James Mathis

Yeah, Zelda on the brain. I better fix that. My apologies. Thanks for pointing that out. James

I have posted an update to link to LDD files should you like to examine the design and build details. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/78737/updates James

So much! In so little space! So compact and full of little details on every side. The circular base plate invites touch and spinning it about in one's hand or on a turntable to take in to full effect. Beautifully done! James

Really nice! Elegant simplicity. I'm sure you worked up quite a few versions to achieve this beautifully effective design solution. Love it! James

Glorious 12v! I love to see these sets, and you inspiration and dedication is to be commended. My pre-emptive apologies, but your experience has trigger a monsoon for me! We have a similar original and initial 12v era childhood disappointment. For I, too, received the push-along set 171 instead of glorious new-age-of-gray set. The year was 1981. I was 11 years old. The local toy shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire, offered the showcase LEGO® catalog of the new age of gray sets. I salivated. I dreamed.... and I got the blue track 171... sigh. A short time in England-- about 5.5 months-- then I was back in the USA, without a gray 12v set. Even a trip through the European continent countries of Germany, Switzerland, and even Denmark-- with a trip to LEGOLAND, didn't win for me a gray treasure. In fact, the lone chance I had, a toy shop in Switzerland, was thwarted by the ever-haunting words of my father, "Wait until we get to LEGOLAND, I'm sure they'll have all the new sets there..." Famous last words. He (rightfully) didn't want to haul a LEGO set around Europe for 3 weeks. Waiting until LL was the right thing to do. But, upon arrival at the LEGOLAND in Billund, no new gray era 12v sets were to be had. We were informed that Germany and Switzerland received first product drop due to market penetration. Bummer! That was a very sad day for that 11 year old boy. Fortunately, my father returned to England a year later, and my 12th birthday opened the treasure box: a beautiful 7740. I was in train euphoria. :-) Treasured are your trains. They inspire more than play. They harbor our childhood treasured dreams. Well done! and thank you, sir, -James Mathis

I found an old hard drive with many of my train MOCs. Came across this abandoned design study for the cab of the British Rail APT prototype. I recall it was gray in real life. I was entertaining the SNOT of an interesting slope element that has studs on the slope section…and the complementary angle made with that of a SNOT cheese slope. It all seemed to fit rather nicely. Alas, I never built it with real bricks nor did I continue the MLCad project. Here's the link to see an MLCad screenshot: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=523996 -James Mathis P.S.: I wonder what else I might find…re-discover.

To myself, In the mix if your own gallery, it would seem you are lost and forgetful(old man). Seems you can't remember posting this APT Exp prototype before... http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=4714 Tucked away in this obscur folder, a movie of the tilt in action: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=6789 Rest in piece Eric Brok, whose pioneering efforts in tilt and close spring couple inspired many a LEGO® train builder. I remember marveling and studying Eric's work for both his engineering and artistic prowess. I wish links to his historic works preserved. It's nice to reflect and be reminded of our collective and cooperative efforts, as well as seeing the amazing evolution and original designs that train builders output to this day. -James

Mark, Your bevel gear solution is quite clever. Nicely done! James

Simply: one of the most excellent creation collections I've seen. Creative, scientific, educational, artistic, playful. Impressive! -James Mathis

Fan-tas-tic! 21017 Imperial Hotel. I simply love the construction of this model. The detail and building techniques are superb! @Rok Kobe: I am a fan! -James Mathis

Wonderful work. Really incredible your solutions. Elegant. I'm really glad to see your work! -James Mathis

Lone Ranger Train Question: What does the lever on the roof of the box car do? Is it some kind of "action" feature? The water tower looks like it has an "action" feature to "blow it up" with dynamite(?) and tip it over. Pretty cool. Stage Coach question: it looks like there is a brown Technic element with a bar under flexure to the rear axle. Is this true? Is it some kind of "action" feature? If there are action features like this, I wonder if there is an action feature on the locomotive-- perhaps some lever and "dynamite" that blows the boiler off the main carriage of the locomotive frame? or dislodges the locomotive cab? Nice train! Wondering... -James Mathis

