The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Bonjour mes amis!!

Do you love how cultured I’ve become these last couple weeks? Either I’m becoming fluent in multiple languages or I know how to use Google Translate.

Yes…one of those things is true.

You know what word means the same in every language? LEGO

Probably because it’s a made-up word, but still! LEGO and its many bricks have created a language that has gone global. Everyone understands the language of LEGO.

There are no words in a LEGO set instruction booklet, just pictures of the bricks and pieces needed to build. And everyone understands it. (The arrows are also helpful.)

Where am I going with this? Nowhere actually. Just a lingering thought I had related to A LEGO Brickumentary, which I reviewed a couple weeks ago.

But also it’s just nice to be reminded every once and awhile that despite all the ways we as human beings allow ourselves to be divided, there are still things that can unite us. And LEGO, a children’s construction toy is one of those things. What a weird world!

Apologies for my random tangent. But then again this blog is just the arbitrary musings of a new-ish LEGO fan, so I’ve been on point so far. Which leads me to my topic this week…

There is no topic. To keep this blog going long-term, I gotta be more loose. Some weeks I’m just going to check in on what’s happening in the world of LEGO. And some weeks there will be an official topic or two to talk about in detail. But every week is going to be about how this novice LEGO fan navigates her way through the vast and seemingly limitless world of LEGO. Limitless LEGO possibilities is another random topic of interest from A LEGO Brickumentary. Has everyone seen it yet? You should.

So what will I be musing about this week?

Well, Disney XD recently premiered the first of what will be a series of LEGO Star Wars shorts called “The Resistance Rises.” The first episode is available to watch on YouTube. I don’t know if the rest of the series will be. But it will be on Disney XD at some point.

I know, I know, Cori talking about Star Wars again. How original.

But this isn’t about my selfish interests, this is about an interesting and recent LEGO news story. Something your average, everyday LEGO blogger would cover.

This particular episode is called Poe to the Rescue. Less than 7 minutes long, the premise is that the Resistance is trying to rescue an important leader held captive on an enemy star destroyer. Leading the mission is Poe Dameron.

Other Force Awakens characters featured are Captain Phasma, C-3PO, BB-8, and Admiral Ackbar. There is also a brief appearance by Kylo Ren.

These shorts are clearly all about mining the comedy from the Star Wars universe so there a few humorous references to the Star Wars films, including Ackbar’s most famous line. It’s also an opportunity for C-3PO to shine as he probably has twice as much screen time as he did in Episode VII. He really won’t shut up about that red arm.

All in all, it is a cute and funny addition to the LEGO Star Wars universe. Future episodes will have stories featuring Kylo Ren, Han Solo, Finn, Rey, BB-8, and Maz Kanata. The stories are all centered around The Force Awakens time period; although I don’t believe the stories are necessarily canon.

Canon for those who don’t know is what the powers that be have decided is the official storyline of Star Wars. For example, all seven movies are canon, as are some books and animated series. Other Star Wars stories are not canon, like many of the books released after the original trilogy that were stories about what happened after the events of Return of the Jedi.

While we’re on the topic of LEGO Star Wars, I also wanted to share a video I found about how the LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game is being developed. It is an interview with the lead story designer Graham Goring and cutscene director Phil Gray.

I was curious about this since I first heard about the video game and saw the funny trailer they made for it. LEGO likes to make comedic video games and although there is ample opportunity for comedy in The Force Awakens, there are also a lot of really dark moments and one very sad death. So I wanted to know how they planned to navigate that darker material. It sounds like they can switch most of the heavy scenes into lighter ones pretty easily. Their main challenge is with the big death. But the great thing about these video game characters being LEGO minifigures is that a minifigure doesn’t bleed or have anything gory happen to it, it just breaks into little pieces. That makes things a little funnier. Plus, no one ever really stays dead in a video game, so the character could always come back in some capacity. That’s probably not realistic in the universe of the films, but that’s okay. It’s just about making an entertaining game.

Check out what else they had to say about adapting the movie:

One last thing and then I’ll close up shop for the week. Have you heard about the “stay-at-home dad” minifigure that is being released in the LEGO City set this summer?

I don’t get why it needs to be singled out like this. Stay-at-home dads don’t have some specific look that distinguishes them from working dads or any other male minifig. Just grab a minfig with a masculine face, put a couple minifigure kids with him and voila! Stay-at-home dad!

But hey, like I’ve said before, LEGO is trying to be more open and inclusive and there’s nothing wrong with that. Families come in all shapes and sizes, so to speak, and it’s good for kids to see that and grow up to be more open-minded and compassionate citizens of the world.

If you’re interested, here is an article talking about the stay-at-home dad minifig: Lego Launches Stay-at-Home Dad Figurine. (As you can imagine, the comment section got interesting.)

So that’s all folks! Until next time…how would you comically portray a son murdering his father?

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*