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)

Brickmania M4 Sherman tank custom LEGO kit [Review]

This is my second review focusing on a custom Brickmania LEGO kit that’s similar to a LEGO model I designed myself — well, sort of, in this case. Read on…

The M4 Sherman is one of the most iconic and recognizable tanks of all time, with nearly 50,000 produced between 1942 and 1955. Because of its long production run, the tank served through most of the U.S. involvement in World War II and on through the Korean War.

The Sherman is an incredibly well-documented vehicle, and popular enough with plastic modelers that there’s a wealth of reference pictures available online and in books, from historical photos to detailed schematics and high-res close-ups of surviving tanks in museums. With so many production variants (animated GIF illustrating three of the most common ones on the right) and tank crews’ penchant for customizing their vehicles in the field, it’s also a great choice as inspiration for a LEGO model — you can definitely put your own spin on it.

After I’d tried my hand with LEGO World War II models with a couple of small Jeeps and a simple Higgins Boat for my Omaha Beach diorama, I knew I had to tackle a bigger vehicle, and I quickly settled on the M4A3 Sherman, which I included in my diorama depicting the liberation of Cherbourg.

Here’s my M4A3 (76)W Sherman variant on the right with Dan Siskind’s Brickmania M4 Sherman that I’ll be reviewing on the left.

It feels a little odd reviewing these two models as a comparison for two reasons. First, they’re very different variants. Dan’s M4 reflects earlier (initial M4 or M4A1), much more rounded hull design with a 75mm gun while mine is the mid/late-war M4A3 with an angular hull and the much-larger 76mm gun (with its correspondingly longer turret).

Side note: Remember how I said just how well-documented Shermans are? Prepare for this review to get occasionally technical about tank details. Bogies will be mentioned.

Second, I have to confess that I based many aspects of my M4A3 on Dan’s own M4A2. Or rather, I tried to reverse-engineer things like the front section and the suspension from his pictures (which I can’t find online today). You can definitely see the influence in details like the angled flags above the treads on the front. Given a bit of “shared DNA,” there is of course a lot more similarity between my M4A3(76)W and Dan’s current Brickmania M4A3(76)W kit. But back to the actual review…

Theoretically, both of these models are the same scale — Dan says he targets 1/35th, and that’s the same scale I used, based on schematics in World War II AFV Plans: American Armored Fighting Vehicles. But this next comparison photo shows how much larger mine is:

The problem with LEGO tanks is that they’re just plain huge — an issue I touched on in my review of the Brickmania WC54 ambulance: “The more ‘room’ you have to work with, the more details and functionality you can build into the model.” (Speaking of ridiculously huge, I hate the road wheels on my tank and will definitely be replacing them with smaller ones if/when I revisit my design.)

My point about tank scale is best illustrated by this historic photo from Belgium in 1944, with soldiers conveniently walking alongside for scale:

The soldiers standing next to the Sherman show that the top of the tank treads come no higher than mid-chest, and the deck of the tank where the turret sits is just above the tallest soldier’s helmet. Granting that the minifig is horrible for scale, but assuming that height is an acceptable measure of dimension, it’s clear that just about every LEGO tank is far, far too tall. And thanks to the minifig’s impossibly wide hips, a LEGO Sherman’s width is also affected, if you want to include space for both a driver and a machine-gunner. Here’s Dan’s photo of his M4 Sherman, with three crewmen (not included in the set):

On my tank, the tread/suspension section is taller than a minifig. Dan has managed to shave at least two plates’ worth of height off the most-common LEGO Sherman designs, but at the expense of several details most other LEGO versions include, like the larger front drive sprocket compared to the smaller rear idler, and even the bogies (hey I warned you!).

Which brings me to the price for Dan’s kit. I won’t go into the price-for-value issue again in this post (read my WC54 post for that), but the kit I’m reviewing is $165 for 505 pieces. For $350, Dan also sells his M4A3(76)W Sherman as a “premium kit” built from 796 pieces that includes a 4-minifig crew.

