The Rambling Brick recently attended the LEGO Fan Media Days with our Extra Pieces Collaborator, Jay’s Brick Blog. As part of the event, Fleming Bjørn Jessen, product manager for Powered Up provided an update on the current roadmap for the platform.
I’m a bit cross. While I am a bit disappointed with the new LEGO instruction manuals, rolling out this next half year, I am quite unhappy with the final reason given for it
This year, the company celebrate 90 Years of Play and has a run of events and celebrations coming up over the next few months. The LEGO Group have released a collection of historical/archival images of the products that the company have released over the years, as well as members of the family. Over the next few days, I will trickle out a series of posts covering these images. In the meantime, we have a newly released timeline of key events in the company’s history.
The January 2022 wave of LEGO Super Mario sets follow two specific streams: Luigi’s Mansion and the Beachfront. Today, I’d like to present the 71400 Big Urchin Beach Ride expansion set. You need either the Mario or Luigi Starter sets to play with this set in the way it is intended. The set has 536 pieces, and will be released on January 1 2022. This set was sent to me by the AFOL Engagement team of the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions, however, are my own.
After the previous wave of expansion sets focussed on two-player, cooperative play this wave returns to the roots of single player gaming, although the 2 player option exists, with all of the potential advantages that brings.
This set brings some familiar gameplay from the Super Mario Video Game, as well as a few new characters, and game mechanics. With this set, I will take a look at the Characters encountered, Any Bonus boxes, as well as hazards and obstacles encountered in the gameplay.
As with all LEGO Super Mario sets, building instreuctions are accessed through Digital instructions in the LEGO Super Mario App, or using the LEGO Building Instructions App. Personally, I find the App quite acceptable to use on a tablet – it also allows demonstration videos for game play. the Instructions Plus engine also allows manipulation of the model in 3D space as you build it, ensuring construction is clear.
MK’s friend Mei is descended from dragons (and in particular, a dragon that took on the form of a horse). As such, she has acquired a number of Dragon themed vehiclesover the last few years.The latest wave is no exception, bringing us 80031 Mei’s Dragon Car.
The set comes with 4 minifigures, 456 parts, 3 vehicles and an eye burning new colour. Due for release on January 1, 2022, it will cost $AUD 69.99 / £34.99 / $USD49.99 / 39.99€. How does this set stand up for play value and building experience? Read on to find out.
A few months ago, the LEGO Group announced their intention to eliminate gender bias from their marketing materials, ensuring that no set was going to be explicitly sold as a boy’s set or a girl’s set, but rather as toys for children. At that time we looked at the way that the marketing images in a number of LEGO® themes presented a degree of bias in their lifestyle ‘hero images.’
However, following this announcement, some people were concerned that it might spell the end of LEGO Friends. The theme was introduced back in 2012, as a result of focus groups suggesting that there was a large group of girls not engaging with LEGO Bricks. The theme is now enjoyed by boys and girls alike: embracing the everyday adventures in ‘real world’ settings.