The Brick Connection - About a Blog
Posted by Cori on 13th Aug 2015
The Brick Connection– A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning LEGO fans!! Or good afternoon, or good evening, or good whatever time of day it is where you are while you’re reading this.
Another week, another blog post, another disappointment. No
comments. Not one since June 25th. Blasphemy!
I was going to tell you guys that I saw Ant-Man this week and that I thought it was awesome. Then I was going to ask if LEGO was doing anything with Ant-Man because I know they’ve done stuff for The Avengers movies. From there I would have probably inquired if any of you owned any of LEGO’s Marvel licensed stuff. Do you have a favorite Avenger or superhero in general…is probably something I would wondered.
But what’s the point?! No one wants to talk about totally awesome superhero stuff with me because no one wants to talk about anything with me.
I might have to take
a break from the blog and really think long and hard about whether I want to
come back to this hostile environment where my questions go unanswered and my
amusing commentary on LEGO doesn’t receive the laughter it deserves. (And I’m
not talking about real laughter that you might laugh to yourself while reading,
never to be heard by me. I’m talking about laughter I can see, like a “haha” or
the classic “lol” or a crying laughing emoji posted in the form of a comment on
my blog post.)
Yes, I think I need a vacation from you people…
Nah! I’m just kidding! I am going on vacation next week to
the beach, but it has been planned for months and has nothing to do with me
being mad at you.
FYI though, totally still mad at you.
But I digress. This week’s topic is another doozie! LEGO
blogs! (Okay, reading a LEGO blog about LEGO blogs is not the most exciting
thing in the world, but the creative, imaginative, hard-working version of
myself is already on vacation. Maybe she’ll be back in a couple weeks.)
Let’s dive in…much like I will be diving into the ocean in a
few days…
In my early research and blog posts I shouted out some LEGO blogs for their assistance in my LEGO learning. One of the first blogs I thanked was The Brothers Brick, a Lego blog for AFOLs. TBB started out in 2005, which means they have been consistently blogging for 10 years! Impressive! Especially since in my search for LEGO blogs I came across many that had started and ended in a matter of a few years or less. Some didn’t even have a final post stating that the blog was ending. They just stopped blogging.
Blogging is hard, guys. And most people blog on their own free time. Not everyone can blog about LEGO and call it work. For the jerks that do get to blog for work though…well I hope they know how lucky they are.
Which
leads to another fact about The Brother Brick: It’s all run by volunteers. Any
money they generate from ads on their website goes to paying the bills and then
towards the fan community through contests, online events, fan conventions and
more. No one keeps a dime for themselves. Which is great because then you know
the content of the blog is driven by a passion for LEGO and the fan community.
It’s not just about accumulating page views.
The Brothers Brick actually started as a personal blog by its Editor-in-Chief, Andrew, but today the blog has 10 different contributors with a variety of LEGO experiences. So what do they post about? Usually about LEGO builds or MOCs that they find through the online LEGO community.
Fun
fact!: We do that here at BrickWarriors with our LEGO MOC of the Week blog,
posted every Thursday. Of course we only post about MOCs that use
BrickWarriors accessories. We’re trying to build a brand here people!
In
my exploration of other LEGO blogs I have found that pretty much every one of
them posts mostly about LEGO MOCs and builds they find online that interest,
inspire, and even amuse them. People will often blog about their own MOCs and building
processes as well.
Really, the internet has been a huge boost for LEGO’s brand. LEGO fans from all around the world, from all walks of life can come together and talk about something they all love. They inspire each other, motivate each other, and provide helpful tips and information that might otherwise be unattainable.
The
Brothers Brick even takes it a step further by doing a collaborative display every
year for BrickCon in Seattle. TBB picks a theme and everyone has relatively
loose guidelines to build something for that theme. Then everyone brings their
builds to BrickCon and the people at TBB put it all together to form one massive
display. This year’s theme is called “The Battle of Bricksburg” and is all
about the American Civil War. As a Civil War history nerd, I think that is
AMAZING.
The only bad thing is that they’re working with one of BrickWarrior’s competitors on the project to provide accessories. Gross!
In
fact that would be my only completely selfish complaint about The Brothers
Brick. No mention of BrickWarriors. Two other 3rd party LEGO
companies get named on their website, but not us.
My favorite part of The Brothers Brick is one of their newest features. A question and answer section run by their intern A. Lemur. That’s not just his name. That’s what he is. It’s been a somewhat controversial feature for TBB, but I quite enjoy it. It’s where I’ve gotten all this useful information about TBB.
While some may build with LEGO, A. Lemur enjoys tasting it. While some may create MOCs using LEGO parts, A. Lemur thought "my own creation" had something to do with…well let’s say, "making your own fudge." A. Lemur also enjoys eating TBB fan mail after reading it and other silly lemur shenanigans. Check out A. Lemur’s Q&As here: http://www.brothers-brick.com/author/a-lemur/
The
Brothers Brick does more than post about LEGO builds and lemur activities
though. They post about the latest LEGO news, other bloggers (Hey! Why not
me?), and building techniques. Basically, they are a fantastic source of
information for a little novice LEGO fan like me.
They were even my main source for finding other LEGO blogs. Below is a list of blogs about LEGO I found that have actually been active within the last month. You won’t believe how many blogs I went through that hadn’t been active in the last 3-6 years. #bloggingishard
http://color-it-blacktron.blogspot.com/
http://www.customminifig.co.uk/
http://thebrickbutcher.blogspot.com/
http://godbricks.blogspot.com/
http://lugnuts-cars.blogspot.com/
http://microbricks.blogspot.com/
https://modelbuildingsecrets.wordpress.com/
http://vignettebricks.blogspot.com/
A few highlights:
- HistoryBricks just posts a series of MOCs depicting actual human history. AMAZING.
- The Brick Fan is your best resource for LEGO reviews and news. According to them at least. But I’ve checked it out and it seem legitimately resourceful
- Brick Nerd is a TBB favorite and also has multiple contributors. They have a simple formula for deciding what to blog about: If they dig it, they blog it. In addition, they have an awesome YouTube Channel where they’ve hosted live builds. Basically they get a new set and you can watch them build it…in real time.
- The Brick Show is another informative
blog with a YouTube channel
So what are the LEGO blogs you frequent? Oh, I’m sorry, I
asked you guys a question thinking you might actually answer it. My bad!
I didn’t take the time to look into this, but what about forums or other online LEGO communities? Do you guys have any suggestions on which ones I should check out?
Dammit! I did it again.
Well I should just stop while I’m behind. I hope you all
enjoy your week off from my blogging antics. I’ll think of all of you while I
lay on the beach bathing in the sunlight and reading a good book. Scratch that.
I will definitely not be thinking of you guys.
But please, come back in two weeks when I’ll be refreshed,
reenergized, and ready to take on the next step in my LEGO journey. Or when I’ll
be really depressed and miserable that my vacation is over and hate everything and everyone. Either way, I’ll
catch ya next time!
P.S. I’m not even going to post my usual disclaimer about posting respectable
comments. At this rate I’ll take any comment I can get. #bloggingishard