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)

How to build a vintage Tatra 148 LEGO fire truck [Instructions]

Sometimes the simplest of LEGO creations can be the most lovely. Talented Technic builder František Hajdekr, whose working LEGO chainsaw we featured earlier this year, recently posted an adorable vintage fire truck based on a Czech Tatra 148 from the 70’s. What I love about this is that the builder has incorporated actual vintage LEGO tires from the 70’s into his modern creation.

František quickly followed that up with step-by-step instructions, which you can watch in this video (with complete parts breakdown as well: part 1 & part 2).

If you like 6×6 Tatra fire trucks, check out my LEGO Wildland Ultra XT (with instructions).

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.

Top 10 most popular LEGO creations on TBB in 2016 [News]

The TBB editorial team recently announced our shortlist for LEGO Creation of the Year, but what do you our readers think? Over the course of the year, you let your mouse clicks do the talking, and it’s clear that you felt the same way about many of the best LEGO creations we highlighted. Based on clicks, likes, shares, and other stats, here are the top 10 most popular LEGO creations featured on The Brothers Brick in 2016, as voted by you!

10. LEGO Technic Porsche 919, the 2015 Le Mans winner

Manuel Nascimento honored the winner of the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans race with this gorgeous Porsche 919 built from LEGO Technic pieces. Manuel’s Porsche sports custom stickers, and has numerous working features.

See the rest of the best after the jump!

2017 LEGO Speed Champions sets revealed, with 1966 Ford GT40, Bugatti Chiron, and more [News]

2017 still has many LEGO sets left to reveal, and today’s news brings us the next wave of LEGO Speed Champions, sure to whet the appetite of any good petrolhead (or gearhead, if you need to be all American about it).

LEGO teased racing fans with a press release a few weeks ago highlighting the upcoming 75881 Ford GT 2016 & Ford 1966 GT40, which celebrate 50 years of victory at Le Mans. Now we finally have a proper high-resolution photo of this set. Personally, my only disappointment is that there isn’t a GT40 in lovely blue and orange Gulf Gasoline livery.

See more 2017 LEGO Speed Champions sets after the jump

LEGO Star Wars 75155 Rebel U-wing Fighter from Rogue One [Spoiler Review]

Following our reviews of 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank (SPOILER: NOT A HOVERTANK!) and 75153 AT-ST Walker, we’re continuing our reviews of the Rogue One LEGO sets released in October, now that the movie is out two months after the LEGO sets hit stores. 75155 Rebel U-wing Fighter includes 659 pieces with 5 minifigs, and retails for $79.99.

Now that the movie has been out for a couple of weeks, our reviews will reference character details and plot points, so come back again after you’ve seen the movie if you don’t want any spoilers.

See the full review. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Build your own LEGO Oliver Twist the pug dog [Instructions]

Even though The Brothers Brick’s official mascot is some type of strepsirrhine primate, our unofficial mascots have always been my pugs, first the late, great Mr. Pugsly and now Oliver Twist. TBB’s own Elspeth De Montes created a LEGO version of little Ollie for our recent calendar contest, and she has just posted simple instructions for you to build your own LEGO pug.

LEGO Star Wars 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank from Rogue One [Spoiler Review]

LEGO released its first wave of LEGO Star Wars Rogue One sets in October, but we’ve decided to wait until both our readers and we ourselves have had a chance to see the movie, released in most countries on December 16. We’ll be reviewing all of the current Rogue One sets, starting today with 75152 Imperial Assault Hovertank, which includes 3 minifigs with 385 pieces and retails for $30.

Now that the movie is out, we’ll be talking about the movie’s characters and plot in our Rogue One LEGO set reviews, so come back and read our review later if you want to remain spoiler-free. But if you’re just interested in our recommendation now before you see the movie, this is a great value and I recommend the set heartily to any Star Wars fan.

See the full review. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Dale Horvath’s RV from The Walking Dead in LEGO [Instructions]

While Dale may not get to enjoy his retirement driving around the country with his wife in an RV, we can all enjoy this great LEGO rendition of his iconic vehicle from the first two seasons of The Walking Dead, built by hachiroku24. The builder has included numerous key details, including all the gear Dale needs on his roof to keep watch over the survivors’ camp. I particularly like the rolled up awning.

