Chris Phipson

I actually couldn't figure out where to put this... in retrospect, I suppose the action thread would have been better. If a mod or admin can move it, please feel free and sorry if it's a hassle. ~Chris.

Built for the 2010 MocAthalon going on over on MOCpages in the "Atlantis" category. I tried to think outside the box on this one. My first thought was to do a micro scale version of Atlantis before it sank. I started work on that and then Kevin Walter posted an AWESOME version of it... scrap that idea. My next thought was to do Atlantis "seconds" before it's destruction. Take it to minifig scale, add a small temple (woulda been bigger but my current "BIG" build is taking up all my white right now) add a cool wave about to take out the poor folks on the shore and BAM, "The Fate of Atlantis." Till next time true believers! ~Chris.

I can't think of a better way for measuring "studlyness"... (groan) AHAHAHA This is a really cool piece. I only wish they would have made it bigger... To measure longer things... I'M TALKING LEGO HERE PEOPLE! Get your mind outta there. Nice plush minifig too! I should TOTALLY pick up one of those for my daughter just to tick my wife off. Thanks for sharing! ~ Chris.

AMEN brother! Never understood the appeal of "clubbing" myself either.

I'm very open about my hobby with everyone I know. The guys at work gave me a little hassel about it when I first started talking about it a couple years ago, but now it's just part of who I am. I've never had a problem with telling people about whatever my hobby is (it's ranged from comics, to toy collections to swords to role playing games and so on). If someone has a problem with me, as an adult, "playing" with a kids toy, then that's there problem, not mine. I find that the more people that you're open and honest about it with, the more people will understand. Don't go shoving it down everyone's throat of course, but when the topic comes up in polite conversation, be open and honest about it. In general, people will respect you more for being honest about your passion rather than you trying to hide it or be ashamed. Just my two cents. ~Chris.

I cut down the responses here to save space. Dave and Stacy, I consider you guys to be among my closest friends, Lego or otherwise and I am so thrilled for both of you that you two have found a common interest (again, Lego or not) that can only strengthen your love for each other AND the brick. You guys (Sterlings) KNOW my situation. Like one of the posts before, my wife hates Lego with an unholy passion. While I don't really think it's the Lego itself that she hates, it's more about spending time together. I've slowly over the past couple of years been able to get her to "accept" that Lego is my hobby, my passion and has been part of my life (in some way, shape or form) longer than she has (we've been together for about 13 years and married for 11). Once I put that thought in her head, she started to calm down a bit. She's still not "happy" about the hobby of course, but at least now I'm not getting dagger eyes every time I mention the holy brick. HAHAHA (please note, some of the tone here was for comedic effect... although there is some truth to every comedic exageration) My advice on this matter is this. Your wife (or husband or girldfriend or whatever) is going to feel however they feel about the hobby one way or another. The majority of the time, it has NOTHING to do with "Lego" in particular but just the simple fact that it's "your hobby" that drives the other person (gender is not part of this equation) nuts. One example, I work with a guy who completely understands where I come from on this hobby. His passion is old radios and "boom boxes" and his girlfriend hates (and I mean HATES) his hobby. Just goes to show that it's the person, not the choice of hobby (most of the time). Your not going to be able to change a persons mind no matter how hard you try. Your best bet, is to try to find the happy medium between your hobby and your (significant other). I'm still looking for my happy medium, but I think I'm getting much closer. Hope I didn't discourage too many with this post. I wish ALL of you that are trying to find that middle ground the best of luck. And to those of you that have already found it, you are an inspiration to us all! ~ Chris.

