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NEW LEGO Sketch Art

2009-07-30T13:26:00.007-05:00

Hi!

I wanted to share with you all some drawings I've been doing recently -- a series of cartoon-style representations of LEGO minigures from the various licensed themes they've done.

At this point, most are just outlines and still need to be coloured and shaded. And, I'll eventually update them as I get around to finishing each one. But, for now, I thought I'd post some of what I've done.

The link below is to a set I've created for them over on my Flickr account, until I get a chance to make a permanent home for them here on my site. Anyhow, give it a click and check them out. I hope you like them!

<-- CLICK!

introducing...BigFigs!

2009-04-03T12:07:00.002-05:00

This is an idea that I've had in my head for a while, but never seemed to find the drive to sit down and bring to life. But, when it hit me a couple weeks ago just how close BrickFest was and that I really had nothing new to bring with me, I thought what the heck, why not give it a try?

They're made to look like LEGO minifigures, just bigger. They disassemble in all the same places that regular minifigs do, and that means you can make a bunch and then swap their parts to make all sorts of combinations.

I know people have constructed large models of minifigs in the past, but BigFigs are different. Using new techniques and parts, I think I've managed to come up with something pretty unique, and I hope you'll enjoy them and much as I do.

rise and shine, sleepy bears!

2009-03-15T12:39:00.003-05:00

My oh my, it sure has been one heck of a long, snowy winter here in New England, and for a while it was feeling like it was never gonna end. But, it's a beautifully sunny 55 degrees in the Boston area right now, and that's just awesome. I know it's still a few more days until the actual first day of spring, but I already feel like a bear waking up from hibernation.

And, speaking of bears ;-) well, it seems as though the sunshine has brought with it more than just smiles and Sausage Egg McMuffins this morning:

A new model. =) I hope you like it!

"Ugly? I'LL show you UGLY!"

2009-03-06T14:24:00.004-05:00

"pfffffrrrrrrt!" :-D

I quote the great Windy Winston from the 1987 motion picture, "Garbage Pail Kids," a low-budget film based on the awesomely gross trading cards / stickers of the same name, a series which debuted in 1985 and, if I'm not mistaken, still continues on today.

They're disgusting and hilarious, and if you've ever been a fan, I absolutely invite you to check out a new set of galleries that I'll be setting up on my website here for Trading Cards (in the Photos area).

I've managed to save a modest collection of great stuff from my childhood, and now that I'm a bit older, I'm pleased to share as much of it as I can with YOU -- people who are awesome enough to remember and love all the same junk that I do! So, to kick things off, I'm scanning in ALL of my Garbage Pail Kids cards. Right here's a link to the first batch I've done, containing all the cards I have from series 1.

As always, enjoy!

Hi, my name is Bingo, I like bananas, eep eep

2008-12-28T11:33:00.003-05:00

In the first of what I hope to be a series of cartoonish, over-sized animal models, here is my monkey. Touch it. Love it. :-p

Looks who's blowing back into town

2008-11-16T14:52:00.002-05:00

It's SnowblowerMan! Well, actually, since it's still Autumn, he's LeafblowerMan.

But, don't let the name change fool you: he's still just as regular and romantic as always. He's back for a whole new series of landscaping-related escapades, so be sure to check back often to keep up with his near-daily exploits in the ongoing upkeep of matters both women and weather.

The Cantina Project

2008-10-19T22:46:00.002-05:00

Prior to making my recent trip out to Seattle, WA, to attend BrickCon a couple weeks ago, I began building models for my new custom LEGO project. My idea: to create a larger-than-miniland scale diorama of the Mos Eisley cantina scene from Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, and a natural progression from the Star Wars models I've been making for years. The cantina scene is rich with all kinds of alien species, as well as scenery and situations, so there's no shortage of material to recreate. I'm planning on making this an on-going project, one that I'll be constantly adding to and updating. So, to kick it off, I've got six different character models: the Bith cantina band members, Greedo, a Jawa, Kabe, Muftak and Ponda Baba. I invite you to check them out now, and to check back every so often for new models as I add to the collection:

The Cantina Project on countblockula.com

clucks and yuks

2008-09-05T18:44:00.002-05:00

:-p sorry

So, I've posted two new things just now: a chicken model, and the new issue of Well Played. Here's the chicken:

and here's the link to comic number eight:

Hope you like 'em! :-D

It's BACON!

2008-09-04T00:29:00.004-05:00

I made a pig!

I'm currently in the process of making a lot of animals for a display I'm doing for a fundraising charity event, so as I build them, I'll be posting them individually here. I'll wait to take and post pics of the overall model / display until after the event.

Anyway, here's my piggy:

Where are those droids you're looking for?

