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.

Weekly LEGO news roundup for September 19, 2009 [News]

LEGO Pirates ship

Arrrr!!! The LEGO Pirates theme will be going on hiatus starting in mid-2010.
Flickr. Tim gave us some great guidelines for participating in LEGO groups on Flickr.
Brick shirt. ThinkGeek gave us the Brick Construction Shirt. We eagerly await the ability to build on our chests.
Sean Kenney. David Pagano interviewed Sean Kenney, the first LEGO Certified Professional, for the New York Geekcast podcast.
BrickCon 2009. More than 300 people have registered so far to attend BrickCon, which starts in less than two weeks. If you’re still on the fence, there’s still time to register.

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Less than two weeks left until BrickCon – there’s still time to come! [News]

BrickCon 2009 starts October 1, the Thursday after next. Five of our seven contributors will be there (Josh, Dan, Thanel, Caylin, and me), making this year’s BrickCon the single highest risk to blog continuity should an alien robot invasion take place in Seattle. Fortunately, our other contributors stand ready to pick up the bricks and carry on.

Enough with the silliness, though there’s plenty of silly that goes on at LEGO cons.

If you didn’t register before the deadline for engraved badge bricks, you can still register right up until the day of the convention — you just won’t get the fancy bricks from Brick Engraver. With more than 300 LEGO fans registered so far, this year is gonna be awesome.

Finally, if you can’t take the time off from work Thursday and/or Friday, you can also register to attend private convention events with single-day passes on Saturday and Sunday.

Important notes for our younger readers: Like most other LEGO conventions, BrickCon is intended for adult fans of LEGO. Attendees under 18 must be accompanied by a parent, and children under 13 are discouraged from attending. Similarly, contributions from collaborative displays are only open to registered attendees. Unfortunately, we can’t accept contributions to displays like Zombie Apocafest 2009 and Operation Bricklord during the public display hours.

LEGO to discontinue Pirates line [News]

A few days ago, Andrew reported that the Pirate Advent Calendar would not be available in North America. Now we find out that the entire Pirate line will be discontinued by the middle of 2010. This is not to say that it won’t be back, but there are currently no plans for new sets. This is especially frustrating given the fact that LEGO has repeatedly made comments that Pirates would now be a regular theme. In an interview with Gizmodo, LEGO said that Pirates would be an “evergreen” theme. Also, in the 2009 Company Profile, Pirates is called a “perpetual” theme, along with Town and Castle. However, Vikings is also listed and, as we all know, that theme had a very short lease on life. While I am not an avid Pirate collector, I have bought all the sets and I share the frustration of the Pirate fan community.

Ben Ellermann, on Forbidden Cove, has started a petition. You can also make your feelings known here and our resident Lego Ambassador will be able to forward that information onto LEGO.

There is also a thread on Classic Pirates discussing the same issue.

UPDATE: Steve Witt from The LEGO Group writes:

Pirates isn’t gone, its on hiatus like every other line that isn’t one of our primary themes:

CASTLE, SPACE, and CITY

Pirates isn’t going away, it’s just not going to be a constant theme. It’s going to phase in and out just like every other theme that isn’t one of those three… I just wanted to reassure you guys that pirates isn’t disappearing. Just taking a break. :-)

David Pagano interviews Sean Kenney on New York Geekcast

David Pagano has interviewed LEGO Certified Professional and MOCpages founder Sean Kenney.

Photo of Sean from Sean’s website

Head on over to the New York Geekcast to download the podcast.

ThinkGeek baseplate T-shirt lets you build the pecs you always wanted

Yes, yes, yes, we got your messages. For the four readers out there who haven’t sent us this suggestion, here’s the “Brick Construction Shirt” from ThinkGeek:

We’ll be reviewing this unique piece of apparel when it arrives in the mail.

Amidst the snowy mountains...

