Via Brickset

Pacific Coast Highway Lug (PCHLug), in association with FBTB, is hosting their 101 Challenge, and this month’s theme is Podracing. For contest rules and prizes, click here! To post your entries (or check out who’s entered), head on over to the Flickr group.

Best of luck!

With the upcoming release of officially licensed LEGO Moleskine notebooks, I’ll have a dedicated place to put my lists of micro-space ship classes, World War II vehicles, plans for next year’s collaborative display, and sketches of interstellar refueling depots.

All four are available for pre-order on Amazon.com:

• Moleskine Lego Yellow Green Brick Pocket Plain Black
• Moleskine Lego Black Brick Ruled Large Black
• Moleskine Lego Yellow Brick Pocket Ruled Black
• Moleskine Lego Red Brick Plain Large Black

I’ve ordered all four, and I’ll let you know what I think when they arrive.

For those who could not attend here’s a selection of some of the great creations that were on display. Or of course you can find your own by wading through the tags or Brickvention group. And if you took photos please remember to add “Brickvention” and “2012″ to your tags and submit it to the group.

• With full stands and an incredible minifig selection, Jennie Sasson bent walls to capture the geometry and activity of a Quidditch tournament. Her use of 3D for the players gave the tournament a wonderful feeling of action.
• The Canberra LUG brought along this wonderful rollercoaster using the old blue track. Watching it zip around the track was a pleasure. I know David Boddy has some great videos of the show too.
• I have to admit I missed Travis Matheson’s ‘Nova’ ships at the actual event, but having spotted the pictures now I really regret it. Some excellent microscale love.

And of course these are merely a few of the many great models and displays that the 10,000 audience members got to see. We’ve already seen Ryan’s rocket and I’ll blog Mike Pianta‘s and my creation later.

PS. Excuse the messy pictures. WordPress hates this sort of layout for some reason. And I hate taking too much space or boring you with excess words to fill space.

Via Toys N Bricks

Here it is with the other recent modular buildings:

Our contacts at LEGO promise to share details about pricing and availability closer to the official announcement, but enjoy the photos for now.

Here are some of my favorite entries from week two, in no particular order:

Rapture of the Deep by Guy Himber

Once Cap’n Jack, Always Cap’n Jack by Bluesecrets

Enemy in Sight by Marco den Besten

Here’s what they say:

Our cameras go on a fun and fascinating adventure in the world inside the Lego factory in Billund, Denmark.  We’ll see what it takes for Lego’s crackerjack team of international designers to update the Legoland police station.  Every single block of the new play set has to be designed with almost superhuman precision because every block produced has to fit seamlessly into the set it comes with, as well as every single Lego block ever made since 1958. We’ll see the new police station evolve through design and development, molding, painting and decorating, packaging and distribution.

And here’s a clip:

The show airs this Saturday, January 21, at 8:00 PM. Can’t wait!

3188 Heartlake Vet

This was my favorite set of the four that we built. It’s a well-designed set with lots of play value. The exterior is a rather simple build but the interior is packed with some pretty cool details, such as an X-ray machine, scale, and examination table. It includes a stall for the horse and lots of new accessories, which are only slightly over-sized when held by traditional minifigs. It also includes the new flowers, which I liked. The new animals are cool, but I was pretty disappointed in the horse. It has no moving parts and the new mini-dolls can’t sit on it or interact with it in any way, except to stand on its back. So unless you’re going to build a horse-vaulting arena with it, the horse is pretty useless. I liked the mini-dolls more than I expected but they’re nowhere near as versatile as regular minifigs. The biggest drawbacks are that the legs can’t move individually and the almost total lack of connectivity.

3061 City Park Café

This set has the most interesting exterior of the sets we reviewed. But the interior is really good as well. It has a display case w/register, booth for customers and small kitchen area. The forks and knives will be useful and the mixer has some interesting connection points that I’m sure will enable it to take a place among its greeblish brethern. My main complaint with the set was the new cupcake pieces. They’re designed to hold a 1×1 round plate/stud but there’s really no “connection” as the 1×1 just sits in it. A tighter connection would have made this piece much more versatile.

