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

Ask A Lemur – Focus, Fun and the Flavors of Bionicle

Fahasalamana, Dearest Readers?

Once again, I’m The Brothers Brick’s intern lemur and I’m here to answer your questions, relevant, irrelevant, LEGO-related or not. I’m your window into the inner-workings of the LEGO fan community in general and The Brothers Brick specifically! I’m just so happy to be able to do this. I keep getting more and more of your tasty messages every week. It’s wonderful!

How do you like my new jacket? I think it’s rather dapper myself. It was a gift from Iain. He said he didn’t need it anymore and wondered if I wanted to eat it. It was such a sweet gesture, I got quite emotional. He’s a good man. Anyway, I did nibble on the lining a bit but decided to wear it for special occasions, in his honor.

What’s that? The pipe? I borrowed it from Master Andrew. It’s great for blowing bubbles and he wasn’t using it. Not sure why he wasn’t, because bubbles are such fun! It was in a glass box in his office. Don’t tell anyone, but apparently he stole it. There was a little note (tasted like mango) that said it belonged to someone named ‘Sherlock’. I hope Master Andrew doesn’t get into trouble. That would be sad.

Well, we probably should get moving on. I’m using Simon’s office today because he’s away doing a photo-shoot in Pago Pago, for the upcoming TBB Calendar, “Poses of Simon 3”. I hear that last year’s calendar sold out in 13 minutes! But I think he is coming back today and there is some straightening-up I need to do in here before then. So many yummy things in here!

Now, on to the good stuff!

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Ask a Lemur – Supporting the Blog, Finding Builds to Highlight and Animals

Tonga soa e, Dearest Readers!

I’m so glad to be able to talk with you again. It is really the highlight of my week. Don’t get me wrong! Interacting with the people here in The Brothers Brick compound is a great honor and privilege. It is just that they are so far above me that it is nice to talk to some normal folks. Plus, every time I try to start a conversation with one of them, I usually end up with more work. Not sure how it happens, but I’m noticing a trend. My schedule is pretty full as it is.

So what has happened in your world this week? Mine has been rather chaotic. The timer broke on Carter’s tanning bed and he ended up looking rather par-boiled. I couldn’t help laughing. That was a mistake. I’m not sure how the malfunction was my fault but he says it was. I’m sure I’ll figure that out soon. Anyway, right after I replaced the timer, Caylin came looking for me. Her “kitties”, Loki and Athena, needed fed. That’s what she calls the two Saber-Toothed Tigers she had cloned. She said it was for “research” but I don’t think anyone believes her.

Oh, there was some good news! Josh came home from his vacation at “Happy Acres”. The first thing he noticed was that the bowl of roasted peanuts on his desk was empty. That really was my fault. I feel bad. Now every time I see him, he bursts into tears, starts sobbing and crying “Why?” over and over again. I think he needs another vacation, poor guy.

Enough about me! On to your questions.

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Ask a Lemur – Acronyms, LEGO User Groups and TBB Contributors!

Greetings and Salutations, Dear Readers!

Another week has flown by and I am so excited to be able to talk with you again! I am still getting used all the holidays they celebrate here at TBB. American Thanksgiving was this week. The jet was kept pretty busy flying all the contributors back to their homes in time for the holiday.

I’ve been told that TBB celebrates major holidays from all over the world. They say it’s part of the job and someone has to do it. It’s nice to see them relax since they work so hard.

I was pretty excited about all these holidays but apparently lemur interns aren’t eligible to use the jet. Someone has to stay here to water the plants. Nannan was nice enough to move his collection of carnivorous plants into the hallway outside his office so that I could feed them there. I said that he didn’t need to do that, I was fine just caring for them in his office. He must not have heard me because he just locked his door and ran off to board the jet.

Oh, I don’t have to worry about the plants in Mr. Dan’s office either. He is the head of the legal department and is pretty busy all year dealing with the lawsuits. No holidays for him. Besides, his plants are all dead anyway.

On to your questions from last week!

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Ask a Lemur – Illegal Builds, Fan Conventions and Kids Online

Hello again, Dear Readers!

It’s the TBB Intern Lemur, here to answer your questions and do what I can to give you some insight into LEGO, the fan community and TBB! Give me a minute to catch my breath. I’ve been cleaning the bottom of the pool here in the TBB compound. It’s way easier to do when they let me drain it, but Carter was getting in his laps and Caylin said it needed cleaned immediately. They don’t call her the ‘Goddess’ for nothing! When she says “jump”, you jump. Even if it’s into the deep end. She was right though. It did need cleaning. The weekend pool parties get kind of nuts around here. I’m mostly done, except I’m not sure how to get Iain’s boat up off the bottom.

