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.
Where most minifigure-scale LEGO builds lack the space to have functionality, many larger-scale LEGO Technic models emphasize visible functionality over aesthetics. It’s a rare LEGO creation that combines a high degree of functionality with a visually stunning look. With his Kobelco SK210HLC excavator, Polish builder Maciej Szymański manages to achieve this feat, in gorgeous dark turquoise, no less!
Maciej says that he spent more than a year and a half building this model, which integrates ten motors, eight pumps, LED lights, and pneumatic cylinders that he custom-built himself. The resulting excavator is fully operational, remote controlled with pneumatic actuators.
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Due to the tragic murders of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and far too many other African-Americans, racial injustices that Black people experience every day have come to the forefront of white consciousness once again. We’ve been examining how this very real-world issue affects the hobby we participate in, not just for a moment in time but on an ongoing basis. Earlier this week, we sat down with Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, whose LEGO work we’ve featured several times, including his stunning Flower Girl sculpture and wonderful Beasts from Bricks book.
Our conversation with Ekow covered his experience growing up playing with LEGO, interactions with the LEGO hobbyist community, the Afrocentric and Afrofuturist themes of his artwork, and how LEGO communities such as The Brothers Brick can operate more inclusively.
We ask you to watch the full video before reacting with comments. While the reaction from some quarters to recent statements we’ve made that Black Lives Matter has been dismissed as “political” and some reactions have been outright hateful, by and large the response from the LEGO hobbyist community has been empathetic and supportive. Nevertheless, there is much more to be done. A number of our readers have rightly pointed out The Brothers Brick’s own contributor list as one area where we can improve, asking us to work harder to recruit a more diverse team while highlighting more non-white builders and highlighting the LEGO creations of people of color. As I committed to during the video conversation with Ekow, one of our next steps will be to kick off a new round of contributor recruiting to improve our own diversity and better represent the community we are a part of.
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Here at The Brothers Brick, we’ve taken “political” stands on matters of peace and justice for as long as the LEGO building community has created LEGO art that communicates an important message, whether that message was in support of marriage equality way back in 2006 or freedom of discourse in response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015. Dave Kaleta joins a chorus of people around the world who choose not to remain silent in these excruciating, infuriating times.
From a LEGO build perspective, Dave uses largely disconnected white slopes, tiles, and plates to surround solidly attached black bricks. Dave also leverages the new range of small curved tiles to create the lettering along the bottom of the mosaic. But the build and its techniques are hardly what grab my attention.
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Last month LEGO revealed the next set in the Ultimate Collector Series would be 75275 A-wing Starfighter, making it available May 1 just in time for May the Fourth celebrations. Due to the current global pandemic, LEGO’s shipping department wasn’t able to get us an early copy, but we’ve finally got our hands on the set to bring you an in-depth review. The new Rebel fighter has 1,673 pieces and is available now for US $199.99 | CAN $259.99 | UK £179.99.
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Of the two similar structures in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra in southern Jordan, Al Khazneh and El Deir, the iconic “Treasury” featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is much more famous than the larger (and arguably more spectacular) “Monastery” deeper in the Nabatean archaeological site. So it’s no surprise that we’ve seen Al Khazneh depicted in LEGO many times over the years, with nary a Monastery in sight (or brick). Nevertheless, I appreciate each new LEGO Petra, like this one by Inthert built only from tan pieces.
What’s especially notable about this build is less its monochrome color scheme than the variety of interesting “illegal” techniques Inthert uses to achieve shapes and angles at this scale. LEGO’s internal design team follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure that official LEGO sets are study in the hands of grubby little hands, while adult builders and other LEGO fans have no such restrictions (so it’s rather amusing when commenters decry the use of such techniques in fan-built models — stop it). Specifically, many plates and tiles are half-attached to studs or wedged in with friction, while a number of the Technic pins used as columns are connected using the gaps that allow the pins to flex for clipping into place. But my favorite detail is the Technic gear atop the “roof” of the central section.
Be sure to click through to the full-size photo and expand it to take in all the interesting details and techniques.
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It’s been many many years since we’ve seen any LEGO creations in the fan-created “Tech West” theme. The theme mashes up LEGO space and western, with a dash of steampunk, with a heavy dose of Serenity and Wild Wild West. Although builder captainsmog may label this “Colonial Futurist” but I’m personally transported back to 2004 rather than an alternate 1874. What I love most about the stagecoach is how the detailed robotic legs move just like horse legs. This is no horseless carriage — the horse is just mechanical. Similarly, notice how the front of the speeder bikes ridden by the marauding bandits are shaped like horses’ heads.
