The Artful Brick

An impressive tower in which to be imprisoned...

 A bar where everybody knows your (monster) name.

  A small set with good pieces in good colors.

Cute, but overall an unfortunate series of missed opportunities.

Less cool than it could be, but possibilities for improvement via MOC.

A fitting tribute that builds on the sets of the past.

    A good looking mech, but not the most poseable.

A cute set with fun design and unique pieces...if not quite series-accurate.

A bit of a simple build, but with some great pieces and part usage.

A beautifully-detailed set...that isn't the most flexible, pose-wise.

  A small set at a high price.

A lamentably disappointing offering from a usually strong theme. Build your own Kijimi droidworks.

 A charming send-up of Nordic holiday traditions.

  Easily one of the best Advent calendars I've done in many years, lots of costumes and microscale vehicles.

Unusual parts and colors, but mostly Technic.

  Some interesting pieces and part uses, but a bit of an awkward final result.

A marble run MOC with a wintry theme.

The play action is a bit ineffective, but the microscaling and minifig are on point, especially for the price.

Modifying a 3-in-1 set to make a house for train fans.

A cheap set with a rare animal and that's about it.

  A classic build for a great price.

It might have limited poses, but it's still pretty cute.

A MOC to house a whole Spider Society.

  Simplistic build but good minifig and animals.

An older set for comparison, with low piece count but great minifigs.

A cute set with useful pieces, but hamstrung by the online-only instructions for 2 out of 3 builds.

A non-LEGO set for comparison, which shows the difference both in price and quality.

    A MOC of Sacramento's Crocker Museum.

Reviewing one of the Harry Potter book-shaped sets; is it worth the look?

A big set for a great price with exquisite details.

Sharp details, but perhaps a little too spider-themed to be useful elsewise?

  A real knocked-it-out-of-the-park set in terms of parts and minifigs, though a touch difficult to pose.

An early try at a modular vehicle set (perfected in 2024's 80050 set ) that could use some polish.  

A great little minifig.

A solo birthday can be lonely, especially if you have a lot of 1x1 pieces to align.

A description of attending my first LUG meeting.

Cheap enough with lots of gold, but no exclusive minifigs and awkward joints.