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.

Japan Brickfest 2019 – Registration closes on 31st December [News]

2019 will be the 5th anniversary for Japan Brickfest Kobe Fan Weekend, which is now the largest international LEGO fan event in Asia. Unlike other years, there’s only a single round of registration regardless of whether you’re contributing a build or just attending the event. So, hurry up and sign up before its too late! Registration closes on the 31st of December at midnight, (JST) Japan Standard Time.

Japan Brickfest is held at the Canadian Academy in Rokko Island, Kobe and hosted by KLUG (Kansai LEGO User Group). Japan Brickfest is a charity event with a percentage of the entry fee being donated to Children Charities and other charities. A portion of admissions and sales will be used as a donation to nursing homes.

The Brothers Brick is an official sponsor of Japan Brickfest

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.

LEGO Minecraft Big Figs Series 1: 21148 Steve with Parrot, 21149 Alex with Chicken, and 21150 Skeleton with Magma Cube [Review]

Minecraft keeps getting bigger — and I’m not just talking about the game’s record-breaking sales. The original LEGO Minecraft set I helped design back in 2011 as part of LEGO’s early Ideas platform was microscale, mostly due to the steep constraints of hitting a roughly $30 MSRP target. Later, that first wildly successful set was followed by more microscale sets, and finally in 2014 the theme got upgraded to our original vision by introducing minifigure-scale sets. Recently, LEGO bumped up the scale a bit with 41612 Steve and Creeper BrickHeadz. Now LEGO Minecraft is upping its game once more with a new line called Big Figs, and we’ve got the first series comprising three sets to review: 21148 Steve with Parrot, 21149 Alex with Chicken, and 21150 Skeleton with Magma Cube. Each of the sets contains a large figure paired with a small animal from the game, and will be available January 1 for $14.99 USD.

Click to read the full hands-on review

LEGO Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione [Review]

LEGO owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is famous for his love of Ferraris, and has been known to show local Danish LEGO fans around his garage full of them. So it’s no surprise that LEGO has had a longstanding partnership with the Italian supercar maker, going back more than 20 years and spanning multiple themes and even systems, from Duplo to Technic. The 2019 Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione features the sleek supercar built between 1987 and 1992. This version includes 198 pieces and retails for the usual $14.99 (£12.99 in the UK and $19.99 in Canada).

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione

The LEGO Movie 2 sets now available with free movie tickets offer [News]

As a late Christmas treat, all the new LEGO sets in the initial wave from The LEGO Movie 2 are now on sale. LEGO unveiled a whopping nineteen sets from their upcoming sequel in November and we took an early look at 70841 Benny’s Space Squad with more reviews to come.

There are plenty of exciting minifigures, new elements, and even a brand new “Vibrant Coral” color. LEGO is also offering two free tickets to see the movie with $60 purchase of these sets between now and January 15. (Hold onto your receipts though, because it is a little complicated to claim the tickets–you have to take a picture of the receipts with VIP number listed and upload it to receive a Fandango code starting on January 16.) The LEGO Movie 2 hits theaters on February 8.

Check out all 19 new sets from The LEGO Movie 2 now on sale

Shortlist announced for Brothers Brick LEGO Creation of the Year 2018 [News]

For over a decade The Brothers Brick has been highlighting the best LEGO creations, and this year has been a cracker with builders across the world putting together some amazing models. To celebrate a year of great building, The Brothers Brick team has looked back over everything we’ve featured, and here’s our selection of the finest LEGO creations of 2018.

Have a look at the fantastic models we’ve shortlisted, and stay tuned for the announcement of our LEGO Creation of the Year 2018 on New Year’s Eve!

And don’t forget to check out the winners of LEGO Creation of the Year 2017 and LEGO Creation of the Year 2016 to see what honourable company this year’s nominations enjoy.

Click to see all of this year’s nominees

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for December 23, 2018 [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 fourth week of December 2018.

TBB REVIEWS: The 2019 LEGO sets are almost here, and we have your early look at some of the more interesting ones on the horizon.

Review of LEGO Overwatch 75974 Bastion – The largest character build in the LEGO Overwatch series is Bastion and comes with an alternate sentry mode.
Review of LEGO Speed Champions 75893 Dodge Challenger and Charger – This new set looks too interesting to dodge, so let’s see what this pair of muscle cars has to offer.
Review of LEGO Star Wars VIP Black Card Gift 5005747 VIP Frame – Was the 15-month wait worth it for the first tangible reward for LEGO VIP program Black Card holders?
Review of LEGO Architecture 21044 Paris – Grab a baguette and a fine bottle of wine. It’s the perfect way to enjoy our review of the new Paris Skyline set.
Review of 70841 Benny’s Space Squad from The LEGO Movie 2 – We’re taking a look at a very unexpected LEGO set, bringing back vibes of toys of 1980’s.

TBB FEATURES: From LEGO history to computer games, these interesting reads go beyond the basic brick into a whole new territory.

Free-to-play “Classic Space Adventure” game – interview with programmer Johan Alexanderson – Did you know there’s a free-to-play LEGO Classic Space game?
Special delivery! The best LEGO holiday greeting cards through the years – Join us as we look at some of the most memorable LEGO holiday greeting cards from the 1980s and 1990s.
How to build a Pave Low helicopter with LEGO: Part 2 – TBB Builder in Residence Ralph Savelsberg continues to share his revamp an old model with new pieces.
Building a splendid 10,000-piece LEGO sculpture of Disney’s Tinker Bell – See how Alex de Jong used LEGO to create a stunning sculpture of this beloved Disney character.

