Ignite, a presentation event, recently showcased “the secret underground world of Lego” in a five minute talk about the crazy things we hardcore LEGO fans do. Check out this stand-up comedy styled clip from Hillel Cooperman, a member of SeaLUG, who recently came out of his dark ages.
Edit: Those readers with young children may want to know that there are a few expletives used in this presentation. Use your own discretion. (J)
I am Thanel, Andrew’s brother, and I am both honored and privileged to be accepted as the newest of new regular contributors to The Brothers Brick (TBB). As Andrew mentioned in his introduction, it’s true that part of the reason I’ve been brought on board is because of that familial relationship. But there’s another reason: I’m the noob brother.
As he and I have talked over the years and I have recently become more involved in commenting on TBB, going to my local LEGO user group (SandLUG) meetings, setting up a Flickr account (Yupa-sama) and extracting my LEGO from under my wife’s Barbie collection, the idea of becoming a regular contributor chronicling my journey out of my dim ages evolved. Gary McIntire, Legoland California Master Model Builder, deserves credit for giving me the term “dim ages” as the most apt description of the past fifteen years.
For you noobs, dabblers, non-builders, set-only builders, daydreamers, dismissed, “silent majority,” downtrodden and oppressed: You are my peeps. I will publicly humiliate myself in order to smooth your path toward enlightenment. Or the dark side. Whatever.
What you can expect from me:
Fresh blood is good (ask any vampire) and I dream that someday I’ll be an old AFOL fogey and when somebody else comes along to freshen things up I can be snarky about their noobishness.
Some of you may already know this, but “Thanel” is not my real name. Unlike many people, in my particular line of work (alas, not secret agency), online networking can be quite detrimental. Connecting with clients personally and repeat business are distinctly bad ideas, so I’d rather keep my real name on the D.L. as much as possible. I’m happy to reveal my secret identity if I meet you in person, and obviously online as Andrew’s brother. I would just like to keep my explicit electronic signature to a minimum and am going to withhold the location of my underground lair.
I exist and am a reasonably good guy.
Ever since I recruited Josh and we renamed our newly relaunched blog “The Brothers Brick,” I thought it would be awesome to have my real-life brother join us. Call me sentimental, but it just made sense.
Our LEGO brotherhood has been a circuitous journey that goes back more than 30 years. When he was barely walking, Thanel (not his real name; he’ll explain why) destroyed my 381 Police Headquarters by climbing up to my top bunk, where I’d built it, and pushing it off to the floor below. I was devastated.
When he was old enough to have his own LEGO, our rivalry continued.
My Crusaders and Forestmen waged endless battles against his Black Falcons on our bedroom floor, complete with movement rules and hit points to track who was winning — at least a decade before BrikWars. We also built collaboratively, combining our collections for moonbases and medieval landscapes that rival in size (if not in building skills) some of the largest dioramas we regularly feature here.
As we grew older and each entered varied levels of Dark Ages, LEGO remained a point of commonality — graduation and birthday gifts to each other, and conversations about the latest Wild West and Adventurers sets we saw in stores.
All that is in the past, though. Looking to the future, I’m very pleased to announce that Thanel is joining The Brothers Brick as our newest contributor. One of the main things he’ll be documenting with his posts will be his emergence from LEGO isolation into the broader LEGO fan community — both online and offline. I think this is a different perspective from that of our other contributors, each recruited for their deep ties to various LEGO fan communities.
It’s also a point of view shared by many of you readers out there. Where do I start? Is there a LEGO club in my area? What’s it feel like to post that first work-in-progress LEGO creation and have it ripped apart? Thanel will be working to answer those questions.
But enough from me! Let’s hear from Thanel himself.
Tony Sava is selling custom sets of one of his designs, the American Standard 4-4-0, via his Bricklink store. He has made this available in two different liveries, dark blue and dark grey.
The sets are $135 and seem to moving fast. As of this writing, there were only two of the dark blue locomotives left and the dark grey were all gone. However, it is possible that one more dark grey will be posted.
By the way, Tony is using the money to finance his trip to BrickWorld…
LEGO stop-motion animator David Pagano has stepped forward as one of the people behind the recent LEGO Space Police teaser.
Check out the first episode in what is apparently going to be a series.
And yes, we know that the new sets are starting to show up at TRU.
It’s been more than six months since Izzo has posted anything on his blog or to his Brickshelf gallery. For his return, Izzo put a lot of effort into his mecha, and it shows.
The mecha itself is awesome, with powerful shoulders and boost-jets on the legs, but I think the human story is more interesting here.
Izzo runs an art gallery, and his work has taken nearly all his time in the last six months. Even though the urge to build something with LEGO kept nagging at the back of his mind, he never found the time. Work even took him to Denmark, but his schedule precluded a pilgrimage to LEGOLAND.
When he began this mecha, Izzo’s “muscle memory” helped him build, but he couldn’t remember where he’d stashed all the parts he needed. Now, Izzo’s not sure when he’ll be able to post something next.
