Tag Archives: Reviews

Not sure which LEGO sets to pick up for yourself? Need ideas for that LEGO fan who already has more LEGO than he or she can possibly build with in a lifetime? Nervous about the quality of the custom accessories that tempted you at your last LEGO convention? Read our reviews of LEGO sets, books, accessories, and more right here on The Brothers Brick.

The Cult of LEGO is a must-have book for every LEGO fan [Review]

With books about LEGO starting to fill up the shelves in one’s hobby room, how does the discerning LEGO reader choose which books to buy and read? John Baichtal and Joe Meno’s The Cult of LEGO is an easy choice for inclusion in your LEGO library.

When the book arrived from No Starch Press back in October (yes, I’m that backlogged), I was pleasantly surprised at how hefty it was — an unexpected contrast to the paperback Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide. For a book featuring hundreds of LEGO photos, I’m glad they released a hardback book with full-color, glossy printing.

John & Joe provide a solid overview of the LEGO hobby, from Bionicle and Technic to SYSTEM and Mindstorms, with sections dedicated to ApocaLEGO (including an appearance by Zombie Apocafest 2008), Steampunk, LEGO graffiti, and more. You’ll see a lot of the iconic LEGO creations that made the rounds of the ‘net a few years back — Henry Lim’s MC Escher LEGO, Sean Kenney’s Yankee Stadium, big LEGO battleships, the “No Real Than You Are” minifig, Hannes Tscharmer’s Jawa sandcrawler, and more.

As long-time LEGO fans and readers of this blog might infer themselves, the lists in that last paragraph support the justified critiques Nannan had about the book in his own mini-review.

Many of the featured models are the ones that merely happened to go viral on the web, not necessarily what we might consider “the best” of a particular genre. And with the exception of the sandcrawler (posted this past June, just a few months before the book’s release), nearly all of the LEGO creations in the book date to 2009 or earlier.

It’s also odd to see Brickshelf and LUGNET featured as two of the primary websites under “LEGO on the Web.” Yes, Brickshelf and LUGNET. In 2011. (And yes, TBB does make the list under “LEGO Fan Resources” later in the book.)

But I’m willing to forgive all these flaws in the face of lead times for printed books and the daunting task of making a niche subject like ours much more widely appealing. It was really lovely to see The Cult of LEGO on the Seattle Times’ front-page banner and included in Powell’s Books Black Friday deals as I shopped in Portland after Thanksgiving with my mom.

And for me, it’s those local, personal connections to the book that make it a must-have — seeing pictures from BrickCon, reading profiles of my friends, and thinking back to fun times with Lewis & Clark on the Pacific Coast (the late, great Mr. Pugsly even makes an appearance).

Despite all the pretty photos, John & Joe manage to weave a thread of humanity throughout The Cult of LEGO, so that in reading it you can step into this tight-knit yet simultaneously open-armed world of builders and bloggers, brick artists and LEGO engineers.

Whether you’re a casual LEGO fan or a hardcore builder, The Cult of LEGO has a lot to offer. The book isn’t so much about the unattributed pictures of viral LEGO models you’ve been sent a hundred times by relatives and coworkers as it is the diversity of real people and the community behind them.

My verdict: Find room on your LEGO shelf for The Cult of LEGO.

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Sam’s Club bans Brendan Powell Smith’s Brick Bible + TBB mini-review [News]

In news that should surprise nobody, Arkansas-based warehouse store Sam’s Club (Walmart’s version of Costco) has pulled copies of Brendan Powell Smith‘s new book The Brick Bible from its shelves, citing the book’s “mature content.” Walmart and Sam’s Club have a long history of corporate censorship (yes, that link is from 1997!), but it’s sad to see them throw their weight around against one of our own.

CNET News has the details, and Bruce over at GodBricks has an excellent opinion piece that approaches the issue from a religious perspective.

Brendan’s publisher Skyhorse sent The Brothers Brick a copy of The Brick Bible a while ago, and I finally found the time to sit down with it over Thanksgiving. The book is a large-format paperback, like a graphic novel. Some of the photos are a bit dark and/or grainy, but given that they span ten years of digital photography, I suspect the lower-quality ones are the earliest (the ones I know are his most recent all show off Brendan’s stellar presentation skills).

