Archive for the 'People' Category

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Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 4: My pick would have to be Satan – Keith Goldman interviews Brendan Powell Smith

Our fourth installment of interviews by Keith Goldman feels a bit like Stephen Hawking interviewing Albert Einstein, with the added danger that a pair of dice somewhere may come up snake eyes and the universe will implode. Take it away, Keith!
This week I bring you perhaps the quintessential LEGO-nerd who is famous around the world [...]

Empire of swoosh: a chat with Linus Bohman, creator of Swooshable.com [Interview]

Talented builder and former TBB contributor Linus Bohman recently unveiled LEGO Building School (LBS), a new application for his LEGO-related app project, Swooshable. It warrants something more than a simple referral, so, in true TBB fashion, I used an Imperial interrogation droid on him.
TBB: You went through a bit of mini-dark age recently. Why [...]

Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 3: Winter is a struggle and wind is my foe – Keith Goldman interviews nnenn

Our third installment of interviews by Keith Goldman takes us into the mind of a builder that — let’s be honest — you either love or hate. Take it away, Keith!
This week’s builder is known as “nnenn,” and should need no introduction if you’re a fan of science fiction models, or a follower of any [...]

The Sabota Death Ring

My latest creation is a good example of what happens when a builder gets carried away with a simple concept. My simple concept was to use blue bubble domes as microcolonies, which grew into a large mass that I am calling The Death Ring (see story on Flickr).

The large dome is constructed from stretcher hoses [...]

More to the brick than meets the eye: an interview with Fredo Houben

I recently came across a quote by Ace Kim, the admin of FBTB, who said “a good picture of a terrible model will look better and be more appealing than a terrible picture of a good model.”
To a degree this is very true, which brings us to this interview with Fredo Houben (Fredoichi), [...]

Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 2: Am I doing it for ego? Probably. – Keith Goldman interviews Adrian Drake

For our second installment of interviews by Keith Goldman, we explore the possibility of an AFOL pedophile, prize-sniping, the future of collaborative displays, and more. Take it away, Keith!
If you’ve been to a convention or paid any attention to the hobby in the last decade, you’re probably familiar with Adrian Drake. Whether you call [...]

Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 1: Have smoker will travel – Keith Goldman interviews Anthony Sava

We’re excited to have LEGO icon Keith Goldman conducting several interviews for us with fellow LEGO fans. Take it away, Keith!
This week’s builder is Tony “SavaTheAggie” Sava, who broke onto the scene the same time as I did, which automatically makes him interesting because he had a front row seat for my meteoric rise in [...]

Until We Ride the Cosmic Spiral

What you see here started as a tablescrap of a spiral featuring a technique I learned from The Rack by Bryce McGlone. I wanted to incorporate it in a sci-fi scene based off the concept of the cosmic spiral from my previous creations. Having built the rectangular light gray generator of the spiral, I had [...]

No it is not *your* technique – credit is currency and should be paid [Editorial]

In what I believe is a first (apologies if I’m neglecting credit) for The Brothers Brick I’ve decided to write a somewhat counterpoint editorial to Andrew’s latest editorial.
Andrew argues, with merit, that demands for credit are excessive and potentially “stifling (of) others’ creativity”. While I don’t disagree with his major points I do feel that [...]

No, it is *not* your technique – it’s time for “open source” LEGO design [Editorial]

Merriam-Webster defines the act of plagiarism as:
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : [to] use (another’s production) without crediting the source.
Unfortunately, plagiarism is something we LEGO fans witness all too often online. “Hey, some kid on LEGO.com stole my photo and entered it in a contest. And [...]

AFOL: A Blocumentary by Jess Gibson

Documentary filmmaker Jess Gibson has just completed a 30-minute movie about adult fans of LEGO here in the Pacific Northwest. You can watch the complete “AFOL: A Blocumentary” right here:

AFOL A Blocumentary from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.
Jess attended BrickCon 2009, joined us for a SEALUG meeting, and interviewed many fans who’ll be familiar to readers [...]

