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 2: A call for art! [Feature]

The last time I rapped at y’all an interesting thing happened. Whether it be diverse representation in the Friends line, or the minifigures that come in LEGO Star Wars Microfighters sets, folks online sure have opinions about it. The consensus of said opinions on my last post, at least the ones that chose to share them anyway, was that they didn’t like me or the accompanying AI-generated image of me chitchatting and being as cool as a cucumber. As for not liking me, we did our own scientific research on the matter. We polled nearly a dozen people, and asked whether they’d prefer to encounter me in the forest or some rando dude from the internet. They unanimously chose me! However, I’m willing to acknowledge that our research may be biased because nearly a dozen people were all I could survey in the TBB hot tub last night. As for not liking the AI-generated image of me, the online randos might have had a good point, so we did something about that. Now you get this mugshot of me from 2015 that definitely isn’t AI-generated, so don’t get that idea in your heads. Or is it? Definitely not, maybe. What’s with the mugshot, you may ask? Well, as mentioned in my prior post, I was charged with the distribution of biohazard materials across property lines. (I swear they made up that rule just for me!)

As mugshots go, it’s not bad. I was living the YOLO lifestyle back then as evidenced by my sweet green fauxhawk, devil-may-care expression, and aviator sunglasses. In my defense, and if it’ll please the court, Your Honor, this mugshot was the only publishable image of me I had on my phone. The rest are -well- hilarious to be sure but nothing we can publish on The Brothers Brick. Which is why I’m appealing to y’all with…

A call for lemur art!

That’s right! We’d love to see your artistic chops and different styles and mediums. Please submit your original A. Lemur-related artwork using the form below. You may draw me in all kinds of predicaments and situations; why I could be riding a rollercoaster, driving a car, or even soaking in TBB’s headquarters hot tub when Andrew isn’t looking. With your imagination and artistic ability, there’s no telling what hijinks I could be up to! Extra kudos points go to you if you include something green and white in the composition. Kyle says it’s good branding!

What do I get in return?

I’ll come by occasionally to rap at y’all to explain some LEGO terms, maybe talk about events in your area or whatever floats my tail. When I do, and if we use your image to accompany it, I’ll credit you and even provide a link to your socials. With legions of readers worldwide, it could garner you some sweet likes and follows! We’ll even throw a bit of swag your way.

But what do you look like? How are you different from other lemurs?

What’s to stop me from just copy/pasting lemur images and raking in the sweet rewards? Good point! Besides the fact that I can talk, write, and be overall charming and likable, I look a little different from your normal lemur in the sense that I have a green and white striped tail. Andrew dared me to do it a long time ago and I just sort of kept it. I am older now, so I sometimes wear glasses; green, of course. You can depict me in a dyed green fauxhawk, like in my mugshot, but it’s not necessary. Otherwise, I look like your normal, walking’ talking’ smart-aleck lemur.

What are the rules?

Please submit your original art using the form below by September 7th, 2024. Any medium, any style is welcome whether it be digital art, collage, paint, markers, pencils, whatevs! All we ask is that it’s hosted on the internet somewhere for us to go have a gander. Also, please be over 13 years old. No entries from anyone 13 or under will be accepted. I hate to say it but -sigh- please no AI-generated art. As you may have witnessed, we have eggheads already who can do that and some folks didn’t like it. In this scenario, I get to rap at ya occasionally about cool LEGO stuff and whatnot, talented people get credit and attention for their sweet, sweet art, you don’t have to see mugshots or any of those hilarious unpublishable images from my phone, and we keep the naysayers off our backs. It’s a win/win for everybody!

Thanks for reading. Now let’s see what magic you can do!

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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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