Bill Ward's Brickpile

How best to share building instructions for my creations?

Bill — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:55:37 +0000

Every once in a while I get a request to share building instructions for my models. I am willing to do so, but haven’t quite figured out the best way. I was wondering if people might want to comment and make some suggestions?

Some possibilities for formats are are:

LDraw files
PDF of instructions generated using LDraw and LDpub
Printed instructions in black & white or color

The ugly side of the equation comes when I contemplate compensation. Do I sell them or just give them away? I think it depends on how much work I have to put into them. I won’t go through the trouble of creating printed instructions for free, but I might be willing to share the LDraw files for free (Creative Commons licensed). The question is, how much would people be willing to pay, and is that enough to justify the work it would take me to prepare nice looking instructions?

BayLUG meeting at Dave Porter’s house

Bill — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:51:19 +0000

On January 24, Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group (BayLUG) had our annual meeting at Dave Porter’s house in Woodside, CA. Dave always sets up a very impressive layout in his loft featuring a huge collection of LEGO sets and his own custom creations, with running trains. He has been inviting the club up to his house every January for the past few years to share his layout and give us a chance to show off what we’ve been up to. Marcello de Cicco brought his Japanese Navy ships to show off, and Brian Thiemer and his wife brought their newest MOC, a baby, to the meeting!

We also had a presentation about Bricks by the Bay, and BayLUG agreed to loan some money to the nonprofit org. that is putting on the convention to help with start-up costs. If you haven’t signed up yet to attend the convention (April 9-11, 2010, in Fremont, CA) please do so soon! Early bird pricing ends February 23.

The photos from the meeting have been online for a while now (slideshow) but I have been neglecting to post about it here.

Reasonably Lazy

Bill — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:04:48 +0000

Readers of the “Brick House” comic at Reasonably Clever will have noticed that the characters are now wandering around the author’s home in Detroit. Does this mean Christopher Doyle finally got too lazy to build new sets? ;-)

LEGO Nutcracker

Bill — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:16:12 +0000

My latest LEGO model, just in time for Christmas, is the Nutcracker, a classic Christmas icon. In fact, it was built on Christmas Eve!

Inspired by the ballet by Alexandre Dumas père (an adaptation of the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E. T. A. Hoffmann), set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and staged by Marius Petipa. My wife and I saw the San Francisco Ballet version of this last week, and I’ve been wanting to make a LEGO nutcracker ever since. I was going to make a big one, about two feet tall, but haven’t got around to it yet… in the meantime I really like the way this little guy came out.

The mechanism functions pretty well; by lifting his coattails his mouth opens, just like real wooden nutcrackers. Of course, being the size that he is, you can’t crack much of a nut with it, which is probably just as well since it would most likely fall apart in your hands if you tried – LEGO studs’ clutch power is no match for your average nut.

Click on any of the images for a bigger view, or go to the Flickr photo set (slideshow)

Merry Christmas!

Scrambler

2009 Advent Calendars

Bill — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:22:44 +0000

Like last year, LEGO came up with two advent calendars, only one of which was sold in the U.S. The 7687 City advent calendar was sold everywhere, but the 6299 Pirates calendar was only available in Europe. (If you’re not familiar with advent calendars, they basically consist of 24 different gifts, one to be opened on each day of Advent, the traditional Christian season that precedes Christmas, or in other words December 1-24. These days, it’s secularized – fine by me, since I’m not religious – but the name has stuck.)

Last year, LEGO accidentally shipped a few sets of that year’s specialty calendar, which had a Castle theme, to the U.S. Shop-At-Home warehouse, and since the fans were complaining so loudly about it not being available in this country they were convinced to make them available through a special mail-order setup. But we didn’t have any such luck this year with the Pirates calendar, so unless you had a friend in Europe willing to ship it to you, there was no way to get it.

Well, my friend Holger Matthes in Germany was willing to do this favor for me, and I was hoping to get it in time for December 1st so I could post each day’s set like I did last year (each of those words is a link to a different day’s calendar from last year; days 1-7 and 24 are shown, but I bet you can find the rest). But alas, the package took a long time getting here (not Holger’s fault; he shipped it as soon as I gave him the details – but DHL took its sweet time in delivering it. Next time I’ll pay extra for airmail/express, or just order sooner. Though hopefully LEGO will have learned its lesson and won’t require me to jump through such hoops…)

If you want to see more clever coverage of the Advent calendars than I can provide, check out Chris Doyle’s Reasonably Clever blog where he’s included each day’s calendar prizes into the BRiCK House web comic.

Anyway, I didn’t get the Pirates calendar until December 18th, so I put photos on Flickr of the first 19 days the next day and have updated it today with the rest. You can see the City and Pirates sets for each day in my 2009 Advent Calendars set (or view as a slideshow).

