Book Wyrms Beware!
/Builder BobDeQuatre definitely is more of a Book Wyrm than your ordinary garden variety of Book Worm. Bob, like my family, clearly has a hoard of books, which earns the dragon level Book Wyrm rank. Built for Brickpirate.net’s challenge category “build a life-size object related to books,” Bob built two fantastic bookends and used them to support some titans of fantasy literature.
BobDeQuatre’s Imagination Book Ends
This is BrickNerd, not BookNerd, so let’s talk about the build before I talk too much about books. The left bookend has a fantastic microscale sailing ship approaching an unknown island. Is this the Hispaniola of Treasure Island looking for treasure, another ship seeking adventure perhaps it is the ship that delivers the adventures to the cave on the right bookend? So many story possibilities alluded to! The brick-built island illustration in the blue book is extremely well executed and the puffy clouds coming out of the book are just delightful! I didn’t notice at first but the water flowing over the shelf is a fantastic touch.
The adventures about to enter the cave is also great fun. The well-outfitted party is about to enter a clearly spider-infested cave. Perhaps they are there to do battle with the Spider Queen or some other terrifying arachnid beast (spider clowns?).
Bob was kind enough to field a few questions as well:
Michal J: The bookends are a bit different from your usual builds like rovers, mechs and the like. Was it just the Brickpirate.net contest that inspired the more fantasy build than Sci-Fi?
BobDeQuatre: I mostly build Sci-Fi because it’s what appeals the most to me. But I like to sometimes build Castle or Pirates MOCs. I just don’t really have the bricks or the skills for these, so I tend to stick to what I know I’m good at. At first, I wanted to do Star Wars-themed bookends but changed my mind.
Michael: I completely get the not enough bricks aspect! Most castle MOCs have so many parts! Was any part of the build particularly rewarding or challenging?
Bob: The trickiest part of the bookends is that there are 1/2 stud offset between the cover and the pages, and between the first layer of pages and the rest of the pages. I had to make a few tries before getting something that held, looks good, and could support the weight of the pages.
Michael: Those offsets get me too, especially when they are load-bearing. I love that you gave breakdowns for these, it really lets us into your thought process.
Michael: What is your favorite piece to use as a greeble or detail?
Bob: I was pleased by how the micro-palm trees look using the plant stem. I’m glad I picked up a few of them a while ago.
Michael: They really do make great palm trees. Another question about books, we have Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Harry Potter as official LEGO themes. Which Sci-Fi or Fantasy books would you love to see turned into sets?
Bob: Making a good theme requires lots of good and usable original material with some depth. And I can’t think of a book that would be interesting to turn into LEGO form, either because it’s too close to existing IPs, or because it would be too difficult. The fantasy IP I’d really like to bring in LEGO is World of Warcraft (yeah, I know...).
Michael: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Bob: It was a refreshing build. Something different than what I’m building these days. It brought me back decades ago, thinking of the books I read and how they kind of changed my life... A good experience.
Michael: Books are truly magical in that way aren’t they! Why did you choose the books you did to put between the bookends? My French is really bad (only two years in high school 20 years ago) and Google Translate only gets me so far; the Tolkien books are Unfinished Tales 2 and the Fall of Gondolin? Shannara is the same in French so that’s easy. I couldn't identify the red book.
Bob: I knew I should have put books in English! I choose the books I put on display for their authors—ones that I liked the most or are meaningful to me. The red one is from David Zindell’s Ea Cycle.
Michael: Thanks for that help. I don’t think you need to put English titles in there because the ones special to you are better. I love to see when an AFOL can combine LEGO with their other passions. Thank you so much for sharing!
Hopefully, that was a good read. If BobDeQuatre sounds familiar, he was part of the Pegasus Racing Team spotlight we featured a few weeks ago if you want another great article to read.
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