I’m continuing to expand my microscale space universe. Last time I checked in with a lunar launch diorama, as my home-brew theme shot into deep space from the moon. Now the Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, or I.E.A., has set up a large mining facility out in the asteroid belt.
The facility consists of a large space station as the hub, and two captured asteroids being mined for their mineral wealth.
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In 2022, LEGO released 10497 Galaxy Explorer, an updated version of the iconic 1978 space set of the same name. Now, LEGO’s latest foray into space-themed nostalgia is aimed squarely at 80s kids as the ultimate baddies of the LEGO space universe arrive in 10355 Blacktron Renegade, which was revealed yesterday. The original set was released in 1987 as part of the first wave of Blacktron, and its modular design was a novelty. Like the Galaxy Explorer, the new version of the Renegade lands as an 18+ set and ups both the size and part count significantly, while keeping the overall aesthetic of the original. The new 10355 Blacktron Renegade contains 1,151 pieces and will retail for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99 when it’s available starting Jan. 1, 2025 for LEGO Insiders. It will be available for everyone Jan. 4.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
For the past few years, I haven’t had as much time to build as I once did. That’s a tale that’s no doubt familiar to many of our readers with careers and families. That also means that when I do find time to build, I’m working through the backlog of ideas that have been piling up in my brain. And so lately I’ve found myself returning over and over to microscale space, because my brain has a logjam of sci-fi scenes I want to translate to bricks before moving on to pirates or castle or any of the other myriad themes I enjoy.
Set in the same universe as my previous large spaceships Vanguard and Discovery, this simple diorama depicts a launch facility on the moon with an attached habitat. I built the rocket first as a standalone model, but I wanted a better way to display it, and what better way to display a rocket than with a huge burst of engine exhaust? And of course, any facility on the moon worth its salt needs a habitat.
When I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons, my group used LEGO minifigures to represent our characters, as many other tabletop gaming parties have done. After all, minifigures are about the right size and highly customizable. So it delights me tremendously that LEGO has finally picked up the D&D license, kicking off with the Ideas set 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale earlier this year. Rather than the Ideas set being a one-off IP tie-in though, LEGO is following up with a Collectible Minifigures series, providing a cast of 12 new characters to round out your adventuring options. Officially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con last month, 71047 LEGO Minifigures – Dungeons & Dragons will be available starting Sept. 1 for US $4.99 | CAN $5.99 | UK £3.49.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Have you ever wanted to own a cat, but didn’t want to clean the litter box or pay for vet visits? The latest set from the LEGO Ideas crowdsourcing platform has got you covered, as 21349 Tuxedo Cat is the perfect feline friend who will always stay where you put it and rarely scratch up your couch. The project was first submitted to Ideas by fan Damian Andres (AKA The Yellow Brick) way back at the end of 2020 as a sculpture of his cat, a Siamese-Birman mix named Miro. The official set shifts the color scheme to a Tuxedo and makes a fair number of changes to the construction, but keeps the overall scale and pose the same as Damian’s submission. The Ideas model boasts 1,710 pieces, and includes pieces to swap out for yellow or blue eyes, along with an alternate lower lip to give the cat a different expression. It will be available starting June 1 for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Recently while playing around with the new triple clip bars and the Ninjago aeroblade centers I made a dodecahedron, intending some microscale scifi purpose for it. However, everyone I showed it to immediately pointed out the resemblance to a certain pathogen, so I decided to run with it and create a LEGO Covid-19 virus. I inverted the clips from my original inward-facing orientation to create the distinctive spike proteins and then used radar dishes to fill in the virus’s membrane envelope. For a quick 20-minute build, I’m pretty happy with the results, even if it is a bit creepy.
Here’s a look at the underlying structure of the dodecahedron if you want to build one yourself. The basic structure uses just two element types.
I hear there’s a monster party tonight at 13 Dead End Drive. That’s the address of this massive old Victorian haunt created by Ty Keltner over the course of nine months. It features a large mansion with surrounding grounds populated by hundreds of your favorite Halloween monsters. Sitting on a whopping 24 large gray baseplates, the model’s footprint is 7 ½ feet by 5 feet – that is just shy of 40 square feet of Lego, with somewhere between 50 and 100 thousand bricks, definitely making this the biggest LEGO Halloween party we’re invited to this year!
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LEGO builder João Eínon has been working on a series of Italian battleship models and his latest creation of the Andrea Doria in dazzle camouflage is absolutely stunning. The camouflage pattern is what caught my eye first, as it’s entirely brick-built and takes this scale model of the WWI and WWII battleship to a whole new level. It’s difficult enough to get decent shaping on a ship’s hull, but all the more so while building in an abstract pattern.
