Official Lego Mosaic Sets: Part 3 - Other Dacta Kits

It's been quite a while since the last Official Lego Mosaic set post, so in an effort to wrap up the unfinished projects of past days we are now continuing!

So in between the latest mosaic sets and the illustrious #3443, Lego also released a few more Dacta sets, similar to the ones first seen in the 80s.

First up we have 9534 Mosaic Tiles from 2000.

And second we have 9546 Mosaics Set from 2005.

Now, the only difference I can gather from these two sets, is that 9534 Mosaic Tiles was only available in the U.S. and was $5 (USD) cheaper than 9546 Mosaics Set. So what I can gather, the latter set must have just been a re-release (with strangely, only two more pieces).

Now, even though this next set came out one year after the 2007 mosaic sets, I'm still going to include it in this post because it falls within the same vein.

Lastly we have 9531 Numbers and Mosaics Set (2008).

Again, this set is really similar to the previous two sets. This one obviously just has the addition of numbers. This one doesn't have as much information as to its pricing and availability.

Up next will be part four with system sets and part five will be other sets that aren't only mosaics, but have mosaics incorporated into them. Stay tuned!

Resources:
- Brickset.com
- Lego Wikia
- LUGNET

Beloved

Awhile back I wrote a post about how Doug Hill experimented with different ways of stacking transparent elements attempts to make gray-scale mosaics.  [Arthur Gugick has also beautifully demonstrated that similar stacking techniques work to expand a color palette.]  Now Blake Baer shows off another mosaic using this technique:

The different shades of gray that are achieved by stacking the transparent 1x1 plates make the portrait come alive with detail.  Blake says there are close to 4000 pieces in this mosaic.  Stacking pieces greatly increases the number of pieces necessary, but I suppose that is compensated by the higher resolution of the mosaic, which will then not need to be as large as it would have been otherwise. 

Here is a detail shot, showing the layering technique:



The mosaic is made from the engagement photo of two very talented LEGO builders, Sean and Steph Mayo.  Although it's not a mosaic, check out their finally-finished Faerie Forest -- it's magnificent!   Blake surprised Sean and Steph with this mosaic at BrickFair last week, where it won "Best Mosaic."  I'd say it was a well-deserved win.
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Addendum:  Actually, the above-mentioned Faerie Forest does contain at least one mosaic.  Here is one of stained-glass redwood tree, on the side of the Forestmen Guild:

Faster, Higher, Stronger.... Bigger?

At the Olympics in London going on now, different countries have "national hospitality houses", set up to entertain athletes and other visitors.  The Danish hospitality house is called "Imagine Denmark" and is at the St Katharine Docks.  Since Denmark is the home of the LEGO Group, it is not surprising that they have several LEGO-themed events and exhibits.  One that has received a lot of attention is a LEGO replica of the Olympic Park by Warren Elsmore. 

The Imagine Denmark information page also told how Aug. 4 and 5 would showcase "Danish Fun and Games", in which "Children of all ages are invited to two days of building fun with LEGO bricks, competitions, exhibitions of the stadiums in Stratford and a seven-metre tall LEGO wind turbine – the world's tallest Lego wind turbine. We are also welcoming visitors to help building the famous Danish Skagen painting "Hip Hip Hurra" in Lego mosaic bricks."  That sounds like a fun weekend!

I haven't yet seen a photo of the Hip Hip Hurra painting mosaic, but I did see photos of this almost-finished Olympic-sized mosaic of a world map done by Bright Bricks. 

Bright Bricks is a company run by the U.K.'s only LEGO Certified Professional, Duncan Titmarsh.  Brickset did an interview with him once, which you can read here. 

You can find photos of the world mosaic in various stages of completion at Bright Bricks' Facebook Page.  Some of the detail shots are really neat:

It's somewhat hard to believe that that is all LEGO.  The mosaic should be finished Friday, and will be on display until August 27th. 

Other Blog News!

Hello everyone,

A couple other announcements!

Just to let everyone know, we have received various amounts of notifications as to the builders of a couple mosaics from the Brickworld 2012 Mosaic Coverage post. To let everyone know, a few have been identified, so be sure to check out the builders!

Katie Walker's article that was previously posted on the site is in HispaBrick! Support our author and Hispabrick by downloading it here! The magazine article turned out even better than it did on MB. Congrats!

Also, some printed MosaicBricks bricks are in the works! ;-)  Stay tuned.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for letting us know about the BW12 builders and congrats to Katie!
Casey

Announcing MosaicBricks' Newest Author!

        Hear ye! Hear ye! With the success of adding Katie to the blog, MosaicBricks looks to the future yet again! MosaicBricks seeks more to add more diversity of creations and writing styles to the blog! To add more resources for builders! To inspire the next generation!

        I'm proud to announce that we are adding, Dave Ware, who has agreed to join the blog as an author! If you weren't aware, Dave has built some of the best mosaics around, bringing most of them to either conventions or expos in which he has received an abundance praise from audiences and throughout the community for his stunning work. If you'd like to learn a bit about Dave, we did an interview back in 2010 that you can read here. If you'd like to see some of his creations, check out his flickr stream here. There are also links to his creations in the interview article!

Thanks again to Dave!
Casey

Simple and Sweet

Mosaics don't always have to be big and complicated to make a nice image.  Bruce sent me a link to this one, made by Brickshelf user lego036, saying it was simple, but that he liked it.



I really like it too.  Upon closer inspection, I can see that the eye is made of a round brick, and I'm fairly sure that the beak is made with a headlight brick.  The stud on the side of the headlight brick sticks out a bit, to give the beak a slightly pointy look.  Very nice. 

lego036 had a few other similar mosaics, too.  I love how the bird is holding a leaf in this one:



And it's very easy to imagine these cute little fishies swimming around in a koi pond:




As an aside, I find it very limiting that I can't leave comments or really contact in any way the Brickshelf users that are featured here.  For that reason I usually stick to flickr and MOCpages as sources for blogging.  I'll try to make more of an effort to check out Brickshelf, though, in the future. 

Let's Be Bad Guys!

I've noticed a trend of making a mosaic of a famous person (often as a character portrayed by that actor), and then getting them to autograph the mosaic.  I've previously mentioned Josh Wedin's Pinky and the Brain and Dave Shaddix's Spock and now with a matching Kirk (check out the signing in action!) and McCoy (which will, of course, remain autographless). 

Earlier this spring, Dave Ware got in on the action, making a mosaic of the character Jayne (as played by Adam Baldwin) from the TV series Firefly.  Here's a photo of Dave, Adam, and the mosaic: