Here we find ourselves at the top of another month, on the precipice of new releases on LEGO.com. And while November may not have as many offerings as we got in October, there are a pair of gifts-with-purchase available right now to help sweeten the deal. Access to one of the GWPs requires you to be a member of the LEGO Insider program if you haven’t joined yet.
I love when a futuristic LEGO build treats space as a hostile environment, and this lunar station by Dan O’Connor is a prime example. With lots of unique window areas, you get the impression these explorers are trying to see as much of the alien landscape as they can, while knowing they’re resigned to only going outside on rare occasions. Thankfully, they’ve got a few space suits and even a droid to assist in any outside-the-airlock activities.
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 first week of November 2023.
TBB NEWS AND REVIEWS Welcome back to another Brick Report! We’ve missed you since last week! You are in for a treat this week: we had two big set reveals and a whopping four reviews, including of one of those revealed sets!
Everyone’s got their favourite LEGO element. It might be the popular headlight brick, or something completely rogue like a Clikits flower. (Hey, each to their own!) I have a sneaky feeling that some of Simon Liu‘s favourite pieces are those pertaining to frogs. Why? Well, he’s listed as a Frog King in a group on Flickr, for starters. And the Frog King has assembled an amphibian army to do his bidding! This exosuit for the rank-and-file, for instance, houses a Super Mario frog hat.
Click here to see what other frog parts have got an armoured upgrade!
The first time I was ever able to go to a LEGO store, I walked out of there with a modular set. I was on a work trip to the Seattle area back when I lived in Indiana, and I remember being so excited driving back to the hotel from Bellevue with 10211 Grand Emporium sitting in the backseat. I knew that it would still be weeks until I would be back home building it, but I couldn’t care less. Since then, the Modular Buildings Collection has had a special place in my heart. And while I’m not the kind of builder to keep them all assembled on a shelf, I still see them as the pinnacle of architectural design at minifigure-scale. So, with the impending release of the new LEGO Icons 10326 Natural History Museum, let’s see how it measures up to the rest of its kin. With 4,014 pieces, this is the largest of the modular buildings to date. It’s currently available for pre-order on the LEGO website, with release on December 1, retailing for US $299.99 | CAN $389.99 | UK £259.99.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
I know the calendar says November and whatnot but, like my LEGO storage room, spookiness can’t be contained within one holiday. For some of us, it’s a way of life. This new creation by Casey McCoy is called Monster House. Rumor has it, that’s what my neighbors call my place but that’s just the cross I bear for being brooding and mysterious. And also having a skeleton in my front yard and doll heads like literally everywhere. I could learn some decorating tips from Casey’s vignette like the creepy eyes, spider webs, and olive green color scheme. Now to find a contractor who is willing to install a kid-eating demented hell-spirit into the facade of my place. Let me know in the comments if you know a guy; licensed and insured is preferable. While you’re at it, check out our Halloween archives for more spooktacular fun from like-minded builders.
The LEGO Super Mario theme has produced many fun and playable sets since it premiered in 2020. Fans of the theme have lots of options to choose from, including LEGO Super Mario 71411 The Mighty Bowser set and several play scenes inspired by the video game. And now, one of the franchise’s most popular enemies, the dreaded piranha plant, joins the lineup. LEGO Super Mario 71426 Piranha Plant comes with 540 pieces and will be available on November 6th for US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £57.99
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.
2024 is only a couple of months away now, and German retailer JB Spielwaren have unveiled a host of LEGO sets slated for release in the new year. These cover the Jurassic World/Jurassic Park, Super Mario, Minecraft, and Sonic the Hedgehog themes. While most of them are playsets, the highlight for adult builders and collectors is likely to be 76964 Dinosaur Fossils: T-Rex Skull. This set contains 577 pieces, for a retail price of US $39.99 | CAN $49.99 | UK £34.99. The name suggests it could be the start of a series. Here’s hoping!
The Jurassic World sets are the only ones we have global recommended retail prices for, but we do at least have prices in euros for the others. You can see prices and pictures after the jump!
For some, this time of year is closely associated with falling leaves, scarves and things being suddenly pumpkin-flavoured for a few weeks. But for those of us in the more Northerly latitudes, autumn is already starting to look like Michał Kozłowski‘s wintry scene. In fact, as I type this, there are two inches of snow forecast in a few days, and muggins here still haven’t changed over to winter tyres. How did they manage that in medieval LEGO villages? Do you think they had horsecarts with studded wheels? Or did the horses just have to look for the studs to lock themselves in? You’d have to hope your builder hasn’t exclusively used slopes and tiles to model their snow.
Part of the fun of Halloween for me was always the cheap plastic trinkets; pumpkin buckets, spider rings, and especially the vampire teeth. But Josephine Monterosso has put those dollar store dentures to shame with this set of blood sucking biters. A pair of Dots bracelets make a perfect base for Dracula’s gums, and the resulting creation is perfect for anyone practicing to become a dentist of the undead.
The stereotype for zombies is that they wander aimlessly, looking for brains. But Dan Ko‘s is a little different. If you listen closely, you’ll find that some of them aren’t actually looking for brains, but for bricks. It seems even AFOLs aren’t safe from the zombie apocalypse. Brains are no good! Zombified Fans of LEGO (ZFOLs) need bricks to fill their heads with. This one has turned to a pink roller skate, which by coincidence does look a bit like a regular brain. All the better to blend in with the horde of the undead!
I hear there’s a monster party tonight at 13 Dead End Drive. That’s the address of this massive old Victorian haunt created by Ty Keltner over the course of nine months. It features a large mansion with surrounding grounds populated by hundreds of your favorite Halloween monsters. Sitting on a whopping 24 large gray baseplates, the model’s footprint is 7 ½ feet by 5 feet – that is just shy of 40 square feet of Lego, with somewhere between 50 and 100 thousand bricks, definitely making this the biggest LEGO Halloween party we’re invited to this year!
