Lego

Stressful Legalities? Wedging elements between studs

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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…

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71462 LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant Revealed

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Every year, around this time, we see an adult focussed set drawing inspiration from LEGO Super Mario: be it the Retro TV, the Mario 64 Question Mark Cube or the Mighty Bowser. These sets have drawn heavily on nostalgic aspects of the Super Mario games, to present an artefact that has certainly been a talking point in many households around the wolrd. Each of these sets has had a suitably impressive price tag attached, too (priced from 300-400AUD This year, perhaps as a sign of the times, with cost of living being what it has become in 2023, the scale has been somewhat reduced. This year’s adult focussed LEGO Super Mario set is a shelf sized model of the Pirhana Plant. With 540 pieces, the set will be released on November 6th and priced at $AUD94.99/$USD59.99 / €64.99 / £57.99.

Over recent years, the LEGO Group have been responsive to the cries of adult fans – Give us more, give us bigger – and now it has become apparent that the major problems that these large LEGO sets have give AFOLS are related to two major factors:

  • one is cost with the previous adult focussed Super Mario sets, we have seen prices starting at $USD199.99
  • another is display space. I love the look of the new Concorde, but at over 1m in length, there is no doubt that I have nowhere to reasonably build it or display it without causing major disruption to the family living spaces.
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10325 Winter Village Alpine Lodge Revealed.

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We are approaching the end of September, and around the world, people are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the annual Winter Village set. Today we can reveal that the set for 2023 is a warm and cosy alpine lodge. Over the last few years, we have gone from the fantasy of the Gingerbread house and the Elves clubhouse to the urban reality of Santa’s Visit, and the holiday main Street. This year, we are headed out of town, as we move towards the Alpine Lodge. With 1517 pieces, 5 minifigures and a brick built outhouse, the LEGO® Icons Winter Village set will be available for LEGO insiders from 1st October 2023 at www.LEGO.com/alpine-Lodge and LEGO Stores for all from 4th October 2023 priced at €99.99 / £89.99 / $99.99/ 899.0 CNY/ 169.99 AUD /129.99 CAD.

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Halloween BAM Figures Spotted in the Wild.

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Here we are on the eve of the final quarter of the year and our local LEGO Certified Store has already put the new Build-a-Minifigure (BAM) elements in the station, and loaded up some new figures into easy to carry 3-packs. With closing time mere minutes away, I didn’t have the time to see if there were any other new figures to be found. You may or may not find any when you next visit your local LEGO Branded store.

There is a distinctive Halloween flavour in the air with some of these figures, even though there are still more than 2 months to that time of the year. Lets take a closer look (Special thanks to Tash for her work on this week’s cardboard cut out backdrop).

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New ways to Play with the LEGO® City 60367 Passenger Airplane

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Aircraft are vital for creating connections between cities – both in real life and LEGO® Form. The first Minifigure Scale passenger planes debuted in the mid 1980s, and were relatively similar in design until 2006, with the arrival of large scale wing elements.

The New LEGO City 60367 Passenger Aircraft builds on the revitalization of the LEGO City reboot that we have seen this year. It brings us details that we have never seen executed in any of the dozens of airplane sets over the years, be they in Town, City, Friends or DUPLO. We have new livery, vehicles, uniforms and even a couple of characters that can be found in other aspects of LEGO City.

Join me as we check out all the new features and new ways to play with a LEGO Airplane.

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Jurassic Jeeps And Other Designer Insights [Designer Q&A]

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A little earlier this year, I put the two 2023 Jurassic Park sets containing the iconic Jeep Wrangler side by side, as a comparision of building techniques. I found the jeeps to be sufficienty different in the way they were constructed that it raised a few questions for me. I had the chance to put a couple of these questions to members of the design team, thanks to the LEGO Ambassadors Network. It was initially intended to address these questions at a round table meeting, but for various reasons, we ended up getting questions answered by email. I’d like to thank the team for taking the time to answer these.

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Announcing the LEGO Insiders Treasure Hunt: Scan YOUR existing BRICKS for the chance to win

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Following on from last week’s announcement of the LEGO® VIP Program being rebranded as LEGO Insiders, the team are excited to announce the LEGO Insiders Treasure Hunt, giving you the chance to win 1000000VIP/Insiders points over the next six weeks. There will also be millions of digital downloads available for those taking part.

NOTE: the Sweepstakes are only open to Insiders Members resident in: Australia, Canada, Denmark (not Greenland and the Faeroe Islands), Metropolitan France (not French Overseas Departments or Territories, or Monaco), Germany (not Heligoland), New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom (excluding channel islands and the Isle of Man) and the United States.

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LEGO Super Mario: 71424 Donkey Kong’s Tree House [Review and Playthough]

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We have entered the 4th year of LEGO® Super Mario releases: First we met Mario, and learned to play against the clock. In 2021, we were introduced to Marios bigger brother, Luigi, and learned to play together. Last year, we met Princess Peach, and learned to share gifts with each other with each other. With each year, we have seen new and innovative ways to play as well as a new range of buildable characters.

This year, it feels a little different: There is no new Electronic Smart Character, and no set of Collectable, Buildable Fuigures. We have two subthemes of sets: one takes us back to the earliest days of Nintendo’s electronic entertainment, with Donkey Kong, and his subsequent adventures; and another featuring more Koopalings in flying ships.

Today, we will take a hands-on look at the first of these sets: 71424 Donkey Kong’s Tree House. This is the only set to feature the buildable Donkey Kong, as well as his Grandfather – Cranky Kong. According to lore, Cranky Kong is in fact the original Donkey Kong from the Arcade Game all those years ago. After All these years, I wonder if he has any misgivings towards Mario…

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Minifigure Factory Headed to the New Sydney LEGO Store

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And it will be the largest LEGO Branded store in the World!

In a country renowned for its landmarks of ‘Big Things’: From the Iconic Big Banana and the Big Pinapple, Big Prawn through to the lesser known Big Rocking Horse and Big PotatoThe big Banana, Australia is set to be the home of the Worlds Largest LEGO Branded Store, opening In Coming Months, in prime position at the Sydney Arcade, overlooking the Pitt St Mall in Sydney’s CBD.

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21342 LEGO® IDEAS Insect Collection Unveilled

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I hope that this is not just a cloned version of Ramblingbrick .com, listed atanother site. If the words ramblingbrick.com are not in the address bar, you have been misdirected. I have no idea why they chose to clone my site.

Last September, it was revealed that @hackiruko42’s Insect submission to LEGO® Ideas was going to be progressing to the development stage. Today, we can present the final set, due for release on September 4 2023. With 1111 pieces, the set brings us a Morpho Buttfly, Chinese Mantis and Hercules Beetle. The set will cost $USD79.99/ €79.99/ £69.99 / $AUD124.99 / 33990.0 HUF / 2033.9 TRY /$CAD99.99. The three models within each set each come with a separate manual, to allow you to build with friends.

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