You may have heard of the famous The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book: 15 Designs to Spread Holiday Cheer
The book does not come with LEGO bricks, so you’ll have to use your own, or order them. But the idea of a book like this is not to give precise instructions of what to do, but rather, theory, ideas, methods, to create your own. Continue reading Deck the halls with boughs of LEGOs!
LEGO Micro Cities: Build Your Own Mini Metropolis!
Author Jeff Friesen is a famous LEGO builder, and a photographer, who tweets at @jeff_works.
You get an idea of how to build skyscraper, bridges, public transit elements, and tightly packed downtown zones. There are suggestions for how to build the geology that underlies the buildings and other infrastructure. And the subways. Continue reading Build Miniature Cities with LEGO
Some of the earliest LEGO sets were for buildings or some sort of structure, and to this day architecture forms a core part of the LEGO panoply. If you build an architecture project from a kit, you’ll see that they are highly engineered. In order to make a LEGO project look like something other than a concoction of random bricks made by some kids having fun (which is, of course, just fine), serious planning has to have happened.
Most of the LEGO books I’ve seen are pure idea books. If you wanted to build a project based on what you see in the books, you have to either have a huge collection of LEGO parts very well organized, or you have to be prepared to order several specific bricks that are called for in the books.
But that is the wrong way to play with LEGOs. The books demonstrate concepts, give you ideas, guide you to become a better LEGOer.
Very few LEGO books that I’ve seen are clearly this, clearly about methods and techniques, as The LEGO Architecture Idea Book: 1001 Ideas for Brickwork, Siding, Windows, Columns, Roofing, and Much, Much More
How does this work? Let me give you an example. Say you want to build a building with nice columns. There are many different kinds of columns out there in architecture land, and you can imagine that there are different ways to build each one, and which method you use depends, in turn, on the scale you are working on. Say you want to build columns that would go with a building that would work well with the assumption that the building will be used by minifigs (the small LEGO people that come with many kits). Finch gives you sixteen pages of ideas for columns, starting out with these two:
Or maybe you are in need of some curved walls:
Or stained glass:
Or towers:
You get the point.
LEGOs are bricks, and bricks are used to build buildings, and The LEGO Architecture Idea Book: 1001 Ideas for Brickwork, Siding, Windows, Columns, Roofing, and Much, Much More
The wizzard behind the book, Alice Finch, is one of the top LEGO builders in the world, famous for her extensive renditions of Harry Potter’s world and other major projects (see below). This is a great book for the aspiring LEGO builder, and an excellent choice as a holiday gift for your LEGO-loving offspring.
I remember watching, decades ago, a short film with Picasso. There was a glass wall that you could not see, and Picasso was standing behind it, dressed like a French Artist and holding painting equipment. He then proceeded to draw lines on the glass. Each line had a particular orientation and shape. He put just a couple of lines on the glass, and in so doing, created a great work of art. If I recall correctly, he made a few of them. Years later, visiting Picasso’s home in Paris, I saw a bicycle handlebar thad had been broken and welded roughly back together again. Two pieces of metal, each with a particular size and shape, made into a great work of art.
Anybody can do that, right? Draw a couple of lines and call it art? Stick a couple of pieces of metal together and call it art? Or like those modern artists, spill some paint on the floor, frame it, and call it art?
Well, yes. You can call it art. But it won’t be art. It will be drek.
And, sadly, that is also what happens when the average person takes four or five pieces of LEGO and sticks them together. You get drek. Nothing. Nada.
But, if you are an artist, you may have a sense of form, color, shape, etc. and when you stick a few pieces of LEGO together, you might get a form that is arguably artistic. Many artists are quite capable of working in a media unfamiliar, in this case LEGO bricks, to produce something, maybe something quite nice. Try it. If you know any artists, give them a handful of LEGO bricks and see what they can do.
And, it turns out there is a subset of artists who are experts on LEGO — this is their medium — and who can take a handful of LEGO bricks and put them together, and get …. Tiny LEGO Wonders: Build 40 Surprisingly Realistic Mini-Models!
