It’s time to make all of your Disney dreams come true: 71040 The Disney Castle is now available to LEGO VIP members. The set has 4,080 pieces, 5 minifigures, and costs $349 USD.
The set will be available to the general public beginning September 1, but the LEGO VIP Program is free to join, so you can just join and then order the set immediately to earn 349 points. That’s $15 toward a future LEGO order, and 49 points toward the next 100-point threshold for another $5.
Angela Chung has made great use of the new baby minifig in an excellent hospital scene depicting the arrival of a new baby. Sometimes “obvious parts usage” makes for the best models.
The details of the delivery room surrounding the central action are nicely done with a variety of mobile medical machinery at the ready. I particularly like the incubator trolley with it’s little heat lamp waiting to keep the new arrival cosy. However, close attention to the scene does raise one troubling question…what is the screwdriver for? Regardless, this is a lovely model, and is all the more refreshing for depicting the sort of real-life events we don’t often see “in the brick”.
John Moffat‘s latest build is the Marie Curie, the first of Earth’s Manchester class attack cruisers which sailed out of the Lagrange shipyard in 2380. What a sleek beauty she is with her subtle dark red highlights and that smooth aerodynamic upper hull covering the intricate ‘greebled’ inner workings of the ship. The little touches of dark tan and yellow add interest and draw the eye to the darker greebled areas — a great way to ensure that all those subtle details are appreciated.
Now, I wonder if John built two Marie Curie attack cruisers or if there’s a clone in our midst?
In a testament to the insane popularity of Angry Birds and the amazing skill of the builder, this microbuild by Letranger Absurde is instantly recognizable.
Despite the tiny size, the birds and slingshot are brilliant. I count nine pieces, and they perfectly encapsulate the birds. My favourite part usage here is the minifig slingshot which becomes supersized thanks to the scale of the scene. There are many more details, and I highly encourage you to scan the pig castle to see all the other little details for yourself.
The mecha world seems to have fallen in love with D.Va’s bright pink mech, and it has already been the basis for a great LEGO build. But today we have a new mech inspired by the pink robot/bomb in the form of the Scout Walker by Nate Rehm-Daly. Make sure you check out the back view to see the design of those spindly legs and a cockpit closeup to see the superb shaping that was accomplished at this small scale.
David Hughes is building a series of wonderfully creepy LEGO skulls. They have a definite Mexican Day Of The Dead vibe going on with bold color choices and geometric patterns. Our hobby is generally dominated by minifig-scale models depicting scenes or vehicles — sometimes it makes for a pleasant change when we get these kind of larger-scale art pieces beautifully put together from good old-fashioned bricks.
TBB contributor Elspeth De Montes has been working on a fantastic series of scenes contrasting the life of a woman named Doris in 1966 and later in her life today, in 2016. Originally built for and published in Bricks magazine, Elspeth’s scenes are not only well-built LEGO creations, but also poignant and funny. She describes her Doris series thus: “On the left it is 1966 and she is a young vibrant lady in touch with the latest fashion, technology and trends. On the right, time has passed and it is 2016 and Doris has to cope with new technology, innovation and the changes in society.”
In Elspeth’s first scene, Doris happily tosses her rubbish out in 1966, but struggles to sort her recyclables in 2016. What impresses me most about this scene is how many LEGO trash cans in various colors Elspeth owns!
Click through to see all of Doris’s adventures through the years
While I have not yet played this particular title in the Legend of Zelda series, the LEGO mosaic version of Link in wall merged form built by Hans Demol is instantly recognizable. In game, Link can take the form of a wall painting to traverse the worlds and puzzles in interesting ways, and Hans shows this with a stacked plates mosaic style that works well for both the painted Link and the uneven brick wall texture.
In this close-up of Link’s face, you can see several different colors used to achieve the painted look.
It was a sad day when the beloved Bionicle theme was canceled for the second time. In comment sections far and wide LEGO was critisised for many things, but one specific complaint kept cropping up: there’s no Makuta set.
Thankfully our hobby is based on the fact that we can make whatever we want, including what LEGO didn’t have the incentive to create. Djordje has stepped up to provide us with this build which would not have been an official set for another reason: it’s massive.
A fantastic selection of primarily Technic elements come together in a LEGO double-barreled steampunk handgun built by nobu_tary. All kinds of interesting details are found throughout, such as the split paneling revealing the barrels, compass piece as some sort of gauge, and a thin wire trigger guard.
I’m very excited to join the amazing group of builders over at the castle-themed, role-playing forum: Lands of Roawia. Castle is one of my favorite LEGO themes and lately I feel like I need a little push to actually sit down and build something. This chariot scene is my first LoR build and I had a lot of fun coming up with the main character. She’s extra grumpy and uses dark magic. The First Annual C.R.A.S.H. Games jumped out at me as interesting because it combines LEGO building with character creation using stats (along the lines of Dungeons & Dragons). The “Games” include a chariot race, archery, hurling, and a stealth maze run. I highly recommend checking out the forum yourself.
As announced earlier this year, LEGO Dimensions is preparing for a new wave of Fun Packs, Level Packs, and Story Packs, all set to become available Nov. 18 this year.
Amazon is offering 40% off select sets in the new wave of LEGO Dimensions if you pre-order! Since the next wave has amazing characters from Adventure Time, The A-Team, Ghostbusters, and Mission Impossible (to name a few!), this is a great chance to order your favorite new characters.
Click on your favorite Pack to order!
71246 Adventure Time Team Pack
Click here for more LEGO Dimensions!