In LAML Radio #33, Josh and I join James to discuss all the tomfoolery on April 1st around the LEGO Web, including our own silliness.
Check it out on Radio.LAML.org.
Category Archives: News
The LEGO Company gets a clue
In this video, former LEGO Community Team manager Jake McKee talks about how LEGO has begun changing its long-standing corporate culture, involving a greater diversity of people to build a community around the company and its brand.
Instructions for upcoming 10186 General Grievous set [News]
We recently glimpsed pictures of the upcoming General Grievous figure set, but for those who can’t wait until summer to display the General, LEGO has instructions available (Part 1 and Part 2). Matt (Pepa Quin) found out that he has most of the pieces to build the model.
7628 Peril in Peru, Toys R Us-exclusive LEGO Indiana Jones set [News]
UPDATE: 7628 Peril in Peru is now available from the LEGO Shop.
It looks like there will be a Toys R Us exclusive Indiana Jones set upcoming. It contains 625 pieces set with 6 minifigs. Currently these are the only pictures available from the Japanese Toys R Us website.
And the box art:
LEGO Star Wars 10186 General Grievous figure set [News]
It has been confirmed that LEGO will be releasing a General Greivous figure set for the summer.
Scaled up 375/6075 Yellow Castle by Duncan Titmarsh
Huw Millington sends word of a Brickish Association event he recently attended, where the centerpiece was a 6x version of 375/6075 Castle — aka “The Yellow Castle” or “What I wanted for Christmas 1978 and why I’m still not speaking to my parents, 30 years later.” ;-)
Don’t think that looks that big? Think again:
Check out more photos in photosets from Martin Long, Huw, and Darren Smith.
EDIT: Commenters over on Gizmodo point out that this is a 6:1 scale model, not just 6x bigger, which means that it’s actually 216 times as big as the original!
iPick-a-Brick for your Apple iPhone [News]
Michael Huffman, creator of the wonderful LEGO image aggregation site BrickBuildr, has just announced the release of an online tool for the Apple iPhone to check the inventory of your local LEGO Store’s Pick-a-Brick wall.
Using iPick-a-Brick, you can select an order in which to display your results and you can filter by either color or part type.
Here are a couple photos showing iPick-a-Brick in action (courtesy Joe Meno):
And a couple screen shots:
The inventory is currently limited to the Orlando store, but additional stores will become available as people throughout the country begin contributing information. If you’d like to contribute data to this project, please contact Mike using the contact info in his LUGNET post.
If you’re reading this from an iPhone (and I know some of you are), you can access iPick-a-Brick from the following address:
http://www.brickbuildr.com/iPaB/
Buy LEGO: Speed Racer sets now available from LEGO Shop
The four new LEGO Speed Racer sets are now available from The LEGO Shop online.
Here’s 8158 Speed Racer & Snake Oiler:
8160 Cruncher Block & Racer X and 8159 Racer X & Taejo Togokhan:
Finally, the big set of the bunch, 8161 Grand Prix Race:
The Brothers Brick goes Brick and Mortar!
When I registered Brothers-Brick.com back in 2006, I was mildly dismayed that BrothersBrick.com was already taken by a construction supply company in Florida named Brothers Brick Pavers and Sealing, Inc.
I was tired of waiting for the BrothersBrick.com domain to expire so we could purchase it, so I recently approached the owners to see if they were interested in selling the domain to us.
To make a long story short, due to a paperwork error, we find ourselves at the tail end of a complex fiscal and legal process that will bring The Brothers Brick and Brothers Brick Paving into the same umbrella organization (pending SEC and stockholder approval, of course).
Naturally, there will be a few changes to both existing organizations.
- Here on Brothers-Brick.com, we’ve already replaced our LEGO Shop
affiliate banner with an opportunity to purchase bricks, pavers, sealant and other high-quality construction supplies from our new subsidiary.
- The offices of Brothers Brick Pavers will be renovated to highlight recreations of each item we highlight on Brothers-Brick.com, with Internet kiosks for browsing the blog, and 10×20-foot screens displaying the live RSS feed.
- We will be relocating all administrative positions and the IT infrastructure to our new branch office in Madagascar, where taxes are lower and lemur labor is essentially free.
I believe TBB and BBP share an important set of core values — a commitment to high-quality bricks, no matter what the form. The synergy between two such strong organizations is undeniable, and will result in tangible improvements for both LEGO fans worldwide and construction supply customers in the greater Tampa area.
However, readers outside Madagascar may experience slower load times due to the 28.8 kbps connection between the new server farm and the rest of the world.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
We’re going to Hollywood!
After several months of arduous negotiation, The Brothers Brick has signed its first movie deal. Early in 2009, TriStar Pictures will begin filming a feature length movie portraying the history of The Brothers Brick.
According to TriStar spokesman F. Elam Noir:
The time has come to document the rise of this ground-breaking institution that has done so much to promote discord and harmony throughout the world!
Casting has not been confirmed, as yet, but there are rumors that Sean Connery, Lindsey Lohan, and Robby the Robot have signed contracts. There has been no word on the director, but Steven Spielberg was seen scouting locations in Madagascar.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
News: LEGO bricks found to contain addictive additives
German chemist Wolfgang Blauhardt recently claimed in a a paper that LEGO bricks contain a powerful “cocktail” of addictive substances. The possibility of illegal drugs in the product was first leaked last January by an anonymous copyeditor working for the medical journal in which Dr. Blauhardt’s paper is forthcoming.
The paper alleges that the corporate LEGO labs have compiled a veritable cocktail of controlled substances that is designed to create a lifelong addict out of anyone who touches the plastic toy. The LEGO Company was unavailable for comment at the time of this blog post’s publication.
Well, this explains a lot. No wonder I can’t put the danged things down.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
News: Old grey is back!
Eurobricks is reporting that due to overwhelming demand from the online LEGO fan community, LEGO has apparently decided to resume production of the old light grey and dark grey colors.
According to color psychologist, Carl Renbaugh:
It is very detrimental to one’s psyche when one suffers the loss of an important color in one’s life. Adult Fans of LEGO have been living with extreme psychological anguish for a number of years now. Reinstating these colors is a very compassionate move by The LEGO Company.
So, there you are, people. Old grey is alive and well!
Update (April 2): April Fools!