Brickset news archive: Book review
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The BrickGun book
Posted by Huw, 22 May 2013 09:29. Filed under Book review.
I received a review copy of this new book published by No Starch Press today. The BrickGun Book "shows how to make the world's least dangerous guns". It's a 222-page paperback authored by Jeff Boen who, by all accounts, is a celebrity in brick gun circles, and who runs Brickgun.com.
After a short introduction that provides building tips and explains the development of Jeff's designs, the bulk of the book is filled with detailed instructions for five of his most popular ones: BG22, 92FS, Desert Eagle, 1911 and MAC-11 (the names of which mean little to me).
The instructions themselves, which are accompanied by tabular and graphical parts lists, have been created with the LDraw toolset. They are very high quality and look to be easy to follow, despite the fact that most of the parts are black. I'd go so far as saying that they are better printed than some of the LEGO official instruction books in that regard. There are example spreads of the instructions on the No Starch website.
The completed models look very realistic and in fact the back of the book states to 'exercise caution when handling these replicas and be extremely careful when displaying these models in public'. It might be better to build them in red then, rather than black :-)
The subject matter will not be to everyone's taste but there seems to be a demand for it as this is No Starch's fourth book on LEGO guns, after Forbidden LEGO, LEGO Heavy Weapons and Badass LEGO guns. They obviously wouldn't have published it if there wasn't.If LEGO guns interest you, you won't be disappointed with this book. It's very well produced.
It (and some of the the other books I mention above) is available from Amazon.co.uk
(£20.49), Amazon.com ($20.25)
, Amazon.de (€18.50)
and Amazon.ca
($16.35).
55 comments, latest one posted 26 days ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)3266 views
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Brickmaster: Legends of Chima The Quest for Chi
Posted by Huw, 26 Apr 2013 05:42. Filed under Book review.
Another day, another LEGO book lands on my doormat... Today it's the latest Dorling Kindersley Brickmaster book: Legends of Chima The Quest for Chi.Like previously published Brickmasters, it's a very fat book that has a thick front cover with a box containing LEGO parts inside. The actual book part of this one is longer than recent ones, at 96 pages, compared to the usual 40 or 50.
Inside the book is the usual mix of instructions to build models from the parts -- six pairs in this case -- and stories around the models which take the form of photo-strips. The minifigs it contains are two of Chima's main characters, Crawley and Lennox.
There's something interesting about it for polybag collectors...
Continue reading Brickmaster: Legends of Chima The Quest for Chi
11 comments, latest one posted 2 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2863 views
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DK Minifigures Character Encylopedia
Posted by Huw, 25 Apr 2013 15:50. Filed under Book review.
One of the most anticipated LEGO books of the year has just been published. Dorling Kindersley's LEGO Minifigures Character Encyclopedia is the fourth character encyclopedia they've produced, after Star Wars, Harry Potter and Ninjago. It's much the same as the others in terms of layout and content, and as you've read below, also comes with an exclusive minifigure, a Toy Soldier which is arguably the best book-mounted one-to-date.The book is 204-pages long and features 162 minifigs, which is series 1 to 10, Mr Gold and the Toy Solder. Team GB figures are not included.
The 40-odd pages that are not about a single minifig are double spreads introducing each series and also some (largely superfluous) spreads featuring all figures of a particular type, e.g. circus performers, bad guys, sportsmen and women, etc. There is however, a very interesting page at the front, 'How a minifigure is made' that describes the design process and introduces the design team.
24 comments, latest one posted 28 days ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)6012 views
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Brick City: LEGO for Grown-ups
Posted by Huw, 25 Apr 2013 04:12. Filed under Book review.
Brick City: LEGO for Grown-ups by Warren Elsmore is to be published in May in the UK and I've been sent a copy to review.In the US, the book is called Brick City: Global Icons to Make from LEGO and is available already from Amazon.com
.
Warren is a well known and liked AFOL based in the UK who calls himself an 'artist in LEGO bricks'. He organises The LEGO Show and AFOLCon and displays at many other exhibitions. This is his first book which, as the title suggests, is perhaps unusual among LEGO books in that it's targeting 'grown-ups' rather than kids.
Furthermore, it's been written with 'grown-ups who haven't touched LEGO since they were kids' in mind. The introductory pages cover the story of LEGO, useful bricks, where to buy bricks, building tips, building to scale, CAD modelling and LEGO colours, all of which will be familiar to most of us, but provides useful information for newcomers to the subject.
20 comments, latest one posted 30 days ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)6245 views
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The Star Wars LEGO Minifigure Catalog, 2nd edition
Posted by Huw, 03 Apr 2013 15:20. Filed under Book review.
Christoph Bartneck is on a mission to produce comprehensive and complete books for minifig collectors, and he is showing no signs of slowing down. This year he has published three new books including the one I'm going to take a look at now, The Star Wars LEGO Minifigure Catalog, 2nd edition.I reviewed the first edition this time last year. The second edition is, of course, much the same, but includes the 2012 minifigures and numerous corrections and additions to others.
It's a 134-page paperback book, about A5 in size.
There are high quality photos of all 460 Star Wars minifigs and, where appropriate, photos of their backs and heads, as you can see from the sample page on the right. The data panel next to each minifig shows the number in Christoph's taxonomy, the BrickLink number, a list of sets the minifig appeared in and also a price guide for new and used examples, taken from BrickLink.The book is organised by movie appearance (Clone Wars, Episode 1, 2, 3, 4/5/6, etc.) with a chapter for each. Within each chapter, the order appears to be random, mostly ordered by BrickLink minifig number (which is pretty random).
There are extensive indexes at the back of the book listing each figure in BrickLink number order and also, new for this edition, by name.
My main gripe with the first edition was that it was difficult to find particular figures, or all instances of a particular character. That has been addressed by the new name index, but personally I'd still rather see, for example, every C-3PO next to each other on the same page, rather than scattered across the book just because he appears in multiple movies.
It's an expensive book, no doubt about it, particularly compared to DK offerings, but it is unique and complete and a must buy for any avid Star Wars minifig collector.
The book is available from Amazon, where you can 'look inside' to see more example page spreads.
13 comments, latest one posted 2 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2549 views
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The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide
Posted by Huw, 08 Nov 2012 05:13. Filed under Book review.
The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, by Allan Bedford is the second of three No Starch Press books that are being released between now and Christmas. I'll review the third tomorrow.This 220-page paperback is a second edition of the book that was first published in 2005, when 3rd party books on LEGO (as opposed to Mindstorms) were few and far between.
The main difference between this second editon and the first is that it's now in full colour, but it's also 100 pages shorter. I'll tell you what's been missed out in a minute.
The book can be considered a 'LEGO building for Dummies' in that it starts right at the beginning and assumes you don't know your bricks from your plates. It explains the different types of LEGO parts, the basics of fitting them together and then considers various styles of building, such as minifig-scale, microscale, sculptures and mosaics. It's written in a light, breezy style and it's a good read.
0 comments (Commenting has ended on this article)3031 views
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The LEGO Adventure Book
Posted by Huw, 07 Nov 2012 09:29. Filed under Book review.
The LEGO Adventure book, written by Megan Rothrock and published by No Starch Press has been highly anticipated since first announced a few months ago. I received a copy today to review ahead of publication, so read onto find out that it’s like and what I thought of it.It’s a hardback book and printed on high quality paper. Its 200 pages are full colour throughout.
The premise behind the book is that a minifig representation of the author (Megs) builds a home base and transportation (in chapter 1), along with a companion (a small robot) then travels around the world visiting MOCs and their builder’s minifig representations, which are mostly shown in a photo-strip like presentation. It is therefore an unconventional approach and not exactly what I was expecting, but it does seem to work and prevents the book from becoming a dry read.
14 comments, latest one posted 7 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)3351 views
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The big LEGO Builder's Book
Posted by Huw, 31 Oct 2012 09:52. Filed under Book review.
This 400 page paperback, The big unofficial LEGO Builder's Book: Build your own city, has just been published by Heel Verlag GmbH, and my pre-order from Amazon landed on the doormat yesterday.It's written by Joachim Klang and Oliver Albrecht who, according to the introduction, are active members of the German AFOL scene and 1000Steine.
It's divided into two sections. The first provides instructions and inspiration for building a micro-scale LEGO city like that shown on the cover. Most of the 30 instructions are for vehicles of some sort although some small buildings and trees are also included. The second, much smaller section, has instructions for five minifig scale 'professional models', four cars and a helicopter.
This page, showing the last page of one set of instructions, and the first of another show how it's laid out: A nice photo of the finished model, shown in the context of the micro-scale city followed by several pages of instructions that end with a parts list.
The LDraw suite of tools have been used (by Lutz Uhlmann) to create the step-by-step instructions, which are extremely well done and superbly clear: on a par with official instructions, in fact.The models use a lot of advanced building techniques that you might not find in official models, so from that point of view, it's educational, and in fact there are a few pages showing such techniques at the front of the book, some of which I've never come across (like using lever handles jammed into the bottom of plates to join them bottom-to-bottom).
If you're looking for building inspiration, I highly recommend this book: there are many models in it that make you think "'wow, that's cool!" and which are likely to have you reaching for your parts drawers to build them yourself. My only criticism is that the writing on the spine is the wrong way up: the text should start at the top and end at the bottom: why do some publishers think otherwise?!
You can order it now from Amazon:
18 comments, latest one posted 7 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)5288 views
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DK Ninjago Character Encylopedia available now
Posted by Huw, 18 Oct 2012 14:14. Filed under Book review.
Apologies if I'm a bit late with this news: I've had a copy of this for a few weeks but have been waiting until it was officially released before reviewing it. It seems that Amazon.co.uk is shipping it already so I guess it's OK to tell you about it now...So, DK's latest book, and what I believe is the last one due in 2012, is Ninjago Character Encyclopedia. It's the same size and format as the Harry Potter and Star Wars ones: 170-odd pages, 18cm x 24xm, with a thick front cover to house the exclusive minifig.
The minifig is, apparently, Lloyd ZX but given that he's sporting a torso print that will feature on all the Ninjas in the 2013 sets I suspect his real suffix will be something else when it's revealed next year. Unlike the minifigs in all previous DK books, this one comes unassembled. However, like those in recent DK books, it's not made in a European or Mexican LEGO factory so the plastic is not quite so good as those that are.
It's divided into two sections: Ninja vs. Skeleton (the 2011 series) and Ninja vs. snakes (the 2012 sets). Most of the characters have a page profile like that shown, as do the dragons, vehicles and sets. There are also pages covering the weapons, so it's pretty comprehensive (but see my note below). I guess it can be given it only has to cover two years' worth of sets.I was not a fan of the 2011 sets, the skeletons and their vehicles were too weird for my taste and half the minifigs were 'not made in a European or Mexican LEGO factory' consequently I don't have many of the sets.
However, LEGO came good in 2012 and I'm really lovin' the minifigs, particularly the snakes, so the second half of the book is much more appealing to me.Most of the minifigs get a full two-page spread like those shown, but others are glossed over, such as the Kendo and NRG Ninjas, which share two pages between them, which is a bit of a shame.
The last few pages contain a minifig gallery and also a set gallery, which for some reason doesn't contain any of the spinner sets or booster packs: in fact rather bizarrely neither are mentioned in the book at all, other than occasional references in 'ninja file' boxes on the character profile pages, if they didn't come in any other set (e.g. as on the Samurai X page above).
So, to summarise, this is, as we've come to expect from DK, an excellent book and one that every young Ninjago fan will love to find under the tree at Christmas. For us more discerning AFOLs, it's not quite a 'definitive guide' but it's pretty close.
You can order it from Amazon:
15 comments, latest one posted 8 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)4294 views
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Friends Brickmaster book out now
Posted by Huw, 16 Oct 2012 15:06. Filed under Book review.
Meet Chloe (left), Mia's friend from school. Chloe's not in the girls' club, but she's always welcome at club meetings!Chloe is an exclusive Friends character that is only available with the new Friends Brickmaster book, that has been published by Dorling Kindersley, and sub-titled "Treasure Hunt in Heartlake City".
It follows the format of all the other Brickmasters, which is a good thing. It comes with 103 parts and the two mini-dolls. There are instructions for five different models, including the chair and window illustrated. The models follow the plot of a story: finding a map, building a raft, setting sail, discovering treasure, getting home and having a nice cup of tea :-)
Luis over at Comunidade 0937 has posted a review in Portuguese and photos on the club's website (translated through Google). He's not too impressed with it, although I do agree with him that the parts are a bit of a mix of colours resulting in BOLOCs models.
Nevertheless I think it will hit the spot with the target audience and if you have someone in it to buy a gift for at Christmas time, it will be well received and provide hours of entertainment, more so than an equivalently priced normal Friends set would.
It can be ordered from Amazon.com
($20) | Amazon.co.uk
(£9.50) | Amazon.de
(€23) | Amazon.fr
(€23.50).
9 comments, latest one posted 8 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)3216 views
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Second Ninjago Brickmaster book out now
Posted by Huw, 31 Aug 2012 14:18. Filed under Book review.
I don't know, you wait ages for a DK LEGO book to be published and then three come along at once. Not only did the Batman Visual Dictionary arrive earlier, but another courier has just delivered this Ninjago Brickmaster Fight the Power of the Snakes, and also the Batman Ultimate Sticker Book (which I won't be boring you with here).I think I'm right in saying this is the first Brickmaster book to be published this year, the last two being City and Ninjago (skeletons) this time last year.
It's the same size and follows the same format as the others. The thick inside cover contains the bricks and the book contains building instructions for four models. I have to say that none of them look particularly outstanding, but I suspect young Ninjago fans will love them. The design of the cover has been improved from earlier books and is easier to open, close and keep the parts in.
The minifigs are Cole and Lasha.
Here are pictures of the parts; it looks to be a reasonable selection.
You can order from Amazon: UK
(£13.29, but now on back-order) | USA
($20.92, out next week).
7 comments, latest one posted 9 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)3803 views
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DK Batman Visual Dictionary out now
Posted by Huw, 31 Aug 2012 11:19. Filed under Book review.
If you pre-ordered the Dorling Kindersley Batman Visual Dictionary from Amazon, I suspect, like me, you received it today.This isn't going to be a full review: just my first impressions (I've only had it 1/2 hour!), but enough hopefully for you to decide whether it's worth purchasing.
It's a 96-page book which is the same size as the Star Wars Visual Dictionary and Harry Potter Building the Magical World. Its thick front cover holds the exclusive minifig which we'll get to in a minute.
The book starts with an introduction and timeline of Batman sets, showing pictures of the boxes and models.
It appears to be complete and accurate and even includes the polybag sets that were released earlier this year.
The rest of the book is divided into four sections:
- The World of LEGO Batman covers the original sets and minifigs released between 2006 and 2008. You can see two spreads from this section in my flickr stream.
- LEGO DC Super Heroes covers the 2012 sets and includes Superman and Wonder Woman.
- Beyond the Brick takes a look at the design process and features interviews with the designers.
- Finally, Going Digital covers scenes and characters from the two video games. This accounts for 20 pages of the book and is of no interest to me whatsoever, and its inclusion is somewhat disappointing. I suspect it's only there because there isn't enough material to fill the book otherwise.
Right at the back of the book is a page showing all the minifigs, much like that at the back of the Harry Potter version. It does not include the SDCC exclusive Batman and Green Lantern, or the one that is included with the book.
The exclusive minifig is 'Electro-suit Batman' which is apparently the suit he wears to help him solve puzzles in the LEGO Batman 2 game. It's printed back and front, and even on his arms and cowl. It's very well printed, but as has been the case with other recent DK book minifigs, it's not made in Europe or Mexico.In summary then, the book is OK. It's not as good as the other Visual Dictionaries, perhaps because the material is a bit sparse. In fact something I haven't mentioned yet is that there are a number of childish and superfluous cartoon strips littered throughout it, obviously more padding to fill the pages.
The photos don't look as good to me, either. They don't seem to 'pop' off the page, perhaps partly because many of them are of black things. In fact, looking through it now, it's a strange mix of real photos and the computer generated images that LEGO often use on the boxes and catalogues these days.
Definitely one for the Super Heroes completest, but unlike most DK LEGO books, not an essential purchase.
It can be ordered from Amazon (UK (£9.68)
| USA ($14.95)
| Germany (€16.95)
| France (€17.79). It looks as if the USA has a couple of weeks to wait until it's published there.
26 comments, latest one posted 9 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)4498 views
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Building a History: The LEGO Group
Posted by Huw, 29 Jul 2012 06:18. Filed under Book review.
Building a History: The LEGO Group by Sarah Herman is the latest in a growing number of LEGO-related books vying for space on your bookshelf.
It’s a 300 page hardback that’s published by Pen and Sword who are best known as a publisher of military history books. The author is a British LEGO lover currently living in Vancouver who has written books on a variety of subjects.
As its title suggests, it charts the history of the Christensen family, the LEGO Company and LEGO products, starting with the birth of Ole Kirk Christensen in 1891, and ending in about 2010. Although it is generously illustrated, it is not a picture book, and it takes a good few hours to read it all.
11 comments, latest one posted 10 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)3112 views
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Are you addicted to LEGO? Wish that you weren't?
Posted by Huw, 18 Jun 2012 14:07. Filed under Book review.
I'm sure there are people reading this that are LEGO addicts and, as a result, they are not leading normal lives, and wish they could turn things around and shake off their addiction.If this applies to you, you may be interested in a new book called Brickdiction: A seven step recovery guide for people addicted to LEGO, by Bill Deen
Like all good self-help and motivational books it lays out seven principles and procedures that you can apply to your life, in this case to recover from your plastic brick addiction. It says that 'recovery will be hard, but it is possible. Have hope...'
The steps start at admitting you have a problem and end at sharing your journey to recovery with others once you're over it.
I admit that I am addict myself and, having read the book from cover to cover, I'm seriously considering following the programme to get my life back on track. There, I've completed step one already!
OK, so you've just read that and thought WTF? Am I really reading this at Brickset? Surely we are all addicts and have no wish to 'recover'? Who is this Bill Deen guy anyway? Billdeen... building... sounds like a pseudonym... there's something fishy going on here!
Actually, there is. The book is one big joke: it is impossible to recover from brickdiction and who would want to anyway (so it says on the back cover). Now on to the real book review...
It's a light-hearted tome that gently pokes fun at the world of AFOLs. After laying out the seven steps (which are all written tongue-in-cheek) 'Bill' confesses that he's an addict and explains why, and why he has no intention of ever seeking to recover. At 58 pages long, it's a quick, but fun, read. It would make a great little gift for the LEGO addict in your life. You can buy it as a download, or from Amazon.com
49 comments, latest one posted 12 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2133 views
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Harry Potter Characters of the Magical World book review
Posted by Huw, 28 May 2012 13:55. Filed under Book review.
This is the latest LEGO book by Dorling Kindersley that's just been published in the UK and will be out in the USA in a couple of weeks.It's the same size as their Star Wars character encyclopedia (19x24cm) and follows the same format. Its 140 pages cover 'every LEGO Harry Potter minfigure and creature' so the scope is more than just minifigs although they of course form the bulk of the book. It's divided into 7 chapters, one for each movie. This makes it interesting to flick through, but if you want to compare every version of Hermione, for example, you have to hunt back and forth through the book to find them all.
Pages containing minifigs include facts about the figure in 'pull-outs' from the main photo, and a 'data file' that lists the sets that the figure came in along with any accessories included with it. If there are variants of the figure these are shown in a 'variants' box, so, for example, although there have been two Dobby's there's only one page for him: the old tan version is listed as a variant. I haven't checked if every HP figure is featured, but I'd be surprised if not.
There are pages detailing creatures and other topics interspersed throughout the book: these cover Hogwarts uniforms; owls; snakes, frogs and dragons; skeletons; assorted other creatures; double sided heads and accessories.
There is a lot of detail in the book and it makes for fascinating reading. A lot of the facts quote which set a particular figure or accessory came in, but usually just its number is given. Of course we Brickset users have an excellent reference to look these up, but an appendix listing all the sets and when they were released would have been welcome. The text was checked by my AFOL friend Alastair Disley so we can be sure that it's accurate.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the book comes with an exclusive minifig, but unfortunately it's a bit boring: Harry in Slug Club Christmas party suit, and even more unfortunately, it's made in China. However if you have every HP fig (as I do) you'll need it for your collection which I think we can now consider to be complete given the chances of LEGO making more HP sets are slim.
The timing of the release of the book is interesting in that Harry Potter LEGO is effectively 'dead', or at best 'dormant', so it's not going to encourage sales of sets, but at the same time it's good that it has been released now and not, say, a year ago, because it is complete and won't be obsolete any time soon.
Following on from my involvement in the SW character encyclopedia, DK commissioned me to provide many of the images in the book. I haven't been through and counted but I estimate something like half of them were taken by me, including most of those on the 'creatures and other topics' pages. Consequently they look excellent :-)
The book really is a must for all Harry Potter LEGO fans and given that it's so cheap at the moment ($11 and £7.50 from Amazon) there is no good reason not to buy it.
Here are some sample spreads, posted on flickr:
Finally, here are the links to buy it at Amazon, and in doing so, you help Brickset stay on-air!
9 comments, latest one posted 13 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1534 views
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New minifig books
Posted by Huw, 04 Apr 2012 12:08. Filed under Book review.
Christoph Bartneck, author of the excellent Unofficial LEGO Minifigure Catalog that we reviewed last year has published three new books:The 2011 LEGO Minifigure Catalog
As its name suggests, this contains pictures and details of nearly every minifig released in 2011, all 415 of them. Christoph has sensibly decided not to re-issue the full catalog every year but to publish books like this annually so that you can keep up to date for a small incremental cost.
The format has been improved significantly and now all relevant details about the figures are included in the body of the book, together with images of the head and back. There is also a price guide for each figure, showing new and used prices in USD, as taken from BrickLink.
The Harry Potter LEGO Minifigure Catalog and The Star Wars LEGO Minifigure Catalog follow the same format. They cover every minifig in their respective theme, to the end of 2011. Both books are organised in chapters corresponding to the movies and within each chapter the figures are ordered by their number. That perhaps, is the only criticism I can make about the books: finding a particular variation of, say, Boba Fett, requires a bit of digging around. It might have been better to order the books by character name.
Notwithstanding this minor point, the books are excellent and well worth buying if you're a collector of either of the themes in question. The 2011 catalog is likely only to appeal to those with the full catalog, but these two stand alone as useful references in their own right. Highly recommended!
They can be ordered from Amazon.com. Only one of them is available at Amazon.co.uk at the moment, it seems.
19 comments, latest one posted 14 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1777 views
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The Cult of LEGO
Posted by Huw, 10 Nov 2011 14:41. Filed under Book review.
I'm actually going to keep my review brief because Mariann Asanuma has done such a good job of reviewing it at her Model Building Secrets blog that I recommend you read that then continue reading here for my opinion on it.So, what did I think...
Well, overall I liked it and I think any AFOL will enjoy reading it. I'm not sure that AFOLs are the target audience though since we already know most of what's written and will probably also know many of the people and models that are featured. However, I think it will serve to bring closet/borderline AFOLs into the hobby because one thing it does make clear is that, if you love the brick, it's OK to, and you are not alone!
It will also be useful for educating NLSOs and proving to them that you are not as weird as you may seem, playing with LEGO as an adult :-)
There are some observations that I'll make which I hope will be read constructively:
- I didn't like the page design. It's very inconsistent. Some spreads are clean and well laid out but most have distracting backgrounds with the text inset in white boxes.
- The quality of the photography is variable. This is a bugbear of mine with Brick Journal as well. I know why it is -- because the photos are contributed by many people who've used differering equipment under less than ideal lighting conditions -- but I'm not sure how it could be solved other than have one person take all the pictures in a controlled environment, which I admit is not practical given the subject matter.
- The online LEGO community doesn't get much of a mention, just a couple of pages, which given the importance it plays in holding the community together, is disappointing, and brushing off Brickset as 'Peeron's European counterpart' does it no justice at all!
- It's very US-centric. Most of the models, events and people are from/in the USA. If you're in the USA you probably won't be bothered by this, of course.
Anyway, despite these niggles it's still an excellent work and worth adding to your book collection.
It's available from Amazon, about $25 in the USA
, and £18 in the UK
.
19 comments, latest one posted 19 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1008 views
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LEGO Star Wars Character Encylopedia
Posted by Huw, 07 Oct 2011 09:49. Filed under Book review.
This book, along with the LEGO Ideas Book I reviewed earlier this week, has just been published by Dorling Kindersley.It’s a hardback book that’s smaller than DK’s other LEGO books, at 23x18cm, but is still over an inch thick thanks in part to the thick front cover housing the exclusive Han Solo in ceremonial robes minifigure.
The book’s 200 pages are laid out showing one minifigure per page. Along with a large image of the figure, there are boxes containing background information about the character, data about when the fig was released and in which set, and also, if needed, a ‘Star Variants’ box showing other versions of the minifig. This accounts for the discrepancy between the ‘Featuring more than 300 minifigures’ claim on the cover and the 200 pages: many older variants of figures only appear in these boxes. The book does not claim to contain every SW minifigure ever made, and there are some notable exceptions, such as the white Boba Fett. It does, however, feature all those that are in the latest 2011 sets.
The book is organised by movie, so the figures that feature in episode 1 are at the front of the book and those from 6, then Clone Wars and expanded universe are at the back. Within each section the order appears random and to be honest it can be a problem finding specific figures without resorting to the index which thankfully is comprehensive. Perhaps organising alphabetically would have made more sense, with Aayla Secura at the front and Zev Senesca at the back: at least then you could flick through the pages to find the character of interest and all of, say, the Luke variants would be in the book together.
The quality and accuracy of the information in the book should be spot-on because Ace Kim from FBTB and myself proof-read it. As I have mentioned here before I was also asked to provide around 100 photos for it. Strange as it seems, they asked me because LEGO could not provide DK with the minifigs to enable them to photograph them themselves. Luckily I had most of the ones needed and those I didn’t I sourced from BrickLink.
I haven’t yet identified all those that were used; the majority are the in the Star Variants boxes, or detail pictures of backs of heads or torsos. However the main images on pages 26 (Naboo Security officer), 78 (Greedo), 106, in the image above, and 138 (both Luke) are mine and I guess it’s satisfying that they are pretty much indistinguishable from the others taken by the pros, and in some cases better, which is one reason I haven’t yet found them all!
I haven’t said much about the exclusive Han Solo minifigure yet. I guess if you’re a SW minifig completest it will be reason enough to buy the book but actually it’s the most disappointing thing about it. Unfortunately, it’s an inferior Chinese plastic figure which is a shame because otherwise it’s very nice. The exclusive figures on the covers of previous DK books have been normal quality so it was a let-down to see that it wasn’t the case here. I know most of you don’t notice or care about this, but to me, just like the collectable minifigs, it looks and feels cheap and nasty compared to the real thing. However, if you keep it sealed in the cover you'll never notice the poor quality.
So, to summarise, this is yet another essential book purchase for anyone remotely interested in Star Wars LEGO or minifigs, particularly with the deep discounts available at Amazon at the moment. Highly recommended, despite the minifig quality.
24 comments, latest one posted 20 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1548 views
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The LEGO Ideas Book
Posted by Huw, 05 Oct 2011 15:06. Filed under Book review.
We really are being spoilt for LEGO books this year. We've already had several excellent Dorling Kindersley books and now two more have been published. This one, however, is slightly different to the others in that it's been created with the help of AFOLs rather than the LEGO group, although of course it is licensed from them. (I'll be reviewing the other new DK book, the Star Wars Character Encylopedia, in due course.)
As its title suggests, this is an ideas book that provides inspiration for your own models. It's A4-ish in size and about 200 pages long. Its presentation is as stunning as we've come to expect from DK: superb photos on clean white backgrounds surrounded with snippets of text. It makes a superb coffee-table book.
It's divided into six chapters which set the theme for the models within: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Town and Country, Out of this world, In Days of Old, A World of Adventure and Make and Keep. Most pages features a main model and variations of it. The book doesn't contain instructions for any models, but usually shows enough pictures of them to be able to reverse-engineer them should you want to. However, that's not the idea really, the models are intended for inspiration for your own creations.
I had to chuckle at the statement in the introduction about this "We don't show building steps or lists because it's unlikely you will have all the bricks for each model...' Actually, I think it highly likely that I do, and I suspect many of you do too!
Perhaps the best thing about the book is that most of the models have been created by AFOLs, the majority of whom are Brickish Association members: Barney Main, Tim Goddard, Duncan Titmarsh, Andrew Walker from the BA, and Debrah Higdon and Sebastiaan Arts. They have done a fantastic job, and it's interesting to see that they've sometimes used building techniques that LEGO set designers probably wouldn't, although I'm told all models had to be approved by LEGO.
Should you buy this book? If you build with LEGO bricks then yes, this is for you. If you're someone who just buys sets and keeps them MISB, then it probably won't be of interest. But nobody here does that, do they? :-)
It's available from Amazon for about half the publisher's price so there really isn't a reason not to add it to your bookcase.
27 comments, latest one posted 20 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)5083 views
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The Unofficial LEGO Minifigure Catalog review
Posted by Huw, 13 Jul 2011 14:14. Filed under Book review.
I've now finished my review of this important reference work for LEGO collectors. Read it to find out why you need this book, and whether I think it's worth the asking price.Once you've done so, leave your feedback in the comments here.
Update: Christoph, the book's author, has been reading your comments, in particular in those about the price. There's not much he can do at the moment to reduce it, but he has now made the book available electronically for a fraction of the price of the printed edition. You can purchase and download it from Lulu. Now there's no excuse not to buy it...
42 comments, latest one posted 23 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1301 views
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LEGO Collector 2nd edition: I now have it
Posted by Huw, 07 Jul 2011 17:24. Filed under Book review.
The long-awaited second edition of this excellent book has just been published and I now have a copy. I'm not going to write a long review; instead I've ressurected my review of the first edition, as written in 2008, and will thus concentrate on the differences between the two editions.- At 928 pages, it's about 130 pages longer.
- Edition 1 covered sets released in 1958 up to the first half of 2008. This new version starts at 1949 and goes right up to the end of 2011, including sets not yet released.
- Errors noted in my 1st edition review have been corrected.
- It comes with an exclusive keychain: a black 4x4 tile with 1 row of studs, printed with the classic space logo.
- It has a blue brick on the front rather than a red one :-)Suffice to say that this is a must-have for every LEGO collector, whether you have the first edition or not. It's a fantastic thing to browse through. Kudos to the team behind it for continuing to work on the project and keep it up-to-date.
At the moment it's only available from the German publishers via their website (click on the image to go there), but in time it will appear on Amazon worldwide like the first edition did, and maybe even turn up in LEGO brand stores.
34 comments, latest one posted 23 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1634 views
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Harry Potter: Building The Magical World
Posted by Huw, 03 Jun 2011 03:12. Filed under Book review.
This long-awaited book was released in the UK this week (although it's been available in other places for some time) and I now have my hands on a copy.
It is similar to LEGO Star Wars, the Visual Dictionary, both in size and content. It's about 2cm thick, 96-pages long and follows DK's trademark page layout of full colour photography on a clean white background with minimal text. It comes with an exclusive minifig, Harry Potter in formal dress robes, that is mounted in the front cover of the book.
However, there is a difference between this and the SW book and that is that this one appears to be complete: every set and every minifig is featured which is something that wasn't possible in the SW one because of the number of sets and figures.
Like the SW book, there's a timeline at the front showing all the sets and when they were released, from 2001 right up to the three sets that have just hit the shelves.
The bulk of the book then covers a single topic per double page, either featuring a minifig (e.g. Harry Potter), a scene or location (e.g. Hagrid's Hut) or a specific set (e.g. Durmstrang Ship). 'Data file' boxes on the pages provide details about the sets illustrated such as number of parts, year released, minifigs included and so on. Nothing you can't find out here at Brickset but it's nice to have it in book form.
