Bricks Supporting the Australian Bushfires - Your Chance to Help!

If you haven’t been watching the news or reading the news online, there is a massive fire burning in Australia. This is their summertime (for us northern hemisphere folks in the cold) so it is hot and dry which has not helped. The damage and destruction have been pretty awful and it is still ongoing.

Sometimes you see things like this and think how awful it is, but then you move on with your life since the news you are reading about is happening very far from you. Well some members of the LEGO Fan Community in Australia are trying to make a difference. Thanks to the BrickBlogger.com for sharing the post that alerted me of this effort.

Here’s what you need to know…

Jay’s Brick Blog is a LEGO Recognized Fan Media site run by an AFOL in Australia. Jay and some of his fellow Aussies have reached into their collections to hold a raffle. For each dollar you donate to support the Red Cross through his link, you get one chance to win some pretty cool sets. Not all are available internationally, but that’s okay. It’s awesome to see AFOLs getting together to do some good around the world.

If you’d like to support Jay’s effort, you can go to his Blog here to donate.

The raffle will be held on 12 January 2019 so support now if you want to be a part of the raffle.

If you’re not sure about giving to someone you don’t know in another country, Jay also posted a link to the Red Cross so you can donate to them directly.

Thank you Jay and fellow AFOLs for giving!

Listening to Bricks - A LEGO Fan Podcast

Hello again!  It's been a long time since I posted.  I finished my move to Germany and it took a long time to get established.  For those of you in the US who complain about the cable and internet companies with bad customer service, we had to wait over a month to get internet and then have 2 visits from company technicians to get it set up correctly.  It was pretty painful, but thankfully we are now connected and ready to go!

While waiting for internet and for the part of my LEGO collection that I shipped here to arrive, I got to stay connected to the Lego fan community through a different medium.  A few years ago I got into listening to podcasts.  I found that driving around in my car and listening to local radio stations was getting annoying.  I could never find a station that I was willing to listen to for more than a few minutes.  With smart phones now and the ability to link them into your car, I can now listen while driving which is awesome.  The best part is that there are a huge amount of options for shows you can listen to now. 

While it's not the first LEGO themed podcast out there, a few months ago I stumbled upon the "Bricks King Podcast."  This podcast is run by LEGO fan Matt King.  As he states on his site, "We dig deep into the Lego world and interview Lego artists, and review Lego models."  I'm a few episodes behind right now, but so far I have had heard about new sets coming out, some information about what members of the LEGO fan community are doing, information about some of the builders made popular on the web, and a few interviews with the BrickBlogger's Will Reed.  While often the sets Matt introduces are not new to me, it is interesting to hear someone else's take on them.  He's been overly excited about a few sets that I am not interested in at all so hearing a differing opinion has been a good balance for me.

Overall, I am a fan!  Especially with the move that I have gone through recently, the Bricks King podcast has been a great way for me to stay connected to the LEGO fan community.  I enjoy being able to hear about LEGO despite driving in my car or doing work around my house.  If you're looking for a podcast to check out, definitely give the Bricks King a listen.  

You can find him on PodBean here or on iTunes here.  The podcast is on other platforms too, but I'm not going to list them all.  If you are not quite sure yet, you can check out his Twitter page or YouTube page or FaceBook page.  And if you don't want to take my word for it, Will Reed wrote an article about the podcast on the BrickBlogger so you can read his opinion.

Thanks Matt for the great work and keep publishing more!