Lego

A Long Awaited Party: 10354 The Shire Revealed.

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Rumors have been floating around for months, and even an own goal scored by the LEGO Events team announcing a set-signing event in early April on the LEGO website a few weeks ago. Finally, we can show you 10354 The Shire.

This set brings us to Bag End and the location of Bilbo’s Party, as seen in the first part of the Fellowship of the Ring. With nine minifigures, including Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf the Grey, Merry and Pippin, we also have a couple of new characters, including Rosie Cotton and the Proudfoots. The set has 2017 pieces and has a recommended retail price of $AUD399.99; €269.99 £229.99 $USD269.99. It will be released on April 2dn to LEGO Insiders, and available to all on April the 5th.

In this post, We’ll take a quick look at the set. Then I’ll bring some of my history with the Shire: from Discovering the Lord of the Rings, visiting the Hobbiton sets and building my version of Bag End a year or so before the official set was released in 2012. Then we’ll take a look at some photos of the set from the Fan Media Days in Billund last year, and hear some words from Kenyon Brady, one of the LEGO Designers who worked on the set. Finally, we will get to the official Press release, as well as details of the Gift with Purchase, available when the set will be released in early April.

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Creator 3in1 31170 Wild Animals – Pink Flamingo [Review, featuring all 3 builds]

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This has been a bumper year for Creator 3in1: Over the past decade, we have seen between 13 and 17 sets (including polybags) released over the course of the year. Here we are at the beginning of March, and that count is already up to 12. We typically see a few sets released around midyear, so I wonder if we will be edging a little higher than average this year.

One thing that has characterised the sets that we have looked at so far this year (31162, 31163,61165) has been the emphasis on organic-looking creature builds, with a limited primary colour palette: we have seen quarter circle curved slope elements emphasised in medium stone grey, tan, and black.

The 31170 Wild Animals Pink Flamingo broadens this palette further with the addition of these curved elements in vibrant coral and a great collection of light purple elements.The box demonstrates 3 models: the titular Flamingo, an axolotl and a galah – a pink parrot renowned for wreaking havoc on both the local landscape and soundscapes here in Australia.

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40506: LEGO® Fabuland® Tribute. A love letter to fans of LEGO® Storytelling.

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I was all aflutter last week when the 40506 LEGO Fabuland Tribute was revealed. The idea of enlarging Fabuland figures is familiar to me: after all, I am now twice as tall and twice as round as a 5 year old. While I have previously reimagined some of these characters as Brickheadz, the interpretation here is much closer to the original figures with regards to their shape and function. But is it work a trip to Billund to pick the set up?

Yes it is. The End.

Sorry, you’d like some more details? please read on.

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Re-Discover the Age of Dinosaurs with the New 76968 LEGO® Jurassic World Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex

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Dinosaurs have a broad appeal, from the young to the old. Is it the scale? Is it the lure of the relatively unknown? Is it just because we really enjoyed being terrified by Jurassic Park, back in the day? Today we see the official reveal of the largest Jurassic World set to date: the 3145 piece Jurassic World Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus rex (T.rex) set. This is the largest LEGO® Jurassic World set released to date and offers a challenging and rewarding building experience for fans. Featuring a detailed T. rex fossil skeleton, over 1m (more than 3 feet!) in length, this set is sure to impress both builders and collectors alike. The set will retail for $AUD399.99/€249.99/£219.99/$USD249.99

Seven year old me is very excited. Six year old me would have been excited, but not had the patience to consider such a project.

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Why did I cry when I first saw this year’s LEGO House Exclusive set?

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“Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.”

It was the first day of Fan Media days 2024, and the team had us meet up at the LEGO House, where we were hearing about some of the upcoming plans. We made ourselves comfortable, while Stuart Harris, Master Builder at the LEGO house, sat in a chair next to a large black box with a question mark on it, opened a book, and spoke.

“It was a beautiful Spring Day in Fabuland and Edward Elephant was out in his garden…”

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I spent my weekend trying to recreate this Fabuland sticker from 71837 Ninjago City Workshops! Was it Worth it?

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In which I get distracted by nostalgic content included on a sticker in a Ninjago set I don’t have, do some colouring in, review 3265 Sandy Seagull’s Aeroplane and 3697 Flour Mill and Shop, do some figure matching and ultimately spend the weekend trying to reconstruct that sticker in photographic form. Will I succeed?

I’ve been a bit busy away from LEGO® bricks recently. While I have dodged much of the upcoming March Madness preview season, I also failed to mention that the 71837 Ninjago City Workshops is being released on March 1 2025. Had I mentioned this at the time that it was first announced, I would have also most certainly highlighted the fact that the set includes a Fabuland Reference: One of the panels includes a sticker that highlights several Fabuland Figures, a couple of Fabuland sets with the word ‘Fabuland’ plastered across the middle of the poster in Ninjago script. While I don’t have a review copy of the Ninjago Workshops, I do have quite few Fabuland figures and elements lying around the place; accumulated over the years from various sources. Let’s take a closer look at what’s featured in the sticker and see if we can recreate the view in real life.

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10362Parisian Cafe: Hands On Review/Designer Insights

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Today we look at the 10362 Parisian Cafe, first in the latest ICONS subtheme, Restaurants of the World. This set raised some controversy when it was revealed because of its low profile and closed back, in a world where so many sets either occupy a full 32×32 plate or open up at the back like a doll house. So, is this an exciting new direction for LEGO sets – reaching for a new casual audience, with limited display space? Or is there something for the established AFOL as well? Thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set out for review: all opinions are my own.

Let’s take a closer look. Along the way, we will gain a few insights from Designer Hoang Huy Dang, who I had the chance to talk with at a round table discussion about the set.

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Hands On with LEGO Art 31215: Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers [Review]

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LEGO Art has come a long way since its debut back in 2020. What started as a mindfulness exercise in carefully placing dot tiles or studs in pop art mosaics has expanded to a variety of pas relief from Comic Books to Renaissance masterpieces and Japanese woodcuts to modern sculpture. With the release of 31215, we see an ongoing evolution of the theme

How does this model stack up compared to LEGO Art sets that I have put together in the past? In this review, we will take a look at some of the building techniques used, how the set adopts several tricks and techniques used by Vincent van Gogh. Along the way, we will take a look at his fascination with sunflowers, and some of the highlights of the build for me. Finally, we will hang it on the wall. Probably next to Starry Night, and see how it looks.

This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

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42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion: A Grand Design brings a Bespoke Solution

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The Original LEGO Friends, Stephanie, Olivia, Emma, Mia and Andrea, have all grown up. Thanks to the narrative imperative induced by the Time Skip, they have now achieved a degree of success in their adult lives, while the series now focuses on a new group of friends, including Mia’s daughter, Autumn. Branko has taken a look at the Largest LEGO Friends Set Ever: 42639 Andrea’s Modern Mansion, which has recently reappeared after a few months on Backorder. His story behind the construction might not, technically, be canon, but the information in the episode that brings all the friends back together (Friends the Next Chapter:Series 2 Episode 11 Friends Reunite) doesn’t explicitly say it didn’t happen this way…

This set was sent out by the LEGO Group at the Rambling Brick’s Request. All opinions are our own.

Read on as Branko take a closer look at this Grand Design!

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LEGO Art 31215: Van Gogh’s Sunflowers Revealed.

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The LEGO Art range has come a long way since the first Pixel art pieces were released a few years ago, stopping off via the Great Wave, and the Milky way, and more recently the LOVE Sculpture. Today, in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the LEGO Group has officially revealed. the latest model in this series: 31215 Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

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