Month: March 2022

Playsets Grow up with 75330 LEGO® Star Wars™ Dagobah™ Jedi™ Training Diorama [Hands-On Review]

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I’d be fibbing if I were to say that this new range of dioramas did not take me by surprise. Of course, I’d also be fibbing if I were to say they made no sense. The history of movie scenes displayed at LEGO conventions has involved AFOLs setting up scenes from their favourite films and television series for the audience to admire. And so it was only a matter of time, given the current targeting of the Adult Market, before the LEGO Group started to produce fan favourite scenes from movies they share a licence to. This new range of dioramas presents the source material in a more appropriate fashion than might be expected in a playset, laden with play features, but not specifically designed to present us with comprehensive scenery.

This new range of dioramas brings us highly detailed vignettes, in a relatively small space, using techniques that you might have only previously find tucked away in the darkest corners of flickr, with occasional elevation to the front page of the Brothers Brick or Eurobricks.

There are three dioramas available for preorder at LEGO.com: 75329 Death Star Trench Run; 75330 Dagobah Jedi Training and 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor. We currently expect 75330 and 75339 to be available from April 28 while The Trench Run has been delayed for delivery on May the 5th 2022.

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Announcing LEGO® Bricktales – A New digital adventure from Thunderful and LEGO® Games

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Announced today, LEGO®Brick Tales is a new puzzle-based, digital adventure from Thunderful Studios called. We are missing a few details (including platform, price and release dates- I’ll update this post when they become available). This game takes the player through a variety of challenges, typically involving brick based construction, in a beautifully rendered world.

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LEGO Star Wars Diorama Series Revealed: Coming April 26th; Preorder Now

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It’s almost April, and this means it must be time to start seeing some new Star Wars sets in preparation for May the Fourth. This year, we have something a little different: rather than focus on playsets or vehicles, this year we are seeing another 3 sets aimed at adults, based on pivotal moments in the A NewHope and The Empire Strikes Back

The LEGO Group is unveiling a new collection of LEGO® Star Wars™ Diorama building sets to help fans relive their favourite scenes from the original trilogy in LEGO brick form.

The three new sets span iconic scenes from Star Wars: A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back to give fans a new way of exploring their love for the early films while building a model they can proudly display once complete.

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Retro-Review:928/497 Galaxy Explorer. A Set That Defined A Generation

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There are a lot of classic LEGO® sets. There are a good number of LEGO Space sets that might be declared to be classic. But there is probably only one set that is almost universally recognised as being emblematic of not only Classic Space, but perhaps the entire early Minifigure era. Bringing together a ship, a buggy and a base, along with 4 astronauts, 928 Space Cruiser and Moon Base, also known as 497 Galaxy Explorer was not the first playset of the era: you might consider the 374 Fire Station or the 375 Castle as being the other sets with this position – and they were released a year earlier, in 1978. And they contained more elements. Galaxy Explorer was not even the first of the space playsets – we had the 483 Alpha-1 Rocket Launching base come first. But still, there is something about the set which just says ‘This is Classic Space’.

I would dare to say it might even be iconic!

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Classic themes: Defining Classic Space

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The recent arrival of the 2022 LEGO City Space sets has left some people myself included, wondering if the spirit of Classic Space has returned, while others remained unsatisfied, stating reasons of not enough blue and grey, an absence of transparent yellow, or that the blue in the windscreens was just not dark enough. But what does Classic Space actually mean?

Virtually everyone will agree that the period began in 1978, with the release of the first LEGO Space sets to feature minifigures. But when does it end? And what is it that makes those sets ‘Classic Space?’

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Great Scott: 10300 LEGO® Back To The Future Time Machine Revealed!

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“You made a Time Machine? Out of a DeLorean?”

After months, maybe years of speculation, the LEGO Group have revealed a large scale model of the Time Machine from the 1980’s Back to the Future Movies. Based on the Delorean car which underwent significant conversion at the hands of Doc Brown in the Universal Movie ‘Back to the Future, ‘ the set is due for release on April 1, 2022 (honestly). It will be priced at £149.99 / €169.99 / 169.99USD / 269.99 AUD / 219.99 CAD

The model is 35 cm long, 19cm wide and has 1872 elements, including two minifigures, as well as an information plaque similar to those seen with UCS Star Wars sets, as well as the Star Wars Buildable Sculptures.

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Princess Peach Joins LEGO® Super Mario [August Lineup Revealed]

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The LEGO Group have just teased the forthcoming (second half-year) LEGO® Super Mario sets, this time including Princess Peach in the lineup. Hopefully, we shall get more news for Mar10 day for the forthcoming wave. I expect we shall be getting a new starter pack, as Princess Peach appears to be a new digital smart brick, similar to Mario and Luigi. We also have the debut of Ludwig Koopa.

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71402 LEGO® Super Mario Buildable Characters: Series 4. Biomes, Coins and Mysteries.

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Here in Melbourne, it’s March the 10th, Mar10 Day, and to celebrate, we have a new review. This time it is 71402, Series 4 of the Buildable Characters. This set was released at the start of the year but has only just started to become available in Australia. I was fortunate to be sent a box of 18 figures by the LEGO Group for review.

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International Women’s Day 2022: New Portraits.

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This year, to celebrate International Women’s Day, I have revisited some of the minifigures I have which are based on real-life, inspirational women, and taken some new photos. It’s short and simple and didn’t cause me to develop the same level of mental anguish as attempting to work out whether or not LEGO Star Wars was doing a better job with more female minifigures, as I did last year.

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Taking a Test Drive with the 60348 Lunar Rover [Hands On Review]

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The new LEGO City Space sets are drawing heavily on the LEGO Group’s Classic Space Heritage, as well as design mockups for the Artemis Program – the NASA’s planned return to the moon in 2024. As I discussed in my review of 60350 Lunar Research Base, the theme is drawing design cues from Space sets of the 80’s, along with a reimagined Classic Space Logo.

Today, I’m taking a look at the 60348 Lunar Rover – AUD49.99 – which I picked up at a local toy retailer. It is now available through LEGO.com and other retailers. The model is inspired in part by the Habitable Mobility Platform (HMP) proposed for NASA’s Artemis program and it also draws on the traditions of Classic Space rovers from the 1980s. It is the least expensive of the City Space sets currently available.

The HMP is a pressurised rover, with the ability to travel some distance from the proposed Lunar Base Camp, without forcing the crew to spend all their time in bulky EVA suits. Essentially an RV for the astronauts. As such, it should be possible to drive the vehicle in shirt sleeve comfort.

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