About Chris

Chris Malloy (porschecm2) has been a LEGO fan nearly all his life, having started with System bricks at age 3. He is the co-author of Ultimate LEGO Star Wars, and his creations have been featured in several books and The LEGO Movie. He also helped develop the first LEGO Minecraft set, 21102 Minecraft Micro World: The Forest, which has gone on to inspire a whole theme of sets. He's been active in the online community since 2002, and regularly attends LEGO fan conventions such as BrickCon and BrickCan. He enjoys building in a wide range of themes, but keeps returning to Castle, Space, and Pirates. Check out his LEGO creations and photography here.

Posts by Chris

This LEGO bust isn’t trolling

LEGO’s given us lots of science fiction busts of Stormtroopers and comic book characters, but how about a fantasy creature? This amazing sculpture by Ghalad is epically awesome and exactly the sort of crazy fantasy sculpture I’d love to build. From the impressive tusks to the teal warpaint, the model is expertly realized, and the large plinth with a skull and crossbones just sets the mood. It’s also possibly the best use of the 1×1 tooth plates that I’ve ever seen–they’re being used as the teeth, but the scale feels spot on to give this troll a disdainful growl.

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Don’t get in this Sith lord’s way

According to LEGO builder Simion Alex, this menacing hulk of a ship hails from the Star Wars universe where it’s the personal escort of a Sith lord. The aesthetic isn’t quite what I typically expect from Star Wars, but I absolutely love it, as it screams aggressive and deadly—exactly what you’d expect a Sith lord’s ship to look like. The color blocking is outstanding with just the right amount of greebling to make this starship feel weighty and armored.

LEGO Friends reveals 5 sets for 2023 with diverse characters to better represent children [News]

Today LEGO has revealed the first wave of Friends sets for 2023, bringing in a new cast of characters and an update to the branding with a new logo. A new LEGO Friends television series will also accompany the new sets.

LEGO’s annual Play Well study revealed that 3 out of 4 children felt there were not enough toys with characters that represent them, so LEGO is aiming to bring more diverse representation to Heartlake City that’s inclusive of not just various ethnicities and genders, but also disabilities and neurodivergence. LEGO says the 2023 sets and series will feature characters with limb difference, Downs Syndrome, anxiety, vitiligo, and even pets with disabilities, including a blind dog and a dog with a wheelchair.

Five new Friends sets will be available starting Jan. 1, 2023, and the new TV show will kick off with a special in February.

Click to see the new Friends sets

LEGO discontinuing Mindstorms brand, sunsetting 51515 Robot Inventor at end of 2022 [News]

Today LEGO announced that they are retiring the Mindstorms brand and sets, instead choosing to focus on robotics products like 45678 SPIKE Prime, which we reviewed in 2020. The current Mindstorms product, 51515 Robot Inventor will be discontinued at the end of 2022, along with Powered Up elements 88016 Large Hub and 88018 Medium Angular Motor. In a clear signal that the company is shifting away from Mindstorms rather than preparing to launch a new generation, LEGO has said that the current Mindstorms team will be reassigned to other departments. The company has promised the current Mindstorms Robot Inventor app will be available through 2024. The 51515 Robot Inventor set (US $359.99 | CAN $459.99 | UK £314.99) is currently out of stock from LEGO in the United States and Canada, and it’s not clear whether it will be available again before it is removed from sale.

Here’s the full press release from LEGO:

Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the core ‘Build & Code’ experiences in the company’s portfolio, carrying with it significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics and leading to current Build & Code experiences such as SPIKE Prime, from LEGO Education’s LEGO Learning System.

However, now having a number of priorities in LEGO Education and other Build & Code experiences, we have decided to focus our resources and future plans by redirecting our MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor team and their expertise into different areas of the business.

This means the physical MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor product (51515) and its related elements (88016 and 88018) are to exit our portfolio from the end of 2022, whilst digital platforms – such as the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor App – will remain live until at least the end of 2024.

We still have strong belief in the Build & Code proposition and will continue to support it through platforms such as SPIKE Prime, and we are continuing to hold on to the trademark for the MINDSTORMS brand and assessing our future plans together with LEGO Education.

LEGO Marvel reveals 4,000-piece 76210 Iron Man Hulkbuster from the Avengers Infinity Saga [News]

Today LEGO has revealed the latest top-tier set from the Marvel Infinity Saga theme with 76210 Iron Man Hulkbuster. This massive model of Tony Stark’s indestructible mech stands 20.5 in. ( 52 cm) tall and contains 4,049 pieces. 76105 The Hulkbuster: Ultron Edition came out in 2019 as a near-minifigure scale model, but this version is a significantly larger scale, though in the vein of many large display models from themes like Marvel and Star Wars, it includes a minifigure of Tony Stark that can be displayed along with the info placard. Tony can also be slotted into the gigantic mech. The Hulkbuster will retail for US $549.99 | CAN $699.99 | UK £474.99 when it’s available starting Nov. 4 for LEGO VIP members. General availability will follow on Nov. 9.

Click to see more of the Hulkbuster

You can’t contain this much awesome

Just as on the ocean today, in the far future, surely the most common sort of large spaceship will be the container ship. This magnificent LEGO vessel by Perry β is a take on what that could look like. Just as now, it seems that intermodal containers are the go-to box for sending your goods across the galaxy, and in my opinion, they’re really the star of this show, even though they’re just simple 1×2-stud boxes in a multitude of colors. The ship itself is fantastic too, with a nice mix of smooth surfaces and intricate details.

Wacky racers, unite!

We feature a lot of Serious LEGO Models™ here on TBB, with spaceships and mechs and fantasy dioramas. But sometimes it’s fun to just cut loose and celebrate the zany, and this Wheel-o-zoom by Nikita Nikolsky is the perfect antidote to the serious. Piloted by a crazy character mashed together from the Trolls theme who features a flower hat, the bright racer reminds me of LEGO’s various racer themes from the early 2000s, and the brilliant photo editing sells it. Despite being a completely ludicrous design, it’s still got loads of good techniques, from the side panels made of shield tiles to the Bionicle Tohunga feet as front axles. My favorite detail though? That purple wing from the Electro Throwbot hiding near the back. I haven’t seen one of those used on a model in ages.

The long-forgotten temple of the Sith

I love a good scene of ruins, and this LEGO diorama by Chris Bricks hits all the right notes, from the massive scale to the otherworldly atmosphere. Of course, that latter bit might be because this isn’t a medieval fantasy structure but a long-forgotten Sith temple set in the Star Wars universe. Naturally, it’s home to a Holocron. Look closely and you’ll spy that the junk strewn around is actually spaceship parts. The large slope elements that make up the rockwork do an excellent job of giving this scene an uncanny feeling, as the mountain itself almost feels organic.

When you see a serpent

I don’t know about you, but I like my placid meadow villages free of marauding sea serpents. However, the folks were not so lucky at this fine farm by LEGO builder Faëbricks. The dark water looks ominous rather than tranquil, and the sand-green serpent rears his head in a pose that might be an easter egg for LEGOLand’s Brickley. As for the whole scene, I don’t know whether this builder was inspired by Valheim, but this moment seems to be drawn straight out of one of my games, from right after my boat got wrecked by a serpent and I’m swimming furiously to shore hoping my stamina holds out.

Why did the chicken walker cross the road?

Every time you think you’ve seen the best LEGO version of a Star Wars vehicle, someone turns around and makes something else incredible. This awesome AT-ST by GolPlaysWithLego utilizes a combination of LEGO and a sprinkling of other brand elements (mostly wedge tiles), along with a whole lot of skill, to raise the bar yet again (in fact, we featured their previous AT-ST version in 2019). The shaping of the gangly mech is spot-on, but it’s the posing with the uneven terrain that really sells this one to me. It’s almost shocking how much adding a good base to a build can improve it, especially a simple and clean design like this one.

LEGO Ideas reveals 21337 Table Football, a 2,300-piece playable game table [News]

Today LEGO Ideas has revealed the next fan-inspired set will be 21337 Table Football. LEGO builder Donát Fehérvári submitted the project to Ideas as part of the special We Love Sports contest on the platform, where it won the grand prize last summer. The finished 2,339-piece LEGO Ideas set created by LEGO Designer Antica Bracanov positions minifigures as the players inside a functional—if miniaturized—table with ball returns and score counters. Full-size table football games (frequently known by the trademarked name Foosball) typically include eight rows of players, with 11 players for each team. The LEGO version downsizes that to just 5 players on each team on the field, but the full complement of 22 minifigures are included in the set. Rather than including predetermined minifigures for the teams, the set includes more than 40 minifigure heads and hairpieces across a range of skin tones, along with an extra bit of stadium seating for the inactive players that also functions as a storage box for the spare pieces. 21337 Table Football will be available starting Nov. 1, 2022, for US $249.99 | CAN $309.99 | UK £241.99.

Click to see more pictures

Driving the wedge into Classic Space

Classic Space and flying grey wedge shapes—name a more iconic duo! This LEGO ship by Sylvain Daunais may be pretty small as far as spaceships going, being just a single-seater, but it’s got all the right stuff for a Neo-Classic Space look, with clean lines, a transparent yellow cockpit, cool engine intakes, and red/green lights on the wingtips.

My favorite bit can only be seen from the back, though, where Sylvain has use the macaroni pieces to make some intertwined piping around the thruster. It’s a super simple bit of detailing that takes this ship up a few notches.