The interesting colors that I found in these sets are medium azure, medium lavender, bright pink, and light aqua (when adjectives are used on colors that don’t come in a Crayola 8-pack, you know it’s a treat for the palette). Although previous LEGO themes for girls included unique colors, they were wasted on useless parts such as large castle turrets and giant facades. Fortunately, LEGO learned from their mistake and concluded that girls are no less competent than boys at using standard LEGO elements. As a result, LEGO Friends includes the usual mix of LEGO parts like bricks, tiles, and cheese slopes in glorious psychedelic colors.

While the new colors are certainly exciting, the same cannot be said for the figures. These anorexic Barbie counterparts may be tolerated by their target audience, but LEGO fans who value the modularity of the traditional minifig will be disappointed to see that only the hairpieces on the new figures are compatible with the minifig. LEGO has proven that they can make excellent female minifigs, and I don’t think fans (both kids and adults) will be disappointed in having regular minifigs in these sets.

If you’re a connoisseur of exotic colors and eager to try new color schemes, then Friends is the best thing to have happened to LEGO in years. Even the price per parts ratio on these sets is decently low and won’t break your wallet. The only question remains on what to do with those dismal doll-things. Reply on what you would do with the Friends figures and The Brothers Brick will send all of mine to the person with the most creative comment. Stay tuned for more reviews of the line.

UPDATE: the winning comment comes from lady_brickster, who says: “well, once i’d taken away their hairstyles, i guess i would create an island of bald amazonian women.”

The 12th issue of HispaBrick Magazine is available now

In this issue you will have the opportunity to learn more about Mike Doyle and his abandoned houses, trains created by Anthony Sava, the robots of Simon Burfield and the game Super Robo Rally by Steve Hassenplug. You will learn about efficiencient LEGO Technic structures by Oton Ribic and everything related to 9V motors by Philo.

We interviewed the Croatian creator Matija Grguric and present our new section “Pillars of the community” with an interview of the people behind Eurobricks.

You will see a little of the history of the Town / City and Train themes, a celebration of the third anniversary of Panzerbricks, and our participation in different events. There is also the introduction to Robotics with LEGO MINDSTORMS (IX), our comic Desmontados, various reviews, and an exclusive presentation of two new 2012 City sets!

All this and more in HBM012

Anyway, I always like to learn more about the LEGO vendors and custom accessory makes who populate the brick “ecosystem,” so it was great to run across an interview with Kyle Peterson on one of my favorite non-LEGO blogs, MAKE.

I hear some 3rd party manufacturers of Lego accessories recycle old bricks in their ABS, grinding them up and adding them to the molten plastic. Can you talk a little about this?

Obviously the ABS has to come from somewhere. BrickForge deals with very large production runs – thus we use specifically dyed ABS pellets during the self-contained, automated injection process. Other vendors may use a smaller, lightweight injection press for smaller production runs. This requires a manual feed of plastic into the hopper. Either the artisan has to purchase pre-mixed pellets (that match the LEGO color palette) or simply grind up and smelt existing LEGO brick. The first option is expensive, the second option is time consuming (not to mention having to deal with toxic fumes).

Read the complete interview on the MAKE Blog.

I’m a big fan of tilt-rotors, though I hear this is properly called a tilt-wing. Either way, the tilting adds a fun little activity, when swooshing this thing around.

Relating a story about taking his son to work one day during a time when his wife felt he was spending too much time at work, his son says that Dad “plays with Legos all day.”

I can imagine little scenes like this one by David McNeely scattered around Kojima’s design studio…

Read more on Joystiq (via Kotaku).

Wait. I’m kidding. Sleep never enters the equation.

BrickCon has morphed quite a bit for me from my first event to now. I began attending BrickCon in 2005 (it was NorthWest BrickCon at that point). The ENTIRE event fit into the Rainier Room, which now is just the general assembly room. This year marked my seventh BrickCon and ninth overall event.

Time flies when you’re having fun, right?

What’s also changed quite a bit for me is how I experience BrickCon. In the beginning, I was simply an attendee. I registered, I went, I showed off my MOCs, and I went on my merry way. I’d help out coordinating the Castle display when I could. But in 2009, that changed. At one of the SEALUG meetings, it was mentioned that they needed someone to coordinate prizes. “I can do that,” I thought. So I stepped up.

So there’s the story of how I became Prize Coordinator for BrickCon. I can blame (thank?) Sean Forbes for the “Prize Goddess” moniker, and that’s the one that stuck.

Determining which prize goes what, where, and to who is an entirely scientific process, but not really. It’s taking a look once again at what I have to work with and spreading it across the four major ceremonies that have door prizes (Opening, Keynote, Awards, Closing). Making sure those are dividing properly and separate from what goes to the public is important, too. Part of my job ensures that any incoming prizes are dividing amongst the various pools, too, so that one event isn’t too overloaded. I try and keep Closing as short as possible, too, since by that time people typically are packing to head home.

This year we added a sort of “Santa Claus” prize pool for public and private hours. During the public hours, volunteers would wander around the crowds and hand small sets (provided by the con) and kid’s t-shirts (provided by the LEGO Store in Bellevue) to the kids. Watching their faces was amazing; the look of disbelief was typically first, followed by the giant smile. There was some suspicion that the gifts were completely free, but it was pretty easy to work around. Anyone who passed out those prizes had the same smile.