In terms of subject matter, The Brick Bible is no more a children’s book than the Bible. In that sense, Sam’s Club isn’t wrong — yes, indeed, the Bible is rampant with “mature content.” And Brendan’s version doesn’t shirk from the difficult stories compiled by the Deuteronomist in books like Judges that rarely make the sanitized Sunday School curriculum. Yes, Brendan’s LEGO version of the Levite and his concubine (Judges 20) is tough to read, but so is the original. Don’t like the way Brandon shows God repeatedly making the Israelites stone their neighbors who’ve committed minor sins (a la the Taliban)? Too bad, it’s in the Bible. Think it’s a bit odd that God and Satan use Job as a plaything in their cosmic game? Read the book.

Oddly, though, The Brick Bible is just as thought-provoking and works just as well regardless of your religious or philosophical persuasion (as Bruce says). For the non-religious, the book confirms why some of us have set aside the belief system illustrated so well in Brendan’s book. For believers, The Brick Bible is an accurate (if incomplete) representation of the Old Testament. If your belief doesn’t come through stronger after seeing exactly what’s in the source material, don’t blame Brendan Powell Smith. But for all of you out there reading this (presumably LEGO fans) who might not see yourself so clearly on one side or the other of the religious divide, it’s a great collection of LEGO art with interesting building techniques and (generally) excellent LEGO photography.

My recommendation? Buy it. I’ll give you three reasons: First, because it’s a rip-roaring read that has all the crazy shenanigans in the ancient original. Second, to show support for a fellow member of the LEGO building community. Third, because buying this banned book makes a statement about corporate censorship in the face of the likes of Sam’s Club/Walmart. Sure, most of us live in countries where our governments don’t have the right to censor the art and literature we choose to consume, but corporations do have ever-increasing power over what we can and can’t read, watch, or listen to. I’d love to hear about a campaign to have the Bible banned from Sam’s Club on exactly the same grounds they used to ban Brendon’s illustrated LEGO Bible. Think of the children! Anyway, buy the book. Don’t let Sam’s Club/Walmart win.

The Cult of LEGO – mini book review

I recently received a copy of The Cult of LEGO by John Baichtal and Joe Meno from the publisher. Look for a longer review from Andrew soon, but here’s my short version.

The book covers the diverse aspects of the Lego hobby for AFOLs and includes a variety of featurettes that range from ApocaLego to Billund and Lego comics. The numerous short 1-2 page sections make for quick and easy reading and give a great introduction of the hobby to non-AFOLs. The content caters to non-AFOLs and new AFOLs, so seasoned fans will find many familiar facts and creations.

As diverse as the topics are, the examples represent a casual selection, meaning that they are not always representative of the top-tier works in a genre. This may disappoint those who want to see some of the the best spaceships or castles. Rather, the selected works represents a sampling of AFOL creations. Most featured works date prior to 2009, so it’s unlikely you’ll see much that was made in the past 3 years.

While The Cult of Lego is not a perfect representation of the hobby, it is still a very commendable one. I recommend the book for those who want to explore the multiple and diverse facets of the AFOL world. Even for seasoned veterans of the brick, The Cult of Lego is still a worthwhile item to keep in your collection as a reminder of what we AFOLs have accomplished.

The Cult of LEGO is currently available on Amazon.

An unexpected LEGO adventure: Bricks & Minifigs [Review]

Here, at The Brothers Brick, we don’t review stores but I had a very unexpected little LEGO adventure yesterday and I wanted to share it. I realize that this post will only be of interest to people in the Greater Portland and Vancouver area of Washington and Oregon States. I apologize to our readers in the rest of the world. If you don’t live there, feel free to skip this post and bad-mouth me for the rest of the day. I’m okay with that.

I had to take a sudden trip to southern Washington State over the last couple of days and I decided to stop in Battle Ground, WA to see my grandmother. No LEGO was supposed to be involved. Little did I know. I had been told that there was an independent toy store in the area that dealt in used LEGO. I looked it up and the store turned out to be about a quarter of a mile from “Grammy’s House”.

I was much more impressed with the store than I was expecting. For the most part, prices seemed to be about mid-range of Bricklink’s prices. They had a large stock of older sets, some MISB, some opened in the box and some built but loose.

They had large bins of minifig parts, which they were selling for 60 cents a piece or three dollars for a fig. I grabbed up a handful of vintage castle torsos and an assortment of helmets that I was short on. My kids had a blast building figs for themselves as well.

They also had a bins of “building brick” which was sold by large and small cups ($10 and $5) or by gallon-sized plastic bags ($25). My wife was kind enough to fill up a bag with assorted bricks, plates and slopes in green and tan.

There was only one staff person on duty, named Micah, but he was very friendly, enthusiastic and well-informed.

