RoxYourBlox

June 12, 2022

I’ll be there! Looking forward to it!

January 5, 2021

18 hours ago, CopperTablet said:

I like the scale of the model, it's impressive. One thing I would note is that the grass is all one color- you could add some dark green or olive green to make it look more organic. The shading effect on the water can also be accomplished with trans-light blue tiles.

Thanks for the suggestion! As you probably could tell, availability and cost were criteria for the color palette. But I do have plenty of trans-light blue tiles and pieces for foliage.

January 4, 2021

13 hours ago, Tierce said:

Not going to lie, I do not really understand it either. But it looks really amazing and unlike anything I have ever seen. Can you elaborate on the backstory?

Thanks for asking so politely!

Originally, I intended to make 16 vignettes on boats depicting memories that formed who I am today. Then, as an introverted person, I could just have those scenes out there with anyone left to wonder what I meant to say or to strike up a conversation with me to ask. Unfortunately, physics and gravity stood in the way of that goal, forcing me to simplify the intent into 2 boats, one light and one dark.

I am still deciding whether to add vignettes-on-boats to the sea below.

January 3, 2021

On 1/2/2021 at 12:36 PM, AFOLguy1970 said:

Truly wonderful! This is also a great way to show my sons that math is important after all!

Thanks! And yes—I’m always using a calculator for trigonometry while I design.

On 1/2/2021 at 2:40 PM, JintaiZ said:

Nice one! I really like the building techniques.

Thank you!

12 hours ago, paul_delahaye said:

I can clearly see you have many many hours of love and passion in this build but I don’t get it. Structurally it’s impressive, and the weight of the wheel cantilevered over the lighthouse on the wave must have been a challenge and it would be good to see how the other end is secured but I don’t get the art side of the model.

I had similar issues when I visited the art of the brick exhibition in NYC back in 2013. But always good to see how someone else is using the media of bricks.

The end of the bridge is free-floating and not secured:

January 2, 2021

My latest creation, Galaxy Cliff Lighthouse, reflects a desire to create an autobiographical MOC to share joy and pain non-verbally. It was inspired aesthetically by Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior, thematically by Voyage of Life (1842) by Thomas Cole, and structurally by Obelisk Overpass, Boulder Dam, plus an early draft of River Wheel (featuring pirate ship gondolas rather than lumber). In fact, the 96 x 96-stud plot vacated by the dismantled River Wheel fed my drive to combine structures absent from my Lego city—a bridge, dam, and Ferris wheel.

As you may imagine from the photos, a hilltop lighthouse teeters over an ocean, beneath a collection of galaxies spiraling through the nighttime sky, while a shooting star passes overhead. The light and dark figurative sailboats represent positive and negative memories, while the logarithmic spiral of galaxies in the sky is reflected in the earth below by the failed attempt of humankind to overcome the nature of life itself.

Stats

26400 pieces
75 lbs (34 kg)
Footprint: 96 or 128 square studs
Volume: 156 x 156 x 176 studs

Timeline

Phase 1
- Idea conceived: January 2020
- Digital design: 8 weeks total
  - Wheel: 2 weeks
  - Lighthouse: 2 weeks
  - Bridge: 2 days
  - Cliff: 4 weeks
- Shipping: 13 weeks
- Building: 2 weeks
Phase 2
- Digital design revision: 1 week
- Shipping: 4* weeks
- Building: ongoing

*Multiple international part orders in October never did arrive and had to be repurchased domestically.

For more, follow me on flickr, instagram, or ideas.

November 14, 2020

@peedeejay @NewTown @makoy @EVE @BrickChampsCOM Thank you!

On 11/9/2020 at 11:57 AM, Aanchir said:

Lovely job! If I had any complaint, it'd be that the transition between some of the colors can be a bit abrupt compared to the smoother transition from Bright Red to Bright Orange to Bright Yellow to Bright Yellowish Green. But I understand that's probably an unavoidable consequence of which colors the wedge plates you needed were available in.

You did an amazing job reinforcing the structure also! It really feels like the level of quality I'd expect from a set, not just from a MOC! The hanging/carrying handle is a particularly delightful feature, and seeing your photos, I can't help but think how awesome it'd be to hang it from some kind of mechanism that would allow it to slowly ascend and descend!

Thanks! Yes, the colors were constrained to the assortment of wedge plates and round tiles available in bright colors. There is room for expanding it into a larger MOC when my imagination is ready to tell me what's next.

On 11/10/2020 at 7:30 PM, Klaus-Dieter said:

That's an excellenz ballon, RoxYourBlox!

I'm really surprised that a Ballon can be built only with bricks and without any cloth. Plus the "colorfullness" is great, too.

Thank you! Yeah, that's interesting; I suppose if Lego produced something like this, they could print large cloth ovals that stretch over the frame.

On 11/11/2020 at 11:07 PM, koalayummies said:

Incredible build and construction! At a glace it looks like it could be fragile but then seeing the interior structure its incredibly strong and robust. Amazing geometry with the Technic frame and the exterior rainbow color is a blast. Absolutely fantastic!

I admit it is not quite as rock solid as I'd hoped, and some of the color shell might break off if the entire balloon tipped over. But with normal play you can lift it up and move it wherever, no problem.

November 8, 2020

Fiesta Balloon soars above Lego city!

To contribute to Eurobricks' airship collaboration at Brickworld Virtual Halloween 2020, I swapped the color palette of Harley's Balloon with rainbow colors spiraling around to emulate the more vibrant patchwork pattern you might typically see in the sky. Its name refers to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which I would someday like to attend after our pandemic is over.

Stunningly hollow thanks to a dome technique refined over 10 years, the balloon can rest on its gondola or float from a technic beam installed at the apex. My previous technic balloon skeleton has been strengthened with #24121 11x11 quarter technic gear racks to beef up stability and allow access inside the top or bottom hemispheres by removing the equatorial plates. An optional reversible handle can be mounted inside the hole at the top to carry or hang it.

June 21, 2020

On 4/27/2020 at 2:50 PM, Sean Bancroft said:

It looks so incredibly detailed. I think it would be cool if you would write how you usually create plans for your projects for those who also want to do something large-scale. You can refer to https://papersowl.com/write-my-assignment and they will be able to help you. I once had to write my assignment about one of my designs for one resource, and it turned out that describing the process is also very interesting. This gives inspiration.

I've looked into doing something like this as an hour-plus demo at Brickworld Virtual. While it won't happen for June 27 (and there are plenty of other great presentations there, by the way), it remains a possibility for the December show.

On 6/18/2020 at 12:53 PM, Lollyy said:

Wow! It`s amazing!

Thanks!

April 8, 2020

21 hours ago, GothamDuck said:

@RoxYourBlox

That design is awesome ... just tried to find a good solution to add my Arkham to my City ... is it possible to get the LDD file?

THANK YOU SO MUCH .. in advance :-)

#stayhealthy and #keepbuilding

Due to IP theft, I no longer share LDD files with people whom I haven’t met. That said, this build was a simple modular conversion of TLG’s set, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out if you look up the instructions at customer service.

Also, Eurobricks has a private messaging system.

February 7, 2020

Bricklink’s AMA:

“15. How will Studio continue under the LEGO Group? And what are the plans for Studio vs. LDD going forward?

The future looks great for digital building and we want to do more! Our vision is to make Studio the ultimate building tool for both professional designers and all entry-level builders. We are planning new features and upgrades to the Studio Desktop App to bring in an influx of new or existing MOCs that can be more easily fulfilled by BrickLink market. In this regard, The LEGO Group is planning to support and evolve Studio and will review opportunities for both services (Stud.io and LDD) as part of developing the business plan. Please stay tuned in the months to come!”

January 1, 2020

On 12/29/2019 at 11:48 PM, Vindicare said:

Is it weird that I hate you because of your amazing skill?

I have no words...your builds are simply fantastic. I have no idea how you manage these things. I’m in awe.

Thank you! In terms of how it’s done, I think I start off with a goal / focal point to the build (i.e., weirdly shaped domed building from a video game), next try to match that to scale (i.e., a 96x96 open lot in my city) and to the angles and lengths that the trigonometry will allow (i.e., angular floor plan), and finally partition off long stretches of exterior wall into windows and columns in multiples of phi. From there, I start small with window sills and expand back out, copying elements into patterns like tesselations while trying to add variations to the previous pattern with each additional floor.

On 12/30/2019 at 3:05 AM, peedeejay said:

Great to see you back at buildings. :)

Your style is absolute unique and the building is very impressive again!

Thanks, although sometimes it feels like a curse—I feel trapped from being able to branch out, especially when trying to do MOCs that look more random!

@paupadros @LEGO Train 12 Volts Thank you!

December 30, 2019

Apple Square Research Center is a 4-story 96x96 modular building conceived as a revision to my original Apple Square University. Designed entirely in Lego Digital Designer (Stud.io needs an update before I could adapt), this iteration is also influenced by a locale in a Japanese RPG (サクラ大戦3), the Antwerpen-Centraal Station in Belgium, as well as my ongoing career as an electrophysiologist. ASRC and ASU will be on display together at the next Brickworld Chicago (June 20-21, 2020).

