Category Archives: News

Stay current on the latest news and information about LEGO, from sales & deals to new set announcements. We also cover LEGO events and conventions all over the world.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 7, 2019 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of July 2019.

Aerospace engineer Adam Woodworth modified the LEGO 10266 Lunar Lander to actually fly. Keep reading our Brick Report to see it take flight.

TBB NEWS AND INSTRUCTIONS: This week we launched a strange building contest, took a deep dive into the history of LEGOLAND and learned about two new Star Wars sets.

TBB’s Stranger Things building contest is flipping things upside down – Build your best Stranger Things creation and you could win big. Read about all the details in the article.
LEGO reveals two new Star Wars sets from Tatooine at San Diego Comic-Con – LEGO Star Wars is going back to Tatooine in 2020 with a Landspeeder and Obi-Wan’s Hut.
Feature: LEGOLAND and Merlin Entertainments – The history between these two partners is storied and fascinating. How did they come together and where do they stand today?
LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-up Book and other popular sets discounted on Amazon US – There are some great LEGO deals on Amazon ahead of PRIME Day.
Instruction to build two iconic Jurassic Park vehicles – Do you think you can outrun a T.rex with these vehicles created by Miro Dudas?

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

An Aerospace Engineer Figured Out How To Get LEGO’s Apollo 11 Lunar Lander To Fly, Gizmodo – Talented toy hacker Adam Woodworth has managed to upgrade LEGO’s Apollo 11 Lunar Lander set with all the motors and electronics needed to make it actually fly.
LEGO: the invention of the legendary brick, BBC – The son of the inventor, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, talks about his family’s extraordinary business.
Nine Product Ideas Qualify for the First 2019 LEGO Ideas Review, LEGO Ideas – Take a look at the sets that achieved 10,000 votes and might become a LEGO set.
LEGO Makes Tiny Tower Just A Little Bit Better, Kotaku – LEGO Tower, out today on iTunes and Google Play, is all that and a bag of bricks.
Legoland Billund in Denmark to expand with The Lego Movie World in 2020, Attractions Magazine – The Lego Movie World is making its way to Legoland Billund, and will be the park’s biggest investment to date as well as include Scandinavia’s first flying theater.
LEGO Let’s Go -Your Invitation to Explore Space, LEGO YouTube – We are ready for lift off. Build rockets, program rovers, and discover your role in helping astronauts reach Mars!

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A brief history of LEGOLAND and Merlin Entertainments – how they came together and what it means today [Feature]

Our newsfeeds have been buzzing over the past days about LEGOLAND, Merlin Entertainments, and the privatisation of the theme park company. What this means is that LEGOLAND will be back in private hands after going public as part of Merlin in November 2013. Let’s take a journey through the history of LEGOLAND, reflecting back on the ups, downs, and changes of ownership that have led us to today.

Read our in-depth history and analysis of the Merlin acquisition

Build a darker Hawkins in TBB’s Upside Down building contest and win 75810 The Upside Down plus rare Castle Byers event set [News]

The third season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” was released on July 4, and we have the perfect activity for you as you binge-watch the whole season. Build any location featured in any season of the show! But unlike some other contests inspired by the show recently, there’s a catch: You have to build both the real-world version of your favorite Hawkins locale and the Upside Down version, as seen in the official LEGO set LEGO Stranger Things 75810 The Upside Down — one of our favorite LEGO sets of the year so far. The top builder of our contest, judged by TBB staff, will win this fantastic set, plus the super-rare Castle Byers mini-build set released only to attendees of the LEGO Stranger Things launch events in London and New York.

Learn how to enter the contest and read the fine print

Watch this time lapse as fans use 56,000 LEGO bricks to make a huge Stranger Things Season 3 poster [Video]

Last weekend, Netflix’s brought fans a bit of the 1980s with the Hawkins Fun Fair at California’s Santa Monica Pier. A carnival experience filled with Stranger Things tie-ins like the ice cream shop featured in Season 3 and a Demogorgon photo op. Starting today, the event has moved to New York’s Coney Island for the weekend. To celebrate their recent partnership with an official Stranger Things LEGO set, LEGO was on hand to help fans create a massive Stranger Things Season 3 poster.