They do not sell online, but have three store locations. They are in Beaverton OR, Canby OR and Battle Ground, WA. If you are in the area, check them out. I had a good time.

Along these lines, there have to be more independent purveyors of used and collectible LEGO out there. If you know of a brick-and-mortar store in your area, feel free to post the location in the comments. Just don’t tell us about your online store. We know about those.

In the interest of transparency, I would like to state that Bricks & Minifigs did not ask for this review nor did they give me anything in exchange. The only freebie that I received was the business card I swiped off the counter.

BrickWarriors Custom Items [Review]

BrickWarriors is a new company, specializing in custom weapons and accessories designed for use with LEGO minifigures. They recently sent me a complimentary review package of their initial offering.

The quality of the pieces is on par with the other well-known custom companies. While the plastic doesn’t feel exactly like LEGO, it is very close and the pieces are sturdy. None of them feel flimsy or brittle. At the time of this writing, there are only four colors: Black, Red, Brown, and Dark Pearl Gray. The color matching for the black and red pieces were identical to the official LEGO pieces to which I compared them. The brown pieces were very close to official pieces and the dark pearl gray was just barely lighter in color than the pieces I checked it against.

The fit and compatibility was good. None of the items appeared to stress the hands of the minifigs. The weapons have multiple grips points in the places you would expect the real guns to have them. The hats, helmets and armor all fit well. They were not loose or too tight.

There was one item with some fit issues. Before sending me the items, the designer informed me that the horn attachment points on the Minotaur head had issues. Brickwarriors uses the official LEGO horns for the Minotaur and apparently LEGO made the horns slightly larger than the standard bar connection. The Minotaur holes are sized for the standard bar, therefore the horns stress the hole a bit. I checked this out and the official horns fit very tightly (I had some trouble getting them out) but other bar pieces fit just fine. BrickWarriors informed me that they are currently working on their own horns, which will be sized correctly. Also the neck hole on the Minotaur is tighter than on official Lego heads, but it does come off easily.

The company has made an effort to maintain the look of official LEGO pieces. Mostly this works for them pretty well. One place that I don’t think it works very well is in regards to the solid trigger guards on the guns. The company told me that they chose this design because they thought that it maintained the look they were trying to achieve.

The price of the items is reasonable, with US$1.00 being the price for most of the weapons and smaller accessories. The larger guns are priced at US$1.25. The armor, other bodywear, and helmets are US$1.50. The most expensive item is the Minotaur head at US$2.50.

The weapons and accessories cover quite a range of genres, from Sci-fi and Fantasy to Historical and Modern items. As a dyed-in-the-wool Castle fan, I’m partial to the Fantasy Items, but Space, modern warfare and apoc fans will enjoy the modern and futuristic armor and weapons.

Overall, I thought this was very good first run of items and hope to see more from this company in the future. They have a number of unique items that help them stand out and will fit nicely into any collection of custom minifig accessories. If you wish to see more, you can view all the pictures of the items in my BrickWarriors Review Pictures Set.

New BrickForge Shock Trooper armor & printed accessories [Review]

As readers will have noticed in our LEGO News feed last week, custom minifig accessory vendor BrickForge has just released a new batch of items, including a new “Shock Trooper” armor. We ordered a couple batches, and I managed to find enough sunshine in the Seattle “summer” to take a few pictures.

The armor comes in a sort of steel color that’s rather lovely, along with black that has a similar metallic sheen. Neither color really matches typical colors available for minifig legs and torsos, but they combine reasonably well with neutral colors like bley and black. BrickForge also offers two printed variants, with an eagle on the gray and a flaming skull on the black. I’ll be interested to see how other customizers use these helmets and armor, but I focused on their inevitable use as ODSTs from Halo. Armor for a squad of six will run you a bit over $20.

One of the few areas in which BrickForge and BrickArms overlap is in items inspired (a safe assumption, I think) by the Halo universe, so minifig customizers have a bit more choice in this area. I like to mix and match custom parts from everybody, and I have to admit that I personally prefer the BrickArms versions of these sci-fi weapons (including the previously reviewed BrickArms minigun). I think the combination of the BrickForge armor and BrickArms weapons is undeniably awesome — “better together,” as I always say.

I cracked myself up by putting one of the troopers on a BrickForge scooter, which my wife dubbed the UNSC “Shrew”. I was amused enough that I would like to share this little masterpiece with the world. You’re welcome.

