ToM Dracone

D'aawwwww :3 Also, I share this wish! Then we could cook together every night!

After Ray photobombing Andrew and Pat being terrifying, apparently: It doesn't quite tie with Ray, but I think this is a very close second in the photobomb game this year. Also noticing a trend here: photos of Andrew are often epic? ~ ToM

I accept this challenge. YOU'RE GOIN' DOOOOOWN NEXT YEAR, BOY (just kidding, I love you) (but I really am taking you down next year)

Someone had fun at the yard sale.

And now we come to another one of the best parts of Brickfair: what I got there! (Slightly after the epic people and memories in order of awesomeness.) And I got quite a lot. Might as well start with sets. I got the Medieval Market Village, the Deep Sea Striker (a.k.a. the giant scorpion from the Atlantis line), and Rotor for 50% off at Casual Shopping with the Bulls, then won the Shadow Crawler from Exo-Force in Bingo (it's the one with the lime Kodan claw, which is all that matters), and finally bought Skateboarding Pepper from the Lego Island Extreme Stunts series for only $5, which I've wanted since it first came out! I was quite thrilled about him. And then I got a lot of other stuff, which was just as awesome! First, a huge bag of 2001 Kanohi from Janus, which were his half of a trade that I haven't fulfilled my end of yet. But until I do I want him to know that he is super amazing and I love him! (and not just for this!) I'm also obligated to give him dipping sauce until I do. There's actually one mask in that photo that doesn't belong there. Can you spot it? That's because of the next trade I engaged in, in which I gave DV some brownies in exchange for a blue and a green Matatu! Most awesome trade ever. And some more pieces I got: On the left are a bunch of parts I bought from a couple stores at Brickfair – the pieces for Nokama, a bunch of noble Kanohi, and the heads and masks of the Turaga I don't have. (I decided to finally get my act together and just buy the pieces for the rest of them.) Plus an extra blue Tohunga body so I can have Maku and Hahli at the same time! And the gold is from a custom bricks store that I had a coupon for, so I just went there and thought "why not?" since they were effectively free. And then on the right is a mess of stuff that I got from Nikira! She brought a big tub of Bionicle stuff and Janus and DV and I went through it and took what was interesting to us. She's so generous! Thank you, Deb! <3 I think I'll leave the photos of this for another entry, but thanks to Janus I am now only two Kanohi away from having all 36 from the original Toa! I just need a brown Pakari and a green Kaukau and then that'll be it! And thanks to him and that one store I'm also really close to getting all the Turaga's as well, but I don't yet have a complete set of any of theirs. Thank you Rob and Pat and Deb <3 ~ ToM

You betcha! -CF Thank goodness! It would have been truly depressing if no one had photographed that escapade.

A village... BZ-Koro! Technically no. We were both there, but I don't think we were ever introduced or interacted. >>

Prior to one week ago, my repertoire of BZP members I had met consisted of only two: Black Six and HauNuva (if anyone even remembers him). That has changed now, and so I shall list everyone as a sort of thank-you for all the amazing memories they provided me! Smeagol4 (attacked me as I got out of the airport)Janus (see above)Darth Vader (protected me from the above two)Hahli Husky (Disney singalong <3)Senjo (is a spectacular cook, and can do just about anything!)Nikira (is beautiful!)TwingDing (we became friends after about two days and <3)LehvakLah (one-letter-difference name!)Friar Tuck (is highly responsible and highly cool)Rayg (gives excellent art advice and is a sexy fellow)Nuju Metru (dude, why have I never talked to you before? We need to sing together!)Kohaku (<3)VampyreAri (is cuddly)Primus (is a really cool guy and we had an awesome conversation while waiting in line for an hour and a half at the Lego store)Nukaya (was looking dashing in her polo shirt and explorer hat, and is super adorable and cute and and and)Sisen (is quiet but neat)Arpy (fun with posing for photos)ChocolateFrogs (those mosaics were epic. cc: Nukaya)Vezok's Friend (is a good artist)Waffles (pretty sure the entire BZP staff wants to adopt him)Kanohi Zatth (Janus and I spent a good while looking through an enormous tub of Bionicle pieces for sale with him and Waffles)Stubbed Toa (didn't get to talk to you much, but your art is cool and you know itdablackcat (no one's ever asked to take a photo with me before!)Spink (wishing we had hung out more)Disky (see above!)And lots of these lovely people took equally lovely photos, which I can't wait to see because they're all better than mine. I like this one a lot (thanks, Arpy!) of the ones that have shown up so far. And can't wait for the Hahli Mahri and Hahli Mahri shots that I know a few people took. :3 ~ ToM

I see what you did there And also I miss you loads too.

