Yearly Archives: 2022

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for November 5, 2022 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of November 2022.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Did you miss our last Brick Report? Check it out here, then get caught up on the latest roundup of LEGO news from the week!

[REVIEW] Will you get a kick out of LEGO Ideas 21337 Table Football — Chuck takes a few spins around the minifigure-heavy table football field to help you decide if this set is worth a purchase.
[NEWS] A quintet of new Avatar sets from The Way of Water revealed on LEGO.com — Ahead of its upcoming December theatrical release, the long-awaited Avatar sequel gets its own line of LEGO sets
Football scarf VIP reward revealed – Brickset.com — Our friends at Brickset spotted a new VIP reward, available now!
The LEGO Group breaks ground on new USD 1 billion Vietnam factory – LEGO — The previously-announced facility broke ground and began construction for a planned 2024 opening.

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Mr. Sande over the Lavender Islands

When LEGO released the 43181 Raya and the Heart Palace I knew it was only a matter of time until someone used the dome panel for a hot air balloon, mainly because the part had been released a year sooner in 41252 Poppy’s Hot Air Balloon Adventure as part of the balloon. Thanks to Ilya Zubashev the wait is over. The presentation of this creation is just sublime! The background matches with the colours of the base of the build and contrasts with the main focus of the creation. It makes me want to get over my fear of heights and hop into an air balloon to discover some undiscovered part of this big planet while watching the sunset from your own little basket.

As if babies weren’t scary enough as they are

Thought you were safe from the scary now that Hallowe’en is over? Think again! Simon Liu has collaborated with Micah Beideman to build something which, on the face of it, sounds adorable. I mean, “baby wars.” How scary can it be? As it turns out, pretty nightmare-inducing. The mechanised babies are pretty cute, to be fair, in their tanks with milk bottle cannons. The Scala baby is not a particularly disturbing piece per se, but add some tyre tentacles and you’ve created the most terrifying baby kaiju. I thought the scariest thing a baby could do was scream all the way through a flight – at least this puts that into perspective.

A LEGO Quantumaniac

The first trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania dropped less than two weeks ago, but it has already inspired some LEGO homages. Case in point, this build by flambo14 of Scott Lang going giant in a microscopic Quantum Realm city. Scott’s brick-built proportions are a little more realistic compared to his minifigure-esque giant-form in the 76051 Super Hero Airport Battle, which allows him to take a more natural pose in this shot. And the microscale city gives us some charming Classic Space vibes thanks to the use of the inclined supports and old school loud speakers. Check out more of flambo14’s sci-fi movie homages in our archives.

Will you get a kick out of LEGO Ideas 21337 Table Football [REVIEW]

LEGO Ideas has produced an increasing number of sets based on contests, in addition to the regular get-10,000-votes method. Most of these have been smaller gift-with-purchase items, but LEGO Ideas 21337 Table Football joins 21329 Fender Stratocaster as a full-size retail set. This was the winning submission in the We Love Sports LEGO Ideas contest, and let’s get right to the main question: the winning submission was a full-size, 11-on-11 table football setup (usually referred to as foosball in the U.S.). When the contest results were announced, lots of fans were excited to get a near full-size playable game. That swiftly turned to disappointment when the official pictures were released. The set has been scaled down to 5-a-side, less than half the size of the original! While there are very clear reasons for that choice, does it still leave us with a desirable set? LEGO Ideas 21337 Table Football, with 2,339 pieces and a whopping 22* minifigures (* and even more hair and heads), is available now for US $249.99 | CAN $309.99 | UK £214.99.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Ideas 21337 Table Football

Are you ready to see the dessert menu?

Martin Gebert has served up some delicious looking brick-built creations that would make even the most seasoned pastry chefs drool with envy. The four-tiered cake, with its layers that get darker the higher you go, is decorated with a generous serving of minifigures beards. And this fruit tart is sure to delight even the most discerning of sweet tooths. Be careful, those reddish-brown plates have a tendency to snap, and the fragments can get caught in your teeth.

