2024

Illawarra Annual Brick Show 2024 Celebrity Brick Battle!

BrankotheFather Lego, LEGO Event , , , ,

Last weekend, Branko headed off to the Illawarra Brick Show. Along the way, he got caught up in a celebrity brick battle…

On the weekend of 20-21 April 2024, the Illawarra Annual Brick Show took place in Berkeley NSW. Organised by Gonglug, the event was raising funds for Kidswish, a charity in the Illawarra region which is committed to fulfilling the lives of children with disability or illness and their families through supportive programs, special events and community-impact projects, with a goal of building an inclusive community that can be enjoyed by all.

The show has a great vibe, more akin to a LEGO theme park than a LEGO display show, which I really enjoyed. Aside from many LEGO displays there were a lot of activities related to LEGO to keep kids entertained.

From memory there was:

Read on to see what the ‘Celebrity Brick Battle’ was about. No, it did not involve throwing bricks at each other… much.

Continue reading →

Complete August Dreamzzz Range Revealed

ramblingbrick DREAMZZz, Lego, Reveal , , , , , , , , , , ,

A few weeks ago, we got our first look at three of the sets in August’s Dreamzzz sets via the Mexican Certified Store. Today, the remainder of the August Dreamzzz range has been revealed on LEGO.com. We gain a little bit of an insight into some of the issues facing our heroes in season 2: Night of the Never Witch (due for release on May 17, follow the link to see the trailer) – including increased involvement from the Never Witch, dark doppelgangers of our heroes, Ravens, Puffer Jackets, red pandas and legally-not-Groot.

These sets are due for release on August 1, and I expect you will be able to find them wherever you buy your LEGO sets.

Read on for more details.

Continue reading →

Brickvention2024 is almost here! This time, it feels a little personal.

ramblingbrick Lego, LEGO Event, News , , , , ,

Brickvention 2024 is only a weeks away, taking place at the heritage listed Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne, we are excited to see AFOLs converging from around the country and around the world. The Public Expo is taking place on Saturday 20th January and Sunday 21st of January 2024. If you are planning to go, you can get your tickets here. Sessions are starting to fill up and some have already sold out. If you see me there, some and say G’day.

Continue reading →

31150 Wild Safari Animals? yes, Yes and YES

BrankotheFather Creator, Lego, Review , , , , , , , , ,

Today, I’d like to welcome Branko as a contributor to the Rambling Brick Team. He’s been providing some editorial assistance for a little while, and today we publish the first of his reviews. 

When LEGO recovered from their near bankruptcy, they re-focused on what LEGO does well; building different things with the same bricks. For me that was highlighted best with the animal sets, and this Wild Safari Animals box reminds me a lot of one of my old-time favourites: 4884 Wild hunters. That is a very good start.

31150 Wild Safari Animals is the largest of LEGO’s creator 3-in-1 set launched in January 2024 and will set you back AU$99.99/£59.99/$64.99/€64.99 for 780 pieces (pretty similar across currencies at time of writing). The tent-pole of this set is the tall giraffe with flamingo and tree, both of which are already great, but in addition alternate instructions are included for a lion with butterfly or a pair of gazelle. With this set you should not be wondering if you should buy it, but rather, should you buy one, two or more!

This box is filled with pieces in soft colours that are usually quite rare (Medium Orange, Nougat, Medium Nougat, Magenta, Dark Pink, Bright Pink), a nice build experience without repetition, and five models that each deserve to be seen

Isn’t there anything disappointing about this set? Surely LEGO cannot release a perfect set right at the start of the year? Read on to find out; there will be animals, there will be LEGO pieces, there will be Pilates with impressive core control and there may be a crocodile and perhaps even a tiger (in Africa?)!

I’ll look at three mains aspects of this set to determine its worth; the finished sets, the pieces provided in this set, and the experience of building these models. For a set to be considered perfect it will need to score well in all these categories, as well as a final value-for-money adjustment.

Continue reading →

Taking off with the new CITY SPACE: 60430 Interstellar Spacecraft Review & Swoosh testing!

ramblingbrick City, Lego, space , , , , , , , ,

It was 1979, February and I was now staring at the LEGO® Catalog for the 3rd consecutive hour. I was enarmoured with the new spaceships. Fast forward to 2014 and the time had come to patch the 918 shaped hole in my collection. The 928/497 Galaxy explorer may have been the Ulimate Space Playset of the era, but the one man spaceship just seemed to do all the right things for me. Zip forward another decade and it appears that LEGO City is heading into space in a new direction.

