Tag Archives: Brandon Jones

Having a ball in LEGO with the fourth phase of matter

From his class on LEGO functions each year at BrickCon to his day job educating children on STEM principles by way of the brick, Brandon Jones has a reputation not only for the creations he concocts, but also for the builders he inspires. And I’m certainly inspired by his latest creation, a replica of a plasma ball lamp, complete with moving lines of “electricity” powered via a Mindstorms motor. The central hub spits out bolts of transparent light blue and pink bricks, dancing in a seemingly random manner thanks to the programmed motor hidden in the base.

Plasma Ball- 1

But why talk about it when I can show you the build in action? Make sure to watch until the room’s lights are shut off, showcasing the interior lighting in the globe that illuminates those electric lines of blue and pink. It’s hard to imagine a closer replica made out of LEGO at this scale.

Monkey sea, monkey do

Here’s a bit of toy nostalgia for you. Remember the Sea-Monkeys? What, before you time? Well, how about the glorious days of LEGO’s X-Pods? Still no? Well, just work with me here. Brandon Jones has created a wonderful tribute to questionable comic-book marketing with this aquarium made from stacked X-pod containers. It has the look of a water cooler – but you probably don’t want to top off your glass with water from this tank. The quality brick-built castle is offset by just a touch of greenery, with red horn elements serving as the brine shrimp of legend.  The craggy rock of the display stand elevates the build in both a literal and physical sense. Too bad the real Sea-Monkey kits weren’t nearly this amazing.

Sea-Monkeys (1)

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Not your average grandma

Grandma is here, but unfortunately you won’t get any cookies, juice, and stories from this one because well, she is made out of bricks! I wonder if builder Brandon Jones was inspired by his own gram in the creation of this build.

Grandma Head (3)

Jones does an excellent job shaping a round face out of bricks and some curved pieces. The lady’s ears use yellow dish pieces, she’s even got some earrings which utilize the white lifebuoy element for the loop earring effect. The bust’s hair is mostly rendered by slopes in light and dark greys. In my mind, the inspiration behind this build may be the grandma from one of the old LEGO Family sets dating back from the seventies before minifigures existed and instead larger figures were produced. Either way it certainly is a unique bust build.