About A Lemur

I’m The Brothers Brick’s intern lemur, and I'm ready for a promotion -- these bricks don't sort themselves!

Posts by A Lemur

A. Lemur explains it all, episode 1: What a bunch of AFOLs! [Feature]

Hello, I’m A. Lemur and I’m The Brother’s Brick mascot. Our newer readers might be saying; what the heck is going on here? Admittedly, the last time I gabbed at ya, Adele’s 25 won Album of the Year, and everyone was getting all saucy with Fifty Shades of Gray. You see, I got into a poo slingin’ altercation with my neighbor and, as a result, was sent to the lemur pokey for a while. But, as per my court-ordered community service, I’m here to teach you about some common LEGO acronyms you may have heard at conventions or right here on our own pages.

MOC – what does that mean?

A MOC is the common term for something that is My Own Creation. This is when you take LEGO and design your own thingamabob without instructions. This can be achieved with the LEGO you may already have or through orders from our friends over at Brickset or Bricklink. Keep in mind that this is not simply building a LEGO set, although it’s totally OK to do that. Most LEGO folks young and old just build sets and display them proudly on their shelves. But a MOCer-that is a breed apart! You can usually identify them at LEGO conventions by their brick badges, thousand-yard stare, and the demeanor of someone who generally can’t be trusted with the undergarment section of a Sears catalog. The last MOC I made got me kicked out of my local LUG because those sweaty nerds just don’t know good art when they see it!

Wait, what’s a LUG?

A LUG means LEGO Users Group. There are LUGs all over the globe and it’s a great way to get together with like-minded friends, usually in a library or other public spaces (that incidentally also host Poo-Slingers Anonymous meetings) to talk about LEGO sales and happenings, and show off your newest MOCs. If you are so inclined, get yourself on the Google and discover LUGs in your area. From there you can behold the aforementioned thousand-yard stare as someone there is sure to completely nerd out over NPU.

Which brings us to NPU

This means Nice Part Usage. This is when someone very cleverly uses LEGO bricks in unconventional ways to illustrate a complex shape or detail. Our contributors are forever going on about NPU in our articles. That means job security for us. I’m pretty sure if they didn’t have that to talk about, they’d otherwise be avid and lonely gamers. There is nothing more soul-crushing than playing a board game by yourself when someone walks in on your one-handed solo campaign!

What a bunch of AFOLs!

And what are all those grown-ass folks called who enjoy building with LEGO? They’re known as AFOLs or Adult Fans of LEGO. These are the guys and gals you see at conventions, your local LUGs, or lurking in the toy aisle at Walmart or The LEGO Store looking for the latest and greatest LEGO sets, and pretending to buy them for their “kids”. It was once suggested that we are not AFOLs, as adult FANS of LEGO are the folks who pay to see us at conventions. Instead, they reasoned, that we are Adult Hobbyists of LEGO but that moniker didn’t stick because – well – no one likes that acronym.

That’s all I’ve got for now but stay tuned for another day as our other contributors or I will come back with explanations for other common LEGO acronyms. Wait ’til someone explains BURP to y’all! It’s a hoot! Or look it up for yourself and more in our LEGO Glossary. Thanks for reading, friends. Until next time, keep it real and trust me when I say to keep your poo in your own yard.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for February 8, 2020

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of January 2020.

We go behind the scenes with LEGO Masters’ judges, Jamie Berard and Amy Corbett. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS, FEATURES AND INSTRUCTIONS: This week we revealed the results of the Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series vote, continued our three part series on LEGO Education and learned how to make our very own LEGO BD-1 droid!

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

New LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book — exclusive first look and interview [Feature]

May the 4th — Star Wars Day. Perfect timing to take an exclusive first look at the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book. Galactic Missions comes with a new Cloud Car model and Bespin Guard minifigure, and the story is packed with new LEGO Star Wars models and building tips put together by The Brothers Brick’s very own Rod Gillies. The book will be available in August, and can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.

LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure

We caught up with Rod to find out more about the new book, and what it’s like for a ‘fan-builder’ to work on a project with the LEGO Star Wars team and book publisher Dorling Kindersley.

