In my first post, inspired by my attendance at the Bricks LA LEGO® Fan Convention, I discussed my personal sentiments about the LEGO® toy... As toy, as a driver for technology play and technology learning. I often have conversations about LEGO®, and not everyone understands the wild popularity of the “toy”.
Those who love the LEGO® brick will often have a preferred type of building. A specialty, shall we say? The universe is vast. Pick your star.
Friend Thomas Mueller has a specialty. Known as @TMSPECIAL in the LEGO® fan world, he builds big Great Ball Contraptions. Those who know me, know that I LOVE contraptions. I’ve created classes in contraptions. Yes, some of them use LEGO® bricks. I use the LEGO® projects as jumping off points to other contraption media. You know, paper, tubes that would otherwise be recycled, egg cartons that might somehow be useful. Plastic cups, balls, marbles, springs from old books. Dominoes. Stuff like that. Start small (with LEGO®) then grow into something else. I even had someone build me a special frame using pegboard, wood and hinges off of which we hang things. I’ve been lugging it out for classes and back in after the class is over. Let’s just say that the LEGO takes up a lot less room than all the other contraption stuff. As you might imagine.
Find out what's happening in Belmont Shore-Naplesfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
If you want to see some awesome videos of GBCs in LEGO bricks, check out Akiyuki on YouTube.
If you want to meet a known GBC builder in person, you can meet Thomas... @TMSPECIAL... at Bricks LA.
Find out what's happening in Belmont Shore-Naplesfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Here’s a link to my Bricks LA video of @TMSPECIAL’s Great Big GBC. Enjoy!
More about Bricks LA another day.
Trish Tsoi-A-Sue is a creative facilitator in the Long Beach area. Certified in LEGO® Serious Play, she is the President of ETES Inc, and creator of Makersville, a community of makers. Trish is the Ambassador for the Long Beach LEGO® User Group, a group of AFOLs and Teen Fans of LEGO® (TFOLs). Join our facebook group! Some of her random experiences are recorded on her You Tube channel, Squigglemom! Please subscribe!