I get the "gift receipt" one all the time. The other funny one is when I'm buying a set in a local retailer (not Lego store, they know me there) and I have my daughter with me. It's happened a few times where the lady (or dude) behind the counter will say "Is she old enough for this?" while looking at my 3 year old daughter. I usually just smile and nod and go on my way with a giggle in my heart. As for the Lego vs legoes debate. I say "Lego." I was brought up by a very proper English mother who would turn over in her grave if she heard me misspeak (although I do it all the time). The two that erk me the most though (as the whole "legos" thing isn't THAT big a deal for me. Say what you want to, it's YOUR hobby) is when I moved up here to the Chicago area. One: Calling soda "pop." A pop is a noise that soda makes. You don't call a car a "vroom" nor a cockroach a "crunch." The other is "Pass me the scissor." Notice the lack of S on the end. One wouldn't say "I'm going to put on my pant." Now that we've gone through all that, I think I'm going to go out in to the wilderness and try to find a bunch of moosessseses. ~Chris.

"You know you're a fan of LEGO when..." You actually find yourself debating the following question: "Lego or kids college fund?" And yes, I've actually found myself debating this exact question NUMEROUS times... my poor daughter. God I hope she gets a scholorship for something. Do they do scholorships for Lego yet? ~Chris. Yeap, that's ME! Come to think of it, I've spent about 200 bucks on my daughter TOTAL for Lego (Duplo) and yet the staff at the Lego store knows her name... What does that tell ya? Funny story that I'd like to share here. I go into my local Lego store with my wife and daughter. For some reason, my daughter (3 years old) gets shy and hides behind my leg. She's never done that in the Lego store before. The manager looks at me and says "I wonder why she's doing that with this being like her second home and all." My wife looks over at me with DAGGERS and repeats "Her second home huh?" One of my friends (an employee who shall remain nameless unless he wants to respond to this) who was standing at the back of the store and knew better than to say anything was standing there with visible convulsions of laughter shaking his body... let's just say that I didn't hear the end of THAT one for a while. Word of advice. Inform the local Lego store employees NOT to say that they know you when you go in there with your wife. (Edit was here. Added another to it rather than add a new reply.) "You know you're a Lego fan when..." Your wife asks if you two are planning on getting "friendly" later that night and you make up an excuse about being tired so she'll go to sleep and you can sneak off to the Lego room. We now return you to your regularly scheduled EB forum. ~Chris.

Like I told you before... I'm TOTALLY stealing that back wall idea! LOVE IT! ~Chris.

Mine is a toss up between the Yoda (which I have) and the Tantive IV (Which I HAD but returned... this was before the end of my dark age *slaps self silly*) I was glad I had the yoda set when I started MOCing. It was a great source of parts!

They aren't sealed and do leak a bit... but not nearly as much as you'd think. I'm planning on redoing this on a slightly larger scale and bringing it to brickworld (along with one of those long, shallow tupperwear bins so the water doesn't go everywhere). For the update, I'll try to take the "leak factor" of this from a 6 down to a 2 (on a scale of 10, which tells you how water tight it is now). Thanks for all the comments everyone! I'm fairly new to this site and everyone is so cool! Keep it blocky! ~Chris.

Can I get one to help take down my Christmas lights? Sweet little build! It's the MOCs that are functional that are starting to please me more and more. Keep it blocky! ~Chris.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first fully operational Lego Log Flume ride! I put it in the town theme thread because this would look AWESOME in a full minifig scale theme park. This was my entry for the 2010 MocAthalon going on over on MOCpages. The category was "Will it Float." Our job was to make a Lego creation that floats. But let's get to the MOC shall we? Ladies and gentlemen of EuroBricks, may I present, Waterlogged! Before we get to the fun stuff, just a pic showing that the log part of the ride actually floats! This thing is fully hydro powered! Just pour in the water and... ZOOM! SPLASH!!! And she's safe at the bottom! Thanks for checking it out. If anyone has seen another fully operational log flume ride, I'd love to see it! Till next time true believers! ~Chris.

I commented on this over on MOCpages but it truly deserves a second here! You sir are a master of the brick! (hey, I said Brick with a B people... get your mind outta there.) Beautiful work sir. ~Chris.

