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)

Holger Matthes’ Le Corbusier House

Holger Matthes presents a building in Stuttgart, Germany designed by architect Le Corbusier:

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Zoom zoom!

Brickshelf user Kaitimar has been posting some really cool hover-vehicles (eels optional). My favorite so far is the Zoomer:

NXT Brick Sorter by Dave Astolfo

So, what might a SYSTEM builder use a MINDSTORMS NXT robot for? Sorting bricks by color, of course! Duh.

Check out Dave Astolfo’s Brick Sorter:

Read more about it on nxtasy.org or on Dave’s site, Plasti-Bots.

News: Classic-Pirates.com Launches

Eurobricks has had a thriving LEGO Pirates forum for some time now, but the Pirates theme has lacked a Web presence of its own since the demise of PirateBricks.com. But ahoy! What’s this? Behold the new Classic-Pirates.com.

To quote the announcement on the main page:

The booming success of Eurobrick’s Pirate LEGO® Forum has prompted the development of this website to cater to the interests of Pirate LEGO enthusiasts.

The discussion forums will apparently remain on Eurobricks for the time being (which is probably a good thing — splitting the community doesn’t always work). Head on over to Classic-Pirates.com to read the full announcement. Arrrr!!!

BrickFest 2007 Highlights from Andrew

BrickFest 2007 wrapped up on Sunday, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to sit down and reflect. Well, here goes.

Highlights for me:

Hanging out with all the great people in the extended LEGO community — both from The LEGO Company and fellow fans.
The ride down with Caylin. I think I left my sunglasses in your glove box.
MAX, Chinatown, and House of Louie with TBB’s very own Josh, world-famous Mike, and aforementioned Caylin.
Having a minion.
The new UCS Millenium Falcon in person.
The singlest largest LEGO Castle display in North America, ever.
Sessions standouts for me were LEGO Quality with Bjarke Schoenwandt and the future of LEGOfan.org with Kelly McKiernan.
Lunch at Wendy’s with Steve Witt and The Usual Suspects.
$1 minifigs from Bob Kojima and Paul Hetherington.
MINDSTORMS NXT Sumo!
Sharing a Mountain High Mudd Pie between two tables at Red Robin.
Scratched and dented LEGO sets (no damage to LEGO inside) for 50% off at the Washington Square LEGO Store!
Breann Sledge’s Bionicle creations.
Nathan Proudlove’s completed Blacktron II
The ride back to Seattle and post-BrickFest dinner at I Love Sushi with Dan Sabath and Dan Boger. Best sushi ever! Sorry you couldn’t join us, Pamela.
Seeing all the great photos in the BrickFest group pool on Flickr — more than 2,700 photos so far!

Phew. That was all so fun I’m now miserably sick. :-D

Still, I can’t wait for the next major LEGO event I’ll be attending, NWBrickCon. See you all there! (You can read more about what NWBrickCon was like last year right here on The Brothers Brick.)

Agent oo7 wishes us all a Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Agent oo7 demonstrates that it’s never too early (or late?) to show off your holiday-themed minifigs.

First up, S. Claws:

And the Grinch:

Finally, on a more positive note, Yehudah Hamakabi:

ATRV by Mladen Pejic

Ah, if only current RVs were this awesome. But perhaps Winnebago will be inspired by Mladen Pejic’s ATRV:

Check out the interior of the red pod (the blue pod has a bed and bathroom fixtures):

I love how the ladders swing out and down:

Be sure to click the first picture above for the gallery on Brickshelf, or head on over to Mladen’s Web site for pictures and his description of this unique vehicle.

Heavy Trooper by Jehkay

I’m home sick today after BrickFest, but let’s see if I can do a little catchup without saying anything too embarrassing…

First up, a “Heavy Trooper” by Jehkay that integrates Bionicle pieces very nicely.

(And trust us, this won’t be the last Bionicle you’ll be seeing on The Brothers Brick. Stay tuned…)

And now for bed!

I just got back from BrickFest 2007 in Portland, OR. What an amazing event! I see that there’s already a bit of early coverage here on The Brothers Brick from Tim and Nathan (heh heh), but look for detailed coverage from both Josh and I over the next couple of days.

In the meantime, check out the BrickFest group on Flickr for photos from attendees:

http://flickr.com/groups/brickfest/

And don’t miss more photos on Brickshelf:

http://www.brickshelf.com/

Okay, I seriously need sleep.

EDIT (12:30 AM, April 3): I’ve been able to upload my raw pictures to Flickr so far, and I’ve added them to the group pool linked above. Still working on write-ups. Sorry for the delays!

News: Traveller’s Tales Confirms LEGO Batman: The Video Game

Hot off the virtual presses over at 1up.com:

Traveller’s Tales, the makers of Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy are now one brick of a larger company, Warner Bros. Interactive. However, don’t worry about this changing their focus from brickology, because WB has them hard at work on their next game, Lego Batman: The Videogame. Most of the details, much like Batman’s true identity, are currently unknown about the game. It’ll release sometime in 2008 on the current and previous consoles, as well as PC.

Sweet! Or rather, w00t! ;)

BrickFest PDX is just around the corner!

Both Josh and I are headed to BrickFest PDX 2007 in Portland, OR this coming weekend. This is my second convention in less than six months, but I’m told that NWBrickCon and BrickFest are two very different events. I can’t wait!

(BrickFest 2005 photo from the Washington Post in Dan Rubin’s Flickr photostream.)

If you’re a reader of The Brothers Brick and will be attending, let us know and be sure to say hello if you see us! As I did for NWBrickCon last October, also I created a BrickFest Flickr group. Join up and add your photos from past ‘Fests, as well as the one coming up this weekend.

LEGO-Inspired Furniture “Bekky”

Italian design firm NOmadeDESIGN is selling the following furniture that should look vaguely familiar to readers of this blog:

(Via Marco Chiappa, via Spluch, via NOTCOT.ORG. Sheesh…)