Jump to content

Bricked1980

Eurobricks Counts
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,212

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Bricked1980

  1. Bricked1980
    I'm really excited to say my model is featured in the new October issue of Blocks Magazine. A double page spread featuring an interview with me about my Traction Engine design and Lego Ideas. The magazine is in stores from today. I'm really grateful to Blocks mag for running this article.
  2. Bricked1980
    Welcome to Eurobricks @Aleks I would love to see another modular the size of Assembly Square but my wallet would not. Personally and purely for financial reasons I would prefer them to stick to the current size of modulars. It's great to have the occasional special edition like Assembly Square but if they start to produce bigger sets each year then a lot of folks, myself included, just aren't going to be able to afford them.
  3. Bricked1980
    Do we have any more info yet on the rumored Harvest Transporter that was mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Anyone know if this will indeed be a farm based set with a combined harvester or will it be something else not connected with farming stuff?
  4. Bricked1980
    Ah yes I see what you mean, thanks for that. All I was really wanting to do was view all the newest entries on the homepage so I could check out all the most recent Ideas submissions. Problem is when you filter by "New" on the homepage it jumbles them all up with the contest entries.
  5. Bricked1980
    Am I missing something or is there an option to sort the view so that it filters out the contest entries and only shows the Ideas submissions? I can't find the option but it would certainly help if there was an one. I do wonder if Lego are putting all their energy in to the contests at the minute and getting that fully integrated in to the Ideas site. Maybe that's why there are all these bugs and issues with Lego Ideas at the minute. Also I notice they don't seem to be making staff picks as often as they used to. We had a couple over the past week but now that seems to have stopped again. I do hope they don't gradually phase out Lego Ideas and eventually replace the whole thing with just Rebrick contests.
  6. Bricked1980
    Thanks very much and congratulations to you too with having your project featured on that Narnia site. There must be dozens of Nania fan sites and organisations connected with C S Lewis and his stories. You should email some of these and try and get them to post your model on their websites and social media. I've been trying a similar tactic myself and have written to loads of organisations related to steam heritage and traction engines. It can be quite frustrating when they don't get back to you but I have received some positive feedback from some of these and several of them have posted about my model on facebook and twitter. Here's another useful tactic. When you post about your model on different sites try using a URL shortening service like Bitly or Tiny URL. You can create shortened versions of your Lego Ideas link which look more attractive and are easier for people to remember. The main advantage though is that you can use these services to track how many page clicks the link has brought in and from which websites they've originated. Using this system I was able to tell that my Ideas pages received 746 clicks on Saturday via the Leicester Merucry website I'd been featured on. I reckon roughly 10% of those people went on to actually vote for the model.
  7. Bricked1980
    I've really liked the look of this set since I first saw it online last week. Didn't think it would end up being $20 though. Anyway hope it becomes available in the UK.
  8. Bricked1980
    Prior to the site refresh I used to get roughly 12 - 15 each day. Since the site was relaunched though I've been averaging between 2 to 5 votes each day. On Friday I had none at all. Then on Saturday when my model was featured in the newspaper I had a sudden spike of over 100 votes. Yesterday I was back to just 5 though and today none so far. I personally think they should change the way the models are shown on the home page. The same few models have been sitting at the top of the page for a while now and the Gravity Falls house has been at the top of the list for about 2 weeks. I've not got a problem with this as I really like that model, but surely it would be more fair to mix the list up every few days and give some of the other entries a chance of being seen.
  9. Bricked1980
    You are right. Many heritage railways in the UK seem to have ditched the once common Thomas weekends. My local Great Central Railway have instead opted for Peppa Pig and Superheroes weekends. Seems pretty ridiculous and a real shame when there are many active volunteers on preserved railways who can say there interest in trains was originally sparked by Thomas The Tank Engine when they were children. I've often wondered about the Talyllyn Railway in Wales who provided the inspiration for the Skarloey stories in the Railway Series for whom the Rev Awdry himself was once a volunteer. They often run themed weekends with their engines re-dressed as their counterparts from the Railway Series. However I believe these are never marketed as Thomas The Tank Engine weekends as such and carry no Mattel or Hit entertainment branding. Are the Talyllyn Railway allowed to do this due to the fact that they are basically the real life inspiration for the Skarloey Books? Even though these characters have all been featured in the TV series, I wonder if The Tallyllyn Railway or Christopher Awdry still retain some rights that allow them to do this?
  10. Bricked1980
    Brilliant and congratulations on having your model front paged. Love the way you've built the curved, streamlined shape of the front of the locos.
  11. Bricked1980
    Although you do have to pay to render in higher resolution and with more features it's not very expensive. I bought about £5 worth of credits which was enough to create over 25 images for my Lego Ideas project.
  12. Bricked1980
    Thanks. I haven't put any instructions together for it yet, but if I get round to making any I will let you know. Thank you. This was actually my first ever MOC and I built it last March. I had assumed that by limiting my parts I would be making the process easier but looking back it was probably not the best way of approaching a first MOC. On one hand it was easier working on a small model, but the fact I'd only got a small number of parts to work with was quite limiting.
  13. Bricked1980
