Yearly Archives: 2009

LEGO Ambassadors Cycle 7 nomination process for The Brothers Brick [News]

UPDATE: Voting is now underway for this cycle.

——–

As LEGO announced earlier today, nominations are now open for the 2009/2010 or “Cycle 7” of the LEGO Ambassadors Program. To keep things manageable, I’m posting the process we’ll be using here on The Brothers Brick separately from LEGO’s announcement.

LEGO Ambassadors logo First, some of you may be wondering what the LEGO Ambassadors Program is. Glossing over LEGO’s official definition, the program is designed to gather feedback from LEGO fans and provide that feedback to The LEGO Group. Although communication from LEGO does occasionally flow back to LEGO fans, the primary purpose is to flow information to LEGO — product and quality feedback, suggestions, demographic data about the adult fan community, and so on.

Second, I won’t be accepting any nominations myself to be a LEGO Ambassador for the next cycle. I still believe in the value of the program, but I’d like to focus my LEGO energies more directly on The Brothers Brick, Classic-Castle.com, SEALUG, and the other LEGO fan communities I belong to.

Third, we learned from the way we did things last year and we’re making a few adjustments. Feel free to discuss these changes and make suggestions, and we can make further tweaks along the way, if necessary.

Finally, an online community like ours that’s centered around a blog has some unique considerations that are different from other LEGO fan communities, such as online forums or offline LEGO clubs. Before we begin nominating people to represent The Brothers Brick in the LEGO Ambassadors program, I want to share a few thoughts based on the discussions and nominations last year.

The successful nominee must be able to communicate with you, the readers. Practically speaking, this means the LEGO Ambassador would need to be a contributor to The Brothers Brick.
That’s not to say that the successful nominee must be a current contributor! In the open and democratic process I’d like to see us follow, it’s possible that you may nominate and ultimately vote for someone like an active commenter instead of a current contributor. This may mean bringing the nominee on board as a team member.
This is the nomination process for The Brothers Brick; other LEGO fan communities will be nominating LEGO Ambassadors themselves. I’d like to ask you to avoid nominating LEGO fans who aren’t active here in this community in some way. Being a regular reader or even being blogged frequently doesn’t necessarily equate with being an active participant.
As the Editor-in-Chief, my commitment is to bring you a high-quality LEGO blog experience. To ensure this for all of you, I must reserve the right to say “No” occasionally — including bringing someone on to the team who doesn’t share our blogging philosophy or vision.

Phew! Enough words from me.

Here’s how this is going to work on The Brothers Brick:

Between now and June 10 at 9:00 PM Pacific Time, leave a comment on this post with your suggestions for people who you would like to see nominated. Nominating is not the same as voting.
On June 10, I’ll tabulate all of the nominations. Each nominee must receive two additional comments of support to move on to the voting stage.
Between June 10 and June 13, I’ll contact each nominee for a brief bio and “platform.”
On or before ~~June 13~~ June 17, I’ll post the bios, platforms, and a public poll so all readers can vote on who they want to represent them.
On June 27, we’ll close the voting to ensure we have enough time to create the nomination package that The Brothers Brick will submit on the nominees’ behalf.
On or before July 1, we will submit up to three nominees for consideration by The LEGO Group.
Around July 8, LEGO will announce their picks for the next cycle of the Ambassadors program.

Okay, readers, nominate away!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Nominations open for LEGO Ambassadors Program Cycle 7 (2009/2010) [News]

First, the complete announcement from The LEGO Group:

Hello LEGO Enthusiasts,

We’re happy to announce that the nomination process for LEGO Ambassador Cycle 7 is now open.

The LEGO Ambassador Program is designed to give the AFOL Community a direct line into the LEGO Company. The Program is essentially a gathering of community representatives that speak on behalf of the larger communities they are a part of. This group is able to bring forward the interests, concerns and questions directly to LEGO Employees.

Who’s allowed to nominate?

Any AFOL Community Group (online or on the map) will have the opportunity to submit nominations from their group (up to 3 people if they so choose). Not everyone can be selected for the program in order to keep the group manageable.

If you choose to submit a nomination it does not mean that your candidate will be chosen, but it does mean that your group will have just as much an opportunity to get involved in having a direct representative in the LEGO Ambassador Program. We will try to get a diverse group of people who are able to represent the whole AFOL community as good as possible.

Groups can certainly nominate someone already in the Ambassador Program, but the program has a two term limit in order to opportunites for more people to be involved. After a term out of the program, a previous Ambassador can be re-nominated (this rule only started with cycle 6 so all current Ambassadors are still eligible).

