A couple weeks ago we started featuring curated LEGO auctions featured on Catawiki. Current auctions include some rather rare LEGO sets from the 70’s and 80’s, along with custom models by LEGO artists.
One of the most nostalgic LEGO sets from the Classic Space era is 928 Galaxy Explorer. A copy of the set complete with box and instructions in great condition is up for auction right now.
See more interesting LEGO auctions on Catawiki
There’s one at every beach, looking just a bit decrepit, with ratty curtains in the windows and a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror. The Volkswagen Van has been captured as LEGO sets a few times, including the hugely popular 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van (still available after more than 7 years). David Liu has used 31079 Sunshine Surfer Van (not officially a VW, but who is LEGO kidding?) as the basis for a rather spectacular mecha. But this mech has a very important purpose!
Find out what this mech does after the jump
If you haven’t blown your holiday LEGO budget on the Black Friday deals from the LEGO shop (which go through Cyber Monday tomorrow), Amazon.com is spinning up its “Cyber Monday Week” sales, with a number of great deals on LEGO sets.
We’ve picked a few highlights, but you can see everything on sale the Amazon.com LEGO deals page.
See more LEGO sales and deals from Amazon for Cyber Monday
Tengu are legendary creatures in Japanese myths going back hundreds of years. Although they have a complicated history, they’re most often seen today as protectors of mountains and forests, though still certainly fearsome! John Cheng has built a rather adorable Tengu, dressed in Yamabushi (mountain hermit) garb with black bird wings and an enormous, beak-like nose that reveal his avian origins.
No, not the 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 LEGO set from earlier this year. As remarkable as the working features on the official LEGO set are, hachiroku24 has scaled the iconic vehicle down while — rather miraculously — retaining many of the car’s functions.
Learn how to build your own LEGO Aston Martin DB5
It’s been more than 10 years since Jarek shared the first version of his LEGO A-wing, a sleek starfighter first seen in Return of the Jedi. It’s always interesting to see how builders approach the same subject matter years apart, with improved building skills as well as access to new LEGO pieces. Jarek says that his updated A-wing has better proportions than the 2008 version, with properly brick-built missile launchers.
See more photos of Jarek’s A-wing along with new variants
Our friends over at Citizen Brick have cooked up another batch of cool stuff for this year’s Black Friday, along with a new holiday promotion tin.
The Negligent Parents “Abandoned Child / Home Invasion Holiday Fun” set of three minifigs lets you reenact all your favorite scenes from Home Alone.
See all of this year’s Citizen Brick special deals
We recently reviewed the new Brickmania F-4C Phantom II fighter kit, but the Brickmania team has also just restocked the massive B-17G WWII Heavy Bomber custom kit, their largest LEGO aircraft kit produced to date. This custom kit of the legendary “Flying Fortress” is built from 3,074 LEGO pieces and includes 10 custom-printed minifigures.
Read our hands-on review of the Brickmania Flying Fortress
The LEGO Shop’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and deals are happening this week, with UK sales already underway and US & Canadian sales starting at midnight Eastern Time on Friday, November 23rd (that’s Thanksgiving night at 9 PM for our readers on the west coast). Various LEGO sets are 20-30% off or more, and the holiday promotion this year is a Buildable Holiday Present set with purchases over $99/£85. At the same time, the new 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine is now available.
LEGO sent us an early copy of the promotional set, and it’s a lovely little set with 301 pieces that opens up, reminding us of both 75952 Newt’s Case and 21315 Pop-up Book.
We’ll update this article with specific deals we find, but in the meantime, you can click through to the US sales and deals page from the images above.
Learn more about Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals from the LEGO Shop
We’ve featured custom LEGO kits by Brickmania many times over the years, but Dan Siskind‘s small business has grown considerably since the last time we reviewed one of the company’s kits. Most notably, Dan himself is no longer the sole or even primary designer — great LEGO builders like Cody Osell now contribute many of the custom designs to the company’s products. While Dan is best known for tanks, Cody has designed most of Brickmania’s airplane models, including the F-4C Phantom II we’ll be reviewing today.
Read our hands-on review of the Brickmania F-4C Phantom custom LEGO kit
Catawiki is an auction website that focuses on rare and interesting items, and they’ve been featuring unique LEGO lots for several years. Unlike eBay, Catawiki’s lots are curated, with LEGO experts on staff who work with sellers to ensure the lots are interesting and have detailed information.
One of the most unique LEGO auctions I’ve seen in a while is happening this week, with a custom LEGO version of the Bell Tower of Florence built from over a hundred thousand bricks! Built by Luca Petraglia over the course of more than three years, the tower stands 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) tall.
Luca has displayed his tower at LEGO conventions such as the LEGO Fan Weekend in Skærbæk, Denmark. You can get a better sense of the tower’s massive scale with the builder standing next to it.
Catawiki also has a number of other interesting LEGO-related auctions this week, including some 1950’s vintage LEGO.
See more rare and unusual LEGO auctions on Catawiki
Change is inevitable within any community, and the online LEGO fan community has certainly weathered its share of major disruptions over the past 20 years.
Ever since the future of LEGO photo sharing website Brickshelf.com became unclear in July 2007, the majority of the LEGO building community has made its home on Flickr. But with Yahoo! failing to keep up with the times, the venerable web company has begun shedding its online properties, leading to the acquisition of Flickr by SmugMug earlier this year. Unlike the hysteria back in 2007, the reaction to the SmugMug acquisition among LEGO builders has been fairly muted, and generally positive given the sense that Yahoo! had effectively abandoned Flickr several years ago. This changed recently when SmugMug announced changes it would be making to Flickr’s Pro and free accounts at the beginning of 2019.
Learn more about the changes and how they affect the LEGO community
