Tales From The Brick

In Episode 11 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Liz Puleo, LEGO Masters Season 3 contestant, teacher, and creative force behind @lizpbuilds. Liz shares her unconventional journey into LEGO - from being banned from her brother’s basement LEGO city as a kid to rediscovering the hobby through her children and diving headfirst into the AFOL community during COVID.

They talk about Liz’s rapid rise from building he...

In Episode 10 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by TJ Bricky, LEGO Ambassador, content creator, and licensed therapist. TJ shares how LEGO has been part of his life since childhood, from early ‘90s sets to rediscovering the hobby through the Las Vegas Architecture skyline and diving back in fully with massive builds like the Titanic and Eiffel Tower.

They talk about LEGO as both a creative outlet and a therapeut...

In Episode 9 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Maddie (BrickenMad), a LEGO builder and BrickFair staff member who shares her journey into the hobby and her perspective as an LGBTQ+ member of the LEGO community. Maddie talks about growing up around LEGO with four brothers, rediscovering the bricks during the pandemic, and how that rediscovery led to building travel-inspired MOCs, collecting modulars, and event...

In Episode 8 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) sits down with John Sosis—host of the Building Friendships podcast/web series and LEGO Ideas creator behind the Full House submission with Jodie Sweetin. John shares the unexpectedly intense story of how LEGO re-entered his life in 2014 during recovery from major surgeries, when he stumbled into a Toys “R” Us, grabbed the Palace Cinema modular, and rediscovered a version of L...

In Episode 7 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Andrew Bulthaupt, owner and administrator of BZPower, one of the longest-running Bionicle fan communities on the internet. Andrew shares how Bionicle’s rich mythology and transmedia storytelling pulled him in at just the right moment in the early 2000s - and how BZPower grew from a merger of early fan sites into a 25-year-old community that predates YouTube, Wiki...

In Episode 6 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Erin Landry, Season 3 LEGO Masters contestant and owner of Bottomless Bricks in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Erin shares how she found LEGO as an adult through family life, garage-sale brick hunts, and pop-culture favorites like the LEGO Ideas Yellow Submarine—eventually turning that passion into a community-focused LEGO business.

They talk about what it’s really l...

In Episode 5 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Ridwan, better known as Ridzbricks, a professional creative director, filmmaker, and LEGO content creator who breaks down what actually makes great LEGO content online.

Ridzbricks shares his LEGO journey—from childhood hand-me-down bricks and classic sets like Blacktron, through his dark ages, and back into the hobby via building with his daughter. He talks about...

In Episode 4 of Tales From The Brick, Jon is joined by Victor and Maggie from EclipseGrafx, one of the longest-running and most respected custom LEGO printers in the community. The conversation traces Victor’s journey back into LEGO through a chance visit to a LEGO Store at Downtown Disney, his frustration with expensive “display-only” custom minifigures, and how that led him to start making his own; with the goal of creating piece...

In Episode 3 of Tales From The Brick, Jon, aka 8 Bit Bricks, sits down with Manny Garcia, Season 1 contestant on LEGO Masters, who competed alongside his father, Nestor, as the show’s first father–son team. Manny shares his lifelong relationship with LEGO—from being rewarded with bricks as a kid, through his “dark ages,” and back into the hobby as a parent looking to connect with his children.

The conversation dives deep into Manny...

In Episode 2 of Tales From The Brick, Jon sits down with Joe Meno, longtime AFOL, founder of BrickJournal Magazine, and one of the key figures behind the early days of LEGO conventions in the United States. Joe traces his journey back to the late 1990s, when a job at the LEGO Imagination Center and the release of the first Star Wars sets pulled him out of his “dark ages” and back into the hobby.

The conversation dives deep into the...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Tales From The Brick, where we tell the stories behind our favorite plastic bricks. This week, Jon is joined by Matt Cascone (aka MattsMiniFigs), a LEGO creator known for custom minifigs and MOCs he brings to red carpets, premieres, and live events to meet and photograph celebrities with his builds.

We discuss the logistics of celebrity LEGO moments: approaching premieres the right way, navigatin...