Oh, that reminds me. I was right about last week. I got a serious talking-to about mentioning a certain other person’s personal water-craft. Won’t make that mistake again. Anyway, I’m taking a break now, down in Ralph’s basement lab. He doesn’t take much notice of me so the lab is a good place to get away for awhile. Especially when I’m trying to answer your questions. There are some scary things going on down here, but I just pull a blanket over my head and try not to listen to the maniacal laughter. It’s all good, as long as you don’t taste anything while you are down here. That was another mistake I won’t make again.

So, on to your questions. Boy, there were some good ones this week!

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Ask a Lemur – “MOCs, LEGO and Prehensile Tails, oh my!”

Hello again, friendly readers! It’s the TBB Intern Lemur here, ready and willing to answer your questions about LEGO, the fan community and The Brothers Brick!

Sorry for the delay. I will be trying to write these posts every Monday morning, if my workload allows. The contributors generally sleep late on Mondays, to recover from the weekend, and that gives me a chance to catch up. Today it was even quieter than usual because Andrew is off on his yacht, doing some research on penguins for the next TBB collaborative build. Oh, that reminds me, some of you asked about his car. Apparently I’m not allowed to talk about Master Andrew’s personal possessions on here any more. Which will be hard because there are a lot of them. He probably won’t be happy that I mentioned the yacht. Let’s keep that between ourselves, shall we? The other reason it is quieter around here right now is that Iain is off on a Wingsuit Tour of the French Pyrenees. He’ll be back in a few days. Anyway, on to the questions! A couple of these are from our contact form and some are from the comments on last week’s post. Here we go!

What is a MOC?
MOC is an acronym that stands for My Own Creation. It generally refers to anything that you make from your own imagination that isn’t an official set. Some people use it as a word (sounds like ‘mock’) and other people just say the letters (EM-OH-SEE). Either one is correct. The catch is that the thing you build has to be made from LEGO. I once made something here in the office and showed everyone my “MOC”. They were not impressed and told me to clean it up. That is when I discovered that only things you make from LEGO are called MOCs.

What is the correct way to refer to LEGO bricks?
There is a lot of debate about this. The LEGO company would like you to capitalize the word “LEGO” and refer to bricks as “LEGO building bricks” or “LEGO elements” and not to use the term “LEGO” as a generic term for their product. Some people pluralize the word into “Legos” and for many hard-core fans this is heresy. No, seriously, they really flip out. You should try it at a big fan convention some time. The LEGO grammar police come out of the woodwork. Scared the MOC right out of me the first time I saw it. Regardless of how you refer to them, we should stop arguing about it and just build with the yummy little things!

Can you build with your tail?
Of course. What else would I use? However, sad to say, most lemurs cannot build with their tails, as their tails are not prehensile. Sorry, but that is a myth! I’m actually the only lemur that has one. Chris thinks it has something to do with my diet of TBB mail, which might also account for the color. Hmm, I’ll have to think about that.

Well, that is all for today. I have other work to do and Miss Caylin is giving me the ‘eye’. Oh, yes, I have news! I have been given some Brothers Brick loot to share with you! If I use your question in next week’s post, I will contact you and send you a little Lemur love in the mail. Don’t worry, no MOCs. Have a great week and remember…the lemur cares.

A. Lemur

Ask a Lemur – Our new intern answers all your questions and more!

Greetings, Dear Readers! Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Brothers Brick’s intern and I have been given the honor of answering the tasty mail that you send to us.

I am a green-tailed lemur from the island of Madagascar and am very happy to be working in the TBB compound. This “mailbag” feature is my own invention. I got the idea after noticing that the lovely paper that I was given for lunch had messages on it. When I asked Master Andrew about them, he said they were from our readers and that I could eat them. The messages that is, not the readers. He said the other contributors were too busy to deal with the mail, but that I was free to do as I pleased as long as the coffee was fresh and his Bugatti Veyron was washed.

I plan to answer a few questions each week. In this first post I will answer some common questions we have received. If you have questions that you would like me to answer, either serious or silly, real or imagined, please ask. Here we go!

Will you sell me the models featured on The Brothers Brick?

Unfortunately, no. With few exceptions, they are one-of-a-kind creations and are not owned by The Brothers Brick. You can always contact the builder, via whatever website they are using to host their pictures, and see if they are interested in selling their work. We do not sell contributors at this time either. Please stop asking about Simon. We are keeping him.

What is an AFOL?

AFOL is an acronym that stands for Adult Fan of LEGO. It is a broad term that applies to anyone over 18 years old who is a fan of the LEGO company and/or its products. Similar terms are ALE (Adult LEGO enthusiast), AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO), TFOL (Teen Fan of LEGO), KFOL (Kid Fan of LEGO). There are many kinds of AFOLs including those who build their own creations, those who collect sets, those who customize LEGO elements, etc. It also can stand for Adult Fan Of the Lemur.

Are the contributors of The Brothers Brick actually brothers?

No. One of us is a sister.

Thank you for your time and messages! Please leave any new questions in the comments below. Josh is having one of his ‘episodes’ and won’t come out of his office. Once he recovers, I will ask him to create me an email address.

About A Lemur

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