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.

The Brothers Brick LEGO holiday gift guide 2012

What do you get the LEGO fan who probably buys themselves all the LEGO he or she could ever need? Here at The Brothers Brick (TBB), our LEGO holiday gift guide has everything a LEGO fan is going to love — everything but official LEGO sets!

LEGO Books

Regular readers will certainly have noticed that publishers have been furiously releasing stacks of new LEGO books lately. We haven’t been able to review all of them here (we’ll get to them, time permitting), but we definitely recommend each of these books.

The Big Unofficial Lego Builder’s Book: Build Your Own City
Authors: Oliver Albrecht & Joachim Klang.
Price: $29.99
Review: Read Tim’s review here on TBB.

The Brick Bible: The New Testament: A New Spin on the Story of Jesus
Author: Brendan Powell Smith.
Price: $19.95
Review: Read Bruce’s review over on GodBricks.

The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder’s Guide
Author: Paweł “Sariel” Kmieć
Price: $29.95
Review: Read Josh’s review here on TBB.

The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide (2nd Edition)
Author: Allan Bedford
Price: $24.95
Review: Forthcoming here on TBB…

The LEGO Adventure Book, Vol. 1: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More!
Author: Megan Rothrock
Price: $24.95
Review: Read Tim’s review here on TBB.

Moleskine LEGO Notebook
Price: $16.95 (small) to $21.95 (large)
Review: Read Andrew’s review here on TBB.

And if you didn’t pick them up at the time, don’t miss two of my personal favorite LEGO books.

The Cult of LEGO
Authors: John Baichtal & Joe Meno
Price: $39.95
Review: Read Andrew’s review here on TBB.

LEGO: A Love Story
Author: Jonathan Bender
Price: $24.95
Review: Read Andrew’s review here on TBB.

Read the full LEGO gift guide after the jump!

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Last-minute LEGO sales & deals for Christmas 2012

Christmas is just a couple weeks away, but there’s still time to pick up a bit more LEGO and put some boxes that have that special rattle beneath the tree. Both the LEGO Shop and Amazon.com have a few deals that will still arrive by December 25th.

Amazon.com has listed 10197 Fire Brigade at 20% off, down from $150 to $119.97.

Two large LEGO Star Wars sets are also on sale:

10212 Imperial Shuttle is $50 (19%) off, at $209.99.
10221 Super Star Destroyer is $90 (23%) off, at $309.99.

EDIT: Oops! Sorry for the double-post on the SSD. We’ll keep both posts up, though, since they have different info…

LEGO.com is still doing free shipping on all orders over $99, and you can pick up a free Gandalf minifig with any purchase of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey game.

Free shipping and guaranteed delivery by Christmas end at midnight EST, December 18th.

Naturally, the new LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets won’t be available until a day later, starting on December 19th.

We’ll post a reminder in a week.

10221 Super Star Destroyer for $309.99 on Amazon

Amazon currently has the LEGO Star Wars Super Star Destroyer 10221 on sale at $309.99. If you have an Amazon Visa, you can use the code TOY20OFF for en extra $20 off. This is the lowest price that I’ve seen the set go for on Amazon, and there’s no guarantees how long it will stay at this price.

LEGO Lone Ranger sets coming in April 2013 [News]

In case you missed it, Disney will be releasing a new movie starring Johnny Depp by Gore Verbinski (who directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the excellent Rango) next July based on the classic Western Lone Ranger. After LEGO Prince of Persia and Pirates of the Caribbean, it should come as no surprise that LEGO will be releasing a line of sets, due out in April.

Update: LEGO released their Lone Ranger site too early and got in trouble with Disney. Since this is just a silly mistake, we’re complying with their request to remove the image.

No official word on the sets, but rumors are rampant on the web, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find the list of sets (the titles of which are full of movie spoilers) if you really want to.

How many LEGO bricks stacked vertically would crush the bottom brick?

We generally pass up all the “World Record attempt!” tower builds that seemingly happen constantly, because, well, they’re not all that interesting (and most often promote some business or event that doesn’t need any additional coverage from us). But a recent experiment by the Open University is a bit more intriguing.

According to the article on the BBC, Dr. Ian Johnson and his team set about to answer the question, “How many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, would it take to destroy the bottom brick?” And how tall would that hypothetical tower be?

Crushed LEGO brick Based on calculations of the average 2×2 brick’s weight and measurements of force exerted on the brick by a hydraulic ram until the ABS failed, it would take an average of 432 kg (950 lbs) to crush the unlucky brick. That’s a hypothetical 375,000 2×2 bricks, towering 3.5 km (2.17 miles) into the sky.

Dr. Fleming says, “The material is just flowing out of the way now and it’s not able to take any more. We’re getting a plastic failure. It means the brick keeps on deforming, without the load increasing. Metals can be plastic, and this plastic is being plastic.”

