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)

LAML Radio lets me ramble on even further

The second part of my conversation with James Wadsworth is up on Radio.LAML.org.

In this episode, James and I chat about some of the current trends in the LEGO “blogosphere,” including the blogs I can’t live without (including VignetteBricks, MicroBricks, How Many Studs to LEGOLAND, Klocki Lego dla dorosłych, and Young Spacers Association Blog) and this past month’s seeming explosion of LEGO-related posts on non-LEGO blogs (including personal faves Boing Boing Gadgets, Gizmodo, and Neatorama).

Check it out on Radio.LAML.org, and be sure to subscribe via iTunes, Zune Marketplace, or whatever floats your boat. Brick on!

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.

“Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears,” by Heidi W. Durrow

It’s always a pleasure when I encounter a connection between two of my great interests — LEGO and literature. Remember Norman Mailer and Douglas Coupland?

Writer Heidi W. Durrow contacted the blog this morning with a link to her beautiful, touching story Ethnic Lego Girls Carry Spears. Here’s an excerpt:

“You be Pocahantas,” Jimmy says. “I’ll be the cowboy on the horse.”

The horses come in shades of brown and black. Jimmy’s horse is black like me. His cowboy’s Lego yellow. He’s white like Jimmy is.

Read the rest of Heidi W. Durrow’s story online in SmokeLong Quarterly, along with an insightful interview about ethnicity and The Brick.

Izzo’s back

Seems like forever since we’ve featured a new mecha by Izzo, but I suppose it’s only been a month and a half or so. Still, let’s get our Izzo fix.

Something gray:

Something white:

Michael Jasper hunts a white whale and plays a toy piano

New(ish) minifigs from Michael Jasper. Need I say more?

Check out his Characters gallery on Brickshelf for more, including Günter Grass and Fidel Castro.

Mark Kelso takes a break

For reasons that should be fairly obvious, artists seem to make great LEGO builders. Mark Kelso is certainly no exception.

While building his Invisible Hand (previously on TBB), Mark says he took a “break” to build Mian Situ.

What’s so cool about Mian Situ is that it appears to be much bigger than it actually is. The closer you look, you see more and more elements that indicate that this isn’t really very big at all. And that’s pretty cool.

(Via Klocki.)

LAML Radio humors my opinions

James Wadsworth invited me to join him for the latest LAML Radio podcast. We shoot the breeze about the week’s news, including the new Indy pics, the 50th birthday of the brick, and other topics.

It should come as no surprise to longtime TBB readers (1447 of my own posts and counting) that I have a lot to say (some would argue too much, heh heh), so LAML Radio #17 is part 1 of my conversation with James.

Check it out on Radio.LAML.org.

RogueBantha’s micro fanboy mathematics

Remember Adrian Florea’s beautiful Natai Ugly? It was a combination of the Naboo starfighter and TIE/d for the FBTB Uglies contest.

RogueBantha combines micro versions of both source vehicles to create a fanboy cover version of Adrian’s Natai:

Genius! If you haven’t checked them out before, don’t miss the rest of RogueBantha’s amazing microscale creations on Flickr.

(Via YSAB.)

Mike Yoder is his own fanboy

Mike Yoder has been working on a rather impressive cargo SHIP, but he took a break to build a microscale version of his own creation. Mike’s also running the Fanboy Cover Contest, in which builders create microscale versions of another builder’s much larger creation (my favorite so far, the oMICROn Weekend, one post below).

Does that make Mike his own fanboy? Heh heh… :-D

Control your MINDSTORMS NXT with an Xbox 360 Controller

RoboRealm software from Wizard Robotics enables you to use your Xbox 360 controller to control your MINDSTORMS NXT robots. How cool is that? Get the source code here. (Via The NXT STEP.)

The glorious Bender B. Rodriguez and some irrelevant flesh-tubes

Ochre Jelly’s Stephen Hawking has become the stuff of Internet legend (previous post here on TBB). His latest creations are a set of characters (in the same “MINILAND” scale) who should be familiar to fans of great TV.

Check out OJ’s MOCPages for more shots of Bender, Fry, Leela, and Nibbler (my personal favorite). Here’s hoping Ochre Jelly builds the whole cast of Futurama. Zapp Brannigan, anyone?

BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sister by Snyderman

Ethan writes to remind us of something we missed recently (but the boys over at Kotaku didn’t) — awesome Big Daddy and Little Sister characters from BioShock by Brickshelfer Snyderman.

The Adam extractor disturbs me.

Pan and Minotaur minifigs by Count Blockula

The brilliant mind of Mike Crowley strikes again. Check out those legs! As with so many of Mike’s building techniques, the simplicity and elegance — dare I say inevitability? — of the design are what makes it so awesome.