Category Archives: News

Stay current on the latest news and information about LEGO, from sales & deals to new set announcements. We also cover LEGO events and conventions all over the world.

New Privacy Policy for Brothers-Brick.com

As this blog has grown, we’ve changed things a few times to make them better. Last December, we moved from Blogger to our own domain here at Brothers-Brick.com. We’ve also improved performance and reliability by changing to a new Web hosting provider. All of these changes were intended to make your experience more enjoyable, and as a result, we’ve had to become more professional.

One important thing that’s been missing has been a privacy policy. Privacy policies let users of Web sites know what personal information the site collects and how that information is used. It’s also an important component of legal compliance with laws like The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Using non-legal, non-technical language, we’ve written a Brothers-Brick.com Privacy Policy that we hope won’t change anything about the site’s experience for most of our readers. In addition to the necessary information about personal information and cookies, the policy also includes several links to online privacy and safety information.

One change we’ve had to make for COPPA compliance is restricting Contact Form use and commenting to readers over the age of 13. The software we use for the site simply does not have the features necessary to get your parents’ permission for you to use this site. I’ve added new notices on the Contact Form and above the comment box to reflect this change in policy.

What this means if you’re not 13 yet: If you’re a Brothers-Brick.com reader under the age of 13, the new rules mean that you will no longer be allowed to leave comments or use the Contact Form. You’ll all be welcome back when you turn 13.

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.

How Ben Ellerman survived Castle 2007

Back in April, I posted about LEGO Ambassador Mark Sandlin’s involvement with the Mars Mission theme. With Castle 2007 out for several months and anticipation building toward next year’s sets, Ben Ellerman takes some time to look back and reflect on his involvement in the development of the current Castle theme.

Here’s Ben in the LEGO archives in Billund, Denmark:

You can read all about Ben’s contributions to the Castle theme on LEGOfan.org.

More 2008 LEGO Castle, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars set pictures [News]

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Fans everywhere are running across better and better pictures of upcoming sets. Eurobricks is famous (dare I say notorious?) for finding leaked pictures, and this latest batch is no exception.

Bearing in mind that we don’t yet know if these are just prototypes, and that LEGO has not yet confirmed that these are even “official,” here are a few of my favorites (see Eurobricks for bigger pictures and several more I didn’t include here):

7622 Race for the Stolen Treasure:

7620 Motorcycle Chase:

7668 Rebel Scout Speeder:

7036 Dwarfs Mining:

7048:

Of particular note for Castle fans:

Trolls in brown and green.
Green dragon with armor.
Two new helmets for the goblins and two more for the dwarfs.
A new sword for the goblins and a new club for the trolls.
Two new beard designs for the dwarfs.

News: Early, grainy pictures of 2008 Indiana Jones sets

Via circuitous links leading ultimately to Cool Toy Review.

Brickfilming on national TV

True to word, ABC’s series I-CAUGHT aired a four-minute segment featuring brickfilms on the 11th, and within hours several copies were available on the Internet. Included were interviews with Brian Gribbon, Joshua Leasure and David Pagano, and clips from a dozen brickfilms, including my own Infinity Squared. There is also an accompanying online article.

Another YouTube clip

MPG

Enjoy!

Brickfilms and Brickfilmers on ABC’s I-CAUGHT, to air 9/11

ABC’s new television series I-CAUGHT will be featuring a segment about brickfilmers and brickfilming on Tuesday, September 11, 9 PM EST. The story is expected to feature an interview with four prominent brickfilmers: Lewis “Lechnology” Chen, the “Leftfielder” brothers, and Joshua “RevMen” Leasure, owner of Brickfilms.com. The story is also expected to feature clips from my own brickfilm Infinity Squared, among other brickfilms. More information can be found here.

News: Only 10 more days to pre-register for NWBrickCon 2007

If you’re still waffling about coming to beautiful Seattle for NWBrickCon next month (October 5-7), you only have 10 more days to pre-register. Advance registration benefits include a lower price ($44 instead of $50 at the door), and an engraved brick badge.

So, what are you waiting for? You can register on NWBrickCon.org.

Please pardon the dust...

EDIT: And we’re done. Everything should be back to normal now, with better performance and less downtime.

The Brothers Brick have outgrown the free hosting provided by a friend and we’re moving to a new hosting service. This transition should be completely invisible to most of you (for example, the blog’s Web address will remain Brothers-Brick.com).

To ensure that all the content gets moved over, I’ll temporarily be turning off comments. Also, some of you may not be able to access the site while the new server addresses propagate through the Domain Name System, but everything should be back to normal shortly.

Once the move is complete, readers should experience far fewer times when the blog is slow or inaccessible. In the meantime, thanks for your patience!

News: The New LEGOfan.org is online

Now in its fourth incarnation, LEGOfan.org is designed to become the place where new LEGO fans can learn about the hobby and see how they can get involved in the fan community.

The site will grow over time, but head on over and check out some of the sections that are already online, including several articles, news, and profiles of the current LEGO Ambassadors (with a particularly unflattering picture of me, which I’ve been meaning to have replaced).

You can contact LEGOfan.org administrators with your questions and suggestions, and I’ll also be happy to pass along anything you’d like to say.

News: HOW/CON 2007

Okay, I’m more than a little embarrassed. I’ve been incredibly busy with work over the last few weeks, and I’ve neglected my usual online haunts (like Classic-Castle.com and several others) and haven’t kept up with many of the blogs I usually read. But enough about me — I’m just making excuses for why I hadn’t blogged HOW/CON 2007! :-)

HOW/CON 2007 is a contest organized by Kotaro Ono of How Many Studs to LEGOLAND. The contest has two categories — a challenge to use one of the new skeleton horses in a creation, and another challenge to use a skeleton torso.

There are some pretty amazing creations in both categories, so check out the links above! Here are a couple that struck my fancy:

News: Nathan Sawaya on The Colbert Report tonight

Brick artist Nathan Sawaya will be on The Colbert Report tonight. Nathan is best known for his sculptures and mosaics, one of which he built during a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman a while ago. Perhaps Nathan will build something like this tonight:

(By MySpacer Laura M.)

See more Colbert-inspired LEGO creations (including one of my own) at NoFactZone.net.

EDIT: You can view a clip of the show on ComedyCentral.com. Thanks for the link, Bryce!

Happy 75th Birthday, LEGO!

It all started with wooden toys like this duck:

The LEGO Company is celebrating its 75th birthday today. You can read a very cool LEGO timeline on LEGO.com.

Here’s to another 75 years of wonderful memories. We can’t wait to find out what’s next!

EDIT: This is what I get for jumping right to the new post page after getting home, without checking the main page first. Well, at least you get a picture of a wooden duck. :-D