Aaron Amatnieks has long been established as a creative and talented builder within the Australian LEGO Fan community. His microscale Melbourne has been exhibited numerous times and won Best in Show at the very first Brickvention in 2006. Since then, Aaron has created many MOCs that tested the boundaries of build techniques and acceptability at LEGO Fan events. Past MOCs have included a fire-breathing dragon with a real flame and a pirate village with 120kg of real water. Some of his models of well-known Melbourne architecture were even included in Warren Elsmore’s Brick City book. His latest build, at Brickvention 2022, was a version of the T-800 Terminator endoskeleton that goes by the name of Sir Termie.

part of Aaron’s micro melbourne photo by shannon sproule

Using just photos as a reference, and his own physical proportions for size, Aaron free-built Sir Termie during nine build days over three weeks in the lead-up to Brickvention 2022. As an “essential” worker, he was not able to take advantage of Melbourne’s extended lockdowns to complete the build at a leisurely pace and was limited to his spare time. Fortunately, he found Sir Termie was reasonably straightforward once he had sourced a table and a chair from a charity shop.

Aaron amatnieks and sir termie at brickvention 2022

As it happened, the chair provided much-needed stability for Sir Termie as including a metal frame was not an option. Aaron was able to design the build so it locks onto the chair and prevents it from being knocked over during an event. The chair also provided Aaron with the inspiration for the back story behind Sir Termie—he’s a Terminator who went too far back in time and must now wait for Sarah Connor to be born. The backstory also gave him a reason to build a top hat, monocle and gramophone to complete the look.

With limited time to build and pandemic-related postal restrictions, Aaron had to rely on his existing parts collection and the Pick-a-Brick wall at his local LEGO Certified Store to complete the MOC. He did come close to running out of technic beams at one point, but was able to redesign the head and ended up being very satisfied with the final outcome—it perfectly captures the menacing look of the T-800 Terminator endoskeleton.

To allow for ease of transportation, Sir Termie has been designed in separate, modular components, a lesson Aaron learned after having to transport his large microscale Melbourne MOC to the first Brickvention. It’s much easier to transport a MOC if it fits in regular boxes in a standard car. Not using a metal frame for support and stability ended up being both a stylistic and logistical advantage in this case. This is something all LEGO builders should consider when building larger creations—plan the logistics of moving your build long before you need to actually move it.

Sir Termie was one of a number of stand-out creations at Brickvention 2022 and Aaron received the Brickvention 2022 Committee Choice Award for his work. He’s hoping it will be displayed again in the future so he has the opportunity to include a speaker to improve the sound quality. For Brickvention 2023, he’s hoping to build something a little more relaxing—maybe a minifig scale diorama or a mosaic-style picture.

Where should the next time-travelling Termie go? Let us know in the comments below.

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