Greebling part 1, the professionals

 I had never heard of greebling, but it puts a name to my favorite thing to do and look at on the internet.

The website tips and bricks summarizes the technique well...this site is so good and informative, recommend looking up the tips on greebling..there are 2 posts

Lego has used this technique and I never noticed it's even on newer set boxes..both star wars and city sets!

I never noticed the presesence of greebling on the box until I lifted the At-At to look closely at it. The box art was more visible up close

Additional examples are present in lego sets

The bigger the model, the more greebling is needed to add visual interest.

My favorite example of greebling is in the y-wing style star wars models.  Different versions of the y-wing ship are present, although I'm not sure that all the ships are actually y-wings.  Regardless, the style of the mid part of the ship is where I wanted to focus.  The more simple sets show details, but not "super" detail/greebling

In the example above, the 2x2 tile with center stud really adds complexity just with one piece! That piece is so good to use, when it came out, it was mostly in the heroica sets and city games so I tried to snatch them up!

Some of the greebling appearance above is created by decals on the lateral white cylinder pieces.  Although decals create the illusion of complexity, I wouldn't consider it to be actual greebling.

Above: Average detail present with use of brown pieces

Above 2 pictures: good detail and I never have seen brown pieces matched so well with gray!  I think this is great greebling 

Above: Very minimal greebling without much visual details, easier for smaller kids to build (or slow adults like myself!!!)

And the best greebling on this type of spaceship that I could find on Google photos (by pure luck) is a moc below from the site "Brick Vault" (2 pics below)

Source:brick vault

Excellent greebling...I love this esp the use of grey tubing that usually isnt seen, esp in space hangar dioramas where the greebling is in the wall parts.

Finally, the largest set of all time (at that time)  was the Millennium Falcon.  The detail from greebling is fantastic, love the bars on the top of the ship.

There are just so many good examples from official lego products and the internet...one only has to type greebling lego in the search bar and be amazed.  The final example of extreme greebling is the scene below

I don't think I've seen a bigger example of greebling, credit from both pinterest reprint from Flickr....original builder was Marco Bass.  Further info in pic above

Greebling has to be the most fun technique as it incorporates art.  Sometimes a trial of putting like color pieces together turns chaos into a great build/piece of art!!!

Why I like lego

I think the thing that makes me like lego is the idea of being disconnected from the constraints of electricity...no matter how dark due to power outages, the legos are there..such a nice reprieve from modern tech.

I think on a deeper level there are 2 other reasons I like legos...the memories of times where I could just sit and build with no adult stress...homework and school were stress but my mind could just relax.  Putting legos together is always so fun trying to find the absolute perfect piece needed at just the right time.  And of course that piece would inevitably be buried under a flap of the bottom of the cardboard box!
The other reason I think I like lego is the idea of having the different pieces available...pieces can be used so imaginatively...an antique car wheel can be a pulley...an antenna as a ski pole...limitless possibilities...
These 2 pictures from idea book 265 shows in 2 pages why I like lego

In this picture there are so many small details that I feel like it's like deciphering the details of a Norman Rockwell painting

1)such an international perspective  as seen by the flags.  And the first 2 flags are similar design just different colors as well as 3 of the flags on the right...I think this symbolizes although different colors, we are similar in our patterns.  The majority of cars hit this point home too...same design, but diverse colors create different and more interesting images.

2) in the race, there is room for different style cars...different sizes and shapes and colors all create an interesting inclusive photo.  A simple car on the right can be on the track with a multiple steps to assemble car competing together as equals...in this day of phenomenal size lego collections, there is still room for the smaller collector with less diverse or vast number of pieces I hope this spirit of lego is never lost in the continued progression of larger, specific sets with specific pieces...theres always room for any size collection or age collector in the lego world.