Fording the Rubicon

We have reached the Rubicon. Now the only question is do we ford the river and risk losing an oxen or one of the children, or do we waste a few days to build a raft, which could lead to a broken axle. Any time you can work together a Caesar reference with an Oregon Trail joke, you know this is going to be a cracking blog entry.

The other night I found myself describing the book I'm working on while engaged in polite cocktail conversations (sans cocktails). When I didn't get a strong response, I continued talking, trying to paint a more vivid picture of the types of creations I'm hoping to build and what I want to learn. It was then that I began to wonder if the folks I was talking to were seeing me as a crazy person. They already knew that I work from home, which to some people suggests that I am only employed in the loosest sense of the term or possibly agoraphobic. But do I have to come up with a shorthand for the book in order to attempt to stay on the regular side of the mainstream line?

And so, here at the Rubicon, we begin my slow descent into hermithood. At least I will be a friendly hermit, the kind that gives out candy on Halloween and gets lots of toys from Amazon. I can't help wondering if your reputation matters as much as your building prowess in the Adult Fan of LEGO community.
Photo Credit: Mister007.

LEGO Star Wars- The video game

I fired up the old Playstation 2 (for you children out there, this was the video game system that existed before the PS3) in an effort to experience one of the most popular LEGO releases in the past decade- the video game "LEGO Star Wars."

The first game, paradoxically, is tied into the more recent Star Wars trilogy. You control, Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi prominently featured in "The Phantom Menace," mentor to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. The plot follows the movie as you smash through spaceships with your lightsaber and ability to use the force.

After only 5 minutes, I was a bonafide Jedi- although I still have a disturbing tendency to strike out at Obi-Wan instead of droids shooting at us. This game is quite simply addictive. It's cartoony and silly and repetitive- and yet, I'm sure I'll get in a few minutes today as well. Plus, I've got to beat the game, so I can tackle LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Batman in September.

Today, I built at a six-year-old level

It is difficult to find benchmarks in the world of LEGO building. It is not like you can build at a fourth-grade level or emerge with a certificate of completion. There are no formal schools for training or lesson plans.

So, at times, I rely on the age range recommended by the LEGO set. I've taken to building while watching television. I am as committed to multi-tasking as any of today's teenagers who are determined to text in any location, at any cost. Last night, I whipped through a Creator set- a tiny travel kit that allows you to create three vehicles from a small plastic bag of parts. My favorite is the racer and tow-truck.

"You are getting better," said my wife Kate.

"Well, not really. This set is rated for kids age 6 to 12," I admitted.

"Well, you build really well for a 12-year-old."

I'm not sure that I believe her, but I could probably out build a six-year-old today if I had a proper head start and he had a hand behind his back.

Frequently asked questions

How many? How long? How much? Those three questions dominate the public days at LEGO conventions. It is the Holy Trinity of LEGO questions. They are repeated on an almost endless loop by visitors as the oogle the sculptures and Town & Train displays. I watch as Adult Fans of LEGO gracefully deal with repetition.

As the crowd shuffles past, many will often stop and their first instinct is to touch a display. After that, the questions usually follow... How many pieces are in what you built? How many pieces are in your collection? How long did it take you to build? How long have you been collecting LEGO pieces? How much does all of this cost? How much have you spent on LEGO in your life?

Brian Darrow, who has built the 34-foot-long Blacktron Intelligence Agency, apparently uses a FAQ (frequently asked questions) to try and let people know how long it took to build his expansive space vignette. For the other AFOLs, it's an exercise in patience and a chance to talk about what they have constructed.

When dinosaurs ruled the earth

I am glad that I don't have children yet and those historical moments that must be captured on video camera. As I have learned in just a few short sessions with my hand-held FLIP video camera- my filming skills leave something to be desired. The good news is that I'm slowly improving, the bad news is I will be experimenting on you.


That said, here's my cinematographic take on Kevin Lauer's "Jurassic Park" MOC (my own creation) from Brickworld2008. This prehistoric LEGO playland stretches 10 feet long by 8 feet wide. It is artfully adapted from the 1993 movie with clever details like a minifig reenactment of the shocking electric fence climb by the boy protagonist Timmy. Unlike Dr. Grant, I have decided to endorse Mr. Lauer's park- it is outstanding.

Sadly, you'll have to provide your own soundtrack. "Do-doo, do-doo doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, do."

James Lipton or a police officer?

At a charity auction held at Brickworld2008, I bought a LEGO advent calendar for $30. That night, I brought it up upstairs to unwrap with my wife Kate. We sat on a hotel bed in the North Shore Westin in our pajamas as eager as any children to open an unexpected gift. I am excited to see the eight minifigures inside. Kate just likes opening gifts.

"Oh man, we have to wait until Christmas," she exclaims upon seeing that it was an advent calendar.

"Nope, it's from 2007," and with that I begin to open window #10.

"Wait," she stops me, "You have to open them in order."

I'll admit to not having much experience with advent calendars, having only celebrated Christmas for the past seven years.

"How many numbers are there?"

"Well, dear. How many days are there before Christmas?" asks Kate. I stop asking questions.

"This one looks like been eating a lot of chocolate. He might be a policeman or an airport manager," she says after popping a minifgure out of window #6.

"This is the municipal set, that's what he would be," I reply.

"Nope, he's a luggage handler. There's little suitcases." She opens #8.

"That makes sense. What little kid is going to be like, yeah, I finally got an airport manager?"

"What little kid is going to be like, yeah, I got a luggage handler?"

"Some kid who has a dad for a luggage handler." She is not impressed by this retort.

Another minifigure appears in window #10. "This guy looks like a miner or a policeman. At least he doesn't have a scary chocolate mouth. But he does have weird hair," she tells me.

"He's a plumber."

"Oh, look, another airport manager. I have to say, facial hair and LEGO guys- not so much. This one kind of looks like that critic..."

"James Lipton?" I suggest.

"Yeah. James Lipton as an airport manager." Another minifig with a broom."Oh, this look like old James Lipton."

"Do you think he's fallen on hard times?"

In box #22 is the final minifigure. "He's a submarine operator," Kate says confidently.

"How many municipalities own submarines?" I ask my wife, who works in city government.

"Oh, that's a bullhorn. He's a police officer. There's the police officer."

A multi-colored skyline

I've been looking at the shape of cars, buildings, almost everything I see, recently in an attempt to discern how I might build everyday objects and structures out of plastic bricks. I settled on beginning with a small version of a skyline to try and see how different elements might mimic architectural features.

While this looks like the nightmare for a city planner or architect, it was actually fairly useful to me. It showed me how spacing and the choice of different pieces could drastically alter the picture I was trying to create. Wonkavision colors aside, I like some of the structures that came out of this. The yellow archways offer the easy possibility of a bridge while translucent bricks add something interesting to what was a black rectangle (on the left-hand side).

I'm beginning to see that the challenge for builders looking to create a scene is to integrate the individual constructions within a larger context. This is a three-dimension Sim City, where scale matters and I've got a wider color palette. Sadly, I was always compelled to destroy what I had spent so many hours building on the computer. But since I have yet to build a LEGO Godzilla, the residents of New Benderville are safe for now.