Sometimes Small is Big

Remember the Lil’ Big Wheel? Well here’s one that you can hold in your hand.

Matt Armstrong has done it again, building in unconventional ways to create familiar things. And its so darned cute!

Quidditch Book

This magical microscale Quidditch field on the “cover” of the definitive guide on all things Quidditch is simply awesome!!

Created by Legopard this is aparently his first Harry Potter model.

There are a couple additional images on MOCpages (which I must admit I don’t check nearly enough)

Considering the size of the model, it truly is brilliant. Using the “one ring” as the Quidditch Hoops is perfect and the tips of antennas as the figures is inspired.

Some of the parts are just held by gravity, but who cares, its still cool.

And then I was looking at his Flickr stream and I saw a technique I’d never seen before (which is saying something ) –

There’s a lot going on in this model, but what caught my eye was that this baseplate was used upside-down!

I have a few of these raised baseplates, which have literally sat under a desk for years and years gathering dust. I find them very limiting as the shaped hills and valleys of the baseplate keep it from being very useful. When I was younger I used them a lot as I didn’t have the means to build my own hills and valleys out of brick. I admit, I rarely build landscapes, but I could if I wanted to.

So finding a use for these kind of “useless” baseplates — note: of course no LEGO part is ever useless and can always be used in a clever manner — is awesome. Not only is it upside-down, but it is also filled with water. Very, very cool!

SEALUG at Emerald City Comic Con

BrickCon isn’t the only time you can see awesome LEGO displays in Seattle. Emerald City Comic Con is just two weeks away and for the second year in a row SEALUG will have all kinds of LEGO coolness for attendees to see.

And that’s not all — several LEGO vendors will be there too, including your’s truly!

I will be partnering with BrickShirts and AltBricks. So if you are attending, stop and say hi.

Not only that, but I will be giving a presentation at 3:20 pm in Hall C all about my career as a Freelance LEGO Artist.

But if you want to attend the Con, buy tickets soon. The full Con passes and Saturday passes are already sold out but Friday and Sunday are still available.

Tardis and K-9

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m prepping for my two upcoming conventions — one a Comic Con, one a LEGO Con.

One of my goals for each new convention that I go to is to have new products to sell. And because the first convention is a Comic Con, I wanted more iconic Pop Culture products. So I created these two new models for Doctor Who fans.

Now for the LEGO purists out there — yes, both of these are cheated. I can see you wincing from here, but frankly I don’t care. How do you think new LEGO parts are made? You have to “break” the mold as it were.

And the main reason I’ve “cheated” is because it was the best way to make the models the desired size of about an inch and to look as close to the original at that size.

Oh, and for those of you that don’t know what cheating means it is when you cut or alter your bricks or just glue parts on where they other wise could not connect.

For both of these models I’ve done both.

And if you’re wondering most of my online and in person customers don’t care either.

I think they are simply adorable (even if I do say so my self ) and if you are interested in either model you can find them at my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.

Micro Planet Express

Good news Everyone! Okay Yaramanoglu has created a Micro Planet Express!

Yet another reason why I love Micro is seeing iconic TV shows like Futurama made really tiny.

Now if he just did the rest of New New York…Oh, wait, Matt De Lanoy already did that.

The small side of life — in Space Part 2

Two more awesome creations that would be perfect for the Micro Sci-Fi Contest

Kristi “McWii” has created this iconic scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still

Jason Allemann has gone old school with this tribute to the Amazing Stories magazines

Both have levels of awesomeness. I really like the mini tanks. And the whole retro futuristic (is that an oxymoron? ) look of Jason’s is very cool!

The small side of life — in Space!

I love Micro Scale. Its one of those building scales that just doesn’t get as much attention as it should. People always seem more impressed by the large massive models like the LEGO Elvis that I blogged about earlier.

Now don’t get me wrong, the large models are impressive. But what is just as impressive is when you can manage to create something tiny that actually looks good.

Now with the Micro Sci-Fi Contest on Eurobricks there are some pretty stunning things popping up on Flickr.

This creation by Sean and Steph Mayo is jaw dropping in its complexity and awesome part usage.

I admit, I had to stare at it for a few minutes to figure out just what was going on with certain areas of the build (the tank treads for example). The integration of Bionicle parts feels natural and totally works — something that doesn’t always happen with some of the awkwardly shaped parts.

Its funny, but when Ice Planet 2002 was introduced in 1993, that seemed like a really long way away. Now, twenty years later (man I feel old) and 11 years after 2002, we still haven’t found that Ice Planet.

Here’s a couple more of the entries Micro Sci-Fi Contest –
Micro Space the First Frontier: DS9

Loftus Base on Graidarrn

The Year 2980, Asteroid Hephaestus 32b

I look forward to seeing what else comes from this contest. I might just enter my self.

And on a completely non Sci Fi, but related Micro Scale note there’s this little gem –

I love the use of the new roller skate element as cars!!

So if you haven’t built in it — give Micro a chance.

Old MacDonald had a cow

Josh Morris just created this awesome vignette for the Micro Sci-Fi Contest they are having over at Eurbricks.com.

Unfortunately (or fortunately ) Josh can’t win because he’s on the Eurobricks staff, so that gives the rest of us a chance.

There’s even an awesome trophy made by Simon Liu for the winner:

Vignettes are small and deceptively simple. So get out there and build people!

2012 LEGO Model Review

Happy New Year Everyone! As I reflect on this past year of 2012 I decided to make a compilation of all the models I created this year. To be totally honest, this isn’t all of them. I made over 30 wedding cake toppers and literally hundreds of earrings, necklaces and key chains. But this gives you a pretty good idea.

This has been a whirlwind of a year. I went to ten Conventions this year — five LEGO Conventions, three Comic Conventions, the McDonald’s Worldwide Convention and Focus 12 Convention. I had six large project (even if one of them was microscale) — 3 ft x 3 ft Statoil logo mosaic, 4 ft long McDonald’s building, a giant Harting Connector (the big black thing on the left), a 2 1/2 ft microscale replica of a home, 4 ft x 2 ft John Hancock logo and 10 giant bricks, and a 5 ft x 5 ft Google Chrome logo. I flew to Portland, Orlando, Chicago, Virginia, and Seattle. I drove to northern California twice, Phoenix and Vegas — while building the top of the Harting model the whole way in the car (I wasn’t driving ).

Who knows what I’ll be building next year. I’m certainly excited.

Hopefully you had a wonderful 2012 and welcome 2013!

The Tiniest of Tumblers

Larry Lars has created what has to be the smallest Batman Tumbler I’ve ever seen. Its simply brilliant in its design. All 12 parts of it!

He’s even been kind enough to provide instructions for those of us who desire their own tiny tumbler