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.

Winners of the 6th annual clickbrick Original Model Contest

Japanese LEGO store clickbrick holds an annual contest, in which creations are limited to 16 cm x 16 cm x 30 cm. We covered last year’s contest here, and winners have just been announced for this year’s contest.

Like last year, Sachiko Akinaga of Let’s LEGO has complete coverage of the contest in Tokyo in her Brickshelf gallery. Here are the winners:

First place: “Catbus on the Roof” by Pisatake:

Second place: “Mally’s Cafe” by sidewinder9r:

Third place: “Jumbo Parfait” by Sachiko Akinaga:

Fourth place: “That Trembling Feeling” by Azumu (previously on TBB):

Fifth place: “The LEGO Trains museum is under construction” by TN Factory (more pictures):

Be sure to check out all the pictures of the entries in Sachiko’s gallery

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Announcing the Classic-Castle.com Battles Contest

If there’s one thing LEGO Castle fans can do really, really well, it’s put together an amazing battle scene.

So it’s no surprise that one of the contests held each year on Classic-Castle.com is the Battles Contest. Hosted by our very own Josh, the contest challenges Castle builders to throw everything they have into a medieval battle scene, and Josh is putting up some pretty sweet prizes for the winners:

You’re seeing that right — classic 80’s Castle sets in their original boxes (donated by a very generous benefactor)!

We’ve already featured Anthony Sava’s Breath of the Dragon, but here’s another great entry, by Zach:

See more entries in the thread on Classic-Castle.com. Can’t wait for more!

Provokative news: LEGO Halo video game and a man who stole 42K worth of LEGO

Two recent interesting news items are worth your attention. First off, Bungie is making a LEGO Halo video game based in the style of the popular Star Wars LEGO games. Wait, what? Click on the picture from the April Issue of EGM (1up.com’s magazine) below to read more:

Edit (AB): Sorry folks, the comments are starting to annoy more than they amuse, so let’s just lay this one to rest. EGM’s April issue (released in March, as is the case with many magazines) is famous for its April Fool’s jokes. There will be no LEGO Halo video game.

Next, a man steals $42,000 worth of LEGO from various stores. How did he first get away without detection? Read the news article and find out his method of operation.

Meanwhile, listen to LAML Radio podcast #26 as Mike Huffman and I join in on the discussion and share our responses. Is the LEGO Halo game for real? Has Bricklink sellers committed similar fraud by stealing LEGO? Tune in to find out.

LEGO Collector Catalog to be published summer 2008 [News]

LEGO Community Development Manager Jan Beyer announces that a LEGO Collector catalog will be released this summer featuring almost all the LEGO sets produced since 1958. This looks like a great item for collectors or just fans who are interested in seeing the wonderful products from LEGO throughout the years.

It is the 50th anniversary of the LEGO Brick and just in time Fantasia Verlag GmbH will publish the LEGO® Collector. This unique guide comprises around 800 pages presenting nearly all sets produced by the LEGO Group since 1958, whether released in Europe, the USA, Asia or Australia. It is the first reference book of its kind in the LEGO history which will list all LEGO sets in chronological order. This bilingual (English/German) Collector is for the fan and collector alike. It is a high quality product full of details. Besides around 8.000 colour photographs of LEGO sets it presents additional information which even includes the number of components the sets are made of.

The LEGO® Collector is a unique gathering of details concerning LEGO sets which makes it a must have for anybody interested in the Danish “toy of the century”. Fantasia Verlag which is based in Dreieich, a small town just outside Frankfurt, is a well established publisher of all kinds of catalogues dealing with collectors` items. The wide range of catalogues includes several issues of the market leading “Spielzeug aus dem Ei” which contains Kinder Surprise toys and accessories. Additionally the Fantasia Verlag produces catalogues focusing on Trading Card Games such as Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic the Gathering as well as reference books for Swatch and Star Wars collectables to name a few.

Fantasia Verlag GmbH, ISBN: 978-3-935976-52-7, 22,90 € (Germany)

50 years of play, fun and joy – around 8.000 LEGO® sets in one book
Key data LEGO® Collector:
· Expected date of publication: May 2008
· Around 800 pages
· Bilingual: English / German
· Around 8.000 sets printed in colour
· One chapter for every year: 1958 – 2008
· Additional information: number of components; available from/until
· Rating (1-6 LEGO® Bricks) to establish the rareness of sets
· Extra: Chapter with key rings
· Extra: List of all published Service-Sets
· Index to quickly fi nd the desired sets
· MSRP 22,90€ (Germany); the price may vary in other EU countries due to different tax regulations

Via Eurobricks

Update (AB): BB Gadgets has a first look at the cover and one of the pages. Head on over to check out the full-size pictures:

7048 Troll Warship review by Doctor Sinister [Review]

Andrew “Doctor Sinister” Summersgill has posted a photo review of 7048 Troll Warship on Flickr and Eurobricks.

