Dive into the chilly waters of the far north with this adorable LEGO build by seb71. This build features a host of micro-scale fauna for you to enjoy. The whale is made from a pair of balloon panels, and the extremely lost penguin is mostly made of black and orange teeth. The local Inuit is using a wand to fish for supper under the watchful eyes of a walrus and polar bear. I sure hope they have a plan to get back to their igloo; that polar bear looks hungry!
There is so much to love about this digital ice breaking scene by Tong Xin Jun. The striking color choices of the Land Rover Defender and the vessel it is pulling is appealing to the eye and seems to be this builder’s signature move. The broken ice patterns are nothing short of mesmerizing in their execution, their glass-smooth tops are accurate for a windswept arctic tundra. This is achieved by lying bricks and slopes on their sides in a SNOT (Studs Not On Top) configuration. The slopes change direction only at the bow of the vessel, accurately depicting how ice chunks would react to being plowed through and the transparent bits in the boat’s wake is an excellent touch. The entire composition is indeed a work of art. The scene seems a bit precarious however. Ice chunks smaller than the Land Rover may not support its weight and, as seen from this view, I squint and wonder why all the minifigs would be shirtless in a frigid arctic scene.
The latest wave of LEGO sets includes several sets designed to work with LEGO Boost — the first sets to extend the 17101 BOOST Creative Toolbox into a true system. Not only are the LEGO City 60194 Arctic Scout Truck and LEGO Ninjago 70652 Stormbringer sets compatible with Boost, they are fusions with the robotics system.
LEGO City 60194 Arctic Scout Truck has 322 pieces and 3 minifigures at $59.99 USD, while LEGO Ninjago 70652 Stormbringer has 493 pieces and 4 minifigures $39.99 USD. Both sets are available now as part of the summer 2018 wave of new LEGO sets, along with Boost released last year.
The summer wave of LEGO City Arctic sets were released on June 1st, and we’ve already taken a look at the two highlights from the theme — the mammoth in 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base and the saber-tooth in 60196 Arctic Supply Plane. But are there other hidden treasures in this chilly series of LEGO sets? The smallest set is 60191 Arctic Exploration Team at only $9.99 ($12.99 in Canada | £9.99 in the UK). The set includes 70 pieces with three minifigures, plus a husky dog.
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
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
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.
At the LEGO Fall Preview 2018 event, we’re bringing you all the new product reveals in the LEGO City line, scheduled for release later this year. We got our first look at the line This year the design team invites us to take part in yet another Arctic expedition. Let’s see what surprises the White Continent will bring this time.
See our complete coverage of the upcoming LEGO City Arctic sets
The summer 2018 LEGO City sets revealed last week feature an exploration team unearthing extinct Pleistocene megafauna like mammoths and saber-toothed cats, preserved in arctic ice. The largest set in the summer wave of City sets, the mobile base has four sections that can be connected, including a trailer for hauling the unfrozen mammoth back to the lab for research.
There’s been a lot of excitement among our readers about this upcoming series of LEGO sets, and we’ll be sure to bring you all the details about them as they emerge. In the meantime, enjoy this closer look at the set and its star proboscidean.
The first official retail pictures of the upcoming LEGO City sets have been revealed for this summer. These sets contain rare and exotic prehistoric exotic animals, including a woolly mammoth and a sabre- toothed tiger. Prices, piece count and information on availability are yet to be announced.