As fun as a couple squads of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers might be, I had the most fun putting together the Avengers — inspired by the blue helmet with an A and the big American shield that begged themselves to be equipped on a classic Captain America. Wolverine (with BrickForge “Savage Mask”) and Thor (BrickForge hammer) quickly followed, supplemented by a HAZEL-helmeted Iron Man, official Spider-Man, and my old Hulk.

The ODSTs and Avengers were distracting enough that I didn’t get a chance to do much with the test tubes, bottles, martini glasses, and other new glassware BrickForge has just released. Briefly, they complement official LEGO items nicely, and I’m highly entertained by the idea of minifigs squaring off against each other in tiny bar fights with broken bottles.

10221 Super Star Destroyer Review

drdavewatford from The Brickish Association posted a detailed two-part review of the upcoming 10221 Super Star Destroyer, available in September 2011. Check out part 1 and part 2 of the review on his blog.

Via FBTB

Hero Factory 3.0 [Review]

I was sent some of the upcoming Hero Factory sets to review, so I built them with my two sons, 4 and 8 years old, in order to get the reaction of someone in the age demographic for these sets. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. But first, just the facts.

We received four sets: Furno 3.0 (#2191), Stringer 3.0 (#2183), Waspix (#2231) and Witch Doctor (#2283). Furno and Stringer are two of the Heroes, who have appeared in the previous series. As far as I know, Waspix and Witch Doctor are new characters and appear to be “baddies”. Furno and Stringer came in the typical cans, and the other two came in boxes.

My four year old built Furno and my eight year old built Stringer and Waspix. Both of my sons are experienced Bioinicle and Hero Factory builders and neither had any problems building the sets, though the four year old had a few issues with the instructions. I built Witch Doctor as it was too complex for the boys.

Now for the reactions, opinions and general blather.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the theme. It appears that this series of Hero Factory is going with an animal totem theme. Furno has a hawk mask and Stringer is a bear. According the pictures on the back of the box, other Heroes may have a rhino totem, a wolf or fox and a tiger. Bad guy Waspix is naturally a wasp. Witch Doctor appears to be just that, as it has a skull theme to it and has a stylized skull scepter/wand.

The second thing I noticed was that there quite a few new parts that don’t use “bionicle-style” connections, but more traditional connection points, such as clips. The claws on Stringer really stood out in this regard.

Lastly, as far as I reactions go, I was quite impressed with the Witch Doctor build. It was actually quite complex, very rugged and surprisingly large. I wouldn’t be surprised if the skull masks find their way into quite a few fan creations, as they are rather cool. My only complaint is that his left hand has the over-used bionicle shooter, but kids like things that fire. I just wish it had something new there. Waspix was an average build, with a decent amount of pieces. The Heroes had very few pieces and took me about a minute to put together. Even my four year old had one together in less than five minutes and they have an age range of 6-16. They are pretty simplistic.

My sons reactions were very similar but they each noticed different things. My four year old was enamored with the animal theme. He especially liked the Bear/Stringer. He wasn’t as excited about the wasp, but he “flew” the Hawk all over the house and “fought” with the Bear quite a bit. He was impressed with Witch Doctor, due to his size but didn’t really like the skulls as much.

My 8 year old was in heaven. Part of his reaction was colored by the fact that he was building sets that weren’t available yet, but he did come back down to earth to answer a few questions. He loved Waspix, due to the multiple arms, red spikes and trans-yellow wings. Of the two Heroes, Stringer the Bear was his favorite, due to the claws. He said the actual building experience was better than the previous Hero Factory offerings, but he still preferred Bionicle and misses it. He thought Witch Doctor was really cool because he is really into skeletons right now. He liked the animal theme of the two Heroes but felt like they were too simple to build and didn’t have enough pieces.

All of the review pictures can found in the Hero Factory set in my photostream.

This concludes our Father/Son review. Hopefully it gives you some helpful facts about the new Hero Factory sets. Take care!

Edit: I am not an experienced reviewer. If there is information that I left out, please ask questions in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.

New BrickArms minigun is six barrels of awesome [Review]

It’s been almost exactly two years since I last did an in-depth review of any custom accessories, for a number of different reasons. I’ve been crazy busy with work (yes, TBB contributors all have “real” jobs), but more importantly none of the stuff from the accessory vendors has really excited me enough to highlight here myself.

But I think the new Minigun from BrickArms is different enough and awesome enough for me to share my enthusiasm with all of you out there.

Will Chapman sent The Brothers Brick a batch of the new items, and I’ve been enjoying them ever since.

I’m not currently set up for photography, so Catsy has kindly agreed to let me use his pictures for this review. Thanks! For all of Catsy’s review photos, see Flickr, and for his own review, see the BrickArms Forums.