I was surprised to see that both calendars had the days in the same quasi-random order. It made it easy to build them side-by-side; once I found that day’s door in one calendar, the other calendar had the same number in the same position. It did seem to me that all the doors were printed upside-down; the flap of the box was in the way if you tried to open the doors with the printing facing right-side-up. Last year, the direction of the printing was opposite on the two boxes, if I recall correctly.

BayLUG Museum Show Open through January 17

Bill — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:27:26 +0000

This weekend, the Bay Area LEGO Users Group opened our annual “Living LEGO-cy” exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA. We’ll be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day) through Sunday, January 17. Admission is $2 (free for BayLUG and MoAH members and kids under 2), which is split 50/50 between the club and the museum.

Come on down and check it out soon before the publicity spreads and we start getting huge crowds! Last year we had 1500 people on the last weekend, with people waiting for several hours in the rain in a line around the block to get in!! We have our first TV interviews this Friday morning for a Spanish language station…

BayLTC at San Jose Train Show, Sep 2009

Bill — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:09:37 +0000

Oops, I forgot to upload these pictures earlier! We had a great time displaying at the Great Train Expo in San Jose in September, and the following weekend I went to Seattle for BrickCon, and somehow uploading the pictures from the train slow slipped my mind. Well, here they are! Click the photo for the set page on Flickr or view as a slideshow.

BayLTC at Pleasanton train show

Bill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:35:19 +0000

This past weekend, the Bay Area LEGO Train Club took part in the Great Train Expo in Pleasanton, CA. We had a large train and town display – the largest we’ve ever done, in terms of square footage of table space, using all 28 club tables plus 3 more that Bruce made for himself. My pictures for the event can be seen on Flickr (slideshow).

BrickCon 2009

Bill — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:39:26 +0000

Last weekend (October 1-4) the BrickCon LEGO convention was held in Seattle, Washington. I drove up to the convention and had a wonderful time!

As it turned out, my friend Donia who I met dancing in Santa Cruz was moving to Seattle that weekend, so I was able to combine helping her move with attending the convention. It also got me a place to crash so I could save the cost of a hotel room. I drove her car to Seattle, while she followed in a van she borrowed from a friend of hers. After the convention, I drove the van back home. On my way north, I stopped in Portland for the night Thursday night, and stayed at the apartment of another friend I knew from dancing. While I was there I went to the Waltz Eclectic and had a great time! In the morning I did a little Goodwill shopping and had lunch with yet another dancing friend before heading to Seattle.

I got to the convention Friday in the early afternoon and unpacked my LEGO models. I brought the Scrambler, various cars and trucks and RV’s, a few train models, and my DC-3 airplane. The Scrambler and DC-3 were motorized, so in keeping with the theme of the event, “Bricks in Motion,” I thought it was especially important to bring those.

Friday night we had the opening ceremonies, where the new 10210 Imperial Flagship was revealed. There was much oohing and aahing. Afterward we all went to the LEGO store in Bellevue where we were able to get discounted LEGO sets – 50% off “scratch & dent” sets (prize tickets were used to determine order for selecting up to 4 items) and 20% off everything in the store. It was quite crazy, as it always is at these events, but a lot of fun too. I think I restrained myself pretty well, all things considered, but I still spent a lot of money.

Saturday was the first day that the exhibit was open to the public. We had about 4500 people go through looking at all the LEGO models on display. Most of the day I spent with my nose in the computer, avoiding the crowds. I didn’t go around and take pictures at all Friday or Saturday, though. A few people had to leave Saturday night, so I missed a few models, but Sunday (even more people came on Sunday; over 4700!) I made up for it in terms of picture-taking. I managed to go around to all the tables and take pictures Sunday, mostly during the public hours. Also, the friends I was staying with came by Sunday and I was able to see the exhibit through their eyes which was a lot of fun.

Sunday was Donia’s birthday, so we went out for sushi and chocolate. We were going to go to a swing dance featuring Gordon Webster but didn’t manage to get around to it. (But it’s OK because he played at the Friday Night Blues in San Francisco this past Friday, and I was able to go to that – the music was amazing!) But back to the BrickCon trip… On the way home I stopped in Portland for the day, and met with a colleague from Oracle who was based there. I went to Random Waltz in Portland that night (If you like dancing and ever find yourself in Portland on a Thursday or Monday night, you gotta check out those waltzes. The dance community there is very welcoming and friendly, and I had a great time at both of them!), stayed the night in a hotel paid for by the company, and then went home the next day. I got home around 2am Wednesday morning.

My pictures from BrickCon can be seen on Flickr (or view as slideshow). Warning: there are over 400 photos so it may take a while to see them all!