We hope Izzo will find time to post more LEGO creations again soon, but his story is a good reminder that LEGO — as much enjoyment as we have with it — is just a hobby, after all, not real life. Our commitment is to our families, our work, and our real-life communities.
The Final Fantasy series has been a frequent inspiration for my LEGO creations, so it was fascinating to read that Final Fantasy creator and head of game design studio Mistwalker Hironobu Sakaguchi builds with LEGO when he’s looking for inspiration.
Click each photo of a LEGO creation by Hironobu Sakaguchi to read how he uses LEGO in his creative process as a video game designer.
(Via Joystiq, with a hat-tip to reader Nathan Hale.)
A couple of months ago, Andrew Lee (onosendai2600) challenged TBB’s own Nannan Zhang (Nannan) to a building contest.
This was to be an epic challenge of skill, with only two limitations. The first limitation was the deadline, which was the end of April. The second, each builder had to use all of the parts supplied and chosen by a third party.
Derek Schin (dbol39) volunteered to provide the mystery part, and sent each builder EIGHT of the printed radar dishes from the UCS Millennium Falcon. A panel of judges was selected, and the guys were off to the build-tables.
Each builder has now unveiled their creation. Epic is certainly the name of the game with these guys. It’s also remarkable how similar the uses that each builder made of the mystery part are. Both efforts have both pros and cons, and I don’t envy the judges their decision.
Nannan put together a battle (above) involving a massive flying saucer, several small saucers, and a huge-nosed mecha. I appreciate the effort he put in to illustrating an instant caught in time. The energy beam blasting a hole through through the mecha is really cool, although I hate the way the beam abruptly ends. I’m a bit confused by the tile floor at what looks like an out-door facility. It’s amazing what a couple of talented and dedicated builders can manage to put together in a couple of months.
Meanwhile, Andrew built a bustling asteroid spaceport/city. I can’t help but appreciate that there’s a building in the city dedicated to a theme of my own creation. I’m also generally a big fan of bases built into asteroids. I do wish that there was a bit more detail in some of the buildings and space ships, though.
Click through either of Andrew’s photos to see more on Flickr. Nannan assures us he’ll be posting a full gallery and write-up once he’s through final exams later this week.
Veteran Classic Castle member, Micah Brown, has been drawing forum avatars for some time and they have quickly become sought-after favorites.
Affectionately known as Lord DOOM, Micah is all metal and heart. But besides being a great guy, his Lego-inspired artwork just keeps getting better and better.
He also does commissions, if you want your own custom avatar!
Registration is now open for BrickCon 2009! BrickCon is a private convention and public exhibition for adult fans of LEGO, and will be held October 1-4, 2009 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.
BrickCon is the longest continuously running LEGO fan convention in the US. Last year’s convention drew more than 250 attendees from all over North America and Europe, with a significant contingent from Billund, Denmark.
As in years past, I’ll encourage those of you who haven’t been to a LEGO convention (or BrickCon specifically) to check out our past coverage of Brickcon here on The Brothers Brick and look through the photos in the BrickCon group pool on Flickr.
Highlights of last year’s BrickCon included the ChiefLUG BSG Viper Fly-In, the announcement of 10193 Medieval Market Village, and our very own Zombie Apocafest 2008.
For me, BrickCon is all about the people. Even though we’d been blogging together for nearly a year, I met Josh in person for the first time at BrickCon 2006. Similarly, Nannan and I met for the first time at BrickCon 2008.
LEGO conventions are also a good place to learn that LEGO fans don’t all look like their sig-figs in real life.
With an emphasis on a relaxed fan convention experience, BrickCon is a great way to sit back and get to know all those fellow LEGO fans you’ve only met online — an opportunity to talk about something other than LEGO, in some cases. That’s not to say that the public exhibition isn’t an awe-inspiring spectacle. BrickCon 2008 drew over 7,000 visitors in the 8 hours open to the public on Saturday and Sunday!
This year’s theme is “Imagination in Motion!” and looks to be even bigger and cooler. So, what’re you waiting for? Register today!
Many of you out there first became an adult fan of LEGO when you bought LEGO for your kids (while some of us just never stopped).
For LEGO fans like you, the GeekDad blog from Wired.com is currently running the perfect contest — the LEGO Builders of Tomorrow contest.
To enter, just add a photo of you and your kids building together to the GeekDad photo pool on Flickr. The contest ends next Thursday, April 30.
There’s LEGO to be won, of course, but the winning family also gets their picture featured on an upcoming LEGO set. In LEGO fandom, that’s pretty close to immortality.
We first saw prototypes of LEGO Home One at Toy Fair 2009 a couple months ago, but StarWars.com has an interview with Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, who designed the upcoming LEGO Star Wars set 7754 Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser.
The article also includes our first look at high-resolution shots of the box art and minifigs.
In fact, Jens tells StarWars.com that “all the mini-figures except the A-wing pilot are brand new!”
Read the full interview on StarWars.com. For those of you wondering what a “Toys R Us Exclusive” means, it just means that TRU is the only store other than the LEGO Shop online and local LEGO Stores that will carry the set.