The BRICK ISSUE - Brickish Association

The newsletter of the Brickish Association
Issue 20 – Summer 2010 – £1.50
The BRICK ISSUE
BACK TO BLOCK
Justin Ramsden creates a British icon
Plus
PF Train Review
Art Deco Power
Tranquility Base
www.brickish.org
Event Reviews
Brickish AGM
MOSI ‘Energy’
The Association Matters
Club News
The Brickish Association
www.brickish.org
President Martin Long
Chairman Warren Elsmore
Vice-Chair Julie Greig
Treasurer Michael LeCount
Secretary Emma Smith
Committee Huw Millington
Duncan Titmarsh
Brick Issue David Mackenzie
William Howard
LEGO is a trademark of The LEGO Group
of companies which does not sponsor,
authorise or endorse The Brickish
Association or this publication.
In This Issue...
3
4
5
6
7
8
Things to do in Sheffield...
Back to Block
PF Trains
Art Deco Power
MOSI ‘Energy’ Report
The Back Page
Chairman’s Report
chairman@brickish.org
Is it June already? Well, yes it appears that it is! Since the last edition of the Brick
Issue we’ve already had the Brickish Association AGM and shows at MOSI, Petersfield, Glenrothes, Merrist Wood and the Bucks Rail Centre amongst others. I’m sure
that before we know it the summer will be over and we’ll be into the Autumn and
onto STEAM and Leicester amongst many others. I know I’m already building for
them!
For those of you that came to the AGM, or follow our forums, you’ll see that we
also very nearly managed to pull off a project for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In the end, it turned out not to be - but in the process we’ve again strengthened our
links with LEGO and had some great feedback. Maybe next time, eh?
One extra item you’ll also notice in the envelope that the BI came in will be your
new membership card. In case you weren’t aware, on pre-arranged dates members
of Brickish are eligible for a 15% discount in the LEGO Brand Stores. As these days
will also be normal trading days, you’ll need your new card to take advantage of the
discount. Make sure to check on www.brickish.org for when these days are!
Well, I’m off to take advantage of the sun and read this copy of the BI. I’m sure
it won’t last long....
Play On!
Warren
Forthcoming Events
3 July 2010: Aldershot Fest – The Games Shop
Contributors
Robert Clarkson
Louise Dade
Annie Dimment
Ian Greig
Alec Hole
Stephen Juby
Michael LeCount
Justin Ramsden
James Shields
David Tabner
Editor’s Letter
newsletter@brickish.org
Welcome to the twentieth Brick Issue,
although you may have mistaken it for
heat magazine with Amy Winehouse on
the cover! It feels like we’ve reached
some kind of a milestone. Maybe we
should have had a cake or something.
I have made some small layout
changes in an attempt to make the BI a
bit more visually appealing and professional looking. I hope you like them.
We have a review of the Easter
event at MOSI, which is fast becoming
a regular LEGO venue – and a very
pleasant venue it is, too.
We also have an AGM photo competition on the Back Page, so make sure
you get your decision to Michael before
the deadline.
David
2
We are holding a LEGO fest in one of our ‘upstairs’ rooms as part of our first years
anniversary of owning the ‘Games Shop’
10-11 July 2010: LEGO Display at Museum Of Science and Industry, Manchester
Following the success of the first display of LEGO models as created by Adult Fans
of LEGO (AFoLs) at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in 2009, another
display is being arranged for this weekend. Hosted in the Power Hall of this historic
museum, this exhibition will demonstrate the variety and diversity that LEGO
model building can achieve.
4 August 2010: LEGO Trains at the Aberdour Festival
Marvel once more at this LEGO model railway and at David Graham’s patience as
he allows the little angels loose on the controls! As usual there will be a LEGO
model competition, this year's theme being “A pet, real or imaginary”. Competition
is open to all ages, so get building! There may also be the opportunity to take part
in a mosaic build.
15-18 August 2010: LEGO at the Science Museum, London
LEGO are looking for 3-4 volunteers each day to help build some ‘inspriational’
models for the public. You won't be expected to play ‘babysitter’, but it’s likely that
the public might want to talk to you – in the same way as any public show. There
will be further discussion about this event in the discussion forums.
