The Rising of the Phoenix

 

Like Lazarus rising from the dead, or a phoenix rising from the ashes, here is another resurrection post.

I’m still here, still enjoy all things Lego, but as is the way of the world, real life has a horrible habit of getting in the way of the fun stuff. When life is so busy it is hard to be creative, or at least it is for me. It seems that my brain needs to have the time and space to be restless in order to let the creative thought process begin and when it is constantly full of real life stuff to juggle, it doesn’t get that downtime in order for the thought processes to wander.

However every once in a while there is a rare moment where that creative clarity appears from seemingly nowhere.

Many months ago, and thinking back, we are talking about last year, chatting with an old friend about minifigs and a recent one off acquisition of new one, the banter between us created that space my brain needed to bounce around off. Whilst putting the new purchase away in my Lego store box, I had a quick look through some of my other stuff stored in there and discovered another minifig I had bought at the time, put together and put in there for safe keeping until such a time when I could ‘play’. In doing so the synapses started firing, and a photo of another good friend sprang to mind.

This friend has a thing for tractors, and at a fancy dress sports event a few years ago took the opportunity to jump onto the groundsman’s tractor and get a photo taken. The team’s choice of fancy dress for that year was just as randomly, crayons!

As it so happens, Lego had produced a crayon minifig, and it was this that I had rediscovered in my box. Not only that but as the stars etc aligned, the colour of the minifig crayon, was also almost identical to the colour costume my friend had worn for the fancy dress sports event.

As soon as I spied it in the box, I knew at some point I just had to recreate that photo for them, so here it is!

 

Ooh a tractor…

No doubt it will be another goodness knows how many years again before I post anything, however when life permits I will.

A Chance Encounter

 

 

A quick item, I just don’t have the time to come up with new ideas. Life sometimes sucks. However a chance encounter today, well it was going to happen at some point, meant I bumped into the real life person behind the original Book 29 post of ‘The Postman’. So in honour of finally meeting face to face I decided on my return from the hockey game to create a quick piece.

A Cosy Winter’s Night…

After a long evening relaxing by the fire Adrian decided it was time to call it a night.

 

There is something about the long drawn out winter nights that make you wish to hunker down and cosy up for the night, be it with a good book, the television, friends and family or just a pet for company. In the northern hemisphere today marks the winter solstice, with the shortest number of daylight hours and the longest night. In some countries that means pretty much perpetual darkness at this time of year. Whether you wish to call it a solstice, midwinter, Yule or any of the other ancient names for celebrating this time of year, I hope you can enjoy it in any which way you prefer.

For me I’d be happy with warmth, a good book and family around me, and I never say no to a good game of scrabble  either. As an AFOL I’d not say no to a nice evening spent building or creating a lego set or scene either, but that really is a rare event!

Reflections

Lewis always found Christmas to be a time for reflections.

 

Inspiration has finally struck. Amazing how creativity can only really come when you have time to stop and think and not be rushing around constantly engaged in activities, or all your time taken up with work and doing things for other people. Boredom inspires creativity. Or at least a mind free to wander. Maybe we should let kids be bored more often rather than providing them with, or the means for constant immediate stimulation? They after all are the future, the future writers, engineers, entrepreneurs, artist, inventors, discoverers.

I’ve been able to reflect a lot on life recently. Sometimes it takes a fairly major life event to make you evaluate everything so far, where you’ve been, what you’ve done and where you may end up. Some reflections are good, others cause us slightly more pain, but I feel in the modern world we are all missing out on time to reflect, think and just be. It is important to be able to. And out of part of that time reflecting, and having the time and opportunity to let ones mind wander in order to find creativity, I finally find I can express myself via my Lego minifgure photography once again. Life is balanced again, even if just for a short while.

 

Book 39 ~ The Fishermen

The Fishermen ~ Chigozie Obioma

This book was first published in 2015. As it was published I knew it would make a great minifig book cover. It is now 2018, 3 years later and my fourth attempt at getting a semi decent image.

Attempt one was in Febuary 2016 – yes I am mad enough to stand in freezing cold natural water in the middle of a wood, in February to get a lego photo. Of course they were rubbish, as suspect due to camera shake due to being half submerged in icy water.

Attempt 2 was a few weeks later, when it was a little warmer and once again I found myself in a wood with a suitable patch of water. Once again for various reasons it wasn’t meant to be.

Attempt 3 did at least take place in summer. August is better for standing ankle or knee deep in random ponds and the like, once again in a wood, except this time I didn’t have to actually get in the water to get the right angle. However the location wasn’t really the best, and the light, or lack of it was seriously hindering my progress.

So we then fast forward a couple of years and finally I have a nice warm day for paddling, a suitable place with enough light, and a photo I’m kind of happy with. It could be improved, but I can assure you kneeling in the shallows of a river is quite painful, especially when it’s pebbly. I had the imprints in my knees for hours afterwards!

 

The Return

Yes I have seemingly abandoned everything over a time period I’d rather not mention as it has been far too long. Life stuff has just got in the way of the fun stuff. After a tough 6 months, it has made me realise that despite the life stuff that has to be done, you have to seriously balance that up with some fun stuff, now I do do some fun stuff in between the life stuff, but not the really fun stuff, the fun stuff that lets me truly be me.

