The new botanical Collection debuted in January 2021, and exceeded expectations for introducing a new range of LEGO sets, designed for display around the home. Bringing us 3 sets – The Floral Bouquet, Bonsai Tree and Bird of Paradise Flower – all suffering from ‘hard to getness’ in their first few months – the LEGO Group has now revealed two more sets for release on May 1, available to preorder from 15 April…just in time for Mothers’ Day in some countries (Australia included).
The new sets include an Orchid, designed by Mike Psiaki, and a selection of different Succulents, brought to us by Anderson Ward Grubb, lead designer on the Floral Bouquet.
This year seems to be the Official Year of the Diorama, with 3 LEGO® Star Wars dioramas announced last week, as well as one in Jurassic Park. Last week we took a look at the new LEGO Star Wars Diorama Dabobah Jedi Training Ground. With a clearly defined border, an exclusive R2-D2 minifigure, along with Luke and Yoda, this set gave us a glorious rendition of an organic swamp landscape, with different earth tones, greens, a swamp of varying depths and plant life. Today, I would like to go the the other extreme in design for these Star Wars models: occupying the same footprint as Dagoboh, the 75329 LEGO Star Wars Death Star Trench Run diorama features 3 visible colours in the scenery, a more induction, inorganic design than Dagobah as well as no minifigures, 2 TIE Fighter’s; Darth Vader’s Advanced TIE and an X-wing fighter – All in microscale.
So, how does it fare? Is it a reasonable build, with interesting details? Or is it a big slab of grey, missing all of the things that made the Dagobah set such a highlight in the release calendar for the year? Read on, and perhaps you might decide that this is the set you have long been waiting for. Or not…
It’s the mid 90’s, Ann (Knoller-in-Chief and fundamental emotional support for The Rambling Brick) and I are visiting some friends: she is a former work colleague of Ann’s. He is an audiophile, and has just bought a brand new CD Player, sound processor and a sub-woofer. We are listening to a demonstration CD including a collection of recordings, including amongst other things, the 1812 Overture – one of the gold standards up to this time for testing the bass response of your Hi-Fi system. Included on the CD is an audio extract from Jurassic Park – from around the 1 hour, 2 minutes and 10 second mark. The sound of running water – the rain – and a low frequency boom. Another. And Another. The glass of wine on the table starts to vibrate, and I am taken back to that night in the cinema a few years earlier. Lightning flashes, thunder sounds, and the Dinosaur roars before the track ends and the sound shifts onto the Blue Danube. At least I think it was the Blue Danube. It was a while ago and I was having a delightful evening.
But that scene: drama and danger, screaming and the shouting preceded by a low ground vibration remains one of the iconic scenes of the film. The T.Rex breaks through the no-longer-electrified fences, scaring the kids, eating the insurance company’s lawyer and knocking the car hither and tho. This new set, available in late April/early May, 2022 (pre order now on LEGO.com in some markets), has 4 minifigures and 1212 pieces. I am grateful to the LEGO Group’s AFOL Engagement team for sending me a copy for early review.
**apologies to everyone who thought this was real. As much as I’d like it, it was part of a hoax perpetrated for April Fools’ day, 2022.
Thanks for reading!
When the collaboration between the LEGO Group and IKEA was first announced several years ago, LEGO Fans around the world were initially excited. However, when it became apparent that the Bygglek boxes were limited in use for kids to clean their bricks off the living room table in time for dinner, AFOLs were left somewhat despondent.
Today, the next chapter in this great Scandinavian Corporate Lifestyle Collaboration is written. Not only have we received news of a new product, we have also been treated to a glimpse at the release roadmap going forward over the next few years. A new desk optimised for building LEGO sets promises to revolutionise the AFOL LEGO Building experience, providing solutions for all but the most common problems that AFOLs experience in their daily builds.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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?’
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.