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LEGO may have released a batch of new March 2020 LEGO sets yesterday, but there’s still a wealth of sets from January worth taking another look at. One of the biggest changes to happen within a LEGO theme is the change in LEGO Speed Champions models from six studs wide to eight studs wide. While I personally enjoyed 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO, comments from builders indicated that the GT-R may not showcase the change as well as other models might. 76899 Lamborghini Urus ST-X & Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £54.99) includes two models built from 663 pieces that I think both illustrate the benefits of the change.
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There’s an orthodoxy — often passing over into toxicity — within Star Wars fandom that states that The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie of all time, and that anything produced after 1983 is inherently and automatically lesser. I am the rare heretic whose favorite Star Wars movie is not part of the nine-movie Skywalker Saga. While certainly not perfect, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story took the story in a completely new direction while filling in one of the most mysterious gaps in the canon. Luca captures an incredibly poignant moments in the movie, when Jyn and Cassian must abandon K-2SO as they climb the interior of the data vault with the stolen Death Star plans.
The builder focuses the viewer’s attention on the two characters, but the scene is replete with wonderful detail. The round vault doorway and tunnel extends forward, further focusing attention on the minifigs, while in the background repetition provides the texture of the racks of data tapes. Scenes like this show that a great LEGO creation doesn’t need to be a 10,000-piece diorama anymore than a great Star Wars movie has to star a space wizard with a laser sword.
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The LEGO Speed Champions theme has been rather quiet for most of 2019, following the release of fantastic sets like 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy in January, building on more vintage history in 2018 with sets like 75884 1968 Ford Mustang and 75889 Ferrari Ultimate Garage. In the intervening year, it’s now apparent that the LEGO Speed Champions design team has been hard at work redesigning the Speed Champions line from the ground up, shifting from models that are generally six studs wide to an eight-stud axle track, with cars from Jaguar, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Audi. The new 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO is the very first Japanese car featured in the Speed Champions theme, and was revealed to much fanfare at an event in November.
The set includes 298 pieces with a driver minifig and will be released on January 1st, 2020 for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99.
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It’s not often that a LEGO set transports me back home. But regular readers of The Brothers Brick know that I was born in Tokyo and lived in Japan until I was a teenager, so I was incredibly excited when LEGO announced 21050 Tokyo. I’ve enjoyed each of the previous LEGO Architecture skyline sets I’ve built, but how does this one stack up for someone who calls Tokyo their hometown?
Tokyo was revealed as part of the LEGO Architecture skyline series for 2020, alongside 21052 Dubai. Tokyo is built from 547 pieces and will retail for $59.99 USD | $79.99 CAD | £59.99 GBP. Both sets will be available starting January 1st.
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Poe Dameron seems to go through X-wing starfighters more quickly than Carrie Bradshaw goes through Manolo Blahniks. His latest is a cute little number (75273) in orange and white with azure accents, which you can pick up for yourself for a mere $89.99 USD | $119.99 CAD | £89.99 GBP. Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter includes 761 pieces with three minifigs (plus Artoo) and will be available January 1st, 2020.
We’ll do our best to avoid any major SPOILERS, and we ask our commenters to do the same for another week or two, until more people reading this will have had the opportunity to see Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
Notes on terminology: For simplicity throughout this article, we’ll often reference the Resistance X-wing’s model number and compare and contrast it with the original X-wing from the Classic Trilogy. The model number for the original X-wings flown by the Rebel Alliance was T-65. The updated New Republic / Resistance X-wing’s model number is T-70. Similarly, the wings that give the X-wing its name are technically called S-foils (as in “Lock S-foils in attack position!”). To avoid repetition, we’ll occasionally call them wings.
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Over the years, LEGO’s Creator Expert line of modular buildings has alternated back and forth between European-style buildings like the original Cafe Corner and American architecture like 10197 Fire Brigade 10 years ago and the more recent 10260 Downtown Diner and 10264 Corner Garage. The era and location that inspired 10270 Bookshop are less obvious, because this pair of side-by-side buildings could fit right in on streets as far-flung as Boston and Amsterdam.
10270 Bookshop includes 2,504 pieces with five minifigs and will be available on January 1st (US $179.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £149.99).
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