Category Archives: People

LEGO fandom is a worldwide phenomenon, a vast community. Whether you consider yourself an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO), ALE (Adult LEGO Enthusiast), some other crazy acronym, a parent of a young builder, or even just a casual fan who appreciates all the amazing models LEGO builders create, there’s more to LEGO than just the models themselves. Here at The Brothers Brick, we bring you the stories behind the models, with interviews, builder profiles, and more.

Happy 30th birthday to the LEGO minifig!

The LEGO minifigure turns 30 today. The very first minifig I got was in 1978, when I was 3 years old. Mr. Policeman had a stickered torso (right).

Today, minifigs are of course my favorite aspect of playing with LEGO, mainly because minifigs represent infinite possibilities.

Former LEGOLAND Master Model Designer Mariann Asanuma puts it best: “Minifigs, in all their countless varieties, are one of the best things that LEGO ever invented.” Indeed.

Naturally, the Internet is abuzz with congratulatory messages for our little plastic friends.

Here at The Brothers Brick, we’re hosting the GO MINIMAN GO Photo Contest, and Gizmodo is hosting a GO MINIMAN GO Video Competition.

If you’re interested in reading all about how the minifig was invented, you can read Minifig History on Minifig.co.uk.

It may just be another day at the office for Justin Vaughn:

But Michael Jasper, the Leonardo da Vinci of minifig builders, conveniently updates his “Things” folder with a pair of tricycles:

There’s a surprising turn of events in this birthday scene by J.R. Schwartz:

So, a very happy birthday to the LEGO minifig! I hope I’m still playing with minifigs when I’m 63, and then again when I’m 93.

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.

LAML Radio August interviews (Part 2)

If you’ve been keeping up with LAML Radio, you know that James the host is presenting a podcast interview with a talented builder each day in August. Here’s an update of the featured builders in the past few days.

Patrick Biggs
Rocko (take two!)
Ed Diment
Mister oo7
Andrew Lee
Arthur Gugick
Peter Morris
Legohaulic

Geekdad wants you! [News]

We have recently been contacted by John Baichtal of the Geekdad blog, on Wired. He is writing a book on our extremely addictive hobby and he wants you in it! Why you? Because you are charming, pretty, and you collect Lego.

He wants to profile as many adult builders as possible. While not everyone will make it into the book, he is planning on including a bunch of you crazy people. The more interesting the better, he said. And I know you folks are interesting. I’ve hung out with you at Cons, in chat rooms, and in forums. “Interesting” may be putting it mildly.

Anyway, are you in? If so, send the following info to John (brickbook@yahoo.com):

1) Headshot

2) Your name as you would like it to appear, your location and your age.

3) Answer as many of the following questions as you’d like:

What are you building?

Favorite set?

Favorite brick color?

Favorite genre?

What music do you listen to when building?

When’s your best building time?

If I left off a question you’re dying to answer, feel free to include it.

So there you are! Its your chance at those coveted 15 minutes of fame. Get cracking!

(BrickCon people pics by Caylin Fiering and John Langrish)

LAML Radio August interviews (Part 1)

As you may know, LAML Radio is making a special effort to feature one talented builder in a podcast interview each day in the month of August. James is on schedule and has turned out seven episodes featuring the following builders:

Nnenn
Steven Marshall
Shannon Ocean
Bryce McGlone
Nick Dean
Tim Gould
SlyOwl

I will be posting a roundup of the interviews each week.

Nnenn on LAML Radio!

James Wadsworth, host of LAML Radio, has audaciously reached the most mysterious builder on the internet – Nnenn. As a highly prolific space artist, Nnenn has astounded LEGO fans with his polished and stylized spacecrafts. As a person he remained nameless and faceless online. Now LAML Radio has a detailed and comprehensive podcast interview with Nnenn, enjoy!

Furthermore, throughout the month of August, James will attempt to interview one builder each day! Check back often at LAML Radio; you’ll never know who’s next.

More LEGO Sport City details and behind-the-scenes photos from HKLUG

We recently highlighted HKLUG’s LEGO Sport City display, with huge models of the venues we’ll be seeing in the Beijing Olympics next month.

Thanks to LEGO Ambassador and HKLUG member Tsang Yiu Keung (better known as Chiukeung), we have lots more information on the models, including behind-the-scenes photos.

Chiukeung gives a sense of just how large the display is:

Venues recreated in LEGO include the National Stadium (nicknamed “The Bird’s Nest”), National Aquatics Center (“Swimming Cube”), and Olympic Village.

The finished display is certainly impressive, but the behind-the-scenes photos reveal the true scale and impressive techniques that went into the LEGO Sport City.

The iconic National Stadium was designed by Ming, an architect by trade. It took him over 100 hours to complete, and is 128×154 studs in size (that’s about 40″ x 48″). The outer shell includes thousands of hinge plates.

