The Brothers Brick

Yes, you, readers of The Brothers Brick!
Over the years, our readership has grown from a handful of dedicated readers to tens of thousands of you out there on the Web. Many of you are active in other LEGO communities, both online and “in real life,” but a vast majority of you probably don’t know what [...]

Lukas started it. Brenden soon followed, as did Michael. I figure it is my turn now. I give you: the best of space 2006. Linus-style.
Remember that this is purely my opinion and not a complete list of seeworthy things. There are plenty of good space builders out there - these are just my personal highlights. Also [...]

The casting agency for U.S. TV network ABC has been trolling LEGO-themed Internet forums and spamming prominent members of the online community with the following message over the last few days:
Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a casting producer for ABC’s hit show Wife Swap. I am seeking families who are Lego or [...]

I think I’ll start something new: Every so often, highlighting a blog I like.
Since I just blogged custom minifigs (the humanity!), it seems only natural that I highlight Xeuren’s American Comics Lego Archive. Back in December, I highlighted Xeuren’s blog on Pan-Pacific Bricks. And I quote:
You’ll never see modified minifigs on my other blog, but [...]

There once was an old woman who could bear no children. One day, she was washing clothes at the river, when all of a sudden she saw an enormous peach bobbing toward her on the water. The woman was poor and she thought, “That peach will feed me and grandpa for many days.” She caught [...]

Darkness falls and the air becomes still. Old ladies fan themselves on balconies and small children run through empty lots catching fireflies. Neon signs and distant fireworks illuminate the night sky, but deep in a bamboo grove on the edge of town, only the full moon’s grey glow shines on the stone graves.
Other children, braver [...]

With looming deadlines and a mountain of work, it’s been a pretty rough week at the office, so I wasn’t looking forward to a four-hour training course on how to conduct customer visits. My day picked up immediately when I saw a big tub of basic bricks on the conference room table.
After a brief overview [...]

This post’s for bloggers. You can skip it if you’re looking for pictures of minifigs or mecha or space ships or castles.
Sean’s LEGO Bloggers’ Code proposal last month got me thinking about other ways we LEGO bloggers can cooperate more, helping to create more of a network of blogs that compliment each other.
In addition to [...]

It’s brutally, miserably hot (well, mainly humid) in Japan right now. My most recent post featured cold tofu from mumu and his wife. Today’s post features another cold cuisine from mumu, “somen“:

There are several types of noodles in Japanese cuisine, including thick wheat noodles called udon, thinner buckwheat noodles called soba, and very thin wheat [...]

A quick reader poll, plus semi-useful information unrelated to LEGO.
1) How many of you have subscribed to the two feeds available for this blog?
2) For those of you who subscribe to either the Atom or RSS 2.0 feeds, which one do you use?
3) Finally, do you prefer short descriptions or long descriptions in your feeds?
Okay, [...]

The Legend of Zelda holds a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. First, like lots of people my age, I remember playing the game back in the eighties.
Second, I’ve actually had the privilege of working on a Zelda game. So, fast forward nearly twenty years, and I land at Nintendo of [...]

May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan. Although called “Children’s Day” today, this day was in the past Boy’s Day, so many Boy’s Day traditions continue to be celebrated on May 5th. One such tradition is to fly multi-colored carp streamers, or koinobori — one for each male child in the household.
Japanese blogger inago100 has [...]