3065 Olivia’s Tree House

The tree house is a fun little set with some interesting animals. The tree design is really nothing new but it is sturdy and stands up under play very well. The set comes with the new flowers in red but also includes some of the old flowers. Having the two together in a set makes it immediately obvious that they two don’t go well together. They each have their place but together looks rather off.

3936 Emma’s Fashion Design Studio

This was the smallest set we got and I’m not sure that it is a good buy for what you get. There are unique printed pieces in the set (ipod, anyone?) but there were no interesting design features.

Josh’s Daughter:

To start with, I think that one of the biggest drawbacks is that the girls feet can’t separate and they can’t sit on studs. Also the horse in the Vet set can’t pose very well because the head does not move up or down.

Their hair is pretty neat because it can be switched with a different mini-doll or regular mini-fig. I also really like the three sets of silverware in the Cafe set. They are cool because the mini-dolls can hold it and it looks more real when they eat. Also in the Cafe set there are cupcakes that a single stud can sit in. I like those because it adds another food.

I like the pastel colors but I think there needs to be more dark colors in the sets. Also having only five mini-dolls could get boring because you can’t switch them around as much as you can with mini-figs. Having all the new animals and food is really nice. My dad had the cat chasing the bird. The new flowers, butterflies and Ladybugs add some more detail to the sets. Also, since every new animal I’ve seen has a hole in their heads, you can put bows and things on them all. The girls also have the holes so you can put bows and ribbons on their heads. The Vet set has a little hat for the veterinarian to wear. She also has an icepack that fits into the hole on the animals heads.

Out of all the sets that we built, the Vet is my favorite. All the new animals are cool and the hedgehog is my favorite.

My two nieces both enjoyed the sets, but the 8 year old liked them the best. She already likes LEGO and she loved the new mini-dolls. Her favorite set was the vet because of the animals. My six year old niece is normally bored with LEGO as she prefers Playmobil. But she played with them for a couple of hours and specifically commented on “the pretty colors”. After I had put the sets away, she came up to me and asked if she could get those “Playmobil Lego sets” out again.

If you have any questions about these sets, please feel free to ask them in the comments. Here is a link to my entire gallery of Friends pictures. I hope this review was helpful to you!

The newest LEGO convention will be held June 1-3, 2012 in Portland, Oregon. Here’s the official description for Bricks Cascade.

Bricks Cascade is a convention held in Portland, Oregon, open to Adult Fans of Lego who excel in building various items of detail whose existence beg a public display to the community. Attendees of the Convention must be at least 18 years of age, or if under 18, can only obtain registration if accompanied by a registered adult. The convention officially begins on June 1st 2012 and ends on the evening of June 3rd, 2012.

Friendships, knowledge sharing, and building techniques are just a few benefits gained by attending the convention. More details can be given about this convention on this web site in the coming months. All Convention Attendees pay $52.00 during our initial registration period. Please fill out all information requested to insure your entrance ID is created without errors and prevent any delays during on-site registration fulfillment.

You can register now at BricksCascade.com.

I picked up a sealed case yesterday and the breakdown was as follows:

• 4x Alien
• 5x Highlander
• 3x Pajama Boy
• 3x Statue of Liberty
• 5x Bandit
• 4x Flamenco Dancer
• 3x Robot
• 5x Minotaur
• 4x Leprechaun
• 3x Roman
• 3x Surgeon
• 4x Skateboarder
• 4x Space Girl
• 3x Butcher
• 4x Mechanic
• 3x Genie

I’m curious if this is the breakdown that our readers are getting as well. Please post your case breakdowns in the comments. Make sure you say whether or not the case was sealed.

But I felt I should take a few moments to remind everyone that the public tickets to Brickvention 2012 are selling out fast. So if you want to come see Ryan McNaught’s Apollo 11 (and a bunch of other good stuff) you should book soon.

It’s on in Melbourne Town Hall next weekend (21-22nd Jan 2012)