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)

It’s Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff at the Hogwarts quidditch pitch

While it’s doubtful any builder will ever challenge the sheer scale of Alice Finch’s LEGO Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling’s magical series of books continues to inspire LEGO builders. At nearly seven and a half feet long, Martin Harris and his son have built a massive minifig-scale quidditch pitch that gives Alice a run for her money. The pitch features all the colorful stands shown in the second movie, and there’s plenty of action both inside and outside the structure.

Each end of the pitch features a trio of goals.

Naturally, beaters are aloft to protect Harry from bludgers as he tries to catch the golden snitch.

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You have no idea how good this LEGO ammonite is

While my favorite lifeform from the age of the dinosaurs (and before) is the trilobite, I also have a soft spot for the hard-shelled ammonite. Leonid An has built a scientifically accurate, albeit fictional, ammonite that he’s dubbed Ammonoidea fictum. The Bionicle pieces make an excellent shell, and I love the big yellow eye glaring from behind a mouthful of tentacles.

Sadly, ammonites died out around the same time as the dinosaurs, survived by the similar (but only distantly related) nautilus. If you like this LEGO ammonite, check out the white nautilus we featured here back in 2009.

Imperial chamber scene from Star Wars Rogue One recreated in LEGO

With the movie’s release just a few months away and photos of Rogue One LEGO sets beginning to surface, it’s inevitable that we begin seeing the kind of shot-for-shot recreations of the trailer in LEGO that we saw before The Force Awakens. markus19840420 proves that there’s plenty of inspiration to be had from less than two minutes of footage with this faithful recreation of the mysterious hooded figure kneeling before what appears to be a bacta tank as Imperial Guards look on. The walls lean in claustrophobically, and Markus has even managed to include puffs of steam.

Here’s hoping Rogue One will inspire the kind of excellent LEGO Star Wars creations that The Force Awakens did, such as the hangar scene and Rey’s AT-AT home by the same builder.

Enter to win a signed copy of LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure [News]

Every week this month, we’re giving away a signed copy of the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure. Every model in the book was designed by our own Rod Gillies! To enter the second copy we’re giving away in August, 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!

Stormy, husky, brawling, / City of the Big Shoulders

If Carl Sandberg had lived to see the skyscrapers of modern Chicago, I’m sure he would have been no less proud of his city than he was when he wrote his poem “Chicago” more than a hundred years ago. Rocco Buttliere has captured the Chicago skyline in LEGO with this substantial group of microscale buildings, including the John Hancock Center. The looming, iconic buildings certainly dominate the skyline, but I love the smaller buildings and landscaping that Rocco has included, like the Lookinglass Theatre building and the Seneca Playlot Park. My favorite LEGO building, though, is 900 North Michigan with lovely green glass.

As fantastic as the buildings look in the photo above, I love this top-down look — as though you’re flying over in a helicopter.

See lots more photos in Rocco’s photostream on Flickr.

Harmony in blue, yellow, and white

My office at work looks across Lake Washington toward Seattle, and I spent much of the morning and afternoon distracted by F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets of the US Navy Blue Angels acrobatic team as they roared past my window. When I saw the predominantly blue and yellow color scheme of this excellent X-shaped fighter plane by Thomas W., I was immediately reminded of the Blue Angels. But with the double gull wings and large propellor, the real-world US Navy fighter that Thomas’s design truly evokes is the Vought F4U Corsair from World War II — one of my favorite aircraft of all time. The yellow stripe on the leading edge of the wings is lovely, and the white accents give the whole plane a more modern look for some reason.

His finger on the big red button

Sometimes really excellent LEGO creations emerge as tablescraps — those little bits that emerge almost unconsciously as you lazily put LEGO pieces together to see what works. Letranger Absurde found he’d created a miniature mushroom cloud recently, and then built an entire minifig-scale bunker around it so that he could feature the atomic explosion in the background via forced perspective. Not content to throw a couple of minifigs inside a block of gray bricks, he’s added some excellent details, like the filing cabinet and the newspaper on the wall.

While my first inclination was to wish these celebratory minifigs congratulations on their achievement, but upon further reflection I’m not sure what new age in the world of LEGO they may have ushered in…

If you don’t quite trust that Letranger actually built the whole scene as one LEGO creation (without adding in the background with Photoshop), you wouldn’t be alone. To combat such spurious accusations, as well as any doubt that he might not have enough brick separators, he’s posted this behind-the-scenes photo that shows the full setup.

Beware the Bloody Tortoise

Sometimes you don’t realize you’ve been following a very talented builder. Over this past year, six different TBB contributors have blogged mecha by Marco Marozzi, but I really didn’t take notice myself until I just looked through his photostream on Flickr and thought, “Oh, that was by Marco too? And that? And that?” With a broad variety of styles, from spindly to stompy, Marco shows he can build beyond the boilerplate of bipedal Gundam-style “mobile suits.” With judicious use of stickers, excellent color blocking around the central core, and believable greebling on the arms and legs, Marco’s latest mecha is a near-future industrial marvel, whose purpose may not be entirely peaceful…

Neo-Classic Blacktron from Cole Blaq? Why yes please!

We’ve featured our share of mashups here at The Brothers Brick, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a convergence of Neo-Classic Space with Blacktron livery. Cole Blaq nails the NCS aesthetic with this “High Jack” fighter, featuring the expected blue and gray color-blocking and great parts choices for greebles. But in place of the yellow-black-yellow striping, Cole has included a complex, brick-built version of the Blacktron logo. What does it mean? Is this an NCS ship captured and pressed into service by the Blacktron villains? Why not just paint the whole thing black? It’s all rather mysterious…

You can read more about the build over on cole-blaq.com.

Enjoying amazing street food in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of my top five favorite cities in the world, and my strongest memory of traveling there is definitely the food — not just excellent Cantonese cuisine but also some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. CK Tsang has built a massive, Miniland-scale version of several dai pai dong, traditional open food stalls in Hong Kong, evoking delightful memories for those of us lucky to have visited the city. Whether you’re in the mood for noodles, congee, or milk tea, it’s a safe bet you can find it at a dai pai dong.

Check out CK’s album on Flickr for more photos.

Win 1 of 4 signed copies of LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure [News]

Proving that we can only go so long without giving away something Star Wars-related (with a break in August to give away the new Ghostbusters Ecto-1), this month we’re delighted to be giving away four copies of the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure. This is a particularly special giveaway, since TBB’s own Rod Gillies created all the models in the book, and will be signing each of the books you can win! To enter, 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!

The book will be available on August 2nd, and we’ll do our best to set aside our love of Rod to bring you a balanced review soon.

Antique wooden LEGO Pluto pull-along recreated with LEGO bricks

Back when LEGO was still making wooden toys, the company produced a wooden pull-along toy styled like Mickey Mouse’s pal Pluto. LEGO historians these days have argued that this was LEGO’s very first licensed product, ultimately leading to LEGO Star Wars, SpongeBob, Ghostbusters, and many more. Today, that wooden toy is vanishingly rare. BrickJournal Editor-in-Chief Joe Meno has built this adorable version of that vintage toy using modern LEGO bricks.

Like his wooden predecessor, LEGO Pluto’s legs move when you pull him around by the string attached to his collar. Check out this video to see more of LEGO Pluto’s play features.