25-26 September 2010: LEGO Trains at Cupar
A LEGO train layout at this friendly local show where the children can operate the
trains. Everyone is welcome to come along, bring a train, a building or just watch.
Previously several people have brought along their Emerald Nights and the ICE
(IR) train - it was good to see them in action.
The Members’ Area of the Brickish website contains more details on all the above
events. If you are interested in participating, contact the event organiser.
Things to do in
Sheffield
when you’re an AFOL
Photos: Annie Dimment, David Mackenzie, James Shields
AGM report by James Shields
Before I begin this report, I must tell you about the Chevalier
effect. Some of the events I will recount here may differ from
the memories of people who were there. When we notice these
differences, we tend to assume it is because one of us (usually
the other one) is mistaken. This is in fact not the case. The
truth is we are both correct. The discrepancies are, in fact,
caused by the corruption of time itself. This is known as the
Chevalier effect.
The trip up to Sheffield, with Christian and Maria, was
uneventful enough – I find that car trips with AFOLs seem to
pass rather quicker than other trips for some reason. After
checking into our rooms, we headed to McDonalds. After that
it was back to the bar to sit around chatting with the other
early arrivers. Several beers later I distinctly recall stumbling
back to my room to bed. At least I think it was my room.
Saturday morning, and we were up early for breakfast and
over to the hall. I busied myself erecting my Bugs Bunny
model. There was a corner of the room that became the
cartoon character corner, and Bugs was joined by his chums
Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam (has to be the best model
of the weekend – well done Annie), and Bert and Ernie. I will
get to some of the other models on display, or you could just
look at the pictures, but by now it was time for the first game.
Now, nursing a broken arm as I was, I thought it best to
ask Michael if he thought that would put me at a disadvantage for the game, and he wouldn’t tell me, so by the time I
decided to give it a go, all the places were taken. Then Michael
announced the challenge was to build a set with each team
member using only one hand. Doh! The set was Woody and
Buzz and RC from Toy Story, which I rather like too.
Next was a chance to play some of the LEGO board games.
I helped to build the space one but ended up playing the pirate
one, which was awesome. I can’t remember if it was meant to
be competitive, because I certainly wasn’t.
The business end of the day followed, and as has been the
pattern for the last couple of years, there was a lively debate
that went on longer than planned. Some people think this is
a bad thing, but it shows that the members are interested and
engaged in the Association. The elections were uncontested
this year, with Julie retaining her seat as vice president and
Emma joining her as secretary. As the minutes of the meeting
part are recorded in plenty of detail, I see no need to go into
detail here, but I will touch on one announcement.
Warren told us about the project that’s been keeping him
busy for the last year, the Brickish Olympic project – or
Olymbrick as some have dubbed it. Warren has been talking
to the Olympic committee about building a huge model of the
Olympic campus and putting it on long term display over the
period of the 2012 Olympics.
He had been given tentative
approval, and had persuaded
LEGO to supply the 5 million bricks he expected it to
require, and was in discussion with a number of venues
about providing it with a
home. Sadly we’ve since learned that the Olympic committee
have decided not to approve it because LEGO is a commercial
entity. I think Warren deserves a huge amount of credit for
nearly pulling it off.
This was followed by another building challenge. This one
was to design an alternative build of one of the new Atlantis
sets. I joined a team and we built some sort of monster. I think
all of the rebuilds were very interesting, but another team
won for building something that looked least like the set
model, which was a sort of monster, so fair enough there.
Next it was time for the auction, and I must say there were
some lovely things on offer, though I knew most would be
snapped up by people with deeper pockets than me. There
were some nice old grey parts that I liked the look of and
managed to make an agreement with a couple of other bidders
to buy all the old grey we could and split them evenly to get a
better mix. Other items that fetched impressive prices included Julie’s old apron from the LEGO shop and a couple of
cardboard cutouts of minifigs.
By now we were all pretty hungry, which was just as well,
as it was time for dinner. Mrs LeCount’s catering team had
done a fantastic job preparing meat pies (with or without
mushy peas – I chose without).
The evening was pretty relaxed, and people seemed content to just chill and chat, gradually drifting back to the hotel.
At the hotel there was more chat at the bar. And watching
Chris Salt’s new video on YouTube. Oh yeah!
There was drink taken, and much merriment, but the bar
eventually stopped serving, so we migrated to peoples’ rooms
on the promise of alcohol, and I distinctly remember carrying
a young lady into her bedroom, though just because I remember it doesn’t mean it actually happened.
The next morning I awoke (alone and in my own bed,
sadly) and went for breakfast, where I met many of our
co-revellers, looking sober and serious. We made our way back
to the hall where the serious business of LEGO trading was
well under-way. Pat (the LEGO Lady) had her stall set up. I
picked up some 4.5V battery boxes for the motors I’d bought
at the auction the night before (thanks to Sue for pointing
them out). I mentioned to Pat that I needed some wires to go
with them, and she said she’d send me some for just the cost
of postage. A week later I got a huge pack of all kinds of LEGO
wires, that was way more than I
expected. What a lady!
At this stage it was time to get
going. While Peter packed up his
models and his brother, I said goodbye to everyone. Then helped Peter
as he had quite a lot to pack up.
Then said goodbye to everyone again.
A fairly uneventful flight home
(though I did discover the airline
had a LEGO set in their shopping
catalogue, so I had to pick that up)
marked the end of a most excellent
weekend.
3
Back
to
Block
Article and Pictures by Justin Ramsden
Now that everyone is probably sick to death of hearing about
my LEGO Amy Winehouse model that I created back in
March this year, I have decided to write an article for the
Brick Issue about it!
Firstly, why did I create a bust of the troubled singer? Well
back in November, Q music magazine ran a cover story on
“Q’s Artists of the Century” (Q282). As I was working on a
self-initiated project for my BTEC Art & Design course on
British Icons, I decided to combine my love of LEGO and
music and use one of these featured musicians to create a
LEGO bust (similar to the one that I created for Milton
Keynes ‘Window Into The Community’.
Being a huge fan of David Bowie, I started to construct the
icon from his Ziggy Stardust era, however I couldn’t get the
‘Thin White Duke’s features just right, so the project was
scrapped and it was back to the drawing board. As a fan of
Winehouse, as well as being #1 ‘Artist of the Century’, she
seemed the next obvious choice.
The build itself was pretty simple, all I needed to do was
add her trademark make-up, ruby red lips (and cigarette),
and her hooped earrings (created by joining 1x1 plates together in a very unstable way!), however the hair was a
monumental problem. How would I create the trademark
beehive without it looking too blocky, and also to get the
curves within the fringe?
The answer was to use the pretty useless tentacle parts
(unless you’re a huge Bionicle fan) to build up layers that will
add a hair sort of effect. After a few tries, I managed to create
the sides and fringe of her hair, but as per usual, the most
important parts of the build pose the biggest problems. When
it came to the beehive, many tears and sweat were shed, as
not only is the model ‘top heavy’ (no pun intended), but it is
extremely fragile – one of the reasons that I so far haven’t
moved the model out of my bedroom.
To hold the tentacles in place, I used LEGO string (found
in most Pirate sets) and placed octopus, fishing rods, spiders
and bats around the beehive to try and add extra detail. The
inside of the beehive was filled up with 2x4 black bricks to try
and add depth and strength to the model.
Then disaster struck and the model completely fell apart.
Unfortunately, I also had a cast on my finger (due to an
unfortunate scalpel incident at college), however I persevered
and after a few attempts the model was completed at the end
of February. This bust was being built simultaneously whilst
I was building a 1:20th Scale model of Darlington’s Barclays
Bank, for Darlington Borough Council’s Town Centre ‘Art in
the Yards’ scheme, in which artists are chose to display work
permanently within the town centres” historic yards.
As I have had a bit of a ‘dark age’ within the LEGO
community, I decided to upload my caricature of Winehouse
and get a bit of press around the world by posting pictures
online, the main aim was to get noticed by the lady herself,
and hopefully get her at least to comment on the model.
Luckily, the media got in contact and I gained a substantial
amount of press coverage, however after radio and TV interviews, plus an article in a few of the main newspapers, I still
haven’t heard from the superstar. I should have gone to rehab
You can see more pictures of the model at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinramsdenphotography/
sets/72157623670610321/
4
PF
Trains
by Alec Hole
The 7939 Cargo train set features a locomotive, three freight
wagons, a lorry and a loading crane. It comes with an oval of
track as well as two manual points and a small section of
flexible track which can be used to create sidings. While I've
owned several passenger trains this is my first full LEGO
cargo train, mainly due to the design of the locomotive which
I liked as soon as I saw it. I do own some of the 9V standalone
cargo sets, which this new set fits in with quite nicely.
The locomotive has a cheerful yellow, dark bluish grey and
black livery, and the detailing is good, with printed circular
vent tiles on the roof, engine access doors and grill bricks on
the sides, and inset steps and handrails for the ‘doors’. It
appears to be based on a European electric model. The detailing compares well to the Santa Fe Super Chief. It’s a shame
that there aren’t actual doors for the minifigs, but space is
limited and on one side a real door would be blocked by the
battery box. It would also be nice to have a fake engine behind
the small access doors in the half of the train that isn’t filled
with the battery box; instead all you see are some wires
running to the motor and the Infra-red receiver. If you add
lights there would too many wires to fit fake engine detailing.
The two ends of the locomotive use a windscreen piece first
seen in the 7045 Hovercraft Hideout and 4852 Spiderman
Final Showdown cable-car in 2003. While it’s a large moulded
piece, it works very well with the design of the train and it
looks more flexible than the larger moulded front seen on the
7897 Passenger train. I think it would be possible to use this
piece to make different train ends. It is attached to a clickhinge and can be opened to get at the driver.
Under this piece the angled shape is continued by two new
2x2 45° macaroni pieces, which look like useful parts. The set
comes with four of these in yellow. At the base is a solid dark
bluish grey piece that the lights are mounted on. The set does
not come with any working lights, and at first I thought the
design of this piece was solid and would prevent lights shining
through. However, there are small holes in it which fit the
8870 PF lights; two sets of these can be installed for the front
and rear lights to work. The wires can be threaded underneath arch pieces that the drivers’ chairs sit on.
The train motor looks similar to the previous RC generation, but has a wire attached to it, and is meant to be more
efficient. The battery box in the locomotive measures 4x4x8
and is switched on and off by pressing a grill in the roof. The
train has a PF infra-red sensor which can be seen through a
small opening in the roof, and can be controlled with the
provided remote. The battery box takes six AAA batteries and
the remote requires three. For complex layouts, there are 4
different channels which the remote and train can use, and
each remote can operate two different trains. In a guest
appearance at the Merrist Wood show the train stopped working after a few hours. However, the batteries were OK when
tested again days later, so maybe the engine had overheated.
Converting to 9V is simple if you have an older motor.
The three freight wagons consist of an Octan fuel tanker, a
container wagon and a car carrying wagon which has two
small smart cars on it. The cars are similar in design to the
3177 small car set. The Octan tanker uses four white 3x6x6
half cylinder pieces topped with dishes. The container wagon
can carry two 6x12x5 containers or one 6x24x5 container. The
set comes with one of the smaller containers made from
yellow panel pieces and one of the extra large containers
made from red panels, which forms the cargo of the red lorry.
The supplied crane model can be used to winch the cargo
containers from the lorry onto the train. The freight containers aren’t very detailed; there are no doors and they are empty
inside, but they fit in with six-stud wide vehicles and match
the style of the 6x10x5 container size seen in the 7994 Harbour set and 7992 container stacker set. The 7733 truck and
forklift set appears to have containers exactly the same size
as the train. The lorry is a fairly simple design, lacking wing
mirrors but fairly serviceable. The crane comes with two
useful green double support stand pieces. While not as detailed as a set like the 4555 freight loading station, it’s good
to see that this set includes all the basics for making a freight
terminal, and with a few extra parts could be turned into
something that could match the 4555, for instance by placing
the crane on rails and adding a building.
