In part one, we looked at the development and history of the Classic LEGO® Dragon. Go on, read it now. It was posted nearly 18 months ago. Even if you read it back then, you might have forgotten some of the more salient points. The last variation of this appeared in the Adventurers Orient Expedition 7419 Dragon Fortress in 2004. But how did LEGO Dragons develop from here?
If you have ever gone questing for a dragon, you be aware that you must often undertake some type of side quest before you reach your final goal. Here is the first. There might be several others to come..
We have been taking a look at the 10366 Tropical Aquarium, coming out in mid November 2025. This is a large, expensive set, quite unlike anything that the LEGO Group has produced at this scale before. It’s not based on a renowned piece of Architecture, it doesn’t tie in with any preconceived cinematic universes, and neither does it follow up with one of the regular ICONs subthemes. It’s a 52 litre fish tank, filled with corals, plants, and fish of unrealistic provenance. However, I must admit, it looks quite neat. Impressive even.
Fish tanks often feature decorative elements within them. The Tropical Aquarium features a treasure chest, tucked away in the back corner, serving as a bubbler, along with a rock cave and shelf. However, beyond that, it is comprised of all plants, coral, and anemones.
In fact, it’s beginning to look like one of those colourful underwater layouts you often see at LEGO Conventions, with lots of hidey holes and scope for exploration and storytelling. This left me thinking about the broad range of underwater exploration themes that have cropped up over the years, and more importantly, made their way into my collection. And how they could add life to this set.
Let’s start with a quick look at some of the sets which I own (and some that I don’t), which feel as though they might serve as aquarium decorations .
I have a theory: Creator 3in1 sets and Collectable minifigures are the last bastion of the classic themes that we would love to see the LEGO Group bring back. Some of the August release Creator 3in1 sets – 31167 Haunted Mansion and 31168 The Medieval Horse Knight Castle – both seem to serve my point to a certain extent, calling back to Monster Fighters and Classic Castle, respectively.
In this review, we will look at the new Creator 3in1 31167 Haunted Mansion. This was released on August 1, and comes with 736 pieces and five unique minifigures. It is priced at $AUD149.99/ $USD89.99 / €89.99 / £79.99.
As I set out to review this set, I may have become distracted and started looking at other ‘Haunted Themes’ that we have seen across the years…
About 18 months ago, Rob Vangansewinkel’s Ideas submission based on a capsule toy vending machine was accepted. Today the final model has been revealed, and it is sure to excite many members of the broader LEGO community.
While the Vending machine is the primary build, fans are more likely to be distracted by the 16 minifigures encapsulated within. This set will be released on the 1st of June to LEGO Insiders and has a retail price of $AUD249.99 / €169.99 / £ 149.99 / $ 179.99.
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.
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.
I built a thing. This is not a specifically unknown concept. Each year, I build an original model for Brickvention, Australia’s AFOL Networking Event, which was held last weekend. I presented a MOC (my own creation) paying homage to the LEGO Adventurers theme from 1998. The amount of Lore that found its way into the MOC possibly warrants a post in its own right. Here it is.
It is now more than 30 years since the LEGO Dragon first appeared back in 1993 and in the 2024, the Year of the Dragon, they seem to be everywhere. Not just the Seasonal Asian Festival sets and Ninjago, but also in Creator, Disney Princess, Ideas, and Minecraft, for a start.
Introduction
In this series, I will look at the way that Dragons have been depicted in LEGO sets over the years.
We are celebrating the final half of season 2 of LEGO® DREAMZZz by looking at themes, books and more that made a point of inspiring kids to combine sets of multiple themes in creative play. We have already looked at the 6000 Ideas Book and explored the adventures of Max Timebuster throughout the 1994 catalogue. Today we move on to one of the themes regarded as a spiritual predecessor to DREAMZZz, the 1996-97 Time Cruisers.
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…
