The Artful Brick

It may not come up much on a Lego blog, but I have a degree in graphic design and a lot of practice in illustration; both of those skills were called on by a franchise of the excellent Bricks & Minifigs shop that was planning to open nearby. They wanted to emphasize the history and location of the city they were going to be doing business in, and just happened to have two bathrooms with large blank walls. They commissioned me to design an illustration for each, to be printed out as giant stickers, ideally in time to be part of their grand opening. The owners wanted one to show a view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with Gold Rush-era details, while the other would be of modern Sacramento. To that end, I worked out the following sketches, which were approved: My contribution to their idea was stylistic: combining the mosaic backgrounds of the "Tales of the Space Age" set, with foregrounds that draw from the stylization used in the Architecture line's cityscape mode...

TL;DR: Original Price:   $39.99 Pieces: 506 Minifigure(s): Island Zane, PoulErik, Thunder Keeper, Island Lloyd Sticker Sheet: Yes Pros: Really well-done dragon Cons: Lack of other builds, some accent pieces fall off the dragon Assembly:  Bag #1 - Island Zane, PoulErik, Thunder Keeper, Zane's windsurfer Bag #2 - Dragon body Bag #3 - Island Lloyd, Dragon head & tail Bag #4 - Dragon hind legs Bag #5 - Dragon forelegs, wings, saddle   Leftover Pieces Interesting Steps: This is an interesting way to make a striped sail, including the dragon finial with a 1x1 round tile making it look like part of the mast. The only issue with this setup is that the three flag pieces are easy to misalign, but that's a minor point. Interesting Techniques: The staggered snot pieces (2x2 underneath, 1x2 above & below, 2x2 above) is a great way to add strength to the build, using different layers of pieces (moving from the inside out) to lock everything in place, especially for the...

  TL;DR: Original Price:   $9.99 Pieces: 78 Minifigure(s): Celeste Sticker Sheet: No Pros: Cute, modular Cons: Small piece count, but it makes good use of them     Assembly:    Leftover Pieces   Interesting Techniques: The telescope, reminiscent of the accessory from CMF Series 27's Telescope Kid, is a larger version, and feels like the real thing, scaled for an adult minifigure. As advertised on the back of the box, the use of Mario baseplates makes for a modular setup, allowing different arrangements simply by removing the 2x4 green plates that link them together underneath. Interesting Pieces: The tree trunk (reddish brown round 2x2 with four roots), seems to be new for Animal Crossing sets, and makes for simple but effective trees, especially when paired with the 3x3x2 and 2x2x2 cone pieces. The new peony rose piece in lavender, is charming; I can see it being useful for a lot of things beyond just florals (a lampshade, for example). I'm unable...

TL;DR: Original Price:   $9.99 Pieces: 140 Minifigure(s): None Sticker Sheet: No Pros: Good assortment of SNOT and other non-normal pieces Cons: A bit on the basic side Assembly:  Bag #1 - Snow Chomper, Sad Honker, Mini Minotaur Bag #2 - Flame Snake, Plant Spider   Leftover Pieces   Interesting Techniques: The most unusual aspect of these little builds is the use of a palm leaf as legs for the "Plant Spider," putting the two studs on the back of the leaf into the two tubes on the back of the 2x3 lime plate on the underside of the build. Interesting Pieces: the Arm & Hand with Technic Pin pieces, in light and medium nougat are good additions, especially for building something without using minifigure arms—monsters, as in this set, or perhaps differently-scaled built figures. These are also the same type of arm pieces used in the brick-built Yoshi figures from the Super Mario line, but those come in less-human colors like green and blue This was a cute little...

    TL;DR: Original Price:   $19.99 Pieces: 222 Minifigure(s): Autumn, Leo, Bandit (ferret) Sticker Sheet: Yes Pros: Cute little room diorama Cons: Minidolls, some finish issues   Assembly:  Bag #1 - Autumn, Leo, Bandit, Ferret playhouse Bag #2 - First floor Bag #3 - Loft   Leftover Pieces Interesting Steps: Step 37 has us place a 1x1 round tile behind the desk, indicating a hidden toy, perhaps (or, given that it's the same color as on the coffee mug, perhaps it's an extra mug cap that the ferret ferreted away). Less charmingly, there's also a 1x1 medium nougat round plate placed in front of the desk, perhaps representing a little "present" from Bandit. Step 43 makes use of the same round 1x1 open stud with bar arm down piece that makes the mug's handle to efficiently form a petite desk lamp. Interesting Techniques: The staircase rotates to reveal a hidden map, flashlight, and treasures. I don't know much about Friends lore, but it suggests that Aut...