The new LEGO Ideas set 21306 Yellow Submarine we reviewed on Saturday is out today, available from the LEGO Shop online for $59.99 in the US, with 553 pieces and 4 minifigures.
More importantly, though, LEGO is retiring several iconic sets that you’ll probably want to grab if you don’t have a copy already.
First up, Angus Maclane’s LEGO Ideas set 21303 Wall-E includes 676 pieces at $59.99. Read our review — we loved it.
See more LEGO sets retiring soon
I do hope you enjoyed carving your pumpkins this Halloween, as the mecha Pumpkin King is out for tribute. This adorable mechanized squash from LEGO 7 is bright, angry, and makes excellent use of the great little pyramid tile pieces from Nexo Knights. The use of black wings as a swishing cloak is a nice touch; I particularly like the use of Ghost Rider’s head as a scepter.
Bow down, mortals!
Halloween is no doubt the most creative of all holidays. We decorate our houses, we design and sew awesome costumes and, of course, build the most terrific LEGO creations. But before bringing to life any of your holiday ideas, make sure you have your tools ready. Johnnie Brick Xavier decorates his work desk not only with the most functional brick-built organizer I’ve ever seen, but also the spookiest one. Lots of bonus points for this set of matching stationary — at first, I believed the tiny calendar was a printed LEGO tile!
Are you ready for a trip to Halloween Town? We posted a fantastic minifig-scale scene with Jack Skellington and the Mayor earlier, and have more to show you from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Let’s get this party started!
First up is a great pair of custom minifigs from Yong Hoon Yoon. His minifig scale Jack and Sally are just wonderful; Sally is spot on.
Creator Expert sets are hard to find in stores, and even harder to find on a good sale. However, Amazon currently has 10244 Fairground Mixer for 33% off its normal $149.99 price, bringing this 1,746-piece set down to just $100.94.
This might be a great time to stock up on an epic present for that special builder in your life — or maybe even treat yourself: Halloween gifts are a thing, right? This is also a great chance to get this two-year-old set on sale before it retires and the price skyrockets. The previous set in the fairgrounds theme, 2009’s 10196 Grand Carousel, is now selling for a staggering ten times its original retail price of $250.
(Update: It looks like Amazon has sold out of the Fairground Mixer.)
Amazon has a lot of other great sets on sale currently too. Check them out below.
When Angry Birds come knocking on your door howling “Trick or Treat!” you’d better hope you’ve got some full-sized candy bars in your bowl, or you might find your spooky yard besieged by feathered terrors. These fantastic little LEGO foul birds were crafted by James Zhan, and they look delightfully upset at your “healthy” snacks.
While I’m more of a fan of LEGO space vehicles, I do know an amazing building creation when I see one, and this Classic Space tower by Wami Delthorn has all the right notes of a brilliant, detailed build. As a control tower for your Classic Space astronauts, it’s complete with classic grey colouring and the yellow translucent window panels.
The build sits on a hexagonal base, giving a different twist to your usual 4-sided box. The picture is a bit deceiving, but this thing is quite tall! You can see the little space minifig at the bottom for a better sense of scale.
Just as impressive is the inside rooms and the working lift, both of which you can see in this short video:
Even LEGO bricks like to dress up for Halloween. Well, that’s what Chris Maddison would have us believe anyway. His most recent build feature five characters that are simply adorable. I love how the ghost’s sheet is just a little too long, the zombie’s internal organs are exposed, and that the vampire’s collar on his cloak is perfectly popped.
“Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize Nick Sweetman‘s neighborhood. And whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down must stand and face the hounds of hell and rot inside a corpse’s shell. The foulest stench is in the air. The funk of forty thousand years. And grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom. And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver. For no mere mortal can resist, the evil of the thriller…”
“Are you busy in May?”, was a question I got in an e-mail early this year from my friend Ed Diment, co-director of Bright Bricks. The organisers had asked them to build models for a LEGO event in Dubai and to get in touch with fan builders, with large collections of models they would be willing to display at the event.
The event in question was Stack and it was the first of its kind in the Middle East. I’ve been very fortunate to attend many different LEGO events in Europe and in the US, but I knew this one was going to be special.
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This food service delivery truck from Chris Maddison is a cracking LEGO creation. The stripped-back color scheme leaves room for the details to steal the show — particularly the lovely touch of a red rubber band as the brake line connection between truck and trailer. White is always a tricky color to use for the main body of a model, swallowing up detail and allowing people to miss all your efforts at capturing accurate shaping, not to mention it can be a pig to photograph. However, there’s no such problems here, this is a great model to look at — although I must admit I’d much rather vroom it around my desk than just look at it!
Let’s return to the 1970’s for a moment. Japan faces a serious economic crisis, President Nixon resigns from office, and rock-and-roll music has never been cooler. Back in present day, grobie built these sweet LEGO creations to honor two rock bands from the psychedelic “Me Decade.”
First up, we have Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)’s spaceship from their Out of the Blue album cover and an accompnaying Jeff Lynne minifig with acoustic guitar. You have to admit, that custom ELO paint job is downright groovy. Next up, we have Journey’s spaceship from their Escape album cover. This build also comes with a short-sleeved Neal Schon and the ship even has detachable scarab wings! Can you dig it? I can.
