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.

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!

Be Brave

I made this about a week ago, but didn’t think to post it on Flickr till last night after I posted it as my Facebook picture. I was surprised to see such a huge response, both on Facebook and Flickr. Brothers Brick even posted it this morning.

What’s really getting a lot of people’s attention are the curls and the bow. Pixar’s Merida is known for her wild frizzy hair and I wanted to capture it as close as I could in a 4 inch figure.

I have to admit though, this technique isn’t new — at least in Miniland building — this has been a technique for creating curly hair for as long as I can remember at the LEGOLAND parks and I have used variations of it many times on several of my Superhero figures like Wonder Woman and for my Wedding Cake Topper Brides.

And of course what is Merida without her bow? I thought about using the new elf long bow from the Hobbit sets, but I realized it would still be too short. So I did the next best thing, I made one out of pearl cotton thread and a bit of copper flex tubing. The quiver might be a tad too short, but it was just to perfect not to use verses trying to design my own.

If you would like your own Miniland Merida either as a figurine or a Christmas ornament, I have them for sale on my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.

Folded Fancy Sale

I don’t often plug my Etsy shop Folded Fancy Creations here on my blog. But I am having a sale this weekend in time for Chrismas shopping. Just use coupon code THANKS2012 for 10% off your order. Coupon valid Nov 24 – 26th. Click the picture to go to my Etsy shop.

Sleepy Fisherman

I like this cute little Miniland scene created by Nick Abalov. I think my favorite part is the clear antenna used as the fishing line.

I don’t normally feature digital models, as I prefer the real thing, but this one struck me as particularly cute and the fact that its Miniland scale, a scale that still isn’t as popular a building style as I’d like.

It reminded me a lot of my own Miniland fishing scene I created a couple years ago

Miniland Bag End

Although this model was created about a year ago, I just recently discovered it. Now if you’ve been following me for a while you know that I love Miniland scale, so this one got me extra excited because not only was it the Hobbit, but it’s a Miniland Hobbit

I love how well both Gandolf and Bilbo are characterized so well. It only makes me more excited for the official sets that will be available later this year.

Scooby dooby doo!

Nathan Proudlove has not only created the Mystery Machine and all of the Scooby Do gang, but he’s put it into a comic strip.

I think my favorite part of it is the skunk costume. And of course I like all the miniland figs too.

Here’s a close up of the whole gang

Miniland Class of 2012

As it is Graduation season I whipped up some Class of 2012 Miniland scale Graduates

Although I’m not in school any more, this is a sort of graduation year for me. My business Model Building Secrets is 5 years old this year. I’ve always heard that if a business can last 5 years than it has a good chance of lasting in the long run. And starting my business in 2007 — right before the economic crash — while not necessarily the best time to start a business, was the right choice for me.

Its been a long, bumpy road these past five years with its ups and downs. This year has also seen me becoming much busier than in previous years. Its a good / bad thing to be more successful. Good because my business is growing, bad because I have been working over a year straight with very little downtime and I don’t see it stopping any time soon. I’m very grateful for all the amazing things I’ve gotten to do and all the fun things I’ll be doing the rest of this year.

And of course, if you would like your very own LEGO Graduate, you can find them for purchase on my Etsy shop.

Wil Weaton signing a model of Wil Weaton…

Although some people are into April Fool’s jokes, I’m not one of them. So I avoid the silliness all together. I did however post this on my Facebook page yesterday. I would have posted it here too, but Iain Heath hadn’t posted it on Flickr yet.

While I was hanging out with the guys of FBTB, SandLUG, and LUGOLA at LEGOLAND California Star Wars Days, Iain and the rest of SeaLUG was at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle.

I will be posting a follow up to Star Wars Days, but until then check this out.

Since Iain is Iain (you have to know him, or at least his models, to understand that one ) he created a LEGO model of Wil Weaton signing a LEGO model of himself and then he had the actual Wil Weaton sign it. Its so meta, it almost blows my mind!

Here’s a close up of the model

Of course there were other, much larger, models on display. I know Scott Fowler’s MOC certainly deserves its own post. But I’ll be visiting those another day. For now, live long and prosper! — Hey, I had to get a Star Trek reference in there somewhere!

Bricks by the Bay 2012 Recap

Okay, so its a tad late, but I’ve finally found a bit of breathing space to sit down and talk about Bricks by the Bay 2012.

As always, I love going to LEGO Cons! They are just downright fun and I love hanging out with friends.

I did make a bit of a mistake this year though, I agreed to do too much!

Not only was I a vendor as always, but I also agreed to give 2 presentations and participate in 2 panels as well as being the Art Theme coordinator.

And although I did love making the Art trophies, I wasn’t very good at coordinating, mainly because I wasn’t there.

That coupled with a semi-accident while driving up there — don’t worry, I didn’t get hurt or anything, but I did puncture 2 tires and have to get a whole set of new ones 400 miles from home — kind of wore me out.

I had planned to drive back down to Southern California on Monday, but I totally underestimated my exhaustion factor. I ended up staying up there one more day and checked out the Winchester Mystery House, which was only a few miles from the convention — I see a potential MOC, that’s all I’m saying.

Needless to say, I won’t be doing as much next year.

One of my favorite models this year was Bill Ward’s Kermit

I was happy he won my Supreme Sculptor Art Award.

And it was no surprise that Norbert Labuguen almost exclusively swept the Bionicle category.

I really liked this Tron model

I didn’t get nearly enough pictures, but Bill Ward took quite a few.

As seems to be common now, I didn’t get to see or do everything I wanted too, but even so, it was the fun start to my LEGO Con season.

Oh yes, it is a season of conventions for me this year. Not only am I planning on going to 5 LEGO Cons, 2 Comic Cons, but also one or two other Cons this year! I’m not complaining mind you, I’m just looking at a very hectic year. I was already planning all these trips in January, and since they go till October I was a little amazed that my year was already so full!

Hopefully I’ll do a little better reporting at my next convention. I will be working a commission at a convention next month, and if I’m allowed, I’ll post about it, but I have to wait and see if I get permission.

One fun fact I can say about it is that it will be in Florida and since I’ll be down there any way, I plan on visiting LEGOLAND Florida and the LEGO Downtown Disney store to check out all the cool models with my own eyes. Of course I’ll be checking out the other theme parks as well, especially as the trip just happens to fall on my birthday.

In May I’ll be at the Phoenix Comicon. I’ll have some of my LEGO models on display with the local LEGO LUG and if I have time, a new mosiac for the event. So I will certainly be talking about that as it gets closer.