Brickspace Dictionary: VOAT

VOAT (adj.) (abbrev. Va·ri·a·tions On A Theme)

VOAT is the term used to describe a series of MOCs, commonly seen on MOCpages and used widely by Shannon Ocean. VOAT, standing for Variations On A Theme, is usually a prefix for a MOC's name. A VOAT MOCpages article is one with more than one MOC on it. Usually, the MOCer experiments with a certain theme: say, using rigging in a spaceship. The webpage would have a series of pictures following the MOCer's creative instinct as they refine and add new parts to the MOC. However the aim of a VOAT MOC is not to end up with one creation that it finite and better than the rest, but to have a wide array of creations and to explore new building techniques in the process.

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Welcome Staff Member Zack!

Wow, it's the second staff member I've had to introduce in a week - we're doing really well!!

So let's give a hearty Brickspace welcome to Zack, who many of you will know from his MOCpages account: we've featured many of his creations here at Brickspace, including the excellent Lime Miner a few weeks back.

Zack is the first staff member to come to the position of Expert, and I hope that more MOCers and Brickfilmers will consider joining us as well. So let's give Zack a round of applause and hope he enjoys it here at Brickspace. For those of you who want to know, Chris' staff page is now up an running, and you can access it by clicking the 'Our Staff' link to the right. Zack's page will be up later this week.

Yay!

Brickspace Dictionary: Bley

Bley (n.) (Bl 'ay')
Back in the days of Lego under Kjeild Kirk Kristiansen, all Lego sets were packed with dark-gray coloured bricks. The dark-gray colour Kristiansen was using became faded and brownish in colour after a long period of time or after exposure to harsh light sources and heat (ie. the Sun).

Then, in the early 21st century, Lego discovered this fault and ammended it by creating a new colour of blay - nickname 'Bley' by the Lego Online Community.

In the picture opposite, you can clearly see the difference between the new Bley and the old dark-gray colours.

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Staff Member: Chris

NAME: Chris

POSITION: Film Critic
SITUATED: London, UK

INTERESTS: Football, music, computers, History

FAVOURITE BOOKS: Artemis Fowl set, Demonata set, Harry potter set, Series of unfortunate events, Holes
FAVOURITE MUSIC: Blue, Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Eminem, Akon
FAVOURITE FILMS: X-Men trilogy, Superman series, Eagle Eye, Pirates of the carribbean trilogy, Ocean's trilogy

Born and raised in a Lego city, Chris knows about Lego. He likes filming stuff about these weird beings called humans, for as he is from a Lego world he thinks these people are weird. He hopes that Lego will one day rule the world with him as overlord, but all he has to do is find a good enough nuclear reactor to make the Lego minifigs live. He specializes in reviewing films and telling the makers their films are absolute trash or destined for greatness. It is a filmmaker's dream to be told their film is good by Chris.

-Contact Chris at chris@brickspace.org 

Stapler

Well, last time I did Scotland, the time before it was Ireland, so following the famous saying, I had to do a stapler this time. It kind of looks like it can do anything except staple paper together... but oh well.

Hamster and Lego Elevator

Here's a delightful video suggested to me by David Boddy (I've given up with all your usernames etc, I'm sticking with your real name from now on). Though it may have very little to do with lego, I find what is fascinating about this video is the way it shows the hamster's learning curve, and how the hamster is first scared of the elevator, then intrigued, then excited and tries to access the tube or whatever it is. He even turns down an open door to his cage.

Now, I know this video's pretty rubbish in every other department (editing, titles, music etc), but the guy's got iMovie and that's what counts. Good on yer, son!

Brickspace Dictionary: MOC

MOC (n.) (abrev. My-Own-Cre·ation)
MOC is a commonly used term in the Lego online community for a Lego creation of any sort. Standing for 'My Own Creation', MOC is a new-ish term that has only come into wide use as a result of Sean Kenney's MOCpages, though the term is used very little outside of the site.

