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)

A blessing in the old chapel at Marbury Village

As we start wrapping up our coverage of the various LEGO Castle creations that were part of the Ye Old Merry Battleground collaboration by “InnovaLug” at Brickfair VA, we would be remiss in our duties if we failed to highlight this beautiful village by TBB alum Mark Erickson. Mark’s village includes two half-timbered houses and an excellent church in unconventional tan (sandstone, I presume). The church has sculptures in the same color as the structure — though in fact these would likely have been painted garishly when carved originally in the Medieval era — as well as a graveyard and a red roof with some subtle texturing.

Mark’s extra pieces of rounded landscaping that sort of “drip” off of his main diorama illustrate the interesting approach that the InnovaLug team took to their collaborative display. Rather than integrating the various contributions on a single underlying brick-built landscape (as we did with our Battle of Bricksburg display), the team used white space between the builds to highlight each build separately. We tried this approach with TBB’s “ChronoCon” display at BrickCon a couple of years ago, and it’s not generally a style of collaborative display that I think works all that well — though InnovaLug seems to have pulled it off quite well by spanning the open space with little details like the smaller landscaping pieces here. What do you think of this display style?

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Alexander the Great in the Battle of Issus, 333 B.C.E.

legopthalmos has a strong eye for historic scenes, as he demonstrates with this excellent LEGO recreation of the iconic “Alexander Mosaic” in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. In the Battle of Issus in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), Alexander the Great personally led his Macedonian army against Darius III and his Persian army. Alexander defeated Darius, further enabling Alexander’s conquest of Asia. This LEGO scene includes all the details of the historic mosaic, from Alexander astride his war horse to Darius in his chariot. Both the horses and minifigs are posed well, with artistic angling of the Persian lances balanced by the denuded tree on the Macedonian side.

Here’s a closeup of some of the great action in this diorama.

Then & Now with Doris the aging minifig

TBB contributor Elspeth De Montes has been working on a fantastic series of scenes contrasting the life of a woman named Doris in 1966 and later in her life today, in 2016. Originally built for and published in Bricks magazine, Elspeth’s scenes are not only well-built LEGO creations, but also poignant and funny. She describes her Doris series thus: “On the left it is 1966 and she is a young vibrant lady in touch with the latest fashion, technology and trends. On the right, time has passed and it is 2016 and Doris has to cope with new technology, innovation and the changes in society.”

In Elspeth’s first scene, Doris happily tosses her rubbish out in 1966, but struggles to sort her recyclables in 2016. What impresses me most about this scene is how many LEGO trash cans in various colors Elspeth owns!

Click through to see all of Doris’s adventures through the years

I fear nothing. All is as the force wills it.

The German-language LEGO Star Wars forum Imperium der Steine is hosting its annual “MOC Olympics” at the moment, and with the release of the full trailer for Rogue One this past week, we’re seeing a lot of great entries inspired by the forthcoming movie. TBB regular and all-around talented builder Cecilie Fritzvold has recreated the mysterious character Chirrut Îmwe in LEGO, centered on the scene in which he battles Imperial Stormtroopers with nothing more than a staff.

Cecilie says that she created the Stormtroopers first, since she thought they might be the hardest. Creating enough detail on the troopers’ helmets to make them recognizable at this scale is no small feat. Cecilie completes the scene with some solid forced perspective, including a minifig-scale Stormtrooper in the background (though she gives him taller legs to bring him into the same shape as the brick-built ones in the foreground).

Win a third copy of LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure signed by Rod Gillies [News]

It’s the third week of August, and we’re ready to give away another copy of LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure, signed by TBB’s own Rod Gillies, who designed all of the models in the book. To win the third copy we’re giving away, click here.

We’ll also send each winner a snazzy TBB T-shirt and other cool swag, but thanks in particular to Rod and our friends at DK for the books!

LEGO Peel P50 microcar is only missing LEGO Jeremy Clarkson [Video]

Peel Engineering on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea manufactured the P50 microcar at the height of Mod fashion in the heyday of “Swinging London.” Vimal Patel (vmln8r on Flickr) has lovingly handcrafted a beautiful blue LEGO P50 that’s fully motorized, with great curves that make the little “bubble car” instantly recognizable.

