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.

LEGO BrickHeadz 40552 Buzz Lightyear & 40553 Woody and Bo Peep [Review]

In 1995, Pixar revolutionized the look of animated feature films with the release of Toy Story. In 2016, LEGO put a whole new spin on buildable figures with the release of the first BrickHeadz. Now, in 2022, these two aesthetic milestones are coming together to give us sets 40552 Buzz Lightyear & 40553 Woody and Bo Peep, These are BrickHeadz numbers 158, 159, and 160, respectively. Both sets will be available on February 1st. Buzz Lightyear is a 114-piece set available for US $9.99 | CAN $12.99 | UK £9.99. Woody and Bo Peep is a 296-piece set that will retail for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. But how does the BrickHeadz format do at translating these iconic animated characters? Let’s dive into Andy’s toy box and find out.

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO Gift with Purchase 40532 Vintage Taxi – Let our friendly driver take you for a ride! [Review]

LEGO recently celebrated 15 years of their City Modular Building Collection with the stunning 10297 Boutique Hotel. Now they’ve unveiled a new set that seems to slot right into that downtown area.  LEGO 40532 Vintage Taxi will be available as a Gift With Purchase from LEGO Shop Online. While LEGO has yet to officially confirm the promotion details, it’s rumored to be available starting January 28th with qualifying purchases of US $200 | CAN $200 | UK £200. This 163-piece set comes with a driver, taxi stand, and a very sweet-looking ride. But is it worth the price of admission? Come along and see for yourself!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early, non-embargoed copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO Ideas 21331 Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone: The perfect set for a speed build [Review]

The LEGO Ideas line continued its rapid pace with the January 1st release of 21331 Sonic the Hedgehog – Green Hill Zone. This US $69.99 | CAN $89.99 | UK £59.99 has 1125 pieces, spanning key locations from the first level of the SEGA classic game, two brick-built monsters, the Eggman and his Eggmobile, and an updated version of Sonic in minifigure form. There are also a smattering of play features, customizable options, and Easter eggs. But is the final set a runaway success, or something you should run away from? Get ready, Player One, and read on!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with a copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 22, 2022

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the third full week of January 2022.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS It was an exciting week of news in the world of LEGO with some long-awaited announcements and a review of the latest from DOTS and IDEAS! Plus a fantastic feature on Jonathan Farrell’s mosaics!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO DOTS 41946 Extra Dots – A charming expansion [Review]

It feels like it was just yesterday (Okay, it was back in July) when we took a look at the Extra DOTS series 5 packs. What has LEGO decided to include in packs of 41946 Extra DOTS – Series 6? Well, they’re available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $3.99 | CAN $4.99 | UK £3.49.  We bought a few to see what this latest not-quite-blind-pack has to offer.

Click to read the full hands-on review

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

The new LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga release date announced [News]

According to the announcement that just appeared on LEGO social feeds, the long-awaited LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is coming on April 5th. Along with the news, TT Games also shared several minutes of the gameplay with the new trailer.

The game will include over 300 playable characters, over 100 vehicles, and 23 planets to explore. You can pre-order the game today, and it is available for all the main platforms, including Nintendo Switch.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was unveiled at E3 back in 2019 but was soon delayed until Spring 2021. After another delay in April 2021, the came is finally coming this year.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO Ideas 21332 The Globe features a fully 3D spinning earth globe [News]

LEGO Ideas is spinning up to release the next set from the crowd-sourcing platform, 21332 The Globe. Designed as a traditional earth globe, the newest set is based on the project submission from fan Guillaume Roussel, where it reached the requisite 10k votes on May 1, 2020, and was approved to become a set in September of that year. The official set has 2,585 pieces and will be available starting Feb. 1 for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £TBD. The 10-inch globe follows last year’s release of 31203 World Map in bringing geography-related sets to LEGO fans and features glow-in-the-dark tiles for labelling the continents and oceans.

Read the full press release and see more pictures below, and be sure to also check out our full, hands-on review of this set.

