I recently reviewed the upcoming LEGO® Creator 3in1 set 31116: Safari Wildlife Tree House, due for release on March 1 2021. Another Creator 3in1 set due for for release on that date is the 31115: Space Mining Mech.
The set has three alternate builds, all based around space exploration, and particularly mineral surveying/collection.
This Creator 3in1 set has 321 parts, and will retail for $AUD32.99/ £24.99 /USD24.99 and €24.99. As such, it looks like particularly reasonable value for Australians, where, after currency conversion, we seem to have the best value compared to these major currencies. So should we exploit this relative bargain and buy many? Read on for my thoughts.
Do you remember the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, LEGO Universe? The weekly podcast Bits N’ Bricks is discussing the history, production and and eventual demise over several episodes. This weeks episode explores the music and soundtrack of the game. To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of LEGO Universe, the remastered soundtrack has been released.
A couple of months ago, I put together the 31201 LEGO Art Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests (HPHC) mosaic, and I felt a little underwhelmed. But I think this was more a ‘me thing’ rather than an issue with the set: I personally didn’t feel a strong affinity with the source material, not really identifying with any particular Hogwarts House. I have heard from plenty of people who really enjoy the build, and want to build the set of crests, as well as the larger combination crest. So, as I said, it’s a Me thing. Perhaps I should have looked at a crest other than Hufflepuff’s?
That said, one positive point that I do appreciate is a large number of left over parts.
Of course, one of the stated goals for the LEGO ART range is not just to produce a mosaic which you could hang on your wall, but to also give adults an activity to focus on. You don’t need to hang your final result. you can dismantle it, and rebuild it as one of the other options, or even rebuild it as another image.
Despite personally feeling a little deflated by the HPHC building experience, I find the idea of building a LEGO Mosaic/Art set appealing. If you have followed my posts around the time of the range being announced, you will have seen my analysis of the value for money building the LEGO Art Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, either through the set or purchasing the individual elements (Spoiler – they sets are good value for the elements you receive).
I’ll have to admit, the notion of a mass marketed LEGO Set based on the mass produced screen print of Marilyn Monroe amuses me as a further extension of the pop-art movement. So, I thought I would set out to investigate whether I could rebuild the Hogwarts Crest as Marilyn. Therefore using a mass produced LEGO Artwork to produce a different mass produced artwork. Now, along with virtually all Building instructions, you can download them from the LEGO customer support website, OR you can access them from Building Instructions App.
The Australian Government are having a robust discussion with Facebook on the subject of paying charging the platform for distributing Australian generated content. This will predominantly benefit large media organisations such as Newscorp, Fairfax and SevenWest.
As part of upping the ante, Facebook has blocked Australian users from accessing any news sites, as well as blocking overseas access to Australian news sites through Facebook. Facebook’s definitions of news might vary from yours. At times today, it included emergency services and the Bureau of Meteorology.
As such, the typical LEGO Fan’s experience on Facebook is a bit broken.
At present, the following Australian Recognised LEGO® Fan Media Sites have had their Facebook pages blocked. For some of these sites, you cannot even share links from their page on Facebook. This block even prevents these Australian Facebook pages from being viewed overseas. You can read Jay’s take on the subject HERE. Facebook will not let you share, at all.
Australian Facebook users are also prevented from seeing some of the international LEGO® fan media, such as Brickset.com and the Brothers-Brick.com
This may be over tomorrow, or never.
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Facebook’s algorithm seems to approach things in an unpredictable manner: as such, while the Rambling Brick Facebook Page is currently blocked, links to my page can still be shared. For NOW.
Thanks for your time. More great content is being prepared including discussions with LEGO designers, set reviews and some rebuilds and creative projects, coming soon
Until then,
Play Well!
The Rambling Brick can be found on twitter @ramblingbrick
The Brickbuilt Facebook logo based on a design by Tiago Catarino
The Creator 3-in 1 sets are some of my favorite sets: as sets that encourage building, dismantling to build some thing else, againand again, the nature of the 3 in 1 set is the verry essence of LEGO play. I was fortunate to be sent a couple of the new 3 in 1 sets for review – the first, 31116 Safari Wildlife Tree House takes us to the savannah plains of sub-saharan Africa, with a number of fun builds, bringing the variety that we have come to expect from a Creator 3 in1 set.
The set has 397 pieces, and costs $AUD49.99/USD29.99. It comes with two minifigures, and goes on sale March 1st 2021.
We have been hearing a bit lately about the forthcoming Lego Vidiyo range – linked in with a new collaboration with the Universal Music Group. We know there will be Crazy Minifigures, Printed Tiles and an App. Today, we finally get a good view of all of the sets and figures to be seen in the first wave of this new line. With figures and tiles to collect, as well as the play aspect, releated to recording music videos using augmented reality, it is a very different type of theme compared to others we have seen before.
The recent Fan Vote for a 90th Anniversary set that has taken place on LEGO Ideas has reminded many of us of many of the great themes that LEGO sets have explored over the years. While Classic Space, Castle, Bionicle and Pirates were the themes that the public were most fond of, there were a number of other themes that we were reminded of. One of these was Ice Planet 2002: released in 1993-94. My friend Jay, over at Jay’s Brick Blog made an impassioned call for voting for this theme, but alas, it was unsuccessful. But there is no doubt that it is a theme that has its stalwart fans: certainly it has a striking aesthetic,so I thought I would take a closer look, to see what the theme brought to the Space sets at the time, as well as why it might be deserving of some greater love going forward.