The last section 'Beyond the Brick' features an interview with the LEGO design team, and sections on the Harry Potter computer games, merchandise (key rings, etc.) and finally, right at the back, a gallery showing every minifigure. I'm not sure that it's entirely accurate since I've spotted an error already: Harry Potter from Privet Drive (4728) is shown with tan legs whereas he has light grey legs in the actual set. Nevertheless, it's great to see them all on the same page even if there may be some small errors.
Although the latest three 2011 sets are mentioned at the back of the book and in the timeline, that's as far as it goes. For example, the page about the Knight Bus doesn't mention the new one and the minifig gallery doesn't feature the new figures from these sets, so it's already out of date. But that's a problem all reference books have, isn't it?
Apart from that, there is nothing not to like about this book and at the low online price of $13 and £10 I can think of no reason not to buy it. It's definitely a 'must have' for all fans of Harry Potter LEGO.
You can buy it from Amazon, and when doing so you help keep Brickset running:
25 comments, latest one posted 24 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1251 views
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DK Star Wars sticker books now shipping
Posted by Huw, 18 Jan 2011 14:03. Filed under Book review.
The first of Dorling Kindersley's LEGO books for 2011 are now available from Amazon. 'Ultimate Sticker Book Star Wars Heroes' and ''Ultimate Sticker Book Star Wars Villains' have been published a few weeks early and I received my copies yesterday. They are similar in format to last year's Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection in that they consist of pages to stick the stickers on, in this case 16 pages, and 8 pages of stickers.
I might as well copy verbatim what I said when I reviewed the minifigure book, as it's true for these, too:
These are definitely books aimed at children and not 'must-haves' like the other DK books, however if you're a LEGO book collector like me, it is worth adding them to your bookshelf. In fact it may be worth buying two copies of each: one to keep as new and another to use the stickers from.
Here are a few pictures so you can see what they are like:
They are available from Amazon.co.uk for £3.50 and at Amazon.com they are listed but it says 'Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.' which I think means they won't be available for some time...
6 comments, latest one posted 29 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1168 views
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Brickmaster Star Wars book now released
Posted by Huw, 11 Oct 2010 15:19. Filed under Book review.
I think it's going to be a busy few days for news: there's a very excellent new iPhone app I need to tell you about, but before I do that, here's a brief review of the Dorling Kindersley Brickmaster Star Wars book which has now been published in the UK. I received my copy today and already I've built the two main models :-)
The book follows the same format as the other Brickmaster books: it's hardback, about an inch thick, and consists of a box attached to the front cover containing the bricks and a 50-odd page book attached to the back. It comes with 240 LEGO parts (the others only had 140) although there are lots of small ones: not that that's a bad thing, of course. The book contains instructions for eight models: 4 separatist and 4 republic.
The main models, an AAT and republic attack shuttle, are definitely the highlight of them: they are equal in design quality to other Star Wars minis and very dense in parts, which is good. The book comes with two minifigs: a battle droid and clone trooper. They aren't needed for these models but all the others make use of them. As an added bonus, the AAT features plenty of rare parts in dark blue.There isn't much more to say about this, other than that it's a no-brainer whether to buy it or not: get it ordered today!
You can do so at Amazon: USA
(£11.77) | Canada ($20.68)
| France (€22.17)
| Germany
(€21.80).
There are more photos in my flickr stream where you can see the other models and the parts selection.
26 comments, latest one posted 32 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1254 views
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LEGO A Love Story
Posted by Huw, 19 Aug 2010 06:00. Filed under Book review.
This book has been out for a few months and I've been meaning to review it since reading it on holiday in July. However I didn't get round to it so here's a mini-review written by Brickset member duq:Like many of us Jonathan Bender played with Lego as a child and dreamt of working as a Master Builder in Legoland. Like many of us the Lego and the dream were forgotten when he went to college. Just before his 30th birthday his mother asks him to clear out his old room. Jonathan finds a big box of Lego which brings back a lot of memories and gets him to buy Lego again.
Unlike most of us Jonathan is a writer and he has turned the story of his rediscovery of Lego into a book. His journey is a condensed version of what a lot of AFOLs have been through. Starting with a rainbow camel built from childhood bricks, buying sets, ordering from Bricklink and building the first MOC worthy of public display. Being a writer helps open doors and so he meets lots of well-known people from the AFOL community like Joe Meno and Lino Martins as well as people inside the company like Jamie Berard and Steve Witt. He even gets the full inside tour in Billund. There's a second story in the book and that's about Jonathan and his wife Kate. The Lego room was supposed to be the baby room and now the toys have arrived before the baby. That raises questions in his head that he and Kate need to answer.
The book is an easy read. For most AFOLs the joy will be in recognising people and situations more than discovering new facts about Lego. For friends and family of AFOLs the book may help to explain why you ended up with the hobby you did.LEGO A Love Story can be ordered from Amazon in the USA ($16), Canada ($19), UK (£10), Germany (€18) and France (€19)
6 comments, latest one posted 34 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)682 views
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LEGO Official Annual 2011
Posted by Huw, 15 Aug 2010 16:19. Filed under Book review.
We first mentioned this book back in May and at the time it emerged that annuals are not known of or published in the USA. So, for those who have no idea what one is, they are books published once a year which, to quote bluemoose, are 'a staple of Christmas morning here' in the UK. They are usually aimed at kids and this one, the first LEGO annual to my knowledge, is no exception.
It is now available from Amazon.co.uk, priced around £5. It's produced by Ameet, a Polish company, and published by Ladybird. They were also responsible for these Atlantis books.
It's an A4 hardback consiting of 60-odd pages of puzzles and games for small kids. It's very colourful and has some great artwork in it, including of the series 2 minifigs, but beyond that there is nothing in it to interest anyone over about 8.
In fact, I wouldn't bother even to tell you about except for its one redeeming feature: its cover. As you can see from the larger version of the photo above the '2011' numerals are actually made from yellow 1xn plates, set into a plastic frame which keeps them in position.
If you aspire to be 'LEGO book complete' then it's worth buying, particularly as it's only a fiver, but if not, I wouldn't worry. If you're in the USA, where it isn't even listed on Amazon, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it...
Stay tuned for another book review in a few days, written by a guest contributor!
20 comments, latest one posted 34 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1105 views
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DK Brickmaster Atlantis
Posted by Huw, 08 Aug 2010 14:40. Filed under Book review.
