Subject:
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Review: The Ultimate LEGO book
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.reviews
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Date:
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Wed, 21 Apr 1999 20:39:51 GMT
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(I hope this wordwraps OK - I pasted it in from Word)
Review: The Ultimate LEGO book
Published by Dorling Kindersley, 1999
ISBN 0-7513-5948-3
128 pages, full colour, slightly bigger than A4 size.
Price £10.99 until the end of May, £12.99 after. In the UK, available
exclusively through DK Family Advisors until later in the year.
Summary: An essential addition to the AFOL’s bookshelf!
“The book contains everything that LEGO fans have ever wanted to know about
the LEGO group and the LEGO system it toys”, it says here. A bold claim
indeed!
The book almost meets this objective but with one important (to the AFOL, at
least) omission, which I will come back to. I also have one other minor
criticism which I save till the end.
It is divided into 4 sections.
Section 1 “The LEGO story” (37 pages) starts off with a foreword by KKK
himself, then follows the history of TLG from the 1930’s to date. It does
this by means of a ‘timeline’ which shows significant events in the
companies history such as 1949 - first bricks, 1955 - first trees, 1962 -
first wheel and so on right up to 1999 - first rock raiders monster! As far
as I can tell this is accurate, but some of the firsts really are a bit
insignificant such as that listed for 1992 - three blade propeller.
Following the timeline there are pages on clothes, CD-ROM games and
Mindstorms. Then comes one of the most interesting parts of the book – the
production process. There’s a page which looks at the design of the Rock
Raiders sets, and then 3 pages dealing with making the elements, finishing
and packaging. There are not many detailed photographs of the factories and
plant, but the production line itself has been modelled in LEGO and is used
to illustrate the process.
Section 2 “The Master Builders” (36 pages) looks at the skills, training and
techniques of the modellers at LEGOLAND Windsor and Billund. Most of the
models seen being worked on are those now at Carlsblad, such as the Mt.
Rushmore heads, the Chrysler building, the Statue of Liberty and so on.
Apparently the models based on real-life prototypes are done at Windsor and
the whimsical models at Billund. There’s also pages looking at the design
process, animatronics, lighting, lettering, and how to make ‘little people’.
Section 3 “The LEGOLAND Parks” (40 pages) starts with an overview of the
planning and design stages of the parks before looking at each one in
detail. Billund gets 6 pages, Windsor 6 pages and Carlsblad 22 pages. This
is no doubt due to the fact that the book was produced during the building
of the latter. There’s some great pictures ranging from the largest of
models (the White House?) to the smallest of details (Mardi Gras dancers,
cars, trucks, and so on)
Section 4 “Imagination Unlimited” looks at “architecture, design and art
that has been inspired by the LEGO system and LEGO products”. The models
shown are largely those done by ‘3rd parties’ – artists and so on. There’s
some great examples of what can be done with an unlimited supply of bricks….
As I stated above, this is an essential addition to the AFOL’s bookshelf.
The World of LEGO Toys will no lonely no more… I have two criticisms.
Firstly the product range, past or present, is not discussed at all other
than in passing references in the timeline, such as 1979 – space introduced.
Its omission is the reason I believe the book does not live up to its claim.
Why is this missing? Perhaps TLG did not want it published, perhaps it was
deemed of no interest, I don’t know.
Secondly, and this is really only a minor thing, the book is very
Carlsblad-centric. I have stated the reason for this above, but it would
have been nice of LLB and LLW got an equal billing. Perhaps this weakness
will be viewed as a strength the other side of the Atlantic…
For £10.99 ($18), less than the cost of a SnowSpeeder, I wholeheartedly
recommend it.
Huw
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Review: The Ultimate LEGO book
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| MoA LIC has this is good quantities, and also has the World of Lego Toys on discount at 9.99 ish... Huw Millington wrote: <good review which I mostly agree with except I was more disappointed than he was.... an "ultimate" lego book should have every (...) (25 years ago, 22-Apr-99, to lugnet.reviews, lugnet.market.shopping)
| | | Re: Review: The Ultimate LEGO book
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| (...) <major snip> (...) <snip> (...) Thanks for the info Huw! I don't have this book (yet). I was hoping that the range of sets (even a sampling of each decade!) would be a part of this book. A major disappointment! The "WORLD OF LEGO TOYS" book (...) (25 years ago, 20-May-99, to lugnet.reviews)
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