dealing with adolescent matters. He returned to building when he turned 45 and started to buy and build some Star Wars sets, and immediately remembered the fun of building. A lot of stuff

was happening in his personal life, and Victor found out that building set his mind at ease and was therapeutic. In terms of favorite themes, Victor has no specific LEGO theme. If he had to choose, it would be Star Wars, but the funny thing is that he hasn’t built much from Star Wars in his creations. There has been an idea of building something awesome for years, but it hasn’t worked out yet. He also has some Lord of the Rings sets, but he rarely does sets because he likes to build his own creations. Victor started building his own models after seeing the most amazing things other people were building online. One day, he started collecting LEGO parts and at a certain point, it became quite a number of parts. He just started building. At the beginning, building is a process: he couldn’t really do anything wrong, and he learned a lot from it.

An overhead view of the lounge.

The inspiration for this build was to create a large lounge room with impressive windows and a good looking fireplace. For Victor, this is how a project begins: a vague idea, and then researching online for pictures and photos of things in real life. From these references, he takes out elements and starts building. Building a model takes a few weeks for Victor. For him, it’s a process of building a few days a week and then spending time to gain some new ideas. His average build time is three weeks, but he doesn’t know in advance how long or how big his final model will be.

Another view showing the fireplace.

For Victor, building a floor can take him a day. He can focus on the floor that day. Adding furniture is another task that takes one or two focused days. There is some planning based on the day—he wakes up thinking about making a wall in his building. Sometimes he has collected online examples or ideas for the wall, and he just starts building. If he doesn’t finish that day, he continues and comes up with new solutions while building. He always takes the time to build and complete each task. This lets him end a task on a positive note so he can start fresh with another task on his model. One of the hardest models that Victor has built was of a dragon that laid on a pile of gold. The model was set underground with a cave that led from the forest above. The challenges he had then were mainly the number of parts and the size of the structure. Because he didn’t know how to solve some things—but he didn’t want to give up—he left the model alone for a few months. He finally picked up building again and completed the model. Now with much more experience, Victor could easily solve these difficulties he had.

Building furniture and fireplace.

Constructing a Chair Here’s a breakdown of one of the chairs in the lounge. What is interesting to see is how the back of the chair is built sideways, with it connecting to the rest of the chair by use of a headlight brick in the armrest.

LEGO building for Victor is his life. Not only building MOCs, but also professionally for his company where he often builds with children at schools. It has come to the point that sometimes he is somewhere and looks at something and immediately sees it in LEGO bricks. He is already building it in his mind, and he always hopes that he will remember it and quickly convert it into a model. More details of the lounge.

Victor’s dragon den layout.

It’s also about coming up with things Victor hasn’t seen before, or improving things and sharing it with others. The real fun is hearing this from his social media followers and viewers and respond positively. It remains a challenge to him to surprise people with how simple or how fun it is to make something (with sometimes very few LEGO pieces) that no one has thought of. Imagining something and seeing it grow under his hands, and sometimes surprising himself, remains the most fun, and always puts him in the right state of mind. Hopefully, he inspires others with his work. Future projects include making small builds with some nice minifigure scenes to make into postcards. And Victor is still thinking of a big build, maybe something with Star Wars!

The main window in progress.

Window Dressing Here’s a breakdown of the main window. The black fence pieces are used right-side-up and upside down—the row of fences above the rocket fins are upside down. The rocket fins allow this to happen, as they can be placed on the antenna pieces inversely, as well as the 1 x 1 round bricks.

His advice for builders: “Just start and gain experience building and become familiar with the many LEGO elements that are available. Build up a stock of parts so you never get stuck. Above all, experience how good it is for your mental well-being to create something and be proud of.”

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Building

Inez’ Raffesia leonardi.

Joel and Jonathan Neuber:

Building Pirates of the Caribbean!

Joel Neuber got his first set in 1985, building off and on for 39 years. His favorite theme is Pirates, and he was very disappointed with the official LEGO Black Pearl set in 2011. He thought, “I know I could do better,” so he bought two of the sets and a couple thousand black parts, and built his own ship based off the Black Pearl in the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean video game. His inspiration for building the entire Pirates of the Caribbean ride came from even earlier, when he went to Disneyland in 1990. He was 11, and the very first LEGO Pirates sets were released. After he rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, he was mesmerized! As soon as he got home, he recreated it as best as he could with his Pirate LEGO pieces. At the time, he didn’t have anywhere near the parts he needed to do the ride justice, but the dream was born to someday recreate it, water and all. The resulting layout was displayed at Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in Denmark in 2023, and was the result of two years of work. Between work and family, Joel didn’t have much building time, so it took much longer than most builders would probably take. Using water in the build forced Joel to design it completely before connecting the first two bricks. It took a month just to draw out a path that fit his available space and incorporated the features he wanted in the order he wanted. Once he set up the water canal path and built the table around it, there was no way to change the layout. Joel had considered other mechanical methods of moving the boats through the ride, such as rollercoaster track, train track, or conveyor belt, but none of them really recreated the experience of the actual ride. Boats and water tied so well with the theme of Pirates that he decided that it was worth the hassle of incorporating moving water. When Joel decided to go with water, he knew he had to have the “drop,” since it is such a memorable part of the ride.

The layout design.

Joel’s Black Pearl.

The layout table takes shape.

