Nextbrick had the pleasure to correspond with Allan Bedford, author of The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide, currently available from No Starch Press (and Amazon, of course).

We purchased a copy sight unseen a few weeks ago and were very impressed, so thought it especially serendipitous when we got the opportunity to speak to Mr. Bedford. If you'd like to get an idea of what The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide has inside, there's a nice introduction with samples on Mr. Bedford's blog.

Now, the interview!

Nextbrick: What inspired you to write a book about how to build Lego? Doesn't that imply there's a 'right way' to build?

Allan: My inspiration for the book came partially from the fact that there wasn't one out there already. Let me back up a bit. When I get interested in any new hobby or pastime I usually look for the equivalent of a 'Dummies' style book to get me started. I like getting a good grounding in the lingo, the background and the conventions of anything that interests me. In the case of LEGO building there really wasn't a book on the market that filled this need. So I wrote one. :)

Lots more from Mr. Bedford after the jump.

Allan continues... My interest in writing goes back many years. I've written several feature length screenplays (none produced) and also a wide variety of non-fiction material, from computer software instructions to how to make homemade fishing lures. My interest in LEGO building goes back much further and is, as it is for many people, one of my fondest childhood memories. I started with my first LEGO set back around 1975. So in my mid-30s I realized two things. First, as noted above, there wasn't a LEGO-related book out there like what I wanted to read. Second, I was in a position with both my writing and LEGO background to create such a book. And thus was born "The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide".

In terms of is there a 'right way' to build LEGO the answer (at least in my mind) is 'yes' and 'no'. There a few things that are universal... such as overlapping bricks to make stronger walls, or learning how to think in three dimensions to create something like a LEGO sphere. Those things are in the book. They will give people that 'grounding' that I spoke of earlier. But then there are also the interpretive aspect of writing about a subject like this. Interestingly, the original title for the book was "The LEGO Builder's Reference Guide". And it was going to be just that; a textbook-like approach to the subject that would have tried to capture the 'right way' to build things. As I developed the structure and content of the book that framework loosened up a bit. The title changed and so did the 'right way' mentality.

What I ended up writing was more of a 'field guide' to the LEGO system. It became much more about my own feelings and ways of looking at LEGO building than it was about trying to be the one and only definitive text on the subject. In fact, I look forward to other future books about LEGO building. I personally feel this hobby is under represented in terms of the amount of writing that's been done about it. We just now have a quarterly magazine (www.brickjournal.com) whereas other hobbies have dozens and dozens of books and numerous monthly magazines. I think the hobby still has a great deal to be explored and written about. So ULBG is certainly not the one right way to think about the hobby. It's simply one way but hopefully it's a way that some people will find interesting and useful.

Nextbrick: Have you gotten much feedback after the book's release from other builders about new techniques you hadn't considered before?

Allan:I've had great feedback since the book was released but not really a lot from experienced LEGO builders. In fact, most of it has been from parents (and grandparents) writing to either ask a question or to thank me for presenting the information that's contained in ULBG. I've even had two different emails from two different female builders, each in their 50s. I distinctly remember one of the emails as she was utterly thrilled that she finally understood how to build a roof without using any sloped roof bricks!

The reader emails have been genuinely rewarding to me. It seems the book has found the audience I imagined it was meant for. It seems to really be connecting with parents and kids who spend time together building LEGO models. And if that ain't a good thing then I don't know what is. :)

That said, I have had a few emails from adult LEGO builders and it's been almost entirely positive. I haven't had any negative comments to speak of.

Nextbrick: Do you think there's a stigma attached to [being one of the] adult fans of Lego?

Allan: No, not at all. If anything, I think there's a 'cool' factor. When I tell people that I'm an adult LEGO builder their eyes light up and a smile is presented right away. So many people of a very wide range of ages have good LEGO memories that I think they are even a bit envious sometimes that we (the enthusiasts of this hobby) get to build with huge quantities of bricks... much more so than were available to us as kids. Afterall, the difference between playing with something like LEGO as a kid and building seriously with it as an adult is that the adult usually has a bigger allowance to spend on their hobby. :)

Thanks again to Mr. Bedford. We encourage you all to pick up a copy of his book from Amazon. We're almost certain you'll find it useful, no matter what your level of Lego expertise.

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Tom Johnson, creator of the Working Technic Knitting Machine is back with another fun creation: a real, working orrery.

