I'm back

We are back

Well after over 2 years off I'm coming back to YouTube and Blogger after doing over 12mths of LEGO events. On Blogger we will be posting more on LEGO news and new release plus we will show you updates of my own MOC builds and behind the scenes look on how it's done. On YouTube we will be doing builds and live videos on MOC's and other builds and events I will be at. So till then keep on building gang.

brick loft brick storage (Show 3 15/04/2011)

brick loft bricks n fun (show 2 08/04/2011)

New intro to the Brick Loft

Brick Expo 2011

New partnership with Bricks N Fun

The Brick 101 now has a new partnership with Bricks N Fun LEGO store in Capalaba Qld Australia to film on site for our show's to start soon.

This will open the doors for new reviews, building tips and detail interviews all to do with LEGO.

Filming is start in just under 2 weeks time with 2 months of video filmed on site in there display and building room in the back of there store.

With this i have join a LUG here in Brisbane called Brisbane LEGO train group as well i will support them by promoting there group events that they go to.

More details of show's line up will be posted soon with heaps more news.

Till then keep on building

Merlin Entertainments Group acquires Sydney Attractions Group from Village Roadshow

Press release from Merlin Entertainments Group
Merlin Entertainments Group (‘Merlin’), Europe’s leading and the world’s second-largest visitor attraction operator, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Sydney Attractions Group and Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World from Village Roadshow (‘VRL’), the leading international entertainment and media company.

The deal marks Merlin’s entry into the Australian and New Zealand markets, covering the aquarium and attractions businesses of VRL which include Sydney’s top three tourist attractions - Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World and the Sydney Tower Observatory and Skywalk. The assets also include Manly Oceanworld in Sydney, the Hamilton Island Wildlife Park in Queensland, and Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World in Auckland, New Zealand.

Following the completion of the acquisition, due early in 2011, Merlin is committed to a multi-million dollar investment programme under which, over time, it plans to rebrand the assets as appropriate using its iconic global attraction brands. That means that in the future the aquarium assets will operate as SEA LIFE, the world’s biggest aquarium brand; while Merlin will convert the Sydney Tower Observatory to the “Eye” brand – its first use outside of the UK. Additionally, plans are in place to develop two more of the company’s global “Midway” attractions - a Madame Tussauds and a LEGOLAND Discovery Centre.

The entry into Australia and New Zealand will significantly strengthen Merlin’s position in the wider Asia Pacific region, where the group has already established Madame Tussauds attractions in Hong Kong, Shanghai and most recently in Bangkok, which opened earlier this month. Merlin will also be opening a major LEGOLAND Park in Malaysia in 2012, in partnership with Iskandar Investment Behar.

Merlin and VRL have also entered into an understanding to explore further attraction developments in the Australian and wider Asia pacific markets.

Nick Varney, Chief Executive of Merlin, said:

“This is an important step for Merlin, significantly strengthening our presence in the dynamic Asia Pacific region and bringing our strong international brands to another set of iconic established tourist attractions. Merlin has a strong track record of successfully growing the assets it buys and we are confident that our proven formula will work in this exciting market.

“The deal means that in Sydney, one of the world’s leading cities, we will have a ‘cluster’ of leading visitor attractions to match our strength in the London and Berlin markets. This will be the perfect springboard as we work to continue the roll out of the SEA LIFE, Madame Tussauds, Eye and LEGOLAND brands in the Asia Pacific region, complementing our existing strength in Western Europe and North America.”

Graham Burke, Chief Executive Officer of VRL, said:

“This transaction also includes an understanding to consider developing brands such as LEGOLAND Discovery Centres in partnership in Australia and Asia. We are very excited to form a strategic alliance with Merlin because they are both entrepreneurial and have some outstanding brands.”

Under the sale VRL will receive net cash proceeds of approximately A$[115]m. The deal is subject to a number of regulatory approvals and third-party consents and is expected to be concluded in the first quarter of 2011.

Brick Loft e2 s1LEGO catalog and comps

Yes more trains for 2011

The LEGO Train community is talking about the wonderful new LEGO Train 10219 Maersk Cargo Train, and now we get to see better images of the fantastic new set.

The Brick 101 Journalism Job Offer

AJS productions is looking for a Energetic and upbeat personality for a social media guru for our blogger, Twitter and Facebook pages.

This job will start as a Internship for 1 month with 4 places on offer with The successful Intern will be offered Commission base job at the end what could earn 10-30% Commission of our Adsense income what could grow in to a salary base job earning $40,000+ a year.

Basic skills required:

.Significant experience in Facebook, Blogger & Twitter
.A great knowledge of LEGO and its products
.Experience with posting to Facebook, Blogger and Twitter regularly throughout the day.
.Writing dynamic and interesting material for Facebook, blogger and Twitter
.Good computer skills with fast and accurate typing.
.The ability to multitask and handle multiple responsibilities at the same time.

This is a good part-time for a uni students or a 2nd job to make more money from home.

successful candidate will be offed a job what will be 5 days a week 9am-2pm or 7pm to 11pm Depending on other job's or UNI with bonus for high Adsense earnings For the month.

As well holidays interstate and oversea will be offed when we are touring around for filming at events to keep our viewers up to date on what is happening.

Please send applications to ajsproductionaus@gmail.com

Internship will start 14th February 2011 with job offer given to the successful Intern on the 14th March 2011

Please note only people that are over 18 years of age can apply for this job.

The Brick loft 24hr MOC Comp

Starting FEB 2011 we will be having MOC comp each month and is were you can Win an invite in to the first ever 24hr MOC comp on DEC 4 2011 were you can win $100 gift card just for building a model with in 24hrs and voted on by viewers on YouTube.

