Builder Timothy Jones brings to life a large Cockatrice in a majestic pose. I’ve since learnt that a Cockatrice is a fictional and mythical beast. It’s supposed to be different parts of a serpent, dragon and rooster all combined together. This does have certain elements of those, and it’s pretty grand with the wings spread out — I’m especially impressed with how it all holds up given the amount of weight those wings must have.
I’ve been practising the Wingardium Leviosa spell for quite a while now, but it’s not been very effective. Builder hachiroku24 seems to have better success than I’m having. I blame my wand instead of the lack of skill. As a fan of LEGO, I feel the bricks calling and channelling through me, and I believe that it will be the right instrument for me instead of the wooden wands. If any of you are up for a duel with your own brick-built LEGO wand, here are the instructions to get you started.
See the parts list and instructions for building your own Harry Potter wand from LEGO
Today LEGO has unveiled the flagship playset from this year’s Harry Potter franchise. Consisting of a massive 6,020 pieces, it’s the largest set to be revealed this year and by far the biggest Harry Potter set ever. In fact, it’s the second-largest LEGO set of all time, coming in behind the Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon. The set will be available August 15 for VIP members with a general release on Sept. 1 for $399.99 USD.
The set includes the most complete layout of the Hogwarts castle yet including the Whomping Willow and Hagrid’s Hut, all created in microscale and populated with numerous microfigs of students, teachers, and Dementors, along with Aragog, the Basilisk, and even a Hungarian Horntail. It also includes four minifigures of the Hogwarts house founders: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Rowena Ravenclaw, none of whom have appeared in LEGO form before.
Click to see more of the Hogwarts Castle
Fans will be pleased to know that LEGO has released instructions for all 3 of the San Diego Comic-Con 2018 exclusive sets. Many of the sets in previous exclusives have had unique printed pieces or parts that make them hard for fans to build without paying the hefty secondary-market price. This year LEGO has taken the additional effort to show that they’re listening. While you still won’t get the exclusive packaging with comic book-style box, the rest of the parts should be available in other sets, or maybe already in your collection, and that’s a fair compromise.
Click on the images below to download the PDF instructions.
For every successful product or project from LEGO, there are probably many others that you’ve never heard of. The lifespan of these were short and less memorable and they were obviously unsuccessful ventures. However, nothing is ever lost in the pursuit of innovation. Lessons learnt are just as valuable or even more so in the evolution and execution of future ideation. Good ideas that failed or didn’t go so well can be the stepping stones toward future success. In a new series of articles, we’re taking a look at some of the LEGO failures or projects that were simply weird and never really took off.
In this first installment of LEGO Ventures that Vanished, we’re looking back at LEGO CL!CK, a somewhat obscure launch into the social media scene, back when every company tried to get their feet wet with “social media engagement.”
An inkling of what was to come with LEGO CLICK was first felt during the end of December 2009 with a tweet, soon followed by a press release. But by July 2010, it had all started to taper off, which gave it a rough lifespan of 7 months from what we can trace over time, looking back today.
Learn more about the fascinating history of LEGO CLICK
With the Aquaman slated to hit the big screens on the 21st of December, LEGO will be releasing 76095: Aquaman™: Black Manta™ Strike playset for the movie on the 1st of August priced at $29.99 USD. It will include 3 minifigures, featuring Black Manta, Aquaman and Mera. Mera is the Queen of Atlantis and wife of DC Comics superhero Aquaman in the comic series.
Click to see the press release
LEGO just announced the 76115: Spider-Man Mech vs. Venom Mech playset. It is slated to launch later this year on December 1 with a piece count of 604 and priced at $49.99.
The press release is included below:
76115: Spider-Man Mech vs. Venom Mech
Launching: December 1, 2018
Piece Count: 604
Age: 8+
SRP: $49.99
Stage an awesome mech battle between Spider-Man and Venom!
KEY FUNCTIONS:
This Medusa-like character is eerie and sinister while at the same time beautiful and terrifying. One can only wonder what would inspire Timofey Tkachev to build such an unsettling mythical creature. The curvature on the female form and its detailing through the careful parts usages for the eyes and lips amplifies the realism. What draws the viewer to the scene subconsciously is the impressive effort of tessellation with steering wheels that complements the scene.
Likely to be the last and final revelation from the LEGO lineup of Exclusives at Comic-Con for 2018 is the Apocalypseburg Unikitty from the upcoming LEGO Movie 2. Featuring two unique interchangeable expressions including Rage Kitty and Angry Kitty. This will a unique treat for Unikitty fans.
The Marvel exclusive minifigure for San Diego Comin-Con 2018 has been revealed to be Deadpool, disguised as a sheriff sporting a mustache and a tan Cowboy hat, which is a new part released with the recent Minifigure Collectible Series 18 Cowboy Costume Guy. It follows up last year’s Comic-Con exclusive Deadpool Duck minifigure.
Click to take a closer look at Sheriff Deadpool
The 1988 sci-fi Japanese animated film Akira gave life to one of the most iconic bikes that remains entrenched in pop-culture 30 years later. Making an appearance again in the recent movie Ready Player One by Steven Spielberg only further reinforces that legacy. We have Jerry Builds Bricks to thank for sharing a quick build of this amazing bike. There’s no better way to honour this favourite by building your very own miniature version of it.
Click to see the video for the build
Meet R2-B2, Artoo’s long-lost cousin that didn’t get to play a scene in the Star Wars movie franchise, rebuilt by Luc Byard. It was said in recently recovered interviews that “Betoo” was simply too overwhelming and would overshadow Threepio as his droid buddy. We think George Lucas made a good call on this one, but wish he had a cameo, perhaps as an Easter Egg buried in the background. R2-B2 has never been seen again since then. Some say he’s just been overly depressed from Artoo’s success over the years and went into hiding.
Besides just being a color accurate, it’s nice to see how Luc used all the right elements, designs, and curves to reflect the familiar parts of Artoo’s signature look. I’m still a little concerned about boarding a 3 wheeler bus, so I’m definitely going to question the issue of stability.
