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)

7-foot Venator Star Destroyer built by LEGO Star Wars fan over 7 years

The Old Republic’s Venator-class Star Destroyer is a surprisingly popular subject for LEGO Star Wars builders, given its huge dimensions — and the fact that it’s a Prequel Trilogy vehicle… Nevertheless, several brave builders have created this huge ship in LEGO, including a 6-foot LEGO Venator by Alec Doede and a recreation of Master Model Builder Erik Varszegi’s 8-foot Star Destroyer by iomedes. The latest LEGO Venator is brought to us by Philipp Neumann, who has spent the past 7 years designing, collecting over 45,000 parts, building, and rebuilding.

Philipp’s Venator measures over 7 feet long, nearly 4 feet wide, and over 2 feet tall (that’s 220 cm x 117 cm x 68 cm) and weighs over 143 pounds (65 kg).

Click to see more of this enormous LEGO Star Wars ship

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The Brutalist architecture of the surveillance state

The real world frequently inspires — or creeps into, imposes itself upon — the world of LEGO creations. The Brutalist architecture of many government buildings has inspired Swedish builder Magnus to create this Micropolis section. The building has narrow slit windows, concrete bollards, and an array of communication devices on the roof.

Magnus has incorporated a particularly interesting building technique into his slanted facade, enabling a smooth slope built from 1×2 “cheese grater” pieces.

LEGO Star Wars 75153 AT-ST Walker from Rogue One [Review]

Back in October, LEGO released its first batch of LEGO Star Wars sets from Rogue One without a whole lot of fanfare. We’ll be reviewing those sets around the movie’s release in just a couple of weeks, but one of the sets stands on its own without reference to its place in the forthcoming film — the new 75153 AT-ST Walker is the same vehicle seen throughout the Classic Trilogy, and it’s currently 20% off from Amazon (that’s $31.99).

75153 AT-ST Walker includes 449 pieces with 3 minifigs and retails for $40.

Read the full review after the jump

Chugging through the starry skies

LEGO Vic Vipers tend toward the sharp and angular, with sleek lines and sharp corners. Each design must meet strict requirements epitomized by the late Nate “nnenn” Nielsen. Not so with this bulbous affair by Tyler Clites. Tyler’s Vic Viper has enormous, rounded engines — with frying pans as intake vanes, no less — and stubby little wings, with bright, childish colors. But it’s no less a legitimate Vic Viper than Nick Trotta’s Serrated Night.

LEGO Technic Koenigsegg One:1

The Swedish car company Koenigsegg may have an unpronounceable name, but they’re world-renowned for their incredible supercars. The Koenigsegg One:1 takes its name from the one-to-one power to weight ratio, and only six vehicles were built. VKTechnic has created this amazing vehicle in Technic, complete with aggressive red and black racing stripes.

The Technic Koenigsegg One:1 has a number of working features, including opening doors and engine cover. I’d love to see this LEGO car powered by Power Functions, attempting to get from 0 to 100 kph in just 2.8 seconds…

Classic LEGO nutcracker brings holiday cheer

German builder Robert Heim has recreated the classic king nutcracker in LEGO, complete with gold crown, upturned mustache, and a mouth that opens with a lever on his back. But my favorite detail in Robert’s creation is the trio of pieces lying next to the tall nutcracker — perfect use of a LEGO globe and brown minifig head.

Protected under the branches of the Observer Tree

Ben Andrews describes this large LEGO diorama as a labor of love, and it certainly is lovely. An enormous tree stands atop a hill, full of treehouses, its trunk surrounded by winding staircases. Across a pool into which drains a broad waterfall sits a beautiful red-roofed watermill.

Full of stunning details and interesting little scenes, you don’t want to miss a single picture of Ben’s Observer Tree. At the top of the tree, there’s a small structure with a telescope, which is presumably where the tree gets its name.

See more of this excellent LEGO creation

Bossk seeks his prey aboard the Hound’s Tooth

Since it was never seen on-screen, the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk’s ship the Hound’s Tooth has now been consigned to the status of “Legends” in the Star Wars canon. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting vessel — a converted YV-666 light freighter — that Canadian builder Josh Derksen has faithfully constructed in LEGO, down to the weathered and battered patterns on the hull.