Read the full article on the BBC, and feel free to suggest other LEGO experiments in the comments! Who knows, we might head to a local university lab ourselves and give your test a try.

Series 9 minifigures revealed and reviewed!

Lego has done a good job keeping pictures of series 9 minifigs from leaking out, so for the first time we see a simultaneous reveal and review. While the minifigs are scheduled for release in January 2013, Lego has sent a case to Eurobricks for an early review.

From the review, I noticed that the case distribution is heavily skewed in this series so that there are only 2 copies of certain minifigs and up to 6 of others in 1 case. Is this an attempt to assign rarity to certain figs, and how will the consumers react?

The Goblin King Battle 14% off on Amazon.com

At $85.50, this is a good deal on a just released set and would make for an excellent Christmas present.

UPDATE: 79010 The Goblin King Battle is now 20% off.

New 2013 LEGO Galaxy Squad sets now available from the LEGO Shop [News]

We expected LEGO to hold on to their 2013 sets until, well, 2013, but they’ve just released the new LEGO Space theme, Galaxy Squad, on the LEGO Shop online.

Here’s the full list of new LEGO Galaxy Squad sets:

70700 Space Swarmer: 86 pieces & 2 minifigs at $11.99.
70701 Swarm Interceptor: 218 pieces & 2 minifigs at $19.99.
70702 Warp Stinger: 310 pieces & 2 minifigs at $29.99.
70703 Star Slicer: 310 pieces & 3 minifigs at $39.99
70704 Vermin Vaporizer: 506 pieces & 3 minifigs at $59.99.
70705 Bug Obliterator: 711 pieces & 4 minifigs at $79.99.

LEGO Star Wars 10188 Death Star 15% off at Amazon.com [News]

As Ace rightly guessed over at FBTB, Amazon.com has followed the lead of another store and discounted 10188 Death Star 15%, which works out to $60 off ($340 instead of $400).

With free shipping and no tax in most states, it’s a pretty sweet deal (if you don’t balk at $340 on a four-year-old LEGO set, but your mileage may vary).

As you may recall, the Internet has been swooning over this set for more than four years now, making 10188 Death Star one of the longest-lived LEGO Star Wars sets in history. With most LEGO sets now on the shelves for no more than two years (many for only a fleeting few months), this might be your last chance to pick up this iconic set.

EDIT: Bob notes in the comments that 10212 Imperial Shuttle is also on sale, 19% or $50 off.

High-res pictures of new 2013 Ninjago and Legends of Chima LEGO sets

Brickshelf user grogall has high-res pictures of the new Ninjago and Legends of Chima sets. Lego did a great job of making some really interesting minifigs and increasing the availability of olive green elements.

LEGO Hobbit sets out now from the LEGO Shop [News]

We expected LEGO to officially release the LEGO Hobbit sets on December 1st, but they’re now available (perhaps spurred on by their early availability from places like Amazon.com). All of the new Hobbit sets are out on LEGO.com, and free shipping applies on orders over $99 through December 18.

Here’s the full list of sets:

79000 Riddles for the Ring: 105 parts and two minifigs (Bilbo Baggins and Gollum). This is a nice little set — we’ll have a full review up later today.
79001 Escape from Mirkwood Spiders: Includes 298 pieces and four minifigs (Fili, Kili, Legolas, and Tauriel). Read my review of 79001 here on TBB.
79002 Attack of the Wargs: 400 pieces at $49.99, and minifigs include Thorin Oakenshield, Bifur, Yazneg, and two orcs, plus two wargs. This is another set I picked up early here in Seattle, so I’ll try to get a review posted here on TBB later today as well.
79003 An Unexpected Gathering: My current favorite set of all time. With an MSRP of $69.99, Bag End has 652 pieces and six minifigs — Gandalf, Bilbo, Balin, Dwalin, Bofur, and Bombur.
79004 Barrel Escape: This set includes 334 pieces at $39.99, with five minifigs — Bilbo, Oin, Gloin, Thranduil the Elvenking, and a Mirkwood elf guard.
79010 The Goblin King Battle: At $99, this set has 841 parts and 7 minifigs — Gandalf, Dori, Ori, Nori, the Goblin King, a goblin scribe, and two goblins.

I know we’ve had a lot of sales news lately, but a percentage of everything you buy on the LEGO Shop and Amazon.com goes toward supporting what we do here on The Brothers Brick, from servers to contest sponsorships. Thanks very much for all your support over the years!

LEGO Hobbit sets available on Amazon.com [News]

3 of the new Hobbit sets have shown up on Amazon, keep your eyes peeled for the rest to make their way for sale soon. The list includes: LEGO The Hobbit An Unexpected Gathering, LEGO The Hobbit Escape from Mirkwood Spiders, and LEGO The Hobbit Riddles for The Ring.