Following on from the success of the first two Brickmaster books last year (Pirates and Castle), Dorling Kindersley are publishing more this year: Atlantis, which has just been released and is the subject of this brief review, and Star Wars, due for release around October time, I believe.
Brickmaster Atlantis is very similar to the others in that it's a 1" thick hardback book consiting of a box attached to the front cover to hold the bricks (in this case 140 bricks and 2 minifigs: a diver called Bobby Buoy and the Manta warrior) and a 46 page book attached to the back cover. The book contains instructions for building 5 different models, each of which consist of 2 or more sub-models. What's more there are instructions for more models available online from dk.com and LEGO.com. Or at least that's what the book claims. I haven't been able to find them on the DK site at the given URL, although there is one model on the Atlantis downloads page at LEGO.com.
So, what are models like? In general they are excellent. They are mainly different submarines and sea creatures and I would not be at all surprised to hear that they had been designed by the same team that did the Atlantis sets, they are that good. (Update: now the reason they are so good is clear: they were all designed by Mark Stafford, who did indeed design many of the Atlantis sets. Good job Mark!)
The only criticism I can make is that the book is very childisly written (e.g. "Top Tip: Look at the drawings very carefully to work out which pieces you need next!) but I suppose given the target audience (6+) that can be excused. Actually there's another thing I don't like: the pages don't lay flat because of the box which makes building difficult!
This is easily the best of the three Brickmaster books published to date, because the parts are so versatile and the models so well designed.
I've posted more pictures on flickr, including the parts inventory and the submarine from the main model.
Brickmaster Atlantis is available from Amazon.co.uk now, priced £13.74. It's released next week in the USA and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com for $19.79.
16 comments, latest one posted 34 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1956 views
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Ladybird Atlantis books
Posted by Huw, 06 Aug 2010 15:03. Filed under Book review.
I've received my copies of these books from Amazon so I thought I'd do a short review. It's short because, to be honest, there isn't much to say about them.
The are produced by Ameet, a Polish publisher of childrens' books, which explains why these have been published in English and Polish and why there were available in Poland a few months ago. In the UK they are published by Ladybird.
Anyway, they are roughly A4 size, 32 pages, and full colour throughout. They are filled with activities and facts about underwater creatures or submarines, and games and puzzles for small children. All the illustrations are renders or photos of official Atlantis models and figures. In fact they have the feel of a glorified sales brochure. If you're over about 6 there's no reason to buy these for the books. But you might buy them for the figures, particularly as they are so cheap.
One book comes with the Shark Warrior and the other with the Squid Warrior. They are packed in small plastic cases and attached to the front of the cover. You get the figures out by remvoing the coloured plastic insert from the clear plastic cover. Unfortunately once you've done so, the clear cover is still attached to the book's cover and as a result it won't lay flat or fit in your bookcase nicely.However there is some good news. The figures do not appear to be cleap Chinese versions and seem to be identical to those found in the sets. Their arms and hands do not have a mould number, which are usually found on Chinese figures.
In summary then, don't bother buying these for the book but if you need underwater warriors for your 'army', these are a relatively cheap way to get them, particularly the squid who only comes in an expensive set. You can see the prices and order them from the links below:
11 comments, latest one posted 38 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)818 views
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The LEGO Book (Part 1)
Posted by Huw, 06 Aug 2010 15:03. Filed under Book review.
Dorling Kindersley has a long association with LEGO and has published numerous children’s books as well as the highly acclaimed The Ultimate LEGO Book in 1999. That book is no longer worthy of the title because the just-published The LEGO Book surpasses it!
It consists of two hardback books (230mm x 270mm) in a thick card slip case. One is entitled simply The LEGO book and the other, the subject of this review, Standing Small: A celebration of 30 years of the LEGO minifigure.
Standing Small contains 96-pages each covered in photographs on a white background surrounded by snippets of text. It’s not a book you’d read from cover to cover, but one to pick up and dip into and marvel at the stunning images and design.
After a few pages of introduction, which includes pictures of prototype minifigs and interesting facts (like that there are 4 billion minifigs in existence, which is 12 times the population of the USA!), the bulk of the book consists of multi-page spreads dedicated to minifigs of different themes. Everything is covered from Castle, Space and Pirates to Agents, Star Wars and SpongeBob. There are some themes that have been missed out completely however, such as Arctic and Divers. There is also a page at the back of the book featuring custom minifigs.
The two images shown here, the Exo-Force page and one of the two Harry Potter pages, show the layout. Star Wars gets four double-page spreads so inevitably there is overlap with the Star Wars Visual Dictionary but I don’t think buyers of both books will complain.
One thing to note is that this is not an exhaustive and complete guide to minifigs because, as stated in the introduction, there have been over 2500 different ones made over the years. Instead it shows a representative sample for each theme. The photos are, as I keep reiterating, excellent except in a few cases where the figure is covered in dust (e.g. Aqua Raider page 52) which really is inexcusable!
So in summary, this really is a must-have book for every LEGO fan, minifig collector or not. What’s more, at £16/US$26 for this AND The LEGO book, it is a bit of a bargain.
Part two of this review will follow once I’ve put this book down and looked at the other one (so don’t hold your breath!)
The LEGO Book can be purchased from Amazon: UK | USA | Canada | France. When you have your copy, please post a review to let me know what you think.
13 comments, latest one posted 45 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2688 views
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DK Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection
Posted by Huw, 06 Aug 2010 15:03. Filed under Book review.
Better late than never: I've had this book for a few days now and at last I've found the time to review it. However, there's not really much to say about it. It's quite a thick book which consists of two sections. The first third of the book (about 30 pages) consists of pages to stick stickers on and the rest of it is the stickers themselves. I believe DK publish other sticker collections and I suspect they are very popular with the target age group (I guess around 5-6 years old).
There's not much to read and nothing much to look at: the idea being that you hunt for the minifig sticker that matches the minifig outline and stick it on. So, if that's your idea of fun, this is the book for you!
However, to look at it just like that would miss what's really cool about this book: the fact that it's full of stickers of minifigs which are, as you'd expect from DK, very well reproduced and therefore ideal for embellishing just about anything with: school books, furniture, folders, whatever. In fact, even if you do stick them in the front of the book as you're supposed to, you can still use some for this purpose, because there's a whole set of extra stickers included!
Quite a few themes are represented: City, Trains, Castle, Pirates, Space, Adventurers, Agents, Exo-Force, Underground, Batman, Atlantis, Star Wars, Harry Potter and SpongeBob. The book claims there are 'more than 1000 reusable stickers'. About 400 of them are 'life-size' minifigs, the others are small 1cm x 1cm pictures of minfigs, heads and various other symbols.
