Category: Lego For Adults

Brickdiction

Brickdiction By Bill Deen – Lego Book Review

BrickdictionI received a mysterious email the other day from a young man calling himself Bill Deen (not his real name).

He let me know (very politely) that he had read my blog and could sympathise with what he referred to as my “Condition“.

Naively I asked what condition he was referring to and he replied by letting me know about something called “Brickdiction”.

At first I though he was referring to those people who have the admittedly horrible habit of pronouncing the plural form of Lego as Legos. I agreed wholeheartedly – Diction and pronunciation is important in many areas of society, even Educational Construction Toys.

I replied that I had heard of people who did this and sympathised with their plight but assured him that I didn’t have this disease and he had gotten it all wrong.

He laughed at me (over email) and told me that Brickdiction was defined as:

“The Lego addiction suffered mainly by AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego). When someone has this they are “brickaddicted”.

Needless to say I didn’t return any more “Bill Deen’s” emails. Can you imagine! The poor man was deluding himself.

But then a book arrived in my postbox, called simply “Brickdiction: A Seven Step Recovery Guide For People Addicted to Lego.” It was addressed to me…personally. As if!

I started to read the small tome and then showed my husband. His response was along the lines of, “About time you got that obsession looked into…”

Obsession? Addiction? Brickdiction?

Were these really words that should be used when someone supports an Educational Construction Toy and integrates into their child’s life for Educational purposes? Did I mention Lego’s Educational benefits…for children? What about Lego’s environmental benefits…for the environment? These are the (very legitimate) reasons I buy Lego, not because…I am addicted?

In Brickdiction, Bill Deen (not his real name) says the first on the road to recovery is to:

1. Admit to yourself that you are powerless over bricks –
that your Brick Life (his words not mine) has become unmanageable.

It was clear I had a problem – my family could see it even if I could not.

But it was also clear that I was not alone. Which is why Bill Deen put years and years of research (yes Bill, I “research” Lego too) into the condition known as Brickdiction and then published a Recovery Guide for sufferers of the disease, their friends and family.

If you know someone who could benefit from the book it can be downloaded as a PDF for use on ipads/iphones and Android Portable Devices, downloaded to Amazon Kindle and also bought in a handy pocket sized book format.

I recommend keeping the book close at hand, especially during those first days of the “Recovery” process. Brick-Fever hits when you least expect it. In such a situation today I was innocently killing-time in a department store toy department (on a school day without my kids- It was “research”), when I was brutally confronted by a 20% off sale for the latest Star Wars Lego Sets.

Thankfully I had my Brickdiction book close at hand. The store sales staff tried to wrest it from my hands and I was escorted off the property before any other AFOLs could be influenced by my alleged propaganda. How rude!

As Bill Deen (…) says in his introduction, “Recovery Will Be hard but it is possible”

Recovery? Wait a minute…What if I don’t want to “recover?

HELP!

I’m off to my Lego room to do some more “research”.

Seriously…buy the book. It’s great fun for fans who can appreciate the insightful truths hidden amongst the humor 🙂

You can read more about Bill Deen at his website www.brickdiction.com (not working at present but I’ll get back to you on this).

Disclaimer:- Bill supplied me with a free copy of the book but I recommend it wholeheartedly regardless and won’t even mention that The Brick Life is mentioned in the book 🙂

Lego Big Ben 21013 Architecture Set

Lego Big Ben – (Set 21013) Lego Architecture

Lego Big Ben 21013 Architecture SetLego Big Ben (set 21013) is to be the next official Lego Architecture set for release early June 2012.

The new set features the UK’s famous clock tower building and is the fourteenth in the Lego Architecture series designed to highlight the world’s most beautiful and iconic buildings.

Lego Big Ben Set 21013

BILLUND, Denmark – Big Ben, one of the UK’s most recognizable buildings and a global symbol of Victorian London and the Gothic Revival style, has been recreated as the latest set in the LEGO® Architecture series.

Big Ben, officially known as the Clock Tower, has stood at the north-eastern corner of the Palace of Westminster in London for more than 150 years. It was designed by the unlikely team of Classical architect Charles Barry and Gothic Revival pioneer Augustus Pugin and completed in 1859.

Lego Big Ben is the fourteenth model in the LEGO Architecture range, which uses the LEGO brick to interpret the designs of iconic architecture around the world. It is the first model to be designed by Rok Zgalin Kobe from Slovenia who joins Adam Reed-Tucker as a LEGO architect.

“The most challenging in creating this model was representing the richness of 19th century Gothic Revival architecture in a scale usually more appropriate for modern or contemporary architecture of smooth surfaces and clean lines,” said Rok Zgalin Kobe.

Charles Barry won the competition to build the new Palace of Westminster in January 1836. His initial designs were without the clock tower that would become known as Big Ben. As his own style was more Classical than the increasingly popular Gothic Revival, Barry asked for assistance from Augustus Pugin, a leading light of the movement that left its indelible mark on the Victorian era around the world. The design of the interior of the palace and the clock tower are thought to be his work.

LEGO Architecture products features well-known buildings, and the work of important architects Aimed at inspiring future architects, engineers and designers as well as architecture fans around the world, the range contains a booklet featuring step-by-step building instructions that is prefaced by exclusive, archival history, information and photographs of each iconic building, its design origin, its architect and its architectural features.

Lego Big Ben (Set 21013) Availability

The LEGO 21013 Big Ben is available for purchase from June 1 in LEGO brand retail stores, LEGOLAND Stores and online at http://shop.lego.com/. The product is designed for ages 12+ and includes a booklet with facts and history about Big Ben. Recommended retail price is $29.99 or €29.99.

For more information about LEGO Architecture  and the Lego Big Ben set visit our Lego Architecture Guide or http://architecture.lego.com/