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.
So you’ve probably been wondering why I’ve been off the radar for the past few days. Well, if you’ve been reading my blog for very long you know that when I have a project, I tend to let everything else slide.
So here’s my latest creation
I have decided to start selling portrait mosaics but in order to do that, I needed a sample to show my skills. This is a picture of my friend Tiffeny’s baby Colby. Its the first time I’ve done a portrait, although my Remembering 9/11 mosaic was my first based off a real picture.
I wanted to make a smaller mosaic than my standard size of 2 feet tall, so I decided to go with 1 foot tall as I felt it was a nice size, but I could still retain the likeness of the image.
Since I know you are always curious about my process I took a picture of the brick paper design I made for this mosaic.
It looks like kind of a mess, but trust me, it makes sense.
What I do is take the original picture, then I use Photoshop and Bricksaic to find the color values. If you are not familiar with Bricksaic it is a freeware program created by Bob Kojima. Bob is also the man behind BrickShirts. Bricksaic is a program to help you design mosaics. It can be helpful, but it doesn’t work fully for my technique. The best part of it though is that you can constrain the image to only the LEGO colors you want to use. So instead of the mosaic having weird colors in random places you only have the colors you want.
Here’s an up close shot so you can kind of see what I’m doing.
The model took my 40 hours or so to make.
Its funny, I never would have thought that I would be able to create something like this a decade ago when I started in the Model Shop. But after so many years, and so many mosaics, it was relatively easy.
I am selling them on my Etsy shop, if you’re interested, but I admit, it’s not cheap.
Ryan McNaught, Australia’s only LEGO Certified Professional has created yet another mind blowing LEGO model of staggering proportions! And no, its not Photoshoped, its just that big.
Close-up you can start to get an idea of size
LEGO “Elvis” Erickson Air-Crane.
100,000 bricks.Built for Brickvention 2013.
At just under 4m and over 1m high (that’s a little over 13 ft long and 3 ft tall), this is by far the largest Helicopter I have made.
It took me just over 1 month to design and build, with its unusual shape and virtually no ground contact made it technically challenging to build.
Last year’s model was a Saturn V rocket and the year before that the Love Boat. So Ryan building big isn’t all a surprise to me, he just had me waiting on the edge of my seat for him to reveal this year’s creation.
If you happen to be in the Victoria area of Australia next weekend, BrickVention is being held on Jan. 19th and 20th. Public tickets are available through the website and selling fast.
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.
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.
In just a little over a week LEGO Batman 2 the Video Game will be out for all platforms — June 19th the be precise (at least here in the States). I loved the original game and with the addition of the Justice League characters, I can only see the new game as an improvement on a winning formula.
And if you pre-order the game as I just did today, you get an exclusive Lex Luthor fig!
I plan on doing a full in depth review of the game as soon as I get my hands on a copy and have time to play it. I still haven’t finished LEGO Harry Potter 2 or LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, but we won’t mention that.
Of course that is the kicker isn’t it — time. As you’ve probably noticed I’ve been so busy doing fun and interesting projects and trips that I’ve had no time to properly blog any of it! Its really and truly as frustrating to me to not blog as it is for you to only see the same posts for days on end.
After next week’s trip to BrickWorld Chicago I don’t have any other trips planned until BrickFair in August. So maybe I’ll have a little breathing room. There is the San Diego Comic Con in next month too, but at least I don’t have to fly anywhere.
Three conventions — Phoenix Comicon, BricksCascade, and BrickWorld — in 4 weeks has been a little much for me, especially as I’m still not recovered from my Florida trip and the project that came right after that one. And of course, as it is Wedding season, my Wedding Cake Toppers are selling like hot cakes and I’m trying to fulfill orders between trips.
I’m busier than ever and my blog is sadly the thing that suffers the most from it. But I can’t complain. A business is supposed to grow and evolve, I just need to learn to grow and evolve a little more.
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.
Last month I had an interesting request. I was asked if I could make a check mark in a box.
She wanted it as a birthday present for her boyfriend. This is his company’s logo.
I started out with the logo image and brickpaper. She wanted the box to be six inches square, so that determined the size of the whole model.
The challenge was to make the 2D image 3D. So I made the check coming out of the box.
There is a little bit of “cheating” involved — i.e. parts are glued on and not attached in any way — but as the whole model was a glued sculpture it didn’t really matter. And as I stopped being a “purist” when it comes to LEGO building years ago, I don’t really care if it doesn’t all completely attach.
But, if the check had been in a more standard color than medium blue, it would have been possible to do the model with no gluing.
Australia’s only LEGO Certified Professional Ryan Mcnaught has outdone himself once again!
Known for his Love Boat and Qantus Airbus, Ryan is familiar with making big models. But his newest model the Saturn V rocket has 120,000 bricks and is 5.76 meters — nearly 19 feet tall!
Compared to the one we built at LEGOLAND California for Miniland Florida years ago (now on display in Denmark), this one is at least three times taller.
I love all the fun little details he adds to these models.
With the help of a little dry ice, its about to blast off!
The crew is about to board, but somebody is a little nervous
There is so much that is downright awesome with this model! It will debut to the public at this year’s Brickvention January 21st-22nd in Melbourne, Australia.
On a slightly unrelated note, for any of you who are going to be at Brickvention, my LEGO jewelry and key chains will be available for sale at the convention. I can’t be there unfortunately, but at least I can be part of it in this small way.
I'm Mariann Asanuma, a former LEGO Master Model Designer and now a Freelance LEGO Artist and Author. Thanks for checking out my blog dedicated to all things LEGO. ;)
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a custom LEGO model.
) and if you are interested in either model you can find them at my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.
