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.

BrickFest 2007 Highlights from Andrew

BrickFest 2007 wrapped up on Sunday, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to sit down and reflect. Well, here goes.

Highlights for me:

Hanging out with all the great people in the extended LEGO community — both from The LEGO Company and fellow fans.
The ride down with Caylin. I think I left my sunglasses in your glove box.
MAX, Chinatown, and House of Louie with TBB’s very own Josh, world-famous Mike, and aforementioned Caylin.
Having a minion.
The new UCS Millenium Falcon in person.
The singlest largest LEGO Castle display in North America, ever.
Sessions standouts for me were LEGO Quality with Bjarke Schoenwandt and the future of LEGOfan.org with Kelly McKiernan.
Lunch at Wendy’s with Steve Witt and The Usual Suspects.
$1 minifigs from Bob Kojima and Paul Hetherington.
MINDSTORMS NXT Sumo!
Sharing a Mountain High Mudd Pie between two tables at Red Robin.
Scratched and dented LEGO sets (no damage to LEGO inside) for 50% off at the Washington Square LEGO Store!
Breann Sledge’s Bionicle creations.
Nathan Proudlove’s completed Blacktron II
The ride back to Seattle and post-BrickFest dinner at I Love Sushi with Dan Sabath and Dan Boger. Best sushi ever! Sorry you couldn’t join us, Pamela.
Seeing all the great photos in the BrickFest group pool on Flickr — more than 2,700 photos so far!

Phew. That was all so fun I’m now miserably sick. :-D

Still, I can’t wait for the next major LEGO event I’ll be attending, NWBrickCon. See you all there! (You can read more about what NWBrickCon was like last year right here on The Brothers Brick.)

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And now for bed!

I just got back from BrickFest 2007 in Portland, OR. What an amazing event! I see that there’s already a bit of early coverage here on The Brothers Brick from Tim and Nathan (heh heh), but look for detailed coverage from both Josh and I over the next couple of days.

In the meantime, check out the BrickFest group on Flickr for photos from attendees:

http://flickr.com/groups/brickfest/

And don’t miss more photos on Brickshelf:

http://www.brickshelf.com/

Okay, I seriously need sleep.

EDIT (12:30 AM, April 3): I’ve been able to upload my raw pictures to Flickr so far, and I’ve added them to the group pool linked above. Still working on write-ups. Sorry for the delays!

My LEGO figure has dated more girls than I have!

See for yourself:

At least Ginny doesn’t have an RPG like last time. Oh, wait…

Holy %&*#!@.

Don’t forget to check out Caylin’s post on Classic-Castle.

News: Traveller’s Tales Confirms LEGO Batman: The Video Game

Hot off the virtual presses over at 1up.com:

Traveller’s Tales, the makers of Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy are now one brick of a larger company, Warner Bros. Interactive. However, don’t worry about this changing their focus from brickology, because WB has them hard at work on their next game, Lego Batman: The Videogame. Most of the details, much like Batman’s true identity, are currently unknown about the game. It’ll release sometime in 2008 on the current and previous consoles, as well as PC.

Sweet! Or rather, w00t! ;)

BrickFest PDX is just around the corner!

Both Josh and I are headed to BrickFest PDX 2007 in Portland, OR this coming weekend. This is my second convention in less than six months, but I’m told that NWBrickCon and BrickFest are two very different events. I can’t wait!

(BrickFest 2005 photo from the Washington Post in Dan Rubin’s Flickr photostream.)

If you’re a reader of The Brothers Brick and will be attending, let us know and be sure to say hello if you see us! As I did for NWBrickCon last October, also I created a BrickFest Flickr group. Join up and add your photos from past ‘Fests, as well as the one coming up this weekend.

News: Pictures of Summer 2007 Star Wars Minifigs

German LEGO blog The Brick Time has noticed photos I’d missed of the new minifigs in the summer 2007 LEGO Star Wars sets.

I’m rather excited about the Naboo pilot and redesigned Anakin Skywalker minifigs in 7660 Naboo Starfighter:

But I’m very excited by Kit Fisto in 7661 Jedi Starfighter:

LEGO at SXSW

I love music. I love LEGO. For at least the last couple of years, the “Interactive Playpen” at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas has featured LEGO.

Here’s a cool shot from last year by Flickr user alykat:

And the Flickr new user icon, built and photographed by naelyn:

The festival this year started yesterday and runs through Sunday. So far, the interactive playpen has yielded the Digg logo, as photographed by narisa:

If you’re in Austin this week, be sure to check out some great music, and stop by the Interactive Playpen and build something cool!

Peter Griffin: Adult Fan of LEGO

Whaddaya know, the world’s best Family Guy is a true LEGO fan!

EDIT: Dang it, for some reason the video is refusing to embed. Here’s a link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KDdyF1ihThY

News: Brick Journal 7 is out!

And it chock full of great articles and important news!

Go to the Lugnet announcement in order to download it. It’s well worth the read!

LEGO MMOG (!!!!!!)

Everyone’s favorite plastic LEGO brick has already been incarnated in digital form through thrid-party software (Ldraw), computer games (LEGO Island, etc) and other software (LEGO Factory), but coming to 2008, The LEGO Company, in parnership with NetDevil, is launching a Massively Multiplater Online Game. Excited? Check out the website and press release!

(Thanks to Brickfilms.com member Dan and Classic-Castle member Jake_Snicket for the heads–up)

EDIT (AB): Added three more exclamation points to the post title. Just because this is the most awesomest ever.

News: LEGO Ambassadors Announced for Cycle 5

The LEGO Ambassadors program serves as a point of contact between The LEGO Company and the adult hobbyist and fan communities. The program started out a couple years ago with just a handful of participants, nearly all from the United States. With each new “cycle” of the program, LEGO has expanded community involvement both in number and geographically.

The latest LEGO Ambassadors have been announced on LUGNET, and I’m pleased to inform readers of The Brothers Brick that I’ve been selected as a new ambassador. With 30 ambassadors from 13 countries, it’s a much bigger, more diverse group than ever before, and will be representing the fan community for the next year (instead of six months).

I’m very excited about this, and will do my best to represent you, our readers, with the same loyalty and enthusiasm you’ve shown toward our favorite little plastic bricks.

News: Hi-Res pics of 2007 Castle sets + a contest to win them!

High-resolution pictures of the box art for the new Castle sets have been posted on LUGNET.

Check out the new face on one of the soldiers in this set (click for full-size pic):

To celebrate the release of these sets, LEGO and Classic-Castle.com have teamed up for a contest in which you can win each of the new sets. Simply titled “The Castle Contest,” read more about it on Classic-Castle.com.