The difference — both between Dan’s two Shermans and between his $165 version and my own — is a matter of scale versus detail. I think this more-basic Brickmania Sherman gets the scale closer to “right,” but by sacrificing many of the details in my version and Dan’s own M4A3. It’s not just an issue of price; I think it’s essentially the same tradeoff between scale and detail that Dan and I made in the opposite direction with our two rather different ambulance designs.

The scale-vs-detail point that I’ve belabored now in two separate posts isn’t a criticism in either direction — neither “Proper scale should always win over detail” nor “Certain details must never be left out.” And I won’t include a handy comparison table this time. I do want to point out several aspects of Dan’s “basic” M4 Sherman that I really like — all differences from mine.

The front section uses rounded bricks rather than straight slopes, similar to the even-more-rounded front that I first saw on Rumrunner’s M4A1 a couple years ago, but with much simpler parts (another good compromise).
The two front hatches close seamlessly.
Even with the hatches open, the turret can still rotate 360 degrees.
The road wheels are a logical, proper size that allow the tank to roll on its treads. (Mine are far too huge and don’t line up properly with the treads.)
The main gun raises and lowers (“fully posable” as Dan puts it). I think this is my favorite functional detail, and a design I’ll borrow should I revisit my tank again.

Even without some key details — like the bogies (and again!) — I really like the overall design, and this feels like a Sherman you could probably build a couple more of once you have your first copy, thanks to Dan’s instructions. Other than the bogies (last time, I promise), my biggest critique is the too-narrow treads — a single set of Technic chain links for each tread. Most Sherman designs use either LEGO’s wider tank treads or two parallel chains of Technic links. The single-chain treads work on smaller tanks (I’ll review one of them shortly), but as part of the overall shape, I can be convinced that it’s an acceptable compromise.

And for me, that’s ultimately why this is a positive review — that the design looks great at a lower price by leaving off a few details — and why I can heartily recommend the “plain” Brickmania M4 Sherman. It’s a fun little tank — and little is good when it comes to tanks. More importantly, it holds plenty of opportunity to make it your own with extra details and “field customizations” like hedge-cutters, applique armor, and equipment built from your own LEGO collection.

With enough M4 Shermans at your disposal, successful invasion of a Pacific island becomes a possibility:

Brickmania sent The Brothers Brick a copy of this set for review. There is no guarantee of coverage or a positive review by providing items to review. It helps when you have a good product, like Dan Siskind does with his Brickmania custom LEGO kits. We’ll have a couple more reviews next week.

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.

The mysterious Machine n°2

Vince Toulouse has found a use for the massive ship’s hull that comes in Cragger’s Command Ship — turn it upside down and make it the body of a magical airship.

The narrow seam or gap between the lower gray section of the hull and the large olive-green section adds a nice detail, and I can certainly imagine all that magical electricity buzzing this thing through the clouds.

Via twee affect.

Tuesday morning tiff: Nate DeCastro vs. Jon Hall

For understandable real-world reasons, last week was a bit of a slow LEGO week, so I’m not surprised Keith didn’t get a chance to do a second “Friday Night Fight.” When I got caught up on LEGO and encountered this sky-fi fighter, I thought to myself, “Ah, excellent — Jon Hall has built another gorgeous plane.”

Except that this P-64 Dragonfly is actually by Nate DeCastro! Nate’s fighter sports an Octan color scheme and a rain-specked canopy effect added in post-production. The blur on the tail is also a nice touch.

Of course, Jon Hall himself has indeed built another gorgeous plane. His T-68 Banshee includes round bricks embedded in arches and classic World War II livery.

Career Thoughts interviews LEGO Master Builder Steve Gerling

Master Builders, Master Model Makers, or Master Model Designers are people who work for LEGO or LEGOLAND to design and maintain large-scale displays for the company or theme parks. We’ve taken you behind the scenes at LEGOLAND with the charming and telegenic Gary McIntire, but what’s it like to work as a Master Builder for LEGO’s North American headquarters in Enfield, Connecticut?

Career Thoughts has an interview with Steve Gerling, who brought a more-traditional artist’s eye to the Model Shop 17 years ago.

Steve Gerling with a LEGO great white shark

Kevin Spence: Did you find that a lot of [your sculpture background] translated?

