Lego Printing

Found this Gizmodo blog post with some behind the scenes of the lego printing process.

Lego Helmet Printing Video

I had no idea it was basically a big rubber stamp that printed the patterns on the Minifigs. I feel reasonably confident I can replicate this process at home with some effort. I think I have found the process description on wikipedia. It is called:

Pad Printing

If you want the TLDR explanation of pad printing look at the flash animation here.

Master Builder: SuperHardcoreDave

One of my new favorite builders. There is a lot of great stuff out there but a lot of it sticks to closely to the pack or misses the mark. This guy has his own voice and I really like it. The red ship below blew me away.

SuperHardcoreDave's Flicker Photostream

Non Lego Post: G.O.T.Y. and DovaMunny

Had to post this. Someone sent this custom Dovakiin Munny to the studio with a resume and I inherited it. I love it.

And btw we won Game Of The Year, RPG of the Year and Studio Of The Year the other night on the Spike VGAs so I am on cloud 9.

According to this blog tracking the GOTY awards for all outlets  we are in the lead with 22. The next closest game is Batman:AC with 4. How amazing is that I can't believe it based on how many superb games there was this year.

Fliker Group: Lego Speeder Bikes

Flicker has a neat way to organize and find new images called groups. If you join a group you can add your uploaded photos to the group and monitor the stream of photos posted by other group members. The Lego Speeder Bike group is my favorite right now. Lots of good builders on there and lots of activity since they are having a contest right now (see my previous post). The pic shown here is just a small taste. Follow the link below to check the whole groups photostream.

Lego Speeder Bikes flicker group

Master Builder: mondayn00dle

Nothing to say the pics speak for themselves. Totally sick Lego creations.

 

 mondayn00dle's Flicker photostream

Bricks: Blacktron and Pickabrick Day

After starting work on the LSB contest mentioned in a previous post I realized I need MORE BRICKS. Yes I have a lot and I am getting a lot more for xmas but it can be quite frustrating to need 1 more a a certain color piece to perfect a design. Also after reading about the rare color piece portion of the contest I realized I didn't even have the bricks to make an entry. To remedy these problems I went to the Lego store and did pick a brick with Z and then to my parents basement and took as much of my old collection as my dad would let me.

I have done pick a brick a few times now but this was the first time I bothered to ask when they change the wall. They guy says as soon as a part runs out they replace it so there is no certain time to come for the new bricks.

Today's Pick-a-Brick haul. The horse was a space hog in the bucket but Z wanted it for his figs to ride.

Got my Blacktron sets from my dad who was kind enough to have separated the out by set.

My workspace for the LSB contest.

 Bonus...

 

Here is a video I found of the assembly of the Blacktron base in a 3d animation.

Z's Creations: Family Portrait

My son Z is a total minifig hound. When we get a new set he gets the figs and weapons and I get the bricks. He loves to mix and match all of the different parts of the characters. One of the first times I took special note of his work was this portrait he made of our family.

Also his favorite color is white, he is so cool.

Z's Creation Photo Set on my Flicker

Lego Speeder Bike Contest

Looks like Z and I are entering my first Lego building contest.  Great theme and easy for a beginners to dive into a speeder bike rather than some huge mock-up or something.

More detailed info on the contest page.

Retailer: Toy Wiz

Saw a reference to these guys in a flicker post so I took a look. They sell a lot of different Lego stuff including older sets and loose parts for minifigs. Ended up placing an order for some helmets for Z. Bought multiples of 2 of the helmets for some of my potential designs. The pricing was a mixed bag for the parts I mostly stuck to the ones I liked that were cheap. At some point it becomes cheaper to just buy whole sets for certain parts rather than pay so much for  individual pieces.

Here is what I got:

Purchased multiples of the rebel 2 piece helmet and the destroyer helmet. My biggest complaint about the transactions was the shipping was 6.99. For a few small parts that seems really high to me.

Toy Wiz Lego page

Custom Build Updates

Posted images and a video of my first few custom build attempts. I have definitely been humbled by a lot of the great stuff I have seen on the web recently but I am getting more parts all of the time and I get paid to climb creative mountains everyday so give me a little time and I hope to be as good as some of these amazing people out there.

You can go to my flicker to see more shots of the builds and youtube to see one of the models "being built" in time lapse.

Custom Lego Shop: Artifex Creation

Wow I happened upon this site after seeing some of their light kits referenced in a flicker post. They are doing some cool stuff with custom kits and LED lighting. Even selling instructions only for some of their models. I wonder how these sell since getting the parts seems to be the hardest part of making custom kits. They also do a nice job of showing off the features of the kits in the sales page with little comics.

Artifex Creation Website

Master Builder: Andreas

Lots of great builders on Flicker. I was really taken by a few things Andreas did. 1) he created his own theme for a set of figs and vehicles and 2) he took some really cool shots of his metal gear. Rather than focus on existing properties (halo, gears of war, etc) I would like to theme my kits around a new property of my own design. I also like how his Metal Gear pic makes you feel like you are in the room with the full size metal gear and leaves some of the modeling detail in shadow adding to the visual interest.

Andres' Flicker Page

Custom Lego Shop: Brickmania

Found Brickmania on a search for custom Lego sets. My interest is in making sets more than minifigs so I want to see how other are handling it. These guys have a focus on more historical stuff (WW2 and Castle) and get their minifig accessories from Brickarms. I also noticed on their set descriptions they will mention how many elements are Lego elements and how many total elements. I wonder where the non Lego elements come from?

 

Sample Brickmania Kit from their under $50 dollar page

Brickmania Website

Custom Legos: Brick Warriors and Brick Arms

From following along with Legoboy I heard about Brick Warriors and Brick Arms so I checked out their sites. They both seem to have a similar business model. Real production (injection molding, ABS plastic) of minifig weapons and accessories.

Here are samples of their work:

 

You can head over to their we pages to find out more. I definitely am interested in learning more about the injection molding as it seems to give the most Lego-like quality.

Brick Warriors

Brick Arms

Custom Legos: Learning the Ropes

Now that I am diving into the Lego world I want to learn everything I can about custom Legos. Weather it is related to sets or minifigs. My hope is that by chronicling my journey here on my blog I can save others the trouble of tracking all of this information down themselves.
I have to acknowledge the person who first game me a glimpse of what people were doing with custom Legos, legoboy12345678. My son Z and I really liked his set reviews because he shows all of the minifigs at the start and usually takes off the helmets (my sons favorite part). I started watching his vlogs to see how old he was when i noticed his voice had changed since the early reviews he had online. I am totally inspired by what kids can do especially with technology and I hope by doig this myself I can get Z an early start at beind a really neat kid like Legoboy. Anyway it was watching his vlogs that gave me a glimpse of all of the stuff he was doing with Lego and I definitely want in.

Legoboy's flicker.

Master Builder: Legodrome

Wow first Lego thing I find this morning is this person's amazing custom Lego creations. Definitely worth a look.

Has a very smooth finish style with no pegs showing. Not exactly my style but is looks amazing on the creations in his stream. I'm only through the first page need to go see more!

legodrome's photostream on Flicker

Hello

Yay, my Lego blog is started.

Ever since my son Z (3.5 years old) got his hands on his cousins Legos and wanted some of his own we have be Lego crazy. The sets are much better than when I was a kid with a lot more options for different building techniques. As an artist looking at these new sets inspired me to want to create professional custom creations. Meanwhile my son like making his own custom characters.

This blog will cover everything Z and I do with Legos, hope you enjoy.

Z's drum set. Pretty good for the first time I showed him cross holes. Yeah his drummer rocks double goggles, hes a rock star!