Review Review: ALIEN Project book by Arvo Brothers

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks to HispaBrick Magazine, I was given the opportunity to review the latest release from the Arvo Brothers: Alien Project. You may know the Arvo Brothers from their gorgeous MOCs, or from their previous book on the Kaneda's Bike from the manga/anime Akira.

Obviously, this book is all about their model of the Alien, from the Alien's movies franchise. It is divided in four chapters: Estimations, Construction of the model, Instructions and Gallery.

1. The Book

The book itself is a very nice object, with a hard cover and 220 full colors pages with lots of pictures and artwork. I'm sure it can appeal not only to the AFOLs, but also to Alien movies' fans (tested and confirmed). You can view more detailled shots of the book on the Arvo Brothers' Flickr album.

2. Estimations and Construction

The first two chapters are my favorites. They show the efforts needed to plan and build such a model... while writing a book about it. From size and scale determination to choices of parts, there is a lot to learn on how a model of this size and quality is designed.

There is a nice blueprint of the model that indicate all its sizes. 48cm tall and 20cm width, we can say that it's a relatively big creature, not as much as the real model from the movies, but still I wouldn't like to cross one of these in a dark corridor...

Why use these parts and not these ones? All is explained in this quite interesting chapter.

Each section of the model is also lengthly commented. It's always nice to read what a designer (or two) think of his own model.

This is maybe my favorite page of the book. It's the chronology of the 20 months of the project.

3. Instructions

This may be the only reason for people to buy this book: the instructions. Sadly I'm not able to build the stand or the creature, but I can still give my impressiosn on the instructions themselves! And I must say that they are amazing. Throughout the 24 pages for the base and 116 pages for the Alien, the steps are pretty easy to follow, and for the more complex ones, the builder is guided with visual indications like brick outlines, studs connections highlights, guiding dashed lines or combinations of them. There are also alternates builds for hard to find parts.

The Alien is composed of 1526 bricks, and the base of 466. By my standards it's not a very high amount of bricks, and since most part aren't rare, it's not an important investment if you want to build the model.

The catalogue is maybe the weakest point of the book. Not for its design or content, but because you'll have to manually convert it to something like a Bricklink wanted list. But this is perfectly understandable as you'll have to buy the book if you want to have a look at the part inventory

Nevermind, Missing Brick confirmed that the book come with a part list in electonic form that can then be used on Bricklink!

4. Gallery

The book ends with some beautiful pictures of the model. If you still weren't amazed by the creature when you reach page 197, I'm sure those shots will convince you!

5. Conclusion

This book is a lot more than just instructions for a model. It's a journey from the genesis of a project to its completion, detailling every steps from the drawing board to the photography studio. It shows that what we AFOLs do is not just playing with children plastic toys, it is Art.

If you want to learn more about the project, if you want to build this model, if you want to convince a friend or a relative that you're not just playing with toys, I encourage you to get a copy of this book while it's still available!

You can grab a copy from the Arvo Brothers website. And don't forget to visit their Flickr or Facebook accounts.

I'd like to thanks again HispaBrick Magazine for providing me a copy of the book, and I'd also like to sincerely apologize for all the time it took me to finally post that review.

[KlodsBrik]

Thanks for the review Bob. I quite liked it.

Ive seen probably all of the Arvo Brothers creations that they have posted and I love their style of building organic.

This book is one that I definately need to purchase at some point in time.

And indeed Art it is. It might be that we start building cause it's (also) a lot of fun, but the thing is for most of us i guess, it become's a way of expressing usself artistically.

Again, thanks for the review. I really love that it´s not only LEGO set's being reviewed, but also the frontrunners of FOL's being creative for all of us.

Now we need a review of WheelOnBricks book !

[Missing Brick]

Great review Bob. But please note that when you order the book the Arvo Brothers will email you the parts list in electronic form so you can import it into Bricklink without any trouble.

The only improvement I'd suggest to the parts list would be to flag those parts which are buried within the model - since they can be changed to any colour without affecting the external appearance. That would have saved some money on the parts.

I had great fun building the model and the finished Alien looks awesome and is quite sturdy. Highly recommended.

[Lazarus]

Just finished mine, cost i think around 700nz with shipping and stuff to make, I kept to the original parts coz i am crazy.

I have had issues with the feet poping apart, I put a black 1x3tile on the side to stop the seperashion. As i will be transporting this i dont want it to keep dothing this and at some point i may need to glue these. but the rest of the body seams firm.

