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.

LEGOLAND California is hiring model builders

Some of you may already be aware because this announcement came out earlier this week. I ran across it when reading posts by Ryan Wood on From Bricks to Bothans (FBTB) and Mariann Asanuma on the flickr LEGO group. I post it here for good measure. Apologies for not giving the scoop on this earlier, but here’s the quick and dirty: LEGOLAND California (LLCA) is hiring model builders.

Not only are they hiring, part of the application process looks fun. On Wednesday June 24th and Thursday June 25th, they will be holding a competition at LLCA in Carlsbad, where applicants will be tested on speed, skill, teamwork and creativity. Initial events will be on the 24th and finalists will move on to additional activities on the 25th. The 6 winners will be helping design the Dune Raiders attraction in California as well as advance design work for the parks being developed in Dubai and Malaysia.

Go to the online application here and search in the “CREATIVE/DESIGN” category. Model builder will be the only option in that category. I won’t reinvent the wheel as far as giving the details of the job qualifications. Ryan, Mariann and the official job description all do a good job at that, so I encourage you to link to those resources.

Believe it or not, the picture above is relevant. The silly person posing with Jabba is Andy Grubb, a model designer at LLCA, and Jabba was built by Bill Vollbrecht, who is also a designer there. From hanging out at LLCA all weekend with several model builders, one important tip is that handinesss is handy.

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Green flags in Tehran

Moritz (nolnet) watches the news, and so do I.

BrickWorld 2009, Thursday June 18th

BrickWorld kicked off today in Chicago with over 550 attendees displaying 25,000 square feet of LEGO creations. The event tops records as the largest convention in the US. Over the course of the weekend I will be uploading pictures to my Flickr gallery in addition to collecting links to photos by other attendees. For now, here are pictures from the setup day.

Meanwhile, you can also see more photos from Joe Meno and Bill Ward. Coverage of the opening ceremony and more will begin tomorrow.

The force was with LEGOLAND California

LEGO builders and Star Wars fans, including the San Diego LEGO User’s Group (SandLUG) and From Bricks to Bothans (FBTB) converged on LEGOLAND California last weekend (June 13 and 14) and set up several tables across from The Big Shop. This isn’t an effort at self-promotion, but more a desire to share a few of the great creations that I’m pretty sure the builders don’t have time to post online or the creations are just too cool to pass up.

In addition to Mark Borlase’s gigantic Hoth diorama (it tragically took a “humpty dumpty” on the way back to Las Vegas) has been featured on The Brothers Brick before, here are a few of the other notables:

Cooperatively built Sarlacc Pit by Andy Grubb (anderson.grubb) and Gary McIntire (MrGSnot). Check out my other photos which show Sarlacc’s stomach contents, perhaps the coolest feature. Yummy.

Probably the most coveted creation at the display, people were quite literally offering to buy this “Star Wars: A New Hope” chess set created by Brandon Griffith (icgetaway) right off the table, thinking it was an official set. That good. Playing with toys are (left to right) Ryan Wood (lights) and Andy Grubb.

SandLUG member Brian Heins built this Ronto that has such great coloration and was quite playable.

(Edit: misspelled Brian Heins’ name. Corrected.)

10197 Fire Brigade, vintage LEGO fire station, coming Sept. 2009 [News]

UPDATE: 10197 Fire Brigade is now available from the LEGO Store online.

————-

In news that I strongly suspect reveals the mystery question mark in the 10194 Emerald Night announcement video, LEGO announced 10197 Fire Brigade at LEGO fan events in Germany and Portugal.

Here’s the full announcement from The LEGO Group:

10197 – Fire Brigade

Ages 16+. 2,231 pieces.

US $ 149.99; CA $ 199.99, UK £ 97.85, DE € 149.99

Build an authentic vintage fire station!

Ding ding ding! There’s a fire in town! The fire brigade drives to the scene from this detailed and realistic 1930’s fire station. Designed to fit with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer, the station features rare LEGO® pieces and innovative construction techniques. It includes a ‘30s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures, a fire-dog, an opening station garage door, and a removable building roof for interior access. It also includes 2 fully-furnished floors with fire-fighting tools, racks for the firemen’s helmets, fire-pole, ping-pong table, kitchen with fully-stocked fridge, couch, bookshelf and a roof with a water tower and bell. Measures 14″ (35 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide.

Includes a 1930’s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures and a fire-dog!

Features lots of realistic details including fire-fighting tools, racks for firemen’s helmets and even a fire-pole!

The station house features an opening station garage door and 2 fully-furnished
floors including a kitchen with fully-stocked fridge and a ping-pong table!

Remove the roof for interior access!

The roof is equipped with a water tower and bell!

Fire Brigade features rare LEGO elements including bricks and plates in dark tan, 1×1 dark red tiles, a red hot dog and the 3x6x5 Belleville® arch. It also features gold fireman’s helmets, a tan hand bag and a red sliding garage door!

Measures 14″ (35 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide.

Add Fire Brigade to your LEGO® Town and combine it with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer!

September can’t come soon enough for me, and you can guess where my second fire station will show up in October.

I’ve uploaded a full gallery of photos to Flickr:

UPDATE: Andreas Haase has photos from 1000steineland 2009, showing interior shots of the upper story:

Check out the album on 1000steine.de for more event pics from the event in Berlin.