TBB NEWS: From new set announcements to last minute shopping guides, here are the rest of the news articles from the week.

The top 10 best LEGO sets of 2018: Last-minute holiday shopping guide – Here are ten of our favorite LEGO sets released in 2018 to shop last minute for the holidays.
LEGO Minecraft series expands in 2019 with BigFigs – Five new LEGO Minecraft sets are coming out in January 2019, including the first series of buildable BigFigs.
Bricks LA LEGO convention in California is just 2 weeks away – Join us in 2 weeks in sunny southern California for a weekend filled with LEGO, friends, and fun!
LEGO Star Wars Box includes 5 rare minifigs – The latest LEGO Shop promo was a box including five rare Star Wars minifigs that lasted only a few hours.

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:
Check out the other LEGO news of the week

LEGO Minecraft series expands in 2019 with BigFigs [News]

From humble beginnings as a single microscale set, the LEGO Minecraft series has grown into a cornerstone of the LEGO product line. In addition to two new minifigure-scale sets, the January 2019 wave includes a new concept — buildable “BigFigs” of Minecraft characters.

The initial series of BigFigs includes playable characters Steve and Alex as well as a Skeleton enemy character (or “hostile mob” in Minecraft parlance). Each BigFig set also comes with a smaller secondary character — Alex comes with a chicken, Steve comes with a parrot, and the Skeleton comes with a Magma Cube. We’ll be bringing you hands-on reviews of these sets very soon, but for now you can take a look at the official images below.

See more details about all five new LEGO Minecraft sets

Multicolored spacemen abound in 70841 Benny’s Space Squad from The LEGO Movie 2 [Review]

It’s just a little over a month until the première of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Is there a better way to get ready for the new adventures other than to treat yourself with one (or maybe two, or three, or nineteen) of the nineteen new themed sets? It seems like anyone will be able to find a set that suits their taste, but there is only one that got a lot more attention than the others — 70841 Benny’s Space Squad. The set can be described as a “Classic Space battle pack”; sounds like an adult LEGO fan’s dream, doesn’t it? Let’s get the set assembled and take a closer look at the new minifigures…

Click here to continue reading…

Bricks LA LEGO convention in California is just 2 weeks away [News]

We’re only 2 weeks away from the start of one of our favorite LEGO conventions, Bricks LA. Open to the public January 5-6 at the Pasadena Convention Center, Bricks LA will showcase amazing LEGO creations from all over the country, along with a hosting a variety of LEGO-themed vendors, a brick play area, and more. Tickets cost just $5, making Bricks LA one of the best-value conventions in the country.

For adult builders interested in a more in-depth LEGO experience, Bricks LA’s Very Important Builder (VIB) convention starts the day before, January 4, and allows access to panels, prizes, displaying your own creations, participating in LEGO-themed games, and more. You can still squeak in a last-minute registration in by visiting the VIB page for tickets, which run $65 for the 3-day convention. Several members of TBB staff will be attending, so we hope to see you there!

The Brothers Brick is an official sponsor of Bricks LA

LEGO Star Wars VIP Black Card Gift 5005747 VIP Frame – Was it worth the wait? [Review and Editorial]

Earlier this month, LEGO announced the one and only promotion so far for LEGO VIP Program “Black Card” holders. The Black Card is a special VIP card given to people who’d purchased 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon the first several months that it was available after its release last September. The Black Card and this “exclusive” promotional gift is limited to a relatively small number of LEGO builders and collectors — even among the “hardcore” LEGO builders on staff here at The Brothers Brick, only two of us purchased the UCS Falcon last year during the time when LEGO was issuing Black Cards — so we wanted to share our observations about the promo set as well as our experience as Black Card holders so far.

Free-to-play “Classic Space Adventure” game – interview with programmer Johan Alexanderson [Exclusive Feature]

Adult fans of LEGO sometimes have skills that go beyond building masterpieces with bricks. Once in a while, we discover great gems that showcase a different talent combined with the love for LEGO, like the amazing handcrafted wooden LEGO we recently featured. Not too long ago, while scouring the web for great creations to feature here at The Brothers Brick, I came across something that didn’t strike me as worth exploring at first glance. But something compelled me to take a closer look, and I’m glad I did! The effort behind the creation of what I uncovered is astounding! Over 400 pages of programming and 2 years in the making, LEGO enthusiast Johan Alexanderson coded a full-blown game in honor of the LEGO Classic Space theme in retro-classic gaming styles from the 80s.

Johan Alexanderson (who also goes by the online handle LegoJalex) will be familiar to readers of The Brothers Brick — we’ve showcased more than a few of his excellent builds in the past (including his E.T Phone Home movie classic), and we featured an exclusive interview with him about his his LEGO creations. This article continues from where our last interview ended, when Johan mentioned a programming project to be revealed later. Before we speak to him again on his 2-year journey creating “Classic Space Adventures,” let’s take a quick look at the game itself.

Find out more about Classic Space Adventures

LEGO Speed Champions 75893 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and 1970 Dodge Charger R-T [Review]

The 2019 LEGO Speed Champions line includes a diverse range of new and classic cars, many of them packaged as pairs in single sets. We recently reviewed 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy, which depicts two specific historical vehicles. Although 75893 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and 1970 Dodge Charger R-T doesn’t appear to depict specific race-winners, it certainly rivals the Mini Cooper set for sheer length of the set’s name! The set includes 478 pieces with three minifigs, and retails for $29.99 in the US (£34.99 in the UK and $39.99 in Canada).

Read our hands-on review of LEGO Speed Champions 75893 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and 1970 Dodge Charger R-T…