There are a couple of new LEGO books by Canadian LEGO fan, Charles Pritchett, that I wanted to make sure you know about. We talked about Charles’ earlier releases previously (see links at the end of this post), like the Building LEGO BrickHeadz Heroes and Building LEGO BrickHeadz Villains books, and the Expanding the LEGO Winter Village books. Another new book, the Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs & Other Extinct Beasts was released towards the end of last year, and the Building LEGO Trains book will be released in August of this year. Today, we will talk about these last two books.
In case you’re not familiar with Charles’ LEGO books, they basically include instructions for custom models based on established LEGO themes. So, if you want to expand your LEGO BrickHeadz collection, or LEGO Winter Village diorama, Charles gives you step-by-step instructions for additional models you can build from your own LEGO collection. The instructions are nicely arranged in a high-quality book format, with clear building steps, and decorated with beautiful images of the models.
The recently released Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs & Other Extinct Beasts was written by Charles in collaboration with another LEGO fan, Jonathan Saukel. It follows the same format as the previous books, with step-by-step building instructions for eight different prehistoric creatures, each with its own display base. In addition, the book also includes complete lists of bricks and pieces needed for each model, and general information on each of the beasts with facts and figures regarding discovery, size, and time periods in which they lived. And there is also some helpful advice on acquiring bricks not already in your collection. You can get the book on Amazon: BUILDING LEGO DINOSAURS BOOK ON AMAZON
The book is an excellent way to extend the also recently released #21320 LEGO Ideas Dinosaur Fossils set, which features buildable, poseable, 1:32 scale models of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Pteranodon skeletons – each with their own display stands – to create LEGO-style natural history museum exhibits. You can find the set at the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.
The other new book by Charles Pritchett, Building LEGO Trains, includes step-by-step, fully illustrated building instructions for seven LEGO train models, including a coal gondola, milk tanker, open hopper, depressed flatcar, passenger coach, powered box car, and diesel locomotive. In addition, design alternatives suggest ways to customize the train cars, improve an existing LEGO train collection, or even pair the models in this book with an official LEGO train set. As I mentioned above, this book won’t be available until August, but you can already pre-order it on Amazon: BUILDING LEGO TRAINS BOOK ON AMAZON
And if you haven’t done so already, I recommend that you check out the other books by Charles as well. I especially recommend the two volumes of Expanding the LEGO Winter Village books. They include instructions for several charming buildings and vintage cars that go well with the LEGO Winter Village collection, or could be used in other settings. Here is the link to all the LEGO instruction books by Charles: LEGO BOOKS BY CHARLES PRITCHETT ON AMAZON
What do you think? Do you have any of the books by this author? How do you like them? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below!
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
The dinosaur book sounds interesting. Is there a list of what dinosaurs are included?
I didn’t find a list of the dinos that are in the book. If you’re interested, I could attempt to contact the author. I was in touch with him in the past about his other books.
I have the winter village books and they are really good. I’m interested in the train book. and will probably get it for Christmas. I just wish Lego released more trains.
Ha! My kids will love the dinosaur book! They have been playing with the Ideas dinosaur set and building their own dinos. This should give them more ideas. Some birthdays are coming up, so…..
It would be easier to sneak these in the house then big Lego boxes. lol. Sometimes I like to look at books simply for inspiration. If the pictures are really good, sometimes I even attempt to build them.
Here’s the list:
Smilodon
Dimetrodon
Pteranodon
Stegosaurus
Ankylosaurus
Velociraptor
Parasaurolophus
Tyrannosaurus
If you go to the book on Amazon and click the Look Inside!, you can see the table of contents with a picture of each dino.
Pretty cool book!
Thank you, Dave!