Train show this weekend, then off to Seattle for BrickCon

Bill — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:55:06 +0000

This coming weekend, I’ll join members of the Bay Area LEGO Train Club (a subgroup of the Bay Area LEGO Users Group) at the Great Train Expo in San Jose. We’ll put out a large train layout, about 25×25 feet, with lots of trains, a city, and the usual stuff. Come on down and say hi. It’s at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds in San Jose. Admission is $7 for adults (good for both days) and kids under 12 get in free.

And then, I’ll be driving up to Seattle next week for BrickCon! A friend of mine happens to be moving to Seattle for the first of October, so I’ll be borrowing/ferrying her car up, while she follows up in a van she’s borrowed from a friend of hers, which I’m driving back home in. Sounds complicated – wish me luck! Anyway I’ll be coming up with an assortment of MOCs, though probably not as much as I took to Portland for BrickFest this spring – I’m carrying some of her stuff up, and anyway I ought to be able to see out the rear window.

Pirates Advent Calendar Petitions

Bill — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:14:55 +0000

You’ve probably heard by now that the Pirates Advent Calendar is not going to be sold in the US. After last year’s debacle with the Castle Advent Calendar, you’d think LEGO would know better. Well, the good folks at Classic Pirates over on Eurobricks have a petition going, and The Brothers Brick also have a similar post calling for support for the Pirates advent calendar. Post your support now!

Readership Poll – Win a free LEGO book!

Bill — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:07:23 +0000

Please answer this poll to help me understand more about my readers and what people would like to see on brickpile.com… if you give your email address, you will be entered into a drawing to receive a free No Starch Press book from their extensive LEGO catalog! Choose from:

Prize provided courtesy of No Starch Press. A winner will be selected at random from all the email addresses provided between now and September 30, 2009.

What are you waiting for? Click here to take the Poll! (Powered by Google Docs).

Spirit of St Louis

Bill — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:15:38 +0000

One of the first LEGO sets I ever owned was the Spirit of St Louis, a little yellow and black (the original one was silver – see pictures on Wikipedia) airplane set that represented Charles Lindbergh’s plane from the first trans-Atlantic solo flight. It was sold as set # 456 or 661, depending on where in the world you bought it. I was six years old in 1977 when this set came out, and my parents bought it for me. I still have at least some of the parts – all mixed into my LEGO collection, of course…

Why bring this up now? I just recently saw the review on Eurobricks that was posted recently.

One of the unique bits from this set is this special 2×3 brick with stickers. I was very young when I got this, so I don’t remember if I put the sticker on or my parents did – I assume the latter. But 30 years later they still are in great shape! In fact, I had thought the bricks were printed until I saw the Eurobricks review that mentioned they were stickers, and then found my brick and realized that they are in fact stickers. I took pictures of my brick for this blog post:

I think this set stands up pretty well today. Though the color scheme is bogus, as was often the case with LEGO sets from that era, the proportions are about right and it’s quite swooshable. It doesn’t use the fancy curvy pieces that modern sets have, but it doesn’t really need them.

Scrambler

Bill — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:02:31 +0000

This amusement park ride, known in various parts of the world as the Scrambler, Twist, Twister, Cyclone, Sizzler, Merry Mixer, Grasscutter, or Cha Cha. In my part of the world (California) I’ve always seen it called the Scrambler. Wikipedia has more information about this ride under its various guises.

I built this model for the 2009 Bay Area Maker Faire where it was a part of BayLUG’s largest ever public exhibit.

The operating mechanism is similar to the real thing – a central axle drives the whole mechanism, and rubber tires attached to each arm’s driveshaft transfer that motion to the ends of each of the three main arms, where a 90 degree gear causes the 4 cars to spin around.

See all the photos and a video on flickr (slide show).

LEGO setup at home

Bill — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:41:08 +0000

For my birthday I had a small party at my home, and so I cleaned up my LEGO work area and set up several representative models on display there. Before it gets messed up again I took some pictures…

New Power Functions Remote Recall

Bill — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:51:17 +0000

I just got the following notice in my email from LEGO:

SAFETY RECALL NOTICE

Dear LEGO Consumer

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the LEGO Group is voluntarily recalling the 8879 Power Functions IR Speed Remote Control unit, which poses a thermal burn hazard to users when batteries inside overheat. The remote control unit was sold separately as item #8879 or was included in K8882 Power Functions Kit or the K10194 Emerald Night Collection.

We are writing to you because our records indicate that you purchased one of these items. LEGO Systems has found that some of the remote control units (the kind that was included in your set) are not performing correctly. If your remote is one of the affected you would have noticed that it becomes hot to the touch in the first 5 to 10 minutes of initial operation. If you did not experience this situation when you first loaded batteries into the remote then your remote is not affected. If your remote is affected, we ask that you return it to us in exchange for a new remote control unit. Simply call 1-800-718-1858 between the hours of Monday-Friday 8am-10pm ET and Saturday-Sunday 10pm-6pm ET (if outside the US/Canada dial +1-860-763-3211) and we will give you instructions on how to return the unit and also answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you for your time and attention to this, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We wish your family many more happy and creative hours of building fun with LEGO brand products.