So Monday 31st Jan the first theme will be posted here and published on the Brick loft episode 2 on YouTube.

You have 1 month to build this MOC and E-mail it to thebrick101@gmail.com by 27 FEB 2011 and then my top 10 MOC builders models will be voted on by the viewers and the winner will get an invite on the 7th Mar 2011 by e-mail before the posting of this show.

So till then gang keep on building

New shoes on sale at the Zazzle store

MENS Shoes Real Men Build With Bricks by shieldzee1
Design personalized shoes on zazzle.com.au

The Brick 101 Zazzle Store Promo

Brick Loft is back

Filming will start this weekend for e2/3/4/5 with e2 out Monday the 10th.

I will be looking at Brickvention What is on 15th-16th in Melbourne Australia what sadly i can't go to as well I will doing some LEGO tips on storing bricks and models as well i will show how to unlock LDD 4.0 bricks and where to find copy's of LEGO building plans this and much more on the Brick Loft out Monday 10 only on The Brick 101 Show channel on youtube.

Till then keep on building

Brick Loft Welcome to the Loft E1-S1

Brick Loft USA Tour

My plans have started for 2011 with a trip to the USA for Brickworld and maybe Vidcon as well.

I have not lock in my plans just yet due to getting my passport and money for this trip.

If you would like to see me in the USA please buy t-shirt or hat from my online store link on this side -------> this will help fund my trip.

I will have 30-31 days to visited fans, Groups and LEGO places in this time going from Chicago in the east back to LA in the west so this should be fun.

So if you have any good places i should check out post them here as i got 6mths of planning a head till next year keep on building.

Brick Loft done filming

After slow day i have got the filming done of the first ep of the brick loft.

Sunday is set as a long editing day as i had over 20 takes for 2mins of video lol.

it will be posted Monday morning here in Australia so don't forget to Sub to the thebrick101show channel on youtube to see it first.

NEW! LEGO City Police Station (7498)

A new LEGO City Police Station(Set 7498) is now available a Toys R Us along with a few other new(remade) police sets like the LEGO City Prisoner Transport (7286) and LEGO City Mobile Police Unit (7288)

These sets are similar to the last series of police sets, except the prices were adjusted quite a bit.

Set 7498 Description:

Stop the prisoners from escaping the police station through the pipe drain! They won't get far on foot. Use the police car to chase them down and transport them back to prison in the police van. Help keep LEGO City safe with this feature-packed set!

These are like the airport sets and don't have much information, yet. You can still purchase the older Police Headquarters(7744) and Police Truck(7743), but I imagine these will be gone when more information of the newer sets comes out/LEGO posts the sets in their shop.

LEGO space shuttle launching on NASA's "flying brick" Discovery

When space shuttle Discovery lifts off on its final mission, it will have a small LEGO version of itself onboard to help launch a new partnership between the Denmark-based toy company and NASA.

The seven-inch long LEGO shuttle, which was assembled from about 60 of the iconic toy pieces, gives new meaning to the term "flying brick" as popularly used to describe the real shuttle given that it returns to Earth as a very heavy unpowered glider.

According to NASA, the snap-together shuttle may make a brief appearance in space during Discovery's STS-133 mission and will then be brought back to Earth for use by LEGO in educational activities.

A follow-on flight however will see astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) build NASA and science themed LEGO sets.

"Our partnership will continue on [STS-]134, scheduled for February, when we'll be sending LEGO kits aloft and we'll be doing education outreach with students on the ground," said NASA spokeswoman Ann Marie Trotta.

Classroom of space

"We are going to use the classroom of space -- the International Space Station -- to help the next generation of explorers," explained Leland Melvin, a former astronaut who last month was appointed as NASA's new associate administrator for education.

"We'll be doing different activities, building demonstrations and then demonstrations with the models once they are built," added Debbie Biggs, an education specialist for the ISS National Lab education projects office.

More than a dozen LEGO building activities will be flown to the station over the next two years. The first three will launch with STS-134, shuttle Endeavour's final mission.

"The first set is actually just a workbench, it has pegs to help us control [the bricks]," Biggs told collectSPACE. "There is a space shuttle set and then there are two kits that are the space station."

The LEGO shuttle kit that will be aboard STS-134 builds a bigger model than the STS-133 toy. It features a payload bay that opens and reveals a satellite. The space station, which recreates the modules, solar array wings and truss segments on the real station, will fly as two kits due to its large size.

The shuttle and station kits are slated to be released for sale to the public in 2011 as part of the LEGO City line of toys.

An experiential opportunity

Once delivered to the station, astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman will be the first to attempt building the LEGO models, based on special training she is receiving now on the ground.

"She has the first three kits with her right now and her 10-year-old son is training her on how to use them," said Biggs with a smile.

Melvin, who last flew in space in November 2009, expects the weightless environment to slow Coleman's progress building the toys in space.

"If you are trying to duplicate what a child has done on the ground in a one-G environment, it can definitely be done but the question is how long it will take," said Melvin.

This is not the first time that LEGO products have flown in space or have been themed around the space program. LEGO has produced space-related sets since 1973 and most recently, two astronaut minifigures "hitched a ride" with the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity that arrived at the red planet in 2004.

Setting this new partnership apart is the focus on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, disciplines. By using the toys and their construction in space, NASA and LEGO hope to encourage children to take a greater interest in engineering and design principles.

"We need something that they can hold in their hand to have an experiential opportunity," said Melvin, explaining why the LEGO brick sets were the "perfect fit" for NASA's STEM educational outreach goals.

"We did not have the good fortune to have LEGO bricks on our [STS-129] mission, but I am glad that STS-133 and follow-on STS-134 will have the opportunity to take these building blocks," said Melvin. "I can't wait to start playing with my LEGOs."