Builds – HarrisBricks

Full steam ahead

Dale — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 06:18:59 +0000

With Brickvention 2026 well and truly out of the way and Bendigo Bricks 2026 pretty close to organised I am now feeling ready enough to set my sights on my major build for the year, I have told a few people about it as I have been planning it for quite a few years, and it is once again a revisit of a beloved theme from my childhood (with more than a little twist).

This time I am revisiting M-Tron, however I am going to dramatically reframe the theme in the Victorian era and give it a ‘steampunk’ make over. My new subtheme will be called M-Tron 1880.

The idea and I guess the reason behind the idea was an article I read about the theoretical possibility of the Victorians applying the technology available to them at the time, namely electromagentism, to propel a vessel into the upper atmosphere and achieve spaceflight.

You can pretty much see the spark of my idea from there as it is not too hard to get from electromagnetism to M-Tron: literally m (magnet) and tron (electron)).

I am still nailing down exactly what I will be building, but a Victorian era palatial tower of industry, a ship, various other vehicles are definitely on the cards.

I am looking forward to getting started!

The Fire Station featured on The Brothers Brick

Dale — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 04:47:30 +0000

This morning I awoke to discover that my Neo Fabuland build The Fire Station has been featured on The Brothers Brick!

Thank you once again to the Brothers Brick team for taking the time to check out my builds, and especially to Norm Harper for his kind and considered words, it really has made my day!

If you are interested in checking out what The Brothers Brick had to say about The Fire Station, read the review on their website.

Padbrook Town reviewed by Brick.it Magazine

Dale — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 02:30:55 +0000

Today I found out that Brick.it Magazine has reviewed my recent Padbrook Town build as displayed at Brickvention 2026.

Thank for to the Brick.it team for taking the time to check out my build , and especially Mattia Caredu for your kind words, I really appreciate it!

If you are interested in checking out what Brick.it Magazine had to say about Padbrook Town, check it out on their website.

Blackskull Archipelago reviewed by Ben Cossy

Dale — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 06:38:31 +0000

Yesterday I was notified that Ben Cossy has reviewed our collaborative pirate display Blackskull Archipelago from Brickvention 2025.

Thanks again Ben for your kind words, I really appreciate you taking the time to review our build!

If you are interested in checking out what Ben had to say about Blackskull Archipelago, head on over to his YouTube channel.

Build update: Train Station

Dale — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 06:54:42 +0000

Once again this one is late as this build is also almost complete, but here are the photos that I have taken so far of the build process of the train station – the second build of my 2025 Neo Fabuland project.

I still need to build a carriage for the train, design the clockfaces, and put in the plants and story elements, and then this build will be complete.

Below you can see the process I went through to build it over the last few months.

Build update: The Mill

Dale — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 07:54:18 +0000

Well this one is a little late, as this build is almost complete, but here are all the photos I took of the build process of the mill – the first build of my 2025 Neo Fabuland project.

I am really just waiting on a small order of pieces to arrive to finished the wheat that is being delivered by Freddie Fox, and apart from that this build is complete.

Below you can see the process I went through to build it over the last five (!) months.. I hope the next few Neo Fabuland builds will be a tad quicker to complete!

Spreading tree technique

Dale — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 12:55:58 +0000

In my current build I decided to try something that I have always wanted to do, that is to design a brick built tree that works the way that real trees work, following a fractal design where each limb spreads following the same formula and connects like real branches do.

The branches in this tree are very robust, the only weak point being where the large branches connect to the base of the trunk (a single stud connection). The plan is to use these trees in several of my new Neo Fabuland builds, and you can check out the instructions to build them yourself below:

Well there you go, there is my new spreading tree technique, let me know if it is useful to you!

Neo Fabuland colour palette

Dale — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 07:47:36 +0000

In my 2025 Neo Fabuland builds I have decided to broaden the colour palette.

There are several reasons for this palette broadening, and one of them is that there have been several useful colours added to the range of LEGO colours since I last built a Neo Fabuland build, the other is that I have started to use a bit more colour mixing in my builds and I would like to explore this more in the world of Neo Fabuland.

I still plan to have my 2025 Neo Fabuland builds read as Fabuland to the casual observer, so new colours will need to be added carefully, but I believe it can be done.

Above is my first draft of the palette, as with my Ice Planet Colour Palette I may make changes as I progress through the build so please consider it a work in progress.

I plan on using the primaries of red, yellow and blue for all built structures and vehicles, however I will add to those colours with light and dark tones to allow for greater texture and detail.

With the natural elements of the build – rocks, stone, gravel, paving, plants, sand, earth and wood etc – I have selected a broad palette of colours, to add greater depth to the environment which the structures, vehicles and fabufigs will inhabit.

So, what do you think?

Back to Neo Fabuland

Dale — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 01:23:24 +0000

The time has come to once more return to Neo Fabuland.

The last time I tackled the idea of Neo Fabuland – or how to approach Fabuland as a design style for use in contemporary builds – was way back in 2019. You can see the builds I created here. I am still pretty happy with those builds, but I can now see some improvements that can be made and I reckon enough time has passed (around five years) so I can now revisit the idea with fresh eyes and enthusiasm, with the aim of taking it a little further this time.

My aim for 2025 is to spend the year once again exploring and extrapolating the idea of Neo Fabuland, but unlike 2019, this year I will create several interrelated builds rather than one large build for display.

I still plan to stick to most of my aims for Neo Fabuland from 2019, specifically the story book style, incorporating unique original elements from the original Fabuland sets and employing a handdrawn lettering style though I plan on ramping up the level of detail beyond what I achieved last time and I will be broadening the colour palette this time to incorporate some new colours.

In my next post I will set out my expanded colour scheme and my reasoning for it, so stay tuned.

Build update: The Finish Line

Dale — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 06:56:50 +0000

I have pretty much finished my Blackskull Archipelago build!

Since my last progress post I have been working on more greenery, finishing the tower and building the ship which I have named The Black Betty.