I’m hoping that this will change. One thing that has helped is the new release of minifigs. This release is celebrating 40 years of minifigs. That makes them as old as me, or me as old as them, take your pick. So with some renewed inspiration – hopefully, and a concerted effort to create time for the fun stuff, I aim to be posting more regularly again. Maybe not weekly, but certainly more than I have been.

So to welcome you all back, I have not one, but two images for you to hopefully enjoy. Here’s hoping the creative juices can begin to flow again.

Ezrah had always been a brick.

This was one of the first minifigs I managed to get from the new series. Quite a cool idea for a minifig. There is quite a bit of potential with most of this series of minifigs.

 

And now for something completely different……. The return of Bob. My travelling, adventuring, exploring minifig.

 

 

Bob and his Dad along with Max the dog had enjoyed exploring the island and its old buildings

 

I managed to get out for a couple of days over the recent Easter break. We had a little trip out to a nearby island to wander round looking at the old abbey as well as the more modern buildings left over from fortification during both the World Wars. Bob came along too of course. It was certainly about time that he managed to get out and do some exploring again.

So not only a return from Bob and the rest of the minifig crew, but also a return from me being creative and getting out there and having fun once again.

 

Book 38 ~ 5 Weeks in a Balloon

5 Weeks in a Balloon ~ Jules Verne

 

Jules Verne’s 2nd novel, but considered the first where he got the formula right for his future ‘adventure stories’. Although my first thoughts and perhaps yours too, is that it should be ‘ Around the World in 80 Days’ which Verne wrote about a decade later, but a hot air balloon didn’t feature in the book, it was only in the film adaptations of ‘ Around the World in 80 Days’ that one appeared. However ‘5 Weeks in a Balloon’ strangely as the title suggests did, and why it has become the book title to portray. Being a lesser known title by most then it’s also good to highlight it over Verne’s more well known novels such as ’80 days’ and ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea’.

5 Weeks in a Balloon ~ Jules Verne:  Dr. Samuel Ferguson, a scholar and explorer, is joined by  his servant Joe and his friend Dick Kennedy, as he sets out to travel across the African continent which is still not fully explored, in a hydrogen filled balloon. Whilst on their travels, the trio have to escape a variety of setbacks they encounter whilst on their journey.

Launching Louie

 

 

Liberty had heard there was a new unicorn in town………

 

Who expected after a random conversation two years ago, that I’d once again be collaborating with the author Rachel Hamilton again for the launch of her next children’s book, and all because of a chance comment about LEGO loo’s!

This time she steps away from exploding objects (well I don’t think there are many exploding objects in her newest book) and enters into the world of unicorns. Not just any unicorn, but Louie the unicorn. A unicorn in New York.

So of course when she asked if I could come up with another LEGO based photo to coincide with the release of her book, I couldn’t resist. The thinking cap was on, and despite a slight technical hitch along the way ( a vital piece of my plan, that hasn’t turned up as yet) we have at least something LEGO minifigure based to do the job. Well I hope it does. I’m always a little nervous when I’ve done something specifically for someone else, as you never know if they are going to like it or not. Generally they do, which is great, and is the icing on the cake (something Rachel likes I believe, but who doesn’t like cake?) when they love your work as much as you do.

So Louie may make an appearance as part of the ‘booklego’ series I’m doing as well, or at least once Louie arrives here at World of Minifigs that is. So far it looks like he’s on an extended vacation to New York, however in the meantime, if you wish to find out what happens to Louie, you can find out by reading his adventures in ‘Louie Lets Loose’!

 

Series 15 Minifigs

I’ve still not had time to think about the booklego series I was doing last year, however I will be continuing it until all 52 are done, then I will see where I go after that. I have an idea, I just need the time and opportunities to implement it.

In the meantime there is a new set of LEGO minifigures due out. Series 15!

 

It’s nice to see a few completely different figs appearing for parts usage and for adding to existing sets. Crutches with clumsy guy are great, as is Shark Suit Guy. Nice to see a ‘baby’ fig too as part of a main fig, as well as a couple of animals as accessories.

I will definitely be picking up a few. I didn’t buy many of the Monster series, but I’m hoping a new injection of figs for the collection will inspire me to find the time to get on with the project.

Which figs do you like out of this set?

A Festive Message

After the frivolities of Christmas Day, it was nice to be able to put their feet up and relax with a mug of tea.

Tiffany was overjoyed with today’s discovery in the advent calendar

The tradition on Christmas Eve was to put the fairy on the top of the tree

Bob just had one last present to put beneath the tree.

‘And laying his finger aside of his nose……’

Bob thought it was about time he started writing his Christmas cards

No matter how you celebrate or experience this time of year, I hope it is an enjoyable one. This year has been a whirlwind, passing by in what seems to be the blink of an eye. So much so, that the past few weeks and even months have vanished before I even knew they were here. It is for this reason why the blog and the photos has ground to a bit of a halt over this time. It’s not that I’ve run out of inspiration or ideas, but purely because I haven’t had the time to even think about it, let alone actually setting it up and taking the image.

I thank everyone who has taken the time over the past few years to enjoy what I do and for sticking with me even when updates have become less frequent. However when I have found some spare time in life I will be picking up from where I was before. The proof that life has been so busy is that I’m still to finish building a LEGO set I got all the way back at the start of the summer. I have only just managed to complete the first stage of it, but hopefully I will find some time over the Christmas period to sit down and build with my favourite bricks again, whilst enjoying some time with family and friends.

Look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year…….2016 had better be ready!