The third and final review for 2020 qualifying fan creation submissions consists of 25 projects. This makes a total of 86 qualifying projects for the year with 26 in the first submission and 35 in the second submission. These fall within the qualifying period for which they will be considered to be made into official LEGO sets.
Click to see the full list of qualifying projects
LEGO Ideas, the company’s crowd-sourcing platform that turns fans’ ideas into real-life sets, is best known for products like 21322 Pirates of Baracuda Bay or 21323 Grand Piano. But LEGO Ideas isn’t just for massive sets that will break the bank. Last May LEGO tested out a small Ideas set as a giveaway, resulting in 40335 Space Rocket Ride. And now the latest Ideas set, 40448 Vintage Car, follows in its footsteps as a giveaway. Based on a design by LEGO fan Versteinert after it won the fan vote in last year’s LEGO Ideas vintage car contest, it’s modeled after a classic 1950s-era sedan with a two-tone teal and white paint job. The set contains 188 pieces and is available this month from LEGO as a free promo between Jan. 1 and Jan. 17 with orders over US $85 | CAN $85 | UK £85. There are over 100 new LEGO sets for 2021, so you’ll have plenty of options.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Click to read our full, hands-on review of 40448 Vintage Car
The latest set to come from LEGO’s crowdsourcing platform LEGO Ideas is one that’s sure to take you down memory lane. 123 Sesame Street (21324) captures a piece of the famous children’s show with a block of New York City populated with a variety of its most beloved characters. The 1,367-piece set includes Bert, Ernie, Grouch, Elmo, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster, and locations such as Hooper’s Store, Bert and Ernie’s apartment, Elmo’s room, and Big Bird’s nest. The set will retail for US $119.99 | CAN $149.99 | UK £109.99 and will be available from LEGO starting Nov. 1. Be sure to check out our full, hands-on review of the LEGO Ideas 123 Sesame Street (21324) published earlier today.
Click to see more images and read the full press release
Today, the LEGO Ideas design team finally announced the First 2020 Review Results. This review round included 26 projects that reached 10,000 supporters between January and May 2020. Surprisingly enough, only one project was approved to become an official LEGO Ideas set so far — Earth Globe by Guillaume Roussel (aka Disneybrick55). Designers praise the idea for its possible educational application and display value. Release date, price range, and availability are yet to be announced.
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Yesterday a whopping 35 LEGO Ideas projects were announced for qualification review. Earlier this year, 26 sets were shortlisted for also achieving the 10,000 votes required for a submission to be reviewed. Achieving 10,000 votes is no easy feat as we’ve seen in the past, but with the recent support of projects skyrocketing, there has been chatter amongst the community if the rules should be tweaked or changed to bring it back down to more palatable numbers.
Click to read the current decision point from LEGO
LEGO just announced a new record of 35 submissions by fan creation submissions to be considered for the second 2020 review, the highest ever amount since the inception of the programme for a single review period. The first review earlier this year had 26 submissions, making it a total of 61 sets now in the pipeline of options for LEGO to decide what creations would be made into official LEGO sets.
Click to see the qualifying projects
They say there is nothing you can’t build with LEGO bricks. Most of the time, that is very true provided you have enough plastic bricks. But let’s get real; there are certain categories of real-world things that do not translate into LEGO-world particularly well, carrying form but not function. One example would be musical instruments. It looks like building a playable LEGO musical instrument is nearly impossible. It also looks like you have to have the skills of a magician to land a job as a LEGO Ideas designer. The work the LEGO design team did to turn fan Donny Chen’s idea into the official 3,662-piece 21323 Grand Piano set seems truly amazing. However, you never judge a set until you have built it, so let’s assemble, tune and play this majestic instrument, which can be purchased today for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99.
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LEGO Ideas has become quite a popular theme over the last few years, and while the sets don’t really all go together, many LEGO fans have taken to collecting all the Ideas sets. All those sets take up space though, but Aido Kessler has a great solution: microscale versions!
He’s even included some larger scenery to surround the miniature sets. Between the scale and the scenery, there are some pretty fun and innovative parts usages at play. I’m particularly fond of the transparent tiles sticking out of the sideways blue water to simulate waves off the coast of the Old Fishing Store. Using Asajj Ventress’ lightsaber as a palm tree trunk gives it just the right sway. The robot hand makes the perfect little arms for the tyrannosaurus fossil. The skeleton arms and transparent antenna make excellent undersea structure for the microscale Shinkai 6500 Submarine to explore.
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
LEGO Publishing has announced a fan vote that will determine the direction of the next book they will publish. Fans can vote on LEGO Ideas to choose one of three following titles: “The LEGO Brick Museum,” “The Secret Life of Bricks,” and “LEGO History in 100 Bricks.”
The winning book will be written by Daniel Konstanski, editor of the Blocks magazine. Voting ends on Sunday, August 9th at 7 am PT. More information is included in the press release below.
Learn more about the next LEGO book.
LEGO has released a video showing off the new LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano. In the video, LEGO Designer Chee Woon Tze tickles the ivory, so to speak, to show off how the piano is constructed and how it plays music. The video has constant piano music in the background but unfortunately does not include what the piano music created by the app will sound like. However, seeing the completed set next to the designer shows how massive the model is in context.
LEGO Ideas 21323 Grand Piano comes with 3,662 pieces to build the playable piano for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99 with global availability beginning August 1st. Make sure to read our announcement and interview with the LEGO Ideas design team about the design effort that went into it.
Click to watch the LEGO Grand Piano designer video
LEGO Ideas has revealed its biggest set yet, 21323 Grand Piano. The massive musical model comes with 3,662 pieces that make up the 25-key keyboard, sleek black lid and body, working internal hammers, and even an original composition. The set will retail for US $349.99 | CA $449.99 | UK £319.99 beginning August 1st (becoming the most expensive LEGO Ideas set ever).
The Grand Piano comes with a motor, smart hub, and sensor used to connect to the LEGO Powered Up app which creates the sound. The piano can be played in either a “self-play” toy piano mode where hitting any key produces the next note in a selected song, or in an “auto-play” mode where the piano moves randomized keys while the app produces music like a player piano.
The Brothers Brick got an early preview of the Grand Piano from the LEGO Ideas design team, so we have included some interesting facts and quotes about the set throughout the article below.
Take a closer look at the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano.