So what's up for Issue 6?

The theme is Trains.

and it's the year-end issue, so event reports will be coming from all around.

Thanks to...

all the writers for this issue of BrickJournal. Also thanks to the many people who contributed photos - I am learning the importance of large pix to crop.

BrickJournal is now 5 issues, over 400 pages of copy, hundreds of photos, and is still growing. Since the first issue, there have been over 300,000 downloads and the magazine has gotten the attention of people outside of the AFOL community and the LEGO Group. It's amazing to see so much happen in so little time.

And it's exciting - the partnership that BrickJournal will have with TLG is groundbreaking, and is already leading to new opportunities for the community to grow.

So thanks need to go out to everyone who has helped out with BrickJournal, from the  beginning staff, to the new writers that have come in since. Thanks also to the LEGO Group for their support.

And thanks also to those people who host the mirrors that keep the BrickJournal PDFs -

Dan Boger (Peeron),
Kevin Loch (Brickshelf),
Rob Hendrix(Brickmodder),
Rene Hoffmeister (LUGNET and 1000steine),
Dan Sabath (Rustyclank),
and Kelly McKiernan(BZPower and LEGOFan).

Darn, even this list is a who's who of the community:-)!

It's out!

BrickJournal 5 is out!

WooHOO!

Now I can rest for a week:-)

Geez, I keep on finding stuff - but this is non-LEGO

Way back in February, I went to the International Toy Fair in New York City. While I was invited to see the LEGO showroom, I also got to check out all the new toys coming out from almost every toy producer  out there.

One of the vendors present was Brio. They were presenting advance info on their new line of toys that are an offshoot of their train sets - the Network. Basically, they made the train track computer wires and creted an environment with cute kid-friendly characters and really nice design.

The best aspect was that there was a presentation film that was really cute and set the tone for the whimsy of the new toys.

I just found the website for the toys here:

The Networkers

It's a really fun and funny website - it's a different model for a website, but it's also pointed to a different market.

While we are on advertising....

Having a design background (a degree in Product Design from North Carolina State University, also known as the Design School) doesn't mean that much in the real world, except that there is a certain mystique that is given that also is given to artists.

My design background has served me pretty well, and has led me to doing a few ad campaigns (nothing noteworthy, as I worked on pharmaceautical ads and then newspaper ads) but more importantly, given me an appreciation for clean design.

It shows in BrickJournal with how regimented layout is. But I would like to do stuff like this:










Agency: FCB Johannesburg
Photographer: Gerard Turnely
Director: Brett Morris
Copywriter/Art Director: Lance Vining
Art Director: Charles Foley
Awards: Grand Prix—Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival

Really nice stuff.

LEGO Commercials

Got a call from a friend that pointed me out to this site:

www.retrojunk.com

It's got, well, retro junk. Footage from TV shows and movies from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

And it's got commercials - including some LEGO spots:

LEGO Fantasy Sweepstakes

Spyrius

Town

Time Twisters

Cowboys

Zac the LEGO Maniac

Pirates

Duplo

Geez, these are sooooo dated:-)

Now for some current ads, look at these:

Batman

Batwing

Knights Kingdom

Helping BrickJournal...

Hi all,

here's a neat way to help out BrickJournal as it heads toward being a print publication:

LEGO Shop at Home page

I kid you not.

Many many thanks to the LEGO Group for this.