One of my entries for the 2010 MocAthalon over on MOCpages. My category here was "Objects shown actual size." Basically, build something out of Lego to real life proportions. I decided to do a blender. I'm really happy with this build. My main source of giddyness comes from the technique I used to attach different diameters of circles to one another to give the build a "cone" type shape at the base of the "glass" portion. The base of the blender has spinning blades for dicing up even the toughest ABS fruit. The lid also uses the same basic technique for combining different diameters of concentric circles. I'm not going to lie, this was harder to come up with that it looks. The main issue with this (and on the base of the main blender part) was doing the diameter changes so that you couldn't see the seems. Some people are still trying to figure out just how I did it... can you? Here's a picture of me holding it to show that not only are those things really attached at the bottom, but that this thing isn't one of those "don't breath on it or it will fall apart" mocs. And a final shot of "MOCaritaville" in its natrual environment. I've already been talked in to building glasses for this and bringing the set to BrickWorld this year! If you're there, drop by and take a look. It's a LOT cooler in person. That's it for now. Hope you all enjoyed it! Till next time true believers! ~Chris.

Lady in red: "Hi there, I was wondering if you could help me find a new diaphragm? Lady in Grey: "Of course. Being as you're sleeping with my husband, let me show you our popular slutsized model..." (edit note: The edit was done to add the picture to the post. The lines were always the same.)

Now I'm gonna have that song in my head ALL day. Love these little nostalgia trips! Thanks for sharing! ~Chris.

I really like the depth of feel on this pic. Can't wait to see it (and the rest) in the comic! ~Chris.

I actually thought about that for a good 20 minutes before I decided to go ahead and add it here. Nothing else really fit. Thanks for indulging (putting up with) me! hahahaha

Can't wait to see this thing tearing around your layout at BrickWorld! But I can't help but wonder what other uses you can come up with for that much torque power... ~Chris.

(Hopefully) Just in time for BrickWorld 2010, I bring you Superman's summer home... The Fortress of Solitude! Consider this a Build Journal entry. If I didn't do this, there'd be a real chance of me wussing out on completing this build. But if everyone knows that I'm doing it, I HAVE to finish it! This build is going to be for BrickWorld 2010. It's going to be a full "playset" with a complete interior when finished. This is just the begining stages so far. And before you ask... yes, I'm going to add the criss cross spires to the top of it to give it that "classic" Fortress of Solitude look. It may look like a big white box now... but give it a couple months and it should be looking SWEET... (crosses fingers and prays to the Lego gods for good building fortune). For more images and a bit more discription, check it out on MOCpages: http://mocpages.com/moc.php/184420 I've shared this with a few others already and allow me to quote (paraphrase) the immortal Mark Kelso: "Looking good Chris. Could be your best build yet. Don't "F" it up!" I'll do my best not to let you down Mark. I've already exhausted my supply of white bricks... time to hit the PAB! Till next time true believers!

While I'm not entirely certain, I can take a wild guess why it's called the Honey Hole... Something to do with the clientele I'm guessing... hehehehehe ~Chris.

Must... not... make... dirty... joke... But, that's why everyone was eating pinapple before hand. (sorry, willpower wasn't strong enough.) DAMNIT!

I feel I should clarify from my last post. In that post, if read without background knowledge of what I was talking about and where I was coming from (basically, most EB users as I am new here) it would seem that I was saying to get rid of the TFOLs that are here and lock it down. This was NOT the case. I too believe that there should be a certain amount of leniency and the "don't ask don't tell" system seems to be working for the most part. I feel that there are a large number of TFOLs (A few names that come to mind quickly are Legolord, Sir Nadroj and JD Luse) that can and do interact with the AFOL community on a very mature and well spoken level. If how they conducted themselves was the standard for all TFOL (and yes... more than a few AFOLs) then there would be a much wider acceptance of them on "adult" sites. In closure, I think the current way of doing things is working well from what I've seen so far... all 5 days of it. HAHAHAHA ~Chris.

I'm sure someone brought this up already, but they should have made the right arm detachable just below the shoulder... Bad jokes aside, I do like the Cad Bane fig and I think I NEED a few more female Jedi figs, being as I didn't get em when they first came out. I've been more of a "parts hound" over the last year, but I think I'm gonna be gettin' some more sets this time around.