Wow. The angles you achieved with the cab are brilliant! The detailing, superb! James

In recognition of the 2002 release of the Santa Fe Super Chief train, presenting the micro scale ONE stud wide Santa Fe Super Chief. LEGO Cuusoo project page: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/23345 MocPages: has LEGO Digital Designer® LXF file. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/336864 BrickShelf: deep links before moderation: parts list page 1 of 2: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jamathis/MiniModels/microTownAndTrain/microOfOfficialSets/SuperChief10thAnniv/micro_santa_fe_super_chief_10th_anniv_v02_parts1of2.jpg parts list page 2 of 2: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/jamathis/MiniModels/microTownAndTrain/microOfOfficialSets/SuperChief10thAnniv/micro_santa_fe_super_chief_10th_anniv_v02_parts2of2.jpg Should you like this Super Chief in ONE, you are invited to vote for the Cuusoo project equally as well as simply sourcing the parts from the above links and information using element in your own collection, BrickLink, Shop at Home Pick-a-Brick, etc.. Potential expansion. I can envision add-ons to this concept, which I would love to see what others' might come up with, such as: - wooden bridge over waterfall, lake, or stream/river - Train station from Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles, USA - Super Chief diorama set in a city OR Mid-Western USA farmland (corn, wheat fields) OR ??? Thanks for checking it out. -James Mathis PS: A bit of history of the LEGO version of the Santa Fe cars 10022 and 10025-- I was an original design contributor/collaborator to make these sets (please note: I did NOT work on the Santa Fe locomotive set 10020-- just want that to be very clear.) I later designed a couple of versions of a dome car (privately, unofficially)-- as did quite a few other excellent LEGO train builders-- and this ONE scale micro Super Chief has a dome car in the consist. Again, my thanks to you for checking out the concept and model, if nothing else than for the novelty.

Imagine: It's December 6, 2001. You're a big LEGO® train fan. You work hard on a lot of train designs. You've been sharing, learning, and showcasing your trains online. You're "blown away" by seeing LEGO Train Club layouts. You meeting and making LEGO Trains "friends" online. You remember rec.toys.lego. You're reading and posting to Lugnet. You got to participate in the First LEGO Train Summit in 2000, NYC, LEGO Direct. You met some of your LEGO Train designer peers for the first time face to face in NYC at LEGO Direct. You met Jake McKee, Brad Justus, and Joern Thomsen. You got to see previews of concept train models and the (then) soon-to-be-announced re-release of the classic Metroliner train. Then, later in the summer of 2001, you got to see Brad Justus at a BricksWest at LEGOLAND® California-- talk trains, be a fan, have fun, and eat all day at the theme park. Then, on December 6, 2001, an e-mail arrives, and blows you away! "Hi James: "I'd like to talk about commissioning some train car designs from you for sets to be produced next year. The cars need to be based on historic prototypes and will be part of a series that we'll be introducing starting early in the year with a new locomotive (already in production). I think you'll really like the project -- it's something that's pretty close to home (based on what I've seen from your existing designs). Hope this piques your interest! "Could you send me your phone number and a good time to call? "I look forward to talking to you soon. "Best Regards, -- Brad Brad Justus Senior Vice President, LEGO Direct" Imagine that! To be continued... -James Mathis

V-LV-52F Can't afford a real one? Live fast in the Minifig lane! 4-wide interpretation of the (pick your favourite brand) Subaru BRZ Scion FRS Toyota 86 Or, if you prefer, the model is simply a "generic" sports car, and the inspiration point was the Toyo-baru 86.... Here's the MOCpage: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/346439 Thanks for looking, -James

My wife and I have a Honda Element. ...was thinking about "what to build..." Started brainstorming... Tinkering with pieces in LDD... started playing with elements... thought about my Honda Element... threw some Honda Element style parts into the LDD space... took a look 'round the web for others' Honda Element models built from LEGO® elements... Found these nice representations, among others: Pierre Normandin's Honda Element (4-stud wide) http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=259817 http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/32080 Bransford L's (6-stud wide) http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/323853 Great models above! I'll add my version to the mix. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/345920 Next up is (maybe) to work out a version that uses pieces that are readily available via LEGO S@H Pick-A-Brick®.... -James

