Tag Archives: Halloween

Mortgages are truly horrifying

I’m not the kind of guy who likes to watch horror movies; real life is scary enough, so why should my entertainment be scary, too? I mean, have you ever considered how much money you pay in interest on a 30-year mortgage? Terrifying! Add in taxes and maintenance, and it really does feel like my house is eating me. Now, I realize that Pieter Dennison built this incredible LEGO monster house after watching, well, Monster House, but I haven’t seen it. That doesn’t stop me from being frightened. Seriously, look at the state of those shingles, probably a slate roof that would take more than my left kidney to repair. And that siding needs fresh paint, if not a total tear-off (unless you slap some vinyl siding on top, like lipstick on a pig). And that front porch? There’s no way that railing is up to code. This is true horror, folks.

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What’s this? What’s this?

You may have noticed that there’s been a lot of Christmas set news lately. But personally, I think we should be focusing more on Halloween. Luckily, delayice finds the middle ground with these great LEGO character builds from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Both Jack Skellington and his pet ghost-dog Zero are very recognizable. They’re also very cute, with big round tile eyes that are reminiscent of POP figures. I like how both Zero’s ears and Jack’s eyebrows (eye sockets?) sit at unconventional angles, making this build feel less static. The gravestone behind Jack is a nice touch, too, expanding this into a micro-scene, rather than just a character build.

If you’re like me and want to fend off the incoming elf hordes for a few more minutes, why not peruse our Nightmare Before Christmas archives? I promise nothing there is that scary.

LEGO 40423 Halloween Hayride [Review]

Autumn doesn’t really start until later in the month, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get hyped up now for fall festivities. (After months of quarantine, I’m pretty sure time is meaningless, anyway. ) So who’s up for a haunted hayride? Oh. Right. COVID. Staying indoors is still the better part of valor, so maybe not. But wait! LEGO has come to the rescue! 40423 Halloween Hayride is available in North America from the LEGO Shop Online for US $12.99 | CAN $16.99. But is this set a trick or a treat? Read on and see!

Click to read the full hands-on review

Your guide to the 113 new LEGO sets now available for August 2020 including the Nintendo NES, Grand Piano, Star Wars and more [News]

August has arrived and that means new LEGO sets! LEGO has launched 108 new sets and items available today. In addition to new sets like the Nintendo NES and Super Mario lineup, Ideas Grand Piano, Star Wars 501st Battle Pack and LEGO Art, fans in the US and Canada can finally celebrate the summer arrival of Harry Potter, Creator 3-in-1, City, and Ninjago waves that you’ve waited so patiently for. Nearly every LEGO theme has some new sets–it can be a lot to process!– so we have your complete guide right here detailing each and every new set and item. [EDIT: It appears that LEGO may have delayed the US & Canada release of some of these sets until September. We’ve asked for clarification.]

LEGO is also offering two free gifts-with-purchases at the start of August. The first is 30385 Super Mushroom Surprise, free with purchases of LEGO Super Mario sets more than US $40 through August 16th or while supplies last.

The second freebie is LEGO is also 40414 Monty Mole & Super Mushroom Expansion with in-store purchases of the 71360 Adventures with Mario Starter Course through August 9th or while supplies last.

See the entire August 2020 wave of new LEGO sets now available

Halloween Zombie Freak-Out 2019!

What are your Halloween plans? Mine are to buy a bag of candy for trick-or-treaters, stay in and watch a few schlock horror flicks, but leave the lights out in hopes trick-or-treaters won’t actually come so as to have all the delicious candy for myself. What? Don’t judge. I like schlock horror flicks. It would seem Pieter Dennison has some schlock Halloween plans of his own that involve surviving the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Shipping containers make great zombie deterrents (right up until they learn to climb) and a rickety ladder serves as optimum transport between the two of them. I can’t see how that can go badly. Cattails (nature’s corndogs) populate the center area while the power lines in the background are an excellent touch. If this layout was a movie, I’d totally watch it with a bag of candy. Trick-or-treaters be damned!

Get high on sugar this Halloween with a LEGO automated chocolate dispenser

You can always depend on Jason Allemann to take all things LEGO to a new level. For Halloween this year, the actual action of dishing out treats to tiny monsters, ghouls and all toddler-sized superheroes has been automated. It’s powered by a Mindstorms EV3 control unit and motor.

It holds a total of 40 candy bars separated by Technic axles acting as dividers. The buttons are connected to lift arms which go all the way to the back activating touch sensors to release the sweet goods.

Click to see the dispenser in full action

Build your own LEGO creepy crawlies for Halloween scares [Instructions]

Builder Corvus Auriac brings us this creepy looking spider made of LEGO just in time for Halloween. Just imagine how much fun you could have if you could spare enough parts to make a dozen of these to scare the bejesus out of your loved ones opening the medicine cabinet–or perhaps left on the toilet seat cover after midnight with the lights out. What a lovely surprise to bring joy and scariness to celebrate the season.

Click to see full instructions and parts

Don’t call the LEGO police just yet until a full investigation is conducted

There’s more than meets the eye with this clever build by Maxim Baybakov. At first glance, you may get vibes of a noir scene of a minifigure murder taking place. While that may seem dark, the truth is hidden in the shadows of two figures seemingly beheading a LEGO minifigure torso. All isn’t what it seems.

Click to unveil the mystery murder

A Shining example of LEGO ingenuity

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Maybe what Jack needs is to take a break and play with some LEGO. Then again…maybe not. Timofey Tkachev brings us a twist on an iconic image from The Shining with “Here’s Johnny!” An instantly recognizable Jack Nicholson breaks through a door…but since the door is made of LEGO, he’s using a brick separator. Because of course he is.

There’s a lot to love about the build here. Elephant trunks have just the right shaping for Jack’s eyebrows, and an energy effect wave makes for a great bit of unkempt hair. Tiles are used to great effect, with quarter circle round tiles shaping the nose, and white half circles forming his insane grin. The really scary part of this build, though, is that somehow it just took a single evening to put together. That’s spooky fast!

On a brisk Autumn night

Sometimes we build things that we’re just not that into. Kevin Peeters tells us he’s not entirely happy with this Burac Keep but we like it. Maybe it’s just the spirit of Halloween talking, maybe it’s the build techniques, the crumbling, haphazard bricks or maybe it’s because this is just the kind of thing you’d see in New England on a brisk Autumn night. Or maybe it’s because we know a good thing when we see it. But we like this; we like it a lot. Here’s another time we totally liked something Kevin did.

A creature double-feature!

You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this; someone build two similar scale, similar quality classic movie monsters in a row so that I can use this title and opening theme music to evoke a sense of nostalgia for childhood monster movies. Brilliant, right? The team over at Build Better Bricks have answered all my monstrous wishes with this electrifying Frankenstein Monster and savage Werewolf and finally my mad scheme has come to fruition. (Muah-hah-hah!) The fact that it happened right before Halloween is just icing on the delicious ghoulish cake.

Now that this plan has been fulfilled it seems much less diabolical than I had initially imagined. I suppose I would make a terrible Bond villain then. But still, didn’t it get you in the mood to watch two campy monster classics in a row? It did for me.

Twas the night before Halloween

Builder architectlego has amazing skills in creating ethereal LEGO scenes with great photography, lighting and photo magic touchups. This Halloween themed build is one more that does not disappoint.

Halloween around the corner… elixirs brewed in advance for peak potency,
Luring the young and innocent.. with all things sweet and savory,
Isn’t it obvious? …stay away outsiders,
Dead giveaway! …cracked windows and spiders,
Complete in costume with a crooked pointy hat,
No witchery wicked ways are complete without the companion cat.

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