LEGO’s new Bird of Paradise set, designed by Chris McVeigh (also known as powerpig) is part of LEGO’s Botanical Collection subtheme. When compared to the other two sets in this theme, Flower Bouquet and Bonsai Tree, Bird of Paradise is the largest with 1,173 pieces and retails for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99.
Three new Monkie Kid sets, which will be released on July 1, are listed on LEGO.com. From the smallest to the biggest, the sets are Sandy’s Power Loader Mech (80025), Pigsy’s Noodle Tank (80026), and The Bone Demon (80028), a terrifyingly huge undead creature that glows in the dark and tips the scales at 1,375 pieces.
Click to see more images of all the new sets
Thanos’ spaceship from Marvel Avengers: Endgame, Sanctuary II, has been revealed as an upcoming LEGO set. The set consists of 322 pieces and 3 minifigures, Thanos, Captain Marvel and Iron Man. The ship spans 14 in. (36 cm) and it is 7 in. (18 cm) long. The official description says it is “small enough to grip in one hand, but large enough for epic adventures”. LEGO 76237 Sanctuary II Endgame Battle is available for pre-order now for US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99 and will be shipping from October 1.
Click for more images of the set
The Bits N’ Bricks Podcast continues celebrating the 25th anniversary of LEGO video games with two first episodes of season two already available online. The most recent episode went live just a few days ago on May 26th. During the Fan Media Days 2021, the Brothers Brick took part in an online session with the creators and producers of the Bits N’ Bricks Podcast and got an exclusive preview of what the team got ready in the following episodes.
On April 13th, LEGO Ideas blog published a post announcing a new contest called “Do you want to go to the seaside”. The winner was announced on May 31st: Ray the Castaway by Daditwins by a total of 969 votes.
LEGO announced a new theme for this year’s FIRST LEGO League: Cargo Connect. The theme focuses on modern transportation and aims to teach children about how cargo is transported, sorted and delivered. Similar to previous years, there are three divisions: Discover (ages 4-6), Explore (ages 6-10), and Challenge (ages 9-16). The Discover division will work with LEGO Education DUPLO bricks, the Explore division will work with WeDo 2.0 kits and the Challenge division will work with the SPIKE Prime kits to solve real-world problems with creative thinking.
LEGO bricks are known to be extremely durable and it takes a rough magnitude of 4,240 newtons (950 pounds) to crush a single 2×2 brick based on tests by The Open University’s engineering department. The Hydraulic Press Channel, is known for crushing all sorts of things with a hydraulic press, and more recently, turning them into donuts. Their latest attempt is to experiment with LEGO bricks.
Click to see the video of LEGO being crushed into a donut
With 11,695 pieces, the newest LEGO Art set 31203 World Map breaks the record once more with the highest piece count in a set in the company’s history, nudging out last year’s 10276 Colosseum by several thousand pieces. Like the Art sets released before, World Map consists mainly of 1×1 round tiles which create the continents and the oceans. The set is built on 40 interconnecting baseplates which can be arranged in 3 different ways to display different portions of the world in the center. However you arrange it, the set is 25.5 in. (65 cm) high and 40.5 in. (104 cm) wide. The World Map will be available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores globally from June 1, 2021, priced at US $249.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £229.99, and from other retailers globally starting August 1, 2021.
Be sure to also read our full, hands-on review of the LEGO Art 31203 World Map mosaic, and check out the full press release and images below.
LEGO 40516 Everyone is Awesome set was announced just a few days ago. Designed by Matthew Ashton, Vice President of Design at LEGO, it is the first set that directly addresses the LGBTQ+ community.
The Bricklink Designer Program, also known as the AFOL Designer Program (ADP), is being extended due to the global COVID-19 situation along with the feedback from the community. The crowdfunding was to begin in June 2021, with September 2021 being the date for realizing projects. In the new structure, there will be 3 rounds for crowdfunding, starting July 2021 and continuing in September and November 2021. 8 projects will be nominated for the first round in July, and 8-10 projects will be nominated for the other two rounds. The production-ready projects can be supported by pre-ordering on Bricklink starting from July 1st.
This morning, we had the chance to participate in a discussion with Jason Whiting, LEGO’s Global Director of the VIP Program, and were able to learn some interesting insights into the program and future plans for it as well as discussing some of the issues that fans have experienced. This comes as LEGO announces that the fifth and final VIP Collectible Coin will be available on May 20, as well as announcing that previous coins will be available again in the future. While LEGO has not yet confirmed when the rest of the coins will be back in stock or what the quantities on them will be, we did learn that LEGO intends to re-stock the previous coins (including the wildly popular Classic Space Coin) using the same listing, so VIP members who redeemed them already will not be able to redeem them again. This should give fans who missed any of them the first time a better chance at getting them this time around. LEGO did not rule out the possibility that if demand falls short on the second run, they may remove the 1-per-account limit. There is no word yet if LEGO also plans to re-stock the coin holder, which was a separate reward from the coins.
The LEGO Coin Collectible series is an ongoing VIP Reward and is released featuring a coin each month since January 2021. The 5th and final LEGO collectable coin will be available in the LEGO VIP Rewards centre (US | CAN | UK) on May 20, 2021.