BrickArms released new weapons including the M1919 Machine Gun, HAC (Heavy Assault Carbine), ARC (Advanced Recon Carbine), and M3 Grease Gun to equip your military minifigs.
Category Archives: News
BrickFair 2011 wrap up
BrickFair 2011 took place near Washington, DC this weekend. I wanted to hit up one more con before med school starts next week, so I decided to attend my first Lego convention in the Northeast and see some new people and MOCs that couldn’t make it to the other two large Lego conventions in the US: Brickworld and Brickcon.
The first thing that struck me was the enormous exhibit hall, which was about the size (and appearance) of an empty Walmart store. The next thing that struck me was the diversity of creations, including whole areas for less-commonly exhibited themes such as steampunk, post-apocalypse, even NASA. Lastly, I was amazed by the sheer number of people who showed up during the weekend public hours (above video), which turned out to be about 17,000.
Among the MOCs displayed, some of my favorites were Arthur Gugick‘s transforming mosaic, Black Baer‘s tornado vignette, the entire aquapocalypse display, and a cute Bionicle poster (not a MOC, I know). The list goes on, so I took a walkthrough video of the exhibit hall and highlighted more interesting creations along the way. Speaking of which, I’m glad people have found this video helpful. I plan on doing guided tours of the Lego conventions that I attend in the future.
I’m glad I made the decision to come to BrickFair, and I hope to do so next year as well (and perhaps have the rest of Awesometown). You can see my photos at BrickFair on Flickr or more on the BrickFair Flickr group.
LEGO Architecture 21011 Brandenburg Gate out now in the UK [News]
UPDATE: 21011 Brandenburg Gate is available now on LEGO.com.
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In a surprising turn of events, the first inkling LEGO fans have gotten of the newly released LEGO Architecture set 21011 Brandenburg Gate was when it showed up on the shelves of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Manchester, UK.
As much as Frank Lloyd Wright and big American skyscrapers are indeed awesome, it’s nice to see buildings in the line continue to expand beyond the shores of the United States.
UPDATE: The September in-store calendar for LEGO retail outlets highlights this as a September release, so we should be seeing this in more stores within the next month or so.
10222 Winter Village Post Office [News]
LEGO continues to expand its holiday village with the latest addition to the lineup, 10222 Winter Village Post Office.
Click the pic for the complete photoset on Flickr.
Here are the complete details from LEGO:
10222 Winter Village Post Office
Ages 12+. 820 pieces.
US $59.99 CA $79.99 DE 59.99 € UK 49.99 £Continuing the winter scene series, the Winter Village Post Office is the perfect snow-covered setting. In the cozy post office, the worker is hard at work sorting all the mail into containers and sacks, while upstairs, there’s just time for the postman to take a break before setting off in the traditional post car with all the letters and gifts. From the pavilion outside, musicians fill the air with music, while children take in the wintry atmosphere by the park bench before throwing snowballs at each other – the musicians had better get ready to duck!
- Includes 7 minifigures: female post office worker, male postman, female, 2 kids and 2 musicians and a dog!
- Post office features dark-green split roof with snow, fireplace, light brick, table, coffee mug, and lamppost and mailboxes outside!
- Also features evergreen tree and assorted minifigure accessories
And look for a designer video in this space shortly!
Brickforge uncorks some new items [News]
I haven’t gotten my hands on any of these yet, but the new jars, bottles and test tubes look pretty nifty. They borrow from the esthetic of the new LEGO bottles and flasks yet add their take on shapes and colors. I think I’m going to have to pick up some of these.
The bottles currently only come in trans-brown and clear, although I think those trans-blue bottles in the picture look cool.
LEGO minifigs going to Jupiter on NASA’s Juno spacecraft! [News]
As part of Lego’s partnership with NASA, three aluminum minifigs will be placed aboard the Juno spacecraft! The minifigs will represent Jupiter, Juno and Galileo.
Lego Press release:
Three LEGO® Minifigures leave earth on the Juno deep-space probe today on a five-year mission to Jupiter to broaden awareness of the importance of planetary research.
The specially-constructed aluminium Minifigures are the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and ‘father of science’ Galileo Galilei. The LEGO crew’s mission is part of the LEGO Bricks in Space project, the joint outreach and educational programme developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The LEGO Minifigures will help get attention for Juno’s mission to improve understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
Juno and the Minifgures’ journey will be featured on www.LEGOspace.com, the website that gathers together educational and fun material about space. The site also houses a number of downloads, videos, a LEGOnaut game, and various facts about space exploration. Later this year it will also have videos of experiments conducted with LEGO Education models on the International Space Station.
From the NASA website:
NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5. The inclusion of the three mini-statues, or figurines, is part of a joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
See full text of NASA article here.
Hispabrick 11 is now available [News]
HispaBrick Magazine recently released their eleventh issue and I was quite impressed with it. They have definitely been improving with age.
This issue is packed with goodies and it’s all free! There is a literal plethora of articles including, among other things, the Arvo brothers‘ Mini Moog, Firas Abu-Jaber’s vehicles, a history of classic Space, 5 set reviews and interviews with Barney Main (AKA SlyOwl), Jamie Berard and Tormod Askildsen.
