Inside Brick Fanatics Magazine: Introducing Review+

Brick Fanatics Magazine’s Review+ section is about more than just reviewing the latest LEGO sets…

We’ve just announced our LEGO print publication Brick Fanatics Magazine and made both single issues and 12-issue and 24-issue subscriptions available for purchase. Let’s now delve a little deeper into the publication, and offer you a look at some of its pages, beginning with one of our favourite feature concepts…

In developing Brick Fanatics Magazine, one of the first sections that we put together was Review+. Love them or hate them, set and product reviews are a staple of any LEGO media outlet, be them website, YouTube channel or magazine. There’s an audience out there interested to hear opinion and observations on what’s available to buy.

The reality of print deadlines and the fact we have a healthy review section on brickfanatics.com meant that incorporating reviews into Brick Fanatics Magazine was a unique challenge. We still wanted to offer coverage on the latest LEGO sets released and certainly capitalise on the way that a print magazine can use text and photography, but we wanted to do so in a different way, and offer readers of Brick Fanatics Magazine something more than just straightforward reviews, something truly worth their money. Allow us to introduce you to Review+.

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Sample layouts – filler text used, layout may change

Pairing smart writing with eye-catching photography is just the starting point in Review+. We lead each issue with a detailed analysis of a set that has caught our eye, and fill the pages with as many facts, figures and callouts as we will with review copy and large images. We want to give you a fun, informative and engaging experience, page by page. And we are always looking for an opportunity to give the reader even more than that – Issue 1’s look at 71043 Hogwarts Castle, for instance, includes a walkthrough from its designer, Justin Ramsden.

Our desire to dive deeper into the latest LEGO releases continues with unique focuses in other Review+ features. We may pick out interesting minifigures and tell you more than you think you already know about them; or find comparisons between new and old sets, important or unusual; we may be drawn in by a particular technique used in a set and explore its concept and potential; we may decide to test a set to its true limits all for the love of destruction LEGO – whatever the rabbit hole a set offers, Review+ will be diving down it.

Importantly, we recognise that print media has the potential to utilise imagery and text in creative ways that online platforms have still yet to offer, and Review+ is just one section of Brick Fanatics Magazine that aims to take advantage of that. Each issue, we will task some of the LEGO community’s most talented photographers with giving you a completely new way to look at that set you may have been eyeing in the LEGO store. Issue 1 has the Stuck in Plastic team work their magic on 21311 Voltron. You may have read a review or two on this set, but, have you seen an artist play with it?

Review+ is all about offering more than just straightforward reviews. Clever writing and engaging photography is just the starting point for a section we guarantee will draw you in. Come to brickfanatics.com for the latest expert reviews, subscribe to Brick Fanatics Magazine for something special.

Author Profile

Rob Paton
As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

Rob Paton

As one half of Tiro Media Ltd, I mix a passion for print and digital media production with a deep love of LEGO and can often be found on these pages eulogising about LEGO Batman, digging deeper into the LEGO Group’s inner workings, or just complaining about the price of the latest LEGO Star Wars set. Make a great impression when you meet me in person by praising EXO-FORCE as the greatest LEGO theme of all time. Follow me on Twitter @RobPaton or drop me an email at [email protected].

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