We recently glimpsed pictures of the upcoming General Grievous figure set, but for those who can’t wait until summer to display the General, LEGO has instructions available (Part 1 and Part 2). Matt (Pepa Quin) found out that he has most of the pieces to build the model.
UPDATE: 7628 Peril in Peru is now available from the LEGO Shop.
It looks like there will be a Toys R Us exclusive Indiana Jones set upcoming. It contains 625 pieces set with 6 minifigs. Currently these are the only pictures available from the Japanese Toys R Us website.
And the box art:
It has been confirmed that LEGO will be releasing a General Greivous figure set for the summer.
Huw Millington sends word of a Brickish Association event he recently attended, where the centerpiece was a 6x version of 375/6075 Castle — aka “The Yellow Castle” or “What I wanted for Christmas 1978 and why I’m still not speaking to my parents, 30 years later.” ;-)
Don’t think that looks that big? Think again:
Check out more photos in photosets from Martin Long, Huw, and Darren Smith.
EDIT: Commenters over on Gizmodo point out that this is a 6:1 scale model, not just 6x bigger, which means that it’s actually 216 times as big as the original!
Michael Huffman, creator of the wonderful LEGO image aggregation site BrickBuildr, has just announced the release of an online tool for the Apple iPhone to check the inventory of your local LEGO Store’s Pick-a-Brick wall.
Using iPick-a-Brick, you can select an order in which to display your results and you can filter by either color or part type.
Here are a couple photos showing iPick-a-Brick in action (courtesy Joe Meno):
And a couple screen shots:
The inventory is currently limited to the Orlando store, but additional stores will become available as people throughout the country begin contributing information. If you’d like to contribute data to this project, please contact Mike using the contact info in his LUGNET post.
If you’re reading this from an iPhone (and I know some of you are), you can access iPick-a-Brick from the following address:
http://www.brickbuildr.com/iPaB/
The four new LEGO Speed Racer sets are now available from The LEGO Shop online.
Here’s 8158 Speed Racer & Snake Oiler:
8160 Cruncher Block & Racer X and 8159 Racer X & Taejo Togokhan:
Finally, the big set of the bunch, 8161 Grand Prix Race:
When I registered Brothers-Brick.com back in 2006, I was mildly dismayed that BrothersBrick.com was already taken by a construction supply company in Florida named Brothers Brick Pavers and Sealing, Inc.
I was tired of waiting for the BrothersBrick.com domain to expire so we could purchase it, so I recently approached the owners to see if they were interested in selling the domain to us.
To make a long story short, due to a paperwork error, we find ourselves at the tail end of a complex fiscal and legal process that will bring The Brothers Brick and Brothers Brick Paving into the same umbrella organization (pending SEC and stockholder approval, of course).
Naturally, there will be a few changes to both existing organizations.
I believe TBB and BBP share an important set of core values — a commitment to high-quality bricks, no matter what the form. The synergy between two such strong organizations is undeniable, and will result in tangible improvements for both LEGO fans worldwide and construction supply customers in the greater Tampa area.
However, readers outside Madagascar may experience slower load times due to the 28.8 kbps connection between the new server farm and the rest of the world.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
After several months of arduous negotiation, The Brothers Brick has signed its first movie deal. Early in 2009, TriStar Pictures will begin filming a feature length movie portraying the history of The Brothers Brick.
According to TriStar spokesman F. Elam Noir:
The time has come to document the rise of this ground-breaking institution that has done so much to promote discord and harmony throughout the world!
Casting has not been confirmed, as yet, but there are rumors that Sean Connery, Lindsey Lohan, and Robby the Robot have signed contracts. There has been no word on the director, but Steven Spielberg was seen scouting locations in Madagascar.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
German chemist Wolfgang Blauhardt recently claimed in a a paper that LEGO bricks contain a powerful “cocktail” of addictive substances. The possibility of illegal drugs in the product was first leaked last January by an anonymous copyeditor working for the medical journal in which Dr. Blauhardt’s paper is forthcoming.
The paper alleges that the corporate LEGO labs have compiled a veritable cocktail of controlled substances that is designed to create a lifelong addict out of anyone who touches the plastic toy. The LEGO Company was unavailable for comment at the time of this blog post’s publication.
Well, this explains a lot. No wonder I can’t put the danged things down.
Update (April 2): April Fools!
Eurobricks is reporting that due to overwhelming demand from the online LEGO fan community, LEGO has apparently decided to resume production of the old light grey and dark grey colors.
According to color psychologist, Carl Renbaugh:
It is very detrimental to one’s psyche when one suffers the loss of an important color in one’s life. Adult Fans of LEGO have been living with extreme psychological anguish for a number of years now. Reinstating these colors is a very compassionate move by The LEGO Company.
So, there you are, people. Old grey is alive and well!
Update (April 2): April Fools!
The LEGO Group has announced that the stud is being discontinued. Making the biggest change ever to their iconic “System of Play,” the company said in a private phone call to a select group of fans that the time of the stud is over. They will be releasing a new brick that sticks together with internal magnets.
Bjorn Kjeldsen, head of LEGO’s Magnetic Research Department, listed several reasons for the shift:
First of all, magnets are much more fun. What child hasn’t spent hours attaching and reattaching piles of magnets? They are much easier for small children to use than the current studded brick. Secondly, people equate magnets with fun and style. Not so with studs. Studs are old-fashioned. They are so 20th century. Magnets will take us through the 21st century and beyond! Lastly, there is the engineering issue. What with the recent decision to transfer production from Mexico to Madagascar, we needed a new brick that required less manufacturing precision. These new magnetic bricks fit the bill perfectly.
I guess this gives a whole new meaning to studless creations…
Update (April 2): April Fools!
Here’s the latest (and final) communication from LEGO about 9-volt trains, RC trains, and the future Power Functions trains:
Dear all,
As promised in the second communication from the 6th of December last year, we will give you the latest information and decisions regarding the development of the new train system based on LEGO Power Functions.
We are still working on the final details and doing a lot of testing of the new Power Functions elements; however, we are again able to give you some more details.
First – we will not change the gauge of the rails so there is no need to be afraid that the L gauge will disappear.
On the rechargeable battery box we have been working to get the best compromise between size and power. It has been decided that we will use a powerful Lithium Polymer battery and the size of the box will be 4 studs wide, 8 studs long and 4 studs high – this should fit in most of the trains.
The already existing standard LEGO transformer will be used to recharge and as the power supply.The existing Power Functions RC Receiver already has integrated speed control. To enable the use of this we will make a newly designed RC handset with speed control capability.
All the above new Train related Power Functions items as well as the current battery train motor (with cross axles and wheels) will be available separately through LEGO Shop@Home before the Summer of 2009.
As you know we arranged a train workshop in November 2007 where ten AFOLs from around the world: Denmark, USA, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and United Kingdom participated, built with the prototype elements and also looked into ideas and possibilities for new train designs using the Power Function elements. Based on the outcome of this workshop and all the other fantastic input we got from the AFOL community over the last 6 months, our designers worked on the first train set using the new Power Functions system. This set will be truly aimed at the AFOL community to acknowledge the importance of the adult LEGO hobbyists in the LEGO train world.
This communication will be the last one regarding the transition from the 9V train system into the new Power Functions train system. Due to all the very valuable AFOL feedback we are far down the road with the development of the new elements and also the new train set. We appreciate all your efforts through this transition which we expect to be fully executed in 2009.
Stay tuned for the new LEGO train system coming in 2009.
Tormod Askildsen, Head of LEGO Community Development