Book Review: The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book
The second No Starch Press title of the season (after Tiny LEGO Wonders) is also about tiny builds, but with a completely different angle. Chris McVeigh presents a series of miniature builds that serve (mostly) as Christmas ornaments.
The book contains 15 builds. Each build starts with a nicely set picture of the model, followed by an inventory with LEGO part numbers.
The step-by-step instructions that follow are clear and easy to follow and always on the same festive, light-green background.
The book has a contents page, but there is no visual reference to the models and I found it quite challenging to remember the difference between the Barrel, the Ball, the Bow and the Lantern, to name several of the “ball-shaped” ornaments in the list. The fact that all the pages are the same colour makes it slightly less easy to locate the start of each model.
There is really only one page with text in the book, the Introduction, which is a kind of postcard to the reader and an invitation to mix up the colours and check out the author’s website: chrismcveigh.com for more ornament designs.
Of course I did, and I was surprised to find that most of the designs in the book are already available as free downloadable PDFs on the website, although for the most part with different names. Only the last three models are not (yet?) on the website [1] and they are also some of my favourites: the computer, the camera and the burger.
The great thing about these builds is that with a few exceptions they use standard parts that are easily obtained. They also include a couple of nice building techniques, but at the same time, these are simple though fun builds.
The book is beautifully bound in a hard cover and looks like a perfect holiday present.
[1] It turns out these models are in fact on the website, just not in the Ornaments category, but under Tech and Food!
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