This UCS-scale Buzz Droid is ready to sabotage thanks to its creator Takamichi Irie. Once it catches on to your ship, there’s no escape from its whirling saw and disruptive claws, unless you have a clever R2 droid to zap it in the eye. The technique for the hemisphere shells is spot on. Check out the work-in-progress shots to see the breakdown of the build.
LEGO’s city skylines series continues with LEGO Architecture set 21034 London, one of 3 new city skylines announced yesterday. Released at the grand opening of the new London flagship LEGO store in Leicester Square today, this set captures 5 iconic landmarks from Great Britain’s capital city and is exclusive to the new London store until wider release in Jan 2017. London skyline retails at £44.99, contains 468 parts and features the National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, Big Ben, the London Eye and Tower Bridge.
I was intrigued to know which iconic landmarks would be chosen as London is a city full of grand architecture, iconic buildings and landmarks. Indeed LEGO have already captured Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (twice) and a London Bus across the Architecture and Creator series. The 5 chosen landmarks are all well known and perhaps more historical than other potential buildings such as the Shard or the Gherkin.
Today the world’s largest LEGO store opens in Leicester Square, within the bustling heart of London. The Brothers Brick were invited to an exclusive pre-opening event to take a tour of the new store, preview the exclusive London skyline set, and talk to Glenn Abell (LEGO’s Vice President of Direct To Consumer) about the future of LEGO’s retailing.
The London flagship store is the largest in the world, covering 914 sqm over two floors, and features a number of signature brick sculptures — all themed to the City of London. The doors open onto an archway with the classic London Underground sign stating “Leicester Square” and a map of the London Underground lights up one wall.
Actually, Karf Oohlu has used three banana parts — one minifig-scale fruit on each side of the racer and a larger one in the center, which is the new banana mask from the Series 16 collectible minifigures. Assuming this poor monkey pilot has to maintain its position above some huge blast, then the racer reminds me of those good old cave racers that were flying around Flickr about 8 years ago. Hold on tight, reckless monkey!
LEGO is adding 3 more cities to its popular skylines branch of the Architecture theme. This time around we’ll get the iconic structures of Sydney, Chicago, and London. These will nicely complement last year’s New York City skyline, which we reviewed, as well as the Berlin and Venice skyline sets (all 3 of which are on sale for 25-30% off on Amazon). We’re pleased to say that we’ve got a hands-on review of the London Skyline set for you, so you won’t have to wait to see more.
Check out more brand new sets:
2017 LEGO City sets
2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets
2017 LEGO Technic sets
LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS set
2017 LEGO Friends sets
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 2
2017 LEGO Ninjago sets
2017 LEGO Batman Movie sets
Click to see the other new skyline sets
Ingenious LEGO builders are always creating amazingly complex machines to do cool tasks — just check out this automated Christmas cookie decorating machine! Braiding rope is a fairly straightforward task for a human, but it’s complex for a machine because it requires strands to be passed underneath each other. It’s mesmerizing to watch Nico71‘s braiding machine pass three of the shuttles back and forth between the rotating spindles to interweave the 5 strands.
Now through Friday, Nov. 18, No Starch Press is having a massive sale on LEGO books, offering them at 50% off. No Starch Press is the publisher of many great fan-authored books, including ones we’ve reviewed such as The LEGO Neighborhood Book, Beautiful LEGO, The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles, and The Cult of LEGO. Use the code BRICKSGALORE at checkout to get the sale price. Each physical book comes with a digitally downloadable version as well. And if you’d prefer to have just the digital version, the current pay-what-you-want Humble Book Bundle features 16 No Starch Press LEGO books.
Full disclosure: The Brothers Brick staff are featured in a number of No Starch Press books, including Beautiful LEGO, The Cult of LEGO, and Steampunk LEGO.
The fantastic sky boats of Ian McQue continue to inspire LEGO builders far and wide. This latest iteration from Dwalin Forkbeard freshens the style by using different angles than we’ve seen before. The bow of the craft uses long slopes at an angle that resembles a Viking ship — a motif that is reinforced by the tires hanging off the sides like rune-covered Norse shields. Meanwhile, the cabin of the ship has a jaunty lean, reminding us that this style is just as much fiction as science. And of course the mechanical details are great throughout. Plus, it doesn’t smell like rotting fish.
Author, artist, and all-around mad scientist Guy Himber has launched his latest Crazy Bricks Kickstarter project, centered on unique character accessories for LEGO minifigs. Mascot Bricks has just over two weeks to go toward its $15,000 goal, which will result in these entertaining characters — Mr. Slice, Pugs, Gentleman Nut, and Mr. Toast.
TBB generally doesn’t endorse specific Kickstarter projects, but Guy has a strong track record of successful projects that have resulted in real, interesting products. I’m personally most excited by the pug hat. LEGO + pugs — what’s not to love?
Nothing. It’s too dang cold for this beautifully crafted LEGO animal to waste energy on words. Instead, it waits patiently for a morsel of protein to sally forth from a hole in the snow. Although the woodland creatures of Miro Dudas are breathtaking to behold, don’t forget to notice the expertly detailed tuft of grass yearning for spring, or the complex topography of the pristine frozen landscape. Winter has come.
And what does the wolf say? Something along the lines of “Arrr-ooooo!” Which, strangely, is also what a pirate says when he sees a nice boat.
Pascal explores the depths of space with this awesome rendition of V.I.N.CENT. (Vital Information Necessary CENTralized.) from Disney’s The Black Hole. The Black Hole has not aged well, in my opinion, but V.I.N.CENT. has always been one of my favorite movie robots. Pascal has managed to capture his essence quite well. You can almost hear Roddy McDowell’s voice coming over the speakers. The expression of the eyes and studless build technique are perfect. One also has to love the presentation, using the same black hole graphic as in the movie.
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of both Halo: Combat Evolved and Microsoft’s Xbox console. Halo has had a massive impact on console first person shooters, game storytelling, multiplayer, and sales of the Xbox, but today we’re looking at another aspect of Halo’s influence. We’ve rounded up a small selection of the amazing builds the adventures of Master Chief has inspired LEGO fans to create. Pause your sixteen player LAN game on Blood Gulch and explore some of the best of LEGO Halo.
“That… is another Halo.”
First up is Catsy [CC] with his microscale model of the ringworld itself, spanning nearly 5 feet across.
Click to see the rest of the Halo LEGO models