A couple of months ago, we mentioned the new Unity x LEGO microgame platform, now online. Lining up nicely with the 25th Anniversary of LEGO Games, there is now a LEGO Ideas contest in pregress for creators of these games.
And everyone’s a winner! Well, Every participant will receive a custom, limited edition, Unity Minifigure.
But, that has been in progress for a few weeks now. Why the excitement today?
Early in January, we launched our ‘Create a Vase for the LEGO Bouquet’ competition. I am pleased to say that we had an unprecendented response, with 88 entries! I would like to thank everyone who took time out to design and build an entry in the contest. The quality of the entries was outstanding, and certainly challenged the judging panel.
From a Logistical point of view, I certainly found using the entry panel on Airtable to be an easier way to collate entries, rather than wrangling entries from multiple social media platforms: I hope it was satisfactory for entrants. I would love some feedback on your experience. Would you have liked access to view the entries as they were submitted? Were you happier not knowing? I have learned a few new things about it for next time.
Sometimes, LEGO Ideas feels like a simple process: a collection of sets reach 10000 votes, and they enter the review process. After 3-4 months, one or two get announced as proceeding towards development as a set. And a year or so later, they appear, in a slightly altered form on the shop floor.
But sometimes we are asked to wait. And so it was last September: the first review results for 2020 were in and, after four months of consideration, the Earth Globe was announced.
But one other Idea was declared to be ‘Still Under Consideration’: Sonic Mania: Green Hill Zone, by toastergrl. Today, four months after that original announcement, the LEGO IDEAS team have announced that this submission is now being developed for release as a set.
Typically, an Ideas submission is released around 12 months after the announcement. However, with Sonic’s 30th Anniversary coming up in June 2021, I find myself wondering if it might arrive a little sooner than early 2022.
Sonic the Hedgehog, as he appeared in LEGO Dimensions
Sonic the Hedgehog, a property of SEGA, was previously produced as a minifigure in a level pack for LEGO Dimensions, so the mold for Sonic is already in existence (important to consider, since LEGO Ideas is generally not in the business of handing out fresh molds for successful submissions. Since the LEGO Group have had a previous relationship with SEGA, this may well have made developing the set a little more simple than might be seen for other third party intellectual properties.
Steamboat Willie went from Confirmed to released in 6 weeks.Could Sonic also be on a rapid development cycle?
The previous record for development from announcement of approval to pre release announcement occurred in 2019, when 21317 Steamboat Willie was announced as approved on February 18, and then the final model announced on March 19 – for an April release. I suspect that project was well underway by the time that they announced its approval. Could this be the case here? We may (or may not) find out in the next couple of months.
So the actual news here is that the SONIC MANIA: Green Hill Zone will be made into a set, but at this point WE DO NOT KNOW WHEN IT IS LIKELY TO BE RELEASED. In the spirit of rampant speculation, I would like to imagine that it will be around the middle of the year, but I have no evidence of that, other that the fact that the world will be celebrating 30 years of Sonic the Hedgehog that month.
4th February 2021: LEGO Ideas® today announced they will be bringing SEGA’s® legendary speedster, Sonic the Hedgehog™, to brick form, thanks to a concept design submitted by 24 year-old, UK based, LEGO® superfan Viv Grannell. Viv, also a passionate Sonic fan, created her design as a submission to the LEGO Ideas® platform, a LEGO initiative that takes new ideas that have been imagined and voted for by fans and turns them into reality.
Viv’s design was inspired by SEGA’s critically acclaimed 2017 platformer experience Sonic Mania™, and features iconic characters and environments from the game’s Green Hill Zone level. Once the design was completed, it achieved the prerequisite 10,000 votes from LEGO fans worldwide – before being greenlit to go into production by the LEGO Group.
Talking about the winning idea, Viv Grannell said; “I’ve been invested in the world of Sonic for almost my entire life, and it’s such a perfect fit for the LEGO system that I spent about a year rallying support for it to happen. Having 10,000 people back my design was overwhelming enough, even with friends and family behind me, but having it be selected for further development was the most exciting secret I have ever had to keep!”
The Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone LEGO Ideas® design will now go into the product development phase, in partnership with SEGA® and once finalised will be available worldwide. Talking about the collaboration, Jason Rice, Director of Brand Licensing, SEGA® Europe Ltd, said; “At SEGA, we’ve always encouraged fans to take part in the legacy of the Sonic franchise through their own creations and it’s wonderful to see the tradition continued through the LEGO Ideas® program. We’re thrilled to partner with Viv and the LEGO Group, and hope to inspire fans to continue creating their own unique Sonic the Hedgehog™ experiences for generations to come.”
The Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone LEGO Ideas® design is the ultimate embodiment of Sonic the Hedgehog’s™ past and future as the franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary this June. Featuring a wide variety of elements inspired by Classic Sonic, the set will provide LEGO collectors and Sonic fans alike a truly supersonic LEGO experience.
Hopefully it wont be too long before we see what the finished product was like. Like Mario, Sonic is a character that so many people have grown up with, and unlike Mario, this has the potential to see a collection of favorite video game characters produced in minifigure form.
What do you think of the idea of a LEGO IDEAS Sonic the Hedgehog set? Why not leave your comments below, and until next time,
The Rambling Brick 
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