Click to read the interview and see more pictures of what’s inside the book

Ultimate LEGO Star Wars book now available – exclusive interview with the authors [News]

Ultimate LEGO Star WarsDK has just released Ultimate LEGO Star Wars, a completely new large-format reference book written by The Brothers Brick’s Senior Editor Chris Malloy and Editor-in-Chief Andrew Becraft.

The authors will be holding panel discussions and signings over the coming weeks, including at BrickCon 2017 later this week in Seattle, and we’re pleased to bring our readers the very first interview with the authors.

Continue reading →

The (building) force is strong with this one: an interview with Amado Canlas Pinlac [Interview]

Our continuing adventures led us to track down and interrogate Amado Canlas Pinlac (aka AC Pin). Amado was born in Angeles City in the Philippines, and works in the Information Technology field with previous employment with overseas airlines. He has called East Brunswick, New Jersey home for the last fifteen years, where he lives with his wife Marleth and their three sons, Milton, Marlowe and Myreon. Amado credits the support of his wife for being where he is today!

Strike the pose!

TBB: Can you tell us how you got into LEGO?

AC: First and foremost I’ve been a Star Wars fan/geek way before LEGO introduced the SW line, as I collected the Star Wars action figures, vehicles, and sets. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who’ve known me over the years that I love to build Star Wars dioramas. In fact I’ve done Action Figure dioramas and was affiliated with various SW fan sites which featured them before I even started with LEGO. One of the problems/drawbacks that I’ve had to contend with the Action Figure dioramas was there was very little or none of the re-usability factor. Around that time, when I was growing disinterested with Action Figures, LEGO started producing the first SW sets.

Continue reading →

Smashing LEGO like a Rock Star: a conversation with Canadian Iron Builder, Tim Schwalfenberg [Interview]

This week we headed up to our great neighbor to the north to track down Tim Schwalfenberg. Tim lives in Canada, is 21 years old and is currently studying Materials Engineering at his local university. He also likes to publicly smash his LEGO builds too, but more about that later.

TimSchwalfenberg

TBB: Hi Tim! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your relationship with the Brick?

Tim: Sure! I have found LEGO to be a great creative outlet when I need a break from all my calculus or physics courses. While I’ve been building almost as long as I can remember, it wasn’t until my first year of university that I started to look at LEGO with the intention of making anything beyond the rainbow-warrior spaceships of my earlier years. Through a combination of some inspiring creations I stumbled upon through MOCpages and finding myself with too much free time on my hands, I decided that to try out this LEGO thing more seriously. Thousands of pieces and hundreds of creations later the LEGO hobby has become an incredibly important part of my life. The itch to build has become a constant companion that is easily rewarded by long hours tinkering away on a table-scrap covered table.

Continue reading →

Tiny Transportation and Technic Tools: an interview with Czech builder, František Hajdekr [Interview]

This week our travels take us to South Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. There we tracked down František Hajdekr, a builder known for his small builds of big vehicles and equipment of all kinds. František lives in the town of Bavorov, with his wife and three sons. He is 39 years old, teaches high school and runs his own Youtube channel, which is loaded with lots of “how-to” LEGO videos. Let’s explore his mind a bit, shall we?

me and my wife and small bulldozer

TBB: Hello, František! How you got into LEGO and what was your first set?

František: My first set was the classic Town 6621 Fire Truck from 1984. And for a long time it was the only set that I had. Lego was not so available in my country, so I built mainly with different building blocks – Seva or metallic Merkur (Czech made).

Continue reading →

Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship: A peek into the mind of British builder Jeremy Williams [Interview]

This week we got to sit down with British builder Jeremy Williams (aka “Bricking It”). He lives in Leicester with his wife and two young sons (ages 5 and 6). He travels frequently, consulting for accounting firms and training their accountants. However, I was able to catch him between road trips and pick his brain. Come explore the mind of a builder with me!

Jeremy Williams

TBB: Hey Jeremy, can you tell us how you got into LEGO?

