Thursday, November 12, 2009

Breakfast Television






Had a very early but fun morning today, as I had the pleasure a few minutes of airtime on Breakfast Television to show a bit of what we can do with bricks.

As you can see, the main presentation, centre stage is the BT Logo.





Added to the Logo, I brought along few of my more “iconic” Mocs, that I felt were either current for this time of year (poppy mosaic, holiday gingerbread, Santa and his reindeer or would show well on camera such as my Mountie (who sure has made the rounds), box of crayons and vase of flowers. I threw in the Flying Spagetti Monster, just to show how organic bricks can be, and rounded out the display with one of my first models, the TTC (hoping to earn some “local” points with that one).


The segment was short, but fun, and I really enjoyed representing our hobby to a wider audience.


You can check out the rest of the pictures in this flickr folder.

I have to thank Chris for getting me to the station on time, and with all my bricks in tact. Driving downtown Toronto is not for me, nor is an early morning, so it was especially nice to have the help. I think Chris was enjoying himself as well, sort of like “going home” for him to be in a studio, uh.... that was.... until we were both roped in to sit in on an earlier segment which was a mock auction. Poor guy.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Pics from the BIG Day...



Special thanks to deborah and Iain for bringing items to display at the Grand Opening (mentioned the post prior to this one.)












To see the rest of the pics... please check out this flickr folder.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Toy Building Zone

As many as you know, I work one day a week at the Toy Building Zone (formally Bricks & Blocks) in St Jacobs, at the St Jacobs Outlet Mall.

October 17th is the Toy Buildings Zone's Official Grand (Re-)Opening, come out and check out the festivities.

Everyone is welcome come out and hang with us for the day. There will be giveaways for the kids, Lego models to be seen, contests to win, and just a whole lot of Lego fun! I will be finishing a huge Sponge Bob Mosaic for the store, and both Jenn (The Brick Chick) and I (Janey Red Brick) will be seeing just how high of a round wall the kids can build throughout the day.


Special note to the local AFOLS, I will be displaying items from my personal collection and I invite you to join us as well. We are in the room next door to the store, and I am hoping other AFOLs will join me for the day. Please consider this your formal invitation and let me know if you will be attending, and how much display space you will need.

Hope to see you there.

Monday, August 31, 2009

May I have the NXT dance...

Yes, Im sorry, couldnt resist the pun... but WOW, this is very awesome...
Enjoy... http://web.me.com/nextstorm/NeXTSTORM/MagicalDance.html

Friday, August 28, 2009

Wow, Amazon... are you on drugs?

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-4498925-LEGO%C2%AE-Creator-Townhouse/dp/B000NOSI0C/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1251433894&sr=1-9


And since I know eventually this link will be dead... Ill show you a screen shot about what has me laughing...






On a personal note....

Wow, I was nearly triple blogged this week... which really has done a number on my flickr stats!

Thanks to both MicroBricks on August 27th and August 23rd, here... http://microbricks.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
and on The Brother Brick http://www.brothers-brick.com/2009/08/23/our-micro-town/ which is very exciting for me, since they are my two top favourite Lego blog.

Thanks guys, and gal.

Cheers!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hark I hear the sounds of common sense...

For years I have occasionally pulled out my soap box and lectured to the general direction of my favourite company for doing a disservice to themselves when it comes to female builders, be it adult or child.

I have stated, I have pleaded, I have done the dance... but I have used long winded science based arguments... or compassionate and impassioned speeches.

Today posted on a frequently viewed site of mine... jezabel.com was this understated vintage Lego ad and wow, I was impressed.



with this copy... "This vintage Lego ad features a young girl wearing plain play clothes and smiling proudly at her Lego creation. No princesses, no pink Legos, no glittery sparkles, just a girl and her toys, having a blast. Beautiful, indeed."


Lego, I beg you on bended knees, please hire this ad man/woman back, and have them design the 2010 "GIRL" themed line.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

WHaCKOLUG

Recently Jenn 'The Brick Chick' and I, (Janey "Red Brick") started a LUG in southwestern Ontario.

Our blog... http://whackolug.blogspot.com/
Our Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/groups/whackalug/
Our facebook group... http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=93768665685&ref=ts
Our Lugnet posts can be found here... http://news.lugnet.com/loc/ca/on/


Come out, and join us... 6pm, 3rd Sunday of the month, Whale and Ale Pub, in Kitchener, On.

Totally awesome concept...

Check it out on flickr... http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2563/3831663000_e1706016ba.jpg

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Cafe Corner Style Fad

Cafe Corner style modular building, IMO, has become a blessing, and a curse.

Please, keep in mind, the following is just my humble opinion.

When the first in the series came out, I was impressed with Lego's styling... as were many people. It was a real departure from town buildings we had seen Lego delivery to us with for many years and I was just thrilled it wasnt another bloody Police Station.

Then the series grew (and is still growing) ... and I have personally liked (and bought, and built) each in the series... as has nearly everyone (with a love for town/city) and their brothers wives second cousins uncle Bob. Which in some cases raised the bar for some town builders, and in other cases sadly just brought us an onslaught of very badly done companion pieces.

I will admit, I am getting tired of the badly done ones, the ones that fall short on details, or boast horrible colour combinations, not to mention the ones that are such a slight variations from the originals its almost impossible to tell. For me it was starting to get a bit tedious, and my desire to find any other type of building styles was gaining popularity, so much so that I barely even bothered to look at any of this new fad.

Now, after saying all that, I must admit, some AFOLs are making some amazing ones out there... for example... I am blown away by Aliencat * versions so much that I hope you will check them out here.

By far my favourite is....


not only because they made it "their own", but also because it works so well.

All are quite good and worth the look.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Cheese never looked so fine....

This wagon posted by Monteur is out standing and would enhance any layout.


Tons of "cheese" slopes give this train car definite style.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Wow, what a blast from the past....

I really enjoyed this little video posted by MlCHAELHlCKOX particularly the Space Invaders part ...




Saturday, July 04, 2009

Awesome

Totally loving this GBC video posted by kitsu5...

The interwebs are so cool....

So yesterday I uploaded my Pink Planet Retreat on flickr, then posted about it on Lugnet, and Classic Space... and figured that was about it.

I checked out my flickr stats, one of the cool features of taking a pro vrs a free account, and I happen to notice that some of my "referers" are from a place I have never heard of.

http://blogg.aftonbladet.se/legobloggen/2009/07/pink-planet-retreat


I believe this blog is in Swedish, but I am not entirely sure, and although I cant read the words to the post about my stuff, I sure can check out the pictures of other things this blog has posted as well, which I just think is so bloody cool.

So yes, this blog leads me to this folder...
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=Kris1234 and frankly I can not decide which work I like the best. Their details are amazing, and so well done... the pictures speak for themselves.... go have a gander.




Well I am back...

The bricks are out, and I am building again, and wow, I almost forgot how much I love this hobby.

I have moved, and started a new LUG, with Jenn The-Brick-Chick....
Here is the info.

I have joined the masses at Flickr, so now I am actually seeing new mocs once again.
Here is my page, as I migrate my stuff over

And here is a cool moc I just finally saw posted by mm_falcon / Ben Ellermann



For now I leave you with The Pink Planet Retreat...

Come tour the Pink Planet Production Studio Project and Moonbase Retreat



http://www.flickr.com/photos/99179852@N00/sets/72157620746507289/

It is a diverse yet simple sanctuary for the Y-chromosome-enhanced AFOLs. This Planet is not anti-male, its just predominantly pro female and of course, provocatively pink.


Here you will find tons of pink versions of fan created space mythology, credit listed within the photo descriptions.




The comments along the way describe the different features of the Pink Planet Retreat in a humourous way, please don’t have a look if you sent your appreciation of humour out for the day.

This MOC is dedicated to the female builders I love (they know who they are) and to mock typical female stereotypes, and tease some of the well know “Spacers” that are prolific and amazing builders. It was built with the utmost respect for both groups, but truly built with one tongue in my cheek.

It is my hope that this project is taken as a silly/fun/light hearted project it was and not a serious attempt at Moonbase or even “Quality” building of any kind. While you may feel compelled to give me a million ways to improve it, your effort will be lost, since this project was a one off, built around 2-3 years ago (although never posted) and has already been dismantled and sorted due to a shortage of white bricks I needed for my next project.


Cheers, and thanks for looking.

Janey “Pink.... errrr I mean, Red Brick”