Macsen Wledig

Hi Mate, Not problem at all; ask away. Cheers Dan

Hello everyone Apologies for the slow reply, the last few weeks have been ridiculously busy. Just wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments, especially about the landscape. This model was very landscape orientated so it's great to give positive feedback. For my part, days were spent building the cliff along the northern side of the island. Thanks very much, the model was actually on display as part of the Bricks in Time exhibition at the Rheged Centre over the summer. It got somewhere between 25 and 30K visitors. We're keeping the eastern section of the model, which includes the islands, longboats and coastline and this is available to rent. Thanks very much. I actually wrote "...arguably one of the most important years in British history" which doesn't give it any sort of primacy and also leaves room for debate. I wouldn't like to say what is the most important year in British history but I sure hope it's not 2016! ...which I guess exposes me as a bit of a pessimist!

Hi there I'm here to bring you the latest Brick to the Past build, England 793. 793 is arguably one of the most important years in British history, for this is the year of the first recorded Viking raid on these lands. Of course we can’t discount the likelihood that earlier raids took place and nobody bothered to write about them; but at the very least, this is the year in which people really started to take notice. Our story is told through the sinuous waters of a tidal river, which weaves its way past Anglo-Saxon villages, riparian woodlands and estuarine bogs to the island dotted shores of the North Sea. The model was created in 2016 by builders James Pegrum, Dan Harris, Simon Pickard, Jimmy Clinch, Steve Snasdell and Tim Goddard. The model is just over 17 square metres in size and reaches over 30 bricks in height. As usual a great deal of research went into creating this model, which took the form of extensive reading and no small number of field trips. The model contains a number features based on these efforts and we have tried to incorporate as many iconic Anglo-Saxon sites and features as possible. You can see more photos and info about the model over on our website at www.bricktothepast.com/england-793.html I would have added more photos but there seems to be some sort of functionality problem when trying to link from a URL and I couldn't see any way of just writing the code myself. I assume this is a result of the recent update... Anyway, if someone could let me know how I can insert code, I'll add a few more. In the meantime, www.bricktothepast.com/england-793.html is where all the photos are.

Thanks very much - it's a great game! Thanks very much!

Thanks very much! Thanks very much! Thank you!

Thanks very much - more epic builds on the way :) Thanks very much - we're taking it to STEAM in October and probably Brick in November - you're welcome to challange us if you make any of them (although we're not very good...) Thanks very much. Hnefatafl would make an awesome Ideas set... it would probably have to be on a more sturdy board than one made of cheese-slopes though!

Ard Ri is a variant of the game Hnefatafl, or simply Tafl, which is one of the oldest games in the world - traced in various versions to the Vikings, Welsh, Saxons, and Irish. It is rare in that it is one of the few games that comprises of two unequal sides. Ard Ri is played on a smaller board and with fewer pieces than standard Hnefatafl and it is one of the most challenging forms of the game. In Ard Ri the defending side comprises eight soldiers and a king, who start the game in the centre of the board. Their objective is for the king to escape by reaching any of the four corner squares. The attackers comprise sixteen soldiers positioned in four groups of four around the perimeter of the board. Their objective is to take the King. All pieces move like the Rook in chess and pieces are taken by "sandwiching" i.e. moving your piece so that an opponent's piece is trapped horizontally or vertically between two of yours. Unlike other versions of Hnefatafl, in Ard Ri the defending side starts first. Ard Ri by Dan Harris, on Flickr Ard Ri is associated with the Scottish Highlands with Ard Ri meaning 'High King' in Irish Gaelic. 'Irish Gaelic' you may ask? Well Scot's Gaelic is part of the same linguistic family and in fact comes from Ireland. Ard Ri by Dan Harris, on Flickr There's a really good description of the game and outline of its rules over at: boardgamegeek.com/thread/346545/how-tafl-and-why-youd-want Hnefatafl sets often contained intricately carved pieces and beautifully decorated boards and this is what we've tried to create here, taking inspiration from traditional designs and the iconic Uig Chessmen. I say we, because the board was actually created by my girlfriend Dot, who as it turns out has a bit of a talent for cheese-slope mosaics. All I contributed was the structure and pieces. Ard Ri by Dan Harris, on Flickr This set forms part of this year's www.bricktothepast.com collection, England, 793. The main piece of the collection is on display over summer 2016 at the Rheded Centre in Penrith. As always, you can follow Brick to the Past to get regular updates and the occasional funny... well, sort of funny, blog post: www.bricktothepast.com www.facebook.com/bricktothepast twitter.com/bricktothepast Thanks for viewing! MW

