LEGO fans in Switzerland are hosting the ExpoLego event November 19 and 20, 2011 in Concise (near Yverdon). With a display space of over 300 square meters, the event will feature Star Wars, System, Trains, and many custom LEGO models built by LEGO fans.
The public exhibition costs 3 swiss francs for kids and 6 for grown-ups.
Sylvain says, “In Switzerland, LEGO events are too rare, so enjoy!
In a surprising turn of events, you’ll be able to get next year’s LEGO sets directly from LEGO, rather than watching them trickle in (frequently at inflated prices) at big box toy stores: LEGO informs us that they’ve just listed a substantial number of the January 2012 LEGO sets on the LEGO Shop website.
Everyone already knows that I’m most excited (oddly enough) about the newest LEGO City sets, what with their hillbilly moonshiners and rampaging bears. 4440 Forest Police Station
includes a bear, along with a hillbilly in a tree. There are eight other 2012 LEGO City
sets out as well.
LEGO dinosaurs return from extinction with the new LEGO Dino sets. 5887 Dino Defense HQ
includes a T-Rex, Raptor and Coelophysis, while 5885 Triceratops Trapper
has the horned dino we all know and love.
LEGO has listed nearly 30 new sets in half a dozen categories, so head on over and check them out.
Following close on the heels of the announcement about the closure of LEGO Universe at the beginning of 2012, The LEGO Group has just announced that the Design byMe program will also be closing in January.
Here’s the official announcement:
The LEGO Group is closing that part of the Design byMe customization service that allows consumers to order digital models in real bricks. We will be accepting orders until January 16, 2012.
Consumers will still be able to design what they want with LEGO Digital Designer and upload models into a public gallery as before. All existing models will be transferred to a new gallery on the LDD website. Consumers will also be able to download the instructions generated from LEGO Digital Designer.
The HERO Recon Team Hero Creator will be unchanged and consumers will still be able to build and buy their own customized Hero. Bricks can be bought separately, using the Pick a Brick service http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme.
This is not the end of customization for the LEGO Group, but a revision. We believe in the future of customization, but the service we offer has to be right for our consumers and Design byME has proven to be too complex for children.
The original Design byMe vision was for a unique customization service, where consumers could design whatever they imagined, display it and get the model sent to in their own LEGO box. Design byMe as a concept attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) software. Despite this success, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.
Over the years, we have also added other simpler customized building experiences like Hero Recon Team. However, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service. The feedback from Design byMe users has taught us that we would need to rebuild the entire setup of Design byMe to fix this. This would only make the service too expensive.
Each year, Nannan and several other organizers run a fundraising event for Toys for Tots called Creations for Charity.
The team has just listed several new creations in their online store.
Fine print: Creations for Charity is a fundraising event for the Toys for Tots charity organization. As such, donations to Creations for Charity itself are not tax-deductible. Creations for Charity is not affiliated with The Brothers Brick.
If you’d like to donate a creation yourself, the deadline for doing so is November 15.
Don’t miss Nannan’s writeup about last year’s fundraiser, which resulted in over $14,000 worth of LEGO for underprivileged children.
For those of you who missed the ARF Trooper minifigs during Star Wars Days back in May, the LEGO Shop
online has a limited quantity that they’re going to give away to readers of The Brothers Brick, FBTB, and Brickset over the next couple of weeks.
To get one, you’ll need a special code from us, FBTB, or Brickset. Here are the details from LEGO:
We have discovered a limited quantity of LEGO Star Wars™ Shadow ARF Trooper minifigures in our warehouse! Due to the very limited quantity we would like to give the fan community the first chance to receive these as bonus gift on any LEGO Star Wars holiday purchases that meet the Free Shipping threshold of $99.
The offer will be available Nov 7th – 21st or while supplies last. To add the LEGO Star Wars™ Shadow ARF Trooper to your eligible order simply enter code 4TBB (US) / TBBO (CA) at checkout.
Unfortunately, warehouses elsewhere in the world didn’t have a lost stash of ARF Troopers, so this is limited to North America.
Ok, it’s the street, but it’s still some amazing chalk work.
There’s some speculation that this may be related to the giant Lego minifig that recently washed up in Florida.
Thanks to Tom Hohman for the heads up.
UPDATE (Nov 9): Artist Leon Keer has posted complete photos of his chalk art effort on Flickr (I’ve replaced the unsourced photo above with one of his). And here’s the finished artwork, evocative of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army:
Breaking news from LEGO. It appears that LEGO Universe will be shutting down at the start of the new year. My heart goes out to all those who will be losing their jobs. Here’s the press release:
LEGO Universe to close in 2012
Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.
November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.
In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.
“The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”
Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.
“The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy,” said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, LEGO Group. “We have more than 20 million visitors on www.LEGO.com every month, and LEGO video games are among the bestselling children’s video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running LEGO Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area.”
As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.
Amazon.com keeps dropping the price of the recently released LEGO Architecture set 21010 Robie House.
Price was one of the big complaints when this was released, so quit complainin’ and get shoppin’! Looks like it’ll make a great dark red parts pack.
Via FBTB.
Peer Kreuger shares a short video capturing some great footage from LEGO WORLD 2011 that took place from October 19-26.
Thanks for the tip vmln8r!
Brickworld Fort Wayne 2011 happened last month in October. This video by John Brune captured many of the stellar creations displayed at the event.
I’m not sure where Brickshelfer grogall has gotten all the official photos of 2012 LEGO sets, but I keep finding more high-res photos of upcoming sets. The latest is the “Dino” line, reminiscent of the Dino Attack/Dino 2010 sets from a few years ago.
5885 Triceratops Trapper includes a tan triceratops with a bulky 4×4 vehicle:
The new dinosaurs reflect the improvements to animal molds and printing we’ve seen recently in other themes. The Tyrannosaurus rex in 5886 T-Rex Hunter looks simultaneously more LEGO-like and realistic (at least compared to the LEGO dinosaurs from the Dino Attack sets).
I’ll withhold judgment on the vehicle designs until I see them in person (presumably in January), but I really like what I’m seeing of the creatures.
In an odd but awesome twist, LEGO City leaves the, well, city and heads for the hills in 2012. All of the law enforcement and emergency services that form the core of each year’s LEGO City sets are represented by wildland firefighters and park rangers instead.
Looks like there are some interesting new brick…bricks.
Oh yes, there are bears. I am so building a moonshine still out back of this hillbilly cabin.
In the same vein, the firefighters battle forest fires with their bulky wildland equipment.
I wonder if wunztwice will approve of the chainsaws…
Via Eurobricks.