What's an orrery? As any fan of The Dark Crystal knows, it's a device with which to impress gelflings. Tom's orrery exists, "to help explain to my children why we have so much light in the summer and not nearly enough in the winter (we live in Alaska). No attempt was made to get relative sizes, distances, or the orbit periods correct. Rather, this model shows the inclination of the earth's axis and why it causes the seasons."

Lego Orrery [Mac]

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While this isn't an actual product—just a mocked-up proposal by a Chinese company hoping to find a distributor—these Lego-style silicone rubber memory card keychains are kind of nifty. The apparently even clip together so that you could store multiple memory cards all together.

Problem is, we don't think we'd trust even Lego bricks to stick together indefinitely in our pockets along with our keys. But for just a single memory card we might go for it—especially since they should be super-cheap.

Lego Style Silicone Rubber Memory Card Case [I4U]

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Mitch C. asks us:

Do you know where I could find someone to give me a quote to create a
custom lego kit for my kids?

I am looking for a model of "Rocket" from the new Little Einsteins show
on Disney. Rocket is the red rocket ship that the kids ride on.

Any readers have any suggestions of places where custom models can be commissioned?

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Here it is: our first look at the licensed Batman theme expected to be released from Lego later this year. There is a surprisingly large number of minifigs villains right out of the gate, although we don't see Robin anywhere (just Nightwing). The models, including the Batmobile and Batwing, look great.

Our friend Vic sent us this huge batch of pictures which we have reproduced after the jump. Most of the images appear to be from Toy News, Intl., although we couldn't find them on their site. It also appears that Action-Figure.com has a few blurry shots of the boxed sets.

See over a dozen pictures of all the new sets after the jump!

Catwoman

The Joker

Killer Croc

Mr. Freeze

Two-Face

Two-Face's Henchman

The Penguin

Two-Face's Van

The Batmobile

The Batcave

Batwing

The Bat...craft?

More Heros and Villains

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We were reading a fun entry on Russell Beattie's weblog about how much he enjoyed sitting down to some good Lego building with his son when we noticed the price he paid for his Lego Creator Tub (5369) at Fry's: $15. We wondered if Fry's online outlet, Outpost.com also sold Lego, since the Creator Tub usually goes for at least $5 more. Sure enough, they have a decent selection at what seems like very reasonable prices, despite a few mistakes in their listings.

What other retailers have you discovered that offer great deals on Lego?

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We've had a chance to put together a few Exo-Force sets—specifically sets 7703: Fire Vulture, 7708: Uplink [pictured], and 7711: Sentry—and our initial impressions are mixed, although learning toward the positive as they suit our own needs. We are in a rebuilding phase with our element collection with an eye towards mecha building. We've had a serious lack of pieces that can be easily pressed into service as articulated joints and had hoped to find the Exo-Force a good source

In that sense, we are fairly pleased at the element selection. While the smaller sets like Uplink and Sentry use a fairly rudiemntary Technic-based connection for the legs, the larger Fire Vulture uses a ratcheted series of blocks that allow for a great variety of poses—perhaps at the expense of versatility. That said, we should be able to find plenty of uses for two-brick joint that rotate on two axes, perhaps even in non-mecha models.

The Exo-Force sets come with heavy weaponry, including missiles and guns and even a flamethrower. (And to Lego's credit, there is not a single dragon-fire element on the Fire Vulture.) In fact, the sets might be the most overtly military designs Lego has ever produced. For the first time, we feel it possible that our dream theme—minifig-scale World War II machinery—might someday be a possibility.

The parts inventory is varied, with many elements we feel will be useful to any budding builder of a 'futuristic' style, although there continue to be some disturbingly large single-use pieces, like the giant turbine on the back of the Fire Vulture. (The turbine is also the first piece we can recall with a dual-color injection mold from Lego.) Fan-built mecha tend to appear much more solid than the Exo-Force models, despite Lego's use of broad multi-angle slopes to imply heft. The remix potential is limited, but as part of a collection of more traditional elements there is much potential in these sets.

You might notice that we didn't opt to use any of the dozens of stickers included with the Exo-Force line. While we find the sticker design to be very much in theme with the anime-influence, we intend to be tearing these down to parts soon. In that sense, we're happy to have the choice of clean or printed bricks, but we can't help but feel a tinge of sadness at Uplink's 2 x 1 plate that serves as a computer. The silk-screened computer plate, once a hallmark of the space themes, is seemingly past its prime.

The larger Exo-Force sets include a 2 x 4 brick with a watch battery-powered LED. (We're not sure yet if the battery is replaceable.) Rubber fiber optic cables can be run from one end of the brick to add a glowing effect, such as the Fire Vulture's flamethrower laser sight. The bricks are cute but seem to have limited use.

