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)

Breakfast at the Bellevue LEGO Store

Got up at 6:45 this morning so I could be sure and make it to the Bellevue LEGO Store by 8:00 for a special event for NWBrickCon attendees.

I think everybody ignored the food for the first hour, concentrating on unique Pick-a-Brick items, including build-your-own minifig bins. Any combination of five minifig parts (torso+head=1) was $1.99, or $1.59 with our 20% convention discount.

I hope I don’t give LEGO Star Wars fans a collective myocardial infarction by saying I picked up several yellow slave Leia minifigs (minus ponytail) for $1.59 each. Sweet!

Now I’m headed downtown for the rest of day 1. More tonight…

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NWBrickCon Day 1 Report

I’m back home at the end of NWBrickCon day 1. I’ve uploaded about 75 pictures to a new NWBrickCon 2006 photoset on Flickr.

It was definitely a long day, but I had a fantastic time! As I admired the beginnings of the castle layout, Josh came over and introduced himself. Hey, remember, we had never actually meet “in real life.” We spent some time in the “bazaar” room, poring over the loose inventory from a couple vendors. The seller wasn’t actually there, so we set aside our picks so we could come back and ask how much they were later. I ended up spending about $25 for a bunch of miscellaneous parts and dozen or so minifigs I didn’t have or needed more of. On BrickLink I think I would’ve paid at least double.

Over lunch I told him that I was relieved to know he wasn’t a freak. Heh heh! People spent most of the day setting up their creations — the aforementioned medieval landscape, about a hundred moonbase modules, a huge train layout, and a Technic/MINDSTORMS “great ball contraption.” The empty tables at the beginning of the day gave way to tables overflowing with LEGO creations:

Interesting sessions included a presentation by the designer of modern minifig weapons (mostly unavailable from LEGO) at BrickArms, a discussion of sorting, and a series of talks from people whose jobs are LEGO-related, including Steve Witt from the LEGO Company and LEGO Certified Professionals Dan Parker and Robin Sather.

Well, I’m off to get a good night’s sleep so I can get up in the morning and go to the Bellevue LEGO Store for breakfast. Hurray for make-your-own minifigs (new there tomorrow)!

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Technorati tags: LEGO NWBrickCon Conventions Flickr

Off to NWBrickCon Day 1

With a lovely breakfast of doughnuts, I packed up my (surprisingly few) creations and I’m heading downtown for NWBrickcon:

Naturally, I’m wearing my new “I’m Blogging This” T-shirt from O’Reilly.

For the curious, here’s what my living room looks like after a couple weekends of building:

See you at the ‘con!

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Technorati tags: LEGO Conventions NWBrickCon NWBC2006

The Leaning Mecha of Jehkay

Jehkay is turning into quite the mecha builder. Two new mecha include a vertical tank and a microscale mecha.

Here’s the vertical tank:

And the tiny mecha:

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Technorati tags: LEGO Mecha Jehkay Flickr

News: Online Pick a Brick on LEGO Shop@Home

Bill Ward has picked up an announcement by Jonathan Lopes on LUGNET that LEGO is now selling individual parts on LEGO Shop@Home. Finally.

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Technorati tags: LEGO Shopping Pick a Brick

Moko’s Godzilla

It’s big, it’s spiky, and it’s scaly. Moko has been working on a very large model of Godzilla for sometime, and he recently announced that he completed it:

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Technorati tags: LEGO Sci-Fi Godzilla Gojira Monsters Moko Brickshelf

NWBrickCon is Just Around the Corner

You probably won’t see updates nearly as frequently from Josh and me for the next week and a half or so. Our LEGO time is being eaten up by projects for NWBrickCon. For a preview of what I’m working on, head over to my Work in Progress folder on Flickr. Leave a comment and help me improve my creations!

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Technorati tags: LEGO NWBrickCon

New Van-Force Design Info on PPB

With mecha now a solid part of The Brothers Brick repartoire, I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t shamelessly point you over to Pan-Pacific Bricks for the latest information on a new “Van-Force” model by anime director and mecha designer Shoji Kawamori:

(Picture via The LEGO System.)

New Van-Force Design from Shoji Kawamori

Azumu over at LEGO-BINGO reported last month (yeah, I know) that mecha designer Shoji Kawamori has created another Exo-Force alternate model using 7700 Stealth Hunter and 7707 Striking Venom.

Oh, and this one transforms.

Edge over at レゴ系（仮） (aka “The LEGO System”) provides a nice close-up of the mecha in flight mode:

Here’s are some pics by Azumu of Mr. Kawamori at an event held in LEGO specialty store “Click-Brick” (via LEGO-BINGO):

More info here on PPB about Mr. Kawamori’s previous Van-Force design:

Exo-Force Alternate Design “Van-Force” by Shoji Kawamori

Van Force Pictures and Instructions from gabriel

Sweet Persimmons in the Chill of Fall

Continuing our autumnal theme, mumu’s wife presents a lovely scene with a persimmon tree, tea, a pair of cats, and a lady in a kimono:

Check out the beautiful obi (sash) on the woman:

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Technorati tags: LEGO Japan Japanese Autumn Fall Persimmons Kimono mumu Brickshelf

Hot Oden on a Cool Autumn Evening

With three other guys picking up some of the slack over on The Brothers Brick, I’m hoping I can get caught up on the Asian-themed LEGO creations I’ve missed this summer. Bruce gets me started with a great little food cart from Brickshelfer kobachan:

I’m not sure what all the letters on the carts sides are, but the first letter is O (お), so I’m thinking this is an oden stand. Oden is a hot pot or stew that includes ingredients such as daikon radish, potatoes, carrots, chikuwa (fish cakes), boiled eggs, and konnyaku (yam cakes). It’s popular in the autumn and winter, and even in modern Japan you might be able to find a street stall serving steaming hot oden to keep you warm.

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Technorati tags: LEGO Japan Japanese Yatai Oden kobachan Brickshelf

The Burrower Brickneath!

From Mark Stafford, a man who hardly needs an introduction. Click the image for more pictures, with descriptions, on MOCpages. Via, oh, pretty much everywhere.