This is a list of brickfilms that are known to have been distributed on the internet before 2001. This cutoff point was chosen because LEGO Studios was released in November 2000 and Brickfilms.com launched on December 16, 2000, so by the start of 2001, brickfilming was established online, with a centralized location and growing in popularity. Before Brickfilms.com, brickfilms were sometimes shared in places such as LUGNET.com and the Usenet group rec.toys.lego.
While at this time there were brief CG renders and stop-motion animation tests shared mainly in gif form, this list aims to cover only the full films that were available online. There are few of these because sharing video over the internet at this time was difficult, requiring you to acquire webspace to host the video file and requiring the viewer to download a file considered large at the time, usually over dial-up internet. This list should not be considered exhaustive, as there would more than likely have been more unknown films on personal websites and other known early films for which proof of their availability online before 2000 has not been located.
1993[]
- The Funhouse by Seth Kaufman
This 1992 brickfilm was shared on a FirstClass bulletin board in 1993, and got spread to the wider internet from there. It was posted to rec.toys.lego in 1994.[1][2]
1996[]
- The Western Rip Off by The LEGO Group
A brickfilm that was distributed as a screensaver on LEGO.com. The earliest known brickfilm distributed on a major website, and the earliest known created by The LEGO Group specifically for online distribution.
1997[]
- Peril Productions
The sole available 1997 archive of a website called True Peril diplays a listing of six films by Shawn Sparks, Jack Eidsness and Lars Eidsness.[3] It is unclear if the full films were actually available to download, and it is possible that the last two are not brickfilms.- Peril at Sea X
- Peril at Castle Eifenstein X
- Peril In Vietnam X
- Peril In the Dark Ages X
- Interview With the Devil X
- P[ee]p S[ho]w X
1998[]
- Colin Williamson
Colin Williamson was a columnist at PC Gamer magazine, and brickfilms he had created in 1995 and 1998 were shared on the PC Gamer website in 1998, making him the earliest known amateur brickfilmer to have his films shared on a major website. The films available were:- Two animation tests from 1995
- Corporal Dan: Showdown
- When Airplanes Attack!
- The Cat. The Stove. And Some Guy.
- Meteor Shower
- Horse: A Tragedy
- Who is Corporal Dan?
- Star Trek: The LEGO Generation by Ben Hamer and Peter Straub
A discussion in the comments of the YouTube upload of this 1994 brickfilm mentions it being available on a personal website of one of the creators circa 1998, and the creator agrees.
1999[]
- January/February: Corporal Dan Revelations by Colin Williamson
In 1998, after his brickfilms were put on the PC Gamer website, Colin Williamson was given $100 by a PC Gamer staffer to make another Corporal Dan brickfilm. Corporal Dan Revelations was preceded by a trailer and then released on the PC Gamer website in early 1999. - March: Ohio Dan and the Silver Brick of Doom by Ryan Collins and Russ Collins
Shared to rec.toys.lego in 1999.[4] Later made available on the internet again in 2014. - March: StarLego by Myles Abbott and Kevin Burfitt
A 1990 brickfilm that was remastered in 1998 and shared online in 1999. - August - November: Kelly Jeffery and Russ Gatrell
Three films shared on a personal website.
In addition, Kelly Jeffery and Russ Jensen opened a brickfilm directory called LEGO Compulsion in November 1999, which saw little use and included just 6 unknown brickfilms.
2000[]
- January: Liquid Plastic Productions
It is possible that the film from 1999 was available elsewhere online in 1999, but the Liquid Plastic Productions website lists its number of visitors since January 2, 2000.[5]- 1999: The Drunken LEGO Man[6]
- February 3, 2000:The LEGO Man Matrix[7]
- July 5, 2000: Got Milk?[8]
Liquid Plastic Productions also made an unfinished James Bond brickfilm (filmed in 2001 and uploaded unfinished on February 6, 2002) and LEGO Pirates: Treasure (released January 8, 2003).
- January: Thomas Foote
Influential early brickfilmer Thomas Foote created a LEGO Home Movies webpage which he shared to LUGNET on January 13, 2000. The films available were:- LEGO War
- Jet Car
- Saucer
- Additionally, Jake Technic vs. Dr. Cyber parts 1 and 2 were seemingly made available later in 2000.
- January: Lift-off! by Marc Leidy
This 1985 brickfilm was shared on LUGNET on January 29, 2000. The film was eventually shared again as a higher quality transfer in 2014.
- April?: Christopher Brawn
Two films available on a personal site. The earliest archive of the "Lego animation index" page was on April 17, 2000, meaning it is likely the films were already available before this date.[9]- The Joust X
- Ninja Attack X
- April: Greg Perry
Greg Perry had been brickfilming since 1999 and talking about it on rec.toys.lego, but did not have the webspace to share his films. On April 22, 2000, he announced on LUGNET that he had a new LEGO animation website with films, and he continued to add more films occasionally throughout the year. It is not confirmed if all of these were made available before 2001, but the films Greg Perry created before 2001 were:
- May: LEGO Studios
An early LEGO Studios website from before the release of the product line hosted the following, available for download:- Intro to the LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set
- Jurassic Bark
- T-Rex in the Studio
- July: Stephen F Roberts
After seeing Thomas Foote's panel on brickfilming at BrickFest 2000,[10] Stephen F Roberts began brickfilming and shared two creations on his personal website on July 6:- Darth Test X
- The Escape
- August?: Titanic: LEGOs at Sea by "Killer Epidemic"
This film appears to have originally been created circa 1998.[11] Archives of the website hosting it begin in August 2000.[12]
- August: LeGorso by Joona Poikonen and Lauri Mäki
The earliest known Finnish brickfilm online.
- August: All of the Dead by Tim Drage and Tony Mines
The first brickfilm by the duo that would become known as Spite Your Face Productions was uploaded on August 26 and shared on rec.toys.lego on September 21. Spite Your Face would go on to become professional brickfilmers who worked with The LEGO Group in the first half of the 2000s.
- September: Rob Weychert
Rob Weychert created three brickfilms in 1998. The website that these films were hosted on was launched in September 2000.[13]
- October: Ministry - "Thieves" by Jason Bardis
A film originally created in 1992 or 1993.
- October - November: Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World by Q. Allan Brocka
The first two episodes of the series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World were made available online on October 15 and November 16, respectively.[14]
- October - December: Jason Allemann and Deane VanLuven[15]
- October 21: Hey R2
- November 3: Fatherly Discipline
- December 10: Star Wars: LEGO Edition Trailer
- November: LEGO Studios
Upon the official release of the LEGO Studios line, a new LEGO Studios website became available. Premiered on this site was the web-exclusive brickfilm Dino Cop, available to stream or download. Jurassic Bark and Jewel Quest were also available here at this time.
- November: Sub-culture.org/Quinn "Sofa King" Barton
Personal site of the first person to upload stop-motion brickfilms to Newgrounds.com. All films were simultaneously released on Newgrounds.com, although Gay Lego Boys, which was created by a friend of Barton's,[16] was not included in the Newgrounds LEGO Land category.[17]- November 16: Lego Men: The Accident Part 1
- November 16: Lego Men: The Accident Part 2
- November 18: Lego Men: The Tow Truck Driver
- November 19: Lego Boys Rap
- November 25: Gay Lego Boys by "RedFX"
- November 29: Lego Posers X
- December 8: Lego Men: The Robbery
- November - December: Newgrounds
Brickfilms began to be uploaded to Newgrounds.com starting in November 2000. They were later compiled into a category called "LEGO Land".[18] In 2004, the category and the films featuring LEGO were removed from the site, following a legal threat from The LEGO Group being sent to site founder Tom Fulp.[19]- November 9: Lunch Break by Ben "pikasso" Blumenfeld
- November 16 or 17: Lego Men: Accident Pt.1 by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- November 17: Lego Men: Accident Pt.2 by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- November 18: Lego Men: Tow Truck by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- November 19: Lego Boys Rap by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- November ?: Lego Combat Pt. 1 by "Mr_Guy"
- November 27: Lego Combat Pt. 2 by "Mr_Guy"
- November 28: Lego Men vs. Lego Posers X by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- December 3: Star Wars: Lego Battles by "Blade"
- December 8: Lego Men: The Robbery by Quinn "Sofa_King" Barton
- December 9: Lego Pirate Finds Map by Steve "Solid_Steve" Nathanson
- December 11: Lego Deathmatch by Richard D. Hoppes
- December 12: Lego Showdown! by Nick Daley
(the category also later included a lego romance by "jan" from March 7, 2001, and lego dope by "w33d" from September 29, 2002.) Although the links to the films were removed in 2004, the files remained hosted on Newgrounds.com, which is how they were acquired. The one exception, Lego Men vs. Lego Posers X , was manually deleted by its creator shortly after its release.
- December: Brickfilms.com
The brickfilm directory Brickfilms.com was launched by Jason Rowoldt on December 16, 2000 with the goal of compiling the brickfilms available on the internet into one place. By the end of December, the directory listed 15 or 16 films. This is a list of films known or presumed to be from 2000 that were in the directory by the end of January 2001. In some cases, it is unclear exactly if they were listed in 2000 or January 2001, but presumably they were available to find somewhere online in 2000.- All of the Dead by Tony Mines and Tim Drage
- Brain Damage by Robert Thomas
- The Brick by Robert Thomas
- Castle Fighters by Nicolas Teeuwen
- The Chase by Jason Rowoldt
- The Escape by Stephen F Roberts
- Jacked by Robert Thomas
- Jake Technic vs. Dr. Cyber Parts 1 and 2 by Thomas Foote
- Jar Jar Binks and the French Revolution by Marc Atkin
- Jet Car by Thomas Foote
- LEGO Chef X by Steve Iervolino
- LEGO War by Thomas Foote
- Ninja Attack X by Christopher Brawn
- Ninja Madness by Ed Mayhall and Jen Mayhall
- Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World Episodes 1 and 2 by Q. Allan Brocka
- Salt Lake Spaceport by Kelly Jeffery and Russ Gatrell
- Saucer by Thomas Foote
- Star Wars: LEGO Edition Trailer by Jason Allemann and Deane VanLuven
- StarLego by Myles Abbott and Kevin Burfitt
- Titanic: LEGOs at Sea by "Killer Epidemic"
- Untitled by Oliver Baker
- Various by Scott Randall X
References[]
- ↑ The Funhouse shared on Usenet in 1994
- ↑ The Funhouse mentioned in 1995
- ↑ Peril Productions website archive
- ↑ Ohio Dan and the Silver Brick of Doom released in March 1999
- ↑ Liquid Plastic Productions website archive
- ↑ The Drunken LEGO Man Google Video archive
- ↑ The LEGO Man Matrix Google Video archive
- ↑ Got LEGO Milk? Google Video archive
- ↑ Christopher Brawn's "Lego animation index" page archive
- ↑ Stephen F Roberts' animation page archive
- ↑ Later Titanic: LEGOs at Sea website
- ↑ Earliest Titanic: LEGOs at Sea site archive
- ↑ Bredstik.com history
- ↑ Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World press releases
- ↑ True Dimensions site news
- ↑ Gay Lego Boys eulogy page on Newgrounds
- ↑ Sub-culture.org archive
- ↑ Newgrounds LEGO category archive
- ↑ Quote of Newgrounds news post about LEGO takedown