Steve Gerling: Oh, it all translated. Absolutely. Despite the fact that I worked primarily in relief, the sculpture principles were all still there. They were trying to upgrade their models that had human and wildlife themes at that point. They were trying to get something more realistic…. It was a new sculptural medium. We had little pieces of clay that happened to be square.

Check out the full interview on careerthoughts.com.

Brickmania WC54 Ambulance custom LEGO kit [Review]

Dan Siskind of Brickmania and I recently decided that it might be interesting to review a few of his custom LEGO kits from the perspective of someone who’s designed their own version of the same iconic vehicles available in his store. Prepare for a series of reviews with a bit more personal focus than your average LEGO set review…

The Dodge WC54 was an ambulance used by the US Army throughout World War II, and for a few years afterward. You can see them lined up on the beach at Normandy and it features prominently in the TV show M*A*S*H. It’s a wonderful vehicle, with rounded corners and a beautiful purpose — bringing safety and hope in the midst of the horror and chaos of war. My late grandfather trained as a medic during World War II, and I can imagine that if he had been deployed to the invasion of Japan (thankfully, he wasn’t) he would have served in a Dodge WC54.

All of that is why I had to build one myself. After a couple iterations and some great feedback from Tim, I was pretty pleased with the results. It’s small, but it’s one of the models I’m proudest of, so I thought I’d first try the Brickmania WC54 Ambulance custom kit for my first comparative review.

My WC54 is on the left, and Dan’s is on the right:

Dan sells two versions of his WC54 design — a standard version with just the vehicle for $80 and a “bonus pack” version for $125 (which Dan was kind enough to send us). The bonus pack version includes a Citizen Brick US Army Ranger, printed BrickArms medic helmet to turn the ranger into a medic, a “Brickmania Medical Corps” T-shirt, and the whole thing comes in an olive drab medic satchel. The complete package is actually kind of awesome, even to this jaded, cynical reviewer.

The model itself includes 253 LEGO pieces. So, let’s just get this out of the way in our first review: $80 for 253 parts? These sets aren’t for someone building their collection of LEGO parts. I asked Dan about the prices of his custom LEGO kits, and he reminded me that he has to source his individual LEGO parts on the secondary market just like everyone else. Dan sells his custom kits in limited runs of fifty to a hundred (rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands of units that the LEGO Group moves), and his price has to account for the time he spends designing and redesigning the sets in a way that enables him to find enough parts in quantity to create a batch of custom kits. As someone who built a substantial portion of his World War II LEGO models from Bricklink orders, I can attest to the challenge of trying to assemble all the parts I need for a particular model from various BrickLink stores, much less attempting to source enough for dozens of the same model. No, custom Brickmania kits are not cheap, but I really do think you’re getting value for the money. Let’s move on…

The two main differences between my ambulance and Dan’s are in the overall size and the functionality. The Brickmania WC54 is one stud longer and two plates taller:

There is, of course, a natural interdependence between a larger scale and more functionality — the more “room” you have to work with, the more details and functionality you can build into the model. Here’s a table that compares the details and functionality between the two models:

Andrew’s WC54	Dan’s WC54
Opening cab doors	Opening cab doors Windshield wipers Indented spare tire Steering wheel Cab fits a minifig driver Rear fits a minifig on a stretcher Opening rear doors Removable roof for interior access

Because of the complicated SNOT and panel-style window on my cab, I have to remove a minifig’s arms and legs to put a driver in the cab. The half-stud offset transition from the six-wide rear to the five-wide cab means there’s no room in the back for much of anything. Plus, the rear doors don’t open, and ripping the roof off usually brings a bunch of other bricks with it.

I could go on.

In other words, Dan gains all that extra functionality and detail at very little “cost” (one stud longer and two plates taller) in terms of the model’s slightly over-sized scale. Dan says the same is true of his Jeep:

I have also given up trying to make a decent 1/35 scale Jeep. I did one that small for a couple of months and couldn’t stand all the compromises to playability in order to make it that small. My newer jeeps are over-sized but way sturdier, cheaper and more fun to play with!

