Tag Archives: Star Wars

LEGO Star Wars is one of the most popular LEGO themes of all time. Far beyond X-wings and TIE fighters, there’s a whole expanded universe of inspiration, and an army of LEGO fans ready to build whatever comes out of George Lucas’s head next.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for May 5, 2019 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the first week of May 2019.

Star Wars mania has been in full swing in the lead up to May 4th weekend. Read on to see some new product announcements and even more LEGO news of the week.

TBB REVIEWS & FEATURES: We dig deep for the new LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71024 Disney Series 2 and have a chat with our own Rod Gillies about his upcoming LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book.

LEGO Collectible Minifigures 71024 Disney Series 2 Feel Guide – The new Disney Series 2 Minifigs have dropped and we have your feel guide to finding your favorite characters in the crowd.
New LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book — exclusive first look and interview – We take an early peek at the New LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book and talk with author, builder, and TBB Senior Contributor Rod Gillies.
Exclusive interview with LEGO Star Wars head of design Jens Kronveld Frederiksen – TBB Editor-in-Chief Andrew Becraft sits down with the head of design for the LEGO Star Wars theme.

MORE TBB NEWS: From the LEGO BOOST Droid Commander reveal to three new Summer 2019 Harry Potter sets, we have your other LEGO news of the week including a look behind the scenes of the new Tantive VI with its designers.

Build and program your own Star Wars droid with this LEGO BOOST Droid Commander set – LEGO announced a new Star Wars themed set for the BOOST that allows you to program one of three droids including R2-D2.
LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV now available with Battle of Hoth freebie, double VIP points and more – The Tantive IV arrives in stores in time for May 4th.
LEGO Star Wars set designers share some secrets of the upcoming 75244 Tantive IV – LEGO set designer César Soares and graphic designer Maddy O’Neil give us a look behind the scenes of the new Tantive VI.
Six LEGO Harry Potter sets officially revealed including Knight Bus, Triwizard Tournament and Advent Calendar – LEGO officially announces the remaining three Harry Potter sets for Summer 2019 along with a holiday Advent Calendar

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Exclusive interview with LEGO Star Wars head of design Jens Kronveld Frederiksen [Feature]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, I recently sat down with Jens Kronveld Frederiksen, the Director of Design for the LEGO Star Wars line. Jens has been with LEGO for more than 20 years, and shares his insights on how he joined the company, what lessons he’s learned over the years, and how LEGO balances input from both kids and adults. Read through to the end to learn a really cool detail about the movie Millennium Falcon Jens saw during a visit to Pinewood Studios during the filming of The Force Awakens!

The Brothers Brick: Just about every LEGO builder’s dream is to become a set designer. How did your career as a designer begin?

Jens Kronveld Frederiksen: A little bit of a weird story and coincidence. LEGO has been a great part of my life for as long as I remember. I really, really loved LEGO but I was never thinking of it as a profession or a career to be honest. In 1998 I was participating in a model building exhibition. I have a hobby building plastic model kits, which mainly is of World War II stuff. At that event in Copenhagen, there were some LEGO people there, and they were looking to hire designers not for model builders but for making new prototypes for new elements, and well I was of course interested in that. And then before I started on that, I saw a job application for a permanent position as model builder and I got the job. That’s how I got into it.

Read our exclusive interview with LEGO’s head of design for Star Wars

New LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book — exclusive first look and interview [Feature]

May the 4th — Star Wars Day. Perfect timing to take an exclusive first look at the new LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure book. Galactic Missions comes with a new Cloud Car model and Bespin Guard minifigure, and the story is packed with new LEGO Star Wars models and building tips put together by The Brothers Brick’s very own Rod Gillies. The book will be available in August, and can be pre-ordered now from Amazon.

We caught up with Rod to find out more about the new book, and what it’s like for a ‘fan-builder’ to work on a project with the LEGO Star Wars team and book publisher Dorling Kindersley.

Click to read the interview and see more pictures of what’s inside the book

Duel of the Fates

Often considered one of the best lightsaber duels in the entire Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the face-off between former-Jedi-master-turned-pincushion Qui-Gon Jin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul has inspired many LEGO fan creations over the years. This tribute by LEGO 7 features sculpted figures on a simple base. Both Obi-Wan and Darth Maul are fully poseable and ready for action.

And after the director yells “cut!”…

Obi-wan: “Wow, those lights are hot. Hey Maul… wanna grab a drink at Dexter’s later?”
Darth Maul: “If You’re buying.”

Classic Maul.

The Encroaching Empire

Order 66 has been executed. The Clone Wars have ended. Sith Lord Darth Vader has become Emperor Sheev Palpatine’s trusted enforcer, bringing Imperial order to an unruly galaxy. Tim Lydy has put his stamp on this era of turmoil with his first-ever Star Wars creation, and it is most excellent.

I really love how cramped and chaotic the trench feels. However the highlight for me is the giant statue of Palpatine constructed out of Light Aqua which doesn’t really have a very extensive parts selection yet.

I also appreciate the effort Tim went to incorporating the writing on the side of the scene in Aurabesh, the Star Wars universe’s standard alphabet.

TBB alumnus Tim has been featured in the past for his work with superhero–themed models. I certainly wouldn’t mind if he dabbled in the Star Wars sandbox some more!

LEGO Star Wars before the first LEGO Star Wars sets [Feature]

It’s hard to believe twenty years have passed since the release of the first official LEGO Star Wars sets. Unofficially, children and adults alike have been building Star Wars-themed models since the first film hit theaters in 1977. While many of these custom builds have been lost to history, some photographs of Star Wars models made their way into LEGO Club magazines like the UK’s Bricks ‘n Pieces and North America’s LEGO Mania Magazine. One of the earliest models I was able to find was this AT-AT walker from The Empire Strikes Back (1980). That movie was only two years old in 1982, which is when twelve year old Philip Dodge had his model featured in the Summer 1982 issue of Bricks ‘n Pieces. While the photography might not have aged well, his AT-AT looks amazing for having been built during the 1980s.