LEGO Battles for Nintendo DS now available [News]

The early impressions about LEGO Battles (a new real-time strategy game for Nintendo DS) weren’t entirely positive, but Destructoid played the game at E3 2009 earlier this month and has a different viewpoint.

Conrad Zimmerman writes:

I’m looking forward to playing this, in part because it looks adorable but also because the simplification of what can often be a convoluted style of game really appeals to me. I avoid RTS games not because they aren’t really fun but because I can’t keep track of everything going on and wind up just getting wiped out when the second or third attack on my forces is made. LEGO Battles looks just simple enough to play that I may be picking this one up when it comes out.

LEGO® Battles is available for – Nintendo DS™ now.

Love of the Brick – a LEGO documentary

At last year’s BrickWorld, Dr. Jay Hanes from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and collaborators captured the marvels of LEGO fans and their exhibition and produced a documentary about the love of the brick. At this year’s BrickWorld, you can watch a screening of the documentary and meet the producers and many of the featured builders. You can learn more about “Love of the Brick” here and watch the trailer below:

Hooray for the Whore of Babylon!

Oh, I’m sorry, was that the wrong response to this new installment in Brendan Powell Smith‘s The Brick Testament

I love the apocalypse, just love it.

2009 LEGO Technic Rally

The idea of rolling around our creations in the dirt is anathema to most of us LEGO SYSTEM builders. Not so a group of LEGO Technic engineers who gathered in Prague last month for the 2009 LEGO Technic Rally.

I was rooting for this Tatra by Nikolas Tepper.

Read more about this event on TechnicBRICKs.

Details of upcoming LEGO store openings in Dallas and Oklahoma City

The chain of LEGO store openings continues with two more stores to open in July in Dallas and Oklahoma City. Here are the details:

Oklahoma City, OK

Dates:
July 24 – 26, 2009
Times:
Friday, July 24: 11am
– 7pm
Saturday, July 25: 10am
– 6pm
Sunday, July 27: 12am
– 6pm
Location:
Penn Square Mall
1901 NW Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK 73118
Exclusive: LEGO Cowboy

Dallas, TX

Dates:
July 17 – 19, 2009
Times:
Friday, July 17: 11am
– 7pm
Saturday, July 18: 11am
– 7pm
Sunday, July 19: 12am
– 6pm
Location:
NorthPark Center
8687 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, Texas
75225
Exclusive: LEGO Texas Longhorn Skull

I will be attending the Grand Opening at the Dallas store, and I hope to see some of our readers there!

LEGO has this to say about the events taking place at each grand opening:

Help a real LEGO Master Builder construct an 8-foot tall LEGO R2-D2™ (Oklahoma City)/Yoda™ (Dallas) during our 3-day Grand Opening Celebration weekend!

You’ll get a free LEGO® Star Wars™ Certificate of Achievement for helping, while supplies last! Visit the LEGO Store during the event to enter for a chance to win a $50 LEGO Store Gift Card! No purchase necessary to enter.

Plus:
On Saturday, be one of the first 300 customers to spend $35 in the LEGO Store and you’ll receive an exclusive, limited-edition LEGO set!

On Sunday, the first 300 customers to spend $35 in the LEGO Store will receive an exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Minifigure T-Shirt! Shirts are available in child’s sizes only.

Visit stores.LEGO.com for more details.

In addition, here’s a full list of stores opening in 2009:

Stonebriar Centre, Frisco, TX
Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC
Westfield Annapolis, Annapolis, MD
Kenwood Towne Center, Cincinnati, OH
NorthPark Center, Dallas, TX
Penn Square Mall, Oklahoma City, OK
Easton Town Center, Columbus, OH
Orland Square, Orland Park, IL
Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, HI
Concord Mills, Charlotte, NC
Arundel Mills, Baltimore, MD
Riverchase Galleria, Birmingham, AL
Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, NJ

Kotaku previews LEGO Rock Band at E3 2009 [News]

LEGO Rock Band logo Kotaku spent some time at E3 playing the upcoming LEGO Rock Band game and reports some early impressions:

The problem with this game is all in the name. LEGO Rock Band makes you wonder “why LEGO?” Maybe “Rock Band: Play Rock Band With Your Kids” would have been better.

Because if you don’t have kids, this game is largely pointless. It’s Rock Band, except with a more pedestrian songlist, and no real changes to the way the game is structured, or plays.

But that’s if you don’t have kids. If you do have kids around, and want a game to play with them, well. This looks pretty damn good.

Read the full article on Kotaku.

And in case you missed it, here’s the game’s trailer:

Prices and specs on LEGO camera, boombox, and MP3 player [News]

Digital Blue has released details of their upcoming LEGO-branded electronics. The site lists four upcoming products:

Digital Camera: 3 megapixels, 128 MB memory ($50)
Boombox: CD player, AM/FM radio ($40)
MP3 Player: 2 GB, 8-hour battery ($40)
Bionicle Digital Cameras: 640×480, 40 photos ($20)

The camera and MP3 player look like they’re going to be available in LEGO’s traditional primary colors as well as shades of pink and white. All four products are due out later this summer, so look for a massive increase in truly horrible LEGO photos to wade through starting then.

Thanks for the tip, Bunbrick!