Last weekend I exhibited at Bendigo Bricks 2024 (I also helped run the event and took along my Gyldenspir Castle build), and here are my top five builds from the show!

Bendigo Post Office & Bendigo Law Courts by Darren Hutchesson

Darren is a very talented builder from my local LUG, Bendigo LEGO User Group. I have admired his architectural builds for a long time, and if you get the chance you should head over to his Instagram account and check out his past builds of Bendigo’s Capital Theatre, Town Hall and Joss House Temple.

Over the past few years Darren has built his largest creations to date, and this year we were able to see them side by side! Darren’s attention to detail and architectural accuracy shines in his picture perfect builds of Bendigo’s former Post Office Building as well as the building next to it, the equally impressive former Bendigo Law Courts.

Battle of Christophsis by Andrew Miller

Andrew Miller builds amazingly detailed Star Wars builds, and his recreation of the Battle of Christophsis is a beautiful example of his skilled application of colour, texture and form.

Andrew’s Kashyyyk build from last years Bendigo Bricks was my one of my top two builds from that show and I always look forward to seeing what he will bring along each year.

Medieval by Brent Toma

Brent Toma is one of the most talented builders in my local LUG, Bendigo LEGO User Group. His builds are always beautifully detailed and his command of texture and form is spectactular.

Brent’s Medieval display was hands down my favourite build at this years Bendigo Bricks. The build features a super detailed medieval square complete with buildings, castle fortifications and a tower. I particularly like the textured facades and brickwork of the buildings.

Thunderchild by Darren Reid

I love the War of the Worlds and it is actually a book that I have long had on my list of potential LEGO builds, so I was really excited to see Darren’s take on one of the most iconic scenes from The War of the Worlds, the Ironclad Thunderchild taking on a Martian tripod.

I have seen Darren’s amazing ship and steampunk builds in the past, so he is probably the ideal builder to tackle this subject matter.

The detail of the glowing, battle damaged bow where the Martian heat ray has struck the Thunderchild is particularly fantastic.

Bendigo Military Museum by Michael Piggott

Michael Piggott is another talented builder, also from my local LUG, Bendigo LEGO User Group.

I have seen Michael tackle local Bendigo architecture in his award winning Bendigo Railway Station build from a few years ago and he has again captured a beautiful example of local architecture in the form of the Bendigo Military Museum. There are some amazing techniques at work in this build to realise the complex shapes and forms of the building. Fantastic work Michael!

So there you have it, my top five builds from Bendigo Bricks 2024. If you attended the event I would love to know which builds were your favourites too!

If you enjoy these builds please make sure you connect with the builders and show them your support.

I know I have talked about this in my tshirt design post, but being a graphic designer means that I end up applying my professional skillset to my LEGO hobby as well. This time I am going to show some LEGO mosaics that I have designed for Bendigo LEGO User Group events.

One of the activities that my local LUG runs throughout the year for various community events are large scale community LEGO mosaic builds. Basically this means that we have a stock of LEGO bricks in 30 colours, hundreds of 16×16 plates (one for each community member who takes part) and a purpose built trailer with hydraulic lifting side covered in baseplates to create a giant canvas for these community artworks to be assembled, displayed and transported.

We have perfected the system we use for running these community builds over many years, and one of my roles is that I sometimes get to design concepts for the artwork of the mosaics. Below are a few examples of mosaics that I have designed over the last couple of years.

This is the first mosaic that I designed for Bendigo LEGO User Group and some of the lessons learned on this mosaic have informed future designs. The mosaic features a farmer minifig and a horserider minifig standing on the arena at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds in Bendigo with a blue healer, a cow, a sheep and a rooster. In the background you can see a silhouette of a ferris wheel and tents/marquees with fireworks overhead. The Bendigo Agricultural Show logo is featured in a giant first prize ribbon.

1. Bendigo Agricultural Show 2024 Mosaic Concept
2. Bendigo Agricultural Show 2024 Mosaic Complete

This one was pretty quick to design as Bloom – Bendigo’s spring festival – is all about tulips. My first concept was to create some tulips made from LEGO bricks, this was presented to the client as an idea and they approved it straight away.

