The Rambling Brick

The Rambling Brick

Why head off in a straight line when you can ramble?

Latest

  • “This is Why You Love LEGO®” – Book Review and Author Interview.

    “This is Why You Love LEGO®” – Book Review and Author Interview.
    TheRamblingBrick
    , ,

    As someone who has been playing with and building LEGO® bricks on and off for a while, I have found myself trying to understand how LEGO bricks work, as a prompt for play, creativity, and storytelling, as part of a greater System of Play. That said, with a background in biomedical sciences, I don’t have a solid grasp of the basics of play theory and play design. Fortunately, my daughter is studying Play Design in Kolding, about a three-quarters-of-an-hour drive from the LEGO Group’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark. She suggested I check out the work of one of her lecturers,… READ MORE

  • Build. Play. Display. Repeat? Is LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 losing sight of its raison d’être?

    Build. Play. Display. Repeat? Is LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 losing sight of its raison d’être?
    TheRamblingBrick
    , , , , ,

    For me, Creator 3-in-1 has been the quintessential LEGO® Theme: Build something. Play with it. Rebuild into something else. Rinse and repeat. Simple! The theme took off as The LEGO Group recovered from an existential financial crisis in the mid-2000s, and it shows the importance of refocusing on the brick after trying their hand at other interests. If a friend asks me where to start with a set for their child, I used to refer them here as an example of different models made with the same pieces, without needing to adhere to minifigure scale. But would I now? We… READ MORE

Trending

Archives

News.

Reveals.

Reviews.

Deep Dives.

Experiments.

Nostalgia.

Icons.

Ideas.

Botanicals.

Categories

Archive

Lego UK

The Extra Pieces Podcast features Richard from the Rambling Brick in conversation with Jay from Jay’s Brick Blog.

INSTAGRAM

Many of the LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Sets from the January release are display worthy. Which is good, because they do not necessarily have any studs for a brick separator to engage with. The LEGO Group sent this set along for review, along with others in the wave. 31377 Turtle with Water Lily I love this globe print that is part of Creator 3-in-1 31378 Space Exploration Telescope. The set comes with a lightbrick, allowing you to project the images of planets and stars onto a wall in a dark room. I think these models collectively have the best play features of the January Wave of Creator sets. And it’s one of 2 sets in that wave that don’t feature animals. A terrific gift from @tashologue while I was visiting Denmark. I first received playmobil figures for Christmas in 1974. Most of them are still intact, albeit with faded chrome. I found this LEGO Explore/ DUPLO whistle from 2002 while I was in Denmark recently. It only appeared in 2 sets. It has a couple of holes, which lets you change the pitch. Let’s see if we can play a little tune. After arriving in Jutland, I made my way to the Flea Market. It was a grey day as I waited for the train out of Copenhagen. The wind blew, and I was grateful for my coat as it whistled down the platform. Billund: There are over a million plastic stories in the Home of the Brick. With a System in evolution, Things are changing. The bricks that brought me joy as a child continue to engage, but the stories have changed, the blockiness gone and studs becoming so rare that a brick separator is increasingly irrelevant.

Follow US

Recent Posts