If you want to build your own LEGO version of Dale’s RV, the builder has provided step-by-step instructions in the following video.

That’s no moon! Win the LEGO Star Wars Death Star to celebrate TBB’s 100,000th follower & the release of Rogue One [Giveaway]

The Brothers Brick’s Facebook page recently passed 100,000 followers, making it the most popular LEGO fan page on Facebook. While our sympathies here at TBB lie with the Rebellion, we acknowledge that this milestone just might make us the Death Star of LEGO blogs. It’s all very confusing for us, so here’s a Death Star that’s also a BB-8 in TBB colors giving a thumbs up. If big numbers and deeply silly mashups don’t make you as giddy as they seem to make us, perhaps a chance at winning the new 75159 Death Star will instead! Enter to win by January 20th, 2017.

You can enter to win from this link, or by clicking the Contests section on our Facebook page. The winner will also receive a snazzy green (of course) TBB logo T-shirt, stickers, and other swag.

Continue reading →

It’s the 10th anniversary of Brothers-Brick.com! [News]

In 2015 we marked the 10th birthday of The Brothers Brick, and today marks 10 years since we launched the Brothers-Brick.com domain. I promised we were making some changes here at TBB, and I highlighted a few of the changes in our 11th birthday post six months ago.

But rather than focusing on the improvements we’ve been making — not least of which are several new contributors who just joined yesterday and the server migration that will be complete by the end of the year — I wanted to go back to something I’d shared with our readers in years past.

Brace yourselves for website analytics! Oh wait, that’s not very interesting. Ahem. It’s all about you, our readers!

(There will still be charts and graphs. And numbers. Maybe just a little bit of metadata. Mmmm, metadata…)

Continue reading →

Himeji Castle, Lighthouse of Alexandria, and other Wonders in LEGO

LEGO Certified Professional Ryan McNaught and his team recently created several Wonders of the World in LEGO, ranging from Himeji Castle in Japan to the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt.

Ryan and his team member Troy Walker built a huge minifig-scale Himeji Castle, one of the last remaining feudal fortresses in Japan. I lived in Himeji for three years growing up, and my family visited the “White Egret Castle” frequently, including the year it celebrated its 650th anniversary. Ryan and Troy’s Himeji Castle includes the distinctive curved stone slope at the base of the castle, built by pressing LEGO bricks in sideways. The whole castle is built from over 71,000 bricks.

Climbing the many flights of stairs to the top floor and looking over the modern city was always the highlight of each visit, unless a samurai movie was being filmed on the sprawling castle grounds. Not only is this LEGO castle impressive from the front, it also has a full interior — even a deep well that extends through the castle’s base.

See more of these LEGO Wonders of the World

Fossil Sahelanthropus tchadensis skull in LEGO

I’ve been blogging about archaeological LEGO for nearly 10 years here on The Brothers Brick, but I think this Sahelanthropus tchadensis skull might be the first fossil hominid we’ve featured here. Grant Masters has recreated the Toumaï skull discovered in Chad by French and Chadian paleontologists in 2001 and 2002. Grant has built the distinctive heavy brow ridge common to all but the gracile Homo sapiens, along with the angled face and tiny brain case — only about the same size as modern chimpanzees. I love that Grant even reproduced the fossil’s snaggletooth look with all its missing teeth.

Isotopic analysis revealed an age of about 7 million years for this remarkable fossil. While it’s not clear whether this is a distant ancestor or a distant cousin of humans, it was a remarkable find nevertheless.

(If you want to learn more about human origins and paleoanthropology, you might enjoy my Paleolithic reading lists on my non-LEGO blog.)

The Sorcerer’s Appendix

Sometimes, LEGO builds are less about amazing techniques or unusual parts selections than they are about a great little story, scene, or joke. Yes, there’s a great monochrome background behind the bright blue hues in the foreground in this vignette by Julius von Brunk, but it’s ultimately the very silly pun in the title that makes this LEGO creation wonderful.

About Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)

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