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.

IKEA announces new collaboration with LEGO [News]

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.

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Saber-toothed cats join the hunt in LEGO City Arctic 60193 Arctic Air Transport [Review]

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

LEGO showcases Augmented Reality play with Apple’s ARKit 2 at WWDC [News]

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

LEGO mammoths arrive with LEGO City 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base [Review]

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

First look at the new Disney Little Mermaid BrickHeadz and more [News]

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

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part trailer has arrived [News]

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.

Click to see the trailer

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for June 3, 2018 [News]

This week LEGO’s new Technic Bugatti Chiron dominated the news, but it wasn’t the only set revealed. This is our Brick Report for the last week of May and first week of June 2018.

TBB NEWS: This week LEGO announced several new sets, including a new fan-designed set from the LEGO Ideas platform.

Pop-up book to become next LEGO Ideas set — Beating out six other entries, this pop-up book will definitely be breaking new ground for LEGO.
3600-piece LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron unveiled — LEGO’s latest entry for the premium Technic supercars lineup is the Bugatti Chiron, an ultra-fast luxury car.
Activision-Blizzard announces LEGO Overwatch sets — The company behind the popular competitive online shooter revealed that they’ve reached a deal with LEGO to license Overwatch for construction sets.
LEGO’s summer wave of sets now available — The new Arctic exploration line of City sets is now available, along with sets from Ant-Man & The Wasp, the new Architecture sets of the Statue of Liberty and the Great Wall of China, and more.
Elsa, Anna, and Olaf BrickHeadz announced — Frozen joins the BrickHeadz pantheon with three characters, including a smaller design for Olaf.
Darth Vader and Stormtrooper BrickHeadz announced — More new Star Wars BrickHeadz are coming, including classic characters from the original films with Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper.
The LEGO Movie 2 officially announced — Long rumored, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part has been officially announced with a release slated for next February
LEGO City Trains will use Power Functions 2.0 — We’ve got some details on the new Power Functions 2.0 system and how it will be used to integrate with two new LEGO City train sets.
Brothers Brick updates to meet new GDPR requirements from the European Union — You’ve probably seen a new privacy notification when you visit our site in the last few weeks. Here’s why that is and what we’re doing to look out for your privacy.

TBB REVIEWS: We’ve got an in-depth review of LEGO Technic’s new flagship Bugatti Chiron, along with amazing new sets like the Creator Expert Roller Coaster and the Solo movie sets.

Review of 42083 Bugatti Chiron — The new Technic supercar features LEGO’s most complex gearbox ever, with a fully functioning 8-speed transmission and multiple brand new elements.
Review of 10261 Roller Coaster — The fairgrounds just got a whole lot more exciting with this working roller coaster joining the Creator Expert lineup, especially when it’s motorized.
Review of Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us — Netflix’s nostalgia-driven toy show aired an episode focusing on LEGO. We check out how it stacked up from an adult-fan perspective in this review.
Solo: A Star Wars Story movie vs sets comparison — Now that the movie is out and we’ve all seen it, how do the LEGO models fair in comparison to their on-screen counterparts?
Review of Ninjago 70653 Firstbourne — We’re checking out the biggest dragon from Ninjago’s new summer wave.

See all of the LEGO news from TBB and beyond

LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron: the world’s most luxurious supercar now a premium LEGO set [Review + Video]

When you’re a kid playing with LEGO bricks, getting a new LEGO set for your birthday or Christmas is exciting beyond belief. There’s so much hidden play value trapped inside that colorful box–yellow, with the words LEGOLAND stamped on the front, if you grew up in the 80s–that you can’t wait to tear it open and begin building. Chances are, if you’re reading The Brothers Brick, you’re like me and still feverishly tear into new LEGO sets, no matter your age. But every once in awhile a set comes along that makes you slow down and just admire the box for a bit. Not that you’re less excited to build it, but rather that there’s something about this set that makes you want to savor it. Ask the butler to bring you some champagne. Settle into your yacht’s white leather couch, and pull up the Swarovski crystal coffee table. This set is going to be epic, and you can already feel it. LEGO’s second premium Technic set, 42083 Bugatti Chiron, is the best set of this kind yet. It’s based on the French ultra-luxury brand’s newest supercar, a 1,500 horsepower 2-seater that can rocket you to 261 miles per hour in pure comfort, provided you can afford the starting price of $2.7 million. The LEGO version is a bit more modest, however, including 3,599 pieces and retailing for $349.99 USD ($399.99 in Canada | £329.99 in the UK). It is available now.

Click to the read the full hands-on review of the Bugatti Chiron and watch the video

3600-piece LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron unveiled [News]

Today in Billund at LEGO headquarters, LEGO and Bugatti have officially announced the brand new LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron, the second set in the LEGO Technic Ultimate Series of supercars following last year’s Porsche 911 GT3 RS release. The big reveal today was held at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark by the CEO of the LEGO Group, Neils B. Christiansen, together with the President of Bugatti, Stephan Winkelmann.

Read all the details about the upcoming Bugatti and watch videos featuring designer insights

Summer 2018 wave of LEGO sets now available, including Arctic, Architecture, Ant-Man, Friends, and more [News]

The summer 2018 wave of LEGO sets is now available from the LEGO Shop, including many of the sets we highlighted from New York during the Fall 2018 Preview event a couple of weeks ago. The latest assortment from LEGO includes LEGO City Arctic Expedition sets with a mammoth and saber-toothed cats, two new LEGO Architecture sets, LEGO Friends, the new Marvel Ant-Man set, Pirate Roller-Coaster, and more.

Click through to see the full assortment, including several LEGO sets only available now to readers in the UK.

See more of the summer 2018 wave of new LEGO sets

Elsa, Anna, and Olaf from Frozen are joining a growing LEGO Disney BrickHeadz family [News]

Do you want to build a snowman? — ask no more as cute little Olaf will be one of three new Disney characters to be released in upcoming LEGO BrickHeadz sets. According to the most recent LEGO Facebook announcement, two new Disney sets are to be released very soon, bringing Olaf, Anna, and Elsa figures in the style of BrickHeadz.

The smaller of two sets will contain the figure of Elsa only, while the bigger one will include Anna and Olaf, whose head design is based on a 3x3x3 cube (rather than the traditional BrickHeadz size of 4x4x4 studs). Actually, this is not the first BrickHeadz figure to feature the new dimensions; Hedwig in the forthcoming LEGO Harry Potter 41615 BrickHeadz set is also designed in the similar 3x3x3 format.

Prices, availability and piece count of both sets are yet to be announced.