The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide

I hope everyone caught tonight’s episode of Corner Gas called “Block Party".

Once again, here’s the synopsis from the show’s website:

http://cornergas.com/episodes/?volume=12&issue=87

I was hoping they wouldn’t make fun of building with LEGO bricks, but rather
would have fun with the idea. And I think they did just that. The show was
great. Not a single mention of the word “legos", but rather a lot of use of
“LEGO blocks” and even “LEGO bricks".

When Hank showed Brent the ‘almost’ completed version of his model I really
began to wonder if any adult fans had helped prepare for the show. It was a
very cool model and looked, at least to my eyes, like someone with lots of
minifig scale or train layout experience had helped build it. Anyone out there
willing/able to come forward and talk about being involved? Maybe they did it
themselves, but maybe they had help. It would be fun to know either way.

And then close to the end came a big surprise. Some LEGO animation. If you
missed this, you really missed not only a good Corner Gas episode, but an
excellent bit of brick parody. Again, it suggests to me some involvement from
the fan community but that’s just my feeling.

Send me an email if you know anything about the behind-the-scenes happenings
that went into this episode.

I hope lots of people saw the episode. Proof again of what a great show this is.

Allan B.

If you’re a fan of the hit show Corner Gas then the title of this posting probably doesn’t strike you as all that odd. If you’re not a fan of Corner Gas, why not?

This is a show that brought scripted comedy back to TV at a time when “reality” television was everywhere. And it proved, once again, that Canadians are funny people. But there’s a true-to-life sensibility to the show that can appeal to many non-Canadians as well. So if you’re not watching, why not? You’re missing some great entertainment.

I’ve linked to a pic from the Corner Gas website below… you can see how much fun this episode looks like it’s going to be:

You can also read the synopsis of the episode on the official Corner Gas website. The episide entitled ‘Block Party’ airs Monday February 20, 2006 on CTV.

Enjoy!
Allan B.

On Saturday afternoon (Feb 9/06) I had the pleasure of meeting up with Brian McKechnie from commandN.

We did an on-the-spot video interview in the Bricks and Blocks store in St. Jacob’s Ontario. For those of you from this area, you’ll know that Bricks and Blocks is a LEGO retailer with stores in Cookstown and Windsor as well. It’s easy to think you’re walking into a LEGO company outlet store, but in fact they’re an independent chain who just happen to sell nothing but LEGO products…. and tons of them at that!

Special thanks go to Sue and the rest of the staff of Bricks and Blocks for making us feel so comfortable using their store as a studio on a busy Saturday afternoon.

The interview went really quickly… I was surprised. But then I was pretty much trying to make sure I didn’t make an idiot of myself so that occupied my mind for most of it. Brian was really easy to talk to, considering we met for the first time just a few minutes before beginning our on-camera chat about the book.

So if you’re curious to see more… check out the commandN website and download Episode #33. It’s a huge download, be forewarned. It’s over 130 meg, so make sure you’ve got the bandwidth available before you click that “Save As” command.

Thanks also to Barb for great camera work and for listening to the author ramble on about all things LEGO.

Allan B.

I found one of the new X-Pod sets in a store yesterday and of course had to pick one up to see what it was like. The first thing that caught my eye was the new outer packaging for the set itself. if you remember the first two series of X-Pods you know that they were shipped in a heavy plastic blister pack sealed with NASA-grade packing tape. They would sit on a shelf if nicely arranged but were really meant to hang on pegs like packages of batteries or something like that.

Fast forward to 2006 and the new X-Pods have a new look for their outer packaging. Check this out:

Now they’re wrapped in a nice boxboard shell. The X-Pod set itself is still in a plastic ‘cup’ inside, with the top and bottom lid as always. This new outer package opens up like a bag of chocolate chip cookies and you pull the set out.

I noticed a couple of things right away.

1) The instructions have gone from the mini-booklet style to a fold-out pamphlet style as shown here:

2) The X-Pod container itself was STUFFED! I mean I had trouble actually getting the bag of parts back in the shell to take this picture:

The part selection is really good, at least in the one I bought. Here’s the parts, including several of the tiny 1x1 slopes that came out last year.

I wish I could have included those little slopes in the Brickopedia but the .dat file I needed hadn’t yet been created.

So I started the post asking if this packaging change was good or not. On the whole I’d say, “yes” it was. I like the outer packaging a lot and I think it will actually help the sets sell. I’m not as crazy about the pamphlet style instructions but they’re not the worst thing in the world.

You’re probably wondering… is it a good set to build? You bet! See below:

All the best,
Allan B.

O.K. you all know my feelings on BrickJournal, right? Far and away, it’s one of the best things that’s happened for the LEGO building hobby in a long time.

Don’t want to take my word for it? Need more proof?

Check out this interesting post on LUGNET today –> The LEGO Group Praises BrickJournal #3

I agree with Geoff’s thoughts… Joe Meno really deserves a ton of credit not just for being able to pull this project together but to have now pulled it together three times. And it just gets better every time!

AB

I’ve said before how much I enjoy writing for BrickJournal magazine, but it’s my blog so I’m going to say it again.

But entirely separate from how much fun it is to contribute I also feel that BrickJournal is a huge leap forward for the LEGO builder community. It represents a way for existing fans to communicate and at the same time offers a way for people new to the hobby to learn about what’s going on.

So be sure to download the latest edition. Be warned… it’s a bit big so if you have a slow connection just be patient. But I think you’ll find it’s worth the effort to get a copy. After all, it’s free!

Click the image above to go to the BrickJournal page on the LEGOFan.org website. There are links there to several different mirrors for the download.

Among the tons and tons of great stuff in this edition you will also find a short article I wrote as a follow-up to the instructions for the Mini Constellation model that appeared in issue #2.

Did I mention how much fun it is to write for BrickJournal?

Enjoy!
Allan B.