While writing this book, I had the privilege of receiving an amazing amount of selfless and unwavering support from the LEGO fan community. I was able to count on a number of prominent creators whose help and expertise improved this book considerably. Most of all, I want to thank Eric “Blakbird” Albrecht for his patience in correcting me, for his insight, and for his discerning remarks, which could easily constitute another book. I also want to thank Philippe “Philo” Hurbain, who came to my rescue repeatedly, and whose enormous (and free) body of work is of immense value to any LEGO Technic builder. And I’m sure I would never have had a chance to write this book without Fernando “Conchas” Correia and his TechnicBRICKs blog, where he featured my creations many times, allowing me to gain recognition and to get in touch with our worldwide community.

I want to thank my parents, who started all of this over 20 years ago by choosing the best toy of all for their kid, without even vaguely suspecting what it would eventually lead to.

Many thanks go to the talented builders who have inspired me, helped me, or contributed to this book in some other way, including Paul “Crowkillers” Boratko, Jetro de Château, Jennifer Clark, Kris Kelvin, Arjan “Konajra” Kotte, Peer “Mahjqa” Kreuger, Erik Leppen, David Luders, Marek “M_Longer” Markiewicz, Emil “Emilus” Okliń ski, Marcin “Mrutek” Rutkowski, Ingmar Spijkhoven, and Maciej “dmac” Szymański.

I’m also grateful to Poland’s LEGO community, the LUGPol, for sticking with me through good and bad; for being home to many awesome and inspiring builders, characters, and creations; for always pushing me to try harder; and for showing me that there is a whole LEGO world beyond the Technic line.

Special thanks go to Monica Pedersen and Gaute Munch from the LEGO Group, who have shown me that even a big company can have a very human face.

I also owe big thanks to Tyler Ortman, Alison Law, and the rest of the No Starch Press crew for putting their faith in an unproven author with a challenging plan.

Last but not least, I want to thank the many people who have been following my work for years, showing their interest through conversation, suggestions and challenges. I hope this book will be as rewarding to you as your support is to me.