A week or so ago, I finally got around to building The Indiana Jones set “Shanghai Chase” (7862). The set is a medium sized one, and didn’t take very long to put together. It features some interesting elements, 5 minifigs, and some interesting building techniques.

Of the box, 2 bags (each with a small parts bag) and the instructions.

The set contains 5 minifigs: Indiana Jones in a white dinner jacket (also with hat), Willie Scott, Short Round, and 2 gangsters.

On the whole, the piece count in this set isn’t very large (244), but you’re essentially getting 2 cars and 5 minifigs.

i decided to star with the “good guys” car. It was a simple build, with a couple of items of interest. I especially liked the grill. It’s a character piece, which gives this car a very distinct look.

The other item of interest is the “softtop” roof of the car, which is a fabric piece, including a cut out in the top for the minifigs to fall through.

While the car is fairly simple to build, and contains few pieces, it has a LOT of character, and looks impressive when completed. One odd thing is that the depth of the seats makes it a little tricky for Indy to see while driving (not that Indy needs to be able to!)

On to the Bad guys! They get a black truck, which is similar in design to the first car. One thing of note that I quite like is the construction of the running boards. They’re made with hinged pieces, and angled over the wheels.

The Bad guy car partially built.

And completed

Here’s the whole shebang

Only a few pieces left over after building

This was a good set overall. Easy to build, fun to play, lots of minifigs, and some character pieces. I’d give it an 8/10.

        

We don’t often blog about other people’s work here at the Brickwares Blog. One of the things we strive for here is to provide content that non AFOLS (and if you don’t know what an AFOL is, you’re probably not one) can enjoy alongside the hardcore bricksters. We hope to be a place of conversation and rational thought about issues surrounding Lego and the building thereof.

We even consider ourselves to be pretty decent at creating things with everyone’s favorite bricks. Today, we’d like to introduce you to a work that verges on the sublime, from one of our favorite builders.

Mark Kelso (Amhakia Visions) has made many fantastic creations, and works with bricks as well as canvas, and many things in between. Mark is one of the most diverse artists in the genre of wildlife art today. His work runs the gamut from abstraction to photorealism, to installations. He paints and draws in numerous mediums, and is just as comfortable painting 14 x 48 foot murals as working on 8 x 10 inch canvases. His subjects range from common animals to such oddities as Kinkajous and Binturongs. Please visit his website at Amhakia Studio

Mark has created a series recounting the spiritual journey of a young man, called Apocalypsis: A Journey Inward.
It’s a multimedia work, incorporating music into the work. In fact, the music inspired Mark to create the work, and says that it will continue to do so for the remaining chapters. The first chapter can be seen at the above link, and Mark hopes to have the second chapter posted around the beginning of August. I’ve provided a couple of my favorite shots from the work, but please visit the page itself, as the work should be experienced as a whole.

and another

And a preview shot for Chapter 2 (remember, this is all made from Lego):

Simply magnificent.

Thanks again to Mark.

        

I’ve finally started on the new mosaic, the one i’m preparing for BrickCon 2009. I found a picture I quite liked, one that fit the theme of this year’s show (”Imagination in Motion”), and also one that inspired me. This is always the trickiest part of making a new piece, I find. I’ve started a few works that simply didn’t interest me, and I ended up scrapping them before I’d gotten too far. If the picture isn’t inspiring, it’s not worth doing. This makes it tricky sometimes, especially if you depend on your art for your living. Only the lucky ones can make whatever they desire, and not worry about the marketability of their efforts.

I’ve read some comments on various boards, concerning mosaics and styles. It seems like much of the community is very into hiding the studs on their completed works. I’ll confess, i’m not into that at all. In my view, I’m not hiding the fact that i’m working with Lego, and the studs are arguably just that. Also, from the mosaic side of things, the scale engulfs the individual brick, so it’s not really a concern.

The other concern seems to be freehand versus assisted design. Some feel that a “true” mosaic is done freehand, without any computer or paper aid. This is simply nonsense. There have been many fantastic freehand mosaics (many of Sean Kenney’s works are made this way), and many fantastic assisted pieces. i suspect it’s the same as any art form: You like what you like. And really, if everyone’s stuff was the same, ti would get boring pretty quick. The thing I love about Lego (mosaic and otherwise) is the fantastic range of works that people create. Every week there are new things that people build that astound me. Things I would never think to build, or have the first idea how to start on.

If I had to describe my style, it would probably be “mostly grayscale portrait, with a nod to 40’s pulp and art deco styles”. I’ve built some different works that are neither of those, including the Batman and Robin, which is arguably the most “googled” of my works, but it’s certainly not my favorite.

The new piece combines a lot of interesting colors with some new challenges, most notably text, some of it in cursive. I’m still toying with the idea of bringing 2 mosaics to BrickCon, and likely, the second will be a portrait of some kind (which gives a big hint as to what the first is).

More on this as it develops.

        

While looking for a specific set of instructions this weekend, I decided it was time to organize things a little better. With the help of my erstwhile companion, I sorted all of my instructions into piles based on their category (after quickly dismissing the idea of sorting by set number.) I ended up with piles for City (and city type sets), Trains, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Batman, Agents, Castle (and Ninja, etc), Pirate (and Islanders), Indiana Jones (and Orient Expeditions),Space, and Catalogs/Flyers.

Here’s what the floor looked like about 20 minutes in.

Finny decided to take the Stars Wars instructions and lay them out on the table.

Now the instructions are safely tucked away in file folders, ready to be pulled and built if needed.

We’re always interested in hearing from our readers. Feel free to share your thoughts or stories about Lego.

        

(Reprinting an article on this build from 2008)

In 2008, I decided to base a mosaic on a movie poster, something that was interesting and sparked my interest. After a couple of Google image searches, I found a few that looked like they might do the trick.

After some early prep work, I settled on the poster from “The Rocketeer”. In order to bring out the kind of detail I wanted, I decided to make the mosaic larger than my normal builds.

It was a challenging build, as I had to both keep the Art Deco style, as well as give a sense of motion. The top section alone was rebuilt a number of times in order to get the lettering right, while keeping the lines below it flowing with the rest of the work .

A few visits to bricklink for more red brick, and a bunch more 1×1s in both greys and also brown, and I was set to go. The build itself took a long time, due to the size and the detail involved. There were some size challenges to deal with as well.

My normal set up is my coffee table(s) in the basement. There are 4 small square Ikea tables that form a larger square when pushed together. When a mosaic gets to a size that is larger than the square, I can pull the tables apart, just enough to give me more space, but not enough to create any issues with supporting the baseplates.

With The Rocketeer, I not only had to stretch the tables out as far as I could, but I also ended up adding my son’s playtable at the top, using cases from games, and DVDs to level things out.

I took a lot of pictures when I was done, and decided to stand it up. Usually, the mosaics are small enough that I can grab the top baseplates, lift straight up as high as I can, and the rest of the piece hangs down. The Rocketeer was the same height as me, and this strategy was clearly not going to work. I ended up taking the bottom half and supporting it from behind with some boards from the garage, and then, (with help from my wife) moved the top piece into place and joining them in place.

It stood in my basement for a few months, but eventually I took it apart. It was a sad day, as I had put a lot of work into it, but I needed the pieces for other projects, and to keep it together would have depleted my stock of brick greatly. It’s still my second favorite mosaic that i’ve built, and the one that has garnered the most attention. I had a thought of rebuilding it for Brickcon, but I think i’d like to bring something new, rather than keep showing the same pieces over and over.

There’s a flickr gallery found here with more pics of the work.

        

Welcome to the continuing series “Lego is Freaking Awesome”, where we look at people’s early and continuing experiences with Lego. Today’s guest, San Francisco’s own Paul Killam. Paul is arguably one of the funniest people you will ever meet. He’s also a talented improvisor, a man of endless knowledge, and very tall.

Paul Killam

What was the first Lego set you remember playing with?

I’m an old dude, so sets were VERY different. I remember being confused when the themed sets started arriving. I didn’t even have the lego people in the sets – mine were pretty basic. In fact, I remember getting my first thin grey platforms and thinking: Wow! These will be so helpful… The platforms we had before then were 1 brick thick and not very wide.

Perhaps something like this

1968_set

What was the coolest Lego set you remember?

There was this train set with a powered motor…

We’re guessing, but here’s a train from 1968

1968 train

How much Lego did you have as a kid?

LOTS! My parents used to take us on trips, and we had this big suitcase (well it seemed big) full of Legos – we’d get in the hotel room, and start building stuff…

When was the last time you built something with Lego?

Last Christmas. My nephew (6 years) is a lego boy, and he saves stuff to build with me.

Have you seen any Lego sets recently caught your eye?

The Indiana Jones Temple of Doom-y thing (I don’t know if that’s the “name”)

We think perhaps Paul means this set. This again is a guess, but it’s arguably the coolest Indiana Jones set out there.

indy_temple_escape

Tell us a little bit about yourself for the readers.

I’m an actor/improvisor, and I teach at the College of Marin in Northern California. I perform regularly with BATS Improv, and have performed and taught all over the world. I play the ukulele – mainly early Talking Heads and Bowie tunes.

Brickwares is a big fan of BATS improv, and if you’re in the Bay Area, you should be too. Check them out at http://www.improv.org/Home.aspx

        

Brickwares has signed up to attend BrickCon 2009 in Seattle. If you’re in the area from Oct 1-4, drop by and say hi.

Haven’t decided what to exhibit yet, but I have some ideas for a new mosaic or two to make. Mostly, I’m just interested in seeing what there is to see, checking out some interesting MOCs and meeting some folks whose works I’ve followed online.

