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)

LEGO Star Wars 75140 Resistance Troop Transporter from the Force Awakens [Review]

I’m seeing The Force Awakens in 48 hours, but some of the 2016 LEGO Star Wars sets arrived from our friends in Billund yesterday (with a confirmation from LEGO today that we can go ahead and post our review prior to the movie’s release on Thursday), so we’ll start our pre-movie rush of Star Wars LEGO set reviews with 75140 Resistance Troop Transporter, due out in January.

Given that this set references characters and a vehicle from The Force Awakens, I’ll be careful about spoilers myself, and the full review itself is buried after the jump.

LEGO Star Wars 75140 Resistance Troop Transporter

Read the full review after the jump!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 15)

75097 LEGO Star Wars Advent CalendarDoes anybody read these intros? This is the 15th one I’ve written for TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar, and I’m running out of different things to say.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 15 mini-kits!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 14)

41102 LEGO Friends Advent CalendarWe’re two weeks into our virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series. Here we go with the LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends mini-kits from Day 14.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 14 mini-kits!

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.

LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack 40% off & Level Packs 33% off at Amazon [News]

If you’ve been procrastinating on picking up LEGO Dimensions hoping for a deal on the admittedly rather ridiculous price tag for a game, the base LEGO Dimensions Starter Pack is 40% off at Amazon.com today for all consoles. To sweeten the deal, several of the Level Packs that unlock new character abilities as well as new areas are about a third off as well.

LEGO Dimensions on Amazon.com

My favorite Level Pack is from Portal 2, featuring Chell, a Weighted Companion Cube, and a Turret. The Portal level and corresponding home world include new, original dialog by both Ellen McLain voicing GlaDOS and Stephen Merchant voicing Wheatley. While the puzzles are certainly not the braintwisters of the “real” Portal games, I’d go as far as to call it “Portal 2.5” — quite enjoyable.

LEGO Dimensions Portal 2 Level Pack

The Back to the Future Level Pack includes Marty, a hover board, and a DeLorean. The main level itself (excluding the separate Hill Valley home world area) took me all of about 20 minutes to complete, but it does include newly recorded dialog voiced by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.

LEGO Dimensions Back to the Future Level Pack

Finally, the mildly amusing but mostly forgettable Simpsons Level Pack includes Homer, his car, and the Simpsons family TV. Dan Castellaneta does seem to have voiced a handful of original lines, but he seems to be the only actor with any new/added dialog in the Simpsons level, resulting in a terrifyingly silent Springfield…

LEGO Dimensions Simpsons Level Pack

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 13)

75097 LEGO Star Wars Advent CalendarWe’re on the thirteenth day of TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar, with more mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 13 mini-kits!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 12)

41102 LEGO Friends Advent CalendarWe’ve got twelve more days of our virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series. Here we go with Day 12.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 12 mini-kits!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 11)

75097 LEGO Star Wars Advent CalendarOne week to go until The Force Awakens, but we still have another thirteen days of TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar, with more mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 11 mini-kits!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 10)

41102 LEGO Friends Advent CalendarWe’re 10 days into our virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series. Another day, and another set of mini-kits from both LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 10 mini-kits!

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.

Kylo Ren & Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber hilts in LEGO

ONE WEEK TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS! Okay, phew. Breathe, Andrew, breathe… For our daily dose of Star Wars, here’s a lovely pair of lightsaber hilts by Will Galbraith. One of the more unique weapons we’ve seen so far in trailers is Kylo Ren’s red three-bladed lightsaber — that’s the black one in the photos below.

Which lightsaber will you choose?

Click to see more photos of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber!

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.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 9)

75097 LEGO Star Wars Advent CalendarTBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar continues apace on Day 9 with more mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 9 mini-kits!

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.

All the droids you’re looking for

It’s just over one week to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (a bunch of the TBB crew are seeing it Thursday night), so expect another spike in LEGO Star Wars creations here over the next while. Daniel Stoeffler has built C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8 from The Force Awakens to the same scale. This size lets Daniel show off a wealth of details, such as the actuators on Threepio’s neck.

BB8+R2-D2_C-3PO

As a bonus mashup, here’s the Star Wars trio with another pair of robots with winning personalities, Wall-E and EVE.

five_droids

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.

Antique Singer sewing machine is ready to sew that flapper dress

Jimmy Fortel continues to knock it out of the park using the fencing foil seed part from the current round of Iron Builder. Jimmy’s latest creation is an antique Singer sewing machine that uses the foil as the sewing needle. But let’s be honest — what stands out in this model is less the use of the seed part than the beautiful shaping of the overall sewing machine, along with all the excellent details like the spool and balance wheel.

Old Singer

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.