Tiny LEGO Wonders: Build 40 Surprisingly Realistic Mini-Models!
There are cars, planes, ships, trains, etc. There is a Space Shuttle, and France’s TGV train. There is even a cement mixer.
The models and designs are very generalizable, so if you have a reasonable collection of LEGO bricks, you can use that collection and this book to construct quite a few miniature models of your own, even if you don’t have the exact pieces.
The author is Mattia Zamboni, who has written other books on LEGO, and has been a “LEGO Ambassador” since 2015. His day job is to build robots at the University of Applied Science and Arts of Souther Switzerland.
Here is the table of contents of this fine book:
Picasso:
You know Guy Himber’s work. He worked on special effects for Aien 3, Underworld, Independence Day, Edward Scissorhands, I, Robot, lots of other productions. And now, he is playing around with LEGO.
Steampunk Lego by Guy Himber is subtitled “The illustrated researches of various fantastical devices by Dr. Herbert Jabson, with epistles to the Crown, Her Majesty Queen Victoria; A travelogue in 11 chapters.” The book itself is all steampunky, in fact heavily steampunky, with brown colors, gears and wheels as background images, and victorian techno-objects decorating a faux photographic album motif. Meaning, Himber did not really write a travelogue in 11 chapters because, I assume, a true Victorian Travelogue would be mind numbingly boring. Everything is taped, glued, or in some cases, riveted onto the pages (no actual rivets were used in making this book).
It may not be a Travelogue but it is very Travelish.
By my estimation about half the book involves depictions of things that travel. Lots of trains, boats, some bikes, Zeppelins, other lighter than air craft, other things that fly, and more. There are numerous robots, and a variety of other things. There is even a LEGO moon. All the contrivances are LEGO constructed and then photographed usually but not always using a victorian looking technology.
There is some background on what Steampunk is, which may be necessary for the LEGO-crazed who don’t happen to now much about this genre. Then there is background on the key players in the story, Sir Herbert Jobson and Lt. Penfold.
Then it is trains, monowheels, horseless carriages, automatons, weapons, a “cabinet of Curiosities”, boats, things that fly, clockwork animals, and floating islands. Then there is Space, the final frontier. I mean chapter. The final chapter.
The book is so visual, I think the best way to indicate its qualities is to show a number of spreads from within. With no particular introduction, these (click to see a larger version of the image):
This is a great coffee table present for the holidays. It is not a huge coffee table format, more like 10.5 by 8.5 inches, but somehow it looks bigger.
The Cult of Lego is a thing … a cult … a past time, a cultural phenomenon. But it is also a book called, as you might guess, The Cult of LEGO
The book is written by John Baichtal, of Make Magazine and Wired GeekDad blog and Joe Meno, the founder of Brick Journal. The publishers describe the book thusly: “The Cult of LEGO® takes you on a thrilling illustrated tour of the LEGO community and its creations. You’ll meet LEGO fans from all walks of life, like professional artist Nathan Sawaya, brick filmmaker David Pagano, the enigmatic Ego Leonard, and the many devoted AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO) who spend countless hours building their masterpieces.” And that is pretty accurate.
Lego has an interesting history. The company Lego Group is Danish and was founded in 1932, an early on made a variety of toys. “LEGO” comes from Leg godt” which is danish for “Play Well.”
The company survived, perhaps even thrived ruing, Nazi occupation of Denmark. They company started making injection molded toys after WW II, and began production of the Lego blocks we are familiar with today in 1947.
We learn from The Cult of LEGO
Also, there are about 200,000 Youtube Videos that address LEGO. However, if you search for “lego” on Youtube there are over 13 million entries. That exceeds the 9.5 million entries one finds in searching the word “Evolution.” (Presumably both search terms find many entries that are not specifically about the building bricks or Darwin’s famous theory.)
