Today, the LEGO Group and Nintendo have finally revealed the full product range for LEGO Super Mario. With Game Play based around a real world brick built world, along with familiar friends, enemies, power ups and hazards, LEGO Super Mario is set to change the way players interact with Mario, based on the interactive Mario Brick.
I have had the opportunity to try out some of the new range, as well as take part in a Q&A with Jonathan Bennink – the Digital Design Lead. I will be presenting the results of these over the next few posts. BUT if you want to see the full range of sets, read on. We have pictures of them all, as well as US/ Euro AND Australia and New Zealand Pricing!
Continuing with the ongoing strategy of marketing direct to AFOLs with the 18+ packaging, the LEGO Group and Disney today announce the forthcoming release on July 1 of their latest Direct to Consumer set: 41379 Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse Buildable Characters. This set has over 1700 elements, building two figures, and accessories. Each figure is over 30cm tall.
Under the old Creator Expert label, we could expect a train set released every few years. In the last decade or so, we have seen the legendary 10194 Emerald Night; the 10219 Maersk Train, the 10233 Horizon Express and the 10254 Winter Holiday Train. It must be time for a new one.
Today, LEGO unveils the 10277 Crocodile locomotive. With 1271 elements, and featuring the 18+ branding, where once we would see Creator Expert, this engine will be available from 1st July 2020. It will be priced at €99.99/ 899.99DKK/ $US99.99/ $AU169.99/ $NZ189.99. In Australia, it will be available from LEGO Branded retail, as well as David Jones department stores.
Unfortunately, no press release was forthcoming in advance of the announcement – so I am just going by what I can see in the photos:
LEGO Mindstorms has been a mainstay of the educational/robotics platform of the LEGO Product line for over 20 years now. Today, the LEGO Group has announced 51515 Robot Inventor, replacing the EV3 set, 31313, after 7 years. Based around the same hub as the Spike Prime ducational system (set 34567) .While Spike Prime is set to remain aimed at the classroom environment, the new Mindstorms Robot Inventor is much more a consumer set. Like the educational equivalent, it the new Mindstorms is programmed using a scratch like language, on either computer, tablet or phone. Unlike the other programmable Powered Up elements- such as Boost, Smart hub, or Technic Smart Hub- once the program is uploaded, the connection to the app does not need to be maintained for the program to run.
Read On for the Press release, and further thoughts:
The recent launch of the the Space X Falcon9, successfully delivering astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard their Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station has renewed public interest in the space program. And at a time when there are so many other problems affecting the world, a little excitement and optimism is what the world needs.
Space exploration has often been associated with this hope and optimism, as we see parts of the universe through new eyes, and discover that we can achieve things that had previously only been dreamt of.
A child excited by the the dream of space travel today might look at the range of LEGO City ‘Mission to Mars’ sets from 2019, and be inspired by such a future, as some of us were 40 odd years ago, when we first saw LEGOLAND Space.
Back in those days, we started with spacemen on a planet somewhere. They had a spaceship, a rover or a base. Or all three. They were all working together: no fighting, just cooperation in achieving the teams goals.
Regular readers of the Rambling Brick know full well that I am interested in the history of there LEGO Group, and of the bricks we build with. Therefore, you can only imagine how excited I was to hear about a new initiative from the LEGO House: Live, Online Tours of the History Collection:
Earlier in the year, we saw the arrival of LEGO DOTs: colorful tiles to put on over plates and bricks, available as bracelets and, in search of a better word, buildable homewares such as a pencil pot, jewellery stand and photo holders. There was also a supplemental pack, containing a mixture of round tiles, quarter circle tiles and a random assortment of printed round tiles.
There is a new wave launching at the start of June, and I was fortunate enough to find a couple of packs, amongst other June releases on the shelves at our local certified store a couple of days early. I picked up two packs of the 41916 Extra DOTS -Series 2, as well as some bracelets: ‘Go Team!’ And ‘Magic Forest’. Today, I will just look at the extra dots.
Earlier this year, the LEGO Group announced a forthcoming partnership between LEGO® Technic and Italian super sports cars car manufacturer, Automobili Lamborghini. Today, we see the official unveiling of the of the LEGO Technic set 42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. With 3696 elements, the set will be available on June the 1st 2020 from LEGO Branded Retail channels: online LEGO Store, Bricks and Mortar LEGO store/LEGO Certified stores, where open; LEGOLAND Parks and discovery centre shops. $569.99AUD – €/$ 379.99, £349.99
Following on in the tradition of the Porsche GT3 and the Bugatti Chiron, This 1:8 scaled model set is aimed at adult LEGO Builders, coming in the Black Box labelled 18+ that we have seen with some recent sets aimed at AFOLS (Haunted House, Star Wars UCS A-Wing and Helmets; Architecture White House).
The Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor show in 2019. The suffix FKP 37 refers to the late chairman of the Volkswagen Group, Ferdinand Piëch – who was born in 1937. The vehicle is a V12 Hybrid, and production will be limited to only 63. All have been sold.
After being closed for several months, due to the pandemic, LEGO® House today announced their plan to reopen to the public on 22nd June 2020.
However, it is important to stress that the opening-up of LEGO House will be gradual and controlled and with a very limited number of guests every day to be able to keep the physical distance needed according to the health authorities.
In which a global pandemic interferes with the Italian holiday plans of my wife and I. So we take a virtual trip, with the aid of a LEGO® Creator Expert Fiat 500 and some very bad Photoshopping.
In a COVID-19 free parallel Universe, my wife and I are currently flying from Rome to Singapore. We have been away for two weeks, arriving in Milan, visiting Cinque Terre, and Venice along the way. Probably catching up with some friends in the Italian AFOL Community as well. After a few days in Rome, we are on our way home, well rested: our first holiday away together for 4 years or so.
Of course, we do not live in that universe. But we were planning to be in Italy this month: Ann and I booked our tickets last November, back when our world was a vastly different place.
Subsequently, the world has been dramatically changed by the effects of the coronavirus. COVID 19 was just starting to reach epidemic proportions in northern Italy the week that the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 set was announced. The launch event at the Fiat factory was reduced to a live stream. Since then, much of the world has been in varying degrees of lockdown, and we are starting to come out the other side. So, while we are not able to travel from Australia to Italy, I thought we might take a virtual trip in search of La Dolce Vita – the sweet life – by constructing the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500, an icon of Italian design; and some bad photoshop involving our planned destinations. Along the way, I might have a bowl of pasta…
So, pour yourself a short black coffee, find a seat in the sun and read on…
