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)

Brothers-Brick.com is two years old today! [Editorial]

The Brothers Brick turned three a few months ago, but today is our second anniversary on Brothers-Brick.com.

And what a difference a second year on our own domain has made!

2008 stats	2007 stats
5,973,090 page views 2,006,339 visits 820,532 unique visitors 119,524 unique keywords from search engines 36,382 spam comments 12,307 real comments 4,824 unique referring sites	1,086,362 page views 337,158 visits 131,046 unique visitors 15,062 unique keywords from search engines 26,198 spam comments 2,325 real comments 1,567 unique referring sites

There are Brothers-Brick.com readers in 196 countries and regions around the world:

Notable additions since last year include Mongolia and Madagascar. Next year, we’re hoping to find readers in North Korea, Turkmenistan, and central Africa.

Here are a few of my favorite lists, based on statistics from this past year:

Top Countries	Top Keywords	Referring Sites
USA UK Canada Australia Germany The Netherlands France Japan Poland Italy	lego blog 2009 lego sets lego power miners lego agents lego castle advent calendar ramm lego lego wall-e lego pirates 2009 lego brickarms	Search engines StumbleUpon Flickr Gizmodo Digg BB Gadgets Brickset Eurobricks Classic-Castle.com The old blog Fark

With a couple of exceptions, our most popular posts in the past year have been news items:

Most importantly, 2008 has been the year during which you the readers of The Brothers Brick have come together as an online community to nominate your own Ambassadors to The LEGO Group.

Finally, here are some links to historical posts for readers who care:

Here’s to many more years of creativity and community! We hope you’ll stick with The Brothers Brick for the ride. It’s going to be fun.

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.

Sea to snow to sky

For the LUGNuts All But Four (anything but a four-wheeled vehicle) building challenge, Nathan Proudlove has built quite the collection.

Insert requisite Monty Python reference here:

My favorite is this snowcat:

But this simple little biplane is also very cool:

Check out the LUGNuts thread on Flickr for more entries by Nathan and others than I could possibly blog!

Dark night hold tight

Bundalings takes inspiration from indie rockers Eisley for Bionicle Building Contest 51 — a “bat with butterfly wings”:

Check out more pictures on Brickshelf (and download “Marvelous Things” from , if you like).

Via BioniBlog.

Entry form now open for the Colossal Castle Contest VI [News]

Classic-Castle.com was having a few technical difficulties, but they’ve now been resolved and the Colossal Castle Contest VI entry form is now open.

Not to discourage anybody from entering, but my money’s on Tom Snellen:

If you’ve built something for the contest, don’t forget to read the rules and submit your entry.

The Weighted Companion Cube cannot speak...

…but I think we’re legally obligated at this point to blog all LEGO creations inspired by Valve’s Portal.

Victor Vitale‘s contribution to the genre includes the best Portal gun yet:

Previous Portal love on The Brothers Brick:

But c’mon people — where are your LEGO Left 4 Dead creations? Get buildin’!

By the power of Grayskull!

Orion Pax takes us to Eternia with his latest creation — Castle Grayskull from He Man and the Masters of the Universe:

Of course, what Castle Grayskull would be complete without its defenders? Here’s the whole Masters of the Universe lineup, from He-Man himself to Mekaneck:

And Skeletor’s evil crew:

Where in the world is Andrew this time?

Yes readers, it’s time once again to guess where my minifig self and I have landed in our wide world.

So, where do you think I am? There’s a distinctive volcanic island in that photo, but it doesn’t give you much to go on, so here’s a skyline to give you some hints:

While you’re guessing, my sheepy traveling companion needs a name, so if you think you’ve got the location right, give him a name too.

I make a difference by riding the bus

I think I’ve driven to work twice in the last year. My saving the world aside, this microscale scene by rhdlb is beautiful, with a pair of excellent buses and some great details built into the base. I also really like the street lights.

LEGO-inspired bling

What to get that LEGO geek in your life who has every set released so far (even the brand new stuff)? How about a set of rings with LEGO-compatible studs for showing off their favorite bricks?

Available in one, two, and four-stud varieties, these custom accessories aren’t necessarily inexpensive. But oh so cool!

Via Gizmodo and MAKE.

First 2009 LEGO City Farm set now available from LEGO Shop online [News]

The addition of 7635 4WD with Horse Trailer to the LEGO Shop online means that cows can’t be far behind!

Less exciting, perhaps, but still pretty cool, a couple of the new LEGO City Construction sets are also now available, including the massive 7633 Construction Site:

Boeing CH-47D Chinook helicopter by Ralph Savelsberg

Ralph Savelsberg‘s latest helicopter can fly higher and carry more cargo than any of his previous helicopters. In contrast to some of his earlier work, the cockpit glass is entirely brick-built — and built well indeed!

Here’s Ralph’s Chinook side by side with his earlier CH-46E Sea Knight:

Custom Gears of War 2 LEGO minifigs by HAZEL

HAZEL burst onto the scene with a Gears of War APC we featured less than a month ago. HAZEL’s latest batch of creations includes a set of absolutely amazing custom LEGO minifigs inspired by Gears of War 2.

Tai Kaliso, Marcus Fenix, and one of the Carmine brothers are all decked out in custom armor and weapons created by HAZEL. I can’t wait to see what this master customizer will cook up next!