There are plenty of LEGO® sets that have been released over the past couple of years that have given builders the chance to put together some brick built flowers, but otherwise not formally labelled as being part of the Botanical Series.
The 40863 Flower Trellis Display is a novel set, bringing us some colourful flowers growing on a vertical trellis. It is a substantial build that brings a pleasing , unique floral model, arriving just in time for Mothers’ Day in May ( in Australia at least – other geographies might vary.) It is scheduled to be available April 1 – 16, with a purchase threshold from LEGO.com of: 150 EUR/ 150 USD/ 135 GBP/ 240 AUD.
Interested? Let’s take a closer look. This set was provided by the LEGO Group: All opinions are my own.
When I looked at 60343 Space Base and rocket Launchpad last week, I felt it was a fantastic set, with a lot to offer: A base, crane, rover and space craft, all in the one box. Just what you need to start a moon colony. But at $USD135/$AUD250, its a bit of a tall ask. Especially if you have already invested in a few of the other spacecraft this year. This set brings us a small base only for a much more palatable $USD35/$AUD70. Not only that: it can be used to extend the base in the larger set. But does it contain enough to get going with the play action? Let’s take a look
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes, all opinions are my own.
The Grand Prix has come to town (Melbourne this week) and to celebrate I’m taking quick look at the LEGO Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back. If I was better organised, I’d present the 42171 Icons version – designed for an adult audience. I’ll look at that in weeks to come. In the meantime, what better thing to distract the kids while you are building a larger scale vehicle than a small scale version of the same car, in a more playable format.
This year, the Role Playing Game Dungeons and Dragons turns fifty. I was about 5 years old at the time when Gary Gygax rolled out the first version of his tabletop role playing game. I took some interest in the 1980s:I was intrigued by the notion of creating your own world, and the variety characters you could create, and the monsters that could be encountered, but the game didn’t take off with my circle of friends at the time. It probably coincided with entering my LEGO Dark Ages as well. I was therefore surprised when I went to see the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honour among Thieves last year and I found myself seeing so many character types and monsters that I had read about in a nostalgic haze.
Flash forward to 2022, and LEGO Ideas announced a challenge for fans to design a set to showcase their favourite aspects of the Game. The winner of this challenge was Dutch fan Lucas Bolt. His submission “Dragons Keep: Journey’s End” brought a tavern, a ruined castle with caves and crypts, to say nothing of a couple of brick-built beasties. Today, the final product is revealed: with over 3700 pieces, this set takes Bolt’s original submission and bumps up the level of original detail.
Priced at $AUD499.99/€359.99/£ 314.99/$USD359.99/$CAD469.99, the set will be available on the first of April 2024 (and that’s no joke.) The set is also associated with a free D&D Adventure booklet available as a digital download, or as a paperback book with 2400 LEGO Insiders points
Dungeons and Dragons publishers, Wizards of the Coast, are owned by Hasbro, and this represents the 3rd collaboration with the toy giant/entertainment company, following on from Transformers Optimus Prime released in 2022, as well as Peppa Pig DUPLO sets, also due for release in April.
It is not uncommon that the largest set in a LEGO® CITY wave is some form of ‘omnibus set’ – containing a ‘best of ‘ of the range. The largest set in the January 2024 range of LEGO City certainly gives us this: a truck, a crane, an airplane and air traffic control tower, a laboratory and a cafeteria. Along with plenty of minifigures and pets, and a bit of scenery for good measure. Just not where you may have traditionally found them: it’s not downtown or the outer suburbs, but rather outer space.
This year’s trans-theme Space branding has generated a significant amount of interest between AFOLs of a certain age, particularly those who might have grown up with themes from the 80s or 90s. The sets appearing in LEGO City have been suitably impressive, offering some great value, not to mention play experiences at the lower end of the range. This set has lots of minifigures, a planet based rover, a building with a laboratory, as well as roof top crane, and command tower. The shuttle features a detachable module which can be used to transport scientific specimens from point A to point C. These were all integral features of Space Base sets that were available ‘back in the day’.
So, how does the largest set available at present shape up? Let’s take a look at 60434 Space Base and Rocket launchpad, the largest set in the current wave of CITY Space. At $AUD249.99/$USD134.99/£124.99/€139.99, this set has 1422 parts- close to the fantastical ideal of 10US cents/part. The set sits well and truly in the realms of the omnibus grandparent set: at the top end of the range – typically reserved for special presents from grandparents, containing multiple different play scenarios.
In which a long weekend craft project gets a little out of hand…
Its allegedly early Autumn here in Melbourne. We just had a long weekend. Associated with three days in a row where the temerature was 38ºC /100 F. So I set about a little craft project. I have found my attempts to review the last few LEGO Space have been stymied somewhat by the lack of space. In particular, the Command Rover and Lifting Crane, along with the Space Bace and Launchpad are both substantial sets.
My Current Cardboard Cutout Planetary background
If you have been following The Rambling Brick for a while, you will have clued into the fact that I enjoy using a bit of cardboard cutout scenery for themes such as Town, castle, Space… and even extending more recently to Ninjago and City.
This time, I am ready for something a little larger. So, for the public holiday, I took on a little project…
Its March 10. And in its own special way, this becomes Mar10 – Mario day. To celebrate, the LEGO group have posted a video revealing 3 new LEGO super Mario Play sets, for release in August 2024. In addition to this, LEGO MarioKart has been teased for 2025.
Today, Branko returns to look at the largest of the LEGO Technic 2024 Space sets. It keeps the white, light grey and reddish orange of City Space sets, but does it fit in? Read on to find out!
This year LEGO is really pushing the space concept across a lot of different themes which reminds us that LEGO plays across borders and you can mix an match to your heart’s content. For Technic it is quite new to offer such a clear connection for play to the minifig scaled worlds of LEGO City and Heartlake City. As we explored recently with 42178 Surface Space Loader, the space themed Technic sets promise to provide a playing platform for minifigs, although no minifigs are included in the sets.
How does this behemoth fit in this idea? Does it integrate nicely with other themes or is the scale not right? Join us on a journey to explore how minifigures and minidolls experience the largest of the Space Technic play-sets released so far, and how this set fares by itself, without minifigs.
The 42180 Mars Crew Exploration Rover contains 1599 pieces (a lot of pins) and retails for AU$ 199.99/£129.99/US$149.99/€149.99, which puts it among the range of largest Technic sets. It is not exactly cheap, even by Technic standards, but there is a lot happening in this set which we will explore further below.
Batman- The Animated Series first aired in 1992 on Fox Kids in the US and was sent out worldwide over the next few years. After first experiencing the Comic version around that time, I was rapidly hooked on the Art Deco design, a new broody Batman, and a virtual absence of any form of wisecrack which had defined the Batman of my childhood- syndicated reruns of the 1966 Batman series. That series may have had the most iconic Batmobile at the time. Still, the city was otherwise soulless, save for the occasional guest star that Batman and Robin would encounter as they climbed walls on the BatRope.
Today, we look at another smallish Ninjago set: 71815 Kai’s Source Dragon Battle.A couple of weeks ago, I took a look at Young Riyu. While a fun set, it felt like it was lacking something. The 4+ Ninjago set Kai’s Source Dragon brings us four minifigures, a 4-winged Wyvern (technically, as there are only two legs), some entrapping vines and a cannon. At $AUD39.99/$USD37.99/€37.99/£31.99, it is a bit more expensive than other smaller sets in the Ninjago Dragons Rising range this year. Let’s take a look and see what it has to offer:
