2014 in review

On May 17th, 2014- a little over six months ago- I started Brickology with the intent of highlighting the best LEGO fan creations from around the web, along with other LEGO-related musings. Now it's the end of the year (already!) and it's time for my 2014 recap. In this post I'll talk a little bit about the development of Brickology throughout those months as well as what it's been like running an increasingly popular LEGO blog. 

Most popular posts
The ten most popular posts on Brickology this year were:

1. Of cosmic proportions
2. Executron from The LEGO Movie looks like Tumblr's "anonymous" symbol
3. Why are collectible minifigures so overpriced now? [Editorial]
4. Grow up or wither
5. Star Vikings
6. Supernova
7. Abaqa
8. Nice curves
9. Super 7
10. Vespa

In first place for the year was my post on Jerac's stunning (and huge) Imperial Star Destroyer replica. Close behind was a post that I just made as a quick joke, but it seems to have been popular. Readers also enjoyed my essay about how pricey LEGO's collectible Minifigures line has become and why that's a problem. Filling out the top ten are a collection of MOCs from all different themes and areas of the community.

Traffic sources and audience
Much of my traffic came from Google and Netvibes. Within the LEGO community, I got a lot of pageviews from The Brothers Brick, Build Like a Boss, Big Sal's Brick Blog, BrickRSS, and The LEGO Car Blog. 

The top ten visiting countries were:

1. United States
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. France
5. Australia
6. Turkey
7. Portugal
8. Russia
9. Poland
10. Canada  

More info
- Average posts per month this year: 27 
- Total Pins on Brickology's Pinterest board this year: 210
- Most popular Pin on Brickology's Pinterest board: Tuna the Phelfie Dog
- Brickology's stats courtesy of Alexa.com (I'm ranked #9.4 million in the world!)

What's it been like for me? 
I have had a lot of fun working on Brickology. After seeing great blogs like The Brothers Brick, The LEGO Car Blog, and many others, I wanted to help spread the amazing work of the LEGO fan community to the rest of the world, and hopefully inspire more people to take up LEGO as a hobby and an art form. I plan to continue updating this blog into 2015 and beyond. 

A lot of people and blogs in the online LEGO community have helped me out along the way. The LEGO Car Blog, Big Sal's Brick Blog, and Build Like A Boss all added Brickology to their blogrolls. BrickRSS was also kind enough to add Brickology to its LEGO blog RSS feed. Additionally, shout out to everyone who followed Brickology on Pinterest, Twitter, and Google+!

Thanks to all my readers (past, present and future), and to all the members of the LEGO community who build such amazing creations and make browsing Flickr for models to blog a joy every day. Have fun and Leg Godt. 

Bushidō- Way of the Warrior

The New Year is almost here and it seems like some builders are pulling out all the stops to try and create their best MOC of 2014. This creation by Disco86 is simply beautiful- one of the best builds I've seen this year. 

The builder says:

Bushido is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. Samurais have been trained in outlying academies to learn this way of life and of course fihgting with the sword.

There is so much to take in here that I'll just go ahead and grace you with the full photoset...

I love the peaceful landscape... the cherry tree and wild deer... the tranquil waterfall and water lilies... the detailed stone path and bridge... the bright blue elements on the buildings (everything about the buildings actually)... the carefully placed minifigures... yeah. *blissfully dissolves into LEGO-brick-surrounded trance*

I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down

Dubbadgrim has recreated the classic fairytale "The Three Little Pigs" in LEGO. Everything looks great, particularly the methods employed to make the circular straw house, as well as the brick detailing on the, uh, brick house. Those Fabuland pigs have great character, too. But I'm just wondering...where is the big bad wolf?

Shipped direct from the North Pole

Jake RF didn't just buy his nephew a LEGO set or two for Christmas... he built him a custom model! This "snow trekker" would look right at home beside any of the official LEGO Arctic sets. As Flickr commenter graybandit2000 put it: "Badass uncle status achieved!"