The rear of the ship with its engine systems and maneuvering fins is most interesting, but the bow with the bridge is no less well-built. The whole thing is over a hundred studs long with a fifty-stud wingspan.

Cutting through the jagged night

Master of spacetastic angles Nick Trotta has outdone himself with his latest LEGO spaceraft, dubbed the Serrated Night. Indeed, this ship looks like it would cut through the dark night of outer space with stunning precision. Nick says that he took inspiration for this Vic Viper from the anime Yukikaze and the F-117 stealth fighter.

Black is a notorious color to build with and successfully photograph, but Nick uses lines of blue along the wings’ edges and presents the ship against a planetary atmosphere to offset the black. Nick also says that this is his largest ship to date, which has enabled him to incorporate lots of fantastic details, from judicious use of LEGO ingots to peeping yellow studs.

Interview with The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book author Chris McVeigh

Canadian brick artist Chris McVeigh is one of our favorite builders, and No Starch Press is one of our favorite LEGO-friendly book publishers, so their new book The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book: 15 Designs to Spread Holiday Cheer is a match made in holiday heaven.

No Starch released the book back in September, but between a lengthy overseas trip for work followed by BrickCon, I simply dropped the ball — my sincerest apologies to Chris and our friends at No Starch for the delay. But the good news is that it’s now officially the Christmas season, so I guess this is even more timely? Enough excuses. On to the interview!

The Brothers Brick: We first featured you here on The Brothers Brick way back in 2008, when you were taking pictures of chipmunks with action figures. When did you start focusing more exclusively on LEGO?

Chris McVeigh: It happened rather quickly! Pairing Star Wars action figures and chipmunks was a fun challenge, and it motivated me to do more photography of action figures and other toys. Unfortunately, Hasbro wasn’t producing any play sets (aside from large ships), so it fell to me to create my own sets and backdrops for action figure photos. This was a rather time-consuming task that ultimately prevented me from getting on with toy photography.

Click through for our full interview with Chris McVeigh

LEGO Batman 70905 The Batmobile [Review]

Following our review of 70906 The Joker Notorious Lowrider yesterday, our stream of reviews of LEGO Batman sets from the forthcoming The LEGO Batman Movie continues with 70905 The Batmobile, available now.

The set includes 581 pieces and 5 minifigs, and retails for $59.99. Find out what we think in our in-depth review.

Click through for the full bat-review

More 2017 LEGO Star Wars Classic Trilogy sets revealed [News]

More high-quality 2017 LEGO news continues to emerge as we near the end of the year. Today’s reveals are all based on vehicles and events in the Classic Trilogy, and are expected to hit stores in January. While all of these are redesigns of previously released material, over this past year as I’ve gotten back into Star Wars LEGO, I’ve come to appreciate the significant improvements that LEGO designers have been making. And of course, each re-release or redesign gives a new generation of LEGO fans an opportunity to add a new vehicle to their collection.

The new 75175 A-Wing Starfighter appears not to be a mere recolor of the Rebels version of the A-wing in 75150 Vader’s TIE Advanced vs. A-wing Starfighter. It includes 358 pieces and three minifigs, including Lando Calrissian in his Rebel General outfit.

Check out our coverage of other brand new 2017 sets in the links below, and see the rest of the new Star Wars sets after the jump.

2017 LEGO Star Wars Rogue One sets
2017 LEGO Star Wars Rebels sets
The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures
2017 Ford Le Mans Victories set
2017 LEGO Disney Frozen sets
2017 LEGO Disney Moana sets
2017 LEGO Architecture sets
2017 LEGO Batman Movie sets
2017 LEGO City sets
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 2
2017 LEGO Elves sets
2017 LEGO Friends sets
2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets
2017 LEGO Ninjago sets
2017 LEGO Technic sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Technic sets, part 2
LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS set

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About Andrew Becraft (TBB Editor-in-Chief)

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