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.

TRU Japan Exo-Force Mashup Contest

Toys R Us in Japan is sponsoring an Exo-Force Mashup Contest that challenges builders to combine any two Exo-Force sets into a new mecha. The two example mashups should be familiar to TBB readers — Van-Force and Naoe-Force. Several Japanese builders have already contributed entries.

Kwi-Chang gets things going with a mashup between 7700 Stealth Hunter and 7714 Golden Guardian:

Although I posted it earlier this week without any explanation, here’s Izzo’s combination of two copies of 8105 Iron Condor:

Finally, Sugegasa has promised to get in on the mashup action, but I haven’t seen the result yet.

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.

Prague Post Interview with Egil Moller Nielsen

The Prague Post has a brief interview with The LEGO Company’s senior director of logistics for Europe and Asia, Egil Moller Nielsen. He discusses issues such as overcoming hard times at the company, moving production to The Czech Republic, and competing with other toy companies. Head on over to the Prague Post and read the interview (in English).

Early Bird Registration Open for BrickCon 2007 [News]

Early Bird Registration for NWBrickCon 2007 is now open through the event website.

Shirts, Brick Bazaar Spaces, and the 2007 Commemorative Model are also now available for pre-order.

Early Bird Registration offers all the benefits of Advance Registration with the added benefit that registration is only $38, while Advance Registration is $44. (On-site registration is $50.)

Early Bird Registration closes May 22, so act fast! On May 23 we will move to Advance Registration.

NWBrickCon is a convention and exposition for adult fans of LEGO. Starting in 2002, every October has featured a progressively larger convention in the Seattle area. NWBrickCon 2007 will be October 5, 6, and 7 in the Seattle Center Pavillion.

News: LEGO Factory 10190 Market Street

LEGO.com has a page dedicated to an upcoming LEGO Factory set called 10190 Market Street. The photos are still very small, but this looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous set:

According to LEGO.com, the set was designed by LEGO fan Eric Brok, and the set is modular — various components of the set are interchangeable (as demonstrated in a Flash animation), and Market Street can be integrated with 10182 Cafe Corner.

I’ll post more information as it becomes available. (EDIT: Let’s bump this to the top.)

How Mark Sandlin Survived Mars Mission

At its most basic level, the LEGO Ambassadors program enables LEGO fans to have representatives who speak for them and work directly with The LEGO Company. Because we sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), those of us who are ambassadors can’t always talk about what we do. This has resulted in a bit of frustration from non-ambassadors — an understandable frustration, which I couldn’t help but share until I joined the program in March myself.

With the new Mars Mission sets coming out later this year, Mark Sandlin is now able to discuss how he was involved in the design and development of this new space theme.

That’s Mark with LEGO executives Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. Click the image to read Mark’s fascinating post on Classic-Space Forums. Mark was specifically involved in building prototypes of my favorite set, the 7692 dropship:

Be sure to check out Mark’s pictures from his trip to LEGO headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

There are very good business reasons why we can’t talk about future products we might be working on. (For example, would you want to see pirates or competitors release a knock-off version of something LEGO spent years designing even before LEGO can release the real thing themselves?) But it’s great to learn more how the program works, and to understand that fans are actually involved in the design of themes like Mars Mission and the new Castle sets.

Eurobricks Wizard’s Challenge Contest

Eurobricks member The Brickster is running a minifig building contest called Wizard’s Challenge. In addition to the wizard minifig, you can also build the interior of the wizard’s workshop.

There are three categories:

Overall Best Wizard
Most Creative Wizard
Best Wizard’s Workshop

The contest began with the first entry on April 25, and runs for one week, so you have just four more days. There are already some strong entries from a couple EB members, such as Aves Hawthorne by SirNadroj:

And Mapones the Druid by Alex54:

So, four days to go. Get building!

News: Harry Potter 5378 Hogwarts Castle Photos

Millionaire Playboy has wonderfully detailed pictures of the new 5378 Hogwarts Castle set. Head on over there for the video podcast, but here are the highlights for me — the minifigs!

Dolores Umbridge and Hermione Granger both sport new hair:

The weirdest, coolest LEGO head ever on a mystery character (another Deatheater?), and a new Draco Malfoy:

And my favorite, Hermione holding a mandrake root:

One night in Bangkok

BS user Pongsit has posted pictures of an enormous LEGO Suvarnabhumi Airport. Not sure if this is fan made or official but it’s certainly very impressive.

EDIT: Hippotam from Kkocki.blox.pl has tracked down some more information here (in Polish and English)

Necromancer’s Tower by Patrick Bosman

Patrick has built a very nifty Necromancer’s Tower for the Lego Castle Contest currently running on Classic-Castle. Don’t tell anyone, but I think this will be the winner in the Tower category!

News: First LEGO League World Festival 2007

The First LEGO League World Festival 2007 is going on through today in Atlanta, Georgia.

Head on over to The NXT STEP for extensive coverage. Hope you’re having fun, Gothic Lawn Gnomes!

2007 Brickfilming Achievement in Motion Picture Arts Nominations announced

After some considerable delay, the Brickfilming Achievement in Motion Picture Arts (BAMPA) nominations have been announced. The nominations are as follows:

Best Film
Faithless
Grace
Mirrored Perspective
System Reboot (RevMen and Nosniborus)
Triumph of the Empire

Best Animation
Capastroid
Faithless
Grace
Macbeth: Act V Scene VII
System Reboot (RevMen and Nosniborus)

Best Cinematography
Douleur
Faithless
Grace
Mirrored Perspective
Triumph of the Empire

Best Screenplay
Climb So High
Faithless
The Fisherman’s Wife
Grace
L’Inspiration

Best Sound Design
Beast
Grace
Faithless
Mirrored Perspective
Triumph of the Empire

Best Score
Edison
Faithless
Grace
Mirrored Perspective
Triumph of the Empire

Best Visual Elements
Faithless
Grace
Men o’ War
System Reboot (RevMen and Nosniborus)
Triumph of the Empire

Best Voice Acting Performance
Brennan Davis – Tectonic Man – Tectonic Man
Mike Dyer – Mr. Hanson – Back 2 Skool
Scott Preston – Grand Moff Tarkin – Triumph of the Empire
Nathan Snow – Darcy – Grace
Peter Wood – Fabron – Grace

Links to the brickfilms can be found in the link above. A small plug: my brickfilm Beast (watch it here on YouTube), second-place winner in the Brickfilms.com Fame, Infamy and Glory contest, has been nominated for Best Sound Design. I’m honored, but also amused. I hated doing the sound for Beast, especially since I was working with Windows Movie Maker 2 at the time, and had to struggle with only one audio track.

The BAMPAs have a seperate website, but it hasn’t been updated in a while.

News: Classic-Pirates.com Launches

Eurobricks has had a thriving LEGO Pirates forum for some time now, but the Pirates theme has lacked a Web presence of its own since the demise of PirateBricks.com. But ahoy! What’s this? Behold the new Classic-Pirates.com.

To quote the announcement on the main page:

The booming success of Eurobrick’s Pirate LEGO® Forum has prompted the development of this website to cater to the interests of Pirate LEGO enthusiasts.

The discussion forums will apparently remain on Eurobricks for the time being (which is probably a good thing — splitting the community doesn’t always work). Head on over to Classic-Pirates.com to read the full announcement. Arrrr!!!