For more, follow me on flickr or instagram.

November 27, 2019

12 hours ago, anothergol said:

We should gather to tell them about that. For me what's missing is mainly moving & centering the camera, it's the thing you do the most & it's painful in Studio, way too fast & not through right-clicking. LDD got it perfect.

I wholeheartedly agree!

November 27, 2019

3 hours ago, NathanR said:

@RoxYourBlox That's very interesting... So they have at least changed their stance and are open to the possibility of updating LDD.

However, with Lego having just bought Bricklink, I'm not sure what that means for Stud.io. Will Stud.io become the official replacement of LDD?

Given that Lego would not have acquired Bricklink with the purpose of dropping the AFOL designer program or pulling the plug on Stud.io while not updating LDD, I think it'd be reasonable to conclude that either Stud.io or LDD (but not both) will continue to be updated with Lego's standards for quality and ease of use. Hopefully, this would mean better camera control in Stud.io or a new LDD to replace Stud.io.

November 27, 2019

I'm hoping that this announcement hints at a LDD2, or an update to Stud.io to make it operate more like LDD.

November 27, 2019

1 hour ago, Toastie said:

Telling you what exactly?

Best
Thorsten

Quote

Dear Peter,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

I'm really sorry to hear that your newly-updated Mac is no longer able to run 32-bit programs such as LEGO® Digital Designer.

LDD was first made available in 2004 and has seen many changes and updates over the years - whilst I'd love to help, I'm afraid to say that official support for the program has ended and there aren't any plans to create a version of LDD compatible with Catalina at the moment.

Of course, I'll make sure to pass your feedback about the usefulness of LDD to the appropiate team so we can look into the possibility of upgrading LDD to 64-bit in the future - hope this information helps, and have a great day!

We want to make sure we're doing a good job for you, so you’ll always find the link to a four-question survey in our emails. Please tell us how we did today:

Please let us know if you need anything else.

Kind regards,

—
LEGO® Customer Service

For now, I'm happy enough that they forwarded my feedback.

November 26, 2019

On 11/10/2019 at 8:31 AM, RoxYourBlox said:

This morning I posted to Bricklink Stud.io forum and sent an email to Lego Customer Service:

I think we all should become very vocal with both Bricklink and Lego until one or both companies take action to support their customers.

It seems that my comments & suggestions were quite timely. Lego replied back; BrickLink has yet to do so. I’m feeling optimistic.

November 11, 2019

26 minutes ago, NathanR said:

@RoxYourBlox You may have some luck with the bricklink team, they are receptive to fan requests. But you're wasting your time with Lego, they haven't done a software update since 2012 and they haven't done a brick library update for over two years - LDD is basically dead as a dodo now.

As a regular user of LDD since 2011, I am aware of its update history.

The status quo for both LDD and Stud.io simply is not acceptable. Since I'm their customer, there's no harm in continuing to give each company feedback until one or both companies implement the changes I want. Better chance of success if you don't put all the eggs in one basket.

November 10, 2019

This morning I posted to Bricklink Stud.io forum and sent an email to Lego Customer Service:

Quote

With the update from Mac OS Mojave to Catalina, 32-bit programs like Lego Digital Designer can no longer run on a Mac.
For LDD users on Mac, this crisis presents us with a couple options:

Don't update to Catalina

Switch to Stud.io

Unfortunately, I have determined that I cannot switch unless I see the following features added to Stud.io to make it more hospitable to operate:

Make "right-click" a mappable button so that I can use it to "set as origin"

Add a new mappable command to deselect a brick

Allow the delete command to be a unique tool in the ribbon (i.e., point-and-click to delete)

Allow the delete command to be mappable (e.g., to "D" instead of locked to "delete")

Allow the ribbon buttons to be left-, right-, or center-justified

Allow the ribbon buttons to open as tabs rather than as drop-down menus

All of the above suggestions would make designing a model in Stud.io less cumbersome. Thanks

Quote

Dear Lego Group:

With the recent update from Mac OS Mojave to Catalina, 32-bit programs like Lego Digital Designer (LDD) can no longer run on a Mac. For long-time LDD designers such as myself, this presents me with a crisis: how can I continue to build with Lego bricks? Over the past 10 years in LDD, I have made and won awards for creations that I would not have thought possible. (Please see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redcokid/albums ). I have found that to design by hand is much slower and does not accomplish results as fast as I have come to expect with the work-flow of (1) design in LDD, (2) export file to Bricklink, (3) order parts from Bricklink, Bricks and Pieces, and Pick a Brick, (4) build the MOC, (5) display MOC at public Lego convention. Furthermore, you may note that my purchases from Bricks & Pieces and Pick-a-Brick depend on me designing in LDD.

