Summer Of Slug 2025

A Little Planning Goes A Long Way

In my most recent video, I sought to showcase every single piece of Sand Red LEGO that has been produced by the company. In order to keep track of which element should appear in what order when I did the photography, I made myself a shot list. I drew a picture of each piece because no, I don't have all the part numbers memorized, haha.

This is also how I make "shopping lists" for myself when a used set is missing pieces. I imagine some folks have digital solutions, but I still think bes...

So, I Heard You Like Stop Motion Animation?

After many, many hours of work today, I've completed the most stop motion segments I have ever created for a single video! Over 1,000 photos were taken for this next video - I hope you enjoy it!

Invisible Work

Hey folks! These past several days, I've been engaged in "Invisible Work" - that is, work that is not outwardly visible to folks on the outside looking in. For R.R. Slugger, that mostly pertains to script writing and voice recording.

For the former, I've got everything scripted for my next few videos - hopefully I don't run out of summer too fast! Ideas that percolate during the Summer Of Slug may re-emerge down the road though, so don't be too discouraged if I don't get to everything ...

2nd Round Voting Results!

Hello OnlySlugs!

These are the results (so far) of the second round of video idea voting. As you can see, there's a neck & neck race going on between the top 2!

Some folks have joined recently and may not have cast any votes yet. If you haven't yet, there's still time should you wish to impact the results a little. Here's the document with the full rundown:

https:/...

Has Slugger Joined The LAN?? 😱

Because that's what it looks like here!

In reality, I took a trip to The LEGO Store yesterday and picked up a number of sets that interested me. Normally, I wouldn't get this spendy with newer LEGO sets, but because of support from folks like you, I was able to go beyond my typical budget. Thank you!

Hopefully, I can return the favour by featuring some of these sets in new videos or livestreams! Do you have any preferences on which ones you'd like to see?

(And don't tell ...

Zoooooooooom in!

Had to break out the macro lens for this one. You'll certainly see it in the video, but these parts are tiny! Sure hope I don't lose any...

Anyone recognize what I'm photographing here?

Second Round of Voting Coming Soon!

Hey folks,

In the next few days, I'm going to have a new list of video topics to vote from to see how we want to round out the rest of the summer.

Some topics will be carried over from the previous list, and some will be new.

There are also some topics that I will cover guaranteed, such as the before mentioned "Blacktron 1.5 ...again?" and "Fabuland" videos. I'm just waiting on additional elements for those.

In addition, the "Slugger Hates Modern LEGO" topic (as voted...

LEGO Star Wars Alternate Builds

In preparation for production on the video I just released today, I reverse engineered SEVEN alternate builds from LEGO Star Wars - the most I have ever done for a single video before! I had a lot of fun working on them, and even though they each only appear briefly in the video, you can find more pictures of them in the Google Drive link below:

https://drive.googl...

Getting in Trouble Again...

Dr. Cyber, what did you do this time? 😩

By the by, I've been intentionally sneaking Timmy or the Doctor into my videos this summer, as a sort of thematic tie in to our Time Drifters community MOC project; however, I'm not sure this connection is being picked up on by folks watching simply because I already use Tim and Dr. Cyber in most of my videos anyways! 😅

Who Do You Think Is In The Wrong?

When different LEGO Space themes collide! Literally!

Fun Times on Set!

I got a chance to play with some LEGO Studios figures again today and I'm always taken aback by how much FUN that series is! I wonder what they're working on now?

Cutting Room Floor

Sometimes great shots go to waste! Here are a few from my Dino Attack video that didn't quite make the cut...

Inception

A table stacked on top of a table on top of a table stacked on top of a table.

Early Screening!

Hey Patreon peeps! Here's an early screening of our first real outing during the Summer Of Slug 2025! It should be going live sometime tomorrow.

I spent a lot of time creating the MOCs needed for this video, and hopefully this attention to detail is appreciated! It was a fun challenge to tackle, and I could find myself building more things in this scale in the future.

Starting with this video, I'll also be rolling out the OnlySlugs shoutouts. I'm mostly prioritizing folks that hav...

The Results Are In...

OnlySlugs members, if you didn't see it already, I have tallied your votes so far and compiled them here. This will help give me some direction on where to direct my focus - at least for a while. We'll certainly do another round of voting later into the summer, so don't fret if you missed out on this first round.

If you haven't yet, please find your way into the community chatroom here on Patreon for OnlySlugs members. From there, we will continue to coordinate!

Thank you! 😊 2025-07-06 06:16:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Taking My Own Advice!

Some of the video topics that OnlySlugs members have chosen for me to focus on this summer involve digging out old childhood sets... long before R.R. Slugger was ever concerned with his toys getting dusty! As such, I've been spending some time today disassembling and washing these old sets - recognize the colour scheme here?

Anyways, as you can see, a salad spinner and a fan were involved; looks like I'm taking my own advice on washing LEGO!

Maybe it's not such bad advice after al...