LEGO Toy Story 40% off, summer sets & LEGO Shop promos [News]
The final batch of summer LEGO sets has rolled off the truck at the LEGO Shop online, joined by heavily discounted LEGO Toy Story sets and several summer promotional items.
NinjaGo gets a refresh with some interesting creature-based sets, starting with this lovely brown dragon in 2509 Earth Dragon Defense.
All LEGO Toy Story sets are 40% off — or more, in the case of rock-bottom prices for magnets — and many of these are pretty nice parts packs for the price. My personal favorite Toy Story set is 7599 Garbage Truck Getaway, with a surprisingly interesting build (for a line clearly targeted the movie’s target demographic) plus lots of nice dark green parts.
On to the promos. First up, you get a free microscale Hogwarts Express when you buy the LEGO Harry Potter set 10217 Diagon Alley. It’s an awesome set in the spirit of the modular buildings line, so every LEGO fan should have Diagon Alley, even if you’re not also a Harry Potter fan.
Finally, you get a free Alien Conquest dude with a jetpack with any purchase over $35.
Canberra Brick Expo Aug 6th-7th (final reminder)
Just a reminder that BrickExpo 2011 kicks off in Canberra next weekend (6th and 7th Aug). So if you’re in the neighbourhood head along.
This will go live in my absence so please direct any queries straight to the Brick Expo team.
10199 Creator Winter Toy Shop back in stock [News]
Seasonal LEGO sets can be hard to find if you miss the narrow window in time when they’re available, so it’s nice to get a chance to pick them up again if time got away from you the first time around. Thankfully, Amazon.com seems to have found a batch of 10199 Creator Winter Toy Shop
Sure, we’re four months away from Christmas, but I doubt you’ll get a chance to complete your LEGO holiday town again, so pick them up while they’re still available online.
Comic-Con 2011 Wrap Up: Fine Weather, Comic LEGO and 125K Nerds
Comic-Con was crowded. The biggest pop culture celebration in the world happened in San Diego from July 20 to 24. Over 125,000 crashed my Downtown where I work and eat. Infernal interlopers. Seriously, it was great hectic fun as always. It’s nice to live in the city where there’s an annual shopping, people watching and pop culture extravaganza of epic proportions.
I wasn’t lucky enough to get 4 day passes with preview night or scoop everyone on the biggest LEGO related news from Comic-Con, but others in the LEGO and Comics fan worlds were on it, and we were able to pass it on to you last week: LEGO negotiated DC and Marvel Comics licenses. DC sets are scheduled for set releases in January 2012 and Marvel in summer of 2012.
I went back on Sunday and got some slightly better pictures of prototype minifigures of Wonder Woman (with very invisible plane), Super Man, Hulk, Batman, Cat Woman, Poison Ivy, Thor, Iron Man and Wolverine.
There was also a display with four Hero Factory tie in figures: Green Lantern, Batman (no, I don’t know what’s attached to his back), Iron Man and The Hulk.
Both the minifigs and Hero Factory characters are official, but keep in mind they’re prototypes so they’re likely to be a bit rough and have changes before final release.
Unfortunately, the only LEGO panel this year was a Star Wars panel on Friday morning, which I missed. D’oh!
The other great highlight is running into all kinds of people. People in costumes, friends and even friends in costume. The only LEGO related costume I saw this year was a sexy red number sported by Michael “Bruno” Todd, an excellent human being, cat rescuer and force of nature. He dressed up just like an extremely rare vintage LEGO promotional figure that he somehow managed to snag late last year. Really, he looks just like the doll.
I was also amused by a woman dressed as Poison Ivy standing right next minfig Poison Ivy. My wife also dragged me over the LEGO free build area to see a strong contender for my personal Cutest Hobbit Child Dressed as Yoda Prize. Very prestigious.
Another great highlight of at Comic-Con is all the inspiration for LEGO building. Several weeks ago I searched all over the internet to find good concept art for the Numereji 2421 display at BrickCon and found some good stuff, but nobody quite had what I was looking for. It was a pleasant surprise to run across Robh Ruppel’s book, Aspect Ratio, and the great concept art sketches on his website. Not too militarized, not too idealized. Hit my personal sweet spot.
That’s it. Great weekend of geeky frolicking.
LEGO Star Wars 7879 Hoth Echo Base out now, 7962 Podracers reviewed [News]
The summer 2011 LEGO Star Wars sets continue to arrive at the LEGO Store online. As much as I appreciate the cool vehicles in the Star Wars universe, it’s nice to see LEGO release playsets occasionally, like the new 7879 Hoth Echo Base.
It’ll set you back 90 bucks, but the base contains a Tauntaun and eight minifigs, including R-3PO the red protocol droid, 2-1B medical droid, and a Bacta tank Luke. (Release news via FBTB.)
Also at $90, I’m personally more impressed with the revamped 7962 Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba’s Podracers, which FBTB reviewed in detail recently.
