About Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)

Andrew Becraft is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Brothers Brick. He's been building with LEGO for more than 40 years, and writing about LEGO here on TBB since 2005. He's also the co-author, together with TBB Senior Editor Chris Malloy, of the DK book Ultimate LEGO Star Wars. Andrew is an active member of the online LEGO community, as well as his local LEGO users group, SEALUG. Andrew is also a regular attendee of BrickCon, where he organizes a collaborative display for readers of The Brothes Brick nearly every year. You can check out Andrew's own LEGO creations on Flickr. Read Andrew's non-LEGO writing on his personal blog, Andrew-Becraft.com. Andrew lives in Seattle with his wife and dogs, and by day leads software design and planning teams.

Posts by Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)

LEGO Star Wars magnets make collecting rare minifigs cheaper [News]

LEGO magnets and keychains are notorious for having glued and otherwise mostly useless minifigs. In news sure to excite those of us who love LEGO Star Wars minifigs but can’t afford to buy every single set, the latest batch of magnet sets ~~apparently~~ include “real” minifigs!

From the Clone Wars animated series, Yoda, Mace Windu, and Count Dooku:

From the classic trilogy, Boba Fett, Princess Leia, and Imperial Guard:

From the prequel trilogy, Anakin Skywalker, Naboo Pilot, and Darth Maul:

UPDATE: Here are pics showing how the minifigs do come apart. Hurray!

Before:

After:

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

The new FBTB: Fewer zombies, more Indiana Jones [News]

From Bricks to Bothans re-launched today with a new look, more news, and a new attitude. The biggest change for regular visitors of FBTB.net will be that LEGO news will cover all licensed themes, not just Star Wars.

In particular, I’m looking forward to FBTB’s upcoming coverage of Toy Fair New York! (Graphic by Mike.)

On a personal note, FBTB was the place where I first “de-lurked” and joined the online LEGO fan community, so the site will always hold a special place in my brick-built heart. It’s great to see the current admins taking the site in a fresh direction, and I look forward to spending more time on FBTB in the future.

All the good times on the old forums have been archived, so you can still go back and revisit the final zombie apocalypse, but head over now and register on the new FBTB Forums.

Icy arches and mysterious skeletons

This beautiful Rong Yiren could work equally well in a microscale layout as it does here populated by Rong’s iconic primalbots:

But Rong Yiren’s latest is just an excuse to go back a couple weeks and blog my favorite creation in quite some time — “A Museum in an Alternate Universe”:

See more of Rong Yiren’s creations on Flickr or MOCpages.

Moko’s military mecha stands ready to defend the Earth

Moko says that he set out to build an airborne Patlabor mecha, but that it turned out looking more like an RGM-79 GM instead.

Awesome, either way.

Who needs a claymore when a carrot will do?

Richard McCarthy enters the Job Mullers Contest with the “WhiteKnight Pacifist Supply.”

Richard has incorporated cool techniques like a building angled against the base and a big barrel built from tubs. Check it out on Flickr or click through to Richard’s blog for detail and interior shots.

LEGO steampunkery from all over

The Agents of the Imperial Crown contest is certainly contributing to an uptick in the number of LEGO steampunk creations I’m seeing. Here’s a quick roundup.

V&A Steamworks goes airborne aboard HMS Earl Grey:

Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) takes steampunk to China and Prussia:

Jason “JasBrick” has been posting awesome custom steampunk minifigs for a while:

Finally, the airplane Philip Stark built for his steampunk version of Gold Hunt is worth a close look (and click the pic to see the accompanying wagon):

LEGO Architecture Space Needle and Empire State Building [News]

UPDATE: The newest LEGO Architecture sets are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Guggenheim Museum.

————

The two newest LEGO Architecture sets are now available from the LEGO Shop.

I’m particularly pleased to find the Seattle Space Needle available, since I see it everyday here in, well, Seattle!

The Empire State Building is another iconic landmark now available as a set:

Update: As the locals in the comments indicate, $20 for our beloved needle seems a bit steep, so Ochre Jelly suggests this one for 30 cents instead! :-D

So meaty!

Skinny tie on Joel McHale, check. Bikini on Mankini (with big ole bellybutton), check.

As Ochre Jelly says on his MOCpages entry for this creation:

It you don’t watch “The Soup” then this creation won’t [make] much sense to you. Actually, if you don’t watch this show then you are missing the funniest show on US television! Perhaps you don’t own a television. Or haven’t figured out how to operate it yet. Or you are a fan of reality TV shows and are therefore unable to read the numbers on the remote control.

Ciamoslaw Ciamek’s Sno-Cat makes an unexpected discovery

This great big orange Sno-Cat by Ciamoslaw Ciamek is cool enough on its own, but Ciamek builds an interesting story around the vehicle. Click the pic to find out what happens.

See more pictures on MOCpages and Ciamek’s website.

GFLUG at MegaCon 2009 Feb 27 – Mar 1 in Orlando, FL [News]

GFLUG will be displaying various LEGO creations in Orlando, Florida from February 27 to March 1.

Here’s the full announcement from Michael Huffman:

GFLUG will be doing MegaCon 2009, Feb. 27 – March 1, 2009 in Orlando, FL. GFLUG have a 50’x50’ display area, half of the area will be a LEGO MOC display and the other half of it will be an adult “play area”. The theme for MegaCon 2009 is “WestWorld”. There will be a city filled with rampaging monsters, super-heroes
fighting super-villains, & hungry zombies; a large scale east vs. west castle MOC battle scene; a futuristic space port; and robots shooting it out at the 64K corral; with other homages to the club’s favorite sci-fi/anime/geek shows! There will also be table-top games recreated in LEGO — KK Quah will have a LEGO-ize version of Command and Colors (by Richard Borg and GMT Games). This will be GFLUG’s first time displaying at MegaCon.

MegaCon is a spring-time event, so it’d make a nice spring break get-away!

Please welcome Daniel Rubin to The Brothers Brick! [News]

I’m very pleased to announce that Daniel Rubin is joining The Brothers Brick as a contributor.

We’ve featured Dan pretty regularly over the years (the yellow beauty to the right was the first, way back in 2006), and Dan has contributed enormously to the LEGO fan community — particularly as a CSF Admin and LEGO Ambassador.

I’ve also had the pleasure of hanging out with Dan at LEGO conventions, and he’s just as much of a great guy in person as he is online.

Without any further prattling from me, here’s Dan in his own words. Take it away, Dan!

The Prince of Darkness earns himself some rabies shots

Lunchtime conversation today turned to the various bats my coworkers and I have had in our houses. It didn’t occur to us that having Ozzy Osbourne around might’ve helped.

Rock on, Mr. Spielbrick.