We’ve always known that Batman has it pretty sweet, with a huge mansion sitting atop a cave for all his toys. But this jaw-dropping creation by Brent Waller shows us the full extent of Batman’s lair, from the gorgeous gothic architecture of the Wayne Manor to the dark depths of the Batcave. Brent has given TBB an exclusive early look at all the details of this incredible creation, so let’s check it out.
Click to see more pictures and a video of the Manor and Batcave
Today at Democratic Design Days, IKEA’s annual press event in Almhut, Sweden, IKEA announced that one of their new partnerships will be with the LEGO Group. Together, they will be producing a line of products aimed at bringing children and adults together. “We have a lot in common. Play is essential to kids, and we both believe that, so together the LEGO Group and IKEA, we really want to enable many more opportunities for play in the homes with children and their parents,” said Lena Dixen, Senior Vice President, Product Development, LEGO Group. In fact, the collaboration began with the toy company. LEGO approached IKEA and “asked if we wanted to play,” said Fredrika Inger, Business Area Manager for Children’s IKEA.
Click to read more, and watch a video of the announcement
“Before you even knew what you had, you designed it, and built it, and slapped it on a plastic baseplate…”
-Ian Malcolm (not really)
A new Jurassic World film is on the way, and ZiO Chao is celebrating with a set of busts of some of the most iconic dinosaurs from the franchise. ZiO built his model for Rebrick’s “Iconically Jurassic World” contest (now closed). Each dinosaur’s head is depicted with a 3-dimensional profile view, with the following prehistoric beasts being represented….
See all of the LEGO dinosaurs up close!
We’re continuing our expedition to the frozen tundra of the Arctic with more new LEGO sets from the LEGO City Arctic Expedition theme released on June 1st. In our review of 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base, we took a close look at the new woolly mammoth. 60193 Arctic Air Transport is the smallest set that includes the saber-toothed “tiger” at $39.99 in the US (49.99 CAD in Canada | £24.99 in the UK), with 277 pieces and 2 minifigures.
First, let’s get some taxonomy and nomenclature issues out of the way. While the mammoth is rather evidently a mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius or one of its close relatives), it’s less clear what the “saber-toothed ‘tigers'” in these new Arctic sets actually depict. From more than 40 million years ago until the last Ice Age barely 12,000 years ago, there was a broad range of carnivorous creatures with long canine teeth, none of which were closely related to modern tigers in Asia. As a result, most palaeontologists use the common name “saber-toothed cat” to refer to the true felines that had saber-shaped canine teeth (like the iconic and aptly named Smilodon fatalis from the La Brea Tarpits), and generically “saber-tooth” to refer to the full range of creatures across many orders, genera, and species who had such teeth — even including a few marsupial saber-tooths! Thus, we’ll be avoiding the term “tiger” in favor of saber-toothed “cat” or just saber-tooth. If your eyes haven’t completely glazed over yet due to all this taxonomic minutiae, we’ll return to this point when taking a close look at the saber-tooth in this LEGO set.
Read our hands-on review of the new LEGO City Arctic 60193 Arctic Air Transport
Trek far enough through the tropical rainforests of South America, and you might be lucky enough to stumble upon the toco toucan. Toucans are widely recognized because of their big, bold, bodacious beaks. It’s a wonder they are able to support the weight of that massive-looking head. For that matter, we are amazed Sven Franic was able to pull off the same feat with his brick-built toucan. By utilizing a wide variety of curved elements, Sven has managed to sculpt out an excellent likeness of this magnificent bird. The wooden perch is also a nice touch, one that probably also helps with supporting bird’s weight. It’s “toucan-tastic!”
This is not just any fire truck, but one modelled after the real-life Scania P410 Fire Truck. The build also features a fully functional boom and extended supports for stabilisation. I like how in absence of the Brick Arch Mudguard elements for the wheels, Builder Robson M still manages to pull off a great looking alternative.
Martin Sanders, LEGO’s Director of Innovation took the stage to showcase LEGO’s integration with Apple’s new revelation of ARKit 2 during the 2018 World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose earlier this week. ARKit 2 is a platform that allows developers like LEGO to integrate shared experiences, bringing together a virtual experienced tied to a physical play set.
Click to read more about the showcase
We’ve been pretty excited about the new Pleistocene megafauna (large, extinct Ice Age animals like mammoths and saber-toothed cats) in the LEGO City Arctic sets released on June 1st, particularly after we had a chance to play with them during the Fall 2018 Preview event in New York City a couple weeks ago. With the sets now on store shelves, we’re digging in to bring you an even closer look at the new vehicles and creatures, starting with 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base, which includes 786 pieces, 6 minifigures, and a frozen mammoth and retails for $119.99 in the US (149.99 CAD in Canada | £84.99 in the UK).
Read our full, hands-on review of the new LEGO City 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base
Krzysztof Cytacki’s Technic version of a Landrover Defender is an excellent version of Great Britain’s gift to the world of 4×4 offroading. While the model itself is nice, the photography is what first attracted me to Cytacki’s work. By taking pictures of his Landrover in the wilderness, Cytacki perfectly captures the feeling of a televised auto ad. You can almost hear the roar of the engine and smell the earthy aroma of mud kicking back as the vehicle scales the rugged terrain. The natural setting does better justice to Cytacki’s model than a plain background could achieve.
See more photos of this gorgeous LEGO Technic Landrover
BrickHeadz is going under the sea, as today LEGO has published pictures of this new pair of characters from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Ariel and Ursula are joining Beauty and the Beast in bringing classic Disney tales to the collectible figure theme. 41623 Ariel & Ursula will have 361 pieces and will be numbered 64 and 65 in the BrickHeadz series, and although there’s no definitive word yet on the pricing, we expect it to be on par with previous two-packs. LEGO’s also given us a better look at the new BrickHeadz from Frozen that we announced last week, now including the box art. Check it all out below.
Click to check out all the images
Spanning the river Cher in the Loire Valley, Château de Chenonceau is one of the most charming castles of France. Built in the early 1500s the place have seen many owners. Today it belongs to the Menier family, who are famous for their signature chocolates. Last year we got acquainted with the chocolate box château thanks to a wonderful microscale model by Isaac Snyder. And now it’s Aaron Newman turn to wow us with an off the charts model of the castle. Full of the tiniest elements the building is much larger than one might think; the final model measures more than 12″ (31cm) tall, 17″ (44cm) deep, and 40″ (102cm) wide!
Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the hit sequel to The LEGO Movie released in 2014. Reprising their roles are Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Lucy aka Wyldstyle, Will Arnett as Batman, Nick Offerman as Metal Beard, and Alison Brie as Unikitty. New characters that will join the lineup are Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, Sweet Mayhem and Ice Cream Cone voiced by respectively Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Arturo Castro.