This was just too good to pass up. The Schubert family created this amazing Alpine Village, which was displayed at BrickFair. The only photos appear to be on Brickshelf from Abe (scrope), another attendee.

Thanks to Bruce, via Fascinating LEGO Model of the Day!

Ultimate Brickcon Advertorial

If ever there was an incentive to go to Brickcon this would be it. NB. There are plenty of other reasons to go, but winning this would be the icing on anyone’s cake.

Weekly LEGO news roundup for September 12, 2009 [News]

We’ve gotten enough suggestions for things we’ve already blogged (check out Page 2, people!) that I thought we should do a quick roundup of this week’s news items.

10197 out. 10197 Fire Brigade is now available and has been inspiring LEGO creations throughout the week. Andrey Kudinov built a 1930s-era Gaz-AA fire truck and Alex Eylar recreated 10197 in microscale.
TBB in NYT. The New York Times mentioned The Brothers Brick in an article about how LEGO has recovered from its own financial crisis in the midst of a global recession.
BrickCon 2009. Only a few days left to pre-register for BrickCon and guarantee all your goodies. We’re organizing Zombie Apocafest 2009, with other collaborative displays like Operation Bricklord and Battle Bugs.
6299 in NA. A petition is underway to get 6299 Pirates Advent Calendar in the US and Canada. No guarantee of success, but we can try.
Blogged! Inspired by The Living Brick, we’ve started a Blogged by The Brothers Brick group on Flickr, where you can add your photo if it’s been blogged and peruse lots of the great LEGO creations we’ve highlighted.

Thanks to mumu over at かわいいレゴずき for the idea! Let us know if this is a good idea for us to do as well, and we can make it a weekly feature.

Dear LEGO: We want 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar!

It’s that time of the year again, LEGO fans. In what I hope does not become an annual tradition, we’ve received confirmation from LEGO that this year’s non-City advent calendar, 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar, will not be made available in the United States.

The success of our campaign to get 7979 Castle Advent Calendar last year was the result of both luck (a pallet of sets that got shipped to the US distribution center accidentally) and persistent community activism (here on TBB and on sites like Classic Castle).

Though we can’t guarantee luck again, we can certainly do our part to see what effect LEGO fan community activism can have this time around. Leave a comment here on this post expressing your support and we’ll pass your sentiments along to LEGO through our resident LEGO Ambassador.

And last but not least: Yarrr!!!

BrickCon 2009 pre-registration ends in only one week [News]

If you’re still on the fence about attending BrickCon 2009, time is quickly running out. There’s just one week left to pre-register for the con, which will guarantee you your goody bag and engraved badge brick.

Although the public exhibition is great for showing off your LEGO creations (“Ooh! Is that a set?”), BrickCon for me has always been about the people. With over 200 LEGO fans registered so far, BrickCon 2009 is sure to bring together people you’d probably never get to meet otherwise.

Also, it’s a chance to buy LEGO sets at rock-bottom prices, as LEGO ships pallets of scratched-up sets from across the country to sell to fans at up to 50% off.

See you all in a few weeks!

LEGO Star Wars giveaways in the UK

Our fortunate friends in the UK can receive free promotional LEGO Star Wars sets and items starting this weekend (September 5th) by purchasing the Daily and Sunday Mirror newspapers.

You can discuss this and see some reviews of the sets on Eurobricks.

New York Times covers LEGO’s financial recovery [News]

As much as some of us may have wished otherwise, The LEGO Group — and the toys it produces — needed to change if it was to survive the near-bankruptcy it experienced five years ago. Looking back today, from the throes of the most serious global economic crisis since the Great Depression, it’s hard to believe that LEGO is experiencing record profits. And yet it is.

Read Turning to Hollywood Tie-Ins, Lego Thinks Beyond the Brick in the New York Times to learn how the company charted a course to recovery. Oh, and look for the quote from me on page 4.

So, dear readers, how do you feel about the sacrifices that LEGO has made to survive in the modern world? Sound off in the comments.