Jeremy: Sure – I got into LEGO as a kid, and Classic Space was my era. I spent every evening building and playing with spaceships! I also got slightly into Technic, but never Castle or City. I then abandoned LEGO as a teenager and only picked it up again six years ago after my first son was born. I figured I had an excuse again!

Continue reading →

Bricks, Bikes and a Book: a talk with German brick artist Aran Jistukawa-Hudson [Interview]

This week we talk with Aran Jitsukawa-Hudson (AKA Cole Blaq) about his art, philosophy and his life. Aran was born in Great Britain and grew up in Germany. He lives in Düsseldorf with his wife and three kids, is a cancer survivor, and attended university as an Art History student. We interviewed him 6 years ago here on The Brothers Brick, but there’s a lot to catch up on since then. He is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to publish an art book based on his Enter the Brick series. Let’s go explore the mind of a builder.

Hello, my name is...
Taggin' the turf
TBB: First of all, could you tell our readers a little bit about yourself? What got you into LEGO and what kept you there?

Aran: My real name is Aran Jitsukawa-Hudson, as some might know. My alter ego as an artist is Cole Blaq, which is a reference to a comic character and an adaption to Hip Hop language.

I am British by origin but mainly grew up in Germany. With my wonderful wife being Japanese, we’re a rich blend of cultures! Now I live in Dusseldorf, Germany, which is located at the river Rhine, north of Cologne.

Continue reading →

A conversation with Swedish superbuilder LegoJalex [Interview]

We recently had the chance to sit down with Johan Alexanderson (LegoJalex) to discuss his building style and approach to the hobby. A part-time web developer, as well as a free-lance illustrator and comic book artist, Johan is 35 years old and lives in Sweden. Come with us as we explore the mind of a builder!
Rockie
TBB: So how did you get into LEGO building?

LegoJalex: I started building about 5 years ago, after a “dark age” of about 15 years. I had a stressful time then and I really needed something to relax with, so naturally I started to build again. Building with LEGO has so many great memories for me and I really like the creativity involved. I think there are similarities with my interest in drawing and illustrating, where in both you have to think in a creative and artistic way.

Continue reading →

LEGO 3.18 mm connection analysis by New Elementary [Guest Post]

Ready to build something awesome this weekend? To inspire you with some new building techniques you may not have thought of on your own, here’s an in-depth article about the unique 3.18 mm connections available throughout the LEGO System of play. This article by Tim Johnson originally appeared on New Elementary.

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano su Old Bricks

I am sure that many people, upon seeing these models, would cite them as proof that LEGO® have lost their way “since I was a kid, when it was just bricks“. Whilst these are indeed new parts, the fact is that the changes that brought them into the LEGO System occurred in the 1970s.

3.18 mm bar connections

Read the full article after the jump

World Architecture, Al Pacino and Stealing your brother’s LEGO: a chat with Anu Pehrson [Interview]

This week we were able to talk with Anu Pehrson about her beautiful architectural builds, as well as many other aspects of the hobby. Anu lives in Seattle with her husband David and volunteers a lot of time to help make many different behind-the-scenes aspects of BrickCon run smoothly. She is a very easy person to talk to. If you ever get the chance, spend some time with her. You will be well-rewarded. Until then, however, this interview will have to do! Let’s dive in and explore the mind of a builder.

Tiger's Nest Monastery, Paro Taktsang 1.2

TBB: Can you give our readers some background on yourself? What is it about LEGO that draws you to it?

Anu: I’m from India. Growing up, there wasn’t much Lego to play with. Someone had gifted my brother a Lego systems set that I commandeered. Every time I sat down with the set, I tried to build something different. That’s how the story of building my own creations started. Then came my dark ages and in 2001 I moved to Seattle where I found Lego in abundance and rekindled my love for building. I built by myself for a few years and then accidently found the local LUG, BrickCon and the online Lego community. I see Lego as more of a medium of Art, rather than a child’s toy. Something that can be used to express one’s feelings, maybe like paint for a painter… As I build more, I use its limitations of being a finite piece of plastic to push its own limits and try to give models an organic and natural feel. Some of the newer parts definitely help in this process.

Continue reading →