The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide

Among other projects one of the main models in The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s
Guide is a mini space shuttle. I picked it because it made for a great
design exercise and also because I’m a big fan of the space program. So it
was great today to see the shuttle fly again today. I was lucky enough to
listen to some of the final few minutes of countdown before launch. And
from some of the images I’ve now seen on the web and on TV tonight, it looks
like it was a fantastic start to the mission.

Regards,
Allan

The title of this post reflects the new title for the book itself. It will now be known as:

The Unofficial LEGO® Builder’s Guide

The cover art has been updated to include this change:

As always, I’m interested in your comments/feedback regarding all aspects of the book. Email me to tell me what you think.

Regards,
Allan B.

Well, o.k. maybe not all my vacation, but much of this weekend will be devoted to proofreading the book. Here’s a pic of me, working on a part of the process that doesn’t involve sitting at the computer for hours on end.

Thank goodness for my .mp3 player. At least sitting out in the sun and listening to music help reduce some of the tediousness of proofreading. It’s not that I ‘hate’ doing this part, but it’s different than reading a book for pleasure. It’s critical to check all of the cross-references, the image references and just plain watch out for missing words. Though I must admit, it is fun to be now reading chapters that I haven’t really seen much for the last few months (when I’ve been working on completing the final artwork), and reviewing other material that was originally written more than a year and a half ago.

Regards,
Allan B.

Question: Is The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide an Idea book, or a book full of instructions?

Answer: Both really. The book does indeed contain several complete instructions for LEGO models. Specifically, a minifig scale train station, a small sphere and a mini space shuttle. The intention of including the instructions is not simply that you follow along and build the model (though that’s fun too!) Rather the hope is that by explaining why the model was built that way you will better understand how to design and build your own models.

As well, the book contains some basic techniques intended to provide you with skills that again are usable when constructing any type of LEGO model. Specifically, Chapter 2 looks at the different ways to connect bricks, also known as bonding patterns. These include stacking, overlapping and staggering.

Beyond just showing you construction techniques, The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide also looks at things like scale, design theory and how to substitute parts when you may be short of a specific part or two.

The book even looks at topics like sorting and storage of your LEGO bricks. It offers solutions that should apply to collections both large and small.

So rather than being just an Idea book or just an instruction book, the guide tries to offer an overall introduction to the entire LEGO hobby.

Regards!
Allan B.

As more and more people become aware of The LEGO Builder’s Guide I find myself being asked more and more questions about the book. I had been planning on putting together a set of ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ to go on the website but rather than add them all at once I thought it might be interesting to compile them here first - one at a time.

I will add FAQ entries here, in no particular order. They will either be the most recent question that I’ve been asked or just whichever one happens to be on my mind when I go to post to the blog. I hope these answers to those questions will benefit people who are wondering about buying the book. Of course if you have a question that you don’t see answered here please feel free to email me and I’ll both send you the answer directly as well as post it here.

So on to the first entry!

++++++++++++++++

ULBG - FAQ entry #1

Question: Why is the book in black and white? Won’t that make it difficult to understand the instructions/techniques inside?

Answer: The main reason for printing the book in black and white is simple: price. To have printed The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide in color would have nearly doubled the cover price. This is simply a reality based on the increased cost to print a book like this in color. I made a decision very early on that I wanted to keep the cover price as low as possible in order to keep the book accessible to as many people as we could.

As far as how the images will look in black and white, let me just say that I’ve spent countless hours over the last several months rendering and rerendering hundreds (literally more than 600) images for the book. I have used very high resolution settings to produce what I think are very clear and easy to look at images. I’ve used varying combinations of white, grey, dark grey and black bricks in order to create a sense of different colored bricks while still maintaining the ability to print in black and white. You can see a sample image below:

This illustration was taken from Chapter 2, which focues primarily on basic building techniques. I think the contrast between the light and dark grey looks quite nice. As well, the edge lines drawn around the bricks give it that old school look common to older official LEGO instructions.

I don’t believe that working in black and white hurt the book at all. In fact, in many cases it forced me to be even more creative when trying to explain certain things.

Best regards,
Allan B.