Lego

Vibrant Coral

ramblingbrick Lego

I have been assembling 80102 Dragon Dance- a beautiful set introduced as an Asia Pacific Exclusive to celebrate the Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year. In this set I finally got to see a round 2×2 tile in the new colour, Vibrant Coral. Introduced with many different elements in the LEGO® Movie 2 set 70828 Pop Up Party Bus, this colour has been described by some as ‘just so neon’ or a little unusual and difficult to photograph.

Googling ‘Vibrant Coral,’ I learned that many corals gain their vibrant colours from zooxanthellae algae. The single celled algae derive their nutrients by using photosynthesis, and the coral provide shelter to the algae in return for some of the nutrients. Death of these algae occur during ‘coral bleaching’ events. Some of these algae produce greater levels of pigments in response to sunlight, and some also demonstrate fluorescence: glowing under ultraviolet light. I am pretty sure, however, that there are no algae growing on my mint from box LEGO Elements.

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News from Nuremberg: Technic Control + (Rampant Speculation follows, again)

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About a year ago we heard our first information about the new Powered Up wireless control system, incorporated in the latest generation of LEGO City Trains, as well as the App Controlled Batmobile. The Bluetooth controller/phone app interacting with the wireless hub has met with a mixed response, especially in the LEGO railroad modeller community, with concerns about the number of outputs, range and interference from other Bluetooth devices. One thing that was conspicuous in its absence last year was a hub solution that was compatible with LEGO Technic.

Today, we have received news from Spielwarenmesse – the German Toy Fair – of a new control hub to be incorporated in two new Technic sets this year LEGO Technic Control +. One, 42100 – the second half year Flagship model based on the Liebherr R9100 Excavator, the other: 42099, based on a 4×4.

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Anniversary Alert: 50 Years of LEGO® DUPLO® Bricks

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We love a good anniversary celebration here at the Rambling Brick, and recently, we have had plenty! Last year we saw 60 years of the Brick, 40 years of the Minifigure, 30 years of the Helicopter Transporter and 20 years of Mindstorms. This year we celebrate 40 years of Fabuland, 30 years of LEGO® Pirates and 20 years of LEGO Star Wars. And one more thing.

Today we celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the first announcement of LEGO DUPLO®. The year of the Moon Landing, Woodstock and the airing of the first episode of Scooby Doo was also the the year that the LEGO Group first released the DUPLO Brick.

Aimed primarily at Toddlers, DUPLO Bricks have been the introduction to the LEGO system of play for millions of families over the last 50 years.

Not the first Big Brick, but possibly the most interesting

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Countdown to the Lunar New Year [Year of the Pig 40186 – Review]

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We are now counting down to the start of the Year of the Pig. This year, we have seen a number of sets released to commemorate this event, as the LEGO Group seeks to increase its market share in Asia. We have previously mentioned 80101 New Year’s Eve Family Dinner and 80102 Dragon Dance – these APAC exclusive sets have been in high demand: literally flying off the shelves as soon as they arrive. We have also seen the release of the Brickheadz Dragon Dance Guy, and the Year of the Pig 40186.

This last set is one I would like to look at today. The fifth in the series – following on from previous sets Year of the Dog, Year of the Rooster, Year of the Monkey and Year of the Sheep – 40186 The Year of the Pig is available as a Gift With Purchase at selected locations now. In Australia, it is available through the LEGO Certified Store (GoldCoast), LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Store (Melbourne) and selected Myer Stores (including their online store). Before you get to take it home, however, you have to spend $88 in store. I found mine at Myer Doncater, during the closing days of their stocktake sale ( which meant that most LEGO® sets were selling for 20% off).

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An AFOLs Guide to Overwatch #5: Bastion [Review 75974]

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In which I seek further advice from the game playing teenager around the house for a backstory, try my hand at knolling- only to fail, and then take every Overwatch player’s favorite Omnic out into the garden…

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking over the new line LEGO® sets based on the video game Overwatch. I have not spent a lot of time engaging with the franchise previously, so I have had my son Harry providing some commentary on the back story behind the characters. Hopefully, this will help AFOLs who are unfamiliar with the back story to feel more aware of the underlying backstory, and nature of the characters depicted in the sets.

Today, I am going to look at set 75974 Bastion. This is not the first time that we have encountered this robot, searching for meaning: we previously saw a smaller version, with a different skin late last year – that set – Omnic Crisis Bastion is exclusively available through the Blizzard online store, and can be found here.

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What’s the Story in 2019?

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I like to imagine that, in part, the Rambling Brick celebrates the joy that the LEGO Brick brings to our lives. In 2018, we celebrated a number of significant anniversaries, for significant aspects of our hobby – all of which have had a notable impact on the way we build and play with our LEGO elements.

Last year, we celebrated:

  • 60 years of the LEGO Brick
  • 40 years of the minifigure
  • 40 years of the first evergreen themes: Town, Castle and Space
  • 20 years of Mindstorms
  • 10 years of LEGO Ideas and Architecture.

All of these have influenced us, and the way we interact with our LEGO Elements over the years. We also saw some less significant anniversaries in 2018, such as:

In 2019, what will we celebrate?

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New Instructions Plus Adding a new lease of Life to LEGO Life.

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Have you had the chance to put together any of the new LEGO® sets for 2019 yet? Had you noticed the appearance of the QR Code on the front page of the instructions? This 2D Barcode is designed to be scanned by your mobile phone. If you scan it with your phone (current iOS software automatically detects the code and asks if you would like to open the web at lego.com. This invites you to download the app, and then recapture the image from within within the LEGO Life app – and then magic happens.

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