Category Archives: News

Stay current on the latest news and information about LEGO, from sales & deals to new set announcements. We also cover LEGO events and conventions all over the world.

LEGO designer Carl Merriam talks about becoming a designer, Boost, and Saturn V [Interview]

While in Billund earlier this month, we had an opportunity to chat with LEGO designer Carl Merriam. Carl is still an active AFOL within the LEGO community, although he is now a professional LEGO set designer. Most recently, Carl Merriam co-designed 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V and has been working on LEGO Boost that has just been released for pre-order.

We sat down with Carl at LEGO headquarters to chat about how he became a LEGO designer, along with some of the LEGO projects he’s worked on since joining the company.

Read the full review with LEGO set designer Carl Merriam

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The LEGO Ninjago Movie box images now available [News]

It’s more than 3 months till the premiere of The Lego Ninjago Movie, but the we’ve already begun to get a glimpse of the sets. Today, the official product images of the boxes are avaliable online, so we can have a clear view of what we’ll be hauling this fall. It’s hard to hide the excitement, as judging by the first look the new sets have lots of Exo-Force and Orient Expedition vibes, themes many fans miss. The rumor has it at least three more sets are to be released this Fall, so stay tuned for more news during the following weeks.

70615 Fire Mech, 944 pcs

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LEGO Batman Movie 70913 Scarecrow Fearful Face-off [Review]

It’s been months since The LEGO Batman Movie hit screens to become one of the best pictures of the year. But the party isn’t over — five more LEGO sets are just out, bringing some of Batman’s most loveable enemies. The Brothers Brick has already covered the summer wave’s flagship, 70917 The Ultimate Batmobile, but the smaller boxes still hold some surprises. 70913 Scarecrow Fearful Face-off has 141 pieces, making it the third-smallest box among the LEGO Batman Movie sets, but its retail price of $14.99 makes it a perfect choice for Bat-fans looking to add to their collection.

It’s not the first time Batman has met Scarecrow in this line. In 70910 Scarecrow Special Delivery the villain tried to break into the Gotham energy plant disguised as a pizza delivery driver. This time the bad guy shows up piloting a helipcopter and bombarding the facility with fear gas bombs.

Click to read the rest of our review

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for June 11, 2017 [News]

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: TBB reports from LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and we get to escape the rathtars ourselves. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Interview with LEGO Star Wars designers — We sat down with the LEGO Star Wars Design Director as well as the Graphic Designer to pick their brains about how your favorite sets go from concept to finished product.
Three huge LEGO dinosaurs move into LEGO House — TBB reports live from the nearly-completed LEGO House that three massive dinosaurs now calls home. One each of DUPLO, TECHNIC and a SYSTEM, each dinosaur is three meters tall!
Advance look inside LEGO House reveals dinosaurs and mountains — TBB got a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the impressive models, displays, and creative experiences in the LEGO House in Billund, opening September 28th
Review of LEGO Star Wars 75180 Rathtar Escape — With this playset, you get raging rathtars, new Star Wars minifigs (Kinjiklub and Guavian death gangs!) and the classic aging pair of Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Review of LEGO City Jungle 60161 Jungle Exploration Site — We dive into this huge set to check out all the new elements from the Jungle theme, like the jaguar, spider, and kayak, plus eight awesome minifigures.
The Brothers Brick 2017 Readers’ Survey — Speaking of Han Solo, this is your last week to win 75105 Millennium Falcon by filling out our TBB Readers’ Survey. We want to hear what you think about what we do.

OTHER LEGO NEWS: This week had a few other interesting LEGO-related news articles, so here are the best of the rest.

Adam Savage and Tested Crew Build the Epic LEGO Saturn V Rocket, Nerdist — Do you even knoll!? The Tested crew tackle another hard-to-find LEGO set and discover the true pleasures of advanced SNOT techniques.
Meet a giant Wonder Woman and her DC pals, made of LEGO, CNET — The Art of the Brick: DC Superheroes jumps across the pond from London to Washington D.C. to save the day! Nathan Sawaya used more than two million bricks to bring these classic comics to life.
Biggest mosaic made of LEGO bricks in Malaysia unveiled, The Sun Daily — This eight meter by 3 meter mosaic made of 87,000 bricks in Malaysia kicks off its “Let’s Go Raya” celebration. A fan-built Kampung House Diorama is also on display.

LEGO Star Wars designers answer questions on stickers, set redesigns and more [Interview]

The Brothers Brick were fortunate enough to spend some time talking with LEGO Designer Jens Kronvold Frederiksen who is the Design director for Star Wars theme, and Jakob who is a LEGO graphic designer within the Star Wars theme. Jens has designed sets for the Star Wars theme for 18 out of the 19 years he has been working for LEGO—an unusual situation, he admits, but one he is very happy with. Right at the beginning back in 1998, when Jens heard that LEGO and Star Wars were going to be collaborating, he felt it was a perfect combination of a fantasy universe with sets and vehicles that would work well with LEGO along with a strong storyline about good versus evil.