(Today we’ll be introducing Joe Vig to Japanese LEGO builders. For an English introduction to Joe, read all about him on LUGNET.)
Brickshelf や LUGNET のヴィネット作品で、Joe Vig（ジョー・ヴィグ)という人物を見かけることがあります。ジョー・ヴィグとは何者なのでしょうか？今日は普通の和英の説明に変わって、ジョー・ヴィグを日本のレゴファンの皆様にご紹介したいと思います

ジョーは世界一アンラッキーで周囲に無頓着なレゴキャラなのです。彼は常に周りで何が起ころうとしているのか、わかっていません。強烈な電磁石のように悪運を引きつけますが、危険意識はゼロ！しかし残念ながら、今にも悪いことがおころうとしています。気をつけろ、ジョー！
ジョー・ヴィグの故事来歴：
ジョー・ヴィグはマイク・クラウリー氏（Mike Crowley）およびイリザリ兄弟ネルソンとパトリック（Nelson and Patrick Yrizarry）の意図に基づいているものです。元のアイデアは単純なレゴフィグを作り、Joe Food（食べ物ジョー）と名付け、付近のレストランで写真を撮ることでした。その写真をウェブに載してあちらこちらで現れてることを見せびらかしたかったのです。
いろんなことが重なってジョー・ヴィグは LUGNET のヴィネット作品の登場人物になりました。その結果で名前を「ジョー・ヴィグ」に変えました。（「ヴィグ」は「ヴィネット」の省略で、もちろん実在・架空の人物の名前ではありません。）
ジョー・ヴィグのアイデアには好意的な反響が大きく、間もなく世界中のレゴファンがジョー・ヴィグのヴィネットを作り始めました。２００５年の６月にLUGNET .vignette グループの管理者たちは第一回 [ジョー・ヴィグコンテスト] を開きました。将来もジョー・ヴィグを多くの作品で見ることを期待しています。
ジョー・ヴィグの作り方：
さて、皆さんも自分のヴィネットにジョー・ヴィグを使ってみませんか？

髪の毛は茶色 ‘Minifig Hair Male’。帽子・ヘルメットなどを冠っている場合は白。
頭はレゴ ハリポタ系からの黄色の ロン・ウィーズリー フィグ。
胴は赤（手は黄色）。
ズボンは青。
ジョーはもちろんアレンジにも気がつかない人物ですが、頭、胴、足は上記の部品を使用してください。また、ジョーは帽子をかぶるのが好きですが、色は”白”に限られています。
次に何が起こるのか？！
ジョーに何が起こるかはレゴファンの皆さん次第です。このプロジェクトの目的は創造力とヴィネット製作を啓蒙することですが、大事なのは楽しむこと！です。
それでは、ジョーに何かが起こる直前を表現したヴィネットを作りましょう！ジョーが気づいていない、ということに注意！
（ネルソンさんが LUGNET のために書いた文章をもとにこの記事を書きました。LUGNET の新しい 日本語版を編集して下さった Izzoさんにも大変有り難く思います。)

Bruce just posted a Valentine’s Day vignette by mumu, so why am I posting about it here on Pan-Pacific Bricks? Isn’t Valentine’s Day common to both the U.S. and Japan? Look closely at the minifigs in this vignette:

In Japan, girls are the ones expected to give chocolate to boys — not the other way around. [...]

Who knew that SpongeBob SquarePants was even broadcast in Japan? I didn’t, but apparently it is. As images of the new LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants line have trickled out, Japanese LEGO bloggers have weighed in.
Legolife posts his excitement for the line, stating that he assumed the SpongeBob theme would be DUPLO. As English-speaking LEGO fans on [...]

I did a little experiment a couple weeks back because I wasn’t satisfied with the quality of my LEGO photography. In the process, I discovered that I have very specific ideas about what makes for good LEGO photography and Brickshelf posting practices. This is pretty long, so skip it if you’re not interested.
When you take [...]

One thing I really like about Sugegasa’s blog is that he presents practical tips on LEGO-related issues ranging from organization to photography. About a month ago, he posted a couple pictures of how he takes pictures of his LEGO creations. What I noticed immediately is that he uses a fluorescent desk lamp to illuminate the [...]

Yes, that’s right, one hundred — count ‘em, they’re numbered! — questions. This poll or questionnaire has been making the rounds of Japanese LEGO blogs and home pages recently, and there’s really only one question that’s uniquely applicable to Japanese LEGO fans (#35), so I thought I’d take a crack at an English version.
1) Why [...]