TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 18, 2020

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third week of January 2020.

LEGO reveals a field of dreams with the new Old Trafford – Manchester United set. Keep reading our Brick Report to get all the details.

TBB NEWS AND FEATURES: This week we received some behind-the-scenes interviews about the upcoming LEGO Masters TV show, took a look at the early history of LEGO Education and reviewed three sets including the Chinese New Year Lion Dance!

  • LEGO BrickHeadz 40337 Donald Duck 40378 Pluto & Goofy revealed – More BrickHeadz to add to your collection with Donald, Goofy and Pluto.
  • LEGO Creator Expert 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United on sale for VIP Members – The LEGO Creator Expert 10272 Old Trafford is now on sale for VIP Members and comes with a Gift With Purchase while supplies last.
  • A History of LEGO Education, Part 1: Strong Foundations [Feature] – Want to school yourself on the history of LEGO Education? Read part one to learn about the origins of LEGO Education along with some key milestones.
  • LEGO Education celebrates 40 years by launching SPIKE Prime engineering kit worldwide – LEGO Education is celebrating its 40th birthday with the worldwide launch of its newest educational tool — SPIKE Prime.
  • LEGO reveals Creator Expert football stadium 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United – We can almost hear 700M football fans across the globe screaming for joy with LEGO’s announcement of the 1:600 scale model of the renowned Old Trafford – the home of Manchester United Football Club.
  • London children’s hospital built in 60,000 LEGO bricks – Fairy Bricks charity volunteer Gary Davis puts together a massive model of a London Children’s Hospital

    • TBB LEGO MASTERS INTERVIEWS:

    TBB REVIEWS:

    OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

    Hands-on with LEGO BrickHeadz 40337 Donald Duck & 40378 Pluto & Goofy [Review]

    Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy — famous and much-loved, and yet somehow always relegated to the second-division of Disney characters behind Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Sure, the Disney Empire is The-House-The-Mouse-Built, but personally I’ll take Donald’s edgier attitude over Mickey’s slightly bland wholesomeness any day of the week. As for Goofy, he’s a classic clown, good for causing chaos and taking a painful pratfall — he’s always been one of my favourite of the Disney gang. Along with Pluto, Mickey’s pet dog, these are the latest Disney-themed releases in the BrickHeadz line of blocky figures. This new pair of sets will allow Disney fans to put together a wider BrickHeadz family of their favourite characters alongside the previously released Mickey & Minnie.

    No pricing information and availability has been released yet, however,  based on previous BrickHeadz of similar configurations the Pluto and Goofy dual pack is likely to be priced at US: $14.99 | Canada: 17.99 CAD | UK: £14.99 while the single build Donald Duck is expected to be US: $9.99 | Canada: 12.99 CAD | UK: £9.99

    What did we think of this latest addition to the BrickHeadz range? Check out our full review…

    Click to read the review and follow the building process

    Oh, truck yeah!

    Some LEGO builds look like they are made from tiny studded pieces of plastic. That’s appropriate, because that is what they are. However, some builds are done so sleekly that nary a stud is showing, save for representation of a specific detail. These builds cause the viewer to do a double take, and this author has been known to utter a muffled “holy bleep, that’s LEGO” from time to time when seeing them. This truck by Dennis Bosman is one such build. It’s a refrigerated Volvo F12 truck, branded for the Stie’s Termo Transport company from Norway. It is way too big for minifigs (it’s 1:13 scale, as opposed to roughly 1:25-1:42 for minifigs, depending on the relevant dimensions), and scaling it that way allowed Bosman to include mind-boggling details. The cab lifts open to reveal a fully equipped engine, the cab is plushly furnished, the trailers are studded both inside and out, and even the refrigeration units on the trailers have motors inside them.

    Volvo F12 "Sties"

    Click to see this truck in greater detail

    First LEGO set from Marvel’s Black Widow movie revealed with 76162 Black Widow’s Helicopter Chase [News]

    This morning Yahoo revealed the first LEGO set from Marvel’s upcoming Black Widow movie, 76162 Black Widow’s Helicopter Chase. The set features a Chinook-style helicopter, motorcycle and three minifigures of Black Widow, Yelena Belova, and Taskmaster. LEGO appears to be doing a staggered rollout of the 271-piece set, with Yahoo reporting it will be available at Target starting March 1 and Disney parks in April, ahead of the film’s May 1 release date. The set will retail for $29.99 USD.

     

    Make 2020 the Year of the Guinea Pig

    Chinese New Year is little more than a week away and, according to the Chinese zodiac, we are entering the Year of the Rat. When it comes to heavenly rodents, Ian Hoy has another cute critter in mind. Of course, I’m talking about the guinea pig! This little guy is beautifully sculpted with angled and curved slopes to capture the adorable chunkiness of domestic itty-bitty piggies. The facial expression is priceless. As for that bit of yellow in his hands, if you thought it might be a morsel of cheese, you would be sadly mistaken. It’s actually yuanbao, a gold ingot that was used as a form of currency in China from the Qin Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty. I wouldn’t mind dropping a few yuanbao myself if it meant this little fellow could join the colorful cast of zodiac animals.

    nEO_IMG_DOGOD_2020_Counting money brings joy to my life_00

    A new lease on learning with LEGO Education set 45678 SPIKE Prime [Review]

    Way back in April of last year, LEGO Education announced the launch of 45678 SPIKE Prime, a new Scratch-based tool in classroom programming. After some delay from the original August 2019 release, it’s now available for purchase and we’ve been fortunate enough to receive a copy to review. We’re excited to see what we learn about this fascinating new set! LEGO Education 45678 SPIKE Prime is available now from the LEGO Education shop for $329.95 USD.