While I might have considered the 2022 NASA Artemis sets as bringing us most of the things that we needed in a Space theme, the models were rooted in a near-future reality that may well be achieved by the end of the decade. While the elements were there, some of the sets were rooted on earth. The other daunting prospect here was the cost of entry, with 3 large sets and one moderately sized one all starting at $USD 40.

This year we see LEGO City return to space, but it feels a bit different to the last time: it feels like the inevitable narrative time skip has occurred and we are now exploring the wider galaxy. We see recurring themes encountered in Classic Space: searching for minerals. Now we a re looking for opalescent purple crystals that can be converted into batteries; Investigating the genesis of life on Strange New Worlds and shipping it all back home. To say nothing of the big silver band sown the sid of the box saying “Space”

The astronauts have a variety of robots to help them, as well as a collection of new outfits and accessories. More on that in the near future.

I was really excited when the LEGO Group sent the new City Sets over look at. Then the challenging moment arrived: which one to look at first? The small one? The Big one? The one that sat somewhere in between?

And so I Opted for the 60430 Interstellar Spacecraft. With 240 pieces, but only one (exclusive) minifigure this space ship appeared to be one of the most swooshable in the theme. And it felt like it might be the model to bear the closest resemblence to Ye Goode Olde 918.

Lets take a closer look:

Continue reading →

MINECRAFT: 21251 Steve’s Desert Expedition

ramblingbrick Minecraft, Minifigures, Review , , , , , , ,

Now, I’m not going to lie: I haven’t spent a lot of time playing Minecraft. That said, I cannot deny what it means to the generation of kids currently growing up, even those in their early 20s, for whom it has been an integral part of their upbringing since 2009. That said, I was intrigued when some of the latest wave of Minecraft sets crossed my desk.It’s been a while since I have taken a look at any of these sets, and I’d like to thank the LEGO Group for sending these sets over ahead of time for review. I thought I’d start small, and take a look at 21251 Steve’s Desert Expedition: apparently the first LEGO Minecraft set where the action takes place in the desert biome.

The set has 75 pieces and comes with a Steve mini figure, as well as a baby camel and a flying Phantom. This year we are seeing a slight clawing back of the unfortunate price bump seen in 2022, and this set is one of those that represents the return of the small boxed set to the $9.99USD; $AUD14.99 pricepoint (compared to last year’s $17.99AUD for fewer pieces).

Lets take a quick look…

Continue reading →

LEGO® ICONS 10328 Bouquet of Roses revealed

ramblingbrick 18+, Botanical Collection, Reveal , , , , , , ,

After the release of the LEGO® Icons 10329 Tiny Plants earlier this month, today, we see the second major Botanical set for 2024 revealed:10328 Bouquet of Roses. Arriving just in time for Valentines day, the set promises a while slew of intriguing recolours and neat parts usage. This 822 part set will be released on January 1, costing $99.99AUD/59.99 EUR / 54.99 GBP / 59.99 USD /24990 HUF / 499 CNY / 79.99 CAD.

Continue reading →

There is Space for Everyone in 2024’s LEGO Catalogue…

ramblingbrick City, DREAMZZz, friends, Lego, preview, Reveal, space , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now that December is under way, German retailers Lucky Bricks and JB-Spielwaren have unveiled the majority of releases for January 2024 (and just a couple for March 2024 as well). The LEGO Builder App has got in on the act with these reveals as well, and there seems to be a recurring theme: SPACE. I was a childhood Space fan, and LEGOLAND Space with its red and white astronauts tickled my interest in just the right way back in 1979. Fast forward to 2024 and we see sets featuring LEGO Space Branding on the box, but also across multiple themes. How wide spread? We have seen it across not only City, but also Technic, Duplo, Dreamzzz, Friends, Creator 3in1 and Classic.

The branding takes the form of a diagonal silver cutoff, featuring the Classic Space LOGO with a purple planetoid and a red shuttle swooshing around it, and appears across the featured themes.

Lets Take a look…

Continue reading →

Brickvention 2024 Tickets On Sale Now: Public Expo and Convention Day

ramblingbrick LEGO Event, News , , , , , ,

January is still a few months away, but Tickets are now on sale for Brickvention 2024. The Public Expo will Take Place on January 20-21, 2024 at the heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.

With International borders now well and truly open, and a Melbourne Summer providing a welcome respite from the Northern Winter, there is also the chance for LEGO® Fans from around the world to attend Convention Day on January 19. This also includes admission for the duration of the public exhibition.

This year we will have over 300 exhibitors from across Australia and Around the World displaying their new and creative builds from a wide variety of themes and genres – there will be something for the entire family to enjoy. For the Die Hard Fans, there are still tickets available for the Convention Day – a day of games, workshops, talks and a chance to wander around the exhibits the day before the show opens to the public .

Continue reading →