Dan’s version is also a lot sturdier than mine. Our front grilles are virtually identical — contrary to popular belief, there is indeed a finite number of ways you can achieve a particular design with the limited palette of available LEGO elements. But I built my three/five-wide engine block with its seven-wide fenders in a way that only left a single stud for the grille to attach to. Dan’s has a solid three-stud connection across the whole front of the engine block.

Despite all the odd-width construction and a few non-traditional building techniques (like tires inside of other tires to achieve a more-realistic look), Dan’s WC54 is an AFOL-designed model I’d be comfortable handing over to an eight-year-old to zoom around the living room floor. I can’t say the same of all the LEGO models I’ve handled — and a few I’ve accidentally broken — at LEGO conventions and club meetings.

You’ll notice in the pictures (both mine and the product pictures on Brickmania.com) that Dan’s WC54 has quite a few stickers. Well, they’re not actually stickers. Dan says he’s trying out something new with the WC54 — custom static-cling decals. I think it’s actually a brilliant idea: The decals go on easily and have continued to stick nicely even as I handle the model over and over during this review. Most interestingly, they come off when I want them to without leaving any gluey residue. But the decals feel a little like a work in progress. There are some spots on the larger gray decal (the one on top of the cab) that look like they didn’t print quite right. When I asked Dan about it, he said:

The static cling decals in the ambulance are a one-of-a-kind experiment to see how we like them. They’re printed on one of the laser printers in our office and not professionally made. Our customers are by and large our product testers too, so feedback like yours is what determines if we’re going to further pursue an idea or not. If clings are something we’re going to do for future kits, we’ll plan ahead to have them done in a professional shop where nicer result should be expected.

My vote is that these do definitely work — all the benefits of stickers without the mess. I only had one sticker that wasn’t quite perfect, so I’m looking forward to what Dan and his team can achieve with professional printing.

My other minor complaint is that the crosses on the side of the Brickmania WC54 aren’t brick-built. To be fair, they’re more perfectly square than mine and have a nice, thin white border around the cross that you can’t achieve nearly as well with just bricks. I asked Dan why he chose not to brick-build the crosses, and he said that the original prototype did include crosses entirely constructed from LEGO. But by using the decals he was already including, he was able to reduce the cost of the kit by several dollars, with 3 LEGO parts per cross rather than 14. Fair enough — not really a consideration for the lone LEGO model built from the bricks in one’s own collection.

Minor nit-picking aside, the Brickmania WC54 is a wonderful model built as much to play with as it is to include in your next World War II diorama or collaborative display. The slight compromise on scale has enabled Dan to achieve a level of sturdiness, functionality, and detail lacking in mine.

At $80 for the basic kit, you get a gorgeous little ambulance that might teach you a thing or two about odd-width vehicle building techniques. For another $45, the “bonus pack” version (at $125) also includes a lot of fun value. I think the “Brickmania Medical Corps” T-shirt is my new favorite LEGO-themed shirt, and the presentation with the medic satchel is priceless — the perfect gift for the LEGO military builder or World War II history buff in your life.

Look for more reviews of custom Brickmania LEGO kits in the coming days.

Soviet Lunniy Korabl (LK) moon lander

Parallel to the American Apollo moon program, the USSR also worked toward landing their own Cosmonauts on the moon. Even though the Soviet program had enormous success with their unmanned Lunokhod rover, the manned program was ultimately canceled before Cosmonauts could be launched.

Kei_Kei_Flic has built a LEGO version of the LK lander, complete with a view of the little planet we all share hanging in the background.

Check out lots more of Kei’s pictures in the photoset on Flickr, illustrating all of the accurate technical details he built into his LEGO model.

How many times can you put two LEGO bricks together before they break?

Every LEGO brick has its limits. We see plenty of building techniques that stress bricks in various ways, but nobody has answered the question, “How many times can you put two bricks together and take them apart before the bricks fail?” Phillipe Cantin decided to find out.

The answer: After running his machine for more than 10 days, the LEGO bricks finally failed after more than 37,000 repetitions.

Via MAKE.

Previously: How many LEGO bricks stacked vertically would crush the bottom brick?

