Tag Archives: Essays

Here at The Brothers Brick, we have some pretty strong opinions from time to time about news, trends, and events in the LEGO fan community. You can read our essays and editorials here.

自己紹介 (Personal Introduction)

(The primary form of online communication between AFOLs in Japan seems to be blogs instead of forums — something I’ll be writing a piece on shortly. I’ve already introduced myself in the English forums I post in, but I haven’t really introduced myself to the Japanese AFOL blog community, so this post is for them.)

日本のみなさん、初めまして。ぼくのレゴ関係ユーザー名は Dunechaser ですが、実名は Andrew Becraft 「アンドリュー・ビークラフト」です。通常、日本語では「アンディー」です。３１歳。天秤座。既婚者。ワン子好き。米国シアトル存在。

親はアメリカ人ですが、僕は東京で生まれ、１５歳の時まで日本に住みました。ランドセルを背負って近所の日本語の小学校に… 父は頻繁に転勤したので、東京以外にも札幌、姫路、横浜、千葉にも住みました。いくつもの転勤のせいなのか、外人だったせいかわかりませんが、日本人の子供と友達になるのが難しくて、レゴのミニフィッグが最高の友達になりました。ちょと惨めな我の人生。（涙）

職業はテクニカルライター（ヘルプ・マニュアルなどを書く）ですが、たまに日本語関係の仕事もします。米国任天堂で二年間勤め、英語版の「ルイージマンション」、「ピクミン」、「どうぶつの森＋」などテレビゲーム開発に活躍したのが一番自慢です。

皆さんのブログを読んで楽しんでいますので、英語を話すレゴファンのみんなに僕と同じ楽しさを通じさせるのを期待してます。

よろしくお願いします。（夜中二時。それでは、寝る。）

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The Wonderful World of Japanese LEGO

From vignettes to mecha, many wonderful LEGO ideas have originated in Japan. Several of the most respected builders, such as Sugegasa, MOKO, and Takeshi Itou are Japanese. Although LEGO fans throughout the world can enjoy each other’s creations by looking at pictures, language remains a barrier. My purpose in creating this blog is to break down the language barrier and give English-speaking LEGO fans a view into the world of Japanese LEGO fans.

Minifig Anatomy

Each minifigure you get in a LEGO set usually consists of six components:

A head

One torso part

Two arms

Two hands

Two legs

One hip part

Arms, hands, and the torso always ship as one piece, as do the leg and hip parts. LEGO usually also includes headgear of some sort — a hat, helmet, hair, bandanna — something to cover that little bald stud! Finally, no minifig would be complete without accessories — tools, weapons, and so on. The old construction worker from the 1980’s is an excellent example:

But by taking apart the “default” minifig, you can do nearly anything. Here’s one of my recent favorites:

That’s Cloud Strife from the game Final Fantasy VII, as he appears in Kingdom Hearts. To create Cloud, I used Gilderoy Lockhart’s hair, Draco Malfoy’s head, and a purple cape from the Harry Potter line; Han Solo’s legs and Bib Fortuna’s torso from the Star Wars line (with Bib’s arms replaced with yellow arms and brown hands); a custom wing assembly I borrowed from my own flying Fury design; and a Buster Sword I created using three very basic parts.

Here’s the game art I used as the basis for my design:

I was fairly pleased.