    Thanks very much. I have noticed a jump in my votes over the weekend as a result of that article. Good luck with building the mini version. All the parts should be readily available. The red technic wheels used as the rear wheels haven't been available in red for quite a few years but you can still find them on bricklink. I've used them on the brick built version of the full size model which I've almost finished. Thanks a lot for supporting the model as well!
  14. Bricked1980
    Thanks very much. It was complete stroke of luck that this came about. As part of my promotional efforts I decided to try an old fashioned method and produced a small batch of printed flyers advertising my model. I left a batch of these at my local heritage railway in the hope that they might catch the attention of steam enthusiasts. This was several weeks ago and to be honest I don't think I gained many votes at all from doing this and had written it off as being a waste of time. As it turns out though it was these leaflets that had been spotted by the journalist, so if I hadn't of made those then chances are the newspaper article would never of happened. Thank you. Yes it's a well known paper here in Leicester. I have been reading it for years so it was pretty surreal seeing my Lego design on the front cover. Thanks a lot. Was only expecting a short article buried in the paper but to get a full page write up on page 3 and the model itself featured on the front page was more than I'd ever expected.
  15. Bricked1980
    Well the journalist who wrote the article had told me it would be live on the Web version of the newspaper today but also said there was no guarantee it would definitely make it in to the printed copy. So I hadn't set my hopes too high when I called in at the store earlier this morning. But then when I saw all the copies on the shelf with my picture on the front page, I was pretty damn pleased to say the least.
  16. Bricked1980
    Absolutely chuffed about this and still can't quite believe it. I've been lucky enough to have my model featured in today's copy of the Leicester Mercury newspaper. Here's my model splashed across the front page (shame about the terrible article below it). Then on page 3 there was a full page article all about me and my project for Lego Ideas. Warning!!! Face reveal below. If anyone wants to read the full article you can find it here. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/train-enthusiasts-lego-model-design-2002147
  17. Bricked1980
    Last Thursday I was contacted by The Leicester Mercury newspaper who'd seen some of my promotional efforts for Lego Ideas. They wanted to run an article about my model in the newspaper. Of course I jumped at the chance for this but assumed it would just be a small article in the corner of one of the back pages. I headed to the newsagents this morning though to pick up a copy and was greeted by this... My model splashed across the front page of today's issue (shame about the terrible article below it). Then on page 3 there was a full page article all about me and my project for Lego Ideas. Warning!!! Face reveal below. I'm really pleased about this? and it's nice to know some of my promotional stuff had been seen by the media. If anyone wants to read the full article you can find it here online. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/train-enthusiasts-lego-model-design-2002147
  18. Bricked1980
    This is incredible. Not only are they very well built figures, but the way you've posed the shots and photographed them really brings them to life! Great work!
  19. Bricked1980
    That Bugatti render is breathtaking - ridiculously good!
  20. Bricked1980
    That's excellent, thanks for that guys. I will see if I can get that part on Bricklink. I chose that part because I thought it looked suitable for the sort of thing Victorian farmers or engine drivers might have worn, didn't realise it was from a Lone Ranger set. Thanks very much for your support. I don't think it's possible to alter the main picture on Lego Ideas after the project has been submitted. A shame really as I've created a lot of new images since then that are better than my original main pic.
  21. Bricked1980
    In my opinion Mecabricks in-house render farm gives the most realistic results and only requires minimal knowledge of 3D rendering. It is also very fast compared to other methods. I used Mecabricks to create the images for my Lego Ideas project, The Old Workhorse - Traction Engine. Here is a comparison of how the model looks using 2 different render methods. The first one is rendered using Bluerender and the second one is Mecabricks. Traction Engine Rendered with Bluerender by Bricked1980, on Flickr Lego Traction Engine 1 - Lego Ideas by Bricked1980, on Flickr The Bluerender version is not too bad but the gold coloured pieces look very unrealistic compared to Mecabricks. Notice the wheels and other rounded parts look very blocky as well on the Bluerender version. I do like Bluerender as it gives decent, fast results and is very simple to use. Mecabricks is the winner in my opinion though.
  22. Bricked1980
    Hi everyone I am in the process of sourcing parts to build a physical version of my Lego Ideas project, The Old Workhorse - Traction Engine. The model was constructed digitally and I used 2 torso pieces for my minifigs that I thought were suitable for the style and time period of my model. The figure on the left uses the Frodo Baggins torso from the Lord of The Rings Lego theme but I can't track down the tan coloured torso on the right. Does anyone recognise this or know which sets it has been featured in?
  23. Bricked1980
    You are probably right, Lego do seem to have really tightened up their security on leaks over the last year or so. Having said that, they have still got to distribute product catalogues etc to shops and retail partners so I bet we wont have to wait until November before some leaked catalogues shots start to appear online.
  24. Bricked1980
    I've created a miniature version of my LEGO Ideas project made up from just 82 bricks, and called it "The Little Workhorse" You can read more about it here. If anyone is interested in building this then you can find the instructions on my LEGO Ideas page. Only thing I ask in return is if you'd be kind enough to support my model whilst you're there.
  25. Bricked1980
    THE "LITTLE" WORKHORSE Mini Build and Free Instructions Hi everyone I've created a mini version of The Old Workhorse, made up from just 82 bricks. I've made the instructions freely available under the "Updates" tab on my Lego Ideas page. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2a2ec583-9836-4868-8dc7-6b3bb0a2fe80/updates#content_nav_tabs Please feel free to use these instructions and have a go at building the model yourselves. The only thing I'd like to ask in return is if you could please support my LEGO Ideas project whilst you're there. Hope you like this fun miniature version and enjoy building it.
×
×
  • Create New...