Stressful Legalities? Wedging elements between studs

ramblingbrick Experiments, feature, Lego , , , , , ,

In recent years, we have seen more frequent use of the tile wedged between two studs on a brick or plate. And almost inevitably, the question will crop up in some online forum ‘Is this LEGAL?’ I wrote a little about this back in 2017. This topic of conversation has come up again most recently as a result of a small detail on the LEGO ICONS Concorde model, and has, I suspect, resulted in a surge of activity on that previous post.

Now, there is no LEGO Police (outside of LEGO City, LEGO Town and most recently LEGO Friends) who will come and enforce the way you have built your model: You do you. If it goes together in an aesthetically pleasing way, we won’t judge you. But it might put some of your LEGO Elements at risk…

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71462 LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant Revealed

ramblingbrick Lego, Reveal, Super Mario , , , , ,

Every year, around this time, we see an adult focussed set drawing inspiration from LEGO Super Mario: be it the Retro TV, the Mario 64 Question Mark Cube or the Mighty Bowser. These sets have drawn heavily on nostalgic aspects of the Super Mario games, to present an artefact that has certainly been a talking point in many households around the wolrd. Each of these sets has had a suitably impressive price tag attached, too (priced from 300-400AUD This year, perhaps as a sign of the times, with cost of living being what it has become in 2023, the scale has been somewhat reduced. This year’s adult focussed LEGO Super Mario set is a shelf sized model of the Pirhana Plant. With 540 pieces, the set will be released on November 6th and priced at $AUD94.99/$USD59.99 / €64.99 / £57.99.

Over recent years, the LEGO Group have been responsive to the cries of adult fans – Give us more, give us bigger – and now it has become apparent that the major problems that these large LEGO sets have give AFOLS are related to two major factors:

  • one is cost with the previous adult focussed Super Mario sets, we have seen prices starting at $USD199.99
  • another is display space. I love the look of the new Concorde, but at over 1m in length, there is no doubt that I have nowhere to reasonably build it or display it without causing major disruption to the family living spaces.
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10325 Winter Village Alpine Lodge Revealed.

ramblingbrick ICONS, Lego, Reveal , , , , ,

We are approaching the end of September, and around the world, people are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the annual Winter Village set. Today we can reveal that the set for 2023 is a warm and cosy alpine lodge. Over the last few years, we have gone from the fantasy of the Gingerbread house and the Elves clubhouse to the urban reality of Santa’s Visit, and the holiday main Street. This year, we are headed out of town, as we move towards the Alpine Lodge. With 1517 pieces, 5 minifigures and a brick built outhouse, the LEGO® Icons Winter Village set will be available for LEGO insiders from 1st October 2023 at www.LEGO.com/alpine-Lodge and LEGO Stores for all from 4th October 2023 priced at €99.99 / £89.99 / $99.99/ 899.0 CNY/ 169.99 AUD /129.99 CAD.

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75367 Star Wars Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser officially Revealed

ramblingbrick Reveal, Star Wars , , , , , ,

This year marks the the 20th anniversary of the Clone Wars – the animated series from Genndy Tartakovovsky – introducing new characters and events to the Star Wars storey, it helped to prepare viewers for the Revenge of the Sith in 2005 – introducing characters such as General Grievous, Asajj Ventress and more.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of delving into the mythos of the Clone Wars, the LEGO Group have today officially revealed a 5374 piece version of one of the the Republic’s Capital ships, the Venator Class Attack Cruiser. Priced at 649.99 USD/649.99 EUR /999.99 AUD/559.99 GBP /15254.9 TRY /263990.0 HUF /849.99 CAD/5499.0 CNY, the set will go on sale on 1st October for LEGO Insiders and on the 4th for everyone else.

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Halloween BAM Figures Spotted in the Wild.

ramblingbrick Lego, Minifigures, Retail , , , , , , , ,

Here we are on the eve of the final quarter of the year and our local LEGO Certified Store has already put the new Build-a-Minifigure (BAM) elements in the station, and loaded up some new figures into easy to carry 3-packs. With closing time mere minutes away, I didn’t have the time to see if there were any other new figures to be found. You may or may not find any when you next visit your local LEGO Branded store.

