Before we dive into the bricks, I'd like to take some time to introduce you all to some of the acronyms, slang, jargon, and terms used by Lego fans.
So, who are those fans, anyway? Why, AFOL's , ALE's, and ALH's, of course! Isn't it obvious?
Well, actually, it really isn't. Hence this post.
Basically, Lego fans can be divided into two categories based on age: children and adults. Because of the age difference, what a typical child wants from a Lego set tends to be rather different from what an adult wants from a Lego set. The most widely-used set of acronyms for Lego users is based off of this age separation. AFOL stands for "Adult Fan Of Lego," and KFOL stands for "Kid Fan Of Lego."
To those two categories, some people at a third, TFOL or "Teen Fan Of Lego." This is used to acknowledge that fact that kids who are older than 10 or so have a third distinct set of expectations from their Lego's. Trouble is, the upper limit of "teen" isn't really clear. Does it stop at 18, when the Lego fan is legally an adult? Or does it stop when they are no longer teenage; that is, once they turn twenty? For instance, I'm nineteen as of today, but I'm competing in Lego competitions with adults, building slightly ahead of the curve. Which am I, teen or adult? So, while I acknowledge the usefulness of the teen designation, it's just too vague for me, so I don't really use it myself.
Some builders take their hobby very seriously. They don't like to be called "fans," which does sound a bit undignified. But what they do call themselves tends to vary based on what they like to build. People who work with Lego train layouts, town layouts, and the like tend to prefer ALH, for "Adult Lego Hobbyist." Pretty much everybody else uses tends to use ALE, for "Adult Lego Enthusiast." There are also a few who appreciate the pun on the alcoholic beverage and use the acronym for that reason.
Personally, I like the ring of ALE better, but I generally use AFOL instead. Why? Because almost all the major organizations of Lego users (trust me, such groups do exist, and eventually I'll write about them, too) use AFOL. So if I want to be sure people will know what I'm talking about, I need to use AFOL myself.
Happy building!
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Introduction
Hello all, and welcome to the Headlight Brick, a blog about Lego, Lego pieces, and the Lego hobby. Here I'll be posting design techniques, definitions of common Lego acronyms, reviews of official sets, and anything else Lego that crosses my desk.
For this first post, though, I'd like to go into a brief bit of detail about who I am and why I'm still playing with plastic bricks when there's so much that I really should get done. I am the eldest son in a very large family, attending college with a major in accounting. I'm a lifelong geek and proud of the title, and I'm a self-taught musician.
As for the Lego's, our family bought a lot of the bulk brick-buckets and basic sets as toys for the kids when I was growing up, and as the years went by Lego's were a favorite birthday and Christmas gift. The BIONICLE theme gets special credit for keeping Lego's on my radar for many years, but it was the need to visualize the ships in a science-fiction writing project that really brought me back to Lego in a serious way. In the last year, I have become fully involved in the Lego community and an avid builder and collector, and a determined student of the various techniques and methods used by Lego builders worldwide.
At the moment, I am deeply invested in the various iterations of Lego's Space themes, ranging from one of the Classic Space sets from the eighties, to the little known but pioneering theme Spyrius from the mid-nineties, to the current Lego Space offering, Galaxy Squad. I prefer to build in the colors Dark Red, Dark Bluish Gray (also known as New Dark Gray), and Black. I still own several BIONICLE's, and I have a few Lego Star Wars sets and a couple of little-used but much-loved Lego Trains.
I will attempt to update this blog once or twice a week, or as often as I can compose a post. Happy building!
For this first post, though, I'd like to go into a brief bit of detail about who I am and why I'm still playing with plastic bricks when there's so much that I really should get done. I am the eldest son in a very large family, attending college with a major in accounting. I'm a lifelong geek and proud of the title, and I'm a self-taught musician.
As for the Lego's, our family bought a lot of the bulk brick-buckets and basic sets as toys for the kids when I was growing up, and as the years went by Lego's were a favorite birthday and Christmas gift. The BIONICLE theme gets special credit for keeping Lego's on my radar for many years, but it was the need to visualize the ships in a science-fiction writing project that really brought me back to Lego in a serious way. In the last year, I have become fully involved in the Lego community and an avid builder and collector, and a determined student of the various techniques and methods used by Lego builders worldwide.
At the moment, I am deeply invested in the various iterations of Lego's Space themes, ranging from one of the Classic Space sets from the eighties, to the little known but pioneering theme Spyrius from the mid-nineties, to the current Lego Space offering, Galaxy Squad. I prefer to build in the colors Dark Red, Dark Bluish Gray (also known as New Dark Gray), and Black. I still own several BIONICLE's, and I have a few Lego Star Wars sets and a couple of little-used but much-loved Lego Trains.
I will attempt to update this blog once or twice a week, or as often as I can compose a post. Happy building!
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| I'm the guy behind glass. |
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