This is definitely a book aimed at children and not a 'must-have' like the other DK books, however if you're a LEGO book collector like me, it is worth adding it to your bookshelf. In fact it may be worth buying two copies: one to keep as new and another to use the stickers from.
You can buy it from Amazon:
- In the USA: Ultimate Sticker Collection: LEGO Minifigure
($10.39)
- In the UK: Lego Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection
(£6.62)
- In Canada: Lego Mini Figure Ultimate Sticker Collection
($10.82)
- In Germany: Ultimate Sticker Collection: LEGO Minifigure
(€9,10)
- In France: Lego Minifigure
(€8.99)
At those prices it's definitely worth picking up!
11 comments, latest one posted 41 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)1029 views
- In the USA: Ultimate Sticker Collection: LEGO Minifigure
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The LEGO Book (Part 2)
Posted by Huw, 06 Aug 2010 15:03. Filed under Book review.
This is part two of my review of Dorling Kindersley’s slip-cased pair of LEGO books. The thickest book of the pair, at 200 pages, is simply entitled The LEGO Book. Like Standing Small, this is a highly pictorial book in the trademark DK style of white (or black) pages with high quality photographs and snippets of text.
It’s divided into 3 main sections: a history of the LEGO company and its products and how they are made, a pictorial survey of LEGO themes which takes up the bulk of the book, and a section on the wider LEGO world. There’s a scan of the contents page on the DK website which shows what’s covered.
The first section details the origins of the company and the ‘system of play’ and includes timelines showing product development from the 1950s to date and photos taken inside the factory in Billund. There’s not much new here that hasn’t been covered in other books but it’s necessarily included here to give the reader the full picture of the brand and its products.
The LEGO themes section may be the part of the book that most interests Brickset users because it covers the development of themes from their first appearance until now. The large, long running themes, such as City/Town, Castle and space get 10 pages each while newer themes such as Batman and Agents get just two. Like Standing Small, some themes have not been covered at all, such as Divers, Time Cruisers and other short-lived ones. I guess that is understandable; the book would be huge otherwise, but it does prevent this from being a definitive guide.
The long running themes feature a sets to remember page which shows box art for a selection of sets in the theme. However I think they have been chosen on the basis of how attractive or what size the pictures are because they certainly don’t cover the most fondly remembered sets of the theme (where, for example is 6876 Blacktron Alienator on the Space page!)
One criticism I have is that this section is very biased towards sets released in the last 10 years which, depending on how old you are and how long you’ve been collecting, is either a good or a bad thing. The sets to remember pages show a good selection of sets from all years but you are hard pressed to find pictures of many sets released before 2000 in the main theme pages. For example, the space section has two pages covering everything from 1979 to 2006, then two pages for Mars Mission and two for the new Space Police.
The last part of the book covers ‘everything else’ such as theme parks, LEGO Universe, LEGO Clubs, LEGO.com, brick art, and two pages showing AFOL MOCs. It merely skims the surface of these topics, but it rounds the book off nicely and once you’re done reading you are left feeling that you have a good overview of everything LEGO. Sadly, there isn’t a section on LEGO related websites, though…
So, to summarise, this is an excellent book which, despite its shortcomings, deserves a place on every LEGO fan’s bookshelf and DK/LEGO are to be commended for publishing it.
The LEGO Book can be purchased from Amazon: UK | USA | Canada | France. When you have your copy, please post a review here to let us know what you think of it.
15 comments, latest one posted 44 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2921 views
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LEGO Star Wars - The Visual Dictionary
Posted by Huw, 06 Aug 2010 15:03. Filed under Book review.
Typical isn’t it? You wait ages for a decent LEGO book to come along and then three arrive all at the same time!
The third DK book released this month is LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. It’s a little larger than The LEGO Book at 260mmx310mm, and also a lot thicker because the inside front cover has a box attached to it for housing the exclusive minifig. It’s 96 pages long and consists of an introduction and four chapers: Movie Saga, Clone Wars, Specialist Sets and Beyond the Brick.
I’ll discuss the exclusive minifig first because that alone will be worth the purchase price of the book for some. Apparently called Throne Room Luke, it has printed dark brown legs and a yellow torso. It’s not particularly exciting but given that you won’t find it anywhere else, if you collect Star Wars minifigs, you’ll need to buy the book!
The book itself is typical DK in its design and layout (what a surprise!) so as usual it is a joy to flick through. Also the design and content is very similar to DK’s other Star Wars Visual Dictionaries.
The introduction consists of a time-line from 1999 to 2009 and does appear to be complete. It’s bang up to date and includes the mini sets (30004/5/6) recently available in the UK with the Daily Mirror newspaper and the yet-to-be-released 20010 Mini Republic Gunship. When you see them all laid out on 3 double-page spreads like this you realise just how many sets there have been.
The first chapter Movie Saga makes up the bulk of the book and is arranged by topic. So for example, there’s a page about Anakin Skywalker, another about Jedi Knights, one about Wookies, Bounty Hunters and so on. Each illustrates relevant sets and minifigs. The second chapter is much the same but covers the Clone Wars figures and sets. The Specialist Sets chapter covers mini sets, Technic and Ultimate Collector sets.
In these chapters, in most cases where a particular model has been superseded by an updated one, the later model gets a large picture and the old one a much smaller one, as you can see on the Bounty Hunters page shown here with Boba’s Slave I.
The final chapter Beyond the Brick features an interview with the LEGO Star Wars design manager, and pages on merchandising and the LEGO Star Wars community. The latter features two models by fellow Brickish Association members photographed by our very own bluemoose!
Running throughout the book, the bottom corners feature ‘flick animations’ of Luke waving his light sabre and marching Storm Troopers.
Try as I might, there’s nothing negative I can write about this book. For the subject matter it covers it’s just about perfect and because the subject matter is much newer than that covered by The LEGO Book/Standing Small, it is virtually complete too. (Although don’t expect to find pictures of every minifig variation).
It should appeal to everyone who has an interest in LEGO Star Wars and I suspect it will prompt some people who are not already collecting this theme to start doing so.
LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary is available for the ridiculously low price of £11 in the UK and $13 in the USA. It’s shipping already in the UK and should ship within the next week or so in the USA and elsewhere.
You can order/preorder your copy from Amazon: UK | USA | Canada | Germany | France.
19 comments, latest one posted 44 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)2281 views