Click through to see an adorable pug dog play with this adorable LEGO car!

OwlBaby the adorable wandering mercenary

Some builders write lengthy backstories for their LEGO creations, making sure to share with viewers every detail of why their model is the way it is. Other times, the model just speaks for itself, leaving you wanting to know more. Personally, I prefer a bit of mystery. LEGO 7 presents this adorable character who looks like he stepped out of a manga or anime series, though I think the little fellow is entirely original. With an owl-shaped helmet, impish grin, and weapons pointing in every direction, he looks ready to take on the whole world.

The character’s purple eyes are from LEGO Elves sets, and LEGO 7 has provided him with a range of equipment, including a gas mask and sniper rifle.

Let’s celebrate Kenny Baker (1934-2016) with this LEGO R2-D2 retrospective

Kenny Baker, the diminutive actor who played R2-D2 in all Star Wars films except The Force Awakens, died peacefully in his sleep today. The 3′ 8″ actor operated Artoo from inside, sealed up “like a boiled egg.” In addition to R2-D2 Kenny Baker also played Paploo the Ewok in Return of the Jedi as well as key roles in movies like Time Bandits and The Elephant Man. To honor this actor who had such a huge impact on Star Wars, here’s a roundup of some of the best LEGO R2-D2 models we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick over the years.

One of my favorite LEGO Artoos is this small LEGO R2-D2 by Jeffery Kong.

Click through to see more of the best LEGO R2-D2 models

There are not enough LEGO mammoths in the world

Sadly, World Elephant Day on August 12 is a stark reminder that there are not enough modern elephants in the world, and that we must take action — stop murdering them — if we want to avoid seeing today’s Proboscidea go the way of their Pleistocene predecessors the mammoth and mastodon. Jens Ohrndorf has been building little LEGO animals for the past few months, and his latest batch includes this impossibly adorable woolly mammoth. With just a few pieces, Jens has captured the shagginess and undeniable majesty of this Ice Age creature. The miniature snowcapped mountain and subtle gray background add immeasurably to the presentation.

As with any ecosystem, the mammoth steppe biome would not be complete without other megafauna. I’m not sure Jens intended for this pair of bison to go with the mammoth, but they complement it perfectly.

See more of Jens’ LEGO animals in his album on Flickr.

For a guy with three hearts, you are not very nice.

Even though I’ve come to moderate my expectations for Pixar sequels, I found myself charmed and highly entertained by this summer’s Finding Dory, co-directed by LEGO Wall-E designer and Pixar animator Angus MacLane. The movie was full of unique, heartwarming characters, and radiohearhoy has lovingly recreated several of them in LEGO.

Easily my favorite character was Hank the cranky octopus, who it turns out has at least one heart of gold. The 1×1 round plates on Hank’s tentacles show how small this LEGO creation actually is, proving that it’s not how much LEGO you own, but how you use the pieces you have.

Click to see more Finding Dory characters in LEGO

Stomping across the cold steppes of the Pleistocene

As a lifelong student of archaeology, I’ve become more and more focused on the Pleistocene and the Paleolithic, that amazing span of the Earth’s history when humanity emerged in Africa and conquered almost the entire habitable surface of the planet. Along the way, we survived multiple ice ages and lived until fairly recently alongside megafauna such as mammoths. I’ve been meaning to build a mammoth or two from LEGO, so I was pleased to see this adorable mother-and-child pair by Pierre. Noteworthy here is that the adult mammoth is built upside down. And I just love the baby mammoth with its big Dumbo ears. Presented on a base of snowy white, this pair would look great on any paleoanthropologist’s or paleontologist’s desk.

This roof is driving me bananas!

In yet another repudiation of the idea that LEGO pieces are only good for the purpose originally intended by their designers, alego alego has built a yellow thatched roof made entirely of LEGO bananas. And the cabin itself is built almost completely from brown Technic connectors. The base of this treehouse is also quite lovely, with a stone pathway, well, and lovely little bushes.

My only critique is that a lovely LEGO creation like this feels a little underpopulated without some characters to enjoy the scenery.