As part of their January 2016 assortment, LEGO released a number of new minifig-centered battle pack sets as army builders for The Force Awakens, including 75131 Resistance Trooper Battle Pack. The set has 112 pieces, including 4 minifigs, with a price of $12.99.
There really aren’t spoilers to worry about with this review. Still, I’ve managed to write what are probably far too many words for such a small set like this, so hit the jump.
Click through to see the full review
We don’t often feature brick films on Brothers Brick; partly because that’s not where our interests lie, and partly because it’s a lot more time consuming to discover new content. Sometimes though, a brick film jumps out as worthwhile. Such is the case with A Fixed System by Aaron Fisher.
We find here the tale of an Everyman awash in a rote life as a brick factory worker, who would have fit right in with Emmett during the beginning of The LEGO Movie. I won’t spoil what happens when he decides to look for more in life, but I will say it provides an interesting subject upon which to muse. And like much good art, it provides a platform upon which the viewer’s own beliefs and worldview are highlighted and questioned.
The animation is strong in this 10-minute movie (a frequent failing of brick films) and the facial expressions and soundtrack tell the story excellently in this silent film.
This downhill creation from Graham Gidman is one of his entries to this year’s medieval-themed contest Colossal Castle Contest XIII.
The builder describes the scene as ‘Graham leading his men down the mountainside start the fight‘ (I am paraphrasing somewhat). The unusual proportions caught my eye initially as the build is high but of narrow depth and depicts a sloped mountain descent that would be perfect for a spot of single-track mountain biking.
I have favourite and not-so favourite parts in this creation. I will start with my no-so favourite as I don’t want to sound overly negative about this great build. While I like the technique of light/dark blueish-grey slopes and tiles ‘jumbled’ to create the mountainside, it suffers slightly from being very flat and smooth on the facing side. Maybe a little more ‘cragginess‘ next time…
Moving swiftly on to my favourites, the red feathered bird in the nest is great; I think the nest may be Bilbo Baggins hair. I also like the skilfully created sloped tracks — a lot has been achieved without making the terrain look too contrived. Finally, the little collection of overgrown greenery in the middle left area is a nice touch.
This year’s Colossal Castle Contest has been brimming with great entries, you can see others blogged by TBB.
These Star Wars-themed minifig costumes by solscud are impressive. Most impressive. With just a handful of pieces, each “outfit” is packed with enough tiny details to produce an instantly recognizable Star Wars vehicle. I’ll admit I giggled when I first saw these. They are certainly cute enough to give the microfighters series a run for their money. I especially love that red sleeve on the First Order TIE Fighter. Solscud selected vehicles from all three original-trilogy films, Attack of the Clones, and The Force Awakens.
Check out even more of solscud’s costumes on Flickr.
When it comes to customizing LEGO minifigures, Minh Pham is one of my favorites. I enjoy the contrast of his highly detailed armor pieces with a clean minifigure face. His latest is the Raider Power Armor set new to the Fallout series in Fallout 4, and he sculpted and painted the haphazard Raider look rather well at this scale.
We’ve gotten hold of a case of January’s Series 15 Collectible Minifigures, thanks to LEGO. Series 15 is the first “regular” series since early in 2015 when Series 13 came out. Since then we’ve gotten Simpsons Series 2 and the Halloween-themed Series 14. And this series is shaping up quite nicely, with a broad range of excellent minifigs. The key color this time around is orange, like Series 4.
As these show up in stores, be sure to check out our feeling guide for the blind packs to help you find a full set.
Since we got a full case, we’re able to provide a breakdown of the figures we got:
3 copies each of the Farmer, Skunk Catcher, Knight, Ballerina, Winged Robot Warrior, Native American Woman, Jewel Thief, and Queen.
4 copies each of the Winged God, Wrestling Champion, Janitor, and Astronaut.
5 copies each of the Patient, Left Shark, and Faun.
Read the full review after the jump!
As you cruise past this old diner located somewhere along Route 66 in your souped-up hot rod, it is clear that all is not well. I don’t know what has led to the scene in this diorama by Austrian builder Sanel Lukovic, but it seems that the derelict diner was abandoned in a hurry; that’s never a good thing!