Is this the book you were telling me about? I'm gonna make a note to check it out.

Oh my god. Brickfair was basically the best weekend of my life. In brief. I'll be going into detail a lot more in later entries, but I think that will do nicely as a summary for now. I met so many awesome people and we had epic times hanging out and at Brickfair and dressing up in fancy clothes to go to completely non-fancy restaurants (with Steve Witt!). It was amazing getting to see all these friends I knew online in person, and their MOCs and art (had some fun sketchbook exchanges with Rayg and LehvakLah), and I'm really really sad that I had to leave and come back to my normal life afterward. I miss everyone so much. For now, I'm going to give you a statistical breakdown of my time at Brickfair: original 2001 Kanohi acquired: 37awesomeness of Janus: 100%misprints acquired: 2Lego sets bought: 4Lego sets gotten for free: 2total value of sets acquired: ≈$163amount paid for said sets: $75members met for the first time: 24 (I think)volumes of Scott Pilgrim read: 5dipping sauce references made: at least 4hours of sleep gotten per night: never more than 6generosity of everyone I met: 100%birds sighted flying around the jetBlue terminal at JFK airport: 7things people said that I wish I could write down because of how funny they were: too manyamount of people who love Waffles: infinitehugs: too many to count. <3More details will be forthcoming! ~ ToM

Hi.

Why? I'd like to add something to it, but don't have the time right now, but...

Also, me. And this is in thanks to a couple lovely new orders of Lego pieces that just came in! In 24 hours I leave for Brickfair. Oh my god oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD ~ ToM

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Such beautiful photos. I am so jealous of your camera. They're so clear and sharp I don't think I've ever seen Lego photographed so well.

Also bannertime! You guys should go check it out. I had so much fun making the banner. I'm so glad that scene exists from 2002. It's perfect for this contest. XD also one week till Brickfair AAAAAAHHHHHH! ~ ToM

Aaaahh that crab is so cuuuute There are going to be so many adorable crabs at Brickfair. I'm so happy.

It's one of the prototype pieces that Lego/Binkmeister sent to Black Six to uses as contest prizes and such. I got mine from the lovely folks at Brickfair last year.

I am so totally up for trading brownies for a blue Matatu. I don't think I have anything I'd want to part with that be worth the green Matatu in this situation, but if brownies will suffice for the blue Matatu I'm in! And Primus, I know. But they're staying there.

I love you?

That is hilarious. Also one of my best friends has an iPhone 4 and has never had any trouble with the reception, and has to actively try to cause a call to be dropped... so yeah.

DV ~ I do too. I was really surprised when I saw yours. XP And yeah, you did, but thanks! Bunda ~ That it does. It's better from other angles, but I'm also still toying with that area because I'm not completely satisfied with it...

She's a little awkward from this angle, but eh. ~ ToM

YAYYAYYAYYAYYAYYAY =D *major glompage* I'm so happy for you!

Backstory: One of my friends has the Fallingwater set, so I've seen/played with it a lot before now. Always thought it was a great set design-wise, but kind of lacking in the visual appeal area. Now, I'm on vacation, visiting family, and my uncle got my grandfather (who is an architect himself) the Fallingwater set as a random present, so he (my grandfather) had me come over and build it for him today. It took a long time. Back to the present, and having looked at all the photos of the real Fallingwater in the instruction booklet, I've now realized what the problem I have with the set is: the building is amazing, but the environment ... is just boring. And not at all realistic. There are tan bricks everywhere when the stone around the house is grey. The "trees" are short, straight, really dark, and spaced evenly around the house, when the trees around the real house are huge, bright, and tower over Fallingwater itself. And then I realized that there was a huge irony in the fact that the booklet that comes with the set has a ton of quotes about how Fallingwater is great because of how it interacts seamlessly with the beauty of the natural woodland environment around it... and yet the set has this utterly boring, unrealistic environment. And I noticed shortly after that that it would be really, really easy to make all sorts of big, leafy, brightly-colored trees out of Lego to surround the model of the house. Just use a bunch of these pieces and you'll have some fantastic, to-scale trees. And make the base of the set grey instead of tan. And maybe throw in some clear aquamarine pieces under the clear tiles in the river, just to brighten it up some. Yeah. If I had the boatload of grey bricks necessary to do this, I would. But alas, I don't. Also: thanks to Tufi and Janus and one volume thereof I may now be addicted to Scott Pilgrim. Need to read more... ~ ToM