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Welcome Staff Member Chris!

I'd like to welcome a new staff member today! It's the first time I've had to do this on Brickspace (Genesis, Luke and Tim all arrived when this site was Best of Brickshelf, and I've been here ever since the start of last year when I originally set up the blog as Best Lego...Ever!), so I'm really proud.

So let's give a big hello to Chris, the fifth ever Brickspace staff member! We hope he'll be at home here, and I'm sure he'll fit in perfectly. Sorry to those of you who saw his personal page on the staff page a few weeks ago: Chris' inclusion into Brickspace took longer than we thought. So I'll get him a new one soon, don't fear! Chris is the first staff member to be in one of our new staff positions, too: he's Brickspace's first Film Critic!

And I'd also like to welcome back Tim, or Stickman, to Brickspace. Long time no see, pal!

Scotland

Wow... I'm actually posting! Since those leprechauns were giving me a bit of a hard time I decided I'd take my revenge. So I searched for 'Scotland', expecting some flag or something. But what did I find? Oh, nothing. But I still got this random red house, which is apparently in Scotland.

Down the F Market and Wharves Line

Brilliant MOCer Alex Eylar takes his first step into Miniland-scale building with this excellent tram. It's got great detail, with red seats inside and a miniland figure to go with it. All I can say about it is that it's a little... messy, in places. See more pictures here .

Secret Lego III: The wine-glass brick

Welcome to Secret Lego, where we show you the stuff Jørgen doesn't want you to see!

For this, third episode of Secret Lego, we're gonna return to the brilliant multi-purpose wine-glass brick:

There it is. These come in many different colours, but the main ones are clear (as above) and black. It's used often as any sort of liquid-holding vessel (glass, cup, tankard), and also sometimes for spaceship greeblies due to their bumpy nature.

But what is so special about this brick? Well none other than the 'uniring', a little ledge on the inside of the brick used to wedge other bricks in, such as...

• The 1x1 circular plate: this has the all-important 'wedge', the circular protrusion that must be a certain diameter.
• The frying-pan brick: quite a useful brick for tennis rackets, but quite useless if you try and use it in this context.
• 2x2 parabolic dish: looks great as a lamp with a lampshade.
• Ice-cream brick: Well, duh! But why would anyone want an ice-cream in a glass??
• Large, tubed pole: A great way of mounting this pole is using it on top of a wine-glass brick. Looks great as a pillar / stand for something.
• 2x2 disc plate: these can be found almost anywhere, from clock faces to pizzas. Mmm, pizza.

...and many more besides! So go on, have fun with that brilliant brick, and remember:

Sshhh! It's a secret!

Ninigi-no-Mikoto

Now our job here at Brickspace isn't necessarily to bring you the latest, up-to-date stuff, but I thought 'hey, I guess I will this one time'. So I bring you this: a new 2009 MOC from that forgetful dude Memory (how many of these memory jokes can I think up? You'd better hope it's a small amount...). This one's called Ninigi-no-Mikoto, and, though only a prototype, it shows off lots of Memory 's amazing skills with weird bricks: note the bicycle chassies as legs. How Memory keeps his stickers so pristine after repeated stickings, I'll never know. Once again, I must mention it is only a prototype, so don't expect too much of it.

More angles here . Seen a great MOC or Brickfilm? Let us know !

Bodville- The bull's new caravan

The other day, someone left a comment about their video on one of our other videos so I decided to add it to the site. Can I please stress though, that you should not advertise your videos on the site and instead e-mail john (john@brickspace.org ) and ask him to add it. Anyway, this is a really great video however you can see it was made in 24 hours. It is somewhat incomplete but it's generally quite funny, the story's a bit random but oh well. My favourite part is where the ship is put together. I'm going to give this 3/5 as it isn't completely finished, but what should I expect from a 24 hour film competition. It was made by 1490 D4V3 and you can find it on 'Vimeo' by clicking here. And remember, e-mail us to tell us about your video's!



