The Brothers Brick publishes so many news stories each week that we’re rounding them up for some weekend reading of the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our Weekly Brick Report for the third week of February, reporting live from Toy Fair 2017 in New York City!
See more of this week’s LEGO news
Yes Yoda, I AM judging you by your size. And I judge you to be the cutest little Force-wielder ever. These microscale LEGO Star Wars figures by dmitri dolgov are fabulous — enough detail to be instantly recognisable, yet teeny-tiny enough to be supercute blocky interpretations. Sorry Dmitri, but I insist you go and build all the other Star Wars characters at this scale. Immediately.
As if to punish its largest market, LEGO held back the American release of the first wave of 2017 LEGO Star Wars sets in January, even though they were available nearly everywhere else in the world on January 1st. Fans of LEGO Star Wars in the United States can now pick up the latest sets, including great new sets from Rogue One and Rebels.
75172 Y-Wing Starfighter features a Blue Squadron Y-Wing Pilot, Admiral Raddus, the bounty hunter Moroff, an astromech droid, and a stormtrooper. The set includes 691 pieces and retails for $59.99. The set is already backordered from the LEGO Shop online, but is available now from Amazon.
75171 Battle on Scarif includes Jyn Erso disguised as an Imperial ground crew member, Cassian Andor, and two shore troopers. The set includes 419 pieces and retails for $49.99.
See more new LEGO Star Wars sets available now
Continuing our coverage of LEGO at New York Toy Fair 2017, we’re happy to bring you newly unveiled sets for Star Wars. We anticipate these sets being available in June or September.
UPDATE (June 1): The summer wave of LEGO Star Wars sets is now available.
First up, 75178 Jekku Quadjumper will be available June 1st for $49.99, with Rey, Finn, another one of Unkar’s thugs, plus a First Order stormtrooper.
The Quadjumper has a knob on the top, which I’m hoping makes it explode (we’ll see). The rear of the vehicle showcases the huge engines and rear hatch.
75180 Rathtar Escape is an 836-piece playset of the Eravana highlighting the scene in The Force Awakens when our heroes escape the rathtars and Guavian Death Gang. The set includes Han Solo, Chewbacca, Bala-Tik, and two Guavian Death Gang security soldiers. The set will retail for $79.99.
See more LEGO Star Wars sets from Toy Fair New York
Check out this week’s LEGO sales from Amazon. Included are sales on sets from Star Wars and Ninjago, as well as a large assortment of discounted LEGO Dimensions packs!
Captain Rex’s AT-TE is 25% off, currently listed at $89.99.
This brilliant minifig scale Zeta-class cargo shuttle by Renegade Clone is by far my favorite vehicle from Rogue One. Looking like a turtle on its belly with its flippers up, this ship looks exactly like the one in the film – the builder has captured it just perfectly. It’s definitely in my top two along with the Rebel U-Wing.
With a wonderful orange highlighted belly and forward hatch that opens with plenty of room for the cargo crates and *spoilers*, the builder used LEGO Digital Designer for rapid prototyping during the construction and an estimated 4000 LEGO bricks to create this UCS quality model. But then Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle is pretty cool too, so it’s easily in my top three.
Check out the Flickr album to see work in progress pics and more *spoilers*. A brilliant replica of one of my favorite ships …until LEGO brings out a Hammerhead Corvette, that is!
Those of us who attended a LEGO club meeting here in Seattle this past weekend got to see Taylor Walker wield his enormous LEGO Darksaber inspired by Sabine Wren’s new weapon in Star Wars Rebels. Despite the brick-thin blade, the life-size weapon is incredibly sturdy, reinforced by subtly integrated Technic beams in the blade’s black core.
While the blade and its sturdiness are certainly impressive, the handle has a great design, with geometric striping, an angled hilt, and small gold details.
Alternate X-wings and TIE Fighters certainly aren’t unusual among custom LEGO Star Wars creations, but this pair of starfighters by Christian Lintan looks like it could have been built from the all-white LEGO Architecture Studio set, though of course many of the parts don’t come in that set. Despite the parts limitations, Christian has achieved great shaping, particularly on the X-wing — the sides of the nose, the engines, and even the flash suppressors on the S-foil laser cannons are all unique design solutions, not just a recolor of an official set.
Christian builds almost exclusively in white, and while that might sound boring on paper, I was mesmerized by his photostream on Flickr (and he also has an Instagram). Check it out!
With a pivotal role in Rogue One supported by an official 75155 Rebel U-wing Fighter LEGO set, it’s not surprising that LEGO builders have embraced the newest addition to the Star Wars fleet with custom LEGO U-wings like the one from Joshua Brooks. Taking things to the next level with his very first LEGO model posted on Flickr, Mirko Soppelsa has built a huge UCS-scale U-wing with smooth lines, great detail, and lots of functionality.
See more photos of this custom UCS U-wing
We have featured Ordo‘s work before with his recording studio and RWBY diorama, but until now we hadn’t featured any of the builder’s brilliant original Star Wars vignettes. In the scene below — the fourteenth in Ordo’s series — a beautifully constructed background creates the perfect staging for a great action-packed scene on the back of the seriously listing speeder. With its bonnet stripes made from minifig seats, wind shields made from sunroof visors sitting in hinge pieces and lovely natural looking effect of the flaming engine, it is truly the star of this vignette. But the masterstroke is the unseen fate of the smoking abandoned speeder bike plowing into a wall at 400 mph somewhere left purely to the imagination.
Click the photo to see the builder’s backstory for the scene, and check out some of Ordo’s other episodes below.
The scenes are beautiful, the story is compelling, and I really want to know what happens next! Read all fourteen episodes yourself in Ordo’s photostream.
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me, I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. I am one with the… Ok, sorry. I’ll stop now. Even if you haven’t seen Rogue One yet (and by this point, who hasn’t?) you’re sure to recognize Dunedain98‘s fantastic LEGO Star Wars scene.
This little slice of the war-torn city of Jedha looks just about perfect. Dunedain perfectly captured the city’s sandy color palette, interesting angles, and crumbling facades. He even included the imperial hover tank and Chirrut Îmwe, everyone’s favorite non-Jedi force user. (Although he’s not shown here, I’m sure Baze is just hiding behind the corner somewhere waiting to save the day.)
We already brought you some great Amazon LEGO deals this week from a variety of themes, but who doesn’t love a good deal on Star Wars? Amazon has discounted the following Star Wars LEGO sets:
Star Wars Resistance X-Wing Fighter is 22% off, on sale for $62.99.