The enormous mosaic was built throughout the weekend with the help of fans, who each assembled a small tile to place on the poster. Using more than 56,000 LEGO pieces in all, the poster measures 90 inches tall and 60 inches wide. It took more than 40 hours to design. Check out a time-lapse video of the poster’s construction below.

LEGO reveals two new Star Wars sets from Tatooine at San Diego Comic-Con [News]

Today LEGO has taken the wraps off two new Star Wars sets at San Diego Comic-Con, where they’re being displayed to the public for the first time. LEGO has gone back to the classics with these, as both models are from the opening portions of Star Wars: A New Hope set on Tatooine. 75270 Obi-Wan’s Hut has 200 pieces, while 75271 Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder has 236 pieces. They will retail for $29.99 USD each and will be available January 1, 2020. While both sets are fairly similar to previous releases in the Star Wars theme, there are some new aspects, such as a holographic Princess Leia microfigure in Obi-Wan’s hut.

Click to see more of the new sets

LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-up Book and other popular LEGO sets discounted on Amazon US [News]

With a lot of brilliant LEGO sets released this year, there are a lot of items any LEGO fan would love to add to their collection. Now, a bunch of excellent LEGO sets is at a decent discounted price on Amazon. Whether you’re a LEGO Ideas fan or collecting Star Wars and Harry Potter sets, these offers totally worth checking out.

LEGO Ideas 21315 Pop-up Book | 859 Pcs | $42.99 USD (39% Discount)

Click to see more sets on discount

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 01, 2019 [News]

TBB News and reviews:

Spiderman Advanced Suit | Marvel Avengers set brings fantastic minifigures of Hulk and Pepper Potts: LEGO announced 2 more exclusive San Diego Comin-Con sets and minifigures
LEGO Overwatch gets two new sets: Junkrat and Roadhog plus Hammond in his Wrecking Ball
Löwenstein Castle | Revisiting the LEGO Wild West Saloon set from Bricklink’s AFOL Designer Program: We revisited 2 sets from BrickLink’s AFOL Designer Program, including unboxing details.
LEGO 75253 Boost Droid Commander now available for purchase in US and Canada: Star Wars fans can now build and program three droids from a galaxy far, far away.
LEGO Speed Champions reissues the classic 911 with 75895 1974 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0: Classic car fans can now own this new model.
LEGO City 60230 People Pack – Space Research And Development: We reviewed the latest LEGO people pack, which features NASA employees who work hard, and play hard.
A look at The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part Blu-ray set: We re-watched the second part and gave you the breakdown.

In other LEGO news:

LEGO to buy LEGOLAND theme park operator Merlin Entertainments in $7.6 billion deal: LEGO Group’s parent company is re-investing in the LEGOLAND theme parks.

LEGO Harry Potter attends the Yule Ball with 75948 Hogwarts Clock Tower [Review]

When LEGO revived the Harry Potter theme last year after a seven-year hiatus, one set was notably missing: a minifigure-scale Hogwarts Castle. Of course, we did get the stupendous microscale 71043 Hogwarts Castle, but we’d come to expect a regular set labeled “Hogwarts Castle” as LEGO had done at least four times previously. However, this time LEGO had something much more grand up its sleeves. Afterall, there’s no way to have a proper Hogwarts Castle at minifigure scale without it breaking both your bank and your back. Beginning with the excellent 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall and continuing with 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow, LEGO is releasing a sweeping minifigure-scale Hogwarts bit by bit, with each segment modularly fitting to the next. 75948 Hogwarts Clock Tower is the third in the series. With 922 pieces, it retails for US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £84.99. It is available starting July 1 in North America, though it has already been available in Europe.