A group that submits a nomination for the LEGO Ambassador program should be established and known within the LEGO Community.

What should a nomination have in it?

Name and age of the nominee.

Where is the nominee from?

Which Group does this nominee represent?

Does this person consent to being nominated (Please do not submit a nomination on behalf of someone you have not discussed with beforehand).

Explanation of who the nominees are, what their activities are, and why they would be a good representative of their community (at least 3 testimonials from members of nominating group are required)

Key interests of the nominee (themes, building styles, and some examples of their building)

NEW!!! Platform – The nominations should now include a list of the goals that the nominee and the community he/she represents are looking to accomplish as part of the program. Remember the LEGO Ambassador Program is all about the AFOL community having representation into the LEGO Group, so this is an effort to have you think ahead as to what you really think would benefit your communities the most.

When is the Nomination Due?

July 1, 2009 by midnight GMT. If a nomination is received after this time it will be automatically rejected. The new cycle will be announced on approximately July 8, 2009.

Who Should the Nominations be sent too?

Nominations should be sent directly to steve@lego.com

What might a LEGO Ambassador be committing too?

LEGO Ambassadors are committing to represent their communities interests to the LEGO Group.

There are projects that Ambassadors can take part in, it is up to the individual to decide what they may or may not be interested in working on. It all comes down to how they feel they can best represent their community.

Online discussions will be held for the Entire group of Ambassadors that will include members of the LEGO Community Team and other LEGO Employees as well.

In order to get the most out of the program you should be willing to give some time to in order to help discussions along. If you don’t give time to it then you may not be dishonoring the nomination you received from the community.

There is no NDA requirement to take part in the LEGO Ambassador Program for Cycle 7. There may be an instance where a special project will come up and the Ambassadors may have to sign an NDA to participate in that, but it will take place in a separate forum in order to limit confusion as to what can be said outside of the Ambassador program. Otherwise, anything shared in Ambassador Discussions can be shared with the AFOL Community.

This next session of the Ambassador Program will last approximately one year.
Thank you all. Your nominations are very valuable for helping the LEGO Community Team choose the next round of LEGO Ambassadors.

Steve Witt – LEGO Ambassador Lead
&
Tormod, Jan, Jim, Lenka, and Phil
The LEGO Community Team

Next, I’ll be posting separately about how this is going to work here on The Brothers Brick. (And to consolidate comments where they’re most relevant, I’m going to lock comments on this first post.)

LEGO to release ‘Ben 10: Alien Force’ sets, due out spring 2010 [News]

According to Animation Magazine, Lego has brokered a deal with The Cartoon Network. According to a press release from LEGO, Ben 10: Alien Force LEGO sets are coming in 2010.

Now I admit that I’m out of the loop on this. I’m not an afficiando of the Cartoon Network. Is this a good thing or bad thing?

Thanks to Bruce of MicroBricks for the heads up. Also thanks to Ean for the press release link.

Nanny’s had her scumble

More great custom Discworld minifigs by captainsmog. This time capturing the earthiness of Gytha Ogg and the stern visage of Esme Weatherwax, witches of Lancre.

Also check out his new Death 2.0 and brick-built Death of Rats.

Harrison’s Sonic Screwdriver can open any LEGO door

Harrison (corran101) says he’s been on a bit of a Doctor Who kick lately. His life-size sonic screwdriver would fit perfectly in the Doctor’s hand.

See more of Harrison’s Dr. Who LEGO creations on Flickr.

Mace Windu gets his ride pimped

Kevin (Legorevolution) combines a whole bunch of rare chrome-gold LEGO elements with an excellent microscale cityscape for this wonderful scene featuring everyone’s favorite purple-lightsaber-wielding Jedi.

A chrome-gold C-3PO head serves as the hood ornament on the speeder piloted by “Lord Bamfness”.

Mecha ambush in the jungle

Carter Baldwin presents a jungle ambush scene involving the attack by two suited mechas on a tank. The action is well defined and the jungle ruins atmosphere is no short of exotic.

Post-Coup Cleanup on Aisle 5

Young Belgian builder imagelego has recently branched out from small military vignettes and vehicles into this detail-rich diorama of an African city in the aftermath of political upheaval.

The mere search for interesting subject matter set in new locations is fantastic. And the quality of photography and build sure doesn’t hurt.

The Brothers Brick Brother

I am Thanel, Andrew’s brother, and I am both honored and privileged to be accepted as the newest of new regular contributors to The Brothers Brick (TBB). As Andrew mentioned in his introduction, it’s true that part of the reason I’ve been brought on board is because of that familial relationship. But there’s another reason: I’m the noob brother.

As he and I have talked over the years and I have recently become more involved in commenting on TBB, going to my local LEGO user group (SandLUG) meetings, setting up a Flickr account (Yupa-sama) and extracting my LEGO from under my wife’s Barbie collection, the idea of becoming a regular contributor chronicling my journey out of my dim ages evolved. Gary McIntire, Legoland California Master Model Builder, deserves credit for giving me the term “dim ages” as the most apt description of the past fifteen years.

For you noobs, dabblers, non-builders, set-only builders, daydreamers, dismissed, “silent majority,” downtrodden and oppressed: You are my peeps. I will publicly humiliate myself in order to smooth your path toward enlightenment. Or the dark side. Whatever.

What you can expect from me:

Tips, reviews and essays based on experiences like sorting my collection after years of neglect, building/posting MOCs for the first time, and exploring both the on and off-line LEGO community.
Regional news reporting like Comic-Con, events at Legoland California, and Southern California LUG meetings.
Posts of my “traditional” LEGO interests like classic castle, space, pirates, adventurers and Star Wars, though I am increasingly falling in love with modern and historical city building.
My non-LEGO interests expressed in LEGO: Culture, sub-culture, counter-culture and multi-culture. I’m generally just fascinated by people and how they interact, which in this context will be about how those themes play out in LEGO. Oh, and Discworld.
I hope to help expand the AFOL community into new under-explored fields, by promoting, inspiring and bringing in builders who want to do the same. Bring LEGO to the heathen and the heathen to LEGO.

Fresh blood is good (ask any vampire) and I dream that someday I’ll be an old AFOL fogey and when somebody else comes along to freshen things up I can be snarky about their noobishness.

Some of you may already know this, but “Thanel” is not my real name. Unlike many people, in my particular line of work (alas, not secret agency), online networking can be quite detrimental. Connecting with clients personally and repeat business are distinctly bad ideas, so I’d rather keep my real name on the D.L. as much as possible. I’m happy to reveal my secret identity if I meet you in person, and obviously online as Andrew’s brother. I would just like to keep my explicit electronic signature to a minimum and am going to withhold the location of my underground lair.

I exist and am a reasonably good guy.

Please welcome my brother to The Brothers Brick!

Ever since I recruited Josh and we renamed our newly relaunched blog “The Brothers Brick,” I thought it would be awesome to have my real-life brother join us. Call me sentimental, but it just made sense.

Our LEGO brotherhood has been a circuitous journey that goes back more than 30 years. When he was barely walking, Thanel (not his real name; he’ll explain why) destroyed my 381 Police Headquarters by climbing up to my top bunk, where I’d built it, and pushing it off to the floor below. I was devastated.

When he was old enough to have his own LEGO, our rivalry continued.

My Crusaders and Forestmen waged endless battles against his Black Falcons on our bedroom floor, complete with movement rules and hit points to track who was winning — at least a decade before BrikWars. We also built collaboratively, combining our collections for moonbases and medieval landscapes that rival in size (if not in building skills) some of the largest dioramas we regularly feature here.

As we grew older and each entered varied levels of Dark Ages, LEGO remained a point of commonality — graduation and birthday gifts to each other, and conversations about the latest Wild West and Adventurers sets we saw in stores.

All that is in the past, though. Looking to the future, I’m very pleased to announce that Thanel is joining The Brothers Brick as our newest contributor. One of the main things he’ll be documenting with his posts will be his emergence from LEGO isolation into the broader LEGO fan community — both online and offline. I think this is a different perspective from that of our other contributors, each recruited for their deep ties to various LEGO fan communities.

It’s also a point of view shared by many of you readers out there. Where do I start? Is there a LEGO club in my area? What’s it feel like to post that first work-in-progress LEGO creation and have it ripped apart? Thanel will be working to answer those questions.

But enough from me! Let’s hear from Thanel himself.

LEGO Harry Potter Video Game announced at E3 2009 [News]

It’s no surprise that there’s lots of video game news this week. The industry expo, E3, is happening June 2 through 4 in Los Angeles, California. Today’s big news is the announcement by Warner Bros. and TT Games of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4.

No details on platforms or a more specific release date than “2010”.

Via Kotaku.

Toy Story 3 teaser features LEGO bricks

The teaser trailer for Toy Story 3 features LEGO bricks, how cool is that?

Via Eurobricks