After watching many YouTube videos of the rides at Disneyland and Walt Disney World for research, he combined his favorite elements from the Pirates ride at those parks as well as Disneyland Paris. Working with water added so many complexities and challenges. The table had to be perfectly flat and level (within 5mm). All motors and wiring had to be elevated, and the water flow had to be consistent with just the right volume. The lift mechanism had to start underwater, lift boats out of the water, and get the boats back in the water 14 inches higher up, and repeat it perfectly for an eighthour show. Since the lift mechanism was built inside the mountain, Joel couldn’t access it if something got stuck. For the ride to actually have water, though, required making a ride channel to accommodate the ride boats. The boats are from the LEGO 4+ Pirates sets, which turned out to be the best size to use for the layout. The boats allowed for seats, and three minifigures to ride. The ride channel was designed and built into the layout table, using pond liner to make the channel watertight. LEGO elements were then added over the liner as needed, mostly for guiding and moving the boats. A look at the foliage on the layout. The loading dock.

The layout itself starts at a dock, which is based on the loading area at Walt Disney World. The boats are stopped and slowly launched using a conveyor belt built under the waterline. The boats then pass through a bayou, which references Disneyland’s version of the ride. Past the bayou is a entrance that leads to the first skeleton cave, in which resides the Helmsman, steering his doomed ship. After disappearing around a dark corner, the boats go up a lift that is run by a set of conveyor belts to the second skeleton cave, where several vignettes from the ride are displayed. Past the cave is a drop, inspired by the drop in the Disneyland ride. The boats stop at the edge of the drop until the water behind builds up to push them forward. From the outside, the boats launch out of a skull-shaped rock formation.

The bayou scene, with internal lighting.

From there, the boats follow the storyline of the Disneyland and Walt Disney World rides by landing in the middle of the bombardment of a fort by the Wicked Wench, the ship that becomes the Black Pearl in the movies. The Wicked Wench was built by Jonathan Neuber, Joel’s brother. However, since they lived seven time zones apart, Jonathan built the ship and cabin based on dimensions given by Joel. Jonathan built the ship with

The Helmsman.

Some more of the skeleton pirates.

lighting and movement for the cannons, as well as lighting for the cabin. The layout was completed at its first display at Skaerbaek.

Skeleton pirates!

The fort in the layout is a completely realized model, unlike the ride, where the only things visible are the fort walls. This was a result of Joel scratching his own design itch. He loved the star fort design that was common throughout the Caribbean during the age of piracy. All of the fort walls are sloped and at sharp angles to deflect cannonballs. Joel visited such a fort in St. Augustine Florida several times. Since most LEGO pirate theme forts resembled medieval castle design, he wanted to go for something more period authentic. The fort in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride isn’t a star fort, but Joel took creative liberties because he wanted to build one. It was a real challenge to build because none of the walls met at a 90 degree angle. On top of that, the walls are all slanted, so he ended up with lots of interesting joints.

Jonathan Neuber’s model of the Wicked Wench firing!

Finding treasure!

The dunking scene.

The auction scene.

The boats pass familiar scenes from the ride, including the dunking of the mayor, the auction scene, and the pillaging pirates. Jack Sparrow makes an appearance, looking for the town treasure as pirates chase the townspeople for food. The following scene is of the town burning, lit by flames in the buildings. An entrance leads the boats into a prison, where pirates are in cells trying to get keys... from Dug, the dog from Up! It’s a cute Disney easter egg that is Joel’s wife’s favorite part of the layout. Other viewers get a kick out of that little scene, which leads to the final scene of Jack Sparrow with all of his treasure. The Pirates layout is the largest and most complex build that Joel has done. The table alone has six adjustable legs to keep the layout level and control the water flow. The layout breaks down into 17 modules, with the fort being the largest. Set-up takes over six hours to build and adjust the table, then add all the modules.

An overhead view of the fort.

The Pirates layout is only one of many projects he is involved with. While adding improvements to the layout, he is also planning three projects: a recreation of Peter Pan’s Flight from Disneyland, building all the underground traps and the pirate ship from Goonies, and a minifigure scale model with interior of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

A pirate band!

LEGO building is something Joel enjoys because for him, it’s an incredible medium for working out solutions to problems. LEGO allows you to rapidly try new things without expending resources or having to start over from scratch. His advice to builders? “Official LEGO sets are great for learning complex building techniques. If you have friends with larger sets, ask them if you can borrow the sets, just to rebuild them. Take your time when building them and think through different applications and modifications. Take photos to remind you how LEGO designers solved problems.”

The town ablaze using internal lighting. The jail scene with a different dog.

Jack Sparrow finds the treasure!

Some overhead views of the layout.

Other than the 2x4 brick, perhaps no single LEGO element is as instantly recognizable as the LEGO pine tree. At more than 50 years old, the large pine tree (also called a spruce tree) has only ever been produced in green and bright green with frosted tips—and it has only been included in 150 sets. Yet for how iconic the tree element is, it is shockingly “out of system” with an oversized circular base and no other standard connection points from top to bottom. Designing circular creations will always be a challenge, but especially when all those half circles emanate from a central column. Enter the Travis brick—a 1x1 SNOT brick with studs on all four sides—that forms the central core of the tree. While green versions of the Travis brick are nonproduction and quite expensive, they can easily be substituted for black for nearly the same effect. (Now all we have to do is wait for the 1 x 1 x 2/3rds brick in green as well, so then you can substitute the 1x1 plates and run a bar through the entire length of the tree for even more stability!) So enjoy building your upscaled tree, a quirky and longstanding part of LEGO’s arboreal history!