The LEGO Build-it Book: Amazing Vehicles, out Jun 2013 [Exclusive Excerpts]

No Starch Press continues building a library of LEGO books this year with their forthcoming The LEGO Build-It Book, Vol. 1: Amazing Vehicles, due out on June 22. The book features LEGO vehicle designs by Dutch builder Nathanaël Kuipers and Swiss builder Mattia Zamboni.

The book will feature step-by-step instructions for ten vehicles that you can build from the same LEGO bricks, ranging from a stroller to a rescue truck.

To whet your building appetite, we have an exclusive preview of pages from the instructions for the Off-Roader, Go-Kart, Muscle Car, Street Car, and Rescue Truck models (click through for large photos).

The LEGO Build-It Book, Vol. 1: Amazing Vehicles is available for pre-order from Amazon.com and No Starch Press.

The Marine Air-Ground Task Force, on station over the landship Pugnacious

I love it when two builders play off of each other, posting an escalating series of LEGO models, whether part of an semi-official “build-off” or just a casual coincidence of when they both happen to be building in a similar theme or scale.

A week or so ago, Karf Oohlu posted this lovely — and heavily-armed — microscale “landship” dubbed Pugnacious.

Stijn (Red Spacecat) responded today with a formidable force of his own, led by the massive U557-Warthog hovership. I say “massive” not because the model itself is huge — it can’t be more than six or eight inches long — but because all the detail and the accompanying smaller vehicles leave you with an impression of immensity.

Perhaps this might have been best saved for Keith’s next “Friday Night Fight,” but I have to ask: Who would win?

LEGO Lone Ranger sets out now from Amazon and LEGO Shop [News]

The movie won’t hit theaters for nearly three months, but the new line of six new LEGO sets from The Lone Ranger is out now from both Amazon.com and the LEGO Shop online.

First, be sure to check out our reviews so far of the new sets (more to come):

Links to Amazon.com, with free shipping on orders over $25 and no sales tax in most states:

And here are the links for the LEGO Shop, which currently has free shipping on orders over $75:

US: The Lone Ranger sets on the LEGO Shop
Canada: The Lone Ranger sets on the LEGO Shop
UK: LEGO Shop online (I can’t link to the theme page, for some reason, but the sets are all there if you search)

Finally, a brief reminder that when you click through from The Brothers Brick, a portion of every sale on Amazon.com (not just LEGO, by the way) and the LEGO Shop online goes to support the site, including our sponsorship of events like the SEALUG LEGO display at Emerald City Comicon last month and BrickCon each year. Whether you click through from us or from another favorite LEGO site, you’re helping the LEGO fan community (at no additional cost to you).

How the Face of Boe saved the Doctor, Martha, and New New York

Well, I won’t actually tell you — you’ll have to watch the show — but Thorsten Bonsch (Xenomurphy) has continued his series of scenes celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who with two scenes from the 2007 episode “Gridlock”.

First, Thorsten has recreated the incredible scene in which the Doctor and Martha encounter the world’s largest traffic jam:

But my favorite of Thorsten’s scenes so far is from the end of the same episode, in which the Doctor has an important encounter with the Face of Boe:

The Spinning Wheel

It’s hard to find a meaningful way to move on here on our silly little LEGO blog in the face of complex world events. As a former resident of Boston who lived directly on the marathon route, my heart goes out to the city, to all my friends back in Massachusetts, and to the victims and their families — one of whom was an eight-year-old boy. One of the beautiful things we humans do in the face of evil is to refuse to allow it to rule our lives. So, despite the pain and sadness we all must feel, we’re going to move forward today.

During the non-violent campaign for India’s independence, Mohandas Gandhi used the spinning wheel as a symbol of Indian self-sufficiency and resiliency — a positive symbol in the face of evil oppression and cruel violence. Michael Jasper posted this yesterday before the bombings in Boston, but I think it’s a fitting LEGO model to highlight first as we push ahead.

As always, Michael uses LEGO elements in wholly unexpected ways; his spinning wheel includes magnets, bucket handles, robot arms, and Technic chain links.