Tag Archives: Chess

LEGO Lord of the Rings out + free Hulk minifig & new Kingdoms chess set [News]

The third-quarter LEGO sets are now officially out, led by both the new LEGO Lord of the Rings and Marvel Super Heroes sets. If you buy $50 from the LEGO Shop between now and the end of the month, you’ll get an exclusive Hulk minifig that’s not available in any set, for free. And you’ll get the original Frodo minifig movie poster with any LEGO LOTR order.

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Having *ahem* cheated and picked up some of these sets at a local brick-and-mortar store on Sunday, I can attest to the awesomeness of a tiny Gandalf and even tinier Frodo — with suspenders! — in 9469 Gandalf Arrives.icon

Here’s the list of all LEGO LOTR sets that are out now:

  • 9469 Gandalf Arrives:icon Comes with Gandalf, Frodo Baggins, and one of the new horses Chris covered in his review of 9471 Uruk-hai Army.
  • 9470 Shelob Attacks:icon Includes Frodo, Samwise Gamgee, the One Ring, and Gollum.
  • 9471 Uruk-hai Army:icon With Eomer, Rohirrim archer, four Uruk-hai, and a new horse.
  • 9472 Attack on Weathertop:icon Has Aragorn, Frodo, Meriadoc Brandybuck, two Ringwraiths, and two of the new horses in black.
  • 9473 The Mines of Moria:icon I picked this one up locally too, and it’s a pretty fun build that has lots of play features and cool minifigs — Legolas (resulting in the inevitable puns while I built the set, followed by swooning from my wife), Gimli, Boromir, Peregrin Took, two orcs/goblins, and a very large cave troll.
  • 9474 The Battle of Helm’s Deep:icon The largest set in the theme at $130 and over 1,300 parts, this set comes with Aragorn, Gimli, Haldir, King Théoden, and four Uruk-hai (including the torch-wielding berserker).
  • 9476 The Orc Forge:icon This set is exclusive to one of the big-box retailers if you don’t get it directly from LEGO, and has Lurtz, two orcs/goblins, and another Uruk-hai.

Here’s a closer look at Helm’s Deep:

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Finally, just when you thought the current LEGO Castle theme was (mostly) dead, LEGO has just released a new 853373 LEGO Kingdoms Chess Set.icon

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Main Hulk minifig offer link for US readers:

FREE Exclusive 'The Hulk™' Minifigure with a $50 purchase. Valid 5.16 - 5.30

For our Canadian readers:

FREE Exclusive 'The Hulk™' Minifigure with a $50 purchase. Valid 5.16 - 5.30

And for our UK readers:

FREE Exclusive 'The Hulk™' Minifigure with a £50 purchase. Valid 16.5 - 30.5

Disclaimer: We do this to pay the bills, which are very real thanks to several hundred thousand wonderful readers like you out there who loyally visit Brothers-Brick.com every week. :-) Similar deals may or may not be available in other countries.

LEGO Micro-Chess

I’m a sucker for LEGO chess sets. I’ve built several myself and once you get going, it is hard to stop. This miniature set, by Matt Armstrong has a deceptively simple quality to it. The pieces are all made from the micro trophy figure, from the Collectible Minifigure series, and at first glace are nearly indistinguishable from one another. However, the bases of the chess pieces are just different enough that one can tell the various pieces apart at a glance. Now I want to go make some more chess sets…

Lego micro-chess

Checkmate.

There are so many things I want to say about this, but mostly, I’m just in awe. This four-section creation by Rook just has so much gorgeous detail.

I’ll start with the obvious: the four parts interlock to create either a tower or fortress, and changes the dynamics for each mode. Then there’s the bone-tree, the “giant” chess set, and the detailing on the towers.

I can’t pick a favorite detail on this. Just take a look and see for yourself!

Thanks for the heads up, Bley Junkie!

The Empire Strikes Back Lego chess set

As follow up to his A New Hope chess set, Brandon Griffith (icgetaway) presents another beautiful set that captures the key characters from The Empire Strikes Back. I really like the Hoth themed game board, and the fact that it also acts as storage for the pieces is another plus. Check out the full details on Flickr.

Via FBTB

Massive chess set is playing for keeps

Chess is one game that forces one to strategise and to think and plan in advance, forcing the brain into utilising all that grey matter into maximum overdrive. Team Hassenplug takes it to the next level by crafting a monster project with over 100,000 LEGO bricks that cost well over $30,000 for not only a supersized version of the game but also one that’s interactive thanks to integrated LEGO MINDSTORMS. This fully programmable system allows two human players to challenge one another or even select a computer opponent to play against.

Click here to see it in action

Lego my Chess

These are two sets that I made for Classic Castle’s Chess Challenge, which ends tonight. I had a lot of fun with these. I’ve never made two matching creations in different scales before.

Lego Chess Set

I’m hooked on Chess sets now. I think I’m going to do some more…

Checkmate

I play a lot of board games, and while chess isn’t at the top of my rotation, I still appreciate a nice set. This little set by akunthita looks like the perfect thing to bring on a flight or road trip to a Lego convention.

I think its the presence of drawers to store the pieces that really makes this thing for me. The pieces are expressive enough to get the point across, especially given their small dimensions. Of course, with a Lego chess set, there’s no risk of the pieces falling over when you hit a bump.

LEGO Mini Chess Set

Mini LEGO chess set with adorable kings and queens

I never caught the chess bug, but this tiny set by akunthita just might change my mind. The queens use the tiny Belville crowns, though I’m less keen on the cut towballs on the pawns.

LEGO mini chess set

In keeping with our theme of function as well as form today, the chess set has little drawers that can hold all the pieces.

LEGO Star Wars: A New Hope chess set by Brandon Griffith

I strongly suspect most of you have already seen this, but this LEGO Star Wars chess set by Brandon Griffith (icgetaway) is well worth another look.

LEGO Star Wars Chess Set

In addition to a great board and the minifig stands one might expect from a LEGO chess set, Brandon built a bunch of microscale Star Wars vehicles and even a couple of cute little vignettes as chess pieces.

LEGO Star Wars chess set - Greedo LEGO Star Wars chess set - TIE fighter

Via the LEGO CUUSOO blog.

The force was with LEGOLAND California

LEGO builders and Star Wars fans, including the San Diego LEGO User’s Group (SandLUG) and From Bricks to Bothans (FBTB) converged on LEGOLAND California last weekend (June 13 and 14) and set up several tables across from The Big Shop. This isn’t an effort at self-promotion, but more a desire to share a few of the great creations that I’m pretty sure the builders don’t have time to post online or the creations are just too cool to pass up.

In addition to Mark Borlase’s gigantic Hoth diorama (it tragically took a “humpty dumpty” on the way back to Las Vegas) has been featured on The Brothers Brick before, here are a few of the other notables:

Sarlacc Pit

Cooperatively built Sarlacc Pit by Andy Grubb (anderson.grubb) and Gary McIntire (MrGSnot). Check out my other photos which show Sarlacc’s stomach contents, perhaps the coolest feature. Yummy.

New Hope Chess

Probably the most coveted creation at the display, people were quite literally offering to buy this “Star Wars: A New Hope” chess set created by Brandon Griffith (icgetaway) right off the table, thinking it was an official set. That good. Playing with toys are (left to right) Ryan Wood (lights) and Andy Grubb.

Brian Ronto

SandLUG member Brian Heins built this Ronto that has such great coloration and was quite playable.

(Edit: misspelled Brian Heins’ name. Corrected.)

7628 Peril in Peru out, 7036 Dwarves Mine back, and more [News]

The Toys R Us exclusive LEGO Indiana Jones set 7628 Peril in Peruicon is now available from the LEGO Shop online.

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One of my candidates for “favorite LEGO set of all time,” 7036 Dwarves’ Mineicon is once again available:

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Of course, this latest update to the LEGO Shop online also includes a whole bunch of other new sets, as well as a fair amount of clearance items. Some highlights:

Last but not least, the long-awaited 10187 Volkswagen Beetleicon is also available.

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Ultimate LEGO Castle Chess Set [News]

UPDATE: The LEGO Castle Giant Chess Set
icon will be available for pre-order from the LEGO Shop on July 1. No release date has been announced yet.

Some people know where to look for leaked pictures of upcoming sets, and many times great treasures are dug up in lego.com’s cache (the specific procedures are still a mystery to me, but I think it involves manipulating image url’s). Check out the upcoming castle chess set, complete with just about everything and probably including a big price tag too.


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