Thursday, December 12, 2013

Little Bus

Little Bus by Carlmerriam
Little Bus, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Built for my two-year-old son for Christmas. He had so much fun playing with the snow crawler that I wanted to make him something special. He really likes the little lego doors, so I included eight with different surprises behind each one. I used a duplo train chassis so it has power functions that he can control.

The Thing (2011) - Snow Crawler

I fell in love with the snow crawlers from “The Thing” (2011), so I decided to build one. This is my highest build time to size ratio ever, with over 30 hours going into an 8x14 stud project.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Gearbulb

Gearbulb by Carlmerriam
Gearbulb, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Fresno Ideaworks invited me to display at one of their events, so I built this kinetic sculpture of their logo as a gift for them.

Now they use it at events as a fun conversation/interaction piece.

Check out

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Madness from the Sea

The Madness from the Sea by Carlmerriam
The Madness from the Sea, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

"It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway.... The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight."

-H.P Lovecraft,
The Call of Cthulhu

Sunday, November 3, 2013

LEGO Cthulhu MKII on The Lovecraft eZine Video Chat

I had a great time chatting this afternoon with the guys over at the Lovecraft eZine. Check out the show here.

You can also visit them at lovecraftzine.com for more creepy goodness.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

LEGO TESTED Logo

TESTED Logo by Carlmerriam
TESTED Logo, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

I built this for the guys over at tested.com, as a thank you for having me as a guest on Octobercast 2013.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Mini DSLR

Mini DSLR by Carlmerriam
Mini DSLR, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Back in 2010, the Fresno Bee ran a feature article about my LEGO christmas display. I built these two small cameras as thank you presents for the field photographer and the photo editor. The photographer was pleasantly surprised and chose the mini TLR without hesitation.

Mini TLR

Mini TLR by Carlmerriam
Mini TLR, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Back in 2010, the Fresno Bee ran a feature article about my LEGO christmas display. I built these two small cameras as thank you presents for the field photographer and the photo editor. The photographer was pleasantly surprised and chose the mini TLR without hesitation.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands by Carlmerriam
Edward Scissorhands, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Here’s another one from the archives. Circa early 2008, Edward was the first piece I built as a gift for my wife.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013

LEGO Microscope MkII

LEGO Microscope MkII by Carlmerriam
LEGO Microscope MkII, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.
This creation uses 4 LEGO magnifying glasses to create a fully functional compound microscope. Other features include separate coarse and fine adjustment knobs, power functions LEDs and a rotating stage.

Now on Cuusoo:
lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/44370

Featured on Beyond the Brick:
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=G3R...

Custom logo print by Dan Kees:
www.printabrick.com

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hairbrush

Hairbrush by Carlmerriam
Hairbrush, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

This was a quick build I did back around 2005 with one of my very first bricklink orders. Can you guess which part I ordered?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Jack, The Pumpkin King

Jack, The Pumpkin King by Carlmerriam
Jack, The Pumpkin King, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Another one of my older builds. Look for the dust and see if you can guess how many years it was on a shelf before I took the photo!

GIR

GIR by Carlmerriam
GIR, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

"I'm gonna sing the doom song now!"

Monday, June 24, 2013

LEGO John Deere Tractor

LEGO John Deere Tractor by Carlmerriam
LEGO John Deere Tractor, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Originally built for Brick Madness as a quick build, I recently went back and added steering. Splitting both the front and rear axles made the steering buttery smooth.
For more Brick Madness info visit: https://www.facebook.com/brickmadness

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

LEGO Microscope

LEGO Microscope by Carlmerriam
LEGO Microscope, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

On this exciting edition of From The Archives: A LEGO Microscope.

This build was originally inspired by the LEGO X-Pod sets. While trying to find a use for the pod itself, I realized that it was very close to a deep petri dish. I used a planetary gear system to allow both coarse and fine adjustment of the objective “lens”. A little more tinkering and I connected the focus to a magnifying glass and fiber optic light in the eyepiece, so adjusting the focus knobs would actually bring the writing on a LEGO stud in and out of focus.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

LEGO Giants Baseball

LEGO Giants Baseball by Carlmerriam
LEGO Giants Baseball, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

My friend’s wife jokingly told him that a LEGO Giants baseball would be a fun Father’s Day gift for her dad. He decided to take it seriously and commissioned me to build it.