The National Aquatics Center was built by Vincent Cheung over the course of 120 hours, and has a three-tier design with a cell-like structure in the transparent blue walls.

The Swimming Cube is illuminated with a fluorescent lamp inside, and measures 148 by 148 studs, or 46″ on each side.

Chiukeung built the Olympic Village, which is 160 x 224 studs (50″ x 70″). Chiukeung spent 100 hours on the project.

There’s lots more to see (56 pictures in all) in the HKLUG LEGO Sport City photoset on Flickr, including the Equestrian stadium by Hudson, Greek temple by Wai Kee, and various Chinese and European buildings by Andy. The mosaic was built by Hot, who also coordinated the entire project.

If you’re in Hong Kong, you can see this LEGO display for yourself at Grand Century Place between now and August 31, 2008.

Thanks again to HKLUG and Chiukeung for the behind-the-scenes info and photos!

The Brothers Brick turns 3 today! [Editorial]

Today marks the third anniversary of The Brothers Brick!

I believe that 2007-2008 was the year that The Brothers Brick truly became more than just another LEGO blog. All of you out there make this a community, with LEGO Ambassadors representing the tens of thousands of you who visit the site.

The LEGO fan community has seen its shares of ups and downs over this past year. We rallied together during the Great Brickshelf Crisis of 2007, and we’ve avoided much of the fragmentation I feared at the time. In addition to blogs and other online venues like The Brothers Brick, fans can now get their LEGO fix in print from BrickJournal and listen to the LAMLradio podcast on their MP3 players.

We’ve also been fortunate to add two contributors over this past year. Nannan Zhang has brought much-appreciated energy, while we look forward to columns from Keith Goldman. Thanks to Nannan, our event coverage expanded beyond my posts about BrickCon last October to include his news and highlights from BrickWorld in June.

And then there were the fads and bandwagons, proving that with great power comes great responsibility.

We have Tim to blame for cave racers, complete with a Flickr group, culminating in the Pigs on the Wing contest.
Josh’s pacifist troll has also led to a Flickr group and adoption of “Clancy” as the semi-official name of the dark tan troll.
Nannan’s Black Fantasy has inspired and horrified countless masses.

Looking to the future, and giving back

Advertising sucks. We added ads to pay the bills, but now we have enough traffic and so many of you are making your LEGO purchases through us (thank you!) that this is the right time to increase our transparency by sharing what we’ll be doing with the extra income.

We’ll be rolling everything beyond what pays the bills back into the LEGO fan community. It really is as simple as that. Specifically, you’ll see more frequent contests (with good prizes), giveaways (online and at conventions), and maybe even “scholarships” for LEGO fans who might not otherwise be able to attend important LEGO conventions.

All about you, by the numbers

Despite my inability to perform basic arithmetic (“100% more of zero is still zero,” as someone gently pointed out recently in response to one of our taglines), I always like sharing numbers about all of you readers out there.

1,059,789 visits
3,377,860 page views
411,634 unique visitors
1,200 new posts
45,419 spam comments

Although we’ve had visitors from 181 countries (literally Afghanistan to Zimbabwe), most of our readers are from countries where English is the predominant language.

I’ve always listed the top 10 countries, but you might find the top 30 more interesting:

United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Netherlands
Germany
Japan
France
Poland
Spain

Italy
Sweden
Denmark
Belgium
Hungary
Portugal
Finland
Singapore
Taiwan
Brazil

Norway
Mexico
New Zealand
Austria
Ireland
Switzerland
Malaysia
Russia
Hong Kong
South Africa

So, what are all of your out there most interested in? And what sites are you coming from?

Top Keywords*	Top Categories	Referring Sites
LEGO blog LEGO Agents LEGO 2008 ApocaLEGO LEGO Green Grocer LEGO 7628 LEGO BrickForge LEGO 7036 LEGO Castle 2008	Star Wars Steampunk Castle ApocaLEGO Indiana Jones Mecha Military Minifigs Building Techniques Video Games	StumbleUpon Flickr The old blog Gizmodo BB Gadgets Fark.com Classic-Castle.com idleworm Neatorama NOTCOT.ORG

* Excluding variations on “The Brothers Brick”.

The top ten referring sites are only the tip of the iceberg:

Of seventy million blogs that Technorati tracks, we’re in the top ten thousand, or 0.0143%. Wow!

Our most popular posts run the gamut from the very best (and sometimes weirdest) LEGO creations of the past year, along with the up-to-the-minute news you’ve come to expect from us:

Finally, stuff for the historically minded:

YSA interviews Nick Dean

We ought to blog more interviews, and I’m glad Jacob from Young Spacers Association took the time to interview one of the more talented TFOLs (teen fan of LEGO), Nick Dean, who is associated with creating and building the RAMM theme (examples). While there exists multiple popular fan-created subthemes, RAMM has generated controversy among builders with Nick limiting those who can build RAMM. Some denounce it as highflown elitism while others claim it as a necessary gesture to preserve the integrity and quality of a unique subtheme. Find out more in this interesting interview and see from a builder’s perspective on defining oneself through subthemes.