For more info on brickcon, check out their site.

http://www.brickcon.org/

        

I finally found some time to build the Green Grocer set (10185). This was a big set, and took a long time to build. The amount of small pieces and detail was very impressive. This set added a lot of what was missing from the Cafe Corner, in that there is some interior and “life” to the set. Sadly, this applies to the first level only, as the upper two levels are very sparse in the details, with the exception of a grandfather clock (which seemed a little overbuilt), and a radiator (which was interesting). I also thought the fire escape, while interesting, was very strange in the parts that were chosen to make it. It again seemed like choices were made to be clever, rather than efficient.

Lots of pieces in the set, impressive out of the box, as modeled by my erstwhile assistant.

Green Grocer out of the box

The grocer section was clearly the highpoint of this set, it’s extremely detailed, and well built. I love the items on the shelves, and the refrigerator. Clearly a lot of time and energy went into designing this portion of the set. I recall reading an interview with the designer where he basically said that the cost became an issue, and was the reason that the rest of the set was a bit sparse. Personally, I would pay a bit more for this kind of quality.

Here’s first floor built.

The upper floors don’t warrant a lot of discussion, apart from the clock and radiator, seen here.

Green Grocer Clock

Here is the fire escape, note the use of the harpoon gun for a rail. This struck me as an odd choice. I’m not sure why I hate it, but I do.

Green Grocer Fire Escape

The completed set, front and back.

Green Grocer Complete

Green Grocer Back

The last step was to add this to the Cafe Corner and the Market set. It’s fairly impressive when all connected, and we added the City Horse Trailer set to add to the street feel. I’ve heard that there will be a third “official” set to complete the block (the Market was a fan creation, but in my opinion holds its own nicely) coming out this year. That should take care of my Xmas list nicely.

On the whole, I like this set a lot. It has great interior and exterior details, it has some great building techniques, and relatively few problems. Not recommended for younger builders, as it is a bit tricky to put together.

That brings us to the end of the build review for the Green Grocer. Hope you enjoyed it, feel free to drop us a line and let us know what you think of the site, and the review.

        

I was lucky enough to get two much desired sets for my birthday this year; the Green Grocer (10185) and the Medieval Village (10193). The Grocer was from my lovely wife, and the village from the mighty Finny. At the insistence of the latter, I decided to build the Medieval Village first.

There are two main buildings, the Blacksmith shop with stable, and the Inn. Both of the buildings hinge in the middle, so that they can be displayed open or closed.

There are a large number of small detail pieces. There is a bucket filled with apples, one with fish, and one with flowers. There is also a carrot for the horse, as well as a few “presents” from the horse. Lots of Minifigs included in the set, and a pair of oxen. Also a horse, duck, rooster, and chicken. Also a Turkey, but of the roasted variety. Lots of smaller builds (i.e. tables, stalls, chairs, etc.)

I suspect the Castle guys will be very pleased with this set. It’s sure to spark a lot of Castle builds over the next year or two. My favourite aspect was the furniture, something that tends to be missing from the bigger sets like Cafe Corner. The blacksmith’s shop is the highlight of the set, with a working trip hammer attached to a water wheel.

The fireplaces are made with translucent pieces , and some thought went into the design of the rooms themselves. This is a set that is fun to build, has some interesting elements and designs, and can be played with as well.
The build was fairly straightforward, but I did notice a few too many sections where the set calls for the same color of brick stacking upward, going 3 or 4 levels before being secured to the building with another piece. I suspect the color scheme makes this necessary, but it was a bit annoying, as it makes the structure a bit unwieldy while building. Even the roof suffered from this problem. On the whole, a great set. I feel very lucky to own it, and enjoyed putting it together with some “help” from my sidekick. There were even some signs that the young boy from the village may go on to greater things, like toppling an Empire of some kind.

        

I was at Toys R’ Us this weekend, and picked up an Indiana Jones Motorcycle Chase set (7620). My thinking was that it was reduced in price, and that it has an Indiana Jones minifig in it. I’m not one to speculate Lego-wise, or buy sets simply to hold and resell, but my recent attempts to find a reasonably priced Batman set has left me stunned.

The sets are not in production, not available from Shop at Home, and unless you’re willing to pay insane amounts of money, Bricklink and ebay are not your friends either. The Harley Quinn Hammer Truck set is going for over $100 USD, The Batcave for $150(no minifigs), and Arkham Asylum between $200 and $300.

I’ve had no luck in sorting out why Lego no longer stocks or carries Batman sets, or whether it’s a license issue, but a total lack of Batman last summer with the success of “The Dark Knight”, and the Lego Batman video game seems ludicrous. And Lego, if you’re reading this (you’re not), If you could see your way clear to even sell the minifigs from the Batman line on Shop at Home, I could make a 5yr old very happy. Daddy is currently not willing to spend over $10 per minifig.

So I bought an extra Indiana Jones, and am thinking hard about buying multiple sets if and when they start dropping into clear-out pricing. It doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a few sets in the line to be available, especially for a perennial favorite like Batman. As far as I can tell, the video game sold very well. I’m a bit baffled. I’m interested in hearing from other AFOL, or others as to whether they have thoughts on the “Batman Scarcity issue”.

****Note, Eurobricks has a message board concerning this topic. It can be found here.