As 2018 comes to an end, we can’t help but look back and reflect on what an amazing news year it has been for the LEGO community. From old themes coming back to some of the largest LEGO sets ever released, The Brothers Brick has brought you credible LEGO news from all over. So let’s look back at the year and see what made the biggest splash as we analyze the top 10 LEGO news articles of 2018.
Click to reveal the Top 10 most read LEGO news stories of 2018
Amazon is offering a great deal on the yet to be released Overwatch sets. 4 of the 6 sets are on discounts and will be released on 1st Jan. Grab them while you can! You can still order the other 2 sets (D.Va & Reinhardt and Bastion) from LEGO directly at the retail price.
Early last month, we noted how changes to Flickr’s free accounts have the potential to significantly harm the historical record of the LEGO hobbyist (AFOL) community. Historically, Flickr provided unlimited storage to its Free account users, but the number of photos that can be hosted on a Free account will be limited to 1,000 starting January 1st, 2019. As a result, many LEGO creations hosted in Free accounts are now at risk of disappearing forever. This is particularly heartbreaking for photos from LEGO builders who have passed away or are no longer participating in the hobbyist community. But we have good news to share, so please read on!
Read more about what TBB is doing to help ensure continuity in the LEGO building community
The Brothers Brick featured nearly 1,500 LEGO creations in 2018, ranging from unique characters to recreations of iconic vehicles and scenes from movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter. We recently shared our short-list for the best LEGO creations of 2018. But what custom creations we’ve featured were the most popular with you, our readers? Let’s take a look at the top 10 most popular LEGO models highlighted over this past year.
See the full list of the 10 most popular LEGO creations on TBB this year
In 2018, the team at The Brothers Brick reviewed over 120 LEGO sets. For Collectible Minifigures, we’ll remember this year as the year that LEGO introduced “chaser” minifigures – having only one special figure in a box of 60. From the Technic range, the largest set ever was unleashed. In the classic System theme, the largest set this year trumps nearly all other sets that came before, coming in as the second-largest set of all time, just behind the UCS Millennium Falcon. LEGO IDEAS made headlines yet again this year, proving that LEGO has a winning theme on their hands, but only 2 of them made it into the Top 10 out of the four released.
Curious to find out which ones made it? Which Technic sets made the cut? How well did the Collectible Minifigures do? Dive right in as we take a moment to look at the Top 10 most popular reviews featured on The Brothers Brick website.
Dive right in to see the Top 10 Reviews of 2018
2019 will be the 5th anniversary for Japan Brickfest Kobe Fan Weekend, which is now the largest international LEGO fan event in Asia. Unlike other years, there’s only a single round of registration regardless of whether you’re contributing a build or just attending the event. So, hurry up and sign up before its too late! Registration closes on the 31st of December at midnight, (JST) Japan Standard Time.
Sign up here to participate as a builder or just a visitor.
Japan Brickfest is held at the Canadian Academy in Rokko Island, Kobe and hosted by KLUG (Kansai LEGO User Group). Japan Brickfest is a charity event with a percentage of the entry fee being donated to Children Charities and other charities. A portion of admissions and sales will be used as a donation to nursing homes.
The Brothers Brick is an official sponsor of Japan Brickfest
Minecraft keeps getting bigger — and I’m not just talking about the game’s record-breaking sales. The original LEGO Minecraft set I helped design back in 2011 as part of LEGO’s early Ideas platform was microscale, mostly due to the steep constraints of hitting a roughly $30 MSRP target. Later, that first wildly successful set was followed by more microscale sets, and finally in 2014 the theme got upgraded to our original vision by introducing minifigure-scale sets. Recently, LEGO bumped up the scale a bit with 41612 Steve and Creeper BrickHeadz. Now LEGO Minecraft is upping its game once more with a new line called Big Figs, and we’ve got the first series comprising three sets to review: 21148 Steve with Parrot, 21149 Alex with Chicken, and 21150 Skeleton with Magma Cube. Each of the sets contains a large figure paired with a small animal from the game, and will be available January 1 for $14.99 USD.
Click to read the full hands-on review
LEGO owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is famous for his love of Ferraris, and has been known to show local Danish LEGO fans around his garage full of them. So it’s no surprise that LEGO has had a longstanding partnership with the Italian supercar maker, going back more than 20 years and spanning multiple themes and even systems, from Duplo to Technic. The 2019 Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione features the sleek supercar built between 1987 and 1992. This version includes 198 pieces and retails for the usual $14.99 (£12.99 in the UK and $19.99 in Canada).
Read our hands-on review of LEGO Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione
As a late Christmas treat, all the new LEGO sets in the initial wave from The LEGO Movie 2 are now on sale. LEGO unveiled a whopping nineteen sets from their upcoming sequel in November and we took an early look at 70841 Benny’s Space Squad with more reviews to come.
There are plenty of exciting minifigures, new elements, and even a brand new “Vibrant Coral” color. LEGO is also offering two free tickets to see the movie with $60 purchase of these sets between now and January 15. (Hold onto your receipts though, because it is a little complicated to claim the tickets–you have to take a picture of the receipts with VIP number listed and upload it to receive a Fandango code starting on January 16.) The LEGO Movie 2 hits theaters on February 8.
Check out all 19 new sets from The LEGO Movie 2 now on sale
For over a decade The Brothers Brick has been highlighting the best LEGO creations, and this year has been a cracker with builders across the world putting together some amazing models. To celebrate a year of great building, The Brothers Brick team has looked back over everything we’ve featured, and here’s our selection of the finest LEGO creations of 2018.
Have a look at the fantastic models we’ve shortlisted, and stay tuned for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2018 on New Year’s Eve!
And don’t forget to check out the winners of LEGO Creation of the Year 2017 and LEGO Creation of the Year 2016 to see what honourable company this year’s nominations enjoy.
Click to see all of this year’s nominees
In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the fourth week of December 2018.
TBB REVIEWS: The 2019 LEGO sets are almost here, and we have your early look at some of the more interesting ones on the horizon.
TBB FEATURES: From LEGO history to computer games, these interesting reads go beyond the basic brick into a whole new territory.
TBB NEWS: From new set announcements to last minute shopping guides, here are the rest of the news articles from the week.
OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:
Check out the other LEGO news of the week
From humble beginnings as a single microscale set, the LEGO Minecraft series has grown into a cornerstone of the LEGO product line. In addition to two new minifigure-scale sets, the January 2019 wave includes a new concept — buildable “BigFigs” of Minecraft characters.
The initial series of BigFigs includes playable characters Steve and Alex as well as a Skeleton enemy character (or “hostile mob” in Minecraft parlance). Each BigFig set also comes with a smaller secondary character — Alex comes with a chicken, Steve comes with a parrot, and the Skeleton comes with a Magma Cube. We’ll be bringing you hands-on reviews of these sets very soon, but for now you can take a look at the official images below.
See more details about all five new LEGO Minecraft sets