Tree Parts List

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

Upsized LEGO Pine Tree Design by Joey Klusnick 34

6 1

4733.dat 78258.dat

Black Black

25 10 43 22 14 8 2 16

3005.dat 3023.dat 3024.dat 3070b.dat 3623.dat 3710.dat 4032a.dat 15573.dat

Green Green Green Green Green Green Green Green

30367c.dat

Green

30 2 1 4 8 6 2

54200.dat 63864.dat 85861.dat 87087.dat 92946.dat 93273.dat 99780.dat

Green Green Green Green Green Green Green

Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Four Sides Bar 2L with Thick Stop and Pin Holes Brick 1 x 1 Plate 1 x 2 Plate 1 x 1 Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Plate 1 x 3 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 2 x 2 Round with Axlehole Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud, without Understud Cylinder 2 x 2 with Dome Top with Axle Hole and Hollow Stud Slope Brick 31 1 x 1 x 0.667 Tile 1 x 3 Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud Brick 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side Slope Plate 45.73 2 x 1 Slope Brick Curved 4 x 1 Double Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up

1 2

1 3

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Building Minifig Customization 101:

Article and Photography by Jared K. Burks

This BrickJournal article has been written to address the deficit in the LEGO-verse where Alice in Wonderland, a.k.a. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” are concerned. LEGO has seen fit to create the following characters in Minifigure form: Alice, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts. This deficit is no longer tolerable; several of the most beloved characters in the book and animated Disney Classic are just absent. This will stand no more. It is the intention of this author to rectify this issue in a series of articles for BrickJournal to create and share “how to create” the key missing characters, including the Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, the brothers Tweedle, the King of Hearts, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. I encourage all readers to watch the animated Disney Classic “Alice in Wonderland,” which is available on Disney+. As with all literary works, I am behind schedule, so without further ado, let’s continue this journey.

“’But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’”

I believe the chapter title will proclaim the figures we are constructing today; however, for those unfamiliar with the work, please revisit the animated classic. I am using the 1951 animated film as inspiration for these additional figures, as it is this source that LEGO has released the three characters it has sought to create (Alice, Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts). The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party features an iconic scene from the book and animated film where we meet the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. Alice wanders into a Very Merry Unbirthday party where we first meet the Hatter, Hare, and Mouse. Alice wanders through the gate we saw the White Rabbit disappear through in the last chapter of this series. In order to create the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse, we need a list of parts so we know where we are going, so we can go in a specific direction. Ultimately, what can we use from LEGO, and which parts do we need to create?

A Very Merry Unbirthday!

The point of any series is to reuse elements to help tie the series together; to do this, we will be reusing the collar, bow tie, and waistcoat I created in the last issue for the White Rabbit. This will make them appear from the same genre, and also make it easier to create so many custom figures— and honestly, they did this in the animated film, too. Looking at our LEGO parts, these are fairly easy to gather together. There is quite a bit of design work to be done for the custom parts.

44 44

Luckily we covered how to create the bow tie and collar in the previous chapter on the White Rabbit. We need to create a hairpiece for the Hatter, a triple-spouted tea pot, a March Hare head, and if time permits, tiny objects for the Dormouse (hair, umbrella, collar, and tie). There is a cloth element that needed to be designed, or at least made in a new color: the waistcoat. I also need a card for the Hatter’s

Dark Green Torso ms Bright Light Orange Ar s nd Light Flesh ha Tea cup s Lime green medium leg (teen) Light Flesh Head Lime Green Top Hat

Cloth coa t Collar Bow tie Hair Triple Spo ut Tea Pot Custom F ace Custom H Print at Print and 10/6 Card

Dark Red torso Orange arms Dark Flesh hands Tea cup wn medium legs Bro rk Da (teen) Saucer Cloth co Colla at r B Marc ow tie h Ha re He a

hat indicating the size. If time and energy permits, there are some other oddities to be made, like the tea cup that is cut in half. So much to do. I designed some of these, and others I found sources in blender files for, like the March Hare that I had to modify and export for my needs.

“A very merry unbirthday to me” “To who?” “To me” “Oh, you” —The March Hare and Alice

When wanting to make something for a LEGO figure, you can design it from the ground-up, modify a LEGO part, or find something on Thangs, Thingiverse, or Google to see what is available. For this article, I have used a Blender design I found online, and also designed from the groundup. The Blender file was a wireframe that was designed to be animated, but this let me pull out the base March Hare head, but it wasn’t designed for LEGO. This required some fairly major adjustments to the head to make it fit a LEGO torso, but also to give it proper dimensions to be in the proper scale. I use Meshmixer for these alterations, as I can cut and add things to the head to make it fit a touch better. As I iterated the design, I had to extend the neck to allow the collar and tie to fit on the head properly. I also had to modify the March Hare’s hair, as this was a tiny detail and hung out in free space, requiring some supports when printed.

Mouse - Grey

Hair Umbrella Collar Bow Tie 3-D model of the March Hare.

March Hare head set up on the 3-D printer.

45 45

The next element is the Hatter’s hair, which has to mate up to the LEGO top hat. So I created a hairpiece, but then added it to Meshmixer because I was able to download the LEGO top hat from LEOcad. Once I had the LEGO top hat in Meshmixer, I could subtract the hat from the top of the hair, making the two fit correctly.

The Mad Hatter’s hat and hair being tested.

Next, and importantly, the triple-spouted Tea Pot. To create this, I used Fusion 360 and created the pot from the ground-up with a few simple forms. This got the body of the pot, which was fairly straightforward. The challenge was the spouts and the handle. I had to learn to use a newish command for me, the sweep command, where you create a path and a shape. You then get the shape to follow the path. This is how I created the handle with a consistent shape, and the spouts with a tapered shape.

“Ah, but that’s the point! If you don’t think, you shouldn’t talk!” —The March Hare

3-D model of the teapot. The LEGO grey mouse with parts to convert to the Dormaouse.

