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!