7048 Troll Warship is one of the forthcoming 2008 Castle sets, which are starting to show up here and there. As always, here’s a separate shot of the minifigs:

It looks like the new goblin helmets we saw in early prototypes of 7036 Dwarves’ Mine are finally making it into sets, along with new goblin armor.

Pictures of the new space sets?

Brickshelf user dsvelte has posted two pictures of the upcoming space theme. These pictures are claimed to be found in the most recently released BrickJournal issue. This is quite a teaser.

EDIT: Images no longer available.

LEGO brick MP3 player

It’s not your typical brick but an actual mp3 player. Now you can listen to your favorite songs playing from a 2X4! The product page is on Homeloo, and you can also check out some other novel LEGO themed MP3 accessories.

(AB: Screen shot of anythingbutipod post by Don Solo.)

Fan-designed Space sets due from LEGO Factory in April 2008 [News]

You heard me right, Spacers! (Space!)

Here’s the description on LEGO.com:

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1-Touchdown!
Get ready for Space when fan-designed LEGO Factory Space Exclusives launch.
Help the Star Justice or Space Skulls crews gear up for battle!

Star Justice and Space Skulls, huh? Intriguing, no? :-D

New LEGO Universe details on Wired Game | Life [News]

New information on the upcoming LEGO MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game, LEGO Universe, has truly been scarce. Some of the only information has been in early concept art doled out to newsletter subscribers:

But Blog | Life from Wired.com has a handful of new details on the game.

Based on the way the game is being marketed, I’m personally not entirely convinced the game will have the broad, multigenerational appeal that one might hope for (read: they don’t seem to be marketing to adults).

Still, I’m intrigued by the organic feeling of the backgrounds in the concept art released so far.

Head on over to Blog | Life to read the feature and see bigger versions of the new concept art (above).

(Via BB Gadgets.)

Toy Fair 2008 reveals late 2008 LEGO sets [News]

Toy Fair 2008 is approaching and there have been pictures of the late 2008 sets circulating on the web. I found Joe Meno with some of the first pictures of themes including Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Speed Racer, Bionicle, and Batman.

Update (AB): Ace Kim also has extensive pictures from Toy Fair 2008, nicely organized into photosets with lots of great details — prices, release dates, etc.:

Announcing the LUGNuts Heroes and Villains building challenge

Lino Martins says, “Everyone knows Batman has all the coolest rides.”

As Nathan Proudlove demonstrates above, that’s certainly true! But if you’ve always thought that Spider-Man got hung out to dry or the Green Lantern got left out in the dark, the Heroes and Villains Challenge in the LUGNuts group on Flickr is your chance to give your favorite characters a sweet, sweet ride.

Here’s a bit more from Lino:

Variety is important and I’d like to see this become the coolest and most successful LUGNuts challenge yet, so if the creative juices are really flowing and you can’t decide on just one good guy or bad, then with this and every challenge, each LUGNut is encouraged to “go nuts” and build lots of MOCs! Also, while Marvel and DC offers a vast array of material to work with, you can build for your fave hero or villain outside of the comic book world as well.

Read all about the this challenge in Lino’s official announcement.

Finally, I can’t help sharing a bit of inspiration from one of my favorite builders, MisterZumbi:

Wicked. Okay people, get building! Zoom zoom!

BB Gadgets interviews Classic Space LEGO designer Bjarne P. Tveskov

Remember Boing Boing Gadgets contributor Joel Johnston’s Nine Sets I Have Known and Loved?

Something rather beautiful happened in the comments on that post — a connection between Joel and Bjarne P. Tveskov, one of the LEGO designers who worked on Classic Space sets in the 1980s.

Bjarne designed many of the sets we all know and love from the 80s:

BB Gadgets: What did designing kits for LEGO entail back in ’80s?

Bjarne: My LEGO career started when I was 17 years old; I saw an ad in the Sunday newspaper…. when suddenly I was offered the job I had to ask my parents if it was OK if I quit high-school to become a Spaceship designer.

Read the rest of Joel’s excellent interview with Bjarne on BB Gadgets.