[DrJB]

Very nicely executed. I've heard the build calls for some very rare parts (such as the 15L black ribbed hose). Any chance to post details about those (hard-to-get) parts or is that a no-no?

I'm tempted to buy the book and build the beast, but I need to collect the parts first, and do not want that to turn into a big frustration.

Edited March 11, 2016 by DrJB

[Missing Brick]

Hi DrB, if you have trouble getting the long ribbed hoses, it's possible to make them up from shorter lengths joined together with black technic pins pushed inside each piece. I used this method and it looks fine (eg. on the shoulder and leg hoses). The only part I couldn't find was the very long hose in the tail, so I used a non-lego black tube instead (from a black choker chain). Works a treat since the hose is only decorative, not structural.

For scarce parts like the 4 dino tail base pieces used in the spines on the Alien's back, they offer alternative part builds using cones plus the more common tail sections which look OK.

Re the problem with him popping his 'shoes' off if he leans forward too much: I found a way to mod the internal foot design to get one extra stud to attach to the front part of the foot. This mostly solves the problem. A 1x3 plate on the side also helps. Mines been been assembled for 3 months now and he still seems very sturdy - so the structural strength is very good.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Great review Bob. But please note that when you order the book the Arvo Brothers will email you the parts list in electronic form so you can import it into Bricklink without any trouble.

I've updated the review, thanks for the info

[DrJB]

Hi DrB, if you have trouble getting the long ribbed hoses, it's possible to make them up from shorter lengths joined together with black technic pins pushed inside each piece. I used this method and it looks fine (eg. on the shoulder and leg hoses). The only part I couldn't find was the very long hose in the tail, so I used a non-lego black tube instead (from a black choker chain). Works a treat since the hose is only decorative, not structural.

For scarce parts like the 4 dino tail base pieces used in the spines on the Alien's back, they offer alternative part builds using cones plus the more common tail sections which look OK.

Re the problem with him popping his 'shoes' off if he leans forward too much: I found a way to mod the internal foot design to get one extra stud to attach to the front part of the foot. This mostly solves the problem. A 1x3 plate on the side also helps. Mines been been assembled for 3 months now and he still seems very sturdy - so the structural strength is very good.

Thank you MB. In fact I do have few of the long ribbed hoses already, as I was saving them for a future all-black supercar. My main concern is a part from a minifig series (I do not even know what it is) as I read in a separate thread, that it is very rare. Yes, substitutions work great, but I'm a purist (crazy, I know). I am not sure if the brothers are willing to release the parts list to at least warn potential adopters what they're up against.

[Missing Brick]

@ DrJB, ah yes - the CMF footballer fez piece they use to top the 4 back spines. I didn't bother with that part - it honestly looks fine without it (checkout the picture on my flickr). But for obsessives - yes - you will need to hunt down 4 CMF footballers. Last time I looked these were still widely available and about £3 each + postage - but there was no way I was going to spend >£20 for those 4 tiny parts.

[MAB]

The dino necks also went from about 20p each (used) when I bought them at the start of December to about £5 each last time I looked. I'm glad I bought the book early! They are only going up in price.

[Lazarus]

about 48us each now, i bought some old sets that had them in, still cost a bit but i got 4 tails for about 60usd.

[H_Solo]

I just put in order for the book... Looks really fantastic, even just for this beautiful book... I'll decide later if I'm going to build the model, if prices on the parts are too crazy.

[Henchmen4Hire]

Good to hear there's lots of designer commentary, it drives me nuts when I build something and people are like "why didn't you use this other thing instead?". I hope the book helps people understand that a lot of thought goes into every piece of a build, we're not just throwing random bricks together! (well, sometimes, lol)

[H_Solo]

Only 236 parts to go... already got the Dino-tails and Fezes ordered... too bad, I can't seem to find the black round windshields and the longer version of the tubes/hoses anywhere...

[Missing Brick]

There appear to be plenty of the black round windshields for sale:

http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?P=62360#T=S&C=11&O={"color":11}

Ribbed hoses can be assembled from shorter lengths using technic pins as joiners. And the non-structural long tail tube can be substituted by a non lego part (eg. Black choker necklace tube).

Hope that helps.

[perrush]

There appear to be plenty of the black round windshields for sale:

http://alpha.brickli...&O={"color":11}

not anymore :( will be a difficult part to get 8 times. not sure if an alternative is possible

[RemcoRohaan]

Very nice book; very nice artwork. Must have for all Lego-and-Alien fans