Australia

Stone the Crows: Australia has a LEGO® Postcard [40651 Review]

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During 2022, we saw a number of small ‘iconic’ sets appear in the shops, representing great cities of the world: New York, Beijing, Paris and London. The latest in this series will be released on January 1st 2023: 40651 – Australia. That’s right: It’s not just Sydney, it’s Australia, Capturing the wide open spaces that encompass the nonurban centre of our country!

When I first saw it, I wondered where the Landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour bridge were. These buildings provide a quick cultural shorthand for Australia. However, a trip to the LEGO Australia offices (where both of these can be seen from the lunch room) revealed that to include these landmarks would have involved licensing arrangements, something outside of the budget for the postcard line – Leave that for premium marques within the LEGO group such as Creator Expert/Icons and Architecture. Likewise, sites of cultural significance to First Nations people, such as Uluru could not be included.

And so the postcard embraces Australia’s landscape, with a nod to the farming heritage, as well as a few things that are iconically Australian: the Gum tree, the cockatoo, the ‘roo crossing sign and the outback dunny.

As such, I can understand why the Australia postcard looks like this. So read on while we take a look at the set, kindly sent over for a prerelease review by the LEGO Group.

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Monkie Kid Commences Broadcast/Streaming in Australia

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The Monkie Kid LEGO® sets arrived around ten months ago, and the second year’s sets have just been released. and I am excited to discover that the series has recently arrived on Australian television. Last weekend, the Pilot episode was braodcast on 9Go, and is now available to stream using the 9Now app. The series is available in full for New Zealand residents to watch on TVNZ’s on demand website. New Episodes are braodcast on 9Go on Saturday 10:00 am (Eastern Australian Time), and repeated at 4:50am Sunday! They are broadcast as double episodes, back to back. Episodes can be viewed after broadcast the 9Now website/App.

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Facebook Vs Australia

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So… very little LEGO® content in this post:

The Australian Government are having a robust discussion with Facebook on the subject of paying charging the platform for distributing Australian generated content. This will predominantly benefit large media organisations such as Newscorp, Fairfax and SevenWest.

As part of upping the ante, Facebook has blocked Australian users from accessing any news sites, as well as blocking overseas access to Australian news sites through Facebook. Facebook’s definitions of news might vary from yours. At times today, it included emergency services and the Bureau of Meteorology.

As such, the typical LEGO Fan’s experience on Facebook is a bit broken.

At present, the following Australian Recognised LEGO® Fan Media Sites have had their Facebook pages blocked. For some of these sites, you cannot even share links from their page on Facebook. This block even prevents these Australian Facebook pages from being viewed overseas. You can read Jay’s take on the subject HERE. Facebook will not let you share, at all.

Australian Facebook users are also prevented from seeing some of the international LEGO® fan media, such as Brickset.com and the Brothers-Brick.com

This may be over tomorrow, or never.

If you wish to ensure you see our latest posts, why not signup for our mailing lists, bookmark our links in your favorites, put us in your RSS feed or follow us on other social media platforms. If you want to share a link with us, do it using Twitter, Instagram or Good Old-Fashioned Email.

Facebook’s algorithm seems to approach things in an unpredictable manner: as such, while the Rambling Brick Facebook Page is currently blocked, links to my page can still be shared. For NOW.

Thanks for your time. More great content is being prepared including discussions with LEGO designers, set reviews and some rebuilds and creative projects, coming soon

Until then,

Play Well!

The Rambling Brick can be found on twitter @ramblingbrick

The Brickbuilt Facebook logo based on a design by Tiago Catarino

IKEA Announce the Australian Release Date for their LEGO Collaboration: Bygglek

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Several months offer the launch in the USA and Europe, IKEA Australia have now announced that the Bygglek collaboration with the LEGO group will be available for purchase, in store and online, from February 17th 2021.

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New LEGO® Certified stores Coming to Adelaide and Melbourne before Christmas.

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When we spoke to one of the executive directors of the Alceon group – the company rolling out a lot of the LEGO® Certified Stores around Australia – last year, we had high hopes for a rapid rollout of LEGO® Certified stores around the country. Then the COVID-19 pandemic, with its associated retail lockdowns and looming recession came along, and those plans were put on hold for a while. In the last week or two we have seen announcements for a new store at Marion in Adelaide, and a second store in Melbourne, at Highpoint shopping centre.

This is along with the opening of a store in Charlestown Square in Newcastle, back in August. In recent weeks, hoarding has appeared outside the store in Marion, and yesterday we heard the official announcement for the new store at Highpoint.

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Rollout of Further Australian LEGO Certified Stores Confirmed

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Alceon, owner of the Flagship certified store at Bondi Junction has today announced the opening of a second Sydney store, as well as New Zealand’s first LEGO Certified Store in Auckland, in the next few months. The new Sydney store will be in the Broadway Shopping Centre, Glebe. Continue reading →

Lego Certified Store to Open at DreamWorld on the Gold Coast

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Australia’s first ‘Lego Certified Store’, is set to open in November 2016. It will be located at Dreamwlogo_dworld, on Queensland’s Gold Coast.  The shop will cover an area of 350 square meters, and as a Certified Store, is designed in partnership with the LEGO group. Construction is due to begin in July.

Owned, and operated by Ardent Leisure, Dreamworld’s parent company, the new store will feature exclusive products releases and events. Being located at Dream World, the LEGO Certified Store is looking to add to the attraction of the precinct, which is one of Australia’s top tourist destinations.  There will be access to the store from outside and within the park: so you shouldn’t need to pay to get in.  How much you pay before you leave is, of course, up to you!

LEGO Certified Stores are owned and operated by third parties, as opposed to LEGO brand stores seen throughout Europe and USA (which are owned and operated by LEGO).  The store layout is  fairly consistent around the world, and includes a ‘real’ Pick-a-Brick wall, a ‘Brand Ribbon’ display of assembled models, and the ‘Living Room’ – an interactive play area.

With tourist numbers in South East Queensland continuing to increase, the LEGO Certified Store will become a destination in itself for many LEGO fans, young and old, into the future.

This news follows on from the announcement of a LEGOland Discovery Centre opening  in Melbourne in mid 2017, at Chadstone shopping Centre.  It will be interesting to see how the retail experience to be offered there will differ to the one on the Gold Coast.  The shops operating in LEGOland parks around the world are NOT operated as LEGO Brand Stores, and exclusive sets are not generally available to be purchased there.  LEGOland Parks and Discovery Centres have been operated by Merlin since 2005, not the LEGO group.

Discussion on various forums regarding other LEGO Certified Stores around the world suggest that Pick-a-Brick walls, where you can fill a cup with a selection of pieces from wall mounted containers, are not a guaranteed feature.  PaB purchases are also more likely to be charged by weight rather than volume. The other significant difference with LEGO Brand Stores is the applicability of LEGO VIP points.  Apparently LEGO VIP points are not awarded at LEGO Certified Stores as they are in LEGO Brand Stores, nor can they be used to supplement your purchase.  Exclusive sets are sold in the LEGO Certified Stores, so this will be a great opportunity for travellers to pick these set up BUT fitting them into your luggage may not be the thing if you are looking to maintain that ‘Mint In Sealed Box’ experience. The Lego Certified Store is likely to offer polybags and monthly builds. It is unclear as to whether these will be the same offers seen at LEGO brand stores.

The rambling brick is excited by this  development, but is still going to visit Billund and other stores in Europe this year! Gold Coast will have to wait…

The full press release for today’s Announcement can be read here: Continue reading →