In Episode 35 of Tales From The Brick, Jon (8 Bit Bricks) is joined by Kate, AKA BrickHuntress, an award-winning LEGO mosaic artist and high school mental health counselor whose work combines art, unconventional parts, lighting, and even wearable LEGO creations.

Kate shares how building alongside her older brother introduced her to LEGO as a kid, how her son's interest brought her back after her dark age, and how seeing The Art of the Brick completely changed the way she looked at LEGO. That inspiration led to her first mosaic, painstakingly built over several months using pieces she dug out of the bulk bins at her local LEGO shop.

The conversation dives into how Kate's artistic background influences her builds, from using botanical elements and unexpected pieces to create hair and texture to hiding Easter eggs throughout her mosaics. She also talks about incorporating lighting into her artwork, creating a wearable LEGO dress using nets, and why she loves pushing LEGO beyond traditional building techniques.

Kate also brings her experience as a mental health counselor into the conversation, discussing the calming, tactile nature of LEGO and how students naturally gravitate toward the bricks in her office. She shares how she has brought LEGO into the classroom, used mosaics to teach art history, and seen firsthand how building can give kids a creative outlet.

Plus, Kate talks about collaborating with Eric Clough on a massive Harry Potter build, the magic of watching kids discover MOCs at conventions, and her plans for a new dinosaur mosaic that will combine three-dimensional building, LEGO nets, and motorized movement.

Find Brick Huntress:

• Instagram: @brickhuntress • TikTok: @brickhuntress

To find the best LEGO deals, check out the Bargain Bricks app.

Until next time... play well.

Read transcript

Every kid who ever begged a parent for money to hit GameStop on release day understands the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship series in their bones: it’s the same card game, sold back to you once a year, wearing a slightly fancier hat each time. Konami ran this bit from 2003 to 2006 with the discipline of a Swiss watchmaker and the restraint of absolutely nobody when it came to naming the things. Four games! Four years! Somehow four completely different amounts of the word “World Championship” crammed into each title!

And somewhere in that run, things got weird. By the last entry, Konami had apparently decided Yugi, Kaiba, and the rest of the cast had done enough work, and quietly let you duel the actual monster cards instead, like the whole show got replaced by its own trading cards in some kind of legal dispute. There’s also a tiny RPG town nobody asked for, a cartridge somehow refereeing six languages at once, and just enough real cardboard cards taped inside the box that there’s a real argument the packaging outsold the game.

Grabbing a seat at the table to help me sort genuine dueling nostalgia from pure cardboard-fueled compulsion is William Morgan, host of The Geek Gauntlet Podcast, self-billed as the fastest hour in podcasting, a claim that tracks given how fast he and the crew burn through a week’s worth of comics, movies, anime, and gaming news.

So keep an eye on your Life Points, don’t forget your face-downs, and let’s find out if the World Championship series was Konami’s finest run of Game Boy dueling, or just years of very well-packaged déjà vu.

Learn such things as:

• Why do I think this is so weird but yearly sports games aren’t?
• How far back into a game’s ruleset can you go if you weren’t there when it was current?
• Who bought the game for the game, and who bought it just for the included card?
• And so much more!

You can find William on The Geek Gauntlet Podcast.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

Play Comics is also part of Art Comedy Pop-Culture Network, which is a long-standing creative organization spawning from a love of Adult Swim. Be sure to check them out for all sorts of entertainment news, commentary, and just plain fun stuff.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to Anime Field Guide and Just the Facts and More for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who can play the Yu-Gi-Oh theme on the theremin.

Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.