There were a few challenges with this mosaic when it came to the assembly as we did not load the trailer with enough of our medium azure bricks so some of the later sections were completed in medium blue bricks and as you can no doubt see in the completed image, some of the sections of the stem of the last tulip have not been placed correctly.

1. Tulips Mosaic Concept
2. Tulips Mosaic Complete

For the Bendigo Easter Festival 2024 we ran two mosaic activities over the Friday and Saturday of the Easter long weekend so I got to design two mosaics, one for each day. The idea of having an Easter Bunny for the first mosaic was suggested by Bendigo LEGO User Group committee member Ben Luddington and the idea of having a Chinese dragon for the second mosaic was suggested by Bendigo LEGO User Group committee member Michael Peebles. We made a conscious decision to choose a different colour palette for each day’s mosaic so that we did not run our stocks of any particular colour too low. These two mosaics are personally the favourites that I have designed to date.

1. Day 1 Happy Easter Mosaic Concept
2. Day 1 Happy Easter Mosaic Complete
3. Day 2 Happy Year of the Dragon Mosaic Concept
4. Day 2 Happy Year of the Dragon Mosaic Complete

In my 9-5 Monday-Friday life I am a graphic designer and art director so I guess it was only natural that the toolset of a designer would find its way into my LEGO hobby as well.

Not only does my experience and appreciation for design inform what and how I like to build, but I also find ways to use my design skills to help out LUGs and events. This has involved designing various items for groups and events over the years, in this post I am going to talk about tshirt designs.

Designing Tshirts for LUGs and events started with my own local LUG, Bendigo LEGO User Group.  It began when I was asked to design a new logo for the group when they became an Official Recognised LEGO User Group and changed their name from Bendigo Area LEGO Designers to Bendigo LEGO User Group. There was no members tshirt to begin with, however once I had designed the new logo I thought it would would be good to have it on a shirt to wear at events and I took it upon myself to design and print my own LUG shirt.  After a few members saw me wear the tshirt at events and our meetings it sparked an idea in the committee to offer tshirts to LUG members.

1. Bendigo LEGO User Group Members Tshirt 2018-2022
2. Bendigo LEGO User Group Members Tshirt 2023-current

I was first approached to design a tshirt for exhibitors attending Bendigo Bricks 2021 by LUG ambassador Michael Peebles, the design is based on a tshirt he had seen at an International event.

After that first year a precedent was established of having a custom designed shirt for exhibitors to wear at Bendigo Bricks and the next year I designed a tshirt based on the LEGO Expert symbol.

The third shirt that I designed for Bendigo Bricks featured that most sought after of LEGO animals, the goat.

The fourth shirt that I have designed for Bendigo Bricks so far is based on an idea from Bendigo LEGO User Group committee member Darren Hutchesson and features a red LEGO 2×4 brick half as a 3d rendering and half as a schematic diagram.

1. Bendigo Bricks Exhibitors TShirt 2020
2. Bendigo Bricks Exhibitors TShirt 2022
3. Bendigo Bricks Exhibitors TShirt 2023
4. Bendigo Bricks Exhibitors TShirt 2024

I have also designed some tshirts for Brickvention, the exhibitor version features the Brickvention logo (which I designed in 2020). The tshirt colours change from year to year and are chosen by the Brickventures committee.

In 2023 I was approached by the Brickvention committee to design some new merchandise tshirts as well as reusing one of the previous designs from Bendigo Bricks.

1 & 2. Brickvention Exhibitor TShirts Examples
3. Black Falcons Shield TShirt
4. Expert Symbol TShirt
5. Koala TShirt

So these are the few examples of event and LUG tshirts that I have designed so far, I will update this post with other tshirt designs as they are completed.

If you have a LEGO event or LUG and need a custom tshirt designed, please feel free to get in touch.

Edit: Updated April 7 2024 with BV24 and BB24 tshirts.

The next event on my calendar is Bendigo Bricks 2023.

Being on the Bendigo LEGO User Group committee means that I am one of the people currently hard at work behind the scenes organising Bendigo Bricks 2023, and I am pleased to say that tickets for the event are now on sale!

Bendigo Bricks 2023 will run from the 15th to the 16th of April at the Bendigo Exhibition Centre at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds in Holmes Road, North Bendigo.

Head on over to Bendigobricks.com now and you can get your hands on some tickets!