The revived Harry Potter theme has been playing a mad-dash game of catch-up to whip through the movies–because yes, the sets are based on the movies, not the books–in order to get a new generation of LEGO Harry Potter fans up to speed with all their favorite moments. Last year’s Great Hall was based on The Philosopher’s Stone, the first movie, while the Whomping Willow followed with a scene from The Chamber of Secrets. In building the modular Hogwarts LEGO has skipped right past the third movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Hogwarts Clock Tower is set during the Yule Ball in The Goblet of Fire, when two rival wizarding schools are visiting Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. Continue reading →

LEGO to buy LEGOLAND theme park operator Merlin Entertainments in $7.6 billion deal [News]

The parent company of The LEGO Group, Kirkbi A/S, has reached a deal to purchase Merlin Entertainments for 6 billion pounds, or more than 7.6 billion USD. Merlin Entertainments operates eight LEGOLAND theme parks from California to Dubai, dozens of LEGOLAND Discovery Centers, as well as other famous attractions such as Madam Toussad’s and the London Eye, all of which will now come under control of LEGO owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, the grandson of LEGO’s founder.

Yesterday it was reported by Reuters that Kirkbi, the company under which the Kristiansen family organize their holdings, is joining with two other investment groups, Blackstone Group LP and Canadian pension fund CPPIB, to purchase a 50 percent stake in Merlin. LEGO sold the majority stake in its theme parks to Merlin in 2005 during its financial crisis in an effort to focus more on the core brick product. Now as the largest toy manufacturer in the world with the financial crisis firmly behind them, the company is looking to diversify its holdings once more and the LEGOLAND brand was the natural place to start. Along with the 30 percent stake that Kirkbi retained in Merlin, the new deal will grant a controlling interest in the theme parks that bear their most famous product’s name.

The Brothers Brick Readers’ Survey 2019 – last chance to tell us what you think and to win a LEGO Lunar Lander set [News]

Complete our 5 minute survey and you could win a 10266 Apollo Lunar Lander LEGO set! This weekend is your last chance to tell us what you think.

Thank you to the thousands of you who have already given us your feedback. We genuinely appreciate your input — it will help us build a better TBB. Click here to take the survey.

The survey is open until Sunday 30th June.

The survey may only be completed once per participant. The free Lunar Lander set will be awarded to a survey respondent picked at random after the survey closes. The prizewinner must be over the age of 18. An email address is required to enter the prize draw. The email address will only be used to contact the prizewinner to arrange delivery. All email addresses will be deleted once delivery is arranged. In the event of the initial prizewinner not responding to contact within 3 days, a new prizewinner will be picked at random. TBB reserves the right to substitute some form of voucher of similar value in the event of shipping proving ridiculously expensive.

Spiderman Advanced Suit revealed as Diego Comic-con 2019 LEGO Marvel Exclusive [News]

LEGO just revealed the Spiderman Advanced Suit minifigure as the Marvel Exclusive Minifigure that will be available at San Diego 2019 Comic Con. The Advanced Suit was designed for the successful Playstation 4 Spiderman game released in 2018. There’s no information on how one can obtain these at the moment at the event.

Click to see more visuals of the reveal

Revisiting Löwenstein Castle from BrickLink’s AFOL Designer Program [Review]

There are only a few days left to purchase a set from BrickLink’s AFOL Designer Program (ADP), and having just taken a second look at the Wild West Saloon a few days ago, we wanted to give the same treatment to one of the program’s most successful models, Löwenstein Castle by builder Raziel Regulus. We’ll also take look back at the overall program.

In our early review of Löwenstein Castle, the finished packaging of the set was not yet ready from BrickLink. With the final product now available, let’s revisit the set and packaging, and take a look at the expansion of the base model that has been developed by the original fan designer.

Click to continue reading about the Löwenstein Castle