Month: January 2021

90th Anniversary of LEGO®: Fan Vote for a Nostalgia Laden, Adult Focussed Set.

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The LEGO Group will turn 90 years in 2022. That’s still a year away, but in the mean time, LEGO Ideas are sunning a survey to select a classic theme to be revived as a single set in the Adult/18+ portfolio in 2022. The topic will be selected from a selection of 30 LEGO Themes from over the years. LEGO Ideas ran a similar survey last year, to help select a LEGO Star Wars UCS set for release later this year – we are currently anticipating a Republic Drop Ship.

As I write this, I don’t know the exact themes of choice, but it is probably safe to presume that they will be retired ‘in-house’, unlicensed themes, to be represented with a modern twist – not dissimilar to the Pirates of Bucaneer Bay that we saw released through LEGO Ideas Earlier this year. earlier last year.

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Brick Train Awards Opening Soon For 2021

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The Brick Train Awards are on again in 2021 – and opening for entries throughout February.

The Brick Train Awards are a collaboration between LNUR (LEGO Northern UK Railway), a LEGO train club in the UK, and Brick Model Railroader in the USA.

The Brick Train Awards are the first virtual, global awards for the LEGO® train fan community.

The awards are free to enter for all, including our TFOL (Teenage Fan of LEGO) awards, aimed to encourage and support teenage LEGO fans who are not usually recognised by some traditional LEGO User Groups and LEGO train clubs.

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Brickvention Online is Now Live

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It has been a busy week. But not for the reasons it might normally be at this time of the year. Normally, I’d have been busy putting together last minute touches for my creation at Brickvention – Australia’s Premier LEGO® Fan Event. The reasons that my week has actually been busy don’t really matter right now. What does matter is that Brickvention 2021 has gone the way of the pandemic, and is a totally online event. The great news is that you can experience all of the activities for the weekend for free.

There will live streams, and a variety of tutorials going live on YouTube over the course of the weekend. Tomorrow, there is a full lineup of Special Guests from around the world.

You can find full details of the the online event at http://brickvention.online.

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Ninjagopalooza III: My First Ninjago Set 2516 Ninja Training Outpost [Rapid Review]

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It was 2011, January, and extraordinarily hot. Brickvention was underway at the Melbourne Town Hall. And there, at one of the vendor’s stands I saw it: a strange new theme: it seemed part ninja, part card/spinner game. I was getting mixed messages. Anyway, I handed over $10 to buy one of the smallest sets in theme: 2516 Ninja Training Outpost. I took at it home, stared at it a little while, and put it in a cupboard. Today, I found it again, stil in the box.

Brickvention is not on this year… not in real life. We will miss out on our regular January fix of AFOL company and fellowship, but there is still time to catch the action with this year’s virtual event: You can find out more at Brickvention.online.

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Ninjagopalooza II: Concept Art and Prototyping 2009-2012

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This week, we are celebrating 10 years since the first release of Ninjago on an unsuspecting world. It was never expected to last as as long as it has, now becoming an evergreen theme:

“Originally, the NINJAGO theme was supposed to end after season 2 in 2012,” says Tommy Andreasen, Sr. Manager, Entertainment Development at the LEGO Group, who worked on the LEGO NINJAGO product line and show from the beginning. However, sets of the theme were still planned to be on sale throughout 2013. The continued success led to both the TV series and products continuing to the current day. “It just shows an incredible commitment from our fans that we are still going strong 10 years later,” he adds.

In this post, we will look through some of the concept art, as well as marketing artwork that has been released over the years. Some will be new, and some have been taken from the LEGO® archive, for a special exhibition at the LEGO House in Billund.

All images have been supplied by the LEGO group as part of a celebration of the 10 years of LEGO Ninjago.