The Dormouse.

46 46

The Mad Hatter with the teapot.

As I have mentioned in the last chapter on the White Rabbit, I have been studying YouTube videos on miniature painters to learn how to better paint smaller details on the custom elements I create. This is again helpful when painting the March Hare’s head, the Mad Hatter’s hat band, but ultimately in the creation of the Dormouse. The Dormouse is a LEGO grey mouse that needs a jacket, pants, shoes, and a vest all painted on the existing part. Oh, and you must paint Jam onto her nose. Please watch the film. I have learned that using a wet palette helps keep the paint properly diluted in water as I am using acrylics, but this also keeps the paints from drying out and lets the paint flow from the brush in a better application. The second big bit is using Kolinsky sable brushes; these are higher end brushes, and I have tried synthetic bristle brushes, and the natural bristle has lasted longer and given me a fine point; please know your mileage may vary and there is a massive price difference between the two. As to painting, you merely add small amounts of paint to the wet palette, which is basically a sponge with a layer between. This allows the paint to flow from the brush and apply to the properly primed part. The next step I learned from watching so many videos is how to layer the paint to gain the best control possible. I have learned about how to layer the paints in order to achieve the desired effect. So in case of the Dormouse, the shoes, then the pants, then the jacket, and finally the vest. I have saved the nose for last. As for the March Hare, he was a touch different. The whites of the eyes and teeth, followed by the eyebrows, then the hair. You can’t just glob paint on the hair; you have to follow the pieces as they stick up, then the pupils and the nose.

Heads being painted.

Painting the March Hare.

“Yes, that’s it!” said the Hatter with a sigh, “It’s always tea time.”

Pulling a waistcoat from a pattern (right).

The final element that is instrumental that needs to be created is the waistcoat. Luckily, these days custom cloth is a bit easier to create. Many have gone to using inkjet printers and a Silhouette or Cricket to cut out the cloth elements. I have done a variance and went a bit old school in how I created the cloth. Cloth frays, and you must add something to the cloth to keep it from fraying. I used paint to color the cloth and to keep it from fraying. I applied the paint with a foam brush on the white broadcloth while the cloth was resting on a glazed tile. The paint won’t stick to the tile that is glazed, and after getting a good coverage, it is merely about letting the cloth dry by hanging it vertically. Once the cloth has been painted and is able to be cut, then I use a Silhouette with a design that I iterated through many test versions to get the correct fit. I merely had to export these as a .png file and load them into the Silhouette software and cut away.

The March Hare.

47 47

Joining the party.

“We never get compliments; you must have a cup of tea!” —The Mad Hatter

* Cheshire Cat designed by iBrickHeadz and color and part modified by Jared K. Burks. * Rabbit Hole and Hedge Arc designed by Joseph Meno.

48 48

Custom Chairs by Caitlin Burks.

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

Come back next issue for more Minifigure Customization! And don’t miss Jared’s two books (available now at twomorrows.com).

On sale: $5 each!

The completed figures.

49 49

Building

Ian Hou’s dragon build, celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Every year, Ian Hou builds a model based on the zodiac series before the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Dragon, so before production, he knew that this work would take more time to complete. As a result, he started production in early November.

Life is all About Ease! Article and Photography by Ian Hou 50

The dragon’s blueprint is based on Shenlong from the comic book Dragon Ball. The biggest challenge in building was the curved shape of the body and the color placement on the body (especially the red line in the middle). It took a total of two months to complete and used about 1800 parts. The title “Life is all about ease” is a blessing sentence that Ian uses every year, to create a blessing sentence using the homophony of the Chinese zodiac animal. This year, he used the homophony of the Chinese word “dragon”. The ” means “Life is all about ease”. homophony of “

Ian made a postcard of his work.

Building

Donny Chen’s Golden Dragon! Article and Photography by Donny Chen Donny Chen is known as the designer for the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano and other builds. He also is a piano teacher, tuner and technician. One of his most recent builds was a Chinese Dragon that was shown at Brickvention, a LEGO fan event in Australia earlier this year. Over six feet long, the model is made up of over 7000 pieces, of which 1300 were scales. Donny has been building for around 14 years now, getting hooked with Technic construction vehicles. The first set he bought was the 8297 Off-Roader. From there, he started to build on his own when he tried to add a gear box to his Off-Roader. He also slowly started building models that LEGO didn’t offer.

Inspiration for Donny can come in real-life objects, or sometimes the shape of a certain LEGO brick. Building a creation can take a week to a few months, depending on its size. Most of the important parts of his models have been thought through, so he knows what sections can be done with LEGO bricks. Donny begins building digitally, as he doesn’t have a very large part collection. The digital build will give him a good idea of how many elements he will need to purchase for his model.

A close-up of the dragon’s head. One of Donny’s upsized minifigures.

Donny builds for the challenge, to see if he can actually build items in LEGO, whether they be replicas of real-life objects or his own version of LEGO builds. Recent projects include making upsized LEGO minifigures and a Gundam mech model. His advice for builders? “Just start to build things you like, or maybe just recreate your own room with LEGO bricks.”

You can see more of Donny’s work on his Flickr feed: https://www.flickr.com/ people/sleepycowslegocorner/ or you can scan this QR code!

A rearward look at the model. Donny’s Gundam mech.

Community

Celebrating the Year of the Dragon! Article by Joe Meno Photography by Sean Kenney, Robin Sather, Ryan McNaught, and Branko Dijkstra

The Chinese New Year is celebrated by festivals and celebrations worldwide. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon and started on February 10, 2024. Three professional brick artists celebrated the year by presenting LEGO-built dragons online. One dragon has been on display on a traveling exhibition, while the other two were publicly displayed. Here are the stories behind them.