Doo-Doo Racer from the Stone Jungle

Now here’s something you don’t see every day—or rather, no other day in the history of the world ever. LEGO builder Nikita Nikolsky lets loose a Doo-Doo Racer from the Stone Jungle and we’re not sure how that settles with us. It’s like Mad Max meets Caddyshack or Death Race 2000 meets National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Probably the less said about this the better. But if there were a B-List movie of the same title I’d likely watch it. Still, that’s some pretty sick camber on those tires though. The pipes are epic too but I don’t want to know what comes out of the exhaust.

Exciting new prospects

Sometimes you just need a little more weirdness in your day, and this little prospector craft by LEGO builder Idoneas of Hillcrest might be just the dose you need. With the faceless pilot, I’m imagining this as an ad for the next model year prospecting craft, guaranteed to increase your finds by at least 12%! Whatever the reasoning may be, though, this tiny vehicle is packed to the gills with oddball details, starting with the old-school doors as wing panels. The prospector also contains one element I can legitimately say I’ve never seen used on its own before: a small black screw (yes, the metal kind) as a detail on one of the red wheels, surely sourced from some LEGO motor component.

This LEGO bust isn’t trolling

LEGO’s given us lots of science fiction busts of Stormtroopers and comic book characters, but how about a fantasy creature? This amazing sculpture by Ghalad is epically awesome and exactly the sort of crazy fantasy sculpture I’d love to build. From the impressive tusks to the teal warpaint, the model is expertly realized, and the large plinth with a skull and crossbones just sets the mood. It’s also possibly the best use of the 1×1 tooth plates that I’ve ever seen–they’re being used as the teeth, but the scale feels spot on to give this troll a disdainful growl.

A quintet of new Avatar sets from The Way of Water revealed on LEGO.com [News]

With the second installment in this newly-revitalized franchise set to hit theaters at the end of the year, LEGO has debuted five new sets from Avatar: The Way of Water. These sets continue common tropes from those already available in the theme, whether it’s militaristic vehicles like the 75577 Mako Submarine, or the creatures of Pandora featured in 75579 Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit. Once again, we see the taller minifigures featured in these sets, adding a new dark aqua version of Pandora’s denizens to the mix. And true to the heavily-hydrated movie title, these LEGO sets prominently feature aquatic settings. With loads of coral constructions and undersea rock formations, there’s an especially diverse array of parts available in this lineup. All five of these sets will be available from LEGO stores and their website on January 1st, with 75576 Skimwing Adventure and 75578 Metkayina Reef Home available for pre-order right now through LEGO.com.

Prices and pictures for all these great new offerings below

Parting out a 1956 Super 88

Wow. There are lots of ways to breathe life into old things but Builder Thomas Gion found a new one using some crutches. Inspired while driving down the highway, Thomas decided to try to recreate the shaping of its front grill using that unique crutch piece and the rest was history. Not quite Speed Champions scale with its 5-stud wide cabin, this probably fits more into the midi-scale category. Either way, the parts usage on this build is ingenious. Not only is the detailing on the front of the model amazing, the coloration Thomas achieved in the body is simplistic but effective. He also made use of old trans-clear macaroni bricks for the windscreen which was also neatly sandwiched in with some cheese slopes.

It can be hard to get the shaping right for some of the classic cars. They might be blocky in some ways but they’re also pretty smooth with an artistic flair. Its always nice to see when one is done proper justice.

This alien shaman has a few tips for getting ahead...

Eyrezer digs deep into the lore of Star Wars with this Joddar shaman, who hails from the Valley of the Wizard Warriors on Endor. While the shaman himself looks to be just a Killer Croc big fig in a cloak, the alien terrain he stands on perfectly calls to mind the sci-fi trends of the early 1980s, with its Dr. Seussian plants growing out of the harsh rocks. The decapitated heads on chains are probably not something that would have flown in a kid-friendly Ewok adventure back then, but I bet there are several modern days fans who don’t mind seeing Rotta lanced.