Yours sincerely

LEGO Consumer Services

LEGO Systems, Inc.

555 Taylor Road

Enfield, CT 06082

Mine seems to be fine – how about yours?

BayLUG June 2009 Meeting

Bill — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:33:04 +0000

We had a meeting of the Bay Area LEGO Users Group on June 28, 2009 at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA. I posted my pictures on Flickr right away but neglected to post about the meeting here in the blog. Sorry! Anyway, check out the pictures of people’s models on display and for-sale items. Our next meeting is in the same place on August 30.

Turn out the lights, the party’s over…

Bill — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:48:22 +0000

Well, Brickworld was a lot of fun – the biggest LEGO event I’ve ever attended, for sure. There were 35,000 square feet of ballroom space, about 600 attendees, and 4 days. I took well over 1,000 photos and had a great time.

Setup (18 photos)	Serious Play (28 photos)	Presentations (10 photos)	Opening Ceremonies (6 photos)
MOCs (1,081 photos)	Crowds (7 photos)	VIPs (32 photos)

I arrived late Wednesday night and checked into the hotel for one night on my own, since my roommate was arriving Thursday afternoon. After he and his son arrived, I moved my stuff into his room. Sharing a room for an event like this is a really good deal from a financial point of view, but it raises some interesting etiquette questions, sharing living space with a near-total stranger. We got through it just fine though.

My LEGO contribution took about 10 seconds to set up, since all I brought was a block for the Micropolis display. On Thursday, I attended a workshop on Lpub, a program that automatically generates building instructions for LDRAW LEGO CAD files. I also attended several talks on Friday, the highlight of which was a talk by a 13-year-old girl named Olivia who was talking about LEGO from a girl’s point of view. That talk was a huge hit, so much so that she was invited to give it again on Saturday and Sunday, and all the LEGO executives and VIP’s wanted to talk to her – she was clearly the belle of the ball. She used PowerPoint to explain her talk, and avoided all the common pitfalls of PowerPoint – not a single bulleted list! And her speech was very well delivered, with just the right combination of opinion, facts, and wit. She has a career in public speaking ahead of her, in case the LEGO plans don’t work out… (but it sounds like there’s a ticket to Denmark with her name on it!)

I spent most of the weekend taking pictures. There were a lot of great models on display, filling three ballrooms at the hotel. One of the best was by Jenn Wagner (“The Brick Chick”), a great undersea diorama featuring a big blue fish surrounded by corals made out of Clikits and other organic-looking parts. It was amazing, especially under black light. She built a bunch of colored lights into it, and when they turned off the lights at night (since the theme of the event was all about light, we had lights-out times each night to see the models’ self-lighting) it was truly stunning. And the best part was that it was Jenn’s first-ever MOC (“my own creation”)!

A big part of the fun, though, was getting away from the hotel. I had several lunches and dinners with convention attendees who shall remain nameless (partly to protect their privacy, but more in case I forget someone). Last night there was a party in the suite, which I tore myself away from to go to sleep around 1am.

But now, I took the train to Union Station, Chicago, stashed my luggage, and am exploring the sights. I found free WiFi in the food court at the base of the Sears Tower, after I just got done visiting the observation deck on the 99th floor. Next I am going to go wander around Da Loop. If you’re in the area, send me a tweet or something. My flight back to San Francisco leaves around 8:40 pm.

LEGO Owner Visits Brickworld

Bill — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:57:58 +0000

The owner of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, visited Brickworld today and I got to meet him!

I took a bunch of pictures documenting his visit to the event. He seemed very happy to see all the things that LEGO fans had come up with. I’ll post more about the weekend later when I have some time but I wanted to get this out quickly. I’m about to head over to dinner at Claim Jumper…

Brickworld 2009 photos

Bill — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 08:27:51 +0000

Well, we’re halfway through Brickworld here in Chicago! Time flies so fast…. but tomorrow the big excitement begins as the doors open to the public. If you’re in the area, come on down and see the exhibits! I even have a free pass I can give to one lucky person.

I’ve taken hundreds of photos and uploaded them to Flickr. They’re organized into several sets, but all can be found under the Brickworld 2009 collection on Flickr.

Brickworld 2009: Setup (18 photos)

Brickworld 2009: Serious Play (28 photos)

Brickworld 2009: Presentations: Friday (10 photos)

Brickworld 2009: Opening Ceremonies (6 photos)

Brickworld 2009: MOCs (556 photos)

(Note: I’ll be uploading plenty more photos in the next two days, so these numbers are as of Friday night at bedtime….)