Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hit theaters last week, and although LEGO’s tie-in line of sets has been available for a little while, they’re still doing something special to mark the occasion. From now until May 19, if you buy over $35 of LEGO from the LEGO Shop Online or a LEGO store, you’ll get the nifty little mini set 30449 The Milano as a free bonus. It’s got an MSRP of $3.99 USD and has 64 pieces.
It’s a tiny set, but still fun, so we thought we’d give it a review.
Six parts, nice macro photography, beautiful presentation, and a vivid imagination — combine these ingredients and you get a fantastic little LEGO creation. Sure, Steve Roberts‘ perfume ad doesn’t have a whole lot of actual building going on, but it shows imaginative parts use and a great eye for colour and style. Not all the best LEGO models are huge and complex, some of them just manage to look (and smell) fabulous.
Even if you hate the later Matrix movies, maybe you can acknowledge their existence for at least a moment to admire this fantastic LEGO build of the the chateau scene from the second movie. Letranger Absurde puts together some impressive architecture work with a striking curved staircase design. While the model may not be 100% accurate to the scene it’s still a great looker. Well, at least until the minifig Neo destroys most of it.
The Grenadier 929 by halfbeak is the Lunar League’s primary attack/defense unit operating between the Moon and Earth. Able to vertically take off and land on most flat areas, its primary propulsion is a photovoltaic powered, hydrogen propelled magnetoplasmadynamic thruster – also known as the Lorentz Force Accelerator. Its four gimbal-mounted directional rocket thrusters and four photo voltaic panels include redundancies allowing it to still operate one as little as one of each.
Heavily armed, its main offensive weapons are four self-guided shrapnel mortars, designed to approach enemy units at high speed, then exploding to create a highly destructive cloud of shrapnel causing huge damage without the need for pinpoint accuracy.
The 929 is well defended with bow-mounted laser, reinforced titanium front shield and an EM field-generating cage to protect against EMP attack and general environmental radiation. It also features a pilot module that can separate from main propulsion unit and function as a lifeboat with its own limited propulsion and guidance systems.
The builder has also included a fantastic visual breakdown of all the components and created swaths of background information to go with it!
Alex Jones has packed a lot of great LEGO building into this single creation with several Transformers against a city street backdrop. Sure, it looks peaceful now, but you know it’s all about to kick-off. Optimus Prime is nicely done, but the eye is quickly drawn to Bumblebee in Camaro form and the brightly-coloured Devastator. I believe this is based on the game Transformers: Devastation where a similar setting sees you battling Devastator.
This desktop sized vignette by Obedient Machine pays homage to the memorable movie The Iron Giant. It features the heroic extraterrestrial robot mounted on a pedestal and bearing a microscopic figure of the story’s protagonist Hogarth. Represented by only 4 tiny elements, Hogarth remains unmistakable to anyone who’s seen the film. Despite being a seemingly simple creation, this model apparently went through three iterations in LEGO Digital Designer, proving that even small creations can take time and effort to perfect.
“Poultry: Weak. Unintelligent. Delicious. But no more. Mankind’s only remaining food source has been converted to the ultimate weapon against the evil alien overlords”. This is how Will Galbraith begins the sales pitch for the Mega Chicken aerial weapons platform. He continues: “Once known as a flightless bird, Mega Chicken now owns the skies with its enhanced flight capabilities made from technology so cool, its wings are literally made out of swords”. Click the image below to read the rest of what is probably the best description I’ve read in a while (because it’s either that or have me start making chicken puns, and you don’t want that). Then package your poultry for shipping, and place your order!
Finally, official images of the complete LEGO Star Wars line-up for the upcoming summer wave are available. We brought you the first look at these sets in person at Toy Fair New York back in February. The sets will illustrate a great number of scenes and spacecraft from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, The Freemaker Adventures TV Series, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and even Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi featuring the highly anticipated buildable figure of a scout trooper on a large-scale speeder bike. The sets should be available in June. Here’s the full list of sets published:
Now that the mathematical cartoon show Adventure Time is up to 260-something episodes, I must admit I’ve fallen waaaay behind, so I was pleased that this splendid collection of AT vignettes by Tim Lydy were based on stuff I actually remember watching! Here we see Finn battling a brick-built version of The Lich over a great rendition of the Well of Power. Meanwhile Jake eats a sandwich, naturally, BECAUSE HE’S A DOG. Tim makes great use of the LEGO Dimensions Finn and Jake minifigs in these scenes, and the inclusion of a certain gastropodic Easter egg in each one also makes me very happy.
Brickheadz style LEGO characters are all the rage at the moment, and Paul Lee just raised the game with this chunky version of Mr T from The A-Team. If you have a problem, and no-one else can help, maybe you can look at this model and it’ll cheer you up no end. All the elements you’d expect are here: mohawk, dungarees, red vest and socks, beard, and of course a mile or so of gold chain. But it’s the bulging biceps which make the model for me — brilliant.
The start of the month of May was pretty busy here at The Brothers Brick with the celebration of May 4th (aka Star Wars Day) and some other great announcements. We don’t want you to miss any of the world’s greatest LEGO models, news and building contests, so here’s your weekly Brick Report for the first week of May, 2017.
TBB NEWS, REVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: This week we are excited to see a new UCS Star Wars set become available in LEGO stores, along with some pleasant deals on sets.
OTHER LEGO NEWS: Besides a couple of noticeable pieces of news, this week was pretty uneventful in the LEGO themed part of the web.
The LEGO Balrogs we’ve featured here on The Brothers Brick over the years have been large and monstrous, with flames flying and wings flying everywhere. Jonas Kramm takes a subtler approach with a considerably smaller Balrog built almost entirely from black. The black only serves to make the creature more sinister, making the contrasting orange flames on the Balrog’s back and his flame-whip even more striking. The Balrog is an ephemeral creature wrapped in darkness and fire, and the absence of explicit wings also adds to the evil look of this creature from the depths of Middle Earth.
While rather more gaudy, you might also enjoy the massive LEGO Balrog by Chak hei Mok and a looming Balrog by Aaron Newman.