I wholeheartedly request that for me to continue with Lego as a hobby, that--at the very least--please update LDD from 32- to 64-bit! Furthermore, I am absolutely willing to pay for LDD as a download (e.g., through an app store) or as a monthly subscription service.

Thanks for your consideration,

I think we all should become very vocal with both Bricklink and Lego until one or both companies take action to support their customers.

October 20, 2019

1 hour ago, minimat said:

Hey, can we still buy your original instructions?

I got your message in Flickr relayed to my email, but I can’t reply in the app until I’m back at my laptop in a few days. If you’ve invested time looking at my MOCs, then you should also be aware that this is a sensitive situation for me and that I’d want to exercise caution in considering whether to re-open a can of worms. (If not, please read the first post.) Is a $20 sale worth another 2 years of trouble? This is the type of issue I’d be facing. Thanks.

September 8, 2019

On 9/7/2019 at 12:46 AM, Skyfoogle said:

I'd honestly just suggest moving on to Stud.io. It's constantly updated with new parts and prints. I'd also suggest Mecabricks but it's not as simple to use as Stud.io.

A quick example to illustrate @CorvusA‘s point:

Delete is a locked shortcut. This means that you can’t remap it to “D” as in LDD, so you need to reach across the keyboard to the Delete key to remove bricks or to force-quit Studio from copying bricks if you’re using the copy tool.

Second, you should be able to map right-click to be Set As Origin without bringing up a menu.

Third, the ribbon should be centered over the viewport window with the Select pulldown mappable as separate buttons in the ribbon.

I use LDD with one hand, my left hand hovering over V, D, C, and command-Z or shift-command-Z. You simply cannot use Studio this way because they’ve locked out the key controls and don’t offer ribbon customization.

In short, Bricklink needs to spend a few updates improving the ergonomics of their software.

September 5, 2019

12 hours ago, M2m said:

I’m on the same ship. Currently I won’t upgrade macOS however. Keeping iTunes ain’t too bad.

Will Catalina change iTunes? I hadn't heard. Edit: Oh, god... can't tech companies just stick with something for good?

I hope TLG realizes that LDD is still the go-to program for AFOLs and its own employees. Stud.io feels cumbersome in terms of controls/control options/item selection, and it fails to recognize perfectly Lego-legal SNOT connections from .lxf--making it necessary to rebuild after import. The Bricklink team has had a lot of time to optimize their software, but it still is not yet a good replacement. I could write up a long list of needed improvements (Studio) / complaints (LDD), but would anyone listen?

September 4, 2019

I’d like to see a 64-bit update! This fall, I don’t want to chose between upgrading my MacOS or keeping LDD! :angry:

August 26, 2019

On 7/25/2019 at 1:09 AM, Mister Phes said:

Well, the point of this topic is an alleged casting agent (themicasting on Instagram) has reached out to Eurobricks or maybe just @paokus...

How legitimate that account is still needs to be confirmed so what I'll do is follow it with the ClassicPirates Instagram account and determine whether they're reaching out to all major LEGO Instagram accounts or just Eurobricks specifically.

Raph Korine (@raph176, 18k followers, Lego Masters USA casting in bio) wrote to me on IG, but in retrospect it appears he might have spammed other accounts to apply, too. I followed up with 2 phone calls and took some notes:

- 12 pairs, preferably family/friends with one of those being a Lego master

- Oct 28 to mid-Dec, max 7 weeks

- LA, flights and accommodations paid plus a stipend TBD

- grand prize 100k USD

- Thanksgiving break halfway through

- 6 of 7 days per week, 1 day off per week

- phone & skype interviews, then a test build

July 9, 2019

On 7/5/2019 at 9:12 AM, Wout said:

That's a great boat with nice windows.

It reminds me a bit of 3673 from 1985

I did draw upon 3673 for inspiration, and it was the reason behind not initially including a captain’s bridge around the steering wheel. But with the build nearly finished, I felt the steamboat looked too incomplete without a bridge.

There also is a reference to the 3665, Ice Cream with Scooter, in Harry Horse’s jealousy of Billy Goat’s showing off of the boat to Clara Cow.

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