Hey it’s me again, Jonathan Samson with a new creation for your perusal. When I originally wanted to create a ray gun, I started by building a couple of diodes – for inspiration I was trying a new sorting technique (pre-sorting into hues). I found I had an eclectic array of dark orange and dark tan pieces that seemed fit for purpose – round pieces for the barrel, a wing for the trigger and a bucketload of medium dark flesh crow’s nest elements for the pistol grip, so the diodes quickly got crystal downgrades and it became my first steampunk creation.
Yearly Archives: 2017
LEGO sales & deals ahead of Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2017 [News]
As the holiday shopping season gets underway, retailers are discounting LEGO sets ahead of the even bigger deals waiting in the wings for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We’ll bring you all the sales & deals as we learn about them, but in the meantime here are a few highlights of LEGO on sale right now.
71006 The Simpsons House is 20% or $40 off at $159.88.
Many of the 2016 and early 2017 Star Wars sets we’ve highlighted as on sale a couple times remain heavily discounted, but don’t expect them to last much longer, despite the vastness of Amazon’s warehouses.
75104 Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle is 33% off at $79.99.
See more early LEGO sales & deals after the jump
Prepare for winter by building your own LEGO snowcat [Instructions]
Winter is coming! Well, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere of course. I’m thinking about those cold, frosty mornings; wearing hats and scarves; Chris McVeigh’s annual Christmas decoration builds; and snow. de-marco has been building a lovely collection of minifigure-scale vehicles, and we thought a snowcat tracked vehicle would be perfect for the coming season.
The instructional video can be seen below and de-marco has created a list of parts required to build your own snowcat.
Harvesting the worlds of space
The end of the annual SHIPtember build challenge need not portend the end to excellent large-scale LEGO spaceships. Rat Dude also proves that gray need not be the only utilitarian color for LEGO spaceships with the Yaga Ni’Kurwa in gorgeous blue and brown. The spots of red, orange, and yellow certainly add visual interest, but the designs are actually quite complex — particularly the sheaf of wheat indicating the vessel’s role in interstellar agribusiness.
It’s unfortunate that the builder has only posted this one photo — I want to see the massive engines on the back that power this grain freighter through the stars.
Take part in the new LEGO Ideas logo contest to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project [News]
Next year, the LEGO Ideas project, which was originally launched in Japan as LEGO CUUSOO, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. To mark the milestone, the team has invited builders to take part in a contest to build your own version of the LEGO Ideas logo. You can either base your new version on the official one below, or completely re-imagine it. The best entries will be featured on the LEGO Ideas Facebook page to celebrate the anniversary, and the best of the best could win some very cool prizes.
Learn more about this LEGO building contest
The next wave of LEGO Batman Movie sets revealed [News]
If you ever worried your favourite LEGO Batman Movie villain wasn’t chosen to become an official plastic minifigure included in a set, have a look at the newly revealed 2018 Batman Movie wave. Four news sets bring us five more of Batman enemies along with some mind-blowing Batman vehicles like an adorable Bat-Kayak. Sets will hit store shelves in January 2018, however the piece count and the prices are yet to be announced.
70923 The Bat-Space Shuttle
See more of the 2018 LEGO Batman Movie sets!
Sometimes you just need some time for yourself. In a castle.
And I know of no better castle for this purpose than this cute “little” fort built by Marco den Besten really has everything you could want. Built in a beautiful landscape, surrounded by a picturesque village and defensible to boot!
Every singe aspect of the diorama has something unique that deserves to be talked about. The castle’s textures are great, but even more so I love the architecture and layout of it, with tightly packed towers and walls that give an impression of a very sturdy construction. The houses are mostly simple, but the new quarter-circle tiles add a really nice texture. The best part of all, though, are the trees. I have never seen the dark green root piece used for pine trees and I have no idea what the actual technique behind it is, but it just seems so obvious now that I see it.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 video game released [News]
Warner Bros Games and LEGO have united once more to create an all-new, epic adventure and sequel to the smash hit, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes with their new game, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2. The game follows an original branching storyline, co-written by comic book veteran Kurt Busiek, that follows on directly where LEGO Marvel Super Heroes left off. Players are transported into 18 different Marvel locations that have been “ripped from time and space into the incredible open hub world of Chronopolis”.
You can see a bit of the gameplay in the official trailer:
LEGO Star Wars BrickHeadz 41489 Rey & Kylo Ren officially unveiled [News]
Adding to the LEGO Star Wars BrickHeadz line, following Finn and Captain Phasma (and the limited-run Boba Fett & Han Solo in Carbonite), LEGO today officially unveiled a two-pack set that includes Rey and Kylo Ren.
The 41489 Rey & Kylo Ren two-pack will go on sale on December 1st. LEGO’s tweet didn’t include pricing, but our guess is that the set will be consistent with other BrickHeadz prices and retail for around $20.
21037 LEGO House [Review]
Every child knows how easy it is to build a house with LEGO bricks. It’s almost impossible to build a bad-looking one. And the concept of “house” is pretty universal: 4 walls, a door, a window, and a roof — any form, any type and any materials you want. But what happens when you build a house based on an actual building that was originally designed to look like it was built with LEGO bricks? This mind-boggling concept hides behind the most unique LEGO Architecture set to date — 21097 LEGO House. Like other Architecture sets, this model is based on a real building, but this time it’s the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark that opened in September 2017. The set is only available at the LEGO House gift shop for 449 DKK (~$70 USD).
The box art shows off the model and its wonderful colours. The back displays the main feature — a removable second floor revealing the House’s spacious interior. This is a rare play feature amongst the relatively small Architecture models.
Click through to read our full review of this interesting and unusual set…
Continue reading
Peace through superior air power
Take a WW2-era Mustang, mix in a dash of muscle-car, then shake with a liberal helping of Dieselpunk. The result? Jon Hall‘s excellent new LEGO creation, the Fe-47 Rapier — a “sky-fi” fighter plane of formidable proportions. The colour blocking on this baby is fierce, the splashes of yellow adding real visual pop to the tail, nose, and engine cowlings. And the overall shaping is classic alternate-technology building — familiar enough to be immediately recognisable, but odd enough to make you look twice.
One of the things I love about Jon’s creations is the attention to detail he lavishes on every aspect. The custom decals are an obvious highlight, but my favourite touch is the undercarriage — managing to let this bad boy land, despite the bulging lower fuselage…
Powering the rollercoaster with LEGO 70922 The Joker Manor [Review]
LEGO has introduced an all new roller-coaster play system in 70922 The Joker Manor. We discussed it briefly in our review of the full set, but we felt the new roller-coaster rails were important enough to merit a post of their own. As one of TBB’s least Technic-centred members of staff, I found it was great fun attempting to add Power Functions to the rollercoaster and—health and safety aspects aside—it turns out it’s also rather simple.