So on the plus side this set has a good number of extras, a
decent amount of track and is on the whole well designed. I
bought it from Amazon France which has launched the new
summer train sets early, where it costs about £140. The final
UK price may be less, but if it stays the same then that’s quite
an increase on the last City cargo train which cost about £100.
For the price they could at least have included working lights,
but at least there is the possibility to add these. The new
battery box seems to run out of juice quite quickly, and upgrading to the rechargeable one is another £63. Nonetheless,
if you like the design of this train it is a good buy.
5
Art Deco
Power
by David Tabner
Photos: Stephen Juby, David Tabner
I’ve always had a fascination with Art Deco, which seems to
be a common thing for AFoLs. My East Brickley station was
in the style of Charles Holden’s East Finchley Art Deco masterpiece. Last year several Brickish members made Bricksboro Beach, a whole city of Art Deco architecture. Stations and
seafront structures done, one last significant aspect of it in
architecture remained – the industrial. The most striking
examples of these are the power stations. So when I decided
to join Robert Clarkson’s display at the Museum of Science
and Industry in Manchester earlier this year, which was
energy themed, it did not take me long to settle on what to
build.
From the late Victorian period they were envisioned as
‘cathedrals of power’; marking the great technological and
industrial progress of the time, helped by near unlimited
construction budgets. This came to a head in the 1930s with
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic power station at Battersea in
East London. This trend continued into the 1950s and gave
me a lot of inspiration. The first was that what I built must be
colossal, with large sheer walls, and lots of repetitive basic
patterned decorative features, just like them. The second was
6
large chimneys, several of, and to have them standing tall in
a distinct arrangement.
I only had a short time to design and build it. I came up
with an initial CAD prototype of one wall section with chimneys. This allowed me to then come up with the basic plan
dimensions of the aspects of the structure and, again in CAD,
to arrange them into a full plan. That done, I could start
building. My amassed collection of tan LEGO enabled me to
start building immediately and to eventually finish the model
without Bricklink or similar top-up purchases.
And so I began building it in brick. The machinery access
and the administrative annexes were completed early on,
being a little more detailed than most of the rest. I was
regularly returning to my computer to check online images of
Battersea, Bankside, Croydon B, Brunswick Wharf and
Brighton B (Shoreham) power stations, and their distinctive
Art Deco features I wanted to include. Visiting LLW for the
Annual Pass Preview Day was very productive, as I acquired
from the PaB almost 500 white macaronis, which proved to
make rather good chimney stacks.
The beginning of the modularity I needed in order to get
the model to Manchester came with the building of the roof,
in three sections and using an otherwise surplus mass of
black 3x2 33 degree slopes. Several days of building came and
went. Once the power station was extant, I needed to break it
down; as it was practically a monolithic mass; and turn it into
sections which could be pinned together. The height was now
at 90 bricks high.
At the same time, I decided to thin some of the 2-wide
walls to 1-wide, to help cut the weight. Over 10 litres worth of
bricks were replaced, and I also added a light grey trim to
certain levels. All done I need to then unpin and pack it up for
transport. I was able to fit it all into two tough boxes which
could be easily carried on the train on my folding sack-barrow.
One complication though was the delicate nature of the macaroni built chimneys. I solved this by making a box of brick
that enclose the four of them tightly, and putting round-brick
2x2 columns down the middle of each. The box itself was made
up of a variety of bricks to act as a reserve in case I needed
more when putting the model together at events.
So, I trundled my loaded sack-barrow off to the train
station, the morning before the display, and in-and-out of
three trains including the Underground. 300 miles later and
we were in Manchester. A lift from Robert and we were at
MOSI. Setting up proved remarkably easy. All the built sections were reasonably intact and the chimneys had survived.
I named it East Brickley Power Station, to tie in with my
layouts and station. It continued on the display scene for two
more occasions – Petersfield and Merrist Wood, before it was
demolished to free up brick for my train layout. I was really
pleased with how it turned out, and it was well received. I
don’t know where I’ll go next in my continuing exploration of
Art Deco. Certainly it won’t be as big a model next time.