Check out more LEGO Star Wars models from the pages of LEGO’s club magazines.

Build and program your own Star Wars droid with this LEGO BOOST Droid Commander set [News]

LEGO has revealed Star Wars Droid Commander, a 1,100-piece set that lets you build and program three droids from the Star Wars universe including the iconic R2-D2, a Gonk droid and a Mouse droid. The set uses the LEGO Boost platform in combination with a new free app to help learn programming to achieve success in more than 40 pre-loaded missions. The set is expected to retail for US $199.99 | CAN $249.99 | UK £179.99 starting September 1st.

Click to get a closer look at the Droid Commander set

When an obsession becomes a liability

No doubt, any LEGO fan with a passion for building can relate to this humorous scene by Ralf Langer. LEGO Star Wars 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon burst on to the scene in 2017 with a whopping 7541 pieces and a price tag to match. Star Wars fans flocked to the store to bring their large prize home, often to the chagrin of their partners, families and bank accounts.

I love a model that tells a story and this one employs some great details that serve to add to the narrative. The inclusion of dead plants is a funny little gem and the expressions on all the minifig’s faces tell us everything we need to know about what they are thinking. The mom’s rolling suitcase and the daughter’s teddy bear are a nice touch as well as the many open boxes of parts spread around the room. The Millennium Falcon itself is also a terrific little build all on its own. My favorite bit is the LEGO storage shelves which are all organized by part. The bucket handles add a nice splash of color and detail and the use of single parts in the shelves represent the organization system perfectly. A true homage to the LEGO obsessed.

LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV now available with Battle of Hoth freebie, double VIP points and more [News]

LEGO is celebrating May the Fourth a day early by making Star Wars 75244 Tantive IV available for purchase for VIP members. The set comes with 1,768 pieces and six minifigures including Princess Leia and Bail Organa, and sells for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £179.99. The set will be available generally starting tomorrow.

In addition to the Tantive IV, LEGO is offering quite a few freebies including the exclusive 195-piece 40333 Battle of Hoth with LEGO Star Wars purchases of $75 US / £75 UK, double VIP points on all LEGO Star Wars purchases and other sales that vary by store and region.

Additionally, the elusive 70842 Emmet’s Triple-Decker Couch Mech from The LEGO Movie 2 is now available for US $29.99 | CAN $3.99 | UK £24.99 as well as the new Disney Collectible Minifigure Series 2 for US $3.99 | CAN $4.99 | UK £2.99 each (read our feel guide here to help find your favorite characters).

Add that to the 21 sets launched late last month from Toy Story 4, Spider-Man, and The LEGO Movie 2 and we have ourselves the beginning of a very promising summer in terms of new LEGO sets.

LEGO Star Wars set designers share some secrets of the upcoming 75244 Tantive IV [News]

With May 4th on the horizon, LEGO will be launching the impressive 75244 Tantive IV, the Rebel corvette featured in the opening shot of Star Wars: A New Hope. LEGO set designer César Soares and graphic designer Maddy O’Neil sat down to share some of the secrets behind the creation of the LEGO set and talk about their journey working for LEGO. Some of the more interesting details include our first good look at the hidden handle embedded in the swooshable set, as well as the inspiration for the interior scenes, some newly recolored elements borrowed from the 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon, and how the Bail Organa minifigure came to be.

75244 Tantive IV will be available for purchase from LEGO for US $199.99 | CAN $269.99 | UK £179.99 starting at 9 am ET on May 3rd for LEGO VIPs and 12 am ET on May 4th for everyone.

Tell Obi-Wan we found a more wretched hive of scum and villainy

Obi-Wan Kenobi once mused that you would “never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” than Mos Eisley Spaceport, but Ben Cossy’s Nar Shaddaa Cantina might give Mos Eisley a run for its money. A moon in the Hutt system, Nar Shaddaa is known for its underworld, bounty hunters, and Hutt cartels.

The structure itself is the perfect backdrop of a suspect cantina: the mixed texture of the floors make it look rough and the windows are reminiscent of concept art for Jabba the Hutt’s palace. The cargo piled up across from the bar is an ideal spot for illicit deals, and the expression on the Cerean bartenders face implies that he could handle his own with the most dangerous of the patrons. The characters are where this creation shines. While often minifigures are a nice highlight for a model, here they are the main focus and are almost form a landscape themselves. There are recognizable characters like Aurra Sing, Dengar, Bossk, IG-88 and Embo mixed in with unidentified Humans, Mandalorians, Rodians, Twi’leks, and a whole host of other species from a galaxy far, far away. Finally, I do love that Galidor is coming to the Star Wars universe – at least according to the poster on the wall.

Stop the traitor on Takodana

When recreating a movie scene, a LEGO creation done right will make you feel like you’re in the scene yourself. That’s exactly what Carter Witz has done with his Dual on Takodana. Star Wars fans will remember the moment when FN-2199 (nicknamed TR-8R by the fans) confronts Finn in the remains of Maz Kanata’s castle.

The mix of different dark grey pieces recall the look of the castle, both before it was destroyed – as seen in the structures left standing – and after. The destroyed stone of the castle is highlighted by fallen trees, bent metal, and small fires dotting the scene. One of the fires even features a trans-orange snake element to give it a unique shape. In addition to looking cool, there are even play features with the figures weapons clashing and rubble exploding.