Sean Kenney’s dragon.

Sean Kenney is a brick artist that is based in Amsterdam, with studio spaces there and in New York City. His work has been seen on displays and exhibitions around the world, including the Nature Connects exhibition. For the 2017 Chinese premiere of the exhibit, Sean and his team built a dragon that was an upsized version of a dragon that was originally built as a gift for LEGO China. The smaller dragon was presented to the Beijing and Shanghai team in 2012. Some closer views of Sean’s dragon.

Sean (left) and co-builder with the dragon.

There’s also another reason why Sean built the dragon. He and his wife are both dragons in the Chinese zodiac. Sean is American and his wife is Chinese, so he wanted to challenge the Western vision of dragons as being malevolent with the Chinese vision of dragons as a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. The dragon was made in lucky colors: red and gold, which accidentally made it look a bit like Mushu from Disney’s Mulan. A photo showing the size of the original model.

Sean’s original model.

You can see more of Sean’s work at his website: https://www.seankenney.com or by scanning this QR code!

Robin Sather and his dragon model at Lansdowne Shopping Centre.

Robin Sather of Brickville Designworks, a LEGO Certified Professional (LCP), did a live build of a dragon from February 3–5, 2024 at Lansdowne Shopping Centre in Richmond, British Columbia. His dragon was mostly LEGO Duplo bricks, with about 95% of the 7,668 bricks in the larger size. About 200 were LEGO System bricks, for the eyes, claws, and some of the teeth. The total length of the dragon is two meters long. The dragon was built by using a free digital file and importing it into LEGO Brickbuilder, a model design app used in-house by the LEGO Group that is available to LCPs. Robin then sized and scaled the file, editing the design pretty heavily. From the original file, the head was completely redone as well as all the legs. Robin also modified the “Pearl of Wisdom” clenched in the dragon’s left forepaw. This was one of the rare times that Robin fully pre-designed a free-build, as he wanted a pretty specific shape. He still modified the build on the fly, shortening the dragon’s jaw. Another level of detail was added that he knew he could do without a specific design. Robin’s build time was only three days, so he didn’t have the time to add the fine detail for a permanent LEGO display.

The initial digital dragon model.

The dragon rendered in Brickbuilder with brick outlines.

Dragon in progress.

Another rendering.

A brick diagram used for building. This is a top view of the 30th level (from the bottom) showing brick placement of the outer layer of the dragon, along with indications of the layer below.

This was also an opportunity to observe a Chinese custom. In Chinese dragon art, it is said that painting the dot or pupil of the dragon’s eye awakens it. To awaken this dragon, Robin had the Richmond City Mayor add the pupil (actually a white 1 x 2 brick) in its eye. The completed dragon remained at the mall until February 25, when Robin did what is one of his customs—he flipped the dragon off the display platform, smashing it onto the floor. Onlookers watched excitedly, and then helped sort the disassembled parts back into bins, to ready them for Robin’s next big build.

You can see more of Robin’s work at his company website: https://www.brickville.ca or by scanning this QR code! A front view of the dragon.

On February 16, 2024, The LEGO Group celebrated the Chinese New Year by hosting a life-size dragon build in Sydney, Australia. The dragon head and tail were built by LCP Ryan McNaught and his building company, Brickman. The body, however, was made of blank body segments to allow guests to make their own scales (based on an 8 x 8 plate decorated with colored DOTS tiles) for the dragon, creating the longest LEGO dragon ever!

The dragon’s eye. Ryan and his dragon. Dragon head.

A look at the mouth and teeth detail.

One of the back fins of the dragon.

The dragon tail section.

One of the segments with dragon ‘scales.’ Photo by Branko Dijkstra.

Dragon tail detail.

A scale builder...

A young builder adds his scale.

You can see more of Ryan’s work at his company website: https://www.thebrickman. com or by scanning this QR code!

...with the dragon.

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Luca Scheller and Pande Kryopoulos:

the siege of ypdran

Brickz Lab

Article by David Strenzler, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Luca Scheller

The Siege of Vodran.

Galactic greetings! We are Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of one of the best LEGO Star Wars-themed groups on Facebook, David Strenzler, Frank Averstegge and Eloi Parizeau witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis. This time, we are glad to introduce two talented MOC builders and Bantha Bricks community members from Germany: Luca Scheller and Pande Kyropoulos. Luca and Pande will speak on behalf of Brickz Lab, an international LEGO fan community, about their latest impressive community build: The Siege of Vodran.

David Strenzler: Hello Luca, hello Pande. Welcome to the Bantha Bricks Files! The LEGO Star Wars community has been familiar with your skilled Star Wars-inspired designs for some time. Could you please introduce yourselves and what you do? Luca Scheller: Hello David, thank you for this interview! I am very grateful to get the chance to talk a bit about our collaborative project! My name is Luca Scheller and I’m a 20-year-old LEGO builder from Germany. I actively started building MOCs in 2017 and have been ever since. In 2019 Pande, myself, and a few other builders created Brickz Lab as a Discord server that grew into the online community that it now is. Ever since then, we have had the opportunity to work on some

amazing collaborations with other talented builders from the community! Pande Kryopoulos: Hello, I’m Pande, also known as Malen Garek on social media, and I am 25 years old. Thank you for this opportunity. I have been actively sharing my LEGO creations with the community since 2015. In 2017, I created the Dark Times RPG, and in 2019, I created BrickzLab alongside Luca for projects outside of the Star Wars theme. Would you say that Star Wars is your favorite theme, or are there others that we might not expect? Luca: I would say that Star Wars is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, theme to build. The movies have always inspired me with their vast variety of locations, vehicles, and planets to build. Personally, I really enjoy replicating designs, especially vehicles, as close to their reference as I can get.

