Monthly Archives: April 2009

Fedde is ready for some Big Jobs

LEGO construction thingie

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:

LEGO utility tractor

LEGO wants to hear from you! [News]

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

Take the Survey

The Brick Side comics

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

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.


Lictor's Ship

The steepest inclines

Dandens LEGO cog rail

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.

Renault A442 speeds to victory

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!

Bjarne Tveskov builds a mini LEGO iMac G4 for Apple + LEGO + Pixar goodness

Classic Space LEGO designer Bjarne Tveskov (tveskov.com) has posted a wonderful little iMac G4 “Junior”:

Apple iMac G4 in LEGO

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 rolls out the Champion MBT

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?

Lego Tank

The Warhog

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!

Warhog

Only one man would dare give me the raspberry...

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.

Spaceballs Eagle V

The locomotion

Carl Greatrixs LEGO loco

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.

Death from Above

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?

Lego death from above