Ever have too many ideas?

I have way too much in my head right now.

The layouts for BrickJournal are coming along, and I am getting articles from last year's events. I'm also getting things set up for the next issue, and planning things for print (set for summer, though this is contingent with LEGO involvement).

I am also getting things set up for BrickJournal to become more immediate - I am starting to work toward having a dedicated website for the magazine that is more than just links to the mags - I want a site where faster news comes through. BrickJournal should be constantly posting articles on events and builders, and also introducing interactive things too. I want to see podcasts and video, all the things that can make the hobby more live than an article can.

It's a tough challenge, but strangely enough, it might be less expensive than making a magazine. Go figure.

more stuff to do...

Next week, I go to Enfield to discuss more about BrickJournal.

It's been interesting. BrickJournal is definitely a thing that LEGO on the corporate level wants to become successful. But there have been some definite bumps on the road. The good thing is that things are still in the beginning stages, so change isn't too bad to deal with. At least right now.

The challenges facing the magazine are the resources and the reception by the audience.

Here's a quick number: 50,000.

That's a very round and average (off the top of my head) number of downloads per issue.

Now, the question is:

Who are these people? The first question that needs to be addressed is who exactly is getting the magazine. The number of AFOLs that are listed in LUGNET is over 3000. The number of people in Brickshelf is just over 50,000. The number of AFOLs is somewhere between. The other people are an unknown.

This is important because things like marketing and advertising can be looked at. BrickJournal in print has some implications - where does the online version go? Is there an online version? Is there a website?

I personally want a website with enhanced content that will be a tiein to the magazine. I also know realistically that the magazine lasting long term will be a challenge. Out of the 50,000, I expect less than a fourth to subscribe to the printed magazine.

The enhanced content would be video and interactive things onsite. But the big question is what will create a revenue stream for BrickJournal? And who would pay?

Definitely some questions to ponder.

Building with the new sets...and my favorite set of the year!

I bought a few sets in the past couple of months - the new sets that should be out everywhere now. Here's my impressions of the sets I got:

4953 - Fast Flyers: This is a $20 set with 312 parts, with a lot of wedge plates. Colors are red, white and blue, with a few transparent-smoke parts for canopies.

The Builds: So far, I have built two out of the three models (a helicopter and the main fighter jet). The best model is the jet - there are swing wings and folding landing gear (with the rear wheels folding into wheel bays with doors)! The swing wing mechanism is very clever - there is a really simple mechanism for the wings that I just had to admire for a few minutes. I built a swing wing plane ages ago and used gears, which wasn't a very good solution - on wing was off just a little bitbecause the gears did not align. The plane in the set uses no gears.

There are a couple of other clever ideas in the models, like using the arched window frames as air intakes. I immediately started building alternate models with teh parts and built a push prop plane (that I haven't posted yet) that resembles the Starship (private plane). I haven't done much else yet, but the part assortment in the box has enough variety to make many, well, planes! So am I happy with it? Yes!

4939 - Cool Cars: This is a $10 set with 206 parts, most of them of the smaller size. This set has three models in the instructions, and I built the sports car.

The car is pretty impressive, as not only do the doors open in a gull wing style, but the trunk opens, and has a nice size to it. the car, when built, is actually a little heavy - which is an interesting surprise. I also like the dark red accents for the interior.

However, this set does not push me to build - I think it's because I don't like wheels for some reason. I'm too impressed with the car than to build something else right now.

So what was my favorite set for 2006? Good question.

My favorite set is the NXT. Even though I am not a master of it yet (and have a long way to go), I am looking at the potential.

The NXT has two different levels with it - the physical building and the programming. With those two factors, there's a completely new dimension to building - there's building, then building the program. I think that's really cool, as the end result is a robot that does something. I can build a plane out of System parts and plates, but with an NXT I can build a helicopter that has rotors that spin, landing gear that retracts, and one more function with the third motor - and I can program the helo to retract its gear when it reaches a certain altitude, thanks to the ultrasound rangefinder. How cool is that?

So what's your favorite set this year?

Playing catch-up...

Well, if your holiday was anything like mine, you would under stand why my notes got really short for a moment there.

I updated the BrickJournal Event Calendar, and it now has events listed from some international sites - the Brickish Association, FreeLUG, and 1000steine, to name a few. There's a lot going on in the next couple of months, so take a look here.

If anyone wants to list an event, drop me a line. I got these from going through all the club links on LUGNET, so I know I missed some stuff:-)

There's also some writing I have to do for BrickJournal. And I built an NXT tank with the new snowmobile tracks. It uses two motors to drive the tracks, and I want the third motor to do something, but I don't know what....

Happy New year! Off-topic.

So it's a new year - and with it comes new hopes, and new goals and resolutions.

What are mine?

My big one is one I say every year and strive to do:

Make every day a little better than the one before it.

Time is too short and precious to do anything else, except spending it with those you care for.

Ship ahoy!

Malle Hawking's aircraft carrier model was the subject of an article in England's Daily Mail! You can see the article here.

Congrats, Malle!

something to ponder...

I was reading another site (Startrek.com - yep, I'm a trekkie) that had a writeup on Worldcon 2006. There were a couple of interesting things that were in the article.

There are a couple of parallels that could be made with Star Trek fandom and AFOL fandom - right now, we are in the first to second generation of fandom in the US, with conventions starting and beginning to grow. This is like the 70s in Trek fandom, when conventions started at college campuses...and there was a community that came into being.

There was even a part of the community that welcomed new fans, called the Star Trek Welcommittee - and it provided information on clubs and conventions. Keep in mind that this was before the Internet, so this was done by snail-mail. They had brochures on forming clubs and mailing lists.

And from there, many things happened - even in the 60s, Star Trek was saved for a year by fans. In the 70s, the movie came out, and in the 80s on, there were many other shows and events. And all of this happened because of the community.

However, there are shadows - one of the points made by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg (two sci-fi authors) is that "you will find very few people under the age of 30 at this convention — the base of readers and fans is not renewing itself from the bottom, the way it did when we were kids."

That is something that we as a community need to start looking at. Who are the people who will replace those doing the community activities now? How are we going to renew the community?

It's something that I have been looking at for some time, and I haven't any answers.