Police recover portion of Mark Benz’s stolen LEGO [News]

You might remember the grand theft LEGO story a week ago about Mark Benz who lost $6500 worth of custom creations in a car theft. According to the San Jose Mercury News, about two thirds of the creations were recovered on the night of February 16th, when police found it in an unoccupied stolen vehicle [...]

Conquering Atlantis

In this two-for-one post (and an excuse to blog my own creation), I highlight two new ways of having your way in the underwater world of LEGO Atlantis. First, my Harpoon Hunter is a combat mecha to fend off the guardians of Atlantis. The model was a result of my desire to test an incredibly [...]

A tribute to the King of Pop-Ups

Nathan Sawaya has created a gorgeous tribute to Waldo H. Hunt, the King of Pop-Up Books. By the way, this is also Nathan’s first castle.

Thanks to Bruce for pointing this out on Classic-Castle.

LEGO landmarks taken in $6,500 vehicle burglary [NEWS]

Typically our little stories about LEGO in the wider news have a tendency to engender some sort of controversy, but one thing I hope most us can agree on: It’s not cool to steal someone’s LEGO collection.
According to the Oakland Tribune, nightmare became reality for Mark Benz, 49, of Fremont, CA. Mark, who [...]

Behind the scenes at the LEGOLAND California Model Shop: an interview with Gary McIntire [part 2]

Interview with LEGOLAND California Master Model Designer Gary McIntire, continued from part 1. We talk a little bit more about design, repair and tools of the trade.
TBB: How do you go about designing and building a model? And how is it different from a fan or personal creation?
GM: When we start, we [...]

Contus Lancer Corvette

As I said in my last post, I’m using today’s snow day to build and search for creations to blog. I didn’t find too much stuff to blog that hadn’t already been covered by my Brothers-Brick cohorts, but I’m hopeful that the snow on the East coast of the US will force a building [...]

Paul Lee & son win national LEGO Minibuild contest [News]

Paul Lee and his son entered their local LEGO Store’s monthly Minibuild contest back in September, and recently learned that their entry has just won the national contest, and will be featured as this coming September’s monthly model.

It’s a great little Miniland character that would look perfect on the tiny streets of LEGOLAND California, complete [...]

Behind the scenes at the LEGOLAND California Model Shop: an interview with Gary McIntire [part 1]

I was recently fortunate enough to be allowed into the LEGOLAND California Model Shop, and wandered around with Master Model Designer Gary McIntire for over an hour of total LEGO geeking out. I hope you folks will find it as interesting as I did, though be forewarned: it may be the nerdiest interview [...]

Jonathan Bender interviews GeekDad John Baichtal

2010 looks like it’s going to be a great year for LEGO literature, with at least two non-fiction books about the adult fan experience due to be published. I’ve had the pleasure of talking with both writers about our hobby and the “LEGO life,” so I was pleased to see one interviewing the other.
In [...]

The man in black

He wears it for all kinds of reasons, but especially because he’s awesome. A mosaic of Johnny Cash by .cHris.tOpHeR..

Documentary of Sean Kenney – LEGO Certified Professional

Sean Kenney was recently featured in a 30 minute documentary aired on Japan’s national public broadcasting organization, NHK. Click on the image below for the link to the video, where you can see Sean’s LEGO studio, his Times Square model, and watch him build his largest creation: a life-sized polar bear!

With A Little Help From My Friends…

This creation would never have come together this way, were it not for the advice of several friends. This ship came about from the idea I had for the engine shape using arches, and the angled configuration. My first attempt at a fuselage (inset) was rather thrown together, and didn’t quite [...]

Aged building skills: an interview with Sven Junga

Many LEGO fans were amazed when they saw the Daedalus Landing diorama by Sven Junga, but perhaps more impressive was the young age of the builder who created this masterpiece. In this interview with Sven, who is also one of the friendliest people I’ve corresponded with, I asked the question on many people’s minds: how [...]

My mind wanders to strange places

My recent surrealist sculpture falls in line with its two counterparts to complete my Metamorphosis of the Mind project, which depicts the transition of the mind from ignorance to suffering and arriving at insanity. The creation below portrays ignorance, with accompanying writing on MOCpages. For those interested in my thought process, the series is based [...]