Author: Cole

Enter the Brick – Experimental Excursions

Cole 1 Comment

Although there is a bunch of new Enter the Brick creations in the pipeline, I find myself dabbling in experimental fields outside the plastic.

When rebooting the Enter the Brick Series in the beginning of 2016 (when I was finally able to make some decent photos technically) I showcased a digital edit of a brick.

Virtual Fragment

What attracts me about this possibility is the create something impossible IRL. This extends the possibilities exponentially.

 

Recently I also made a few paper sculptures (more at the below gallery).

EtB_Cutting Edge [edit-1]

 

And now in the heat of the summer I made this brick out of ice by making a DIY mold based upon the upscaled brick.

Cool Down

 

There are a few ideas in my mind which spin off from these directions but for now this is it until I feel like coming back.

 

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NCBS High Jack

Cole 1 Comment

Spaceships are an interesting subject. They are rooted in the known world, consisting of elements from real life space excursions like thrusters, wings, a cockpit and such. Beyond this boilerplate the imagination can go wild as while the mind is in space anything can be imagined and turned into the vibe of space traveling. Especially otherworldly imaginary defies our conditioned perception.

For me spaceships have the above described potential, ranging from model building to abstract art. This indefinite shift makes this genre so interesting. On a pragmatic level building spaceships also flex the brick muscles.

When building something new or even in a classical genre I mostly try to adapt at least one twist, like incorporating special parts, applying a distinct paint job, conversing a certain style or design, including a trick like hidden mechanics or expressing some kind of statement. Sometimes I even manage a blend some of them into one creation.

There is a fixed design in the Lego world called NCS – ‘Neo Classic Space‘ – with the set colours light grey and blue around a transparent yellow cockpit section; alongside small bits of black and a yellow-black-yellow striped flag as marking. The NCS design is adapted from the first range of space sets released by Lego in the late eighties. This group of space explorers can be described as neutral. Short after there were different factions invented by Lego. The second wave of Classic Space included a bad guys faction which shifted the classic space guys to ‘good’ respectively. The bad boys faction was called ‘Blacktron‘. Their faction colours were black with transparent yellow cockpits and their marking consisted also of yellow and black, but the design was different. Blacktron used three downwarded yellow triangles forming a larger triangle on black ground instead.

The pre-story is necessary for understanding the hidden dialogue in this build if you are not accustomed with the Lego space themes. The abbreviation NCBS stands for ‘Neo Classic Blacktron Space’ and the Spaceship’s name ‘High Jack’ should be obvious.

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BricksCulture – Lego Street Art

Cole

One of the few brick related publications which has a broad perspective sophistically ranging beyond the bricks is the UK based BricksCulture magazine.

Actually I am writing an article series about bricks and street art, starting with the first article in the just released issue 6. I was even lucky to have a front page feature :-). I am stoked since this is also my first written and published article.

BricksCulture #6 - Lego Street Art

If this is up your alley and you’d like to know more about this topic, I’d strongly recommend you to pick up a copy.