Posts by Theo Spencer

There’s not much LEG(O)room on Flight 714 to Sydney

A new LEGO builder on Flickr, by the name of Aero Explorer, is living up to their name with a neat model of a fantastical plane. Fantastical? Yes! Although it may look like real enough, this is a prototype private jet that appeared in one of the weirder Tintin comics: Flight 714 to Sydney. The parachute on the back is the biggest clue to its fanciful design. Even I know that when planes have parachutes, they’re normally kept on the inside. Anyway, this is a cracker of a model. I really like the way the fuselage tapers towards the nose…

… And we get a bit of a clue as to how the shaping was achieved here. You can also see that there’s just about enough space for an interior. It sleek profile is only a few studs wide, so it’s impressive that minifigures can sit in it at all, never mind with this level of detail! It might be a bit cramped, though. I can say from experience that flying to Sydney with minimal legroom is not much fun… Hopefully the minifigure Tintin is a bit more resilient than me!

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The name “Thunderjaw” doesn’t exactly sound cuddly...

Michał Kozłowski has built a fantastic LEGO creature from the popular Horizon video game series. I’m reminded of two things: one, what a talented builder Michał is (this looks great!). Two, how epic the creature names are in this universe. This one is called a Thunderjaw, but you’ve also got things like Deathbringers, Glinthawks, Ravagers and Corrupters. You’re not going to pick a fight with any of those! Well, OK, you might. That is kind of the point of the game, I gather. But if you get hurt, you can’t say the mechabiologists who named them didn’t try to warn you.

LEGO announces financial results for 2023 calendar year [News]

The LEGO Group has today announced their financial results for last year (2023). On the whole, it was a fairly positive year for the company, as they outperformed the struggling toy market to increase their global market share. Direct-to-consumer sales and revenue both improved relative to their 2022 benchmarks; the former growing by 4%, the latter by 2% to DKK 65.9 billion. Despite this, TLG’s operating profit dropped to DKK 17.1 billion from DKK 17.9 billion the year before (although the second half of 2023 saw 7% growth compared to the same period in 2022). According to LEGO, this was driven by additional investment in diverse strategic areas. Chief among these is a 60% year-on-year increase in their spending on environmental initiatives. The total spend in this area is projected to double by 2025.

These are the headline figures; more details can be found after the jump. But in the meantime, here’s what LEGO Group CEO Niels B. Christiansen made of the results:

“We are pleased with our performance given that 2023 was the most negative toy market in more than 15 years. We continued to grow on top of three years of extraordinary growth and saw strong momentum in the final quarter of 2023. We significantly outpaced the market, growing share and proving the appeal of our strong, diverse portfolio and the LEGO® System in Play.”

“Despite the external market conditions, we continued to invest for the future and made good progress on digital, sustainability and retail initiatives that will support long-term growth. We are grateful for our dedicated colleagues who remain committed to our mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.”

You can’t step on LEGO if you’re stepping around in LEGO!

Famously, stepping on LEGO is one of the most painful experiences known to humankind, second only to stubbing your little toe. (Woe betide you if you stub your little toe on a LEGO creation.) But what does stepping in LEGO feel like? We should ask Takamichi Irie. He has made the bold choice of creating a red Nike sneaker out of bricks. They say you need to suffer for your art, but even so, it’s a brave builder who willingly makes something where you’re always stepping on studs!

Thankfully for Takamichi’s feet – or one of them, at least – he has got a normal shoe to complete the pair. And to be fair, the brick-built one does compare very well to it! It’s so well shaped, it actually looks kind of comfy. And you wouldn’t need to worry about finding one in your size: you can always build it a little bigger. You know, maybe there’s something in these brick-built shoes after all…

What woes will this willowy wyvern to weep?