Lastly, the minifigs are likely to be controversial. We rather dig the spiky-haired hero minifigs with their two-to-a-head faces, but the robot enemies are extremely awkward-looking and not the least bit menacing. (Not to mention the dissonance of robots piloting other robots.)

Overall, we're happy to gather so many useful parts and to see Lego finally stepping up the weaponry, but we wish the mecha appeared a bit more like giant, hulking robots and less like chassis waiting to be armored. We are also pleasantly surprised to find a minimum of Bionicle elements. The few that do appear add just the right amount of character.

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PodBrix, the company who seems to exist to sell products to the (surprisingly large) market intersection of Lego fans and Apple fans, is selling the new Wozwear 6502 t-shirt for $35. Not only does it feature a minifig version of Apple's famous computer designer, it features a clip-on 6502 processor, the very same 1MHz processor that once powered the Apple II.

Product Page [PodBrix]

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A shot from the National Toy Hall of Fame by BT Meacham's Flickr stream.

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Combining a talent for micro-scale design with a good sense of humor, Ley Ward draws inspiration from a variety of sources, including—if his Further 3.0 and the Harry Pranksters set [pictured] is any clue—'60s acid culture. His Further models might indeed be the first Lego models we've seen that featured almost every pastel color offered by Lego.

Ward's attention to color is evident even when he's staying entirely monochromatic, like he does in his NASA-esque 'CRaB rover,' which uses only grey blocks to give the impression of a realistic, '60s-era lunar probe.

Ward's not afraid of little whimsy, though, with sets like 'Springtime in the pasture,' built using just as many pieces for the field as are used in the micro-scale sheep. (And yes, there's a black one.) Ward even manages to make pieces like the minifig pith helment work to his advantage in models like the 'Pith Infiltrator.'

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Although from the captioning in his Flickr stream 'Horvatits' makes it clear that this chocobo model (inspired by the Final Fantasy videogame series) is still being tweaked, we think he's off to a very strong start.

Now he just needs all those pieces in 50th anniversary colors, to make the fabled golden chocobo.

Posted by at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Exo-Force is one of Lego's newest product lines, the first to embrace the long-standing mecha theme from fan modelers in a commercial kit. (The one-off Titan XP notwithstanding.) Serving as a sort of bridge between the Bionicle and more-traditional sets, Exo-Force is heavy on anime-inspired robots piloted by spiky-haired minifigs. While the Exo-Force mecha seem a little on the flimsy side, we are certainly looking forward to getting our hands on the joint pieces for use in our own creations. Initial reports suggest that most of the bricks have decals, not silk-screened images, which is either good or bad depending on your desire to use clean blocks.

While it's unknown if Lego intends to continue the line, we applaud their decision to provide alternate building instructions online at the official Exo-Force website. While toys that allow you to build a new model by combining two or more smaller sets are an age-old marketing gimmick, we appreciate the fact that Lego is providing alternate builds for free online, rather than just showing a picture in the instructions. (Although some folks see the picture-only alternate designs as a challenge.)

We have a couple of Exo-Squad sets on order from Lego Shop-at-Home and expect to provide our impressions shortly.

Posted by at 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're a mecha or spaceship fan, you'll find a wealth of amazing models at Neutronbot.com. We first stumbled on the site by way of Flickr, where Soren—one of Neutron Bot's six modelers—has his own photostream. While all the Neutron Boy modelers are good, we find's Soren's work to be exemplary, showing a real mastery at both the micro and minifig scales.

Often you'll hear a compliment paid to Lego fans that goes something like, "Your model is as good as one from Lego!" Well, Soren's model's are better than the models Lego releases themselves.

Don't believe us? Check out the articulation on humanoid mecha like the L-Siren, the use of color on ships like the Mongoose, the imaginative quality of his armored ambulance, and the attention to detail in models like the 550 Aircoupe [pictured].

Soren's work compelled us to break out the bricks again tonight and make some mecha of our own—which might be the very highest compliment of all.

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This macro-sized lunch box with fruit is the latest project from Nathan Sawaya, professional, certified Lego builder (and of Han Solo in Carbonite fame). Commissioned by the Produce Marketing Association, the oversized lunch box opens and shuts and even has a real, working clasp—not to mention a matching Thermos.

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Henry Lim's 100,000+ piece Lego Harpsichord has been around for while, but it's gotten a bit of recent love in the blogosphere from the likes of Digg. Rightfully so—it not only is good-looking, but manages to withstand the 325 pounds of pressure needed to make the strings playable.