The book is totally pro-LEGO, almost jingoistically so, but if you are a LEGO cultist, you will not mind. The Cult of LEGO
Chapter 1: The History of LEGO
Chapter 2: Building Again
Chapter 3: Minifig Mania
Chapter 4: (Re)creating Icons
Chapter 5: Building from Imagination
Chapter 6: LEGO Art
Chapter 7: Telling Stories
Chapter 8: Micro/Macro
Chapter 9: Digital Brickage
Chapter 10: LEGO Robotics: Building Smart Models
Chapter 11: Gatherings
Chapter 12: Serious LEGO
I’ve covered a lot of LEGO related books on this blog. This book is different from all the others in that it is not a “how to” book. Rather, it is a guide to the bigger picture of LEGO world, a coffee table book to place right next to your latest LEGO creation or perhaps, on the coffee table you’ve made out of LEGOs. In your room made of LEGOs, in your house made of LEGOs, where you live along side various LEGO people you have made.
No other book I’ve seen says “I welcome our new LEGO overlords” better than this one.
The LEGO Adventure Book, Vol. 1: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More!
The book guides the reader step by step through 25 exemplar models, each of which is fairly elaborate, and demonstrated with more basic information close to 200 other models to illustrate variation. Despite the name of the book and a fairly high degree of silliness in some parts (the Lego figures have a few things to say) the 200 page volume actually has a lot of information in it. The copy I have is hard cover and has thick glossy paper which means that when I open it to a certain page it stays open at that page. That may seem like a small thing but for a guide book for something you need both hands to do, that is a key feature.
To give you an idea of what the book covers, I’ve copied the table of contents:
The author, Megan Rothrock, was a set designer for Lego, and her displays have been see at ComicCon and other places. Rumors that she is a member of The Cult of LEGO
The other day I reviewed a guide to using the very high end Lego Technic system. Here, I’ve got a book that addresses the needs of those at the other end of the Lego Spectrum: The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide
By “other end of the spectrum” I do not mean unsophisticated or easy, I simply mean no electrical gizmos and not too many gears and things. For example, you might use this guide to build a very realistic scale model of the Space Shuttle or a cool Train Station with People waiting for the Train model. Or, perhaps, a house with a chimney. But a really cool one. Continue reading Be a Lego Stud: The Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide (new edition)
Lego Technic is a Lego based technology that includes a combination of totally new kinds of Lego pieces and fancy technology that lets you build some amazing things. You can get kits that range in cost and sophistication from the LEGO 8514 Technic Power Roboriders a sort of motorcycle for robots that costs tens of dollars to a Motorized Bulldozer that will set you back nearly $700. Actually, I think there may be Techno kits that cost way over $1000.
The modified Lego pieces include the techno “brick” which comes in many forms that have holes in them through which specially shaped parts can be inserted, to have an armature that does not rotate, an axel, or some sort of pivot. Some of the tecno Lego parts seem to converge on Erector Set pieces, but without the annoying little nuts and bolts. Then there are gears and pullies and all that stuff, and on top of that, electronic doohinkeys. You can get electric motors, you can get a differential, and clutches. You can get lights. There is even a pneumatic system. Actually, there’s two different ones, a legacy system and an updated system.
With enough parts and some good design, you might actually be able to design a Lego Technic machine that does something useful. Like one that brings you a beer or scares away solicitors at the front door.
I’ve got this book that seems to be the book to have if you are going to start messing around with this Robotic Technology: The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder’s Guide
The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder’s Guide is filled with building tips for creating strong yet elegant machines and mechanisms with the Technic system. Author Pawel “Sairel” Kmiec will teach you the foundations of LEGO Technic building, from simple machines to advanced mechanics, even explaining how to create realistic to-scale models. Sariel, a world-renowned LEGO Technic expert, offers unique insight into mechanical principles like torque, power translation, and gear ratios, all using Technic bricks. You’ll learn how to:
- Create sturdy connections that can withstand serious stress
- Re-create specialized LEGO pieces like casings and u-joints, and build solutions like Schmidt and Oldham couplings, when no standard piece will do
- Build custom differentials, suspensions, transmissions, and steering systems
- Pick the right motor for the job—and transform its properties to suit your needs
- Combine studfull and studless building styles for a stunning look
- Create remote-controlled vehicles, lighting systems, motorized compressors, and pneumatic engines
The The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder’s Guide
