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.

Brickworld Chicago 2016 registration now open [News]

Registration for Brickworld Chicago 2016 is now open. Brickworld Chicago is held June 15-19, 2016, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL.

Registration
There are three registration tiers with their perks outlined on the convention page. All registration types are ages 18+; registrants under 18 years of age must have a parent/guardian register and attend Brickworld with them. All Access and Full registration is available until 5/16/16. After that date, Late registration is the only option.

All Access registration is $55 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and the Brickworld commemorative brick.

Full registration is $80 and includes everything from the All Access tier plus eligibility for displays, door prizes, the goody bag, and Brickworld awards. Full registration is limited to 700 registrants.

Late registration is $100 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and eligibility for collaborative displays only.

Hotel
Brickworld is held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, and attendees can choose to stay at the connected Renaissance Hotel for an event rate of $139/night. Two room types are available: 1 king bed, or 2 double beds. Phone and online reservations for this event rate can be found here.

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LEGO Star Wars 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter [Review]

While we’ve largely focused on the “good guy” sets like 75102 Poe’s X-wing Fighter from The Force Awakens since their release in September, our coverage would be incomplete if we didn’t also review “bad guy” sets like 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter. The set includes 517 pieces and 4 minifigs, with a retail price of $69.99, though it has been consistently 20% off at $55.99 on Amazon since nearly its release last September.

Now that we’re nearly a month after the movie’s release, I will reference SPOILERS in this review. Again, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

I’ll share one non-movie spoiler, though: This is an unexpectedly awesome set — you need it.

Click through for the full review

LEGO Star Wars 75132 First Order Battle Pack [Review]

Contrary to the resource-strapped organization in The Force Awakens, the First Order in the LEGO Star Wars universe certainly doesn’t lack stormtroopers, helped along by new releases like the 75132 First Order Battle Pack, which accompanies the 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack we also reviewed recently. This battle pack has 88 pieces, the usual 4 minifigs, and retails for the normal $12.99.

Click through for the full review

75137 Carbon Freezing Chamber from Empire Strikes Back [Review]

We’ve been so focused on LEGO Star Wars sets from The Force Awakens that you’d think we’d forgotten there was an Original Trilogy thirty-odd years ago (I deny the existence of any Prequel Trilogy). For their January 2016 assortment, LEGO hasn’t neglected Episodes IV, V, and VI though. Although still a challenge to find here in North America, LEGO sent us a copy of 75137 Carbon Freezing Chamber from The Empire Strikes Back and I’m pleased to bring you this review.

The set includes 231 pieces and three minifigs. Once available, we expect this set to retail for around $30 in the US (it’s £19.99/29.99€ in Europe).

As we noted when the first official pictures of January 2016 LEGO Star Wars sets appeared back in December, the interior of Cloud City on Bespin hasn’t been depicted in a LEGO set since the rare 10123 Cloud City was released in 2003.

Click through for the full review

LEGO Star Wars 75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack [Review]

Although there still seems to be a supply chain issue here in North America, where new 2016 LEGO sets are rather hard to come by, our friends in Billund have sent us another batch of sets that we’ll be reviewing here on The Brothers Brick over the next week or two. LEGO continues to expand its range of minifig-centric Battle Pack sets with 75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack, alongside the 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack I reviewed over the weekend. The set has 101 pieces, including 4 minifigs, with a price of $12.99.

Click through to read the full review

Guide to feeling blind packs for LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 15 [Review]

Series 15 of LEGO’s incredibly popular Collectible Minifigures line is starting to hit stores. And if you’re going to find a full set, you’ll need to either buy a full case (which can get very pricey), or stand in the store feeling the blind packs to determine what’s inside. If you opt for the latter route, we’re here to help you get started with this feeling guide. We’ve already done a full in-depth Series 15 minifigure review, so here we’ll just cover the important things you’ll want to know when standing in the store with your fingers on a blind pack.

Click to read the full guide!

New LEGO 1966 Batman Batcave officially announced! [News]

Tired of your LEGO Superheroes being modern, dark, and gritty? Well, LEGO has just the solution: a fully loaded Batcave from the 1966 Batman TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. KAPOW! The set will have 2,526 pieces including 9 minifigures, and will retail for $269.99 USD. It’s set to be available in March. The full press release and photos are below.

Click through for the all the photos and the full press release!

Interview with Hannes Tscharner, builder of 7,500-piece Millennium Falcon from The Force Awakens

When I first saw the amazingly detailed 7,500-piece Millennium Falcon the day after Christmas, I knew right away that it deserved worldwide attention. The model was built by someone who went by the screen name “Marshal Banana“, whom I recognized as the builder who’d created the wonderful 10,000-piece Jawa Sandcrawler back in 2011. Less than two days after I’d posted the Falcon, my prediction came true and the Falcon was everywhere, from “geek” sites like Kotaku and GeekWire to major news outlets like Time Magazine and USA Today. But we still knew almost nothing about this talented builder.

Now that he’s back from a well-deserved holiday, I’m pleased to bring our readers this in-depth interview with Hannes Tscharner, builder of both the Falcon and Sandcrawler.

Hannes shares a bit about himself, along with tips on photographing LEGO models and editing the photos for presentation. We also learn how he organizes his collection, what he uses to add lighting to his models, and more.

Click through for our interview with the builder of the 7,500-piece Millennium Falcon!

75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack [Review]

As part of their January 2016 assortment, LEGO released a number of new minifig-centered battle pack sets as army builders for The Force Awakens, including 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack. The set has 112 pieces, including 4 minifigs, with a price of $12.99.

There really aren’t spoilers to worry about with this review. Still, I’ve managed to write what are probably far too many words for such a small set like this, so hit the jump.

Click through to see the full review

LEGO Angry Birds movie sets revealed [News]

Get ready to party like it’s 2009, because LEGO has finally revealed details of its April lineup of sets tied to the forthcoming Angry Birds movie. Their new LEGO Angry Birds website includes set names, box art, close-ups and breakdowns of all the play features.

The sets are as follows:

75821 Piggy Car Escape
75822 Piggy Plane Attack
75823 Bird Island Egg Heist
75824 Pig City Teardown
75825 Piggy Pirate Ship
75286 King Pig’s Castle

Click here to see all the entire pig-bliterating lineup!

LEGO Star Wars 75139 Battle on Takodana from the Force Awakens [Review]

The January 2016 LEGO sets continue to arrive on our doorstep, so we continue our flurry of new set reviews with 75139 Battle on Takodana. This new set from The Force Awakens was released on January 1st and retails for $59.99.

As I did when reviewing 75140 Resistance Troop Transporter and other recent LEGO Star Wars sets, I’ll bury the full review under the jump, but I WILL be referencing spoilers in this review. If you’re reading a LEGO Star Wars set review about a set from The Force Awakens nearly three weeks after the movie was released, I think it’s safe to assume you’ve seen the move.

If not, SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Click through for the full review!

LEGO WeDo 2.0 unveiled at CES [News]

You’d be mistaken for not hearing of WeDo, LEGO’s education-focused robotics kits, that is basically MINDSTORMS for a younger audience. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, LEGO recently showed off its new line of WeDo 2.0 kits that can already be purchased on their US store, with the core kit costing $159.95. If you’re outside that store’s coverage area, you’ll probably need to track down the LEGO Education reseller in your country if you want to get your hands on a kit.

Other interesting news to come out of this announcement is that the WeDo programming app (which is already available on PC, Mac, iOS and Android) is coming to Chromebook in the second half of 2016.