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)

Japanese Proverb Vignettes “Ma” through “Yo”

Izzo has finished his sequence of Japanese proverb vignettes. Now Bruce and I just need to catch up!

So let’s get cracking!

Japanese/Japanese: Fine feathers make fine birds.

Japanese: The mummy thief becomes a mummy.
English: Go for wool and come home shorn.

Japanese: The pestle handle I took hold of in the past.
English: Skills you learn as a young man don’t wane as you grow older.

Japanese/English: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Japanese: A sword returns to its sheath.
English: To kiss and make up.

Japanese/English: Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

Japanese: Carelessness is the greatest enemy.
English: Danger comes when you least expect it.

Japanese/English: The biggest trees give the most shelter.

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LEGO Podcasts

Editing drafts of user guides is fairly dreary work. (Writing them is better, but not by much.) I usually listen to music, but every so often I have enough podcasts saved up that I dedicate one day to the musings of people I’ve never met. It’s like a call-in radio show, but without celebrity hosts! Just kidding, just kidding! If you’re actually interested in the subject matter, podcasts can be pretty entertaining.

I finally listened to BimPCast 19 (from a month ago), and listened to my first BrickNebula podcast. Steven Combs of BimPCast says that lots of things are going on in the LEGO Ambassador program, but if he told us he’d have to hunt each of us down and kill us. (He doesn’t actually say that.) The BrickNebula guys talk about Exo-Force, and how they don’t like all the new Star Wars redesigns, which actually came as a surprise to me. I like the music on the BrickNebula podcast — as crazy as it sounds, the western-sounding music really works (I’m clearly influenced by Firefly).

Speaking of podcast music, Sub Pop Records says on their FAQ that you’re free to use the music they’ve posted on their Multimedia page. From The Postal Service and Sleater-Kinney to up-and-coming bands you’ve probably never heard of (yet!), there’s some great stuff on that page.

And music makes a nice segue back into LEGO podcasts, because both BimPCast and the BrickNebula podcast are available via the iTunes Music Store. In iTunes, open the Music Store, click Podcasts, and search for “LEGO.” If you sort your results by relevance, the BrickNebula podcast and BimPCast should be your top two results. Subscribe and enjoy!

LEGO Reference on My Name is Earl

Joy just said:

“Get Mama’s plastic stripper shoes out of your LEGO box!”

Hilarious! (And she said “LEGO,” not “Legos.” Nice.)

LEGO Creations for the Setsubun Festival

Although Japan officially celebrates New Year’s Day on January 1st, until 1873 Japan followed the lunar calendar used by China, Korea, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. The Japanese calendar is still full of many holidays that mark various important dates in the traditional lunar calendar.

One such holiday, Setsubun, is celebrated each year on February 3. In the past, Setsubun represented the last day of the winter months and the beginning of spring. Celebrating Setsubun involves the usual Shinto shrine visits, but you also toss toasted beans out your door and yell “Out with demons [oni]! In with happiness!” Pretty fun when everybody on your street is doing it!

To honor Setsubun, a couple of Japanese builders have posted really cool creations.

First up, mumu chases an oni away with handfuls of round 1×1 tan plates (I’m really diggin’ the giant oni head):

And PPB hero Izzo offers his take on the same scene:

(These builders’ awesome oni make my own no-face oni look pretty silly.)

Patrick J. Robertscum

Name: Patrick J. Robertscum
Occupation: Televangelist and paragon of moral outrage.
Interests: Blaming hurricanes on gays. Blaming terrorist acts on Hollywood. Bilking old ladies of their life savings. Railing against miscegenation. Spreading God’s love to people everywhere.

The Crew of the Pequod II

Names: Bartholemew O’Hurlahey and Mario Fratelli
Occupation: Captain and first mate of the fishing vessel Pequod II
Notes: Capt. Bart fancies himself the long-lost descendent of Herman Melville’s Capt. Ahab. He insists on carrying around a harpoon, even though they mainly catch herring, with a little cod and pollack thrown in. He also affects a limp, despite being in peak physical condition. Whenever he spots another boat on the horizon, he screams at Mario that it’s “the white whale!!!” and forces him to haul in the empty nets and give chase. Mario just sighs and rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath that Huckleberry Finn is a better candidate for canonization as the Great American Novel anyway… Sometimes when Mario is drunk, he gets angry at Capt. Bart and reminds him that Capt. Ahab is “fictional, you crazy coot!” He then breaks down sobbing that he misses his long-lost brother, who dresses in green instead of red.

If nautical nonsense be something you wish...

SpongeBob SquarePants! First images of our adorable invertebrate Bikini Bottom resident (via EuroBricks and I Love Cute LEGO!):

I know AFOLs everywhere will hate me for saying this, but I love this! I can just hear the foghorn blaring as Mr. SquarePants leaps off his bed yelling “I’m ready!” Off to the Krusty Krab, you!

Brick Journal Issue 3

Bricks in my Pocket has just posted the latest issue of Brick Journal, the magazine for adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs). There’s an article on the increasingly intriguing fan-created theme “steampunk” by local AFOL Dan Sabath, instructions for a cool mini V-wing, detailed pictures of Janey Cook’s awesome doll house, and lots of coverage of last year’s various LEGO events (Brickfest, NWBrickCon, and so on).

Thanks to VignetteBricks and Klasbricks for the heads-up as well.

Samurai Sedan Chair by Sumi-Handy’s Son

Japanese LEGO blogger Sumi-Handy posts his own LEGO creations, along with those of his kids. He recently posted a kago (which means “box”), an enclosed sedan chair in which important people were carried around during the Edo period (1603-1867):

The sedan chair is by Sumi-Handy’s son, but what struck me about this creation is the fantastic cedar tree Sumi-Handy himself added in the background. Very, very nice!

Power Armor by drabadan

Brickshelf user drabadan has just posted some really cool brick-built power suits:

I really like how it’s not just a minifig head stuck onto a robot body. The minifig actually fits inside! How awesome is that?

Casey Lundquist

Name: Casey Lundquist
Occupation: Beach bum.
Interests: Backdooring a gnarly tube. Catching air. Hanging with the brahs. Trying not to cluck. Going off.
Pet peeves: The meatball flag. Squids. Poser gremmies. Wannabes. Getting worked.

Serenity and Firefly Minifigs

Brickshelf user morgan19 recently posted several cool minifigs based on the wonderful (and short-lived) Joss Whedon TV series Firefly. That reminded me that I’ve been meaning to make my own.

Here we have the crew of Serenity:

Click the image above for individual shots of the characters (with accessories!). LEGO hasn’t released a female African-American head yet, so I couldn’t make Zoe.

Next, several other characters from Firefly. Left to right, Jubal Early, a “Two by two, hands of blue” guy (I only have one of these suits and two light-blue hands), and Adelai Niska:

Finally, a couple of characters from the movie Serenity, Mr. Universe and The Operative: