You are currently browsing the The Brothers Brick weblog archives for April, 2009.
Fedde (Karf Oolhu) has been hard at work constructing massive construction vehicles capable of taking on the most massive of construction jobs. The one above uses tank treads on the tires and Technic air intakes for the claw on the arm.
Fedde’s earlier Utility Tractor is no less hunky:
The LEGO Group would like to hear from LEGO fans like readers of The Brothers Brick in a new online survey.
Read on for more information, including results from the December 2008 survey.
Note: For our American readers, note that commas and apostrophes are reversed in numbers. For example, 2,4=2.4 and 1.000=1,000. I’ve also added links in a few places.
As Adult or Teenage Fans of LEGO, you bring an important perspective to the LEGO Group. We respect your creativity and passion for the LEGO brand.
In December 2008, we did an online survey to learn more about the global AFOL (defined as ages 20+) and TFOL (defined as ages 13-19) communities and for your information, we have listed the key findings below. Now we ask you to take this survey again. It include some of the same questions, but also a set of new questions for you. These surveys will be conducted on a quarterly basis this year.
Please take a few moments to complete this short online survey to let us know your opinion on how we are doing.
You might notice that the link refers to the LEGO Kids Inner Circle; this is because Satmetrix, which hosts that site, is also supporting our efforts to track AFOL/TFOL opinions. Rest assured that this survey is for AFOL’s and TFOLs only.
Here are some of the key findings from the December 2008 survey:
- The survey was completed by 6.500 (!) AFOLs and TFOLs. 19% of respondents were TFOLs, 81% was AFOLs. 94% were male, 4% female and 2% did not want to share gender.
- When asked about likeliness to recommend LEGO products and services to friends and family, AFOLs are more likely to recommend than TFOLs. When asked what the LEGO Group can do to improve willingness to recommend, most frequent answers was, “better pricing”, “re-release classic sets”, “less custom made pieces” and “no more stickers, print on bricks”. This feedback has been communicated to relevant business units within the LEGO Group.
- 47% of AFOLs/TFOLs are NOT members of a LEGO User group. Among those who are members of LEGO User Groups, they are in average members of 2,4 LUGs.
- In average AFOLs and TFOLs are spending in the area of USD 1.000/EUR 700 on LEGO product annually. 20% of this is spent on second hand purchases.
- Favorite websites include Peeron, LEGO.com, The Brothers Brick, shop.LEGO.com, Eurobricks, Brickshelf, Bricklink and Flickr.
Thank you,
The LEGO Community Team
Chris Howard has launched a project to create LEGO comics in the style of The Far Side. He calls them The Brick Side, and the first three comics are already on his blog.
The Lictor has arrived to guard the alien fleet. The armored carapace of the ship protects the sensitive components that lie beneath, waiting to unleash their power.
This one has been sitting on my build table 90% complete for months, but I finally got around to posting it. I also took the photos of this one the old fashioned way, after all the complaints about my use of HDR techniques making the photos look unrealistic.
Making good use of the LEGO Power Functions System Danden has made an attractive and working cog railway. He even shows us how to do it.
Thanks again to Matt Hamann for the tip.
Jarek (Jerrec) stepped out of his zone as a space builder to bring us an immortalized LEGO version of the Renault Alpine A442. This sleek model took about three weeks from planning to finish. If I can do something that amazing, I wouldn’t be here right now!
Classic Space LEGO designer Bjarne Tveskov (tveskov.com) has posted a wonderful little iMac G4 “Junior”:
Naturally, the pairing is reminiscent of Pixar’s “Luxo, Jr.”
The screen is a real photo/video display, which allows Bjarne to mirror what’s on his real Mac — pretty darn cool! Getting the weight in the base and construction of the arm right are LEGO engineering challenges of their own.
See more photos of Bjarne’s LEGO iMac G4 Junior on his blog or on Flickr.
Peter, aka Shadow Viking, has a really good-looking tank. Clean lines, positions for two figs, and freakin’ big gun…what more could you want?
Cole Blaq has built another intriguing space craft. It’s covered in fascinating details, and is an interesting shape. Check out his great use of crabs!
