Amazon has some decent deals on Lego architecture sets ranging from 21-34% off.
Via FBTB
If you are planning to attend Brickworld Chicago from June 12-16 but have not yet registered, you have until May 13 to do so before registration closes. Visit their website for registration info and important deadlines for attendees.
As I’ve noted in my recent reviews of Brickmania custom LEGO kits, making tracks look realistic can be challenging — LEGO’s own tracks are generally too wide, and using Technic chains is either too narrow or incredibly parts-intensive. Enter Brickmania’s new Kickstarter project — Brickmania Track Links: Custom Add-On for the LEGO System.
Here’s the announcement video:
Like train wheels from Big Ben Bricks, this project fulfills a need that LEGO is unlikely to meet any time soon — why create more-realistic track molds when the current ones will do? I’ll be supporting this worthy project on behalf of The Brothers Brick.
I am sure many of you will be looking forward to the annual Lego Military Build Competition. I know I am. I was a participant in 2008 and 2009 (with some success) and helped organise and judge it in the last few years. This year it is being run by Magnus Lauglo, D-Town Cracka, -Mainman- and Aleksander Stein, all of whom will be familiar to military builders and to long-term readers of this blog.
If you are interested, you should make your way to the special contest group on flickr for more information. The contest starts today and runs until July 10th. In previous years, the quality of many of the entries in this competition was excellent and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the results this year.
It’s that time of year again. In celebration of LEGO Star Wars, the LEGO Shop online is putting most Star Wars sets on sale for 10-20% off. In addition, they’re running a few other promotions for the weekend:
These deals and promotions are available Friday May 3rd and Saturday May 4th for the UK, and Saturday May 4th and Sunday May 5th for the US and Canada.
The biggest deal, though, is that 10227 B-Wing Starfighter is 50% off, or $100 instead of $200.
The new UCS set 10240 Red Five X-wing Starfighter is also out now:
Link for US readers:
Link for Canadian readers:
Link for UK readers:
Well the month of April has completely flown by and it is already time to pick new winners for our Facebook and Twitter cover photos.
I was lucky enough to do the selecting for this month, and since Andrew’s picks for April were of the sci-fi variety, I thought I would switch things up this month.
For Facebook I chose Legopard’s ingeniously quaint Nano Modular Buildings.
For Twitter, the winner was Tobigo’s epic oil rig which we had blogged last week.
Since this is still a relatively new idea, I am going to copy and paste Andrew’s observations from last month. Once again there were several pictures that were fantastic except for the fact that the orientation would not have worked. Also I was kind of hoping that some of the previous month’s submissions would have been re-submitted as per Andrew’s ‘hint’…but that may just be something that we readdress for future months:
Since this was our first month, here are a few random observations about what worked and what didn’t:
Many of you may have missed it, but it was hard to miss in the Netherlands, my home country: since yesterday we have a new king and queen: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima (yes, that is the name given to her by her parents). This momentous occasion prompted Paul Toxopeus (P@u! +ox) to build these wonderful portraits.
Considering the limits of the colour palette, these are surprisingly recognisable. Hail to the new King!
The name Warren Elsmore may not be immediately familiar to adult fans of LEGO worldwide, but you are likely to have seen some of his work, such as his LEGO model of the 2012 London Olympic Park. He is also well-known in British LEGO circles as the organiser of AFOLCON, the UK’s own LEGO convention, and as the former chairman of the Brickish Association. For his latest project, he has translated his love for our favourite bricks into a book titled Brick City,
The book contains a few introductory pages on subjects such as building techniques, useful LEGO parts and customising minifigs. The rest of the more than 250 pages of this hefty volume are dedicated to photographs and instructions of fan-built models, each with an informative little blurb about the real-world object and about its LEGO rendition. Many of these models were built by Warren himself and his wife Kitty, but he has also enlisted the help of several other builders, including J. Spencer Rezkalla (Spencer R), Sean Kenney and Arthur Gugick, who are well-known for their architectural models. The book also includes two of my own (vehicle) models, which is why I was sent the advance copy of the book that I am using for this review.
The models are mainly buildings and monuments, from a grand total of 39 cities across the world, with a few pages dedicated to each of them. London, New York and Paris each cover larger sections. You can build some of the models yourself, using instructions in the book. These models tend to be fairly straightforward, but often are still a bit more complicated than your average LEGO set. A minor point of criticism of the book is that the pages aren’t particularly large and because of this, the instructions are quite small. This may make them somewhat difficult to follow for inexperienced builders. If you are like me, however, the instructions don’t really matter. It is simply a joy to have this book lie on my coffee table and leaf through it every now and then, to enjoy the photographs. The book contains beautiful models and the reproduction of the photographs is excellent. It also contains two large fold-out posters, of Warren’s London St Pancras station and Spencer’s beautiful microscale rendition of the (new) World Trade Center from New York. If you are into LEGO architecture sets, you’ll definitely like this one.
The book will officially be out in early May, but Amazon.com
UPDATE: 10237 The Tower of Orthanc is now available!
———
I just received word from LEGO direct that they unveiled this new set in Portugal, yesterday. I’ve looked through the official photos, and I have to say, it looks pretty cool to me. There seems to be a lot of detail, and the brick-built Ent is a great addition. I also know that I, for one, am pretty excited about the shields and armor with white hand-prints on them, though I also must confess that I don’t actually know if they’re new for this set. Here’s the press release from LEGO:
10237 Tower of Orthanc
Ages 14+. 2,359 pieces.
Build the The Lord of the Rings™ trilogy must-have model!
US $199.99 CA $249.99 DE 199.99€ UK 169.99 £ DK 1699.00 DKKFinally, collect one of the most instantly recognizable and iconic buildings of The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Tower of Orthanc! Build all 6 highly detailed floors filled with fascinating movie-related details including the attic, library, alchemy room, Saruman’s throne room, entrance hall and dungeon. This exclusive model stars in some of the most iconic scenes from The Lord of the Rings movies. Swoop down with the Great Eagle and rescue stranded Gandalf the Grey from his tower-top prison after his defeat at the hands of the white wizard, Saruman. Build the powerful, tree-like Ent, with poseable limbs and cool swinging arm function, then attack the Uruk-hai and Orc Pitmaster while Saruman and his servant Grima Wormtongue take refuge high in the tower. The Tower of Orthanc is a must-have model for any The Lord of the Rings collection! Includes a Great Eagle, buildable Ent figure and 5 minifigures with weapons: Saruman with kirtle outfit, Grima Wormtongue, Gandalf the Grey, an Uruk-hai and the Orc Pitmaster.
- Includes a Great Eagle, buildable Ent figure and 5 minifigures with weapons: Saruman with kirtle outfit, Grima Wormtongue, Gandalf™ the Grey, an Uruk-hai™ and the Orc Pitmaster
- Features 6 highly detailed floors with lots of functions, including a folding staircase, LEGO® light brick palantir, opening entrance doors and a trap door
- Weapons include 5 staffs, knife, sword, shield and a long axe
- The attic features a folding staircase, the 3 staffs of the missing wizards, the 2 keys of the Two Towers, 2 maps and an Uruk-hai helmet, shield and sword
- The library features 2 books, 2 torches, 2 maps and 2 skulls
- The alchemy room features 2 torches, a bomb (being produced for the Battle of Helm’s Deep™), 2 potions, bottle, skull, gunpowder keg, pot, cauldron and a long axe
- Saruman’s throne room features lamps, 2 bookcases with 3 potions, map, letter and the powerful palantir with a LEGO light brick
- The entrance hall features opening doors, trap door, 2 large banners, chandelier, statue and 2 axes
- The creepy dungeon features a chain, 2 bones, 2 skulls and a rat
- Buildable Ent features poseable limbs for holding a minifigure and a cool swinging arm function
- Attack the tower with the cool buildable and poseable Ent!
- Swoop to the rescue with the Great Eagle!
- Activate the LEGO light brick and make the palantir glow!
- Set the trap door and banish unwanted guests to the dungeon!
- Prepare the bomb for the Battle of Helm’s DeepTM!
- Swing the Ent’s arms to smash or grab things with the poseable fingers!
- Measures over 28″ (73cm) high, 8″ (21cm) wide and 6″ (16cm) deep
- Ent stands over 9″ (23cm) tall
Available for sale directly through LEGO® beginning July 2013
Here’s the designer interview video:
Finally, if you like this 2-foot-tall official set, don’t miss the fan-built 7-foot-tall LEGO Orthanc.
1AM Gallery in San Francisco is hosting a LEGO based art show running April 26th through May 25th. There will be models, custom minifigs, traditional 2D art, and more. Check out the press release below for all the details and go easy on them for their use of “Legos”.
1AM is pleased to present, “Designing Outside The Lines”, opening April 26th, from 6:30-9:30pm, featuring custom works that explore and reinvent the classic Lego platform. Expect to see customizations of Lego pieces, the Lego Torch lamp and Lego Men, digital prints, original paintings and more. The exhibition will feature 1920s silent movie characters, lit Lego Men, mini mecha, maps, guns and wasps- to name a few!
Most of us played with Legos as children, but some of us never stopped. The artists in “Designing Outside The Lines” are some of the most prominent Lego and toy designers around the world, spanning from the US to the Netherlands. Whether they are using record breaking amounts of Lego pieces, introducing new materials to Lego customization, combining simple minifigs with complex machinery, or anonymously installing ginormous Lego men on public beaches- they are definitely some of the most imaginative artists out there.
For our premier Lego-inspired show at 1AM Gallery, curator James Brown invited the styles and imaginations of Ego Leonard, Legolize It Man, Bart de Dobbelaer, Brickthing, Bill Hewitt, Carson Catlin, Ian Ziobrowski, Josh Mayhem, Crestone, Dee Ten, One-Eyed-Girl, Michael Napolitan, MeSmithy, Citizen Brick and Mike Mendez. Join us in a land of Legos on April 26th, to see all the ingenious creations!
The Portuguese LEGO Users Group (PLUG) is hosting a LEGO show in Oeiras, Portugal this coming weekend, April 26-28.
Here are the complete details in the organizers’ press release (with some minor edits for readability):
PLUG (Portuguese LUG) is going to run its annual, largest Lego fan event (Oeiras BRInKCa 2013) next weekend from April 26th through the 28th. The event will be in Oeiras, Portugal at Leões de Porto Salvo sport facilities, with over 1,200 square meters of exhibition and Lego-selling areas. You will have the opportunity to see models and dioramas from Portuguese and international builders, meet the new LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 and enjoy several activities/workshops.
Every LEGO brick has its limits. We see plenty of building techniques that stress bricks in various ways, but nobody has answered the question, “How many times can you put two bricks together and take them apart before the bricks fail?” Phillipe Cantin decided to find out.
The answer: After running his machine for more than 10 days, the LEGO bricks finally failed after more than 37,000 repetitions.
Via MAKE.
Previously: How many LEGO bricks stacked vertically would crush the bottom brick?
