Custom accessory makers BrickWarriors are having a Small Business Saturday sale starting today, with 22% off through Cyber Monday. Head on over and help support another great LEGO-themed small business.
And don’t miss the other LEGO-focused small businesses we’ve highlighted so far this week:
While I share a certain ambivalence about LEGO renders with the Grumpy Old Man contingent of TBB contributors, I have to admit that I’m increasingly impressed with the high quality we’ve begun seeing from “virtual” builders. One of my recent favorites is this LEGO-ized version of M.C. Escher’s print “Hand with Reflecting Sphere” by Gabriele Zannotti. Gabriele used Mecabricks to build the scene, and Blender for the final 3D rendering. Spend some time looking at all the details reflected in that sphere…
We’ve come to expect great things from Jason Allemann, a talented builder who combines strong LEGO engineering skills with a great artistic flair. Back in 2013, we featured his post-apocalyptic Strandbeest and last month jaws all over the world hit the floor with his working combination safe. Jason’s latest build takes its inspiration from Greek mythology, with the cursed Sisyphus rolling that awful rock up the hill throughout eternity.
In addition to the main model, the base itself includes brick-built bas relief sculptures.
You can see the model’s moving features, along with comments from the builder himself, in this video Jason made:
In the Death Note manga series by Tsugumi Ohba, the character Ryuk is a shinigami or “death god” who meddles in human affairs by giving a young man named Light a notebook that enables him to kill anybody at will. While not particularly my style of manga, I can certainly appreciate this LEGO bust of Ryuk by Ilia. Ryuk’s hair and wings (?) blend into the dark background Ilia uses, making his eyes and teeth jump out even more. The character’s iconic apple makes another contrasting splash of color.
The cheap brick just keeps coming, with more Black Friday LEGO sales from both the LEGO Shop and Amazon.com. Here are a few more I hadn’t noticed when I wrote my earlier LEGO sales & deals on Amazon roundup.
60080 Spaceport is $20 off, bringing it below a hundred bucks.
75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter from The Force Awakens is 20% off, at $55.99.
Click here to see more LEGO sales & deals
Not to be outdone by the LEGO discounts on Amazon, the LEGO Shop online has more than a hundred items on sale starting at midnight Eastern (9 PM PDT) tonight through next Monday. Shipping is free on all orders (not just over $75), and you get a free gingerbread house on all orders over $99.
LEGO sent me an early copy of this set, and it’s adorable, with 277 parts, including more cupcakes than I can count and plenty of “brick bricks” and cute printed 1×1 tiles.
You can help support The Brothers Brick by clicking through one of the banners below, or any of the links and images farther down in this post:
Highlights of the various sets on sale at the LEGO Shop include:
All LEGO Dimensions items and add-ons are 25-30% off, including the $99.99 Starter Pack, which is $30 off at 69.99 USD, which is twice as good as the Amazon deal from a few weeks ago.
The Ghost is 20% off at 71.99 USD (a bit more than Amazon.com at $66.31, but you get VIP points).
Mammoth’s Frozen Stronghold is 40% off, at 35.99 USD.
Click here to see more LEGO sales & deals
Another great LEGO-centered small business we love to support here at TBB is Brickmania, led by talented designer and all-around great guy Dan Siskind.
Dan and his team in Minneapolis have posted daily deals all week this week, leading up to the massively discounted Fokker Dr.1 — The iconic Red Baron’s tri-plane from from World War I. It’s discounted from $195 to $95 starting at midnight tonight.
Brickmania has been releasing a new custom kit at the rate of about one a week for months now, and I’ve been eyeing this gorgeous M3A1 Scout Car for the last few weeks.
Like other BrickArms resellers (including Citizen Brick and GI Brick), Brickmania is also a great place to stock up on the types of custom accessories that LEGO will likely never produce.
Our good friends over at Citizen Brick have just announced their Black Friday deals, centered on a batch of new custom minifig packs and a pretty sweet “Xmas Fun-Pak” you can get by spending $75 or more.
Joe and his team are releasing a number of new products on Friday, starting with this three-pack cleverly titled “Bowling Buddies.”
And don’t miss “Pity Enthusiast.”
I’ve never regretted a single purchase I’ve ever made from Citizen Brick, and the CB team are some of the nicest people in the LEGO vendor community I’ve had the pleasure to meet. While you load up on all those discounted bricks on Black Friday, consider spending some of your LEGO budget to help support this innovative, boundary-pushing small business as well.
Supplies are limited (I’ve missed some pretty awesome new items myself in the past), so take a nap after that turkey dinner and set an alarm for midnight Central Time so you can get shopping!
As always, Amazon.com is kicking off their Black Friday deals early with their Black Friday Deals Week. I expect we’ll see some big deals later in the week, but there are some hidden gems right now as well.
75092 Naboo Starfighter is 22% off, at $38.92.
75082 TIE Advanced Prototype is 20% off, at $31.99.
75053 The Ghost is 26% off, at $66.31.
76021 The Milano Spaceship Rescue is 26% off, at $55.25.
There are a lot more sets on discount, but I’m running out of room here. Meanwhile, Benny’s Spaceship and Mos Eisley Cantina remain 20% off or more.
Given that another company had the license for Doctor Who building sets at the time, I was both shocked and overjoyed when the LEGO Ideas team announced that 21304 Doctor Who would be released in January 2016. LEGO sent The Brothers Brick an early copy, and I’m pleased to bring you this full photo review.
Unlike many of you out there who grew up watching Doctor Who on the BBC or PBS, I never had the opportunity in Japan. It was with fresh eyes that I first started watching Doctor Who in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston’s 9th Doctor. Since then, I’ve caught many classic storylines, particularly during the 50th Anniversary celebrations two years ago. I’ve become enough of a Whovian that I even picked up some of those non-LEGO Doctor Who figures when I visited New Zealand, and snapped them up when they started showing up as stocking stuffers here in the States. Now with an official LEGO set, the subject matter alone is exciting, but how’s the actual set?
Read the full review after the jump!
The world watched in horror Friday night as terrorists apparently loyal to Daesh attacked innocent people across Paris. It hardly seemed possible that something so evil could be happening so soon after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January. Over the following days, LEGO builders around the world have reacted with a variety of LEGO creations showing support for Paris and the people of France.
Are Heiseldal posted this understated image of the Eiffel Tower against the French tricolor. The dark lighting provides a subtle statement about the world’s grief.
Chris Maddison has built a LEGO version of French graphic designer Jean Jullien’s Eiffel Tower peace symbol — rapidly becoming the iconic symbol of the nation’s response to this act of war.
This heart-wrenching creation by French builder Jimmy Fortel reflects the pain caused by such senseless horror, and states emphatically that this attack on Paris is truly an attack on the whole world.
LEGO has just posted a big batch of previously unreleased photos of the forthcoming 75827 LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters, due out in January 2016.
The new photos focus on the box art, interior, and minifigs. Helping to explain the $350 price tag, the firehouse has a fully furnished interior, with three floors of detailed rooms.
You can see all 27 new photos in our photoset on Flickr.