Hi everyone. Thanks very much for your nice comments. To answer a few questions, it took a year to build, but I would be lying if I said that building was constant. For example, I built the Roman town and had about a three month break from building when I moved house from Wales to Scotland, which took a massive amount of my time an money. Others are much quicker builders than me and could d things faster, for example Barney built his section (the baths) in about a month. It all comes apart quite easily for transportation. It's all built on separate 48x48 baseplates and the buildings, which are mostly off grid, sit on tiles on top. These are all packed in boxes in stored in our various homes. We live all over the UK so the first time it all came together as one was at STEAM in October. It only took a few hours to put together once we were all there. We would like to keep the model together for a bit longer, but it's really difficult as we need the parts for next year's build. We are currently considering our options.

Thanks very much for the kind comments everyone. We've been really pleased with the reaction to the model. We've had articles written about it on Kotaku, the Smithsonian Magazine and Blocks. It's been an increadible few days! If you want to see it, we'll be putting it on display at Brick 2015 at Excel in London in mid December: www.brickshowslive.com

Thanks very much everyone, your feedback has been wonderful! Planning started in August last year while building began in October. It then took us until September this year to get it all finished. We put it together for the first time at the Great Western Brick Show on the first week in October and were blow away with the reaction. We will be displaying it at least once more at Brick 2015 at Excel in London in the middle of December, so come along if you would like to see it first-hand; we'd love to meet Eurobricks members there.

Hello Eurobricks. I'm here as an ambassador of Brick to the Past to present our latest collaberation The Wall: Rome's Northern Frontier The Wall is a model of Hadrian's Wall, a former defensive fortification in Roman Britain built between around AD 122 and AD126, during the reign of the eponymous Emperor Hadrian. The Wall stretched some 120km between the Solway Firth in the west to the Tyne Estuary east and when in use was effectively the northern limit of the Roman Empire. In 1987 the remains of the Wall were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and in 2005 it became part of the transnational Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site. The model is roughly sixteen square metres in size and was built on 105 48x48 stud Lego baseplates. It was built by Brick to the Past members James Pegrum, Jimmy Clinch, Simon Pickard, Steve Snasdell, Dan Harris and Barney Main. It was unveiled for the first time at the Great Western Brick Show in October 2015 and will be on display again at London's Brick 2015 in December. You can view more photos on our website. We hope you like it! The Wall by James Pegrum, on Flickr The Wall: Rome's Northern Frontier by Dan Harris, on Flickr The wall - Rome's Northern Frontier by Simon Pickard, on Flickr Southwestern Corner by Jimmy Clynche, on Flickr Milecastle 37 by Jimmy Clynche, on Flickr Along the Wall by Jimmy Clynche, on Flickr The Wall by Barney Main, on Flickr Roman Villa by Workshysteve, on Flickr The Wall: Rome's Northern Frontier - The Vicus by Dan Harris, on Flickr The Wall: Rome's Northern Frontier by Dan Harris, on Flickr Heading North by James Pegrum, on Flickr Orders Arrive by James Pegrum, on Flickr Brick to the Past is a group of British Lego fans who build historically themed models on a grand scale. You can follow us on: www.facebook.com/bricktothepast www.twitter.com/bricktothepast www.bricktothepast.com

Stunning!

Great photo! The lighting is excellent and captures the feel of the movie just perfectly.

Bore da pawb; Minifigs are going for £1.87 in my local Sainsbury's at the mo. They seem to be flying off the shelves a soon as they're put out though.

Really like this - love the expression on the minifigs face!