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 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle [Review]

During the final season of The Clone Wars that aired on Disney+ last year, one episode featured Clone Force 99, also known as the “Bad Batch.” Through that backdoor pilot, this group of misfit clone troopers got their own Disney+ series, with inevitable LEGO Star Wars tie-ins. The first (and so far only) LEGO set based on the TV show is 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle, which includes 969 pieces with five minifigures for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. The set is available for pre-order now, and will be released on August 1st.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75314 The Bad Batch Attack Shuttle

Celebrate Pride with LEGO 40516 Everyone Is Awesome [Review]

Over the past several years, the LEGO Group has significantly enhanced its messages of diversity and inclusion across its corporate policies, advertising, social media, and even in related media like The LEGO Movie franchise. The LEGO hobbyist community includes amazing, wonderful people from all over the world, of every sexual orientation and gender identity. Seeing someone like ourselves represented through our favorite building toy truly matters, but until the announcement of 40516 Everyone is Awesome today, LEGO hasn’t released a LEGO set that fully embraces and celebrates the company’s myriad LGBTQ+ fans and employees, including people of color. Featuring 11 colorful minifigures with a rainbow backdrop built from 346 pieces, the set will be available on the first day of Pride Month 2021, June 1, for US $34.99 | CAN $44.49 | UK £30.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO 40516 Everyone Is Awesome

LEGO Creator Expert 10292 Friends: The Apartments [Review]

Following up on the LEGO Ideas set 21319 Friends: Central Perk released in 2019, LEGO recently announced LEGO Creator Expert 10292 Friends: The Apartments. Full of details designed to recreate memorable moments from the TV series, the set includes 2,048 pieces with 7 minifigs, and will retail for US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £134.99. The set will go on sale June 1st, with early availability on May 19 for LEGO VIP members.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Creator Expert 10292 Friends: The Apartments

LEGO Star Wars UCS-style 75308 R2-D2 [Review]

The annual May the 4th “Star Wars Day” merchandising event is coming up next week, with new products becoming available starting May 1st. The recently announced LEGO Star Wars 75308 R2-D2 joins that list, with 2,314 pieces and a price of US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £179.99. How does this version compare to the first large-scale Artoo (10225) from 2012? Is it worth picking up next week? Read our hands-on review to learn more.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75308 R2-D2

LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith – the Black Falcons return to LEGO Castle [Review]

LEGO has continued to diversify the products that it sources and launches via its LEGO Ideas platform, which for many years has been perceived as focusing on licensed themes like Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, Voltron, and so on. But increasingly, LEGO has approved wholly original designs, such as 21310 Old Fishing Store. Yesterday, LEGO officially revealed 21325 Medieval Blacksmith, an original design by LEGO fan designer Clemens Fiedler. The set includes 2,164 pieces with 4 minifigures, and will become available on February 1st, 2020 at a price of US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £134.99..

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Ideas 21325 Medieval Blacksmith

The Brothers Brick’s top 10 most popular LEGO news articles of 2020 [News]

As we saw in our list of top 10 LEGO set reviews of 2020, big sets and brand new product launches generated a lot of excitement among LEGO builders and collectors in 2020. The same is certainly true about the first looks that we got of many of those same sets that we reviewed hands on closer to each product’s launch. Licensed themes like Star Wars and Harry Potter continued to dominate the LEGO news cycle, but our list also includes several completely original products.

See which news generated the most views in 2020

LEGO Star Wars 75299 Trouble on Tatooine from Disney’s The Mandalorian [Review]

The second season of The Mandalorian just wrapped up a couple weeks ago on Disney+, and LEGO continues to drip-feed LEGO Star Wars sets based on scenes from the show. Hitting stores on January 1st, 2021, 75299 Trouble on Tatooine provides a fairly low-cost (US $29.99 | CAN $39.99 | UK £27.99), spoiler-free way to pick up Mando and the Child in minifig form, with a few key pieces of equipment and scenery from season 2.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75299 Trouble on Tatooine from Disney’s The Mandalorian

LEGO 10281 Bonsai Tree from the Botanical Collection [Review]

LEGO has a bit of an unwarranted reputation among the general public as a medium that doesn’t lend itself easily to organic shapes. Hobbyist LEGO builders have been disabusing others of this misperception for many years by sharing LEGO builds inspired by the natural world. LEGO’s in-house designers are certainly capable of creating official LEGO sets full of flora and fauna, as LEGO designer Nicolas Vás proves with the new 10281 Bonsai Tree from the new Botanical Collection. The set includes 878 pieces and will be available on January 1st, 2021 (US $49.99 | CAN $TBD | UK £44.99).

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO 10281 Bonsai Tree

LEGO Modular Buildings Collection 10278 Police Station [Review]

With last year’s 10270 Bookshop, LEGO returned to a more traditional style of architecture than the 1950’s style of the previous couple of years. With this year’s 10278 Police Station, LEGO continues a classic look that would not feel out of place on the streets of New York or London. The new Modular set includes 2,923 pieces with five minifigures, and will be available starting January 1st, 2021 ($199.99 US | $269.99 CAD | UK pricing TBD).

The theme of the set is not without controversy and some strong reactions from within the LEGO fan community. We’ll address this later in the review, but ask our readers up front to be respectful of differing opinions in the comments.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands on review of 10278 Police Station

LEGO Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter & 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter [Review]

With Ultimate Collector Series and recent 4+ sets for younger builders aside, LEGO Star Wars starfighters like X-wings and TIE fighters have maintained a consistent trajectory of higher and higher part counts (with correspondingly greater levels of detail) over the past 20 years. The latest LEGO Star Wars sets move the part count in the opposite direction, with 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter including 474 pieces with four minifigs (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99) and 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter including 432 plus three figures (US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99). We’ll compare these January 2021 starfighters with the 2018 LEGO X-wing and 2018 TIE Fighter.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with early copies of these sets for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Star Wars 75301 Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter & 75300 Imperial TIE Fighter

LEGO Star Wars 75292 The Razor Crest from The Mandalorian [Review]

The highly anticipated second season of The Mandalorian launches today on Disney+, so now seems as good a time as any to take a closer look at the Razor Crest, which was finally released on August 31st after selling out almost immediately nearly six months earlier via preorders. The set is now back in stock online (US $129.99 | CAN $159.99 | UK £119.99), built from 1,023 pieces and featuring the Mandalorian himself, Greef Karga, IG-11, a Scout Trooper, and the Child.

Read our full review of LEGO Star Wars 75292 The Razor Crest from The Mandalorian

Citizen Brick’s custom LEGO minifigure elements for Halloween 2020 [Review]

In addition to excellent custom minifig parts and minifigs inspired by the likes of the Beastie Boys and Bob Ross, our friends at Citizen Brick have begun producing their own injection-molded items. For Halloween 2020 the CB team have released a bevy of creepy custom minifig parts for you to mix and match with your LEGO.

We’ve said before that what’s so awesome about Citizen Brick products is that they’re the sort of thing that LEGO themselves will likely never release, while remaining compatible with LEGO. This makes custom parts produces like Citizen Brick distinct from knockoffs and clone brands that compete with LEGO and are often of inferior quality. Because CB has earned our respect with printing quality that’s indistinguishable from LEGO’s own, it’s exciting to see them branch out to custom parts, allowing LEGO fans to go beyond the confines of the staid bricks from Billund. Let’s take a look at what the mad scientists of Chicago have cooked up.

Read our full hands-on review of this year’s Citizen Brick Halloween release