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.

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.

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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.

First look at 8803 Series 3 Collectible Minifigs

After his speech at BrickCon, Hillel Cooperman was rewarded with the luck finding series 3 minifigs early at a Fred Meyer store. 11 cases later, here’s a first look at the contents of each box and the minifigs themselves.

Getting started with LDraw

The ever helpful Willy Tschager has just released an excellent tutorial on getting started with MLCAD and LDraw. If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to use virtual LEGO to create your own virtual masterpieces from nothing but your imagination and a computer this is an excellent way to cross the first hurdle.

8684 Collectible minifigs series 2 [Review]

Eurobricks member Superkalle posted the first detailed pictures of the upcoming collectible minifigs series 2, which is beginning to hit stores in Europe. I found it useful to see the actual colors of some of the accessories.

Please ignore the half dozen white Boba Fetts in this picture. There’s always those who have better opportunities.

LEGO Star Wars 8128 Cad Bane’s Speeder [Review]

We don’t normally point out reviews of new Lego sets, but this review of 8128 Cad Bane’s Speeder by Eurobricks member Inconspicuous is very well done with great photos. The set should be available on LEGO Shop at Home this August.

The Nightly News at Nine – a brickfilm by David Pickett

We don’t feature enough videos from the talented community of brickfilmers, so I was happy to be introduced to a brickfilm project by David Pickett (fallentomato) at Brickworld called The Nightly News at Nine (NNN). NNN captures “the zany adventures of a TV News team who live in a fantastical world made of plastic bricks.” The first chapter was recently released on DVD, and David was kind enough to give me a copy to take a look.

Fortunately, all contents of the DVD except for the commentary can be viewed for free. Below is the 24 minute video of the first episode of NNN. If you enjoyed our post of David’s Anti-Green Commercial, you’ll appreciate the same quality of animation, humor, and voice acting that went into this video. My only complaint is the lack of facial animations on the minifigs, but the variety of their motions and gestures does well to compensate.

NNN – Chapter One – New Beginnings from David Pickett on Vimeo.

You can learn more about the production of the video or watch the other features of the DVD. If you want to purchase the DVD for $8 and show your support for the series, you can do so here. Meanwhile, here’s a trailer for the next episode, and I look forward to seeing it!

LEGO: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender [Book Review]

I recently read Jonathan Bender’s book, LEGO: A Love Story, released at the beginning of May. The book chronicles the personal story of an AFOL’s plunge from his Dark Ages into the LEGO subculture. The narrative delivered in 262 pages highlights the diversity of the hobby and the author’s own transformative experiences. All the while, the story takes place on a real life stage as Bender reconciles his image as an AFOL amidst forging a stronger relationship with his wife through building LEGO sets while trying to conceive a child and start a family.

As a LEGO fan, I am delighted to read the first book that describes the LEGO subculture. Jonathan Bender came out of his Dark Ages in 2008 when he received a LEGO set on his 30th birthday. Whether you doubt someone with two years of experience in the LEGO community can write a book about the hobby, you may be impressed by the author’s research and experiences in this short time.

The book chronologically depicts Bender’s experiences in LEGO. He has traveled to conventions, seen the collections of AFOLs and Bricklink sellers, visited LEGOLAND, and toured LEGO’s headquarters in Denmark and North America. Each experience is told subjectively and accompanied by the author’s own feelings and thoughts. The tone of Bender’s writing is very lighthearted and honest, and humor is present in each chapter. Although I have never heard of Jonathan Bender, I feel like I know him well after reading his book.

Depending on your LEGO background, the book has different things to offer. For those unfamiliar with LEGO beyond their childhood experiences playing with the toy, you may be inspired by the diversity of the hobby for adults and consider buying a LEGO set or two. For experienced LEGO fans, you’ll recognize many names mentioned in the book. At the same time, there’s still quite a few gems for you to discover and new things to learn.

The book is not without deficiencies. First, only a few ordinary photos are presented in the book. A black-and-white picture heads each chapter while twelve color photos are included in the middle of the book. Since LEGO is a visual medium, the lack of pictures may frustrate those who are unfamiliar with certain sets, elements, people, or places described. Second, while Bender captures many diverse aspects of the hobby, it is impossible to comprehensively cover every realm of the hobby. For instance, two major areas including the online communities and non-US fan communities are not mentioned in great detail. Lastly, certain individuals are given extensive coverage in the book, which highlights their opinions and personalities regardless of whether they represent those of the majority.

Overall, I recommend LEGO: A Love Story to all fans of the hobby and those who are new to it. It is the first book to give an answer on what it means to be an AFOL. At the same time, the narrative does not seek to impose a set of views. Rather, it presents the hobby without glorifying or criticizing it and lets you form your own conclusions.

There are additional reviews of the book by LEGO fans Mariann Asanuma and Bruce Heitbrink. You can download Chapter 16, “A Guest in LEGO’s House” as a sample. The book is available on Amazon.com.

New minifigure magnet packs also released [Mini-Review]

While Andrew got the 7684 Pig Farm & Tractor, I bought the new magnets to see if LEGO has improved their minifigure quality in these products, and the answer is: yes, they did!

The minifigs from the new magnet packs (shown below) are indistinguishable from the minifigs you’d find in regular sets.

Whereas before, figures from magnet packs were of notably decreased quality plastic and had loose joints and even printing discrepancies in color. It’s safe to say that LEGO has fixed these problems, but $14.99 for a pack of three figures is still on the price-heavy side.

7684 Pig Farm & Tractor includes 4 porkers, out now [Mini-Review]

Perhaps a bit buried among the news about the release of 10211 Grand Emporium and LEGO Board Games is that the new LEGO City set 7684 Pig Farm & Tractor is also out now.

I’m certainly excited by these other new releases, but it says something that I’m choosing to build the pig farm first. Seriously, pigs! Four of them! Mmmmm, bacon…

UPDATE: I just finished building the set, and it didn’t disappoint. Aside from the pigs, the set also includes a number of other parts I hadn’t gotten before, starting with the short-brimmed baseball cap and a new exhaust pipe piece that appears to be new in 2010.

The tractor includes a lot of nice lime green to complement your Power Miners acquisitions, as well as my favorite wheels and tires. For play value, it has several connection points compatible with attachments from 7637 Farm and 7634 Tractor.

And finally, the elephant (or pig) in the room — the inevitable comparison to BrickForge pigs.

As you can see from the set pictures, the LEGO pigs are similar in style to the new LEGO cows from the farm and 10193 Medieval Market Village. They’re more rounded, and to a certain extent more realistic than traditional LEGO animals like the dog and horse (with printed eyes and rounded bellies).

BrickForge pigs, cows, and sheep share their design aesthetic with the older LEGO animals. Depending on whether you prefer your animals more consistent with your older LEGO animals or more adorably pot-bellied, there’s still a place for both BrickForge animals and their official LEGO counterparts. I like both.