Hot dog

I've already covered the Foodcember challenge started by Kosmas Santosa (KosBrick), but Kosmas recently posted this hot dog model and it was too good to go un-blogged.

It's a simple build, but it really looks the part with its fluffy white bun (nice curves and angles on that part, I might add), red frankfurter, and rubber bands as ketchup and mustard.

Nativity silhouette

David Alexander Smith built the Nativity scene out of LEGO, but in a different way than you might imagine. He used black pieces to create a "silhouette" in which it's hard to make out individual elements, but the model as a whole looks stunningly simple in its composition. Nice work.

UPDATE- MCLegoboy also made a nativity scene in a similar (but not silhouetted) style; you can view it here. 

Satyr Export Variant

Carter Baldwin ([Carter]) brings us this sci-fi military vehicle with some fantastic angles and greebling. The fortified wheel hubs, front grille, and barred window really make this model. 

Gone bananas

_Tiler's not monkeying around with this MOC. This hot rod looks like it's about to peel out at around 150 mph. It'll be gone in a split, so don't blink or you might miss it. 

While writing this post I learned something about myself: I am surprisingly good at coming up with bad banana puns. (Feel free to contribute some more in the comments!)

You can see more photos of this potassium-infused speedster, as well as some other great vintage hot rods, here. 

Almost an Apache...

...but not really. It's Apachish.

Nice build, Andrew Somers.

Drafting table

sinan bitisik's drafting table model is clean, simple, and elegant. 

How do I find creations to blog?

A reader emailed me this morning with the following question:

"I was just curious enough to know how you pick out your Brick creations of a day, which website do you go on to choose?"

That's a good question, and the truth is, I don't really have any sort of "master plan" for how I find creations to blog here on Brickology. Basically, if I see something I like, I blog it. However, I have a few criteria:

1. Must be made (almost) entirely out of LEGO. No clone brands allowed, ever. (Custom parts are okay.) I make the occasional exception when a small amount of non-LEGO material enhances the MOC in some way, but if it's less than 95% LEGO, it's a no-go. 
2. Good photography is a must! 
3. I don't usually like to blog LDD creations. Don't ask why. 
4. I try not to blog things that any of the other major LEGO blogs have already posted, but obviously this is an easy rule to break. 

Where do I find MOCs to blog? Mostly on Flickr- I frequently check the Builders Lounge pool and many of the other ones listed in Brickology's LEGO Web Directory. I check MOCpages about 2-3 times a month, and rarely use anything else. (Sorry Brickshelf users, it's too cluttered and outdated for me!)

The Brothers Brick has a great "how to get blogged" article here that also kind of applies to Brickology, if anyone wants more information. 

Thanks for the question- I'm always open to hearing from readers!

Join the Foodcember 2014 building contest!

Kosmas Santosa (KOS brick) has started a "personal challenge" contest this month- no winners, no losers, no prizes, just a challenge to build your best... and the name of the game is food. Yes, it's Foodcember 2014! 

Read the rules here and then head to the Foodcember Flickr pool to submit your entries. Here are some dishes Kosmas himself has cooked up so far:

Note: because I seem to feature a lot of food-related models here on Brickology, I've added a food tag!

Rockwork and clockwork

This MOC by David Collins (intrond) has all the makings of a great fantasy scene. A great steampunk giant stomps through a fabled land: through forested plains, along rivers, past castles and bridges...

There's a lot to like here but I think my favorite parts are the palace and the rockwork leading up to it. The microscale boat in the river is also a nice touch and it (along with the trees) gives a sense of scale. That is one huge giant...

Mini bike

This bike by [Tetris] doesn't use many pieces, but they're used well. It looks like there are some pretty fragile connections, especially near the front.

