‘Cult of LEGO’ Book Review and Giveaway

I think by now it should be obvious to you that we here at Top Hat Sasquatch are huge LEGO fans. Even before the days of licensed sets, LEGO appealed to geeks and non-geeks alike, enabling creative play with endless possibilities. It’s no surprise that the LEGO brand has amassed such a huge cult following that continues to grow every year.

If you read this site and are a big fan of LEGO, you’re probably familiar with John Baichtal and Joe Meno’s work. John writes for the always-awesome blog GeekDad and Joe is the founder of BrickJournal. The Cult of LEGO is the product of their hard work and fanboy dedication to the little plastic bricks from Denmark.

The Book

The first thing you notice when picking the Cult of LEGO up is that it is a book made by hardcore LEGO fans for other AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO). The first chapter may cover the history of the LEGO company, but from there the book is dedicated to the creations of adults all around the world. The unofficial nature of the book is a great asset, because you can be sure an official LEGO book wouldn’t mention BrickArms or the huge LEGO modding community.

There are cool profiles of AFOLs that mention what they are currently building and their all-time favorite sets, which is really interesting for those like me who are trying to discover awesome vintage LEGO sets. Pages and pages are filled with the most impressive LEGO creations you’ve ever seen, even in the internet age when it’s easy to think you’ve seen it all. My favorite sections are on the massive minifigure-scale creations, like the Battleship Yamato by Jumpei Mitsui and huge roller coaster by Matthew Chile.

The book is hardback, has around 300 pages, and is full of beautiful photos and artwork. The inside covers have original patent drawings for the LEGO brick and the slipcover features the classic spaceman minifigure. It’s a great coffee table book, and I’m sure will hold the title as the greatest LEGO book for quite some time.

It’s inspiring turning the pages and seeing what is possible with LEGOs outside of the pre-made sets and instructions. People can make anything with the right pieces and I respect that skill, because it’s not one that I have. As a kid, I put together a set and kept it together as long as I could because I couldn’t build anything interesting on my own. Maybe if I would have had a book like this full of inspiration I would have tried a little harder. I know one thing, after reading the book I am itching to get my hands on some new LEGO sets and build something cool.

The Cult of LEGO is published by No Starch Press and is available everywhere. It would make a pretty awesome Christmas gift for the AFOL in your life, and is pretty cheap on Amazon.

The Giveaway

No Starch Press was kind enough to send an extra copy of the book to give away and for this contest we’re going to try something a little different. If you follow us on Twitter you’ve heard us mention our new mailing list that just got started, and we’re putting a lot of thought into how we can make it an awesome resource for geeks everywhere. In addition to a weekly digest letting you know what’s been up the previous week on the site, we’ll be sending out exclusive content, and starting with The Cult of LEGO, newsletter-exclusive contests.

All you have to do to join is sign up for our mailing list and on Friday, December 23rd at 6pm EST we’ll randomly pick one of our subscribers out of a top hat. After that you’re free to unsubscribe but we’d love if you stuck around to help us figure out how to make the newsletter as awesome as it can be.

Join the mailing list for your chance to win!

We’ll announce the winner in this post on Friday and the book will probably be sent out around the 26th, but will make a great, late Christmas present.

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