Jens Kronvold Frederiksen is famous for designing the UCS Millenium Falcon, a product he created back in 2006. Designing the biggest LEGO set at that time under the Star Wars theme was very exciting for him. It is no wonder it remains on his short list of favourite sets, along with the Death Star, which is a set he considers a ‘family build’ (when an adult can help a younger fan to build a complex final creation). He has a hand in lots of sets now as Design Director, but explains that although he oversees the designs, he can’t help but continue to build and get involved with the model designers.

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Off for adventure with LEGO City 60161 Jungle Exploration Site [Review]

The last few years, the inhabitants of LEGO City have been on quite the adventure, exploring the ocean, the arctic, and erupting volcanoes; this year is no exception, as they’re diving deep into the jungle. We picked up a copy of the largest set to explore for ourselves, since we wanted to check out the new pieces (jaguar!), as well as experience the new setting for one of LEGO’s longest running themes. 60161 Jungle Exploration Site has 813 pieces, and retails for $119.99

Click to explore the set!

Three huge LEGO dinosaurs move into LEGO House [NEWS]

The Brothers Brick have been on location in Billund, Denmark to take a peek at the still-under-construction LEGO House.The Masterpiece Gallery in LEGO House is the dedicated gallery space where impressive fan-made and fan-inspired LEGO models will be on display once the house opens later this year on 28th September. This week senior designer in LEGO House, Stuart Harris, was able to reveal that the three giant models on the three podiums in the gallery will be a DUPLO dinosaur, a TECHNIC dinosaur and a SYSTEM dinosaur.

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LEGO Star Wars 75180 Rathtar Escape [Review]

After Rey and Finn escape Jakku in the Millennium Falcon rather than a Quadjumper, they get captured by the massive Eravana. Once aboard Han & Chewie’s new freighter, much adventure ensues. Complementing the minifig selection in the 75105 Millennium Falcon from the release of The Force Awakens in 2015 (with Kanjiklub gang members), 75180 Rathtar Escape depicts the confrontation between our plucky heroes and the Guavian death gang while attempting to escape loosed rathtars.

75180 Rathtar Escape includes 836 pieces with 5 minifigs, and retails for $79.99.

Read the full review of 75180 Rathtar Escape

Advance look inside LEGO House reveals dinosaurs and mountains

The Brothers Brick recently got to visit LEGO House as it enters the final stages of construction prior to the grand opening on 28 Sept 2017. We got a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the impressive models, displays, and creative experiences that will form LEGO’s ultimate play date. LEGO House is located in the centre of Billund, only 3km away from Billund International Airport.

Fans who visit the new attraction will be able to build their own version — without the need for diggers or a fork-lift. As we took a look around, Jesper Vilstrup, General Manager of LEGO House, told us a new, “bigger and better” exclusive LEGO House set will be released in September when the doors open to the public. This will replace the current 250-piece set 4000010 LEGO House which can still be purchased from a handful of local Billund shops.

As we entered LEGO House, the impressive 15m tall Tree of Creativity dominated the central staircase. Packed full of LEGO details, the Tree is a unique model, built by hand from 6,316,611 standard bricks. It apparently took 24,350 hours to assemble… phew!

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for June 4, 2017 [News]

In addition to the best LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick also brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of June 2017.

TBB SET NEWS: When it rains, it pours! This week we’ve gotten an early look at the new Old Fishing Store and Thor sets, along with availability of LEGO’s new Summer wave. Happy shopping!

LEGO Ideas 21310 Old Fishing Store revealed — The latest addition to the LEGO Ideas range is a stunning 2,049 brick set based on a design by Dutch builder Robert Bontenbal, and available September 1st.
Summer 2017 wave of new LEGO sets now available, including Star Wars, Saturn V, and more — Summer is here, and the floodgates of LEGO sets have opened with 55 new sets available this week.
LEGO Boost is now available for preorder — LEGO’s new coding and motorization toolkit is now also available for pre-order from the LEGO Shop, shipping August 1.
LEGO officially reveals sets for Thor: Raganarok — Some amazing new minifigures join the Marvel Super Hero lineup with two sets from the anticipated upcoming Thor movie.

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LEGO Star Wars 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack [Review]

Since before the dawn of time, bounty hunters have been some of the most popular side characters in the Star Wars franchise, with Boba Fett and his iconic Slave I leading the pack. In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader assembles a motley crew of bounty hunters aboard his Star Destroyer, commissioning them to hunt down the Rebels. 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack brings together four of the six bounty hunters in a single set under $15.

If that’s not enough already to run out and buy this set, read on for our hands-on review.

Read the full review of 75167 Bounty Hunter Speeder Bike Battle Pack

Malaysian cultural icons featured in exclusive mini-builds [News]

A collaboration between LEGO and the fan community in Malaysia has inspired brick-built versions of cultural icons representing everyday things that locals can identify and appreciate as something to remind them of home. The four builds come packaged very much like standard LEGO sets with instructions and a box, and are offered as part of a Gift With Purchase promotion in Malaysia for the month of June.

As part of the community engagement process, candidate fan designs were first shortlisted by LEGO, then the chosen builds received design input from Nicholas Foo, a LEGO Certified Professional based in Singapore, before finally going into production. Continue reading →