Chapter: 10.01 - 2013 AdventThank you for reading. I had intended for this to be the final Brick House comic…but I wanted to do some wrap up dialog and that didn’t really fit with what I wanted to say in today’s strip. So there will at least one more strip to say goodbye to this project, and a blog post or two about why I’ve finally decided to close the book on Whiskey and Scotch. Thank you again, readers. You were a total pain in the ass sometimes, but I love you all anyway. For those who have emailed to check – yes, I’m still alive. My day job has pretty much eaten every spare moment I’ve had for the past six months. That is unlikely to change until late spring at the earliest. My apologies to those who feel I’ve let you down by not keeping the comic and this site as priorities. Sadly, they just can’t be for me right now. Real life, and all that. But, yes, I still bought a LEGO Advent calendar this year. It’s on my desk at work.
My new job has turned out to be a lot more demanding on my time than I thought it would be. I’m still around, still filling Buy-Me-Mizer orders, but I’m not sure when I’ll have any time to develop new content for the site in general. I’ve been able to start buying LEGO again, though, and that’s slowly dragging me back into the hobby. Mostly it’s been LEGO Movie tie-in products. I really liked that movie. Also, Mixels are really fun.Still here, sort of. I’ve decided to re-read my Brick House archives before I write the final strip and comic post…I don’t really have any notes and I’m hoping re-reading things will let me answer the “what would have happened” questions a bit more accurately. But, in the meantime… It’s been a very long time since I’ve built anything. I was working today cleaning and organizing the craft room, and suddenly I felt the desire to put two bricks together. Before that feeling could flee, I put together the display stand for my Series 11 minis.
(Click pic to enbiggen) It’s not a complicated build, it’s nothing particularly special. But I made it, and that’s an improvement over yesterday. So, for the first few years this strip was easy and fun to create. Then things got tougher. And then 2011 arrived. ↓ Read the rest of this entry… I’ll likely be working up the final strip or two over this weekend, but there’s enough interest in my decision to close the book on Brick House to merit an early blog posting or two. This first post is a retrospective on the Brick House – a bit of its history and how things progressed behind the scenes. It’s been a busy few months. I’ve moved to Madison, Wisconsin, started a new job, and just now getting a chance to set up my LEGO workspace again. I haven’t had much time for much of anything lately, and that’s not likely to change for a few more months at least. Yes, I did manage to get a set of CS11 minis. No, I don’t think I’ll do much photo documenting with them.
They’re pretty neat, but nothing earth shaking. I hope to do more with CS12 when they start shipping. (They’re due out in January, I think.) I was debating if I’d have time to do an Advent calendar this year – but I figured it would be a sad break with tradition if I didn’t do at least one. Not sure how exciting this year’s countdown will be. It may just be a daily review. My time, as I mentioned earlier, is being used up elsewhere just now. But anyway, thanks for checking back in. Posted In: Blog, Reviews So here’s something new for Reasonably Clever – a book review. I’ve been wanting to get back into writing reviews, and when the publishers of The BrickGun Book offered me a review copy I thought it would be a good place to start. You can build a lot of things with LEGO. There are those who specialize in castles, those who design space craft, and even crazypants people who make lenticular mosaics out of cheese slopes. If you look around enough, there’s sure to be someone out there building things that you like.
What if you like guns? Well, my friend, I have a book you might want to read. Jeff Boen’s The BrickGun Book showcases five brick-built handguns that very closely replicate the look and features of the real thing. While I’m not a gun person myself, I can still appreciate the quality of the builds, the attention to detail, and the clever mechanics that go into each model. There isn’t a lot of reading to be done – the text portion of the book clocks in at eight pages. (And there are a lot of pictures on those eight pages.) Jeff offers some helpful advice on how to best build his models, and then covers his history of developing LEGO replicas of firearms. The rest of the book is filled with instructions: step-by-step, illustrated guides to assembling your own copies of Jeff’s creations. He’s arranged things so the easier models are first, allowing a novice builder to get comfortable with Jeff’s construction style before starting in on the really complex builds.
While a quick glance at the instructions shows them to be pretty easy to follow, I thought it would be best if I were to actually try them out. I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and start with his most complex creation, the 1911. I’ll skip the part where I whine about not being able to find all the parts I needed in my collection in the right colors, and just talk about the build. The construction style is very sturdy – these models are designed to be handled. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The only minor quibble I have is that the “you need these parts for this step” area doesn’t identify the part by name as well as picture. This was a bit of a headache when you’re trying to eyeball if it’s a 1×8 tile you need or a 1×6. Not that LEGO lists part names in their instructions either. It’s just a complaint I have. The 1911 has some interesting action features – a moving slide, working safety, and working trigger and hammer.
The trigger/hammer didn’t function all that well for me, but I think that had more to do with decade-old rubber bands than any design flaw on Jeff’s part. As I mentioned, I’m not a gun person. As such, I can’t really comment on how closely the final model resembles a real 1911. But I can attest that is a super realistic looking gun – when I came upstairs from my workshop to show it to my wife I startled the hell out of her. Apparently she’s not used to me running around the house armed. This is addressed in the book – there’s a full page warning just before the introduction that reads, in part: “Be particularly careful when handling these models in public because they have been mistaken for real weapons. If you take your LEGO gun out in public, add a bright orange tip to the muzzle to show that it’s not the real thing.“ And that leads to another part of that warning – actually the first text in the book: “Adult supervision is required.
These models are not suitable for children under the age of 12. That’s a good thing to keep in mind. The BrickGun Book is not for everyone. But if the intersection of LEGO and firearms appeals to you, or if you’re just a big fan of photo-realistic building like I am, I think you’ll find this book contains some enjoyable projects. I’ve been collecting LEGO’s line of “Collectible Minifigures” since series one. They’re up to series ten now. And, being an OCD competitionist when it comes to these things, I have to complete my collection. There are a few problems with Series 10 – not the least of which is LEGO’s decision to include an ultra-rare chase figure, “Mr. Gold”, who is limited to a 5,000 figure worldwide release. There is also the normal problem that the sixteen readily-available figures are randomly packed in sealed baggies. How many packs will it take for me to complete even the basic set? Well, let’s find out together.I’ll document with photos and commentary, sharing my thoughts about the figures as they’re revealed.
By day 30 I’ll also likely be spending a lot of time bitching about how much money I’ve spent trying to complete this set. It’s bound to be an adventure, anyway. Hope to see you there! Posted In: Blog, Creations After a very long break I’m starting to build with LEGO again. My first effort wasn’t very original, though. A friend requested a copy of RGB900’s LEGO DSLR camera model. I figured reverse engineering a complex custom model like this would be a good way to remind myself of all the building techniques that I’ve forgotten. (Click on the pic to see a few more shots in my Flickr photostream) It took four hours or so to complete, mainly because I’ve recently moved my workshop to the basement and I couldn’t find where stuff was easily. (Organizing the workshop is pretty low on my to-do list at the moment, but it’s a bit higher now than it was this morning.) I did also build a display rack for the Series 10 minifigures. More on that adventure will be posted tomorrow.