It’s incredibly busy working with the prizes. In terms of BrickCon, if it didn’t involve prizes, I typically had no information or clue about it. My focus was prizes; I needed to be available to receive incoming donations and prep for the next assembly. I had enough time in between assemblies to enjoy spending time with my friends and enjoying BrickCon for what it is.

Thanks to Joe Meno, Andrew Becraft, and Bill Ward for their photos!

Nearly every post I’ve written on this blog, every line of code, and every photo I’ve taken has made its way through the MacBook sitting here on my lap. But more importantly, Jobs inspired a generation of creative professionals to do amazing things with their imaginations. And no matter what kind of computer or mobile device you’re reading this from, I know that’s something all of you out there can relate to.

Chris is a prominent builder, well-versed in multiple themes, and has been a member of the LEGO fan community for many years. He has a very good eye for a well-built creation and has been an innovator in the photography of Lego builds. And to top all that, he is a great guy. He is well-respected on numerous fan sites and is an excellent friend. I am truly excited to have him on the team.

Please join us in welcoming our newest Brother!

Andrew (TBB) and Ace (FBTB) are on the official panel, but other staff from both sites will be there as well.

This will take place at 2 o’clock, Sunday afternoon, in the Orcas room (aka Classroom A). This will only be open to attendees, not people who come in during public hours.

Also be aware that things will probably be a little quieter around here through the weekend. I know most of us always mean to post in the evenings but fan conventions are tiring affairs. I seldom feel like opening the laptop when I get back to the hotel.

Lastly, if you are attending BrickCon and see one of us walking about, feel free to introduce yourself. We love to meet our readers. See you at the Con!

Mark says, “After the first wing section slipped off the SHIP and crashed to the ground for a second time, I realized another solution was going to be necessarry.”

Don’t worry — Mark didn’t actually smash his next masterpiece, so we’ll look forward to featuring the finished model here when it’s done.

This display was only complete for a couple of days during BrickFair, and the components have since retired to our separate homes. Hopefully, the diorama is as fun to look at as it was to build. We tried to add enough details and action to keep kids entertained when viewing the display, because their reactions make it worthwhile.

The Ladybird Hovertank (above) was one of my first MOCs when I joined the online community in late 2004. It was part of a series of bley sci-fi creations that introduced my works to the internet. Below it is my latest creation called The Chaos Machine; it is a good example of my current and changed building style.

I chose to compare these two MOCs because of their shared subject matter, size, and build time of half a day. That aside, here are the differences:

• Photography: to me this is the first impression that a MOC gives. In real life you can have a face that looks like it was sculpted, but if you dress like a bum, people will think you’re one. While the photography of the Ladybird was not a deal breaker, it could have benefitted from elimination of the shadows through diffused (rather than direct) lighting and perhaps a white background, which you can achieve through many ways of photoediting. For detailed directions, you can refer to instructions by nnenn and Fredoichi.
• Color scheme and accents: when I stepped into the online scene during the introduction of bley, I decided to become the master of this new color that everyone seemed to loathe. I got as far as the Project Bley Mecha and Tripod Droid before I realized I needed color (which happened to be black). A few years later, my collection was almost exclusively bley and black, which was about as dry as pizza crusts and sandwich bread. From then on, I have been introducing color into my builds. I use neutral colors for the backbone bricks and add about two colors on top of that. A small bit of additional colors for accenting such as the pink eye and dark orange grill goes a long way to give character to a MOC.
• Asymmetry: The Chaos Machine is my first truly asymmetrical sci-fi craft. It was originally planned to be a symmetrical hovertank, but the already repetitive and symmetrical hoverpads should not support another symmetrical body. Asymmetry can be used in subtle ways or in a full-blown manner. It doesn’t have to be in every ship or vehicle, but it should be used to draw the right amount of interest.
• Color blocking: having interesting color combos without organization is the same as a rainbow warrior. I learned this through a gradual process of building with defined sections of the same color and using different colors to signify different components. This may not be intuitive, but it’s never too early to be aware.
• NPU: the term “Nice Parts Usage” may be cliché, but the idea itself is always new. Although the term was originally coined to describe a part used cleverly in a different circumstance, many builders nowadays see it as the phrase suggests: a good use of a part. In the Ladybird, the only NPU was the dark red trash can on the main cannon, but The Chaos Machine features Ninjago spinners, purple spikes, and a few other pieces that don’t appear often in MOCs. Their purpose is to again draw interest to the MOC and reward those who examine it. However, keep in mind that it’s never a good idea to strive for NPU if the part will stick out like a sore thumb. Keep it integrated with the rest of the creation.
• Patience: don’t rush the build and don’t despair for a lack of feedback. Place a Brinklink order for a part that could drastically improve the build, spend more time editing the photo (or just edit the photo), and view the MOC with a fresh pair of eyes in a day or two if you’re not entirely satisfied with the initial build. When you post your first MOC, don’t expect to be showered with praise unless your name is Mike Doyle. I received 3 comments to date when I posted the Ladybird on MOCpages (and one of them was spam). Build for the fun and challenge :)

That said, keep in mind that interpreting a MOC is always a subjective experience. Some may find the Ladybird more appealing while others may find both hovertanks equally enjoyable or repulsive (hopefully not simultaneously). Find what works for you and be open-minded to change.

This issue is packed with goodies and it’s all free! There is a literal plethora of articles including, among other things, the Arvo brothers‘ Mini Moog, Firas Abu-Jaber’s vehicles, a history of classic Space, 5 set reviews and interviews with Barney Main (AKA SlyOwl), Jamie Berard and Tormod Askildsen.