Pande: Originally coming from Bionicle, Star Wars established itself as my favorite LEGO theme around 2005–2006 after I watched Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in the movie theatre. While I am interested in themes like fantasy, LEGO classics, Rock Raiders, etc., there is something about Star Wars that always makes me want to keep coming back. Why have you chosen the LEGO brick as your medium of self-expression? What makes LEGO so special to you? Luca: For me, it’s a nice challenge to create or recreate something out of the somewhat limited shapes and connections that the LEGO system provides. It is very rewarding to finally find the right connection between two pieces to solve your problem!

Pande: Sustainability and modularity are probably the biggest factors. These allow me to reuse my resources from older projects. Even as a child, the LEGO brick was more appealing compared to other toys, because of its endless possibilities. Luca, I was able to experience your impressive teamwork during the last LEGO exhibition season in 2023. The Siege of Vodran was definitely one of my favorites! But what initially inspired you guys to build that particular Star Wars scenery? Luca: Thank you, the idea to depict this particular kind of terrain came from the map of an old Star Wars RTS game called Empire at War. From there, we added in structures,

buildings, vehicles and vegetation, as these logically made sense in the environment. Pande, how did you even think about setting up such a large-scale project? How does one even begin such a process? Pande: On the BrickzLab server, we have a habit of playing Star Wars: Empire at War when time allows for it. This, along with other games, provides an excellent source of inspiration to kickstart a project like this. After the initial idea, a pitch document is created to showcase the vision and define the direction. This pitch document serves as a tool to recruit other builders and to 67 communicate the vision to the whole team. 67

Imperial bridge and landing zone.

Subsequently, we gather input from our team on the points of interest they would like to build. Once we have a rough idea of the contributions each member wants to make and what they plan to build, we create a small sketch or 3-D model. Following this process, the building phase typically begins right away. We aim to provide our builders with this at least six months in advance, although this may not always be feasible. Luca, can you tell us a bit about the construction of your build? Did you use any special techniques? Luca: Yes, of course! My contribution to the layout was the front entrance to the rebel hangar with a bit of terrain in front and the rocks surrounding it. Early on, I knew that I wanted to motorize the door, which provided me with a bit of a challenge since the already limited space I had to work with (because I had to stay within my own modules, which were three 32x32 baseplates) forced me to layer all components on top of each other. I ended up using the thin LEGO chain links to synchronize the movement of both sides of the door. Another transport boards the bridge.

68 68

Which of the design elements of The Siege of Vodran collab are your favorite? Pande: My favorite element of the project is the spotlight on niche Star Wars vehicles. From Imperial troop transports to tanks, walkers, and farm vehicles, we showcase a variety of vehicles and characters that we hope fans appreciate as much as we do. Other standout features are the

numerous motorized elements incorporated into the Rebel base and farm. Having movement in a build truly elevates the MOC to the next level of immersion. Luca: I am very happy with all of the small details and assets—such as little vehicle containers and crates—that we were able to accurately replicate from various source materials. They made the whole thing come together nicely, and we had a few visitors point out to us where they had seen them in a movie, TV show, or game. I also am very impressed with the level of vegetation and terrain that we managed to keep up throughout the entire layout. Luca, can you tell us a bit more about your process of designing, such an incredibly accurate scenery and determining how it could be built? Luca: Thanks to the large number of builders involved, we had a lot of specialists for certain parts of the layout. By first prototyping parts, colors, and textures, and then working them into useable standards for the rest, we were able to save a lot of time and gain a pretty high level of detail for this size of a MOC. If I had to mention any techniques in particular, I would point out the half-plate offsets in the terrain, as well as the different unusual parts and colors used in the vegetation (both prototyped by collab member @LegoFordo).

A look at the farm complex.

The Empire deploys its troops.

How do you two start your MOCs? Do you build the design in a freestyle way, or do you use a computer design program to lay it out first? Pande: I usually begin with a small research phase, gathering inspiration and references for the model I want to build or recreate. Once my research is complete, I choose a small section to start with and continue building the model from there until it’s finished, or I run out of parts. While I’ve built digitally in the past, I appreciate LEGO for its analogue nature. After spending a day in front of the computer, engaging in an analogue hobby is quite refreshing. Luca: For my vehicles, I start the design process with the collection of reference material. Once I acquire enough of it, I properly scale it inside a computer program and then start building. During the building phase, I always hold the physically built section of my model against the computer monitor to verify scale and proportions. I usually only build my MOCs digitally toward the end of the process—when almost everything is already complete—to save my model, just in case I drop it or it doesn’t survive the transport to a convention. Pande, while making this build, were there any moments when you guys felt stuck? If so, how did you overcome that obstacle?

TIE Fighter down!

Inside the Rebel hangar.

Pande: Certainly, there were moments where builders had to cancel, challenging us to adapt both the layout and the project to those changes. Personally, while I was working

An AT-AT approaches the Rebel base.

on the farm, I faced a tough time coming up with a unique design that retains the “Star Wars aesthetic.” Thankfully, I could ask our builders for constructive criticism and ideas during the moments when I was stuck. As experienced builders, what advice do you two have to offer to someone who would like to build a MOC of their own? Luca: I think you can learn a lot from just trying out how different connections and building techniques work. I can also recommend building other people’s designs in order to understand how many techniques can come together to create a whole model. Pande: Don’t be afraid to try new things and build a diverse parts collection. While having large bulk quantities of certain pieces is nice, it also means you are stuck using them over and over again, rather than coming up with unique ways to shape your models. I recommend anyone who wants to get into MOC building to start with smaller creations.