2008-08-16T00:10:00.002-05:00

Oops! I just realized that my Star Wars "Mike's MiniLand" pages are down. Sorry to anyone who's tried to view them over the past week or two. I'll get right to work on getting those back up and viewable. And, as always, thanks so much to all the visitors of countblockula.com :-)

LEGO Star Wars

2008-08-08T16:55:00.000-05:00

Either this made you laugh, or you think it's disturbing. Either way, :-D

few more updates

2008-07-20T01:07:00.002-05:00

panda, lobster, badger (badger badger)

moo!se

2008-07-16T16:55:00.001-05:00

moose.

mooo!re old updates

2008-07-15T17:43:00.002-05:00

Continuing the process of adding all the MOCs I've done over the past year to the pages of this website, I present to you now...

cow.

Well Played, Number 5

2008-07-15T09:47:00.002-05:00

I've switched to posting my weekly comic from Sunday to Monday, since Monday mornings are typically more in need of a good joke. But, even still, with the extra day, I managed to be a day late. :-D Yeah, I just posted this week's today. Oh, well. I'm slow, what can I say? But, it's a good one, so check it out!

permalink to this week's comic, exclusively on fbtb.net

Computer Off Day

2008-07-08T00:32:00.004-05:00

I've decided to make July 8th, 2008, a computer off day. So, other than this very early morning entry, I won't be back online, or even flick the computer on, until the 9th.

Have a great one, everybody. Enjoy the day!

hip bone connected to the...door

2008-07-07T21:12:00.002-05:00

Get your foot in the door :-p with this technique I came up with a couple months ago. It uses LEGO minifigure hip pieces as door hinges. The dimensions of everything work really well for creating some pretty functional, customizable doors. Check it out and maybe give it a try:

Well Played, Number 4

2008-07-07T00:52:00.001-05:00

If you haven't seen, I do a weekly comic on From Bricks To Bothans (a LEGO Star Wars fan news site and forums), where I'm also an Administrator and in charge of graphic design. The comic, which posts to the main page every Sunday, stars the staff of the website as the main characters, and the strips feature humour appealing to AFOL's (Adult Fans Of LEGO). It's a really fun project, and I love doing it. It's a relatively new project too -- I just posted strip number four.

Take a peek. You might even think it's funny. :-D

Well Played, Number 4

Christmas in July! :-)

2008-07-05T09:46:00.002-05:00

So, as you can see, I've FINALLY decided to redo the look of my website. There are still a lot of pages that need to have the new theme applied, and I'm sure there are plenty of broken links. But, the point is, I'm doing it. Yay!

And, with this major facelift comes a whole series of upload updates. Since about this time last year I've built a lot of custom LEGO models, taken lots of photographs and drawn lots of pictures. But, with the site being the mess that it's been, I haven't been posting my new work here. So, that's what you'll be seeing in the coming weeks: daily doses of content updates. If you're a regular visitor to my Flickr pages, a lot of this stuff won't be anything new to you. But, if not, then hopefully you're in for a treat.

And, as always, thank you so very much for taking the time to visit. :-)

And, with that, here's a wintery blast from the past. Snowblower Man!

He's just your average New Englander, trying to live out his daily life during a typical harsh winter season. And, he couldn't do it without his most trusted companion. His snowblower? Or? Heh, you'll see. :-)

Fair Play

2008-02-20T09:31:00.002-05:00

I had the very great pleasure of being invited by Ace Kim, the owner of From Bricks To Bothans (FBTB.net), to accompany him to an exclusive, invitation-only, LEGO Collectors Preview Party for ToyFair 2008 in New York City this past weekend. Totally awesome. The entire weekend was a total blast and there's way too much to tell in a single blog, so if you're interested in hearing more about my trip, chat me up on MSN or AIM or something. :-)

Anyhow, Ace got some terrific images, which you can see here in his flickr stream. And, with my point-and-shoot, I managed to capture video of the LEGO Master Builders demonstrating the features of almost 20 of the new sets, so if you're interested in checking that out, it's on this page here. Enjoy!

der chickie chickie

2008-01-05T16:20:00.002-05:00

Pigs! In! Spaaace! ;-p

2007-11-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

(Hey, with a name like Porkins, you're gonna get the pig jokes. Deal with it.) :-p

So! It's been like, what, 2 years since my last Star Wars Miniland fig? Wow. I knew I was slow and lazy, but c'mon now, that's nuts. :-D Anyway, after a recent series of chat sessions with some friends, I was inspired to make a miniland(ish) model of Jek Porkins, everyone's favourite horizontally-challenged X-Wing pilot from the Death Star battle scene at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope.

I tried to give him as much articulation as possible. But, in reality, as someone pointed out to me, the real Jek Porkins probably doesn't have much articulation, so LOL. Well, here he is, in all his massively awesome glory...

Jek Porkins!

kicking Death in the nuts, one ailment at a time

2007-11-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

Will someone please tell the universe that I can't be killed, so just stop trying -- it's wasting its time. :-)

Twilek got back

2007-09-21T22:13:00.001-05:00

Be wishin' ye a Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

2007-09-19T14:57:00.000-05:00

D-Arr!-th Vader says, "All aboard me jolly ol' Death Starr!"