LONESTAR. Or is that Zack (Newright)? He’s built a fun rendition of the Eagle V space Winnebago from Space Balls. While it’s not the first rendition I’ve seen of this craft, and probably won’t be the last, it’s the best I’ve seen in awhile. Unlike some other renditions I’ve seen, it looks small enough to be swooshable as well.
Unlike most pics we blog here the bulk of this isn’t LEGO. But the rear train is Carl Greatrix’s 9F loco on Pete Waterman’s (of Kylie Minogue fame) model train layout. I think it’s great to see just how well LEGO can stand against ‘real’ models.
I like the posture of this mech, it has a very organic feel to it. By the way, Brian Kescenovitz is giving away this vignette to the person who comes up with a name for the grey mech. Who doesn’t like free Lego?
Aaron Andrews (Darkspawn) has returned to building a massive castle creation after an almost yearlong respite. This tower sits on one of the most massive floating rocks I’ve seen, inhabited by a group of magical figures. One of my favorite details is the dragon transport; I could only dream of riding one of those.
Legoland’s master builder and all-around great LEGO community guy Gary McIntire has helped out the Mythbusters crew with a LEGO related myth. Check out the press release:
LEGOLAND® California Model Builder Helps “Mythbusters” Dispell Myth!
Popular Discovery Channel Show Highlights Family Theme Park in Upcoming Episode
CARLSBAD, Calif. (April 28, 2009) – “Mythbusters” reached out to a Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND® California to help dispel a myth regarding a giant LEGO® ball on an upcoming episode of the popular international show airing April 29, 2009 on the Discovery Channel.
“It was an honor to be included in the project,” said LEGOLAND Master Model Builder Gary McIntire. “I have always been a huge fan of the show so for them to come and ask for my help was really a proud moment in my career!”
Show hosts Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara trekked down to Carlsbad, California from the show’s home base in San Francisco to use McIntire’s expertise on how to build a nearly 10-foot LEGO sphere.
The myth originated with a YouTube video in which Indiana Jones fans reenacted the famous boulder chase scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with the “boulder” being made of five-million LEGO bricks. The boulder is rolled down a steep street in San Francisco, crashes into a car, and remains somewhat intact. The “Mythbusters” team set out to discover if a boulder of that size could really be made entirely of LEGO bricks and still roll so smoothly down a steep hill without breaking apart into millions of pieces. In order to debunk the myth, McIntire and 20 others worked on building the ball using nearly one million LEGO bricks over the course of nearly two weeks.
“We have more than 15,000 LEGO models here at LEGOLAND California,” said McIntire, “and this is by far the singularly largest creation I’ve ever helped to build!”
The “Mythbusters” team spent a day at LEGOLAND California researching models similar to the one they needed to build studying sphere shapes such as the head of the giant 17-foot-tall pharaoh in the Park’s newest area, Land of Adventure and the dome of the Griffith Observatory in Miniland U.S.A.
To discover the results, tune into the Discovery Channel April 29, 2009. Please consult your local TV guide for channel and times in your area.
I was hanging out with Gary this weekend (all this travel has been keeping me from blogging) and he’s really excited about this episode. He said to keep an eye out for a time-lapse video of his hands building the Mythbusters logo. I’ll definitely be tuning in tonight to watch.
Veteran Classic Castle member, Micah Brown, has been drawing forum avatars for some time and they have quickly become sought-after favorites.
Affectionately known as Lord DOOM, Micah is all metal and heart. But besides being a great guy, his Lego-inspired artwork just keeps getting better and better.
He also does commissions, if you want your own custom avatar!
The Dynamic Duo of Lego fans collaborate once again on this sweet little display.
Ralph Savelsberg built the super-accurate Mitsubishi Evo X, while Ed Diment supplied the sveldt driver.
April Fool’s Day may be over, but that doesn’t stop the shenanigans in the LEGO fan community. The recent announcement of LEGO Rock Band is already inspiring spoofs like this one from Dave Shaddix.
Click through to check out Dave’s hilarious description of who made the band.
Andrew Summersgill (Doctor Sinister) has posted a very timely swine flu pandemic vignette that perfectly captures the mood in the news over the last few days.