The team from LEGO shares a favourite video feature of ours by hearing directly from the designers involved in the creation of the LEGO Ideas 21326 Winnie The Pooh set. Featuring (L-R, image below) lead LEGO Model designer Ilia Gotlib, Simon Wilson (LEGO Element Designer), Felipe Silva Telles (LEGO Element Designer) and Ashwin Visser (LEGO Graphic Designer)
Click to see the full designer video
This month’s Gift With Purchase kicks off with the 40450 Amelia Earhart Tribute set. The Harry Potter and Collesseum promotions are still available from the past couple of months. Here’s a list of GWP eligibility based on item, price and region (the US|CAN|UK) based on today’s availability, 6 March 2021.
In the writings of A. A. Milne, the Hundred Acre Wood is home to many beloved characters. LEGO invites us all to visit these childhood friends in LEGO Ideas 21326 Winnie the Pooh. Based on an idea submitted by fan Ben Alder in March of 2019, this set will be available to LEGO VIP members starting March 18, with general availability following on April 1st. For US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99 you’ll get Pooh’s home and five exclusive minifigures. Read along as we look for honey-dipped surprises, keeping a watchful eye out for any stray Heffalumps. (Spoiler alert: There are no Heffalumps in this set.)
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
Ever wanted to see your kid on that famous LEGO ad from 1981? Now you can, says the company, thanks to a new ad campaign. This coming Monday, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion The LEGO Company is launching a new ad campaign focusing on young female builders. Based on LEGO’s iconic “What it is is beautiful” advertisement from 1981 featuring a young girl proudly holding her creation, the new campaign will let fans see themselves in a similar advertisement. While the campaign website isn’t live at the time of writing, LEGO says it will allow parents to submit images of their children holding their designs, along with a few keywords, and the website will then generate a unique poster based on the image that will be emailed back.
Click to read the full press release and see more example posters
Today LEGO has revealed the latest set from its Ideas crowd-sourcing platform. 21326 Winnie the Pooh will feature the popular characters from A. A. Milne’s book series along with Pooh’s home under the tree in the Hundred Acre Wood, as interpreted by Disney. The set will include five characters: Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore. The 1,265-piece set is slated to be available for LEGO VIP members starting March 18 with general availability on April 1. It will retail for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. Be sure to check back for our full, hands-on review of this set, which will be coming very soon.
The Winnie the Pooh project was created by fan Ben Alder in March of 2019, and hit the requisite 10,000 votes in July of that year. It was approved by LEGO in February of last year, joining the Medieval Blacksmith as the two projects from the first 2019 LEGO Ideas review to be turned into official sets.
Having a hard time keeping track of which LEGO Ideas projects are coming? The Winnie the Pooh set is the first to be revealed of the 8 approved projects we covered last month: Upcoming LEGO Ideas Projects.
Click to see more images and read the official press release
Lately we’ve been working our way through the new wave of Ninjago sets based on the latest island-themed season. Today we reach our final destination of Ninjago 71747 The Keepers’ Village. This 632 piece offering features five minifigures and a playset full of surprises. It’s available now from the LEGO Shop Online for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99. Is this a fitting conclusion to our Island adventures? Are there interesting perks for non-Ninjago fans? Read on and see!
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
As reported by our friends over at Brickset, LEGO appears to be making plans to transition away from the use of black backgrounds in instruction manuals. Earlier today, LEGO customer Sam Walker posted an image in a Facebook group of a response he received from LEGO customer service, in which the company states “we’ve been listening to feedback about the background colour in our building instructions. We’ve done lots of testing already and have plans to move away from the black backgrounds entirely.”
The dark backgrounds have been part of the theming for 18+ sets in LEGO’s newly rebranded adult product portfolio that began rolling out last summer. The black manuals have been the source of much frustration for builders, as the low contrast has made it very difficult to discern darker-colored elements, with some disappearing entirely, as we noticed in our review of 10275 Elf Clubhouse.
LEGO has been trying a variety of things to combat the issue, including adding more outlines to elements. Some recent sets, such as 10295 Porsche 911 Turbo & 911 Targa, shipped with black backgrounds in the instruction manual, but the version available for download from LEGO’s website has been updated to include traditional light backgrounds. Other recent 18+ sets, such as 21325 Medieval Blacksmith, included light backgrounds in the printed manual that shipped with the set, though it’s unclear if this is a result of the change already being put into action, or because that set is part of the Ideas product line rather than Creator Expert.
In the response to Sam Walker, LEGO also says that it is working with LEGO designers with color impairment in creating revised manuals.
Today, LEGO reveals the new 40502 The Brick Moulding Machine set. The set becomes the second LEGO House Limited Edition product (joining 40501 The Wooden Duck) and will sell exclusively at the LEGO House starting March 4 for 599 DKK (approximately US $99).
Younger Builders….ASSEMBLE! The LEGO “4+” line is aimed at junior builders, with simplified designs and larger pieces. Marvel Avengers 76170 Iron Man vs. Thanos is one of them, and will be available March 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. But this is a Marvel set, and that means a wider range of fans are going to consider it as well. Is there anything here to tempt them? And what about non-Marvel builders? Come along as we examine just what LEGO has squeezed into this 103 piece set.
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
Ninjago Legacy sets are a way for LEGO to re-introduce past sets to newer fans. Usually this means taking a previous set and adding upgraded designs, new parts, and exclusive minifigures. But what happens when you cross the streams and combine a historic mech with the “Learn to Build” 4+ age range market? Come along as we explore the transformation of 2015’s 70754 ElectroMech into Ninjago Legacy 71740 Jay’s Electro Mech. This 106 piece set will be available March 1st from the LEGO Shop Online for US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99. Can it possibly survive “junior-ization”? Adventure awaits!
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
LEGO has been exploring a new trend with gift-with-purchase sets in the form of models celebrating influential personalities from history, and the latest set is 40450 Amelia Earhart Tribute. Amelia Earhart is best known for her disappearance in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe by airplane, but she was a pioneer in the field of aviation in many other ways as well, including helping found the Ninety-Nines, an organization for women pilots. In 1932 she was the first woman to make a non-stop solo transatlantic flight, a mere five years after Lindbergh. LEGO’s new gift-with-purchase set celebrating her achievements contains 203 pieces and is available now in Australia and will be available globally soon. Although the precise timing and purchase requirements are yet to be officially revealed, it is rumored to be available March 6 to 14 with a US $100 | CAN $100 | UK £100 purchase from LEGO.
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
To mark the 10th anniversary of LEGO Universe, LEGO is releasing the game’s soundtrack for the first time. Composed by Brian Tyler (who is also known for scoring much of the Fast & Furious franchise and films like Avengers: Age of Ultron), the Massively Multiplayer Online game’s soundtrack has never before been available apart from the game. The new remastered version will be accompanied by several episodes of LEGO’s Bricks N’ Bits podcast focusing on the game, including interviews with Brian, the game’s producer Richard Dekkard, and Sir Patrick Stewart, who provided voiceover work for the game.
Released in 2010, LEGO Universe was the company’s first foray into MMO games. It was met with a lukewarm reception, and the game was shuttered in January 2012, just 15 months after it debuted.
The newly remastered soundtrack will be available for purchase or streaming on all the usual platforms. LEGO also says it will be available on the official LEGO Gaming Youtube channel.
Click to read the full press release from LEGO