But as much as we like the harpsichord, we find some of Lim's other creations even more impressive. This 14-foot Stegosaurus, for instance, is not only huge, but is almost completely self-supporting using Lego bricks alone. The fact that Lim can lean on the head—held up without any glue or internal non-Lego scructure—is a testament to his engineering skill. (At last update, Lim had not quite figured out how to make the tail completely free-standing.)

Lim also manages to impress with his Audrey Hepburn mosaic. Mosaic work can be done fairly easily with access to digital imaging tools like Photoshop, but the results remain very attractive.

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Having seen the success of the Million Dollar Homepage, one young entrepreneur is following suit with Fill My Room. Each dollar earns you a Lego block in this person's room, allowing you to... We're not quite sure what you'll be doing, actually. At least the Million Dollar Homepage allowed links back for advertisers. This would seem to be mostly a way to give this guy a lot of free Lego, although if you purchase 1,000 blocks at a time you'll get one of the ads on his home page.

If Fill My Room breaks $1,000, we'll toss in $10 of bricks ourselves—as long as we can be promised our bricks will always stay on top.

[via Dong Resin's Screenhead]

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Is it wrong that we were trying to eyeball how many dollars' worth of Lego this took?

What an earthquake at Lego Land might look like [Stuff On My Cat]

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While Lego experts are probably well-acquainted with Peeron.com's extensive database of Lego models, it's a fantastic place to start for the Lego layman. In addition to housing building manuals for a good chunk of old sets and the catalogs released worldwide, they provide current Amazon.com Lego sales, Lego associated RSS feeds and a parts tracker that keeps hold of the pieces you have in your collection.

Peeron stirs up fond memories of your first sets—mine being the Space Command Center (493) and its supporting cast, save the Space Shuttle (442), which mysteriously flew off the shelves of the Clark AFB PX. I vaguely remember being very pissed off about that.

Posted by Mike at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While our Lego careers started in the late '70s, we had heard tales of mythical blocks from that murky time Before We Were Born. Mario Ferrari has answered our question with a few pictures from his personal collection as well as short descriptions of the old parts, which include brass-pinned wheels and early train rails.

What surprised us more than anything, however, were the 4.5V electronic motors [pictured]. We were under the impression that Lego first included battery-powered motors in the '80s with the Technic line, but apparently the idea goes back much further.

Motors before minifigs! Now if only Lego would bring back those great logo-blocks so we could finally create our micro-scale Exxon Valdez. We especially miss the 1 x 4 block silk-screened with headlights, of which we had only a single, precious copy.

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Lego building and crafting go hand in hand, like this wearable exercise in symbolic minimalism, the Pink Lego Birdhouse Pendant. Featured by craftswoman Nanobonbon on Etsy.com, the Birdhouse pendant reminds its creator of "the martin boxes my grandpa had in his yard...except his weren't hot pink and lime green!"

You can buy your very own hand-made Pink Lego Birdhouse Pendant for the not-totally-unreasonable price of $9.50, shipped—a rather fair price, all things considered. Other 2 x 2 blocks, like the Pink Glitter Cube Choker Necklace are available, as well as unique charms like the Film School Grad Sterling Silver Necklace with a minifig camera and the Virtuvian Minifig Necklace.

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We're not exactly sure who to credit for this excellent minifig-scale 1970 German Army Unimog 404—his website doesn't actually say his name that we could find—but we find his commitment to detail at the challenging scale commendable. It's one thing to build two models of the Unimog, but quite another to accurately replicate the famous suspension.

We love us some Mogs, but now we want to see a minifig-scale Pinzgauer!

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Chris Churchill's Mechanized Brick is a commercial venture, selling WWII-era models of his own design for prices between $20 and $240. That may seem a bit on the expensive side, but bear in mind that purchasing individual blocks for custom models can get very expensive very quickly. If you'd like to try to save a few bucks, Churchill also offers an Instructions CD with detailed diagrams and parts lists for his first twelve models, including the Lockheed P38 Lightning pictured above.

We know that Lego has had a long standing policy not to make modern military models, but they certainly aren't averse to weaponry as long as it's older (muskets, cannon, bow and arrows). Although we can understand why a European company would still feel sensitive about building models from a war that was fought on their own continent—especially the German models—we can't help but wish that Lego would create a WWII series of their own. In the meantime, we've got Chris Churchill's models to lust over.

