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.

News: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga

New levels, new characters. For next-gen consoles (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3).

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News: Hi-Res pics of 10190 Market Street

We learned about this set a month ago, the images available for scrutiny were rather small. Eurobricks member copmike has discovered higher resolution pictures on the LEGO Shop@Home site.

News: Details Released for “LEGO Universe” MMOG

EDIT (6/3/07): Oops. Someone jumped the gun, and the pictures have been taken down. Hope you enjoyed them while they lasted.

The LEGO-themed massively multiplayer online game in development by LEGO and NetDevil now has a name: LEGO Universe. Here’s some preliminary artwork:

And here’s the scoop from Denmark:

The LEGO Group is working on a group of initiatives which in the coming years will offer young and older LEGO fans all over the worlds new ways of play and experiences with the LEGO brand. The famous brick and the minifigure will come to live in the virtual world.

The new LEGO Universe will combine both gaming, building and the opportunity for social networking on the very same webpage.

The whole development process is happening in tight synergy with the dedicated LEGO fans. The fans try out the ideas the professional game developers are creating.

According to the plans the LEGO Universe will be to experience on-line for a larger group approx mid 2008.

Ultimately the LEGO Group want to offer the unique experience to play with the LEGO brick both virtually and physically together with your friends from all over the world, and you can even change from the physically to the virtual play as you like – “You are in control”.

You can apparently watch a clip on Danish television, though I can’t seem to get it to work. If you don’t speak Danish, try this: If you view this today, click Nyheder in the top right, then click 18.30 under I går. If you view it tomorrow, you’ll need to click 18.30 under Onsdag instead.

Finally, more artwork:

Ninjas vs. Pirates Contest at BrickWorld

The upcoming BrickWorld event in Chicago (June 21-24) will be hosting a “Ninjas vs. Pirates” contest. Go read David Gregory’s LUGNET post for details.

Ninjas vs. Pirates, you say? You know my opinion on the subject:

(Via VignetteBricks.)

Space and Star Wars Links for May 19, 2007

I’m behind again, so instead of cluttering up the page and RSS feed, I’m going to post by theme again. First up, Space! And…Star Wars!

“Alien Life” by Felix Greco, and “Swallowtail” by Mr. Stenz:

In Star Wars news, the inventory for 10179 Millenium Falcon is now up on Peeron, and details are now available on FBTB about the Golden C3PO Contest (via LEGO Contests).

Tim Zarki‘s evolved X-wing (more from him in subsequent posts):

Winners announced in Wizard’s Challenge

Winners have been announced in the recent Wizard’s Challenge contest.

Most Creative Wizard: Sir Dillon’s Larry of the Metal Arm:

Best Overall Wizard: Master Aves Hawthorn by Sir Nadroj

Best Wizard’s Workshop: TheBrickster with The Snake Oil Wagon of Professor Snidley C. Rooked, Wizard of Curiosities:

Congratulations to all of the winners!

TRU Japan Exo-Force Mashup Contest

Toys R Us in Japan is sponsoring an Exo-Force Mashup Contest that challenges builders to combine any two Exo-Force sets into a new mecha. The two example mashups should be familiar to TBB readers — Van-Force and Naoe-Force. Several Japanese builders have already contributed entries.

Kwi-Chang gets things going with a mashup between 7700 Stealth Hunter and 7714 Golden Guardian:

Although I posted it earlier this week without any explanation, here’s Izzo’s combination of two copies of 8105 Iron Condor:

Finally, Sugegasa has promised to get in on the mashup action, but I haven’t seen the result yet.

Prague Post Interview with Egil Moller Nielsen

The Prague Post has a brief interview with The LEGO Company’s senior director of logistics for Europe and Asia, Egil Moller Nielsen. He discusses issues such as overcoming hard times at the company, moving production to The Czech Republic, and competing with other toy companies. Head on over to the Prague Post and read the interview (in English).

Early Bird Registration Open for BrickCon 2007 [News]

Early Bird Registration for NWBrickCon 2007 is now open through the event website.

Shirts, Brick Bazaar Spaces, and the 2007 Commemorative Model are also now available for pre-order.

Early Bird Registration offers all the benefits of Advance Registration with the added benefit that registration is only $38, while Advance Registration is $44. (On-site registration is $50.)

Early Bird Registration closes May 22, so act fast! On May 23 we will move to Advance Registration.

NWBrickCon is a convention and exposition for adult fans of LEGO. Starting in 2002, every October has featured a progressively larger convention in the Seattle area. NWBrickCon 2007 will be October 5, 6, and 7 in the Seattle Center Pavillion.

News: LEGO Factory 10190 Market Street

LEGO.com has a page dedicated to an upcoming LEGO Factory set called 10190 Market Street. The photos are still very small, but this looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous set:

According to LEGO.com, the set was designed by LEGO fan Eric Brok, and the set is modular — various components of the set are interchangeable (as demonstrated in a Flash animation), and Market Street can be integrated with 10182 Cafe Corner.

I’ll post more information as it becomes available. (EDIT: Let’s bump this to the top.)

How Mark Sandlin Survived Mars Mission

At its most basic level, the LEGO Ambassadors program enables LEGO fans to have representatives who speak for them and work directly with The LEGO Company. Because we sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), those of us who are ambassadors can’t always talk about what we do. This has resulted in a bit of frustration from non-ambassadors — an understandable frustration, which I couldn’t help but share until I joined the program in March myself.

With the new Mars Mission sets coming out later this year, Mark Sandlin is now able to discuss how he was involved in the design and development of this new space theme.

That’s Mark with LEGO executives Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. Click the image to read Mark’s fascinating post on Classic-Space Forums. Mark was specifically involved in building prototypes of my favorite set, the 7692 dropship:

Be sure to check out Mark’s pictures from his trip to LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

There are very good business reasons why we can’t talk about future products we might be working on. (For example, would you want to see pirates or competitors release a knock-off version of something LEGO spent years designing even before LEGO can release the real thing themselves?) But it’s great to learn more how the program works, and to understand that fans are actually involved in the design of themes like Mars Mission and the new Castle sets.

Eurobricks Wizard’s Challenge Contest

Eurobricks member The Brickster is running a minifig building contest called Wizard’s Challenge. In addition to the wizard minifig, you can also build the interior of the wizard’s workshop.

There are three categories:

Overall Best Wizard
Most Creative Wizard
Best Wizard’s Workshop

The contest began with the first entry on April 25, and runs for one week, so you have just four more days. There are already some strong entries from a couple EB members, such as Aves Hawthorne by SirNadroj:

And Mapones the Druid by Alex54:

So, four days to go. Get building!