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The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO Ideas 21332 The Globe: Cartography done right [Review]

The last time that LEGO crossed paths with cartography was with Art 31203: World Map. That huge set (11,695 pieces, the highest part count to date) met with a lot of divided reviews from the fan community. While it was clearly “art” was it really a “map”? Well, fans of geography can rest a little easier now, as 21332 The Globe has arrived. Or rather, it will arrive on February 1st for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £174.99 | €199.99. This 2585 piece set is the latest in the LEGO Ideas theme, based on the concept submitted by fan designer Guillaume Roussel. All the necessary details are  there to call it a map…but the retro styling has us asking “but is this also art?” Read along as we take an early look at this set and see what you think!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Click to read the full hands-on review

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Building Big, Building Bold – An interview with Jonathan Farrell [Feature]

There are a lot of different ways to approach building mosaics in LEGO, and each artist tends to make a claim on their own style. Sometimes that means “massive brick-built images”. In that theme, a clear standout is Jonathan Farrell. We had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Jonathan and talk about his methods, his favorite builds, and just what happens to a mosaic that fills a room once you’ve photographed it!

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The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 15, 2022 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the fourth week of July 2021.

TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS It was another thin week for news, but we did cover a few announcements from LEGO about plans to retire the LEGO Digital Designer software in favor of the more popular Stud.io from Bricklink, as well as plans to consolidate services for ordering LEGO elements directly. We also unveiled the latest collectible VIP coin.

OTHER NEWS

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO fully discontinuing LEGO Digital Designer in favor of BrickLink Studio

Today LEGO has announced that it is finally and completely sunsetting LEGO Digital Designer (LDD), the company’s digital building program that was first introduced in 2004 as a consumer version of LEGO’s internal design software. While LEGO says it will continue to use a version of LDD internally, it is putting forward BrickLink’s Studio software as the officially supported digital building program, which LEGO acquired in 2019 when it purchased BrickLink. Studio supports most files created in LDD, LDRAW, and some other formats, and supports features such as automatically populating a BrickLink wanted list. Although LEGO announced way back in 2016 that LDD would no longer be supported, over the past few years it has continued to receive infrequent updates and even a selection of newer elements. However, the company now says it plans to remove the download page altogether. Users who have installed the program already will be able to continue to use it, and LDD will continue to be available unofficially from third-party download sites.

Click to read the full press release from LEGO

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

LEGO to merge online Pick a Brick with Bricks & Pieces starting February

LEGO is rolling out an update to its online ordering systems for individual bricks in February. The current Bricks & Pieces system is being merged into an overhauled Pick a Brick platform. The current systems are fragmented and difficult to use. While most fans are familiar with online Pick a Brick, many are completely unaware of the Bricks & Pieces platform, which is an offshoot of the replacement parts system and is only accessible via a small link in the footer of LEGO’s website. Screenshots we’ve viewed of the new platform indicate that it will retain Pick a Brick’s more robust search features rather than Bricks & Pieces’ limited search capabilities. The new platform will allow users to search the full catalog of available elements in a single location, and prices will be standardized across the selection so elements will now have the same price regardless of color. The company says that some specialized parts may see price increases, while some elements will become more inexpensive. We cannot confirm how significant or widespread these prices changes may be. The update is planned to be available to the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the UK in early February, followed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US in late February. Other markets will follow later.

Under the new, merged system, LEGO will select 1,600 of its top-selling elements to be clearly labeled as “Bestseller” and will be warehousing those elements in the United States and Poland. The company says that orders of Bestseller elements should be fulfilled within 5 working days, down from the 13-18 days with the old system. Orders of standard, non-bestsellers will still ship from Billund, Denmark, using the current, slower fulfillment process, but customers should be able to split their orders within a single purchase, so adding non-bestseller items to your cart won’t delay the whole order. All orders under the new system will now be eligible for promotions (currently Bricks & Pieces orders are not). Orders must meet a minimum threshold of €12 to waive an order fee of €3 for Bestsellers and €6 for non-bestsellers. Fees in other regions have not yet been disclosed.

LEGO will also be making the in-store Build a Mini experience available online, including elements that have been exclusive to it. However, this system will be separate from the merged Pick a Brick and Bricks & Pieces platform. Read the full press release from LEGO below.

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The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.