Here’s a message from Blocks magazine Editor Graham E. Hancock to our readers as everyone gets into the swing of the holiday and reflects on 2023.
It’s that time of year when things are a little calmer and… who am I kidding?! We’re working on Blocks magazine’s February and March issues between mince pies and glugs of mulled wine.
Enough of that – this time of the year is a great time to reflect and think about the past 12 months, even though the nature of publishing encourages us to always think to the future.
This year marked the 100th issue of Blocks magazine, a very special milestone for the publication. Our wonderful cake cover really made me smile and the content was very special too – we gathered our editors to look back at our past editions and explain what went into making them happen. We also had a really fun build feature in which Simon imagined Blocks through the ages!
It was also the year that I finally returned to Skærbæk Fan Weekend, this time with my friend and colleague Daniel Konstanski. I actually exhibited a MOC (albeit a small one)! It was our absolute pleasure to meet so many readers, many international, and make that face-to-face connection. It’s fair to say that by the end of the weekend we were on a cloud of positivity after hearing such nice things about the magazine. I’ll say it here; we do accept constructive criticism/requests/ideas too! Never feel like you can only tell me about what you love!
Speaking of that, one piece of feedback we’ve had many times is that readers would like parts lists for the build instructions we provide; it has been a tricky thing to make work, because there’s a lot that goes into producing those build features in the tight timeframes we work to. As a starting point though, our new Quick Build instructions also include parts lists, so hopefully that’s making it easier for you to replicate the builds we present.
There’s lots more newness coming to the magazine over the next few months that I’m really excited about. We have a phenomenal team at Blocks who I am privileged to work with – I couldn’t make the magazine happen without Daniel, Dave, Kat, Phil, Chris, Simon, Anthony, Geneva, Ryan, Sean, Dimitri, Keith – and Tom, our ever-supportive publisher.
As ever though, it’s our readers who really make this possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We absolutely love producing this magazine each month and knowing that so many people out there read it, enjoy it and get in touch with us inspires us to keep coming up with new, engaging features. Whether you buy the magazine every month or the occasional issue, we appreciate you (although… those subscription prices work out to be very good value…).
If you know someone who would like Blocks, but hasn’t tried it before or recently, please recommend the magazine to them. The more readers we reach, the more ambitious our content can be.
A special thanks to everyone who has ordered The Blocks Book of Retro LEGO Sets – I knew that picking through our back catalogue for our best Space, Castle and Pirates content would make for a good one-off special… but I didn’t realise just how popular it would be. If you do enjoy that special, why not try our three month or six month subscriptions to see how you like the regular magazine? We’re offering these shorter subs as a trial for now and will be taking feedback on them.
If you’ve read this far then you deserve a Christmas treat! Get a sneak peek of our Issue 111 cover below.
Thank you everyone for your support and for making Blocks magazine a part of your LEGO life – we’ll continue to enrich your hobby by giving you content that you can’t get anywhere else.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Graham E. Hancock
Editor
graham@blocksmag.com