Very cool concept and execution! Really clever. -James

Aloha. Since building 6, 8, and 7. Even down-sizing to 2 for a bit many years ago... and observing others' 10, 12, 14, and beyond... I discovered One. Wonderful One. At one. 1 : 1 One with 1. Inspired by the: 1) 2-wide train gift at the First LEGO Train Summit, NYC, circa 2001 2) nearly decade old Star Wars Mini models 3) AFOL micro city 4) LEGO Architecture sets 5) LEGO Mini Modular set 6) others' One wide trains 7) ...and acknowleding All the micro that inspired "before"... I've engaged One. One Stud Rail. A gallery of One at BrickShelf. And, CAD renderings here. And some Architecture-inspired designs, space (2-wide), and other designs in my mini models gallery. One stud rail and other mini/micro models on display: James Mathis at Cuusoo. NOTE: You may need to click on the "PROJECTS" link at the right side of the page so that the page populate with the the specific project list (seems to be a problem when open the page. Maybe a few more posts to this topic, but it might only be just this One. One Brick. mahalo, James Mathis PS: just one wafer-thin brick... One stud to rail them all...

Return to 6wide... What can I design for you? Seriously, I like to design with a purpose. Do you have a suggestion? Perhaps I can design it in both SIX and ONE? -James

Brickshelf gallery of designer named grapeape is a good source. Here is grapeape's end observation theater car prototype. James Mathis Is this the look you are going for? Some MLCad renderings of this type in my German Intercity Express folder. I also designed a dome car using clear macaroni bricks. James Mathis Glacier Express-inspired observation: James Mathis

These look great. I particularly like this box. Now, that is a collectible.. -James

One may be my present-day response to my own decade-old aging. "One on the shelf" philosophically fulfills: 1) Historic Appreciation: - Reminder of a "Golden Age" (for me and others') or an "Early Age" when I discovered "rec.toys.lego" (was there a .trains?) - Reminiscent of my own growth with LEGO® System Town, Train, and Space sets. These sets from the mid-1970s to early 1990s held my hand, tutored and mentored me into an understanding and appreciation of ever clever construction techniques and the introduction of many new element shapes-- partly SNOT elements. - Reimaginations of such classic town, train, and space sets again, reminds me of my youthful days-- and coincidentally the origin of the Minifig. - With the mini/micro models, I try to honor our collective origins and inspiration of the LEGO Designers as delivered in amazing set design, creative constructions, and ingenious element (brick) production. - Personally, I also reimagine in the scale of One, several of my favorite MOCs from 6-wide trains: the convenience of One on the shelf is a simple space-saver, while the staged presence prompts my memory of my 6-wide trains 2) Artistic Challenge: - Discover an essence of design, color, form, and presentation. - Reimagine in a scale of One-- to downsize to the smallest scale possible?-- yet preserve the recognizability of these iconic trains from both real-life and of official LEGO® sets. 3) Price Challenge: - In conjunction with Piece-count challenge, create models of minimal piece count, so to be "affordable" (surely a relative term!) to purchase via Shop at Home Pick-A-Brick or (the sadly now defunct) Design byME. 4) Playful Challenge: - Preserve some semblance of a "play set" environment, complete with road plates, guided rail (straight) train track, and modularity - Here, we interact with the models of One, which now reminds us (me) how we used to play with police trucks, fire trucks, and trains, etc. on our town layouts with LEGO® system road plates. - It's in miniature, it's cute, fun, easily displayed, (somewhat )interactive... and a creative challenge. 5) Psychological (amateur) Analysis?: - Our brains "fill-in-the-details" so that One in the hand, becomes Six in the mind, and subsequently the "real life" article. - We can "see" in our Mind's Eye the 6-wide trains (and other similar minifig-scale models) that we play(ed) with as children and create now as adults. - One brick can take on many meanings in a context surrounded by a collection of One bricks: adjacent collections of bricks, in the proper configuration, define and assign meaning to their respective neighbors. A simple one-stud circular plate can be a sandwich, or a person, or a snowball, or a light, or a wheel all depending upon the bricks that surround or connect to it. The scale and interpretation of the scene builds from One brick to the next One brick. And, to some degree, each of us is One brick, neighbored by other One bricks... Mahalo, James Mathis Here is the Super Chief in brick. I need to revise the War Bonet stripes, as I like the CAD rendered version much better. One real brick Super Chief And here is a LDD Super Chief... complete with Dome Car: -James The monorail side tiles are attached using the "Lamp Holder" element 4081. and a 1x1 round plate on each side of the lamp holder. I must admit that the monorail is "stuck" to the track. The lamp holder element plus the two flanking 1x1 round plates allows the side tiles to attach. The "flanges" on the flanking 1x1 round plates "grip" the one-stud wide tile trackway- a bit tenuously. However, I find the appears to be attractive (if not actually swoosh-able) in static pose, particularly since the shape of the lamp holder element actually "elevates" the monorail train ever so-slightly off the surface of the tiled monorail track. -James The trains (not monorail) slide fairly easily in tiled 1-stud wide grooves. Imagine placing your hand on the top/back of one of the trains, then simply rocking your hand back-n-forth, sliding the track between two imaginary "end-stop" train stations. This works for trains in which the undersides are fully connected across adjacent wagons/coaches with 1-stud wide plates. The high speed train coaches are interconnected this way; however, I built the freight wagons individually so the "play" method can be to occasionally swap the freight cars around. It is simple enough to build each car individually or build a full train as one connected consist. -James Oh, I'd love to see your ONE planes. Agreed the minimalist is a fun challenge. Curves, that, we must work on...???? -James