There is a distinctive Halloween flavour in the air with some of these figures, even though there are still more than 2 months to that time of the year. Lets take a closer look (Special thanks to Tash for her work on this week’s cardboard cut out backdrop).

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New ways to Play with the LEGO® City 60367 Passenger Airplane

ramblingbrick City, Lego, Review , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aircraft are vital for creating connections between cities – both in real life and LEGO® Form. The first Minifigure Scale passenger planes debuted in the mid 1980s, and were relatively similar in design until 2006, with the arrival of large scale wing elements.

The New LEGO City 60367 Passenger Aircraft builds on the revitalization of the LEGO City reboot that we have seen this year. It brings us details that we have never seen executed in any of the dozens of airplane sets over the years, be they in Town, City, Friends or DUPLO. We have new livery, vehicles, uniforms and even a couple of characters that can be found in other aspects of LEGO City.

Join me as we check out all the new features and new ways to play with a LEGO Airplane.

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LEGO® Braille Bricks Come Home

ramblingbrick Inclusion, News, Reveal , , , , , , , , ,

When the LEGO Foundation’s support of Braille Bricks, as an aid to teach the Braille alphabet to blind children and their families was announced back in 2019, the acclaim was universal. When they started to roll out in 2020 to organizations involved in supporting the blind, people’s enthusiasm continued, although there was some disappointment at the fact that the bricks were not available for purchase.

Starting in September this year (pre-order available now, in some markets), the bricks will be available for purchase through LEGO.com. There will be two forms of the Bricks: an English version and French – the French version of Braille features around 14 additional characters, allowing for the different accent marks used, compared to English. German, Spanish and Italian sets will be available next year.

I’ll have my review coming soon, but you can read on for further details.

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Jurassic Jeeps And Other Designer Insights [Designer Q&A]

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A little earlier this year, I put the two 2023 Jurassic Park sets containing the iconic Jeep Wrangler side by side, as a comparision of building techniques. I found the jeeps to be sufficienty different in the way they were constructed that it raised a few questions for me. I had the chance to put a couple of these questions to members of the design team, thanks to the LEGO Ambassadors Network. It was initially intended to address these questions at a round table meeting, but for various reasons, we ended up getting questions answered by email. I’d like to thank the team for taking the time to answer these.

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Announcing the LEGO Insiders Treasure Hunt: Scan YOUR existing BRICKS for the chance to win

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Following on from last week’s announcement of the LEGO® VIP Program being rebranded as LEGO Insiders, the team are excited to announce the LEGO Insiders Treasure Hunt, giving you the chance to win 1000000VIP/Insiders points over the next six weeks. There will also be millions of digital downloads available for those taking part.

NOTE: the Sweepstakes are only open to Insiders Members resident in: Australia, Canada, Denmark (not Greenland and the Faeroe Islands), Metropolitan France (not French Overseas Departments or Territories, or Monaco), Germany (not Heligoland), New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom (excluding channel islands and the Isle of Man) and the United States.

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LEGO Super Mario: 71424 Donkey Kong’s Tree House [Review and Playthough]

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We have entered the 4th year of LEGO® Super Mario releases: First we met Mario, and learned to play against the clock. In 2021, we were introduced to Marios bigger brother, Luigi, and learned to play together. Last year, we met Princess Peach, and learned to share gifts with each other with each other. With each year, we have seen new and innovative ways to play as well as a new range of buildable characters.

This year, it feels a little different: There is no new Electronic Smart Character, and no set of Collectable, Buildable Fuigures. We have two subthemes of sets: one takes us back to the earliest days of Nintendo’s electronic entertainment, with Donkey Kong, and his subsequent adventures; and another featuring more Koopalings in flying ships.

Today, we will take a hands-on look at the first of these sets: 71424 Donkey Kong’s Tree House. This is the only set to feature the buildable Donkey Kong, as well as his Grandfather – Cranky Kong. According to lore, Cranky Kong is in fact the original Donkey Kong from the Arcade Game all those years ago. After All these years, I wonder if he has any misgivings towards Mario…

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