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Released in 1990, the Mega Core Magnetizer (set 6989) was the keystone kit in the first run of M:Tron, the series that marked the beginning of the end for the classic space line. Already dabbling with themed sets after the success of the Blacktron line, Lego began several themes in the Mega Core Magnetizer that continued throughout the '90s, like larger and more gimmicky pieces. To Lego's credit, many of those new pieces continues to be used in sets to this day—the new magnet pieces and large wheels are used in the Star Wars Star Destroyer model, for instance. But while the large wheels and windscreen allowed the Mega Core Magnetizer to appear to be more substantial than previous kits such as the Blacktron Battrax, they also heralded the large, single-use pieces that would haunt Lego sets for the next decade.

Nevertheless, the Mega Core Magnetizer offered a still-appealing design, with multiple mini-fig vehicles and a working magnet-clip crane. Plus, the florescent cone blocks that shipped with M:Tron sets graced the fronts of homebrew space ships and laser rifles for years to come.

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Tom Johnson has built this Lego knitting machine out of Technic. It may not be the tightest weave we've ever seen (that honor goes to our Junior Prom date), but it's surprisingly functional for using what seems to be a bare minimum of beams.

Tom's Knitting Machine page includes a gallery of images in addition to a strangely ominous Quicktime movie. Can a Lego-made scarf be far behind?

[via Lugnet]

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Give any game that can be tweaked by users enough time and you'll probably see a Lego mod or two show up. We're not sure how amenable Lego Group has to those mods, especially since they have a software game division of their own, but with only slight amounts of obfuscation the mods do appear to find a way to survive.

Lega Warz swaps a vowel and keeps the Lego look (right down to the space logo), but it appears that the mod for the game 'Operation: Flashpoint' is no longer being actively developed. A pity, since the screen shots look amusing. Who hasn't wanted to snipe the little yellow head off a minifig?

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We recently had a brief hands-on with the new Lego Mindstorms NXT pre-production models first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sadly, it wasn't appropriate for us to pull apart the existing models and start to play around with our own designs.

While our initial impressions were positive—although likely clouded by our excitement at getting to play with the new kits—we were struck by the large size of the provided sensors, especially the head-like ultrasonic unit. We hope that the size was predicated by the need to cram in lots of electronics and not a need for anthropomorphizing the units. Robots don't have to be cute, hard as the notion is to resist. (There is an argument to be made that children may find humanoid robots to be more appealing, but we feel that kids will love robots no matter the machines' appearance.)

We also noticed that the sensor interconnects were six-pin plugs, not four-pin RJ11 as some have reported.

Søren Lund, Director of the Mindstorms project, said that no expansion kits were immediately in the cards, as Lego is focussing on selling the NXT in as complete a form as possible—for now. Lund expressed a clear desire to work on expansion sets and accessories in the future, but reminded us that the launch of the Mindstorms NXT kit is still many months away.

In the meantime, if you haven't read Brendan I. Koerner's captivating piece for Wired about the development of the Mindstorms NXT project, including the hand-picked fans who comprised the Mindstorms User Panel (MUP), then we sincerely suggest giving it a look. It suggests that the ivory tower years of Lego product design may be firmly behind us, to the betterment of both the fans and the company's bottom line.

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Bryce McGlone is a fan builder who specializes in Bioncle models—especially mecha. Many of his models, like this Efertijin Demon Lord, have a marked demonic influence. In models like the Efretijin he uses his vast collection of Bioncle masks to great effect as feathers or scales. We especially enjoy his more 'arty' models like The Rack, designed not as a traditional model but instead as a response to visual influences such as HR Giger and Captain EO. (Yes, that Captain EO.)

Enjoy McGlone's experiments, including a series of classical and baroque architecture on his personal collection site, Plasmic Bricks.

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From Sullis' Brickshelf.

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What and who is Nextbrick?

Nextbrick is a fan-run blog title dedicated to all things 'construction toy'—especially LEGO. Edited by Joel Johnson and a rotating cast of writers, Nextbrick aims to place the newest in both commerical and homebrew LEGO creations in the spotlight, as well as discuss the latest news relating to LEGO and its competitors. We might even write about the occasional Lincoln Log, should it tickle our fancy.

We're especially excited about the upcoming LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit and intend to spend a lot of inches talking about the creations that come from the fledgling NXT community.

Is Nextbrick an official outlet of The LEGO Group?

Most certainly not. We are an independent third-party outlet and are in no way affliated with The LEGO Group or its employees. While we're at it, we're not at all affliated with Nextbrick Solutions, either, although we think they've got a pretty good name.

How can we contact you or send you a tip?

Feel free to hit us up on AIM at "lev2300" or by email at nextbrick on gmail.

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