Bill Vollbrecht, a one-time LEGO® Master Builder who recently left his position to pursue a freelance career, has posted a Brickshelf gallery of some of the creations he built during his time at LEGOLAND® California. Of particular interest to MoD readers is this piece , a mosaic of the MASK OF LIGHT™ cover art.

I asked him if he could tell me how big the mosaic was or how many pieces were used to build it, and I got more answer than I asked for:

The model stands about 6 1/2 feet tall by 4 1/2 feet wide. As for brick count, we always just made a guess, since it is practically immpossible to get an accuate brick count. I think we guessed about 25,000.

This is the same frame that was used by me to make a DUPLO® mosaic of Darth Maul for the Gallactic Challenge a few years back. The whole model was designed by hand without the use of computers. The majority of the model is what we call double-up. That is where we take any brick and times it by 2 for height, width and depth. So a 1×1 plate I would draw, would become a 2×2 plate, 2 plates high. All of the lettering as well as the central figure of the Toa were built 1 to 1 scale, so as I drew it is as you see it! There is a lot of SNOT* building going on. I use a few tricks to turn sections sideways to give a more subtle shape. This is best seen in the DVD logo in the corner, several sections on the TOA as well as a few places on the lettering.

Overall I had about one week to design and build this! There was a lot of going back and forth with LEGOLAND and the company who was doing the premiere party on what exactly they wanted. One idea was to have a 6 foot wide 30 foot long red carpet built from LEGO brick for the guests to walk on to get to the theater! Luckily, the LEGOLAND general manager said no, it’s not really in our values to walk on our product! As the model is now, it is unglued and un-UV coated (since it was to only be temporary). Luckily, it’s in the shade, so it has held up fairly well!

*Studs Not On Top: a style of building where bricks are oriented with the studs facing sideways or even down, rather than upwards as usual, either for structural or decorative purposes.