Welcome to the Summer Of Slug 2025!

Thank you so much for your support this summer! Whether you joined at the GoSlugMe or the OnlySlugs tier, you have my sincere thanks!

Everyone is welcome to join our Discord server, and there should have been a link already sent to you. If you didn't receive it, you can follow the link below:

https://discord.gg/xbpsyvy7qt

For my OnlySlugs members, I'll be reaching out to you in the coming days so we can st...

Alright folks, let's pack it in...

The end of the Summer Of Slug is upon us! As promised, the Patreon campaign is shutting down for the remainder of the year.

PLEASE, do not forget to cancel or switch your membership tier to "free" today. This isn't something I can do for you on my end, unfortunately.

If I do end up running the Patreon page again for the Summer Of Slug 2025, I don't want folks being charged next July without their knowledge. It seems like Patreon likes to do that of its own accord, so please rememb...

Staying Organized and Efficient

How does Slugger know what photos to take? Well, it might surprise you, but up until a few months ago, I used to just wing it! 😅

I'd go to my photography rig and say to myself "hmm, what shot might look good in this video?"

As you can probably guess, this was very inefficient. I would often forget scenes I needed, and as a result, have to follow up with multiple rounds of pickup shots.

These days, I have a different process:

After recording a script and editing the...

As the summer winds down...

We're entering into the hardest part of the Summer Of Slug for me - the time where I have to make tough choices on what videos I can still produce in the limited window remaining! It happened to me last summer as well; the reality is that I will always have more ideas for videos than time in which to create them.

With that being said, it's not over yet! I still have a few more fun ideas and scripts in the works. I hope you've been enjoying these summer videos as much as I've enjoyed mak...

Future Generation

Got to photograph some sets today that I've never photographed for this channel before! Many folks know that I'm nearly done my 90s Space collection; I had thought that 2024 would be the year I'd finish this off, but there are still a couple more I have yet to track down or part together. Once I'm done though, you can expect a HUGE video showcasing all of them!

Fake it 'til you make it!

Sometimes creative solutions are needed. While working on my recent LEGO Studios video, I needed a shot of Axle with his air boat from the theme. I never owned this set as a kid, but surely it would be easy to part together, right?

...wrong! Apparently, the green 2x4 slope on the front of it is very rare and I wasn't able to procure one from my local used LEGO store; that being said, I still needed the shot in the video! My solution?

I faked it! By setting it in the deep backgroun...

Behind the Behind the Scenes!

I hope they won't mind us watching over their shoulders while they work!

It feels so weird to say this, but LEGO Studios sets really feel like they were made to be featured in videos about LEGO Studios sets... does that make any sense?

Like, it felt all too organic to set up shots like this with the film crew and standalone lights and such. Very, very well suited to photography!

Getting Creative with LEGO Studios elements!

I really got creative with some photography tricks today! Of course, this full contraption won't be in the final shot, but I think it was a pretty clever solution to create the illusion of web slinging around.

Ultimately, I had to secure the whole rig to a stand alone monorail stanchion piece (I always have plenty of those handy!) in order to reduce the sway. We'll see how sharp the focus turns out on this one... it was a tough shot!

Cutting Room Floor

Sometimes, you can't anticipate what will and won't make the cut when you set out to create a video. Even though I spent a lot of time on this Exploriens backdrop, including it within the Aqua Dozer video ultimately didn't work out - there just wasn't a natural spot to feature a shot like this, so I'll have to hang onto this model until I can find a more organic use for it. Still, I wanted to share it with you folks here!

MACRO

Sometimes you have to break out the big guns! This macro lens can sometimes be a pain to set up, but I have much more freedom to spend time working with it during the Summer Of Slug. When it comes to capturing high amounts of detail up close, no other lens does the job better!

There are several shots using this lens in the new video set to release in the next 12 hours. See if you can spot all the times it was used!

And Away We Go!

The Summer Of Slug gives me greater freedom to spend time on stop motion animation, so that's exactly what I worked on yesterday! Black baseplates are really rare, but I'm glad I have a couple for shots like this - secure them with some painter's tape, and you're good to go!

Welcome To The Summer Of Slug 2024!

Hey folks, welcome to the Summer Of Slug 2024! Thank you so much for choosing to support me this summer as I kick the YouTube channel into overdrive!

You should have received an email with an invite link to the Discord server, but if it gets lost on its way to you, you can use this one: https://discord.gg/xbpsyvy7qt

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions, concerns, or just...

As the summer comes to an end...

Hey folks,

As the Summer Of Slug draws to an end, I wanted to extend my sincere gratitude to everybody here for choosing to support me and my work throughout the past two months. Your donations have allowed me to fully embrace the projects I created this summer without having to worry about financial motivations, either through YouTube or otherwise. To call this the best summer of my adult life would be a grand understatement - thank you for allowing me this opportunity!

As promis...

Summer Of Slug 2023 Discord Server!

Hey folks - in case you get lost, here's the link to the Discord server!