Lego is Freaking Awesome – Ochre Jelly

Once again we delve into the past of people I know in order to rekindle memories of Lego past. Today’s guest is Iain Heath, known to the Lego community as Ochre Jelly. I had the pleasure of meeting Iain at BrickCon 2009 in Seattle last fall. He’s a master of his craft, and a fellow blogger as well. You can find Ochre’s blog, “The Living Brick” at the link below. And I suggest you do, as he some great pics and interesting articles there.

I’m an Englishman abroad. I currently live in the Pacific Northwest where I am a computer programmer (I think they call us ‘software engineers’ nowadays, but if you knew what really went on in this industry, you wouldn’t call it “engineering” either!).
My consuming hobbies are Lego, card magic, and synthesizers. However I am only good in one of these three areas (guess which?). I watch a lot of English TV, and am constantly amused by my childrens’ “valley girl” west coast accents! I cook a mean curry. I run a Lego related blog called “The Living Brick” where I attempt to make Lego seem funny. Somewhat feebly.



On to the questions! One caveat, when I created this series, I made the questions for people who aren’t Lego crazy, so questions like “when was the last time you built something with LEGO”, are a bit comical. On the plus side, we tend to know set numbers, which makes the photo searches a bit easier, so thanks for that, Iain!

What was the first Lego set you remember playing with?
It was my first set, which I got for Christmas at the age of 4 or 5. It was set 622 (baggage carts).

What was the coolest Lego set you remember?
When classic Space (with mini figures) came out, I basically wet my pants for a very long time. I remember seeing a large poster with a blowup of set 442 (shuttle) and falling in love with the grey plates, new transparent bricks, and the specialized ‘space’ parts like the rocket jets.

How much Lego did you have as a kid?
Freaking tons. It was my main toy as a kid. I used to keep a catalog of how many pieces I had in each combination of shape and color (Captain Sadness!). So I know I had 8000 bricks. I used to try and recreate ship interiors from shows like Star Trek and Space 1999, but this was before mini-figs so the heros were a bit blocky!

Hmmm, blocky people hey? Seems to have had an impact on Ochre…

When was the last time you built something with Lego?
…yesterday. I’m working on something new to unveil at a Lego convention in San Francisco in April. The subject is appropriately “geo-political” for the Con. I can say no more than that, for now!

Have you seen any Lego sets recently that made you want to buy them?
I rarely buy official Lego sets for myself – I mainly just get bulk bricks because I am Lego nerd. But I do get Lego sets for my kids, and recently was a bit jealous of the Toy Story “Army Men on Patrol” set that I got for my eldest!

Many thanks to Ochre Jelly for playing along, and sharing his LEGO memories with us. If you have some memories to share with use, drop us a line.