‘Heroes of Energy’
Event Report: Manchester, 1–2 April 2010
by Robert Clarkson
MOSI (the Museum Of Science and Industry) in Manchester
was host to a 2-week ‘Heroes of Energy’ celebration over
Easter 2010. Following on from the successful display the
previous June, I was approached to arrange a display that
demonstrates, via the medium of LEGO, the creation and
application of energy. In the end Brickish Association members were able to provide a show that encompassed old, new
and futuristic ideas as to energy creation and use. We exhibited on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd of April in the atmospheric (pun intended) setting of the museum’s Power Hall.
The Sail Car Challenge was a ‘hands-on’ opportunity for
children to make their own sail car and then see how far it
would travel under wind power. This proved to be a very
popular event and Luke and Laura (my daughter and her
boyfriend) are to be credited with making this both stimulating and entertaining. The challenge winner was Samuel who
built a sail car that travelled 2.80 metres, powered by our
specialised wind generating device (a hair dryer).
The table with the ‘old’ energy contained David Tabner’s
elegant Brickley Power Station; constructed of course in his
favourite colour. Warren loaned his Gas Holder; previously on
display at the AGM and Andrew provided steam trains and
rolling stock. My (Fred Dibnah) Aveling & Porter Road Roller
completed the set.
‘New’ energy was courtesy of Peter Corish who had provided us with some impressive wind turbines and Duncan
Titmarsh who excelled with his representation of a solar
panel and how it can be applied to heat the water in a domestic boiler. Stephen Juby provided a concept of futuristic energy via his spacious Lunar Solar Farm with its stunning
monorail and a number of most amusing minifigs up to all
sort of antics.
To round off, ‘Dustin’ my 4958 Monster Dino was popular
and proved entertaining in its own way. I learnt how to time
the actions of the Dino using the infra-red remote control to
frighten and alarm both children and adults. However the
Carousel broke down midway through the second day from
receiving too much manhandling (or should that be childhandling) from little fingers. This is an expected but undesirable consequence of displaying what, from a child’s point of
view, is a toy but in our experience is a delicate and treasured
bit of modelling.
We fended off the usual visitor questions, like: “Is it all
really LEGO?”, “Can you buy that in the shops?” and “Where
are the toilets?” :-D.
MOSI is not able to count the numbers attending the
museum due to having no single specific entry point and it
being a free and open event. However, as with last year, the
museum staff report that our contributions were tremendously well received, very popular and future displays are
awaited with antici... pation! The two days were, as usual,
busy and demanding. It is a pity we didn’t have the stamina
or resources to do more than the two days, but then we must
keep in our minds that we have families, work and other parts
of our lives to devote our time to.
My thanks to all those who contributed, displayed and
supported this event and I’m delighted to have a sensation
that MOSI is now on the exhibitor map. So, watch out –
t’northerners are comin’.
7
The Back Page
A
AGM Competition
B
C
D
At this year’s AGM we had a photo
competition where members could submit a photograph of a 2x4 DUPLO brick
taken in an unusual place.
These are the pictures that were
entered into the competition and so now
is your chance to vote for the one you
like the best.
To vote, simply email the letter of
your
favourite
picture
to
lecountm@yahoo.co.uk.
All votes must be received by midnight on the 31st July 2010. Only one
vote per member. The winner will be
announced on the Brickish website in
the first week in August and will also be
shown in the next issue of the Brick
Issue.
Brick-oku
devised by Bluemoose
As with a Sudoku, the aim is to fill in
each of the small grids with the
letters in the phrase LEGOBRICK.
E
F
BI-19 Solution
Brick Trick – Kneeling Minifig
In addition, each letter should appear
just once in each row and column.
by David Mackenzie
1. Remove the right leg from the hip piece.
2. Attach the hip piece and left leg to the
torso backwards, and bend the leg back.
3. Place the detached right leg in front of
the minifig.
LEGO is a trademark of The LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorise or endorse The Brickish Association or this
publication. Visit the official LEGO website at www.LEGO.com
Please send submissions for inclusion in The Brick Issue to the editor: newsletter@brickish.org
Visit the Brickish Association website at www.brickish.org