In 2011: I purchased brick from S@H through both Design byME and Pick-a-Brick. I also priced-out the same design through Design byME and Pick-a-Brick. Model piece quantitiy: about 450 pieces. Design byME cost: around US$90. Pick-a-Brick cost: around US$60. Design byME: easy "buy" button, then "walk" through the box design, etc. to shopping cart. Pick-a-Brick: laborious task of deconstructing the model and "hand" documenting all the pieces used in the model (using LDD picker tool to grab all of same part shape and same part color), then shifting over to Pick-a-Brick website to "hand-enter" all piece shape, color, and quantities. Double-checking bill of materials, wheh! Design byME: Getting a custom box with nice high-resolution image of the model was pretty cool. Of the sets I bought, only one came with printed instructions, and that had a lot of "hanging-in-space" or "hidden piece additions" constructions that unfortunately could not match the quality of official LEGO in-set instruction books. Result: I either built from memory or loaded the model up in LDD to rotate, hide-bricks, and reverse engineer my own design. Pick-a-Brick: No instructions here. Just open up the model in LDD... same as I did for the Design byME product. At the end of the build, either with DbyME or PaB, the models would be the same. With DbyME, I now have an empty box that I will try to preserve for posterity-- especially since the DbyME program is no-more. I guess I have my personal "collectible", as does everyone else who purchased their own model from DbyME. I enjoyed Design byME. I liked the pairing to the PaB palette. The price premium for the DbyME box was leading me to solely procure the parts via PaB. In the near-term, I may try to print or fill an Excel spreadsheet with the PaB inventory, but that seems a daunting task! Does anyone have ideas how best to work withe this LDDv4.2.5 and strictly utilize only the PaB palette? Thanks. -James Mathis

Anyone know what the "send" button does? This "send" button is located in the upper right corner below the "build", "view", and "building guide" icons. When I click "send", get a message that the model is being up-loaded to LEGO.com, then screen area within LDD goes blank (brick palette and model disappear), then the LDD screen repopulates. No further dialog box pops up nor does any web page to a LEGO/LDD/gallery popup. Maybe this "send" feature is a remnant of the Design byME removal? Or, hopefully, and I speculate with great hope, that the "send" button remains as a place-holder for us to upload the model for some way in which to buy the parts from Pick-a-Brick. I, too, wish that the palette in basic LDD mode reflected the inventory of parts available from Pick-a-Brick. Thanks for having this discussion. -James Mathis