    Additionally, with the 40th anniversary of LEGO Education this week, we’re also sharing loads of cool information about the history of the department and its contributions to STEAM learning (Covered over multiple articles). It’s not every day we get to dive deep into a set from a division of the company that has been mildly separated and not intended for general distribution. This division of LEGO is really getting into its stride lately, and the future holds exciting things!

    Click to take a closer look at this cool set!

    It’s...wait for it...a trap!

    Useful or not, some folks have a special talent, a gift, if you will, that is unique to them. Maybe they were even born with it and don’t know of their uncanny abilities until it happens. Some folks can wiggle their ears, some have really bendy thumbs. My talent; I write sensitive poetry about the man from Nantucket. I should recite some for you sometime. Okay Yaramanoglu built this stylized Admiral Akbar and his talent is to alert anyone within earshot that something is a trap. Whether it be a mousetrap, bear trap, or in this case, a deadly game of cat and mouse sprung by a ruling Empire against a Rebel Alliance, Admiral Ackbar is the gravelly voice of authority. Identifying traps probably earned him the admiral position. In every case so far, however, he’s been quite adept at identifying traps after they have sprung, not before. Some foreknowledge could prove helpful in many cases, Admiral.

    It's a Trap!

    Bulid your own Shaun the sheep! Meh! [Instructions]

    If you ever have problems sleeping, perhaps instead of counting sheep, maybe, build sheep? Well, if nothing else works, maybe you can give it a go? You can thank Tiago Catarino for providing the pieces needed and video instructions to go along and guide you into a mundane repetitive task. You may want to grab a few extra eye elements or pick some other fancy ones for variety and fun. Let us know what count you got to before dozing off. Meh! Meh!

    LEGO Shaun the Sheep

    Video with pieces required and step by step guide here:

     

    Check out the eyes of this tiger

    Before the internet was blessed with our Lord and Savior Baby Yoda, we were something of a cat worshiping culture. And though we’ve perhaps mostly moved on, there are still adherents to the old ways out there, paying tribute to the former deities of the web, like this Tiger by Herbert Lee (Tigers are the best kind of cats too). I’ve always thought that tiger paws looked big and blocky, and now I get to see them made out of plastic blocks. The use of black horn/tail pieces used here is impressive, both in obvious places, like the tigers claws, and less obvious, like the stripes transversing the white and orange pieces that sculpt the body. Two other impressive details are the minifigure hands as eyes and tooth plates to form an unmistakable cat snout. It makes me believe those pieces were designed for this model.

    The Tiger

    LEGO BrickHeadz 40337 Donald Duck 40378 Pluto & Goofy revealed [News]

    Today we get a reveal of the upcoming Disney Themed BrickHeadz featuring Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy. These new characters will be a welcome addition to the existing family together with the Mickey and Minnie Mouse sets.

    Click to have a closer look at the two new BrickHeadz sets

    Meet the happy couple – LEGO BrickHeadz 40383 & 40384 – Bride and Groom [Review]

    The LEGO BrickHeadz line introduced a wonderful way to build yourself, your siblings, or your friends, with the 41596 BrickHeadz Go Brick Me set. Now there’s another opportunity for depicting yourself or your chums in the brick — this time in celebration of a wedding. 40383 Bride and 40384 Groom allow you to build a happy couple to mark any upcoming nuptials. It’s a nice idea, and feels like it would make a great wedding gift for a LEGO-loving couple. But what are the sets actually like, and how many options are there for customising the figures?

    The Brothers Brick are delighted to request the pleasure of your company at a wedding…

    LEGO 40383 BrickHeadz Bride contains 306 pieces and is available now for US $12.99 | CAN $16.99 | UK £11.99. LEGO 40384 BrickHeadz Groom contains 255 pieces and is also available now for US $12.99 | CAN $16.99 | UK £11.99

    Read our full hands-on review of the happy couple

    LEGO Creator Expert 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United on sale for VIP Members [News]

    The latest LEGO Creator Expert Set, 10272 Old Trafford – Manchester United, is now available for LEGO VIP members. For a limited period between 16th Jan the 31st Jan (or while stocks last), you will be eligible for a Gift with Purchase (GwP) of the United Trinity Statue featuring Minifigures of George Best, Denis Law and Sir Bobby Charlton on a pedestal. The GwP will only be available to VIP Members. If you’ve not signed up, a LEGO VIP membership is free of charge. Non VIP members will be able to purchase this set after the 20th of January 2020.

    The Old Trafford is priced at US $299.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £249.99 on LEGO Stores online.

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