Wait. Who exactly let Keith in?

I’m extremely pleased to announce that Keith Goldman has joined The Brothers Brick as our resident Columnist.

Keith is one of those LEGO fans of near-mythical proportions. Having met Keith in person, I can report that he stands nine feet four inches tall (that’s twelve meters for you Canadians), and is able to levitate his entire LEGO collection with his mind. Despite his telekinetic abilities, Keith has four arms (six metric). To fit in better with mere mortals, Keith is able to change size and shape at will.

Here’s a photo of Keith (center) with his coterie of adherents, better known as KeithLUG — yes, the man has his own LEGO Users Group:

Keith is perhaps best known for his bloated dioramas, including The Omicron Weekend, built with one third of all LEGO bricks in the Western Hemisphere by a division from the US Army Corp of Engineers over the course of a six month period. Naturally, Keith directed the troops remotely with his mind.

Keith is also a LEGO Ambassador from 2008 until whenever he feels like it, bringing order to the LEGOverse (and MOCPages in particular).

As a Columnist for The Brothers Brick, Keith will apply his “oratorical tradition of uninhibited or unbridled commentary” to semi-regular editorials on LEGO-related topics. Hey may also deign to grace us with his own creations from time to time.

Without further ado, please welcome Keith Goldman to The Brothers Brick!

LEGO and Brickstructures present LEGO Architecture [News]

UPDATE: Check out the new Frank Lloyd Wright LEGO Architecture sets.

————

The LEGO Group announced partnership with Adam Reed Tucker of Brickstructures Inc. to launch LEGO Architecture, a series of replicas of worldwide landmarks. As stated by LEGO, this “is the first new business launched together with a member of the LEGO community using the LEGO bricks as part of the business.” Currently available are models of The Sears Tower and The John Hancock Center, with future landmarks from around the world to come. You can purchase the kits at select locations in Chicago. For more info, head on over to read the full article on BrickJournal.

Via BrickJournal

Tiger – visionary from the East

If you frequently browse Brickshelf, then you’ve probably seen the works of Tiger (tiger0207). To those who only know him by his works, Tiger is reputed as a LEGO comic artist who is skilled in producing comics and artistic LEGO graphics in Chinese. Those who’ve inquired a bit further into his works may have stumbled upon one of his three blogs. Now through a brief inside look at this visionary from the East, provided by TWLUG member CVSPIS_CELIDVS, we gain a glimpse of the profound builder known as Tiger and his unique works.

“Tiger, in playing LEGO, belongs to a league of his own, who is not only a custom artist but also a philosopher. He operates three blogs of different topics showing his techniques, imagination, and philosophy of life.

His first blog called Tiger’s Style expresses the builder’s thoughts and ideas about playing LEGO and likewise his minifig customization and scene designs. He uses not only official LEGO parts but also those of other competitive brands, commercial custom parts (e.g. BrickArms & BrickForge), and even those made from simple materials by himself.

Tiger’s second blog, LEGO in Tiger’s Mind at Night, records his thoughts on ordinary life when the builder plays LEGO on quiet nights. Through the Chinese language and LEGO creations, Tiger depicts themes from diverse aspects including movies, traditional Chinese literature, poetry, women, love, and life.

His blog LEGO Martial Arts Heroes primarily shows historical oriental heroes and fictional knights-errant from Tiger’s imagination channeled through building, photography, and image-design. Martial arts fantasy, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms“, and “Journey to the West” are his favorite stories frequently told, of course, through LEGO.

Tiger’s most recent work, “Journey to the West,” is recreated from a classic and famous Chinese folk novel, also the prototype of the manga/anime “Dragon Ball” created by Akira Toriyama. Another recent work, “Spirit War,” found its inspiration through the Six realms of the Buddhist cosmology. As a storyteller, Tiger masterfully conducts the scenes as comics made from LEGO.”

-CVSPIS CELIDVS ECO SVM

Dave and Stacy go to White Castle

Dave and Stacy Sterling are a pair of LEGO fans whose love for LEGO is only surpassed by their love for each other. With a Train layout that’s 12-feet by 15-feet, they prove the old adage that the couple who bricks together stays together.

Stacy’s latest creation is a LEGO version of her favorite burger joint, White Castle:

There’s lots of other great Train, Town, and Harry Potter LEGO creations on Dave and Stacy’s MOCPages and Brickshelf, including a corner bank by Dave and The Burrow from Harry Potter by Stacy:

(Via Brick Town Talk.)