Before we go any further, lets take a quick look a Ninjago Timeline:

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Ninjagopalooza I: Ninjago City Gardens 71741 [Official Images/Preview]

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This week, around about afternoon tea time on Thursday, we celebrate 10 years since Ninjago made its debut on Cartoon Network. Today saw the release of the latest Ninjago® City set: Ninjago City Gardens. An epic modular set, following in the tradition of 70620 Ninjago City from 2017, and followed up in 2018 by 20657 Ninjago City Docks. Chances are you have seen the images elsewhere, so I’ll take a quick dive into what we have seen in the set, and point out some of the obvious highlights.

For reasons best known to the LEGO marketing team, first official images for this set came from the North American Shop at Home print catalog. Why does an online store still get a print catalog in this day and age? Are there that many sales that are placed by phone? These images were followed up with a scattering from the LEGO Certified Store in Singapore. Finally, on Wednesday, the LEGO online store listed the set, going on sale on Thursday 14th January. So, by the time you have read this, it has been available for the better part of a day depending on where in the world you are standing! (so long as you are a VIP at your local LEGO retailer, and they had stock in a timely fashion.)

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Getting Rid Of The POOP With Marvel Mechs (Hands-On Review 76168,76169,76171)

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Back in 2017, The LEGO Group released the NEXO Knights Power suits range. This was essentially a dumbed down range of Mech suits, which incorporated a new cockpit element for the seating of of the pilot. Fast forward to 2020, and there was a new series of inexpensive mech suits featuring Marvel characters: Iron Man, Spider Man and Thanos. I missed these, for no good reason. However, this year, we have another three Marvel Mech Suits released: 76168 Captain America; 76169 Thor and 76171 Mile Morales. the sets have around 120-135 elements, and retail for $AUD19.99/$USD9.99/9.99€/£8.99.

I am grateful that The LEGO Group sent these three over for me to take a look at: I have been curious to learn a bit more about mech building, and I am keen to see what these sets might teach me about designing a custom mech suit in the future.

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Expanding LEGO Super Mario with a trip into Wiggler’s Poison Swamp [Hands on Review 71383]

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We have been working through the second wave of LEGO Super Mario expansion sets lately, and we are almost at the end. Today I would like to look at 71383 LEGO® Super Mario™ Wiggler’s Poison Swamp Expansion Set. It has 374 pieces, the most of any set in the second wave of LEGO Super Mario, and is has a recommended retail price of 39.99 USD/EUR – 34.99 GBP – 59.99 AUD – 49.99 CAD.

Like all of the sets in this wave, the main biome is the Soda Jungle: purple (medium lilac) tiles and plates. If Mario is left standing on this colour for too long, he become stunned in stages – gradually entering a no-coin state. until the soda is washed off by standing in water, or brushed off by shaking him.

This set is an interesting build, and I found a few new building ideas included, as well as new elements in significant quantities.

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Maximise your time playing LEGO Super Mario [Time Bonuses]

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The arrival of new sets and software updates means that there are more ways than ever to extend your play time with LEGO Super Mario. However, these are poorly documented. While the traditional game runs for ‘around a minute’ I have found that it is possible to extend your game play to closer to three or more… Read on for more.

With the recent Christmas Break seeing families open new toys, I hear people talking about how they wish that they could play each game of LEGO Super Mario for longer, so that they can play through more and more of the collection of expansions that they own. True, the 60 seconds offered by the Green Warp Start Tile can be enough to play most levels through, but it is barely enough to play through Bowser’s Castle. Let alone other levels.

So… How can we maximise the time we have to play? And what is the longest time available to play, if all goes well?

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Spider Man Swings Into Action In 2021 (Hands On Reviews)

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There is no doubt that Spiderman is a popular hero. Indeed, he is the LEGO Marvel equivalent of Batman. What I don’t really understand is why he seems to be almost always presented in LEGO form with some form of vehicle or another. There are three new sets containing the traditional Spiderman figure, each with vehicles.

We are going to take a look at 3 of the sets released on January 1 2020, with a variety of villains, allies and vehicles. Some of which feel appropriate. Others less so…

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