Tired of the same household chores? Are you sick of your job? Is the drudgery in the news bringing you down? Do you like butterflies? How about dragons? Then you’re about to turn that frown upside-down because Chris Yu has something special for you. Enter the butterfly dragons. I didn’t see that coming either yet I can’t help but smile. Despite being the size of a Brachiosaurus and having six massive legs these sweet dragons seem to have the playful, carefree gait of a puppy. I can’t even properly name all these colors in terms of what LEGO officially calls them but turquoise, lavender, light yellow, azure, butterscotch, magenta, salmon pink and others all work together to please the senses. In this bright and serene backdrop, I can just imagine their butterfly wings (or maybe ears) fluttering as they run. See, aren’t you feeling just a bit better now? It turns...

More than a year has passed since the bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us, and the subsequent closure of its 700 U.S. stores. The toy retailer was bought by Tru Kids Brands who, in a recent Toys ‘R’ Us press release, announced they would be bringing the store back to the U.S. in time for the 2019 holiday season. Tru Kids is partnering up with b8ta to bring shoppers “…a new store experience that will deliver the hottest toy products and brands, carefully curated and showcased in highly immersive smaller-format spaces.” An image from the press release provides a concept of what the new storefront may look like. The first two Toys “R” Us stores will open in The Galleria, a Simon Mall in Houston, Texas and the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey. B8ta is known for its Retail as a Service platform and seeks to apply this experience...

One of my favorite things is the intersection of LEGO and art. Brandon Griffith has similar feelings, as expressed in his description for his creation Coalesce, built for the LEGO booth at 2019’s Comic-Con. At first glance, I thought this was an 11×11 vignette of a gallery scene – the “exposed studs” along the top of the wall combined with the red, blue and purple “bricks” in perfect proportions. Looking closer, though, you recognize the minifigures and your sense of scale has a dramatic zoom out. Almost as an afterthought, you can spot a lime green “1×1 brick” oozing in the corner, and notice that the gaps in the wall look like brick cut-outs. Complimenting the excellent craftsmanship is the inclusive theme of the piece as a whole. To coalesce is to “come together”; the combining of red and blue stripes into a new purple element invites the viewer to think...

[Originally published January 2015, brought to the top & mildly updated June 2019 in conjunction with a relevant debate going on at Brickset.]You probably don't want to read a bunch of extraneous text, so let's get right to the point.  I think criticism is a good thing -- criticism of people, practices, products, companies, you name it. However, there are good & constructive ways to criticize and there are bad & inexcusable ways to criticize.  Here are some analogous examples from each side of the fence. Backstory for this article is shoved down at the end, if you're interested!Read more »Original linkOriginal author: theJANG

Last month I declared war against myself and set up some simple rules of engagement.  I would not publish reviews more than 3 days in a row, and I would take a minimum of 1 day off per week from uploading to my main YouTube channel altogether.  I'm happy to report today that I succeeded at those simple (but deceptively extraordinary) goals, and have achieved a state of armistice for the time being.  Let me share with you what I learned and accomplished during this unique & interesting period.Read more »Original linkOriginal author: theJANG