First, the Minigun is the most complex single item BrickArms has produced to date. The weapon itself consists of three separate parts, with a body, barrel, and handle. Each kit comes with both exposed barrels and shrouded barrels for the end of the gun, plus a “buildable ammo chain” — 14 different parts in total. For buyers used to BrickArms’ usual $1 for most items, this complexity should explain the $8 price tag.

Second, the various holes, attach points, and modularity of the Minigun translate to a wide variety of ways to put it into action, including for vehicles and fixed defenses.

Third, the Minigun’s modularity also translates to some interesting color combinations. It’s currently only available in black, but Will sent us about ten different colors to play with, as he did for Catsy, whose “overheated Minigun” below combines gunmetal, trans-red, and trans-orange.

My own version hands the overheated brass Minigun to a Victorian gentleman in an oversized stovepipe hat, for an excellent steampunk effect. (Pics to follow at some point…) I’m looking forward to these other colors becoming available to everyone.

Finally, BrickArms has released production versions of the Raygun and Tactical Sword, which have been in circulation as prototypes for quite a while.

I highlighted the Raygun prototype a couple years ago, and the production version doesn’t disappoint — though minus the lovely swirl effect in the early prototypes you see in the photo (right). The Raygun and Tactical Sword are $1 each and are available in all 10 current colors.

An important change to the way BrickArms is selling their products as of this month is that all sales go through resellers. Prices appear to be comparable to buying directly in the past, and products are now available in more countries.

Officially due out June 1st, the Minigun, Raygun, and Tactical Sword are already available from most resellers now.

Custom printed minifigs and more from Citizen Brick [Review]

Joe of CitizenBrick.com recently sent me some custom printed LEGO elements to take a gander. A quick glance at his store revealed some interesting and potentially useful parts such as cobblestone tiles and a tattooed minifig. As far as I know, Citizen Brick is one of the few vendors who offer a variety of custom printed parts (the others being BrickArms who focuses on military minifigs and Tommy Armstrong who only takes commissions). Here are my impressions of their products:

Quality: The text from the store claims that their products are impeccable and of the finest quality. Truth be told, they are 100% correct in saying so. The printing is no less than what you would expect from the LEGO company itself. They are centered with precision and resist rubbing and scratching by other bricks. The printed bricks themselves are new and clean, and the minifigs have stiff joints.

Compatibility: It’s important that the ink matches the palette of LEGO colors. You can judge this by looking at the picture on the right that compares the printed tiles with bley and silver LEGO parts. Both light and dark bley matches perfectly and so does the metallic silver. The patterns on the “wooden” tiles and bricks are a close but not exact match to dark tan (not shown). The patterns can be tessellated.

Price: If I had to find something not to like about these parts, it would be their prices. At roughly $1 per tile or brick, it would cost a fortune to pave a wall or road. The $20 minifigs are nothing to scoff at either. However, given the fine quality of these bricks, I don’t find their prices to be unjustified. Comparably, BrickArms, who operates at a much larger scale, charges similar prices for their printed minifigs.

Bottom Line: Citizen Brick offers a unique and quality-oriented line of custom printed parts and minifigs to enhance your creations. While you might put a dent in your wallet buying their products, you’ll be happy once you see their quality firsthand. If you’re looking for something to spice up a vignette or small creation, you should visit Citizen Brick before you get to building.

Review of 8804 Series 4 Collectible Minifigures

WhiteFang from Eurobricks has a posted a review of the upcoming series 4 minifigs to be released on April 15. The review also contains the quantity of each minifig per case. I’m sure many of us are dying to see how awesome the Hazmat guy actually looks like (and hope that we get more than 3 per case). Read the review to find out.

New BrickArms direct-printed minifigs indistinguishable from official LEGO figs

Our friends over at BrickArms were kind enough to send along a couple of their new direct-printed custom minifigs a while back, and they’re quite possibly the single greatest leap forward in minifig customization technology since Brasso.

Will Chapman uses a solvent inkjet printer that bonds the inks with the minifig’s ABS plastic, resulting in printing that I can’t distinguish from minifigs printed in a LEGO factory. And unlike the waterslide decals intended for “gentle play” or “display,” these are likely to withstand much heavier abuse.

I honestly haven’t oohed and aahed over a new BrickArms product in a couple of years, and kind of thought their ability to surprise me was long past. But I have to admit — perhaps a bit grudgingly — that these new direct-printed minifigs may be the coolest thing ever.