BrickCon is almost here

There is less than a month till BrickCon is upon us and even less if you want to register as a full attendee. The cut-off date is September 18th if you want all the benefits — goody bag, chance for door prizes, presentations, games, etc. For all you get, its well worth the $55 USD price.

But if you’re not as much of an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO), there’s always the Public Days on Saturday and Sunday. Of course if you weren’t a fan of LEGO you wouldn’t be reading my blog. 😀

There is a policy change this year, anyone under the age of 14 is no longer allowed as a full attendee

“BrickCon is a convention for Adult Lego Hobbyists. Its focus is on building friendships and community through the sharing of time, ideas, building techniques and unique creations.”

You can read full details on BrickCon.com.

And don’t forget the epic struggle between Pigs versus Cows! Who will win in the battle across all themes?

I will be there of course, both as a presenter and as a vendor. I’ll have a bunch of my jewelry, keychains, and stickers for sale and Guy Himber will be on hand with Pig and Cow heads if you want to stock up and make your own bovine or swine army.

And of course I’ll be posting about BrickCon for those of you who can’t go. I know, I know. I still haven’t covered BrickFair or Bricks by the Bay. I’ll get around to it one of these days. 😉

LEGO “Elvis”

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.

And like last year a batch of my LEGO jewelry, keychains and stickers will be available for sale.

Micro Golden Gate Bridge

Now for the micro scale brilliance I had yesterday:

Its only got 7 parts, 9 if you count the water. 🙂 Its probably the smallest build-able Golden Gate Bridge out there.

And as I’m busy making all the keychains and jewelry I couldn’t just stop there. So I made these

Naturally they will be available on my Folded Fancy Etsy shop and I will also have them on sale at Bricks by the Bay. 🙂

“Check” this model out

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. 😉

Bricks by the Bay Preparations

Goodness gracious this month seems to have a lot in it! I’m busily making lots of my LEGO keychains and jewelry for my vendor table at Bricks by the Bay. This year I thought I’d display my keychains and pins differently by having display racks. Now of course they can’t be regular display racks, they have to be LEGO display racks! 😉

The frame mainly consists of black brick, technic bricks, and minifig jousting sticks.

Today I built lots of American flags, trains, penguins, Pac Man ghosts, hearts, skulls, and cats as keychains. It seems like a mixed bunch of models, but of course people have lots of different tastes. 🙂

If you are interested in purchasing any of my LEGO models and can’t make it to Bricks by the Bay you can check them out at my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy shop.

I still have lots more to do before I’m fully ready for this upcoming LEGO Convention and at the same time I’ll be going up to Costa Mesa this coming weekend for the Grand Opening of the new LEGO Store at South Coast Plaza. I look forward to helping out with the 8 foot tall Yoda build and hanging out with my fellow LEGO friends. And naturally I will do my best for all of you who can’t make it out to the Yoda build so that you can share in the fun. 😀

LEGO Pac Man

I thought I’d go on a bit of a retro blast from the past, so I created these earrings for my Etsy shop.

But then I thought, you can’t have Pac Man without his eternal, ever regenerating enemies the Ghosts so I sat down an thought okay, well how do I best create them?  Obviously the scale would have to be different though.

 

So then I started from scratch and came up with these:

But then of course the earring version of Pac Man was too small and I needed a larger one so I created this:

You can find both the earrings and the keychains on my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.

Now I’m thinking I need to make the whole gameboard. 😀

Come Along Dear . . .

Sometimes I get interesting custom requests for my wedding cake toppers. I was recently asked if I could make a bride dragging her groom to the alter.

Groom dragging his feet? Does the Bride need to bring him to the alter?

This was a lot of fun to do. It was a bit of a challenge to get it look like the bride was walking in her gown and the groom a tad disheveled. 😀

As a side note — use coupon code “happy2011” on my Etsy shop this weekend and get 10% off your order.

Miniland Ballerina Christmas Ornament

Recently I’ve been making a lot of Christmas ornaments to sell on my Etsy Shop Folded Fancy. I created this Miniland scale Ballerina Christmas Ornament last night. It is based off of a ballerina I designed while still working at LEGOLAND as one of 30 or so Halloween Miniland costumes I created when we updated Miniland for Brick or Treat in 2003 (you can see her behind the fairy, one of my other creations).

Now of course, with her feet being the tooth element this ballerina could never stand in Miniland. But, as a Christmas ornament, she doesn’t need to. 😉

New Items at My Etsy Shop

Even if it is a little early, Christmas is starting to be on my mind and I’ve added some new items to my Etsy shop just in time for the Holidays.

For the professional that still wants to show their whimsical side the LEGO Brick Business Card Holder:

Snowflake ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree:

Or Mini Penguin Dangle Earrings to wear:

These are just a few items you can find on my Etsy Shop Folded Fancy right now. So if you’re interested, check it out. 😉

Preparing for BrickWorld

BrickWorld 2010 is just a few days away. This is my first time to this particular LEGO convention and I am looking forward to seeing all the fantastic models and the even more fantastic people that will be there. At last check, there are 795 registered attendees at this year’s convention! 😯

I am frantically doing all my final preparations for going. Although I will be bringing a few models, mainly my Golden Gate Bridge and a few Miniland Superheros (don’t worry I will showcase them on this blog soon). In past conventions I have brought a lot more models. But as I am flying to this one that limits what I will be bringing.

Not only am I going, but I am also bringing copies of my books, key chains, and many other items to sell. I will be helping out my good friends Tom Erickson and Jackie Ottinger of Bricks and Boards with their vendor table during the convention.

As a result, my suitcase is getting rather full — 😮

I haven’t even packed all of my bridge or other items like clothes yet (you don’t really need them right? 😆 ) I may even have to bring two suitcases at this point.

Hopefully my suitcase will be much lighter on the return trip, of course I don’t know what I will find at the Scratch and Dent sale yet . . .

I really look forward to seeing all my friends and meeting lots of new ones at this convention. Any of you that are going, hopefully we will meet during the convention. 🙂

Depending on internet access, I will try and cover the convention as best as I can on this blog for those of you who can’t make it. Now back to packing. 😉