Tag Archives: Crystals

LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection: Crystals from bricks [Review]

LEGO Ideas (nee CUUSOO) is still going strong, and 21362 Mineral Collection is the 70th (!) set in the theme. Ideas produces everything from Minecraft and Sonic sets that turn into whole themes, to one-off properties that are unlikely to ever be a full LEGO partner, to models that might pull some new builders into the hobby. 21362 Mineral Collection seems closer to that last category, similar to the lovely Insect Collection, more likely to provide inspiration for fan models in the same vein, but less likely to spawn a whole line similar to the Botanical Collection – but you never know! LEGO builds follow a grid, and crystals are formed when molecules are arranged in a regular, repeating, three-dimensional matrix… kind of like a grid. Does mixing the two work? Let’s dig into perhaps the most translucent LEGO Ideas sets yet!

LEGO Ideas 21362 Mineral Collection | 880 Pieces | Available October 1 | US $59.99 | CAN $79.99 | UK £54.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Spelunk to our review and see if this set rocks!

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The amethyst bonsai

Purple treeze all in the ground. Don’t know if they’re growing up or down. Is it crystal or purple ice? Whatever it is, Duncan Lindbo built a tree that’s nice. Queue Jimi Hendrix guitar solo – Duncan’s magical-looking tree is constructed from transparent purple Bionicle elements, which are lit throughout to give it a sparkly, crystalline appearance. If something could be grown from a shard of the Dark Crystal I’d imagine this would be it!

If you’d like to see more of Duncan’s work in purple, be sure to check out his loathsome worm we featured back in September.

Crack it open and see that beauty lies within

I grew up in central Oregon, USA, the “thunderegg” capitol of the world. As a kid, an ultimate prize in treasure hunting was finding baseball-sized rocks that reveal beautiful crystals when broken in half. Unfortunately, giant Amethyst geodes aren’t found in Oregon. They’re not found in the Netherlands either, but that didn’t stop Koen Zwanenburg from building this exquisite replica from LEGO.

Standing almost two feet tall and containing over 7300 perfectly placed pieces, this must have been a real feat! That’s especially considering trans-purple parts are hard to come by. The unique building technique combined with those lovely curves makes for a work of art!