Amethyst Wyvern

Masters of NPU Sean and Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral)are back with this exotic creature, built as a commission for the Creations For Charity 24-hour live stream:

I like the combination of purple, lime green, and dark red; Sean and Steph say it has "sort of a pomegranate/passion fruit/dragon berry feel." There are some very unusual part uses too, like the purple ribbed tubes and several fabric pieces. My favorite is probably the purple legs that fit so nicely into the wyvern's head design. Nice work...whoever received this model through Creations for Charity must have been very happy!

Cloudless 3V step-by-step build videos by Nick Trotta

Nick Trotta (tardisblue) has released a three-part YouTube video detailing the build process of his "Cloudless 3V" Vic Viper. I haven't watched it yet but the commenters on Flickr have plenty of great things to say:

Sir, you are a wizard. Some of those parts combos and stud reversals to make the math right are next level stuff. And how generous of you to take the time to do this in real-time. We're going to see things people learned in this build all over.
- Chris Maddison

Absolutely stunning. I watched the videos in their entirety, and I have to say, I am amazed. Not only is the build phenomenal, but I really admire that you took the time and effort to make the videos showing how the model is built. Bravo! Very, very inspiring.
- Kevin Moyer (Rambles of Orange)

Click here to go to Nick's Flickr post where he talks about the videos. You can watch the individual videos on YouTube at the following links:
Part 1- youtu.be/ovNaaGRgwFQ
Part 2- youtu.be/WwHBxMFclbQ
Part 3- youtu.be/goD3HdeG63o

And here's an image of this incredible build:

Sardines for dinner!

Gilcelio Chagas may have won the current round of Iron Builder already (due to the forfeit of his competitor), but he's continuing to build MOCs for the contest and just posted this scene featuring a dinner of sardines and toast.

Everything here is presented nicely, and everything (except for the wooden cutting board) is made out of LEGO. I love food scenes done in LEGO (like this one or this one), and this is another good one to add to the growing collection. Nice job here, and I look forward to Gilcelio's future contributions to the Iron Builder arena!

Viridescent Viper

Matthew Oh (mpoh98), normally more of a Castle builder, joined in on NoVVember and built this sleek starfighter with a cool color scheme:

Motorized turkey wishes you a happy Thanksgiving

This Mindstorms NXT-controlled turkey, built by MySnailEatsPizza, can "skate, avoid obstacles, gobble, flap its wings, and move its head." I want one.

Happy Thanksgiving from Brickology!

Luxury yacht

This one's been on Flickr for a few months but I just found it this morning and thought is was good enough to warrant a post here. "Motor Yacht Mohican" by JBIronWorks:

More images on Flickr.

Studdington Station

Eurobricks member snaillad built a nice Victorian-influenced countryside train station:

Rear view:

More images on Eurobricks here. 

2014 Creations for Charity 24-hour live stream begins November 28th!

Creations for Charity is planning a 24-hour live stream event on November 28th, 2014. Here's what coordinator Nannan Zhang had to say:


You are invited to join the Creations for Charity 2014 24-hour live stream hosted by Joshua Hanlon and Matthew Kay from Beyond the Brick. From 5pm EST 11/28 through 5pm 11/29, tune in for a full day fun and building with Lego fans from the online community on Google Hangout. The link will be live on the day of the stream.

Of course, we will be raising money together for this year’s Creations for Charity through a pledge system. For each hour spent on the stream, anyone can pledge to donate a certain amount to the fundraiser. The LEGO Group has pledged to donate a set for every man-hour on air!

To join in on the fun, please sign up on creationsforcharity.org. You can join and leave the stream at your convenience. Feel free to re-post this image and tag some friends and invite them to join you!

You can sign up to join the stream here. For more information on Creations for Charity, click here.

Gobble gobble

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us and it's about time we saw some relevant MOCs. Tyler Sky (Bricksky) has served up a deliciously plump turkey brimming with colorful pieces and some holiday charm. 

The watchtower

In this MOC by Becheman, not only are both the tower and the landscaping very well done, they also blend together quite nicely. My favorite thing about this creation is how there are at least three different "levels" to the ground; it adds height and perspective that a "flat" base wouldn't. 

