In what I believe is a first (apologies if I’m neglecting credit) for The Brothers Brick I’ve decided to write a somewhat counterpoint editorial to Andrew’s latest editorial.
Andrew argues, with merit, that demands for credit are excessive and potentially “stifling (of) others’ creativity”. While I don’t disagree with his major points I do feel that [...]
Merriam-Webster defines the act of plagiarism as:
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : [to] use (another’s production) without crediting the source.
Unfortunately, plagiarism is something we LEGO fans witness all too often online. “Hey, some kid on LEGO.com stole my photo and entered it in a contest. And [...]
As I started building my second major creation (more on the first later), it became quite obvious to me that I was paying the price for over 10 years of nonexistent or half-ass sorting. It was almost impossible to build because I couldn’t find anything. So I got sucked into covering my entire living room [...]
Have you ever contemplated LEGO as a profound life experience? For the intellectuals out there, you can pick up a copy of Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon’s recent book Manhood for Amateurs where you’ll find an essay dedicated to a stimulating discussion of the author’s experiences with LEGO and how they have progressed through [...]
I’ve recently spent some time thinking about and subsequently altering some of the groups I’ve created on Flickr. In part this has come from me adapting to a new ‘user generated content’ internet but also in response to difficulties I’ve been having with new members in some of my groups. While I can deal with [...]
Creativity is a term that defines the LEGO hobby, but have you ever thought why some works are more creative than others? Nnenn shares a metaphor about his interpretation of creativity that many builders can benefit from knowing. In summary, each creation is a dot on a clustered diagram; while most fall near the center, [...]
Within a few days of going to my first LEGO Users Group (LUG) meeting, I decided to get involved in several of the online venues where adult LEGO fans get together to show off their creations, talk LEGO and learn about the hobby from each other. It was quite an education. Here are a few [...]
What if you’re interested in joining a LEGO User Group (LUG) because of Part 1, but the tips in Part 2 let you down and you couldn’t find a LUG? Or what if the experiences described in Part 3 weren’t quite up to snuff? Then you have the option to start your own LUG. [...]
I’m not generally one to look to the past as somehow superior to the present or future. Nevertheless, seeing this LEGO ad from 1981 struck a nerve.
Most LEGO ads today emphasize action and playability. Both wonderfully effective attributes to sell toys, I’m sure. It’s not so much that The LEGO Group has changed as much [...]
Now that you’ve become interested in LEGO user groups (LUGs) because of “Lugging Pt. 1” and have found a LUG because of “Lugging Pt. 2“, you’re thinking about going to your first meeting (I cling to the delusion that I’ve solved everybody’s issues). Here are a few tips on how to gird your loins for [...]
For those of you who read Lugging pt. 1 or have been interested in finding a LEGO user group (LUG) for some time, this is my effort to help you find a LUG. At a recent event at LEGOLAND California where my LUG (SandLUG) hosted a display, a lot of visitors from the rest of [...]
Part of why I’m here as a regular contributor is to provide a sort of guide to emerging from the “dark ages.” Over the coming months I plan to write a little bit about various ways that people can become more active in different kinds of LEGO communities or activities. The order may not make [...]
One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at The Brothers Brick is how to get your LEGO creation featured on the blog. We’ve answered this tangentially with Linus’s LEGO is communication series and Tim’s blogging standards, but I thought it was time we helped all of you out there understand a bit [...]
Recently an article was published on guardian.co.uk (one of the world’s leading online newspaper sites) condensing the history of LEGO in an objective but heartwarming fashion, highlighting its current success amidst the sweeping economic crisis. Click here to read it.
Never mind the recession – Lego is now so popular that there are 62 little coloured [...]
Today we feature a guest editorial by Matt Wagner on virtual building. As some of you may have noticed I share a lot of these thoughts with Matt and find the prejudice against LDraw to be quite thoughtfree.
Anyway, I’ll pass you over to Matt.
Thanks to Andrew and Tim for the chance to share some [...]
It’s time for issue 5 of RAILBRICKS magazine and once again Jeramy Spurgeon and the team bring another feature packed edition all about LEGO trains. This time it’s dedicated to steam
This Steam Issue focuses on all things Steam with tips & tricks on building steam trains as well as ideas on incorporating Power Functions into [...]
LEGO is expensive; we all know it. For us builders, we always need more bricks to complete that big project sitting on our desk or in the back of our minds. More bricks cost more money, and that’s where the problem comes in. Luckily, we builders have an extremely valuable asset that only a few [...]
Somewhere during our tremendous growth over the last couple of years, I feel that The Brothers Brick has taken a bit of a wrong turn. Yes, there are things we could do better, but no, I’m not saying that we’ve done anything wrong.
Rather, our audience has shifted from the people we first began blogging for [...]
By now, most of you who don’t rely exclusively on The Brothers Brick for your LEGO news have probably encountered all the grainy, blurry photos marked “Confidential” circulating on Flickr, Brickshelf, and elsewhere. With no specific policy in the past, we’ve pointed you to these now and then. We ourselves have never been a source [...]
Simply put, we didn’t blog everything that deserved to be blogged in 2008. In some cases, time just got away from us before we gave a major event like Brick Fan Town the full write-up it deserved (though the Visual Tour is still well worth a look). In other cases, we just missed an amazing [...]
The Brothers Brick turned three a few months ago, but today is our second anniversary on Brothers-Brick.com.
And what a difference a second year on our own domain has made!
2008 stats
2007 stats
5,973,090 page views
2,006,339 visits
820,532 unique visitors
119,524 unique keywords from search engines
36,382 spam comments
12,307 real comments
4,824 unique referring sites
1,086,362 page views
337,158 visits
131,046 unique visitors
15,062 unique [...]
The latest Star Wars: The Clone Wars set available from the LEGO Shop is 7679 Republic Fighter Tank (aka TX-130 Saber-class Fighter Tank).
All orders over $99.00 ship for free, so I’ll just dangle before you some of the sales going on right now:
Going, going… Curved Rails for 9v Trains and Speed Regulator for 9v [...]
Sean Kenney recently posted this poignant sculpture of a “short” investor and a short-order cook. Click the photo to see more pictures on Sean’s site:
After marveling at Sean’s fantastic brick-built newspaper, I started wondering if the economic meltdown has affected how we buy or build LEGO these days.
Are we buying less LEGO? Buying more [...]
As several of us spend more time away from the computer getting ready for BrickCon in less than two weeks, the creations we don’t blog begin to stack up. But remember, The Brothers Brick is not the only LEGO blog on the net!
I believe the LEGO blogosphere is better when there are lots of us [...]
UPDATE (9/26/08): You can order your copy of the set by following the directions in How to get your 7979 Castle Advent Calendar, currently at the top of the front page.
UPDATE (9/25/08): Limited quantities of this set will be made available on September 26 in the US and Canada.
We’ve recently received news from The LEGO [...]