Yearly Archives: 2019

And I’ll have that coffee to go...

A coffee delivery service is a great business idea. Especially if the mugs of boiling liquid come rushing towards you on servo-powered legs. Hmmm. Hang on. Perhaps that’s actually a rubbish business idea? Regardless, Markus Rollbühler‘s madcap vision of the Coffee Of The Future makes for a cracking LEGO creation. The legs and cup-holding limbs are gloriously detailed, packed full of functional-looking greebly bits, and the little splash of bright blue adds a lovely touch of colour amongst the light grey and silver. Brilliantly bonkers stuff.

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Catch a rodent with this functional LEGO mousetrap [Instructions]

If you have a rodent problem at home, you’re in luck. Here’s a solution using a LEGO-built mousetrap designed and tested by Jerac.

Click for full details and instructions

Embark on a Hyrulean adventure with this Master Sword puzzle box featuring secrets from Legend of Zelda

Builder legolamaniac fits all the fun of a Legend of Zelda game into this clever puzzle box that mimics parts of Link’s many adventures. 24 steps must be completed to free the Master Sword from its box. A series of sliders must be pushed, pulled and slid to unlock the secrets within. You’ll find many recognizable Zelda treasures along the way including a silver key, a treasure chest and a bomb! Do you have the courage to seek the wisdom that will grant you power?

Keep reading to see the puzzle solved!

Announcing the winner of TBB’s Stranger Things “Darker Hawkins” building contest [News]

To celebrate the launch of the third season of Netflix’s sci-fi drama Stranger Things, TBB kicked off a contest on the Fourth of July, challenging our readers to build other locations from Hawkins, Indiana not featured in the LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down. The challenge was actually quite simple — the LEGO creation needed to feature both the normal world and its “Upside Down” counterpart location, as we showed in our own free instructions to build a LEGO Castle Byers. It’s been great to see builders interpret this design brief in so many different ways, through the contest entries on Flickr. Today, we’re happy to announce the clear winner of our contest — “Barb’s Disappearing” by talented German builder Jonas Kramm.

See more of Jonas’ winning creation along with honorable mentions

Whisper words of wisdom, letter B

My favorite letter of the alphabet is B, followed closely by S; not because I like to call people on their BS, but because those are my initials. In fact, my love for the letter B was one major reason why Blacktron II (or Future Generation) was my favorite space theme, with the green B emblazoned on their chests. It was like a whole crew of Benjamins. Dave Kaleta, fresh off a series of alphabet space ships, brings us the best letter of all. And, like the ships of Blacktron II, it comes apart (or combines, depending on your point of view).

See how these two smaller ships combine into a single larger ship

Relax in luxury in this modular hotel

The Modular building series of Creator Expert sets has become one of LEGO’s most popular home-brewed themes, and in addition to lots of official sets like Assembly Square, it’s inspired countless fans to build their own buildings in the same style. Although the theme has shifted recently to a 1950s Americana aesthetic with sets like the Corner Garage and Downtown Diner, most of the sets feature a quasi-European vintage style. In that vein, Bricked1980 brings us the lovely hotel Queen Bricktoria as a digital model.

The corner module fits perfectly next to Bricked1980’s Brick Square Post Office module, with both featuring gorgeously ornate decorations. Even though it only features three stories, the hotel seems even taller thanks to its tiered look and upper balcony. It looks like the perfect place for a weekend getaway and a relaxing brunch.

10 new fan projects have qualified for the second 2019 LEGO Ideas Review [News]

More LEGO Ideas sets are coming next year with the announcement today of 10 new fan-created sets being shortlisted. These sets gained the crowd-sourcing platform’s 10,000 supporter requirement between May and early September of 2019. Now comes the part where we all wait in anticipation on which could possibly be the sets that become official LEGO merchandise. While LEGO usually picks one set from each round to turn into a real product, occasionally the company chooses several or none at all. The models are assessed on their viability as sets, including sales projections and as designs that could be translated into a model of usual LEGO quality. We’d like to wish all the successful builders congratulations on this phase and good luck for the next!

Let’s take a closer look at each one of the submissions

Watch this LEGO Boost Droid Commander orchestra play the Star Wars theme [News]

The droids are starting to work together… to create music! LEGO released a video today showing an incredible amount of droids from 75253 LEGO Boost Droid Commander working in concert to perform the main theme from Star Wars. While John Williams might not approve, the many R2-D2, Gonk, and Mouse droids show off just a few of the things Boost is capable of.

Click to watch the Star Wars droid orchestra in action.

Tom Servo and Me – a journey, part 2 [Feature]

Last time on Tom Servo and Me…. (AKA Part I)

In an effort to claw his way out of a LEGO grey age, builder Chris Doyle has started building a new version of his LEGO Tom Servo. After a month or so he has a revised head and some very basic prototype Technic puppet-gearing.

There’s still a long way to go until Tom’s “perfect,” though. And Chris is still refusing to plan things out or let well enough alone when he has a “pretty good” solution. Will he do better over the next month of infrequent building time?

Spoiler alert: No. No, he will not.
Continue reading →

Tube or not tube

As usual, the good folks over at New Elementary are up to hijinks related to new and interesting LEGO pieces, with a stable of talented builders exploring some of the ways fans can use the parts. One such recent exploration was undertaken by Pistash and involved a variety of new coral-colored elements. He’s taken the color exploration quite literally, turning the bubblegum-colored bits into a squirt of paint, complete with a cool mosaic on the side of the container. Fittingly, the splash at the bottom is a large 14-tooth splat gear.

A stately castle fit for a pocket-sized king

This tiny castle by prolific LEGO microscale builder Jeff Friesen has all it takes to make a towering appearance. As the builder notes, this is not a castle built for defense. This is a regal structure built to show wealth and power, or perhaps serve as the central focus for a theme park.

We’ve featured Jeff’s incredible work in the past and this model is quite different from his usual fanciful style. He trades in whimsical landscapes and modern cities for a more uncomplicated look. Clean, straight lines are the order of the day in this kingdom. But straight lines need not be boring! There is just enough asymmetry here to keep it architecturally interesting without straying into high fantasy territory. The subdued color palette works nicely, especially when offset by the small pops of color from the brown trees and red flag. The shield with crown decoration is a nice finishing touch that draws the eye to the entrance and lets the viewer know exactly who presides over this Lilliputian domain.

LEGO Ideas 21319 Friends Central Perk – could it BE any more 90’s? [Review]

For those of us who watched Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler, and Joey live out their lives on TV as the show Friends aired between 1994 and 2004, there’s much more nostalgia attached to this television series than to something like The Big Bang Theory. But for those of us who don’t necessarily consider ourselves life-long, hardcore Friends super-fans — I personally do not own an officially licensed Central Perk coffee mug — it hasn’t been clear what we had to look forward to with the new LEGO Ideas 21319 Central Perk set released today ($59.99 US | $89.99 CAN | £64.99 UK), which includes 1,070 pieces and 7 minifigures. Let’s dig in and find out.

Read our complete hands-on review of LEGO Ideas 21319 Friends Central Perk