-Luke, editor

Chibi Monarch

TRAAACCCKKKSSSS!!!

Since we'd gotten a whole load of confused visitors from some other site or other who saw the Obama banner and Feedback post, I'm trying to fill up the homepage with appropriate regular stuff (creations, videos etc). So I've delved into my vast folder of Brickshelf/MOCpages favourites and picked out the Chibi Monarch, a decent creation from that guy Memory . Remember him (lol)?

Now I'm a sucker for anything small, intricate, and with tracks, so this creation has me pinned. Love the torpedoes, the gear-and-track propulsion system, shame it's all in black and Memory hasn't been bothered to use two-point lighting (check out my tips+tricks tutorial on the subject, it'll help. Honest), so it looks even darker. Pfft.

More pics on the silly Brickshelf gallery here . Seen a great MOC? Let us know !

101 Brickfilms Long Films Season: Nominating CLOSED

I'm sorry to announce that the nomination for the 101 Brickfilms Long Films season is now officially CLOSED as I collect all the nominations and reviews and pile them all together into seven, or maybe fourteen of the best Long Films that are out there. So be prepared, on the 9th February 2009 for it to all KICK OFF!! W00T!!!!

Gigantic Train Station

Wow! Check out this amazing Train Station, exhibited at a Convention in Berlin! Made by Rainer Brendler , this creation is really immense! 8 metres tall, 5 metres long and made with 1,400,000 Lego bricks, I think this has to be the largest creation we've ever had here on Brickspace. I'd love to blab on about the architecture and the clever use of minifigs in the building, and creating curved surfaces, but this is based on an actual train station - Frankfurt train station - so I'll leave the marveling at the architecture to non-Lego-architecture fans. Ah, well.

For more pictures, either check out the Brickshelf gallery here, or Rainer's gallery here . Before I go, here's a behind the scenes pic. Just the light glittering off all those shiny new beige Lego bricks makes me want to faint.

Many thanks to Every Boddy for suggesting this to me, and providing the stats and links.

LemonBoy's Jet Hardsuit

I don't think we've ever featured a hardsuit on Brickspace before, so I'm pleased to show this one: the first.

Created by that guy Lemon Boy , whose creations have featured here previously, I think, this hardsuit is immaculately designed and well presented, with a good minifig head to top it all off. For those of you who don't know, Hardsuits are like mechs only for minifigs, and at minifig sizes: sort of like RoboCop (God I hate those films) or maybe the Terminator. They're a huge hit on MOCpages, and if you wanna see more, just get down to the Hardsuits MOCpages group .

Aside from the clever intricate details and use of those new 1x2 clip rung plates (crap, I've only got two), this MOC looks a little too precarious and unstable for me. Hey, nothing's perfect.

More pics here . Have you seen a great MOC you wanna get out there? Email me !

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'Brick Obama'

I'm not American, so please excuse my ignorance, but the whole world seems to be excited at the prospect of a new US president. As the Presidential inauguration starts, Parties are currently underway around the globe, and even lego artists aren't left unaffected. This 'Brick Obama' was created by 'emeph ' and you can find more of his work by clicking here .


-Luke, editor

'Cutlass' mercenary clipper

This 'Cutlass' mercenary clipper was created by samuel diprose and is a great example of the 'adding a cool background ' tips and tricks post I did a while ago. It's a great design and has been cut out very well. You can find it on MOC pages by clicking here .




-Luke, editor

Is Jørgen in a LEGO set??

So I've just been trawling through all the new 2009 CITY Lego sets, and I came across #8401 LEGO CITY Minifigure Collection . Is it just me, or does the bearded fellow with the briefcase look exactly like Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, Lego CEO..?

Brickspace Awards 2009: Results

Hey again, guys! Sorry for the delay, but without further ado, I'm gonna announce the winners of this year's fabulous Brickspace Awards!

BEST CREATION
The award for Best Creation goes to...

NATHAN SAWAYA for 'Dissolving Man'! Please give ol' Nathan a round of applause for his excellent creation, featured as our logo back when we were Best of Brickshelf. We'll be sending an email along to Nathan to congratulate him, and we'll tell you his reply.








BEST VIDEO
The award for Best Video goes to...

PHILIP HEINRICH for his film 'Unrenewable'! Let's give Philip a round of applause, and, if you missed the film, you can find it on his website . We'll email Philip too, and get you his reaction. Well done!]


BEST CREATOR
The award for Best Creator goes to...

Nannan Zhang! Many congratulations, Nannan. Let's give another non-existant round of applause to Mr Zhang. We'll throw him an email and send you his reply (well, the non-private bits of course).



BEST BRICKFILMER
The award for Best Brickfilmer goes to...

Philip Heinrich! Wow, double congratulations are in order for Philip who has won not one but TWO awards this time round, so I think we can call him our overall winner. Congrats!


Well, thanks to all of you who helped to nominate people for the Brickspace Awards 2009, and we're sorry if we got some stuff wrong (spellings, freedom of choice etc), but we're learning, bear with us. And, on the subject of prizes, we'd like to additionally congratulate Matthew from Birmingham, UK for winning our first ever give-away prize: the Brickspace T-Shirt!

Thanks again to all who entered that competition. Now, of course, it's even more important to get on with the competitions we have: like the Long Films competition going on at 101 Brickfilms (and over here). You don't have long to vote for your film, so get going! Voting ends on 30th January!

THAC 6: Rock Monster

Zach Macias returns to the Brickfilming scene with his entry for THAC (Twenty-four Hour Animation Contest) 6: Rock Monster, featuring a very lime green Power Miners set. THAC 6 is, for some reason, hosted on Bricks in Motion. Hmm, seems like everyone is migrating there...

A great vid, but it seems like Zach Macias has forgotten a big part of video editing: colour correction. Like me, he has Final Cut Express, so it should be a doddle to up the blacks and the saturation on these clips. Sadly they are left as they are: dull and de-saturated.

Secret Lego II: Hinge and Flame

Hello and welcome to the second in the Secret Lego series!!

For this tutorial about the ways in which Lego pieces fit together that Jørgen doesn't want you to know about, we're gonna focus on an easy way of mounting the flame brick:

Here it is. Pretty cool. Some of you may know that it can create pretty cool rings of fire, but, if you don't, then I'll leave that one 'till later.

Now then, you'll need one of these beauties: the top part of a hinge brick. These come in 1x2 and 2x2 versions, but I think I'll just use this one. Note that you don't need the bottom part of the hinge at any point in this tutorial. Now let's connect the two...

Like so! See how the stem of the flame piece fits perfectly into the cut-out section of the hinge part. It stays there pretty firmly, too.

You can also affix the flame part to the hinge piece by means of the flame's upper stem as well, creating a lovely jaunty angle.

Now we can use the clever combination to give our abstract wood pile a bit of flare - literally! Using this technique, you can easily solve any flame problems you have. Apart from a real fire, of course! You'd need the fire department for that, not me!!

Thanks for reading, and remember:

Sssh! It's a secret!™

Psycho (Flicks)

A man hides behind giant letters, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting showerererer(ererer). Seriously, is that even a word?

Yes, it's not other than Hitchcock's classic film, Psycho, created in Lego by Alex Eylar . Check more pictures of film names in giant Lego letters in a scene from that film (or, er, POFNIGLLIASFTFs) at Eylar's Flicks page here . Enjoy!

Improper Installation / Jump in the Fire

An amazingly detailed pic from that MOCpages genius David McNeely . Apparently it has some meaning or other, but either a) I don't know it, b) I can't be bothered to find out, or c) It's not important anyway. Or a mixture of the three.

More pics here .