LEGO Links
Personal Sites
The following sites are the best personal showcases I know of amazing LEGO® creations. I have enjoyed them, and perhaps you will, too:
- The Abston Church of Christ was the first large LEGO structure I found on the internet. Built by Amy Hughes, it measures 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet, seats 1372 minifigs (LEGO people), and contains about 75,000 pieces. What sets it apart from most other LEGO projects is that it is a church, and Amy explains in the dedication sermon that it is the house of the Lord, a place where His worshippers gather. Read the sermon and get a sense for why she considers churches are more worthy of modeling than other sorts of buildings. Amy has other projects, including several churches, on display at http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/.
- Certified LEGO Professional Nathan Sawaya displays his creations at The Art of the Brick. His gallery displays models of the Brooklyn Bridge and Han Solo in carbonite (life-size), as well as mosaics. My favorite, however, is his December 2006 work, entitled Rebirth of New Orleans.
- See dozens of minifig-scale vehicles at Bram's LEGO Site. Copious photos and lots of minifig detail provide a lot to investigate in Bram's models, many of which are space vehicles. I especially liked the Q-35 Aerospace Jump-Jet. Bram also has a sphere generator to help you make great-looking spheres of only LEGO plates, such as the one by Bruce Lowell (see next entry).
- Adrian Drake displays his LEGO creations at brickfrenzy.com. Many of his models have a space theme and feature lots of minifig detail that is well-documented in his photos. The Tribunal is especially impressive: it is a spaceship measuring 12 feet, 8 inches in length (real-world, not minifig, measurements) with five interior decks full of details and a large ring on the back made from 1x2 white bricks. I also liked the Minifig Museum of Weaponry.
- Bruce Lowell has a vast LEGO Star Wars collection (original models, not the "official" ones produced by The LEGO Group) on his web site. He also built a LEGO sphere that looks amazingly round despite being only 6.8 studs in diameter!
- Eric Harshbarger has dozens of sculptures and mosaics on display at his personal site. I find most intriguing the working, seven-foot-tall, grandfather clock. Other favorites include the skyscrapers and Eiffel Tower. Eric has also built many mosaics, including one of San Francisco that measures twelve feet across.
- LEGO on my mind is a site by Eric Brok that features LEGO models as well as pages relating geometry, mechanics, and philosophy to LEGO. My favorite model is the Estuary Stronghold castle because it features so many creative ways of combining LEGO elements—pieces that do not meet at right angles, and curved walls, for example. The Market Building is also quite impressive and features a guided tour.
- Sean Kenny is a Certified LEGO Professional who has a well-designed web site to showcase his LEGO creations. I especially like the models of Greenwich Village, New York and the Chrysler Building. Browsing through Sean's site, one finds many LEGO innovations, such as the flexible "cables" on the Ben Franklin Bridge made from hundreds of 1x2 bricks.
Online LEGO Community Sites
These are big sites with lots of resources for LEGO enthusiasts:
- BrickLink: Looking for a specific LEGO piece? How about 100 specific pieces? BrickLink offers 60 million items, mostly individual LEGO bricks, sold by people all around the world.
- Brickshelf: browse a vast archive LEGO creations at this site and upload your own!
- The International LEGO Train Club Organization (ILTCO) has information about LEGO trains and links to many LEGO train clubs, some of which have impressive galleries. The ILTCO gallery also contains a slideshow demonstrating studs-not-on-top (SNOT) construction techniques for LEGO trains. Of course, these techniques are generally useful in LEGO construction, not merely for trains.
- LDraw.org: Have you ever wanted to create an electronic LEGO model? LDraw can help you do that. LDraw is an open standard for LEGO CAD, and at LDraw.org you can download everything you need to begin drawing LEGO creations on your computer.
- LUGNET: The international LEGO User's Group Network has a variety of resources for Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs). Here you can find news, links to LEGO creations, the BrickJournal online magazine, and even information LEGO festivals.
- MOCpages: MOC stands for "My Own Creation." Started by Sean Kenny (see above), this site boasts more than 25,000 LEGO creations by its users.
- Peeron LEGO Set Inventories: On this site you can find inventories for official LEGO sets, scans of instruction manuals for old sets, a database of LEGO pieces, a tool to track your own LEGO collection, and more.
