It’s been nearly a year since The LEGO Batman Movie hit theaters, but LEGO is continuing to create tie-in items for the moderately popular film. In November, we got the excellent 70922 Joker Manor, which impressed us with its complex techniques and new roller coaster system. Now the latest series of Collectible Minifigures is revisiting the world of LEGO Batman with 20 all-new minifigures. 71020 The LEGO Batman Movie Series 2 minifigures retail for $3.99 and are available now from Amazon, the LEGO Shop Online, BrickLink, and eBay.
Posts by Edwinder
A conversation with Matthew Hocker – a LEGO ephemera collector [Interview]
Matthew Hocker has been on the LEGO scene for quite a while now and has had his builds featured right here on TBB. What you may not know is that he has an extended love and appreciation of collecting LEGO ephemera. The term is derived from the Greek word ephemeros, which means “lasting only one day, short-lived.” An ephemera collection consists of the paper materials that frequently get thrown away or lost because of their short-term usefulness or popularity, such as letters of correspondence, sales literature (brochures, pamphlets, catalogues, etc), postcards, ticket stubs, etc. Matt’s love for his LEGO collection enhances his appreciation of the hobby and its vast history.
Matt in 2014 together with the wooden duck in Idea House
Matthew has contributed digitized literature and write-ups to Brick Model Railroader and digital contributions to the library section of Brickset. His research skills and appreciation for a collection of this nature stems from his day-to-day role as a librarian.
Our curiosity got the better of us, and we ended up having a long conversation with Matthew, learning a lot about what he does and why he does it. Here’s an insight into Matthew and his collection.
A portion of Matt’s collection of Brochures
Read our full interview with LEGO collector Matthew Hocker
Final seven new projects from 2017 qualify for LEGO Ideas Review [News]
LEGO Ideas have just announced that 7 projects have achieved the required 10K votes to qualify for the third 2017 LEGO Ideas Review. In no particular order, here are the 7 that go into the next phase to be considered for selection as an official LEGO Ideas set.
Click to see the qualifying submissions
Stand back or you’ll get burned
The creation of LEGO Mech models is in intricate process whose complexity is often under-appreciated. While most LEGO creations are static and fixed in place, a well-built mech often has multiple points of articulation, and requires sufficient balance along with flexible poseability. The play factor is something that you can’t really feel from a photo, but only appreciate its looks from a design perspective. I’ve been lucky enough to hold this creation by Benjamin Cheh in my own two hands, allowing me to see in detail how the parts provide maximum articulation of shoulders, arms, and wrists, and how it all fits into place in a modular fashion.
Hit more to have a closer look at this fire beast in detail
Instruction Guide for the Promotional 60th Anniversary Special (40290) now available from LEGO [Instructions]
One of the nicer looking Promotional sets (40290) that we saw announced last year now has the instructions online released by LEGO. Besides the printed tile, there does not seem to be any unique pieces, which is good news for folks who want to enjoy the building experience early.
LEGO Star Wars TIE Fighter: The Imperial Fleet never looked so good
As a Star Wars fan, I’m quite ashamed to say that I only recently learnt that TIE is actually an acronym of “Twin Ion Engine”. In my defense, there are some things that one never thinks to question. Nevertheless, I’ve always loved this standout spacecraft. And speaking of standouts, this version by Jussi Koskinen is one of the best I’ve seen.
Enchanting citadel of the skies
I bet you’re taking a second, or even a third, close look at this magical floating castle to analyse how it all holds up. LEGO wizard jaapxaap must have dreamt of this one night and woke up to make it a reality. The colour choices of white and gold, plus the bright blue of the domes and trimming helps provide an additional subconscious cue, elevating it into the skies above the clouds. A brilliant idea turned into reality with the execution of beautiful engineering.
Top 10 LEGO set reviews of 2017 on The Brothers Brick [Reviews]
Stop for a moment. Let’s go back to the very beginning of 2017. What were your expectations for new LEGO sets in 2017? Most of us had no idea what the LEGO company was preparing for us fans. Little did we know that in 2017, the top 11 largest LEGO sets of all time would all be available for purchase from LEGO simultaneously. These are exciting times, with more large LEGO sets targeting adult fans than ever before, and we’ve had the pleasure to review many of them for you. And while we can’t yet tell what 2018 will bring us, let’s have a look at our Top 10 most popular reviews during the last 12 months.
It’s no surprise that several of these sets also made our 10 Best LEGO sets of 2017, so be sure to also check out that list to see what we think are the very best LEGO sets of the year.
Click to see the Top 10 Reviewed Sets for 2017
The 10 most popular custom LEGO creation instructions on The Brothers Brick for 2017 [Instructions]
A large part of LEGO’s magic is the ability to build for yourself anything you can imagine. Every day here on The Brothers Brick, we feature builders’ amazing creations, and we take great joy in being able to show you these wonderful builds not only to explore and enjoy but also occasionally to build for yourself.
Creating instructions take an extra effort that is seldom appreciated. Here at TBB, we want to recognize not only the effort but also the outstanding design work of the Top 10 custom creation instructions that we’ve featured over the year. Even if you prefer to design your own creations, these excellent designs are still very much worth a look to inspire you and to enjoy.
Hit here to see the Top 10 of the year
Echo Station 3-T-8, we have spotted Imperial Walkers!
I’ve always been a fan of the classics. When you see something great in a familiar shape, you know it’s a build with a lot of heart put into it, like this AT-AT or All Terrain Armoured Transport by tastenmann77. Standing at 18 inches in height and 100 percent grey, it’s a menacing reminder of the strength of the Imperial forces.
While resembling a dog in shape (and often parodied as such in pop culture), these machines were actually inspired by an extinct genus of hornless rhinoceros. I can’t imagine what will the minds at Lucasfilm will think of next—gorilla-inspired walkers? I hope not!
Fully Functioning 1:24 scale LEGO Crane is over 24 ft tall and can lift a chair [Video]
The actual Liebherr LR11000 first went into operation on July 7, 2014. A mere 1,269 days later, Dawid Szmandra brings us a fully functioning LEGO build that’s not just ANY model, but one that’s at an astounding scale of 1:24, weighing in at 27 kg, uses 4 EV3 bricks, 9 motors, 7 light sensors and 1 touch sensor! The maximum height of this towering crane is 24 feet (7.5m)!
And lest you think it’s all for show, this crane has some serious lifting capacity.
Click to see a video of this monster in action
Massive, breathtaking castle defends from a dragon’s attack!
This grand build of a castle titled “The Cliff” by Cao Mianyu is simply breathtaking in not only scale but detail. While most large builds feature a plan to be showcased for a convention of sorts, this build was built without any intention of a showcase! This labour of love took one year to build and an estimated 3 days a week of effort with 3 very focused hours on each of those days. One just wonders where does a person amass such patience and accumulation of bricks. Believe it or not, it started out with online inspirational views of castles, and with an intention to just build a castle with a waterfall, while working on the rock landscaping. Soon enough one thing led to another, the cliff and gate and… Well, the results speak for themselves. The final build consists of a grape vineyard, a pumpkin patch, a blacksmith, and even a tavern!
Hit the jump to see more details behind this stunning build