Someone once described Andrew as "too cool to be one of us, yet he is" and I thought that summed up Andrew pretty well. He's definitely cooler than me. Yet he's not afraid to let his geeky side show, with an open love of most things nerdy. He also happens to be one of the most talented builders in the AFOL scene, even winning the latest round of Iron Builder. With his shades on, a beer in one hand and a mind-blowing MOC in the other, Andrew brings the party to wherever he is. I'm very happy to let you all get to know him a little better.

Tell us a little about yourself, how did you get started in the hobby?

Technically I got into the hobby as an infant. My parents bought me DUPLO and then as a child Lego.

I built my own models through adolescence and continued to do so into adulthood. I had a gray age during my early college years when I was away from my collection and only built during breaks. I didn't enter the online scene or the bigger community until after college and moving to LA. Hooking up with the local scene here in LA was huge for me. I was able to meet a bunch of dudes whose work I had been following online for years. One thing lead to another and LUG meetings and conventions became the norm.

What is your earliest LEGO memory?

DUPLO train!

What drives you to create?

Good question - I think it's primarily the desire to make the vision in my head tangible.

Would you call yourself a purist (no cutting, painting, knockoff)?

Depends on the day I guess - I cut flex tube on the regular. Nearly all of my builds are straight purist with no modified parts (flextube exempt), painting, or 3rd party elements. I have built unpure models several times though and my recent Iron Builder round with Brickthing used a Brickarms element as the seed part which I used in 17 different models.

Do you have any favorite builder(s)?

Oh tons. All of the oldschool space builders for sure as that's what I was exposed to early on. The Japanese always amaze me especially Izzo and Moko. If I have to shout out one builder as a favorite though it's definitely Soren.

Do you ever look back on old pieces and say "if I only…"

Not really - gotta keep moving forward yah dig?

Tell us about your building area.

I have a big wall of lego in my living room. Next to the wall is your standard kitchen table from Ikea. It's also my dining room table. I used to have a separate desk that was dedicated for the brick but it became too much of a hassle and I'd rather have the space for parts then extraneous furniture.

Do you ever build digitally? If so with what?

I haven't. I'm impressed by some digital builds but for me it's definitely a kinesthetic experience and I'm a touchy feely kind of dude.

Do you listen to music while you build?

Constantly - it's my biggest influence and greatest inspiration.

Do you keep all your pieces? If so, do you display them?

Not even close - I have a few special pieces but for the most part everything gets recycled. I live next to the beach in a pretty small pad so space is always an issue. Also growing up with limited resources I always recycled one build to build the next and continue to do so today.

Do you have an all time favorite LEGO set?

Oh hell yeah - 6940 the alien moonstalker is an all time classic!

I mean it's a quadruped with a detachable flying head and ass - what's not to love?

What is your least liked aspect of the hobby?

It's the same as the best aspect - the people. Like any online/niche scene there's drama, politics, jockeying for community standing, fame whoring, and the egos of socially isolated manchildren talking shit on the internet.

If you could pick a single creation of yours for permanent display somewhere notable, what would it be?

Can I bend time and space? If so I'd go with the Cybercity collaboration project we did for Bricks By the Bay 2011 (official name: The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel). If it's got to be something still together today I'd go with my Classic Space themed BSG viper signed by Grace Park.

Which of your pieces would you say personifies you?

Solaris 8