The details that highlight the sense of abandonment are my favourite part of this diorama. Intricate features abound, such as the diner stool that has been knocked over, the broken window with a view inside, the can of coke that has fallen out of the rubbish bin, the broken, exposed fluorescent light tubes and the graffiti on the wall.
At first I thought the cracked road was due to an earlier earthquake but that doesn’t explain the whole story. Sanel tells me that far more sinister reasons are probably to blame…
German builder Steinestecker has captured a common nightmare scenario in LEGO form with his series of alien abduction shots. The poor pyjama-wearing victim displays one of my favourite minifigure expressions, which can be interpreted as a ‘yawn’, but is more of a night terror scream this time!
The perpetrators in this alien abduction series are the Classic Alien minifigure from Series 6 of the Collectible Minifigure series; perfect with their passive expression and seemingly unresponsive to his screams. I hope the abducted victim wakes up before any experimentation or probing begins!
As a slight aside, as soon as I saw these scenes, I immediately remembered a photograph posted by TBB favourite Chris McVeigh back in 2012. To me, Chris’ build represents the eerie ‘prequel’ to the abduction series created by Steindecker…
Here’s our first glimpse of the 16 fantastic new minifigs in LEGO’s Collectible Minifigures Series 15. We expect them to be available in January, though there’s always a chance they can found sooner.
UPDATE: Read our full review of LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 15 here on The Brothers Brick.
We’ll get:
Update: Here’s a better image of the actual minifigs.
Our good friends over at Citizen Brick have just announced their Black Friday deals, centered on a batch of new custom minifig packs and a pretty sweet “Xmas Fun-Pak” you can get by spending $75 or more.
Joe and his team are releasing a number of new products on Friday, starting with this three-pack cleverly titled “Bowling Buddies.”
And don’t miss “Pity Enthusiast.”
I’ve never regretted a single purchase I’ve ever made from Citizen Brick, and the CB team are some of the nicest people in the LEGO vendor community I’ve had the pleasure to meet. While you load up on all those discounted bricks on Black Friday, consider spending some of your LEGO budget to help support this innovative, boundary-pushing small business as well.
Supplies are limited (I’ve missed some pretty awesome new items myself in the past), so take a nap after that turkey dinner and set an alarm for midnight Central Time so you can get shopping!
Polybags of Finn from The Force Awakens are starting to show up at brick-and-morter stores, and one of the interesting things about these small, early sets is that they include a foldout with the first good, official photos of 2016 LEGO Star Wars sets. Brickset has gotten ahold of one of the fold-outs.
The photos show several Battle Pack sets from both the Classic Trilogy and The Force Awakens, along with the first views of a Carbon Freezing Chamber set (75137), Rebel emplacement on Hoth (75138), and another redesigned escape pod with more figs than just the usual Artoo and Threepio (75136).
The back of the foldout reveals better photos of the individual minifigs that come in these sets.
We’ll share more news about 2016 LEGO sets as good-quality information emerges.
You can’t play Fallout 4 until Nov. 10, but if you’re still yearning for that distinct neo-1950’s nuclear apocalypse, LEGO builders have you covered with some really top-notch Fallout-inspired creations.
The first is this gigantic Fallout workshop by Pierre. Complete with power armor, a collectible Vault-Tec bobblehead, an adorable Dogmeat, and loads of other recognizable items, this model is deceptively large, coming in at almost 5 feet wide and close to 2 feet high.
Here’s another picture of Dogmeat, because he’s just too cute. Who’s a good dog?
Next up is a minifig scale version of the same scene, by our very own Simon Liu. It also plays host to power armor, and contains a fantastic printed Nuka Cola machine.
And now that’s we’re looking at minifig scale, here’s an incredibly detailed Vault Dweller minifig by DSCustoms. The only problem with this guy (and my in-game avatar) is that it doesn’t show the 400+ lbs of everything I’ve ever found, ever that I’m carrying.
Also be sure to check out this cool Enclave Vertibird we blogged last year.