For years, LEGO has offered a wealth of options to delight space enthusiasts. This year has seen a resurgence in space-themed LEGO sets, and today, LEGO introduces two new additions in this vein: The 10341 Artemis Space Launch System, joining the LEGO Icons collection, and the 31212 The Milky Way Galaxy, expanding the LEGO Art line of products. These sets will be available on LEGO’s website on May 15th for LEGO Insiders (May 18th for everyone else).
What’s your favourite LEGO space theme? I think mine would have to be M:Tron. The colours! The vehicles! The magnets! Over on Flickr, user legomess ticks off all three with this modern take on the theme. They’ve done a great job of blending classic parts (like the magnet holders and neon-green windscreen) with newer ones. The overall design is neat, too. I like how such a big, bulky walker wanders around on its tiptoes!
Naturally, it wouldn’t be M:Tron without a bit of magnetic play action. The ‘M’ in M:Tron may have stood for ‘magnet’, but in this case it’s equally apt for it to mean ‘massive’, ‘mecha’, or simply ‘magnificent’!
With more and more LEGO themes this year embracing a space subtheme, it’s no surprise that Friends has gotten in on the action as well. We got a quick taste earlier this year of interstellar minidolls with 42605 Mars Space Base and Rocket, and the second course is set to arrive next month with LEGO Friends 42602 Space Research Rover. Clocking in at 514 pieces, the set will hit store shelves on April 1, and retail for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99. But does this encore performance in the subtheme hold up with an old 90’s LEGO Space fan like myself? Read on to find out!
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Thanks to UK LEGO retailer The Minifigure Store, we’ve been treated to our first look at the next Collectible Minifigure (CMF) series. 71046 Minifigures Space Series 26 is the latest LEGO offering to bear the ‘Space’ banner, and as you might have guessed, the series is fully Space-themed. There’s a mixture of new designs and references to classic LEGO Space themes, such as M-Tron or Ice Planet 2002. Availability starts from May 1st, and while there is no official word on RRP, we expect it will follow the usual CMF pricing of US $4.99 | CAN $5.99 | UK £3.49.
We don’t have individual pictures of the figures yet, either – but you can see them in more detail after the jump.
At a glance, one might mistake this exceptionally tidy creation by Thomas Jenkins for an official LEGO set, and you could be forgiven for that, as the Jedi craft’s distinctive lines are recreated spot-on. But there’s a lot more going on here than you will find in any set (including easily triple the parts count!) – a result of Thomas’ “totally SNOT approach” to the subject. To my knowledge, the “Eta-2 Actis-class Light Interceptor” or simply the “Jedi Interceptor” has been offered three times as an official set at this scale, all of them using some variation of the same Bubble Canopy element seen here. No doubt starting with that element, Thomas’ build easily blows them all away, having tried “so many combinations to get the angles to match just right” before striking “just the right balance of aesthetics and compactness”. I couldn’t agree more! Time well spent, sir.
To borrow from another franchise for a moment, this is not the Jedi Interceptor we got, but it’s the one we deserve.
This latest LEGO creation by builder Librarian-Bot takes us to the nostalgic sweet spot in the early 90s when fake glasses and Zupaz pants were cool- or so I thought. Looking back, it is quite possible anyone sporting fake specs, a crystal necklace, and baggy psychedelic weightlifter pants when clearly not being a weightlifter was never cool but a boy can dream, right? It’s like this creation, with its bold black-and-white color scheme and transparent bubble canopies whisks us away to a time when wanting to sex you up and being down with OPP (whatever that means) was a badge of honor. Maybe it’s time to don my Zupaz once again get out my little black book from 1991 and give a few hunnys a call. The pants had an elastic waist so fitting them onto my now paunchy frame shouldn’t be an issue at all.
And like my Zupaz pants, this vehicle also houses two mini-spaceships and a hidden rover.
Ahoy LEGO Pirates fans! If this terrific scene of peril an’ plunder rings familiar, it should, especially if ye’ve been hitting the bricks since at least 2009… Still not seeing it? Take off your cosplay patch and feast both eyes on Ben Spector’s loving redesign of 6240: Kraken Attackin’ built for the Eurobricks “Space Pirates – Back to the Caribbean Galaxy!” competition. Every bit of character from the original is represented here, with added spicy space-y flavour – from the crate full of loot about to be lost to the deep, to the colourful plumage on the pirate’s flighted familiar, handsomely reimagined and lending a little air support here as a faithful mount. (A weather eye will have already spotted the repurposed scooter chassis element. No lubberly LEGO builder here!)
Ben really didn’t miss a detail from the original, all of them amped up and expertly crafted as you’d expect from both a contest entry and a modern LEGO set redux from a skilled builder.
If this cracking creation fills your sails, cast yer’ deadlights on the Brothers Brick archives by clicking the links below, for more ship-shape Pirate and Space-themed builds.
In case it escaped your attention, this year is a leap year. That means we got a whole extra day of the LEGO community’s month-long rover-building bonanza: Febrovery! And boy, has Scott Wilhelm made good use of that bonus day. At 117 studs long, this colossal rover would almost qualify for that other famous space-building monthly challenge, SHIPtember (it just needs to swap those wheels for wings). Since it’s built for exploring, let’s do some exploring of our own and find out what Scott has hidden inside this behemoth. (Spoiler alert: a lot!)
Seeking their fortunes across the stars, this renegade band of LEGO rapscallions aren’t just smugglers. They’re full-on space pirates, at least according to builder Librarian-Bot. Inspired by the 1993 set 6268 Renegade Runner, this creation was inspired by the “Space Pirates – Back to the Caribbean Galaxy” competition happening over at Eurobricks. The ship’s sail has been transformed into a large beveled wing, still striped in black and white. A large rocket engine has been added to the schooner’s aft section, and the large cannon mounted below the ship looks devastating!
I love Aidan Hayward‘s wild creature builds. This latest one is called Astel Naturalborn of the Void, and it’s… Er… Well, what is it? Other than a badass all-powerful cosmic deity, of course. That much is evident from the rings, stars and gas clouds emanating from its body. But otherwise, it could be part-scorpion, part-dragonfly, part-snake, even part-Medusa. We use the world other-worldly a lot when discussing Aidan’s creations (which we do a lot). But nowhere is that description more apt than here!
The latest round of Technic sets has created a bit of a stir with all their epic space-y-ness! We’ve already taken a close look at 42181 VTOL Heavy Cargo Spaceship LT81 and 42180 Mars Crew Exploration Rover and now it’s time to turn our attention to the smallest of the space vehicles: LEGO Technic 42178 Surface Space Loader LT78. Is it a mighty mouse? You’ll have to read on to see! Like its counterparts, this set will also be available March 1st. It has 435 pieces and will retail for US $34.99 | CAN $44.99 | UK £29.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews
It looks like this year is the year of SPACE for LEGO. They are pumping out some lovely sets in multiple themes, including Technic. The latest wave appear to be some heavy hitters, especially with LEGO Technic 42181 VTOL Heavy Cargo Spaceship LT81. Space nerds a mile away did a double take when pictures started to surface. Plus, a marriage with Technic functions could be an epic pairing. So let’s take a deeper look at this beauty to see if the build is as fun as it looks. The set, which contains 1365 pieces, will be available March 1st and retail for US $109.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews