Part of the appeal of playing with LEGO sets is the sense of nostalgia: a longing for things gone by. Part of the appeal can be relating to a third party franchise that appealed to you as a child, such as Star Wars, Superheroes (either type), Ghostbusters, Indiana jones or even Disney. Then, there is the appeal of playing with the LEGO themes which were important in your childhood. And this year, we seem to be getting more than a casual nod and wink to some of these themes that we have in years!
Happy Star Wars Day! I’d like to start by thanking some of our readers for sending in fresh scans and new photos of Catalogs and Magazines from the early days of LEGO Star Wars. In Particular Sue Ann B and Trevor C, David L, and El Davo. You guys rock. Now…read on
It was 1999, and I was still in my LEGO Dark Ages, but something was afoot. The LEGO Catalogue for the year opened with some themes, tried and true on the cover: Top left led off with a rocket blasting off from the LEGO Town – Spaceport; on the lower left we see the Adventurers theme, this year exploring the South American Jungle. The bottom right image brought us a new, original theme: Rock Raiders; And finally on the top right was an image that would change the way LEGO was looked at for ever. Star Wars. At this time, roughly 22 years had passed since the first film was released, and nearly 2 years had passed since the Special Editions had debuted, introducing a new generation to the joy of Cinema.
Australian Catalog cover 1999. New Scan courtesy of Sue Ann B and Trevor C.
This year, 2024, we celebrate 25 years since the release of those first Star Wars LEGO Sets, and on May the 4th, and here at the Rambling Brick we are going to revisit that first look we had at LEGO Star Wars back in 1999, by revisiting some of the publications that came out around the time: first the 1999 Catalogue entries, and then the LEGO World Magazine. Now… I thought I had some of these catalogues in the archives at home, and while I might, I was unable to locate them in a timely fashion, so I am grateful to the readers who responded to a distress flare the other night. [read on for new scans and long-forgotten mangazines]
One of the cornerstones of the LEGO® Star Wars 25th Anniversary celebration is the release of the art book ‘The Force of Creativity.’ Written by editor of Blocks Magazine, Graham E. Hancock, the book promises to be “The ultimate treat for yourself or a Star Wars gift for a fellow fan,” but priced at $AUD239.99/USD149.99/£129.99, a lot of people have expressed reservations at making the investment, particularly for a book that is essentially unseen at the time it goes for sale on LEGO.com.
I got to know Graham when attending the LEGO Fan Media Days in Billund a few years ago, so I thought I’d give him a call in order to find out a bit more about what might find inside…
Regular readers would be aware that I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at the LEGO City Space sets this year – and they have brought just about everything you could ask for from a LEGO Space theme, with the possible exception of a revival of vintage colour schemes and monochromatic spacemen. I recently discovered some more LEGO CITY sets in the bottom of that shipping box – those from the Fire Brigade. It has been a few years since I looked at this CITY Subtheme. However, since LEGO City has undergone a design renaissance over the last couple of years, I was keen to see how things might have changed and approached it with an open mind. However, at the end of the day, my inner space fan has found myself wondering if it is hinting at something else…
In recent years, we have seen more frequent use of the tile wedged between two studs on a brick or plate. And almost inevitably, the question will crop up in some online forum ‘Is this LEGAL?’ I wrote a little about this back in 2017. This topic of conversation has come up again most recently as a result of a small detail on the LEGO ICONS Concorde model, and has, I suspect, resulted in a surge of activity on that previous post.
Now, there is no LEGO Police (outside of LEGO City, LEGO Town and most recently LEGO Friends) who will come and enforce the way you have built your model: You do you. If it goes together in an aesthetically pleasing way, we won’t judge you. But it might put some of your LEGO Elements at risk…
Last year, I started to explore the way in which the LEGO® Castle theme has developed over the years. In our first installment, we looked at some of the ‘Pre-minifigure’ Castle history and continued to look at the way the Castle theme developed during the period of LEGOLAND Branding (1978-1991). In particular, we saw the development of factions, advanced use of landscaping, compared to other themes and the development of multiple animal moulds.
But what happened next? We have previously seen that 1990s were a period of diversification of material in both the LEGO Town and Space themes, with an increased number of factions and sub-themes. I apologize to those who have been waiting patiently for the follow up to last year’s article: Let’s take a look to see what happens in the realms of the Castle themes during the SYSTEM era..
If you live within coo-ee of a LEGO Branded Store, you will probably be familiar with the standard pick-a-brick cup. Coming in 2 sizes, they provide LEGO builders with a fantastic opportunity to load up on a variety of elements in bulk, with out having to deal with online ordering and delivery times. However, as a stackable truncated cone, they can be difficult to fill to maximum efficiency. Especially if you are looking to stock up on basic bricks.
Sometime between now and the end of March 2024, the Plastic pick-a-brick (PAB) cups are being replaced by cardboard boxes. This is in line with the company’s goal to ditch single-use plastics in packaging by 2025. [the imprecise rollout date is dependent on when regions deplate their supply of plastic cups.)
The LEGO Group sent over a sample of the boxes to evaluate: and so I set out to answer the questions that many people have about these boxes.
And quite a few that they may not!
But before looking too closely at them, let’s remind ourself of the cups that will be replaced:
I’ve just finished watching the first wave of episodes of Dragons Rising, and something struck my mind: Rapton, Lord Ras, and the Imperium Claw soldiers all fly the same type of small craft- a so called Chariot – which carries one rider and deploys a flotilla of drones to aid the hunters in their hunt for Dragons. That said, in the sets related to the series, the chariots are all a bit different to each other. At the same time they seem just a little bit familiar. And then there are the droids in the Dragon Power Spinzitzu sets…
And it got me thinking. Are these sets revisiting Classic Space, with a contemporary aesthetic?
LEGO® Minifigures: they add life to our sets and our MOCs as well as a little personality to the benchtop. Over the last few years, since the advent of the first Collectable Minfigiures, they have become increasingly intricate in their designs. In the life of a casual LEGO Reviewer, I realise that I have been making photographing my minifigures for reviews unnecessarily challenging for myself.
I might be finding aspects of my LEGO® life a little chaotic at present. Some of this is of recent doing. Some of it relates to things I did over a decade ago.
I am quite excited by the new LEGO of The Rings: Rivendell set. I can’t wait to share my review with you. It will probably be the highest part count set I have ever put together. Before I do that, however, of course, I will have to build it. and I thought I might like to compare the minifigures with those from the initial release, a decade or so ago. And then one thing drove out another, as it were.
As I mentioned in the announcement of the set, Middle Earth has a special place in my LEGO MOC history. I came out of my Dark Ages and started exhibiting at back in 2010, but that was just a simple, somewhat quaint and primitive modular terrace house, built without enough time to get all the right Bricklink orders in before the due date. As such, it is decorated in the style of a student share house, somewhere in the 1970s or early ‘80s, complete with a poor choice in decor.
