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)

DIY Japanese New Years Card

2007 will be the Year of the Boar. Of course, tigers eat boars for breakfast, so I’m thinkin’ it’ll be a good year.

As I explained on New Years Day 2006, Japanese homes begin to fill up with new years cards — called nengajyou — this time of year.

I assume we’ll see lots of boar-themed LEGO creations over the next week or so, but mumu gets things rolling with the first new years card. According to his blog post, he created a LEGO boar that LEGO/graphic design site 05cube! has integrated into a nice DIY card-maker. Here’s mine (note personalized message to our beloved readers):

Click my card to go to 05Cube! and make your own. There are enough English instructions that you should be able to get by. :) Just leave a comment here if you have any trouble.

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.

News: Summer 2007 Set Pictures!

2007 catalog scans are available on 1000steine.de, with pictures of previously unseen summer-release City sets (click to go to the page on 1000steine.de and view full-size images):

Czech LEGO fan site Kostky also has a picture of the new Castle sets for 2007 (via Eurobricks):

I’m very excited about the undead horses, new skeletons (with non-floppy arms) and new accessories (curved swords, round shields, etc.). I can’t tell too much about the castles from this picture, but I like the bone cage on the undead fortress. Wicked!

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.

Vaughan James’ 5ive

The thing I like so much about micro-mecha is that they’re built of tons of tiny pieces. Vaughan James’ recent mecha illustrates this nicely, following in the footsteps of master micro mecha builders like zizy2 and Squieu.

Here’s Vaughan’s “5ive”:

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BrickDonald’s, anyone?

Sachiko Akinaga is a champion builder who lives in Japan. My favorite creation from her latest batch of updates is a McDonald’s value meal:

Check out what happens when some minifigs come along and spill the Coca-Cola:

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.

Chinese Water Clock by oldhamk

Chinese inventor Su Song (1020-1101) invented a water clock that Brickshelfer oldhamk has faithfully recreated in LEGO:

oldhamk has included lots of great details, from the armillary sphere (or astrolabe) and other astronomical instruments on the top to the working gears inside. Click the picture above to watch two movies of the water clock in motion.

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Swap This, ABC!

The casting agency for U.S. TV network ABC has been trolling LEGO-themed Internet forums and spamming prominent members of the online community with the following message over the last few days:

Hello, my name is Jodi and I am a casting producer for ABC’s hit show Wife Swap. I am seeking families who are Lego or robot hobbyists for our third season. On many occasions, we feature families with unique passions/hobbies and this is one we’ve never done. Plus, AFOL’s are obviously parents who encourage creativity and that is something that other families can learn. I came across your blog and thought you or someone you know may be interested in applying. Would you be interested in posting this on your blog, or do you know anyone who would be interested in applying to be on the show?

The premise of Wife Swap is to take two different families and have the mom’s switch place to experience how another family lives for one week. Half of the week, mom lives the life of the family she is staying with. The other half, she introduces a “rule change” where she implements rules and activities that her family has. It’s a positive experience for people to not only learn, but teach other ways of life.

Families on the show receive $20,000 and anyone that refers a family that is selected to be on our show is paid $1,000 per referral. Each family should consist of two parents, at least one child between the ages of 6-17, and should reside in the U.S. and have BIG, outgoing personalities.
Please let me know if you are interested or have any questions.

-Jodi

The Brothers Brick got this as a comment on a recent post (on the “old” blog), and it’s been pretty much everywhere, but I thought I’d pop this up to the top of the blog and get your thoughts.

I’ll start. The thing I hate about most reality shows is that they feel exploitative. Now, I can watch “Project Runway” and enjoy it because the people on the show have all truly volunteered for what we’re seeing on TV. But I have a special problem with shows that feature children, because the parents are the ones responsible for making the decision. What kind of long-term emotional consequences does the type of notoriety gained from these shows have on children?

Another thing I despise about shows like ABC’s “Wife Swap” and its Fox clone “Trading Spouses” is that they take something quirky (or loathsome) about a family and trot it before the TV viewing audience like a freak show. I don’t think people watch these shows to truly learn about themselves or the human condition (ironically, the way we watch good, fictional dramas). I believe people watch these shows out of a voyeuristic need to feel superior to someone else.

For both of those reasons, I hope no LEGO fans choose to cooperate with ABC to create this episode. I think my hobby — just like model railroading or numismatics or spelunking — is perfectly “normal” (relatively speaking, and there certainly are some freaks among us!). I’d hate to see it treated like a freak show.

And here’s what LEGO’s Steve Witt had to say when I asked him (on the SEALUG e-mail list) whether ABC had approached The LEGO Group about this:

Just so you know, TLG is aware and we’re not really all that happy about it. Mostly because no matter how cool AFOLs might be, show’s like this will make all of us come out looking like idiots. We can’t control anyone, but I can say that I seriously hope no one pursues this. This is for the sake of our hobby more than anything else.

So, what do you think?

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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.

Micro Edo Castle by Patrick Yrizarry

This was on the top of my “to blog” list before the power went out last Thursday. What I like so much about Patrick Yrizarry’s microscale Edo castle is all the detail he’s packed into it, from the moat to the gate and the courtyard full of trees of various shapes:

Here’s an angle that shows off the gate:

(Via Bruce’s new blog, MicroBricks.)

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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.

Micro-Mecha Madness!

Japanese builders zizy2 and squieu both build fantastic micro-mecha. What better way to highlight them than in one convenient post?

Here’s zizy2’s “m40”:

And Squieu’s “Gigas”:


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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.

Coming Soon

If you’re seeing this, you’re one of the first to know that we’re starting up The Brothers Brick on its own domain. Until we get everything up and running, you can continue to read about LEGO news and creations on our old Blogger blog.

EDIT 12/21/06: And we’re now live on Brothers-Brick.com!

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.

Super-Deformed Landmate by Jehkay

Jehkay’s latest mecha is beefy!

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.

Awwwww!!!

Adorable!

And oh so festive! (From Turbo.)

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.

BitFlick Mania!

Have you picked up your 2007 mosaic sets yet (6162 and 6163)? The dragon is awesome. My new mosaic (clear base plates!!!), plus an e-mail from RichardAM, reminded me that I failed to blog BitFlicks. Here’s their first — and still my favorite — LEGO+CGI animation:

Via Destructoid.

(And let’s try post labels. We’ll see if we prefer them to Technorati tags…)

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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.