Not so long ago we previewed the LEGO Adventure Book by Megan Rothrock (megzter). Today we bring you a review. The tl;dr version can be summed up simply: buy this book
EDIT: I should mention that I received my review copy of this book from the publishers.
To judge a book by its cover, The LEGO Adventure Book: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs and more! is a very nice book. A good shiny hardback, with glossy pictures (see above), and a surprising amount of heft. And the printing quality once you open the cover does not disappoint either. So let’s proceed to discussing the content.
The book warms us up with some technically simple (as far as the book goes), but very cute builds by Megan herself. I particularly like the way she shows off a number of small models buildable by just about any kid. To warn you right off, a lot of the builds in this book do require a grown-up’s collection. It may not be the best gift for an impatient kid who just likes to have models for his/her shelf, but I know that I would have loved this book as a child. Even if I couldn’t have built anything I would have spent hours copying ideas and techniques, like I used to with the LEGO World Show brochures.
Like its inspiration, the book follows the story of Meg and her adventures in the world’s of LEGO building. The narrative is cute, with conversation bubbles used to highlight broad ideas and other extra details. Meg travels from world to world (ie. builder to builder) showing off models and sharing ideas and instructions at each stop.
As I highlighted in my preview, the book contains models from a bunch of splendid builders, most of whom have been featured here on TBB. Even as someone who finds reverse engineering of LEGO models pretty easy I spotted a wide variety of techniques and ideas (not to mention the excellent models) that were new to me. For a novice builder it would be a great kickstart into the world of advanced techniques.
The instructions in the book are very clear on the whole, albeit not as step-by-step as LEGO’s (I personally prefer the steps in this book). I particularly liked the drawn addition of brick borders to photo instructions where the seams were not clearly visible. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that LEGO’s instruction makers could take some clarity tips from this book.
Really, there’s not a lot I can fault this book on, and a whole lot I can praise it for. As far as I’m concerned this is even better than the old Ideas Books. By taking it to the fans, Megan exposes us to a wider range of styles, techniques and builds than would ever be allowed in an ‘official’ book.
Which brings me back to the beginning: if you are an adult fan of LEGO, or have a kid who loves LEGO (and is patient, or has a patient parent) then you should buy this book. Preferably from Amazon.com
I already have my copy of this book. It’s fantastic. And I loved getting the free electronic version with it.
I got my copy last week, and I thought it was pretty neat. I think a lot of the step-by-step stuff is pretty advanced, but it can certainly get people thinking about different possibilities, even if they don’t have the pieces to do an exact model.