Gidro aho, Dearest Readers!
As you know, I am the intern for The Brothers Brick. Yes, I am a lemur and I’m here to answer your questions regarding LEGO, the fan community and inner workings of The Brothers Brick. Talking to you all is truly a highlight for me. I look forward to it all week long! I have finally gotten caught up on my backlog of lemur loot. I just put the last pile on Simon’s desk and will ask him to mail it out tomorrow on his way to the airport. He is heading out to get ready for his weekend with the lucky winner of our “Win a Weekend with Simon” promotion. It was one of our most popular events yet. We had to set aside the conference room for entry overflow because the mail room couldn’t handle the flood.
Remember to post your questions in the comments. Each week I will be sending some loot out to the people who ask my favorite questions!
Now on to the good stuff.
Are you aware of any plans for a new brick separator tool?
I am not aware of any plans for a new official brick separator. LEGO upgraded their separator recently and I doubt they would change it again so soon. But, really, you never know. The new version is interesting. It feels a bit more flimsy than the old one but it has new features, such as being able to use the end of the handle to remove tiles and having a short technic axle on the back so you can push pins out.
I recently found out about a third party brick tool called The Brick Popper. I haven’t gotten my paws on one yet but it looks like it could be rather useful, especially for removing plates. Anyone out there have one? I’d like to hear if it is any good. I’ve been using my teeth to remove really troublesome plates and the contributors are getting irritated by the teeth marks.
How come I find both kinds of jumper plates (with and without groove) in one colour in the same set?
This is an excellent question! LEGO has multiple molds for most of their pieces. The exact number varies as the more common pieces need more molds while lesser used pieces need fewer molds. Each mold is good for thousands and thousands of shots and will last many years. However, eventually the mold wears out and has to be replaced.
LEGO often uses this opportunity to update the piece, sometimes making small upgrades and other times making drastic changes. However, whatever changes are made cannot be made to the other molds and they generally remain in use for the rest of their service life. This results in variations of the same piece being issued at the same time and often in the same set. As the old molds wear out, they are replaced by the new version and the eventually all the pieces are the same, at least until another change is made.
Is it true that the Brothers Brick compound used to be located on a far-off private island, but was relocated as a result of one of Iain’s disastrous experiments that caused the island to be overrun with giant twerking squidbots?
This is true. It was terribly frightening. What is seen cannot be unseen, you know. However it wasn’t just Iain’s fault. Ralph had his hand in the pot as well. Over evening cocktails, the two of them were arguing as to whether or not self-replicating robotic squids were culturally relevant. They came to the conclusion that having the ability to “twerk” would solve the problem.
Unfortunately, once the squids were activated it was impossible to stop them, especially since they quickly learned how to use cell-phones to document and share their gyrations on Youtube. The superstructure of TBB-1 seriously compromised and it was deemed advisable to abandon the facility and relocate to the current location. The strength of the evening cocktails was also reduced to safer, more sane levels.