The Rambling Brick recently attended the LEGO Fan Media Days with our Extra Pieces Collaborator, Jay’s Brick Blog. As part of the event, Fleming Bjørn Jessen, product manager for Powered Up provided an update on the current roadmap for the platform.
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Back in the early days of LEGO® minifigures, the majority of sets that we had to play had a modest part count, and could be pulled apart and rebuilt in less than an hour: there was plenty of source material for alternative builds, either from the suggestions on the back of the box, or using an ideas book, such as #6000 – which documented the adventures of Mary and Bill, initially in a Town-based adventure, but takes a detour through the worlds of Classic Space and Castle…
Sets were built, played with and rebuilt. Hardly anything was kept together for a significant amount of time.
Flash forward 40 years, and the way some kids play seems to have changed: sets become display pieces in some households, gathering dust until the owner enters their dark ages, before moving on to sell them on the secondary market.
In part, I can understand this: sets have become a bit more sophisticated over the years: more pieces, more complicated building techniques, and we have already invested a couple of hours in building the core model. I encountered some examples of this recently as I worked on the new Creator 3in1 sets – Viking Ship and Midgard Serpent, as well as the DownTown Noodle Shop: pulling these sets apart and building the alternative models took up to 2 hours, depending on the models.
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Have you been enjoying Bricks N’ Bits, the podcast detailing the 25 year history of LEGO® Games? The second series launched properly last week, with a discussion of LEGO Brawls. Along with Extra Pieces co-producer (and editor of Jay’s Brick Blog), Jay Ong, I was fortunate to attend the Recognised LEGO® Fan Media Days last week.
This virtual gathering provided an opportunity to participate with other Fan Media in several briefings about projects that the LEGO Group has underway. We were treated to a presentation by the LEGO® Games team. They took us on some deep dives into the world of podcast production, as they brought us some of the stories behind researching and producing Bricks N’ Bits.
The second season is now underway and the latest episode has just been released. It brings us some of the stories behind LEGO Marvel Superheroes – a game first released in 2013.
I am currently attending the Recognised LEGO Fan Media Days from the comfort of my own home. Previously, this has involved a trip to Denmark, but this year the event is being held online. One of the presentations I have been looking forward to is an update on the LEGO® Powered Up system. We had the opportunity to hear an update from Gaute Munch, Director of the Creative Play Lab, and Flemming Bjørn Jessen, a Senior Producer in the Digital Technology Department.
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A few weeks ago, I took part in a Media Event with several other Recognised LEGO Fan Media: Brickset, Blocks Magazine, Brick Fanatics, Zusammengebaut, Hispabrick Magazine, HothBricks, twitch streamer Between the Bricks. Other similar events took place around the same time, with other LEGO Fan Media, as well as mainstream media.
We met Jonathan Bennink – the LEGO Digital design LEAD on the Super Mario series, and he took us through a couple of the sets that were unveiled the next week. He followed up by showing us some additional aspects of the new theme, gave us some gameplay hints and set us some challenges… At the end of the presentation, we were able to ask some questions. Some were answered on the day. Some were followed up subsequently… Read on for More.
Continue readingIn which I attempt to label my storage drawers, only to discover technical difficulties getting in my way. I overcome these and have a Q&A with Tom Alphin, who has created a set of labels to use in these circumstances.
A couple of months ago (closer to three ) I set about getting some of my bricks sorted out. I now have lots and lots of small drawers, useful for the small fiddly bits, and larger boxes, more suited to traditional bricks and plates, of varying size.
But, its all very well having approximately 250 small drawers full of smaller LEGO® elements, BUT when they are semi opaque, how are you going to know what’s in them. I thought I might set out to label them. So, I reached for the trusty family label maker, perhaps a little underused in the last 5 years, typed up 1×2 with horizontal clip and pressed print.
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On January 30, 2016, the Rambling Brick was born. Four years ago, give or take a couple of hours. Please pardon a little indulgence as I take a quick look through some highlights of the last 12 months.
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Next Week, the Rambling Brick is off to Billund, to take part in the Recognised LEGO Fan Media Days.
I have some interviews lined up with designers from Architecture, Overwatch, Powered Up, LEGO Games and Technic.
Jens Kronvold Frederiksen has worked for the LEGO Group for over 20 years: initially as a designer, and more recently as the Creative Director for LEGO® Star Wars™. On Saturday, May 4th – as part of the LEGO Star Wars Day Celebrations, he took part in the Worlds Largest LEGO Star Wars Unboxing at Westfield Chatswood in Sydney with Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught. This is his first trip to Australia.
I had the opportunity to speak with Jens on the eve of this event – we spoke about the importance of Community events, the evolution of LEGO Designs, stickers and how he came to one of the coolest jobs in the world.
As I write this up, unboxing has occurred, and the model inside has been completed… the event continues until 5pm Sunday May 5th.
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Today, is HispaBrick’s Tenth Anniversary: and Issue #30 is now available for Download:
It’s our anniversary! In this edition of HispaBrick Magazine we celebrate our 10th Anniversary with a couple of surprises.
To celebrate the occasion, we offer you the article on Alien by the arvo brothers that we published in our first issue and that you have asked to be published in English. We also interview Carlos Méndez, the AFOL who proposed the idea of HispaBrick Magazine ten years ago.
Some distinguished personalities in the AFOL world and from the LEGO Company have congratulated us on our anniversary. You will also find a timeline of the ten years of the magazine and interviews with the current staff members. In addition, we proudly present a set that was specially designed for the occasion: 1001 – HispaBrick Magazine Kiosk.
Andrea Valcanover shows us how to build a beautiful tree, Pau Padrós explains the secrets behind Modular buildings, we interview the LEGO Technic team and we offer you a report of our latest event in Mungia (Bilbao).
Of course we also have tutorials, reviews, and our usual sections, including the comic strip Desmontados, and Benny celebrating our anniversary in his space station.
Keep an eye on our Facebook page over the next few days. We have a few surprises in store for you!
HispaBrick Magazine can be downloaded free of charge in Spanish and English, so… download your copy now and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with us!
Link to download past issues of the magazine: past issues
The Rambling Brick 
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