Your first thought of dragons, wyrms and wyverns might be scary mythical beasts. But with adept use of his LEGO pieces, Joey Klusnick reminds us that dragons have feelings, too. It’s named the Weeping Wyvern – clearly named after its resemblance to weeping willows. But the poor guy is actually weeping! But why? There is a missing goat poster pinned to its left ankle. Perhaps someone used too big a nail, or the goat is this wyvern’s pet? It’s anyone’s guess, really. The only other plausible explanation is that it’s seen the eye-watering prices of the original goat on the LEGO aftermarket…

LEGO celebrates Batman: The Animated Series with 76271 Gotham City Skyline art set [News]

2024 is seeing celebrations for 85 years since Batman was introduced to the world. LEGO, for its part, is choosing to mark the occasion with a set based on Batman: the Animated Series (which, coincidentally, also has 85 episodes). Made up of 4,210 pieces, 76271 Gotham City Skyline depicts a 3D backdrop of Bruce Wayne’s hometown in a similar vein to LEGO’s Art series. Gotham Cty’s art-deco buildings are recreated in the brick alongside references to moments in the 1990s TV show. Four minifigures are also included: villains Harley Quinn and the Joker; some-time antagonist Catwoman; and, naturally, Batman himself. Retailing for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99, 76271 Gotham City Skyline will be available from April 1st for LEGO Insiders, with general sale starting from April 4th.

Click here to explore this new Gotham City set

Rovers like this only come around once every four years

In case it escaped your attention, this year is a leap year. That means we got a whole extra day of the LEGO community’s month-long rover-building bonanza: Febrovery! And boy, has Scott Wilhelm made good use of that bonus day. At 117 studs long, this colossal rover would almost qualify for that other famous space-building monthly challenge, SHIPtember (it just needs to swap those wheels for wings). Since it’s built for exploring, let’s do some exploring of our own and find out what Scott has hidden inside this behemoth. (Spoiler alert: a lot!)

Step inside to have a look around this massive rover!

Racing across the gulf between galaxies

Iconic racing liveries have more reach than we first thought, it seems. In LEGO Speed Champions 76905 Ford GT Heritage Edition and Bronco R, the former of the two vehicles sports the blue-and-orange colours of Gulf Oil, which have adorned countless other racing cars in this galaxy. In the galaxy far, far away, though, it’s Vertaro who has applied these colours (and that Ford’s windscreen, incidentally) to their own racing speeder. The asymmetric design is very cool, from the offset cockpit to the engine chained to the side. Now that might not seem like the safest way to attach your power plant. But at least if it breaks, there’s an unexpected passenger hanging off the side who can help fix it!

Make some space in your day to check out this space-faring demi-God

I love Aidan Hayward‘s wild creature builds. This latest one is called Astel Naturalborn of the Void, and it’s… Er… Well, what is it? Other than a badass all-powerful cosmic deity, of course. That much is evident from the rings, stars and gas clouds emanating from its body. But otherwise, it could be part-scorpion, part-dragonfly, part-snake, even part-Medusa. We use the world other-worldly a lot when discussing Aidan’s creations (which we do a lot). But nowhere is that description more apt than here!

New LEGO sets for March 2024 now available for purchase [News]

These days, barely a month goes by without new LEGO sets becoming available. Some have more than others, and March is a bumper month for new releases! They cover a wide range of subject matter, age ranges and price points. We’ve picked out some of the most interesting ones, including some we’ve already reviewed. We can’t cover everything, though. Check out our reviews archive for our thoughts on sets that we couldn’t include here. And you can always see every new set over at LEGO.com, too (US | CAN | UK).

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Can I get an E-wing, but with extra E, please?

You may have noticed a distinctly blue-green tint to some of our featured LEGO starfighters lately. The likes of Inthert, Mansur Soeleman, and now Alec Hole are building up a Star Wars squadron based around the best colour in LEGO’s palette: teal. This one is loosely based on the E-wing that finally entered the Star Wars canon in the Ahsoka series. I say loosely, as it’s a tad bigger than the in-universe design. Bigger engines, bigger hold, bigger guns. So naturally, it had to be called the Capital E-wing! A nice tongue-in-cheek name for a very fine starfighter.

Space cahoots with King Kahuka

The idea of space pirates is nothing new. After all, even in space you’re not safe from marauding villains. But what if we delve into LEGO’s take on pirates, and add some space to that? Step forward, Gregory Coquelz! One of the more unique sub-themes of LEGO pirates was the Islanders from the mid-1990s, which is where Gregory’s spacey inspiration comes from. And although you might expect one of the ships to be turned into a spaceship, it’s in fact King Kahuka’s mask which gets the starship treatment! It’s a really fun and well-executed idea. The red cockpit bubbles for the eye-holes are especially neat.