A flametrooper.

Are any instructions of your designs available to the public? If so, where can they be found? Pande: Some of our builds are available as instructions, but not everyone offers them. I recommend following the Siege of Vodran cast on social media if you are interested in news regarding instructions.

A trooper guards a container.

The Rebel base, with shield generator and turrets.

Luca: While I do not provide instructions to my MOCs, it might be worth keeping an eye on the other builders’ socials to see if they will have some assets from this build available. Can you already tell us something about your next big project? Do you two have any final thoughts that you would like to share with our readers? Luca: While we have no clear concept or ideas yet, we will do our best to once again bring a large layout to IDS-Brickworld and Bricking Bavaria in 2025! Until then, you will still be able to view our Siege of Vodran build at Bob Brickman’s & Brickstory’s LEGO museum in Rosenheim, Germany until the winter of 2024!

Some of the builders of Brickz Lab seen at Bricking Bavaria 2023.

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!

I would also like to thank all of the other builders who helped to make this model a reality: Dogma54: Rebel hangar, swamp 8th_brother_brick: Landing zone, bridge, vehicles, assets Jan the Creator: Farm, farmland Hat_brick: Landing zone, AT-AT, swamp LegoFordo: Vegetation, Landing zone, swamp Daves.customs: Shield projector Morrix5555: Shield generator Builtbylelo: Swamp terrain WG Productions: Rebel defence line Sadkonewka: Rebel defence line Lego__Fanboy: Rebel defence line, rockwork Brickforce: Rebel defence line Captainlego2: Swamp terrain, landing zone Melnik.edits: Swamp terrain Axidroid: Swamp terrain

A closer look at the Rebel defenses.

One of the entrances to the hangar.

2024

BACK ISSUES! BRICKJOURNAL #85

LEGO MINIFIGURES! Customized minifigs by fans, designing the Disney minifigures from LEGO House, spotlight on minifig fan artist ROBERT8, and more! Plus, all our regular features: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BANTHA BRICKS: Fans of LEGO Star Wars, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

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STEFAN FORMENTANO masterminds the enormous LEGO city NEW HASHIMA, one of the biggest LEGO Fan community builds ever done! Plus builds by SIMON LIU, BLAKE FOSTER, and others! Also: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, BANTHA BRICKS: Fans of LEGO Star Wars, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

Blast off deep into space with the creations of DANA KNUDSON and other top space builders, flyby the annual SHIPtember challenge, and see vehicles built for FebROVERy challenge! 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! It’s all the right stuff for LEGO fans!

Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, 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!

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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.

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!

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

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

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

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!

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MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION #1 AND #2

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JARED K. BURKS shares his knowledge of the techniques he uses to alter the lovable LEGO® Minifigure into any character you can imagine! #1 offers step-by-step tutorials on decal design and application; color alteration; custom part modification and creation; plus tips on minifigure displays and digital photography to capture your custom figures in the best light! #2 presents advanced techniques: advanced decal application; custom part modification and creation; 3-D printing; advanced painting techniques; lighting figures with LEDs or EL wire; tips on minifigure displays; and a Gallery from top customizers, with their best tricks and tips!

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Last Word That awkward moment when you’re caught with your pants down. I couldn’t help but put this photo from the Pirates of the Caribbean layout here. It’s too funny! I hope you enjoyed this issue—this one was especially challenging because I had a health scare. After having a medical issue with my leg, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After radiation and hormone therapy, I am heading toward a state of remission. I am very lucky. To everyone—please take care of yourself. Go to your regular check-ups and make sure you are doing what you need to do to be healthy. I didn’t and was very lucky. I was like this guy—caught with my pants down. Don’t be this guy. See you next issue, for airships! Joe Meno

Classics

Satiate Your Sinister Side!

“Greetings, creep culturists! For my debut

issue, I, the CRYPTOLOGIST (with the help of FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON), have exhumed the worst Horror Comics excesses of the 1950s, Killer “B” movies to die for, and the creepiest, kookiest toys that crossed your boney little fingers as a child! But wait... do you dare enter the House of Usher, or choose sides in the skirmish between the Addams Family and The Munsters?! Can you stand to gaze at Warren magazine frontispieces by this issue’s cover artist BERNIE WRIGHTSON, or spend some Hammer Time with that studio’s most frightening films? And if Atlas pre-Code covers or terrifying science-fiction are more than you can take, stay away! All this, and more, is lurching toward you in TwoMorrows Publishing’s latest, and most decrepit, magazine—just for retro horror fans, and featuring my henchmen WILL MURRAY, MARK VOGER, BARRY FORSHAW, TIM LEESE, PETE VON SHOLLY, and STEVE and MICHAEL KRONENBERG!” (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics Horror History.

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

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CRYPTOLOGY #2

CRYPTOLOGY #3

CRYPTOLOGY #4

The Cryptologist and his ghastly little band have cooked up more grisly morsels, including: ROGER HILL’s conversation with our diabolical cover artist DON HECK, severed hand films, pre-Code comic book terrors, the otherworldly horrors of Hammer’s Quatermass, another Killer “B” movie classic, plus spooky old radio shows, and the horrorinspired covers of the Shadow’s own comic book. Start the ghoul-year with retro-horror done right by FORSHAW, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, RICHARD HAND, VON SHOLLY, and editor PETER NORMANTON.

This third wretched issue inflicts the dread of MARS ATTACKS upon you—the banned cards, the model kits, the despicable comics, and a few words from the film’s deranged storyboard artist PETE VON SHOLLY! The chilling poster art of REYNOLD BROWN gets brought up from the Cryptologist’s vault, along with a host of terrifying puppets from film, and more comic books they’d prefer you forget! Plus, more Hammer Time, JUSTIN MARRIOT on obscure ’70s fear-filled paperbacks, another Killer “B” film, and more to satiate your sinister side!

Our fourth putrid tome treats you to ALEX ROSS’ gory lowdown on his Universal Monsters paintings! Hammer Time brings you face-to-face with the “Brides of Dracula”, and the Cryptologist resurrects 3-D horror movies and comics of the 1950s! Learn the origins of slasher films, and chill to the pre-Code artwork of Atlas’ BILL EVERETT and ACG’s 3-D maestro HARRY LAZARUS. Plus, another Killer “B” movie and more awaits retro horror fans, by NORMANTON, the KRONENBERGS, LEESE, VOGER, and VON SHOLLY!

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ALTER EGO #188

ALTER EGO #189

KIRBY COLLECTOR #90

KIRBY COLLECTOR #91 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #34

JOHN ROMITA tribute issue! Podcast recollections recorded shortly after the Jazzy One’s passing by JOHN ROMITA JR., JIM STARLIN, STEVE ENGLEHART, BRIAN PULIDO, ROY THOMAS, JAIMIE JAMESON, JOHN CIMINO, STEVE HOUSTON, & NILE SCALA; DAVID ARMSTRONG’s mini-interview with Romita; John Romita’s ten greatest hits; plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, & more!

WHAT IF KIRBY... hadn’t been stopped by his rejected Spider-Man presentation? DC’s abandonment of the Fourth World? The ill-fated Speak-Out Series? FREDRIC WERTHAM’s anti-comics crusade? The CIA’s involvement with the Lord of Light? Plus a rare Kirby interview, MARK EVANIER and our other columnists, a classic Simon & Kirby story, pencil art gallery, & more! Cover inks by DAMIAN PICKADOR ZAJKO!

30th Anniversary issue, with KIRBY’S GREATEST VICTORIES! Jack gets the girl (wife ROZ), early hits Captain America and Boy Commandos, surviving WWII, romance comics, Captain Victory and the direct market, his original art battle with Marvel, and finally winning credit! Plus MARK EVANIER, a colossal gallery of Kirby’s winningest pencil art, a never-reprinted SIMON & KIRBY story, and more!

DAN JURGENS talks about Superman, Sun Devils, creating Booster Gold, developing the “Doomsday scenario” with the demise of the Man of Steel, and more! Traverse DON GLUT’s “Glutverse” continuity across Gold Key, Marvel, and DC! Plus RICK ALTERGOTT, we conclude our profiles of MIKE DEODATO, JR. and FRANK BORTH, LINDA SUNSHINE (editor of DC/Marvel hardcover super-hero collections), & more!

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DOUBLE-SIZE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! The Marvel side includes mini-interviews with JOHN BUSCEMA, MARIE SEVERIN, JIM MOONEY, and GEORGE TUSKA—plus “STAN LEE’S Dinner with ALAIN RESNAIS” annotated by SEAN HOWE! On the DC side: talks with CARMINE INFANTINO, JOHN BROOME, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, JOE KUBERT, & MURPHY ANDERSON—plus a GARDNER FOX photo-feature, and more!

BACK ISSUE #152

BACK ISSUE #153

RETROFAN #34

RETROFAN #35

MARVELMANIA ISSUE! SAL BUSCEMA’s Avengers, FABIAN NICIEZA’s Captain America, and KURT BUSIEK and ALEX ROSS’s Marvels turns 30! Plus: Marvelmania International, Marvel Age, Marvel Classics, PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Marvel Novels, and Marvel Value Stamps. Featuring JACK KIRBY, KEVIN MAGUIRE, ROY THOMAS, and more! SAL BUSCEMA cover.

BIG BABY ISSUE! X-Babies, the last days of Sugar and Spike, FF’s Franklin Richards, Superbaby vs. Luthor, Dennis the Menace Bonus Magazine, Baby Snoots, Marvel and Harvey kid humor comics, & more! With ARTHUR ADAMS, CARY BATES, JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, SCOTT LOBDELL, SHELDON MAYER, CURT SWAN, ROY THOMAS, and other grownup creators. Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS.

Take a ride with CHiPs’ ERIK ESTRADA and LARRY WILCOX! Plus: an interview with movie Hercules STEVE REEVES, WeirdOhs cartoonist BILL CAMPBELL, Plastic Man on Saturday mornings, TINY TIM, Remo Williams, the search for a Disney artist, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Saturday morning super-hero Space Ghost, plus The Beatles, The Jackson 5ive, and other real rockers in animation! Also: The Addams Family’s JOHN ASTIN, Mighty Isis co-stars JOANNA PANG and BRIAN CUTLER, TV’s The Name of the Game, on the set of Evil Dead II, classic coffee ads, and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER & MICHAEL EURY.

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BACK ISSUE #151

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES! A who’s who of artists of NEIL GAIMAN’s The Sandman plus a GAIMAN interview, Sandman Mystery Theatre’s MATT WAGNER and STEVEN T. SEAGLE, Dr. Strange’s nemesis Nightmare, Marvel’s Sleepwalker, Casper’s horse Nightmare, with SHELLY BOND, BOB BUDIANSKY, STEVE ENGLEHART, ALISA KWITNEY, and others! KELLEY JONES cover.