Caaaaaaves! was the LEGO Minecraft display I built for the 2023 Dunedin Brick Show, a local LUG event in Dunedin from Saturday 30 September to Sunday 1 October.
The show feels a long time ago now! The display has been sitting in my studio for a month, waiting for me to photograph it, take it apart and sort the pieces back into their colour-coded storage drawers. (My excuse is I published three brickfilms on YouTube and wrote a short story for a science fiction/post-apocalyptic anthology. Making new things is more interesting than tidying up after old things.
Here are more photos from the show.
My entire display. You could find me there most of the time, crouched over the stop motion studio. I animated these three movies during the show:
- I Build a Jet for Bobot
- I Build a Walker for Bobot
- Ouch! (a collaboration with Boston Hill, another LEGO Minecraft fan who I met at the show)
My mobile stop motion studio with the first Bobot movie in production (watch on YouTube). The sprung floor and ambient lighting of the Edgar Centre’s More FM Arena didn’t help the animation quality, but so many people stopped to watch the process!
Two old LEGO themes capture my fascination like nothing else: BIONICLE (2001-2010, 2015-2016) and Rock Raiders (1999–2000). I couldn’t resist the opportunity to show off some of my collection!
Kanohi—the masks of the BIONICLE characters, which gave them special abilities—were the collectible items of the early BIONICLE sets and polybags. From left to right: Turaga Dume’s golden Kanohi Hau, a golden Pakari, a light tan Noble Rau, a white Hau, a red Akaku, a light grey Noble Huna and a lime green Noble Matatu.
I have never seen LEGO Rock Raiders at a brick show, despite looking for it every single time…so I decided to bring my own! I was too young to be actively collecting LEGO while Rock Raiders was in stores, but the 1999 PC game was one of my very first video games and remains a strong memory for me and my brothers.
I advertised my YouTube channel at the show with some great results. Pig Hunt, the fourth Life of Piglin movie, took off. I’d published it earlier that week, so it was the first movie people saw when they visited the channel. You can watch it here.
I also showed off the five members of the Diamond Hand, from a LEGO comic I am currently writing for this site.
I’ll be back soon with close-ups of each module of the Caaaaaaves! build.
Matthew