Ingenious LEGO builders are always creating amazingly complex machines to do cool tasks — just check out this automated Christmas cookie decorating machine! Braiding rope is a fairly straightforward task for a human, but it’s complex for a machine because it requires strands to be passed underneath each other. It’s mesmerizing to watch Nico71‘s braiding machine pass three of the shuttles back and forth between the rotating spindles to interweave the 5 strands.
Now through Friday, Nov. 18, No Starch Press is having a massive sale on LEGO books, offering them at 50% off. No Starch Press is the publisher of many great fan-authored books, including ones we’ve reviewed such as The LEGO Neighborhood Book, Beautiful LEGO, The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles, and The Cult of LEGO. Use the code BRICKSGALORE at checkout to get the sale price. Each physical book comes with a digitally downloadable version as well. And if you’d prefer to have just the digital version, the current pay-what-you-want Humble Book Bundle features 16 No Starch Press LEGO books.
Full disclosure: The Brothers Brick staff are featured in a number of No Starch Press books, including Beautiful LEGO, The Cult of LEGO, and Steampunk LEGO.
We got our first look at 5 of 2017’s new Creator sets last week, and as we suspected, that wasn’t the full lineup. Here are two more Creator set sure to delight fans looking for something more than vehicles.
The Beachside Townhouse follows in the vein of getaway homes, such as this year’s Lakeside Lodge (currently 36% off on Amazon), and is very similar to last year’s Beach Hut (currently available on Amazon). Meanwhile, Park Street Townhouse continues the scaled-down modulars style of Creator sets, like this year’s Corner Deli (currently 25% off on Amazon) and 2015’s Toy & Grocery Shop (currently 16% off on Amazon).
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 LEGO City sets
2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets
2017 LEGO Technic sets
LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS set
2017 LEGO Friends sets
2017 LEGO Creator sets
2017 LEGO Ninjago sets
2017 LEGO Batman Movie sets
Manuel Nascimento built this incredible LEGO Technic Porsche 919 after watching the real-life car win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015. Not content to simply recreate the stunning shape out of LEGO, Manuel also decorated his car like the real one, saying, “I had too much fun decorating the car but at the same time I also had a lot of work because all stickers were hand made.” Check out more of this beautiful racecar below, including the working functions.
We’ve seen a lot of next year’s sets over the past week, but here’s another one: Ninjago. Below are 7 sets from the new lineup, which feature the ninja masters facing off against metallic snake warriors called the Vermillion. As usual there are lots of cool vehicles, dragons, and mechs. See all 7 sets below.
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
2017 Technic sets
BMW R 1200 GS Technic set
2017 Friends sets
2017 Creator sets
Just a few days ago, we saw the Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) Sandcrawler on sale for 21% off. We hope you took advantage of that deal, because it’s now back to full price. If you missed it (or even if you didn’t) here’s another shot at a great UCS set. Amazon currently has the UCS Tie Fighter for 22% off the normal $199 price, bringing it to just $156.51. That’s a fantastic deal for this hard-to-find set. Amazon has the sale on a limited basis, and right now it’s nearly 25% claimed. So act quickly, because they’re sure to go fast.
More than a million men gave their lives in the Battle of the Somme in the late summer of 1918. It was a harrowing affair even for those who survived, as depicted in this LEGO diorama by James Pegrum. As we close out this Veteran’s Day, may their lives never be forgotten, and may we always strive for peace for all the men and women who have and still do serve.
The best thing about LEGO sets in the 1990s? Well, ok, besides all the awesome themes likes Ice Planet and Dragon Knights. Every LEGO set came with a miniature catalog, either a folded single page or a half-sheet booklet, and besides just advertising new sets, they included dioramas showing all the sets from a theme in action on a cool bit of scenery, like this Castle diorama from 1995. Builder Pixel Fox is creating some amazing images that bring back that nostalgia. LEGO catalogs need to do this again.
Like many of us who played with Hot Wheels as kids, Brick Flag has fond memories of his first Hot Wheels vehicle, the Ramblin’ Wrecker. Being a skilled LEGO builder, he decided to model a few of his favorite diecast trucks in brick form. In order to get the precise shaping, he scaled them up considerably; his LEGO versions are about 9 inches long, or about 4 times larger than their metal counterparts, but they look deceptively small. Take a look at the details after the jump.
Continuing our ongoing coverage of LEGO’s 2017 lineup, here’s your first look at five new Creator sets. These are probably only the smaller half of the 2017 Creator line, so keep your eyes out for more in the near future. In the meantime, take a look at this sweet dinosaur 3-in-1 set that builds a T-rex, triceratops, and pterodactyl, and check out the rest below.
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
2017 Technic sets
BMW R 1200 GS Technic set
2017 Friends sets
And don’t miss that Amazon has some good deals on current Creator sets right now, such as 31050 Corner Deli for 25% off and 31052 Vacation Getaways for 20% off.
The Humble Bundle is well known in the gaming community for offering packages of excellent older titles and letting buyers choose how much they want to pay. They’re now offering ebooks as well, and the current Humble Book Bundle features a selection of 4 great LEGO books from No Starch Press if you pay $1 or more. If you choose to pay over $15, you can get digital downloads of a full 16 LEGO books. We’ve reviewed several of them, including The LEGO Neighborhood Book, Beautiful LEGO, The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles, and The Cult of LEGO, so you check out what we thought before you commit. If you’re a longtime TBB reader, you’ll recognize a lot of terrific builders in these pages that we’ve featured over the years.
Don’t want to get a digital version? You can find all of these books on Amazon, and many are even on sale right now, like LEGO Space which is only $17.36 in hardcover.
Full disclosure: We builders here at The Brothers Brick are featured in Beautiful LEGO, The Cult of LEGO, and Steampunk LEGO.
LEGO announced one new Technic set yesterday morning, the first ever licensed BMW motorcycle. Here’s the rest of the Technic lineup for 2017, though. We don’t have price or piece counts for these sets yet, but this year on the docket we’ve got an awesome scientific exploration vessel, construction crews, and even an RC-controlled tracked monster truck. Check out all seven sets below!
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 City sets
2017 Nexo Knights sets