Monday, June 3, 2013

LEGO Teleprompter

LEGO Teleprompter by Carlmerriam
LEGO Teleprompter, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

I built this as a graduation gift for my friend who just received his MFA from San Francisco State University.

I also assisted him in creating the video that he used as part of his thesis exhibit. This teleprompter is patterned after the setup we used to allow him to speak directly to a morph he made of Brad Pitt and himself. It was definitely a fun and interesting project.

The photo was custom printed on a 2x4 white tile by Print-A-Brick. For more info contact Dan Kees: info@printabrick.com

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

LEGO Old Truck

LEGO Old Truck by Carlmerriam
LEGO Old Truck, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.
This is the first in a series of builds showcasing the different products currently available from Print-A-Brick. I used Print-A-Brick tan wood tiles to create a fun wood look for the pickup bed walls. The logo tile is a custom print.

For more info, contact Dan Kees: info@printabrick.com

Monday, May 20, 2013

LEGO Fan

LEGO Fan by Carlmerriam
LEGO Fan, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.
Just a litlle preview of a project I'm working on for myself. Logo printing by Dan Kees info@printabrick.com.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Bike Monster

Bike Monster 1 by Carlmerriam
Bike Monster 1, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.
When the team at I Bike Fresno told me they wanted a bike monster, I was excited. When they told me I had to glue it together, I was less excited.

This is my first creation that I fully glued together. It took four small tubes of crazy glue. It pains me to say it, but gluing was actually kind of fun!

It's being used for one of the prizes in the ibikefresno.org Million Mile Challenge. So, go ride your bike, maybe it'll be yours!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Betty Boop

Betty Boop 1 by Carlmerriam
Betty Boop 1, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

My father-in-law commissioned this as a valentine for his wife. Perched precariously on a single stud for support, it went into self-destruct mode many times during the build.

It made it safely to it's new home, but I may end up gluing it sometime in the future.

Tyler and Kelly's Pier

LEGO Pier Wide by Carlmerriam
LEGO Pier Wide, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Commissioned for my friend's wedding, this is my largest single object build to date. At just about four feet long and 12 inches wide, it was quite the behemoth to transport. The barnacles were the most time consuming to build. The pier has twelve legs, each with 4 uniquely decorated sides, totaling 48 individual panels. I used up almost all my white 1x1 plates!

Birdhouse In Your Soul

Birdhouse In Your SoulBirdhouse FrontBirdhouse Back

Birdhouse In Your Soul, a set on Flickr.

Built for the Transparency group art exhibit at the Sorenson Gallery in Fresno, CA. The goal was to express transparency in some way. I decided to use both light and the exposed internals of the wall to do it.

"LUDICROUS SPEED, GO!"

"LUDICROUS SPEED, GO!" by Carlmerriam
"LUDICROUS SPEED, GO!", a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

Spaceballs! Built for the "Mi-Fi" - Microscale Sci-fi LEGO contest. I hade originally thought of making the space diner, but I wanted something more iconic that I could really reduce to super-tiny scale.

LEGO Starcraft Battlecruiser

My brother got his boss for secret Santa in 2011 and commissioned this build to give him. Working on a small scale and making it durable enough to give away was a challenge. However, no gluing was required.

Christmas Building

Two LEGO Elves Wide by Carlmerriam
Two LEGO Elves Wide, a photo by Carlmerriam on Flickr.

I built these and many other LEGO models for a LEGO display at the River Park photos with Santa booth back in August 2010. My Living room barely survived the LEGO explosion.

My ELF!

Tragedy struck while shooting photos. My tallest LEGO creation was balanced on only two 4x8 stud plates. Later renditions had a much more substantial baseplate attached for stability.