But as impressive as the dazzle camo is, the rest of the ship’s details are also worth examining. Despite this model’s small scale, all of the turrets are faithfully recreated, and João’s ability to integrate interesting patterns gets more of a workout with the distinct red and white bow striping, a hallmark of Italy’s warships during WWII.
LEGO builder extraordinaire Anu Pehrson joins us to give an inside perspective on how she built this enormous 200,000-piece minifigure-scale diorama of the Wall from Game of Thrones. If you’re not familiar with Anu, she likes to build big. If you happen to be in Denmark soon, check out her huge model of the Greyjoy Stronghold, which has been showcased in the LEGO House for the past year. She previously gave us a behind-the-scenes look at her 20,000-piece rice plantation diorama from The LEGO Ninjago Movie, but now she’s gone ten times bigger. So read on as Anu walks us through the entire process of building the Wall from early concepts to finished model.
As builders, most of us are inspired by things we encounter in our everyday lives, travels, and other interests such as books, music, etc. I immensely enjoyed reading Game of Thrones and was inspired with several ideas for building. The Wall was an obvious choice but a very daunting task and would require me to get several tens of thousands of white parts. I started the process of collecting parts specifically for this project in 2012. Nine years later, I finally started building in 2021, and it has taken me over two years to finish it. The model is 5 x 5 feet and approximately 4.5 feet tall, and in the end, I used close to 200,000 pieces.
My thought process here was that the Wall would be the central grounding factor, with several structures added to both the south side of the Wall and the area beyond the wall to the north as described in the books/show.
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When it comes to Disney’s theme parks, there’s nothing more iconic than the fairytale castle that sits at the center of each magical land. In 2016 LEGO released its biggest Disney set ever, 71040 Disney Castle, which portrayed Cinderella’s white and dark blue castle that sits at the heart of Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. But in 2020 Disney repainted the castle to celebrate the park’s 50th anniversary (or 70th anniversary of the release of Cinderella, depending on which Disney source you reference), updating the fairytale fixture with peach-colored walls, darker stonework, and more gold accents. LEGO retired the 2016 castle last year, but won’t leave Disney fans without a flagship set for long, as they’re now releasing a new version with an updated design and colors that match the real-world landmark. 43222 The Disney Castle has 4,837 pieces (about 750 more than the original) and eight minifigures. It will retail for US $399.99 | CAN $519.99 | UK £344.99 and will release globally on July 4th, 2023.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Let’s dive in and see how this updated castle fares compared to the original.
The Pirates line was a seminal theme for LEGO, introducing hoards of new elements and many things we take for granted now, such as unique faces beyond the classic smiley head. One of the largest and most sought-after sets from the original theme was 6276 Eldorado Fortress, a colonial-style base of operations for the blue-coated Imperial Guards. 10320 Eldorado Fortress is a remake of that iconic set taking advantage of 34 years of advancement in parts and techniques since the original. LEGO has avoided straight re-releases in recent years (with some notable exceptions), opting instead to tribute classics for the company’s 90th anniversary in 2022, with 10497 Galaxy Explorer as a modern upgrade to the original set, while 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle pays homage to a whole generation of Castle. Although the anniversary has passed, I am excited that LEGO has continued that nostalgia trend, turning its eye now to my personal favorite theme, Pirates. With 2,509 pieces, the new Eldorado Fortress nearly quintuples the original set’s 506 parts, though thankfully the price increases by a lesser margin, as the original was $66 in 1989 (about $161 in today’s dollars). The new set will retail for US $214.99 | CAN $279.99 | UK £189.99 when it’s available starting July 4 for VIP members (general availability will follow on July 7).
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Today LEGO has finally revealed the next upcoming Ideas set will be 21341 Hocus Pocus. Last August LEGO revealed that Belgian Fan Designer Amber Veyt‘s Hocus Pocus – Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage submission would become an official set after reaching the requisite 10k votes to be considered in October 2021. The new set will feature the Sanderson Sister’s Cottage, which opens to show the museum and witches’ home inside. Six minifigures will be included: the three Sanderson Sisters, Max, Danni, and Allison, along with Thackery Binx as a black cat. The set will contain 2,316 pieces and is slated to be available for LEGO VIP members starting July 1, with general availability following on July 4. It will retail for US $229.99 | CAN $299.99 | UK £229.99.