My only complaint is that there aren't more images of this creation- I imagine there are plenty of details that can only be observed from close-up or from other angles! 

The spear being launched through the warrior's body on the tower roof is a nice gory touch. 

Wildcat

This vehicle by Cole Blaq lives up to its moniker of "Ozelot"- it may not be big, but it's feisty. Oh, and the building techniques used here are totally awesome. 

The olive green and black color scheme gives this thing a simply badass military look, and I love the rugged roll-cage bars and armor that cover the vehicle. There are also some really nice angles on this, like the mudguards and that olive 2x4 plate on the side. Fantastic work!

Nice curves

One of the things I love about modern architecture is that it tends to embrace sleek, sweeping forms that other styles don't have. Unfortunately, that same property makes modern buildings rather difficult to build with LEGO. But lisqr has found a solution: use railroad track elements to guide the curve of the building. 

Not sure what that pirate flag is doing there though...

Via TBB.

Don't pick Rainbow Road...

Mario Kart would make a great official LEGO theme. The crazy characters, vehicles, and courses would all translate well into official sets. But MOCs are the next best thing, and these ones by 6kyubi6 admittedly are way cooler than any set LEGO could reasonably make:

I really like the shaping on Luigi's kart and Yoshi's bike. 

UPDATE (11/21/14): Here's the full collaboration with 74louloute and fujiia (thanks to The Brothers Brick for leading me to this):

Winter

Landscaping is not easy to do in LEGO. The contours of the land... rocks, water, snow, and soil... plants and animals... building these things with sharp-angled plastic bricks is tricky, to say the least. I really appreciate when a builder pulls off an outstanding landscape scene. 

Brick Productions has done just that with this beautifully bleak and minimalist MOC. There are no minifigures or human structures of any kind- just the beauty of nature. This would look great on a shelf.

Excisor

From prolific and popular builder pasakaru76 comes one of the year's most unusual Vic Vipers yet, called "Excisor":

So much of this model is unique, from the swirly pink wings and fin to the slanted cockpit. Fabulous design!

Mini viper

billyburg, known for his greebly Classic Space-inspired models, has produced this miniature marvel for Novvember:

UPDATE- Wait, that's not all! billyburg also recently built this equally small and equally awesome space construction duo:

A shady deal

I'm a fan of Middle Eastern-style architecture, and vitroleum's latest MOC captures that style perfectly. 

I like the texture of the walls, some of which is achieved using hinge plates. The Uruk-Hai scimitars on the door also look quite nice.

Image from The Brothers Brick.

EDIT (2/13/15)- taking another look at this after mentioning it in another post, I just noticed the tan legs used in the window on the left side of the building. Nice touch! 

Supernova

For the last few days I've been tooling around at my building table trying to make something for NoVVember...then this morning I gave up in disgust and went back to building a battle wagon for my Space Knights. For the most part I'm just not a good starfighter builder. 

Not so for Brickthing, who has been featured here on Brickology an absurd amount of times recently. Why? One look at his "TX Supernova" Vic Viper model should tell you all you need to know:

Return to the Crocodile Cage

Flickr user Dubbadgrim has built this awesome scene inspired by the classic Pirates set 6246 Crocodile Cage. 

And, see that bone sticking up out of the ground on the left there? Click here to find out what it does. (It's pretty cool. I'm still trying to figure out how it works!)

The Diver

Those old diving suits may not have been as well-designed as the ones we have today, but they have a certain amount of charm and antiquity to them that modern suits lack. They're symbols of the old days of exploration, when brave souls descended into the dark seas to conquer the unknown and further the knowledge of humankind. 

This MOC by Pate-keetongu seamlessly blends System and BIONICLE to create a great character with this antique diving suit design. See more photos on the builder's blog, Cyclopic Bricks. 

Executron from The LEGO Movie looks like Tumblr's "anonymous" symbol

He totally does, right?