However you celebrate the holiday and whether or not you do I’d like to send out my warmest regards to all our readers. Enjoy your break if you get one.
And for those in countries that do not celebrate Christmas I apologise for a likely lack of blogging in the immediate future.
PS. And apologies to all for the poorly lit, tacky photo. Just remember it’s the thought that counts ;)
Creations for Charity took place in the past two months where LEGO fans sold their creations to raise money to donate LEGO to children in need. Here are a few words on the organization and the results of this year’s fundraiser.
The beginning
Creations for Charity began with the idea of giving LEGO to underprivileged children for the holidays. It started with a proposal by Don Wilson to keep a record of LEGO donations made by a group of fans. This inspired me to create a fundraiser where fans use their talent with LEGO to raise money. Although it seemed ridiculous to ask people to give up their personal creations, we got an overwhelming response and raised over $2,000 in 2009. We used the money to purchase and donate almost $3,000 worth of LEGO.
One year later
Drawing on previous experiences, I aimed to raise $3,000 this year. To my amazement, we reached this goal in record time with still a month left before the deadline. We progressed at an average of $1,500 a week from late October to early December, ending on $9,035. We not only surpassed last year’s record, we more than quadrupled it. After buying more than $14,500 worth of LEGO, we still had money left for a $723 check to top off our donation to Toys for Tots.
Good will is contagious
We had the good fortune of having over 60 contributors donate over 150 creations ranging from large-scale creations to custom minifigures. Our highest contributor racked up over $900 through sales of his custom minifigs, and several others donated creations that brought in over $500. People helped in other ways such as by spreading the word about our event. We benefited from mentions by some prominent non-LEGO sites such as Slashgear, Gizmodo, and even Toys for Tots. Others like Sean Kenney invested his time in assembling 60 keychain gifts; Ansgar from Chromebricks donated the gold-plated bricks that adorned them; and Linus Bohman designed an effective splash page for the fundraiser. The Brothers Brick chipped in a lot of money cover the cost of the raffle prizes and the expensive keychains. We even had three builders who donated their contest prizes to the cause. We’re really grateful to have the help of many in making this event successful. You can see all our participants and records here.
Why we do it
Creations for Charity costs both time and money for its participants, so why are we doing it? Consider this: the builders feel good about raising money through their talents, the buyers can own an original creation while helping charity, and the kids receive tons of LEGO. While I can’t speak for everyone, for many of us it’s all too good to pass up.
The big donation
On the day of our donation drop-off, I drove a truckload of LEGO across the metroplex to the Dallas / Fort Worth Toys for Tots distribution warehouse. The marines and volunteers were at work processing toys like Santa’s elves. They wasted no time hauling in the 567 LEGO sets. I stood and watched as half a dozen marines lifted boxes and bags out of the truck. Before I knew it I was already on the highway going home, and that’s when it dawned on me that thousands of dollars worth of LEGO and the fruits of many people’s work had passed out of my hands in just minutes. (Indeed it’s hard for a LEGO fan to give up so much of what he loves). But at the same time, I thought about the countless hours of joy that we will have given the children, and that made everything worth it.
The future
We envision Creations for Charity to continue and grow as an annual event. Starting next year there will be a team of coordinators running the fundraiser. With more help, we plan to expand the distribution of our LEGO donations to cover more cities in the US and possibly other parts of the world. Our contributors reside in a dozen countries, and we want our future donations to reflect that diversity. Next year we look forward to welcoming more participants and to make Creations for Charity a tradition for many LEGO fans.
Last words
Thank you for making Creations for Charity an inspiring success. It reflects the generosity of LEGO fans and spreads our hobby among both children and adults. By now many people will have our creations on display in their homes, and many more children will have a cool LEGO set this Christmas. Happy holidays and we hope you’ll join us for Creations for Charity in 2011!
Carl Merriam built several large-scale pieces from LEGO for his local department store’s Christmas window. If you look closely, you can see just how big these elves are by comparing them to the R2-D2 that the blue elf is working on.
If you’re in the Fresno, California area, you can see these in person at the River Park Macy’s
Via The Living Brick.
It’s already Christmas in much of the world, so let’s kick off our series of merry posts with this mustachioed snowman by Josip Špika.
Another late entry for Classic-Castle‘s contest: a simply beautiful rendition of “The Castle” of Boston University, built by Francesco Tavella. I really don’t have much more to add. The details on this building speak for themselves.
Time’s running out to enter the Colossal Contest over at Classic-Castle! There are some fabulous entries this year, and it’s been a blast to watch them come through. I do not envy the judges.
Zack Milenius’s entry is all about relativity. Or, more specifically, Relativity.
I like the castle-twist to a classic art piece. It’s just a fun build.
Brickworld is celebrating its 5th anniversary in 2011, and this year you have the opportunity to design the convention’s event kit. This is a rare chance to have hundreds of people own a creation designed by you, and you don’t even have to be an attendee to submit a design. Check out more details on the Brickworld website.
December’s also been a busy month for Cole Blaq (whose creations we’ve already featured several of in the last few days). His Dachs ATV may not have black and white stripes, but it’s just as fierce as its namesake (though it may want to steer clear of LEGO dachshunds).
Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) isn’t taking it easy during the holiday season, pumping out new builds every few days. My favorite of the season is this festive red dive-bomber, the sub-orbital B-9D Garuda.
Don’t miss the full photoset on Flickr for the escape pod, bomb bays, payload, survival kit, and other lovely details.
Though this is for US & Canada only at the moment, nearly all of the first quarter 2011 LEGO sets are now available from the LEGO Shop online. As if that’s not enough of a temptation, you can still order in time for Christmas.
We here at The Brothers Brick are irrationally excited about what looks to be the silliest — and most awesome — of the 2011 themes. Fraukinder and mannkinder, I give you NinjaGo!
The premise appears to be that several brightly colored ninjas take on an army of undead in single combat using a technique called “spinjutsu”.
Seriously, how awesome is that? And don’t miss the ear-worm that is the NinjaGo theme song.
The 2011 LEGO City police sets feature a new dog, backpack, and crowbar.
And of course, the 2011 LEGO Star Wars sets are also now available — not least of which the ever-popular battle packs.
Though I have yet to see a single episode of The Clone Wars, I’m intrigued by this non-gray Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship:
Finally, 10217 Diagon Alley will be shipping on January 1st, and is currently available for pre-order:
I was stunned when I came across this photo in Cole Blaq‘s flickr stream. The colors in the thumbnail seemed so intense that I had to take a closer look. I have to admit, I never thought I’d see someone use those tentacles for anything other than tentacles.
Aran Hudson (Cole Bl♠q) is organising a LEGO speeder bike contest over on Flickr. The contest takes place at the LSB – Lego Speeder Bikes Group and the thread for the announcement and discussion can be found here and the entry thread here.
First prize is a chrome Stormtrooper riding a bike with Chrome parts. And the 2nd and 3rd prizes are random Minifigs from the MS2. A special Speeder Bike with rider is for the most innovative concept.
