For me, a highlight of every holiday season is the arrival of the LEGO® Winter Village set. Over the years, we have seen a delightful village and its shops, a market, train and gone off site to the North Pole, to visit Santa’s Work Shop, and the Elves Club House. And a gingerbread house.
This year’s set, Santa’s Visit, has been officially announced and returns to the village, where we have a new home being visited by Santa. The set has 1445 pices and will cost €89.99 / $USD99.99 / £79.99 /$AUD159.99 / $CAD139.99. It will be released through LEGO retail channels on October 1st 2021.
We knew something was coming when the LEGO Group teased a large cube like model last night, but I dont think anyone expected anything quite like this.
Its a ‘?’ cube, as featured in Super Mario 64 (celebrating 25 years this year), and from different panels, we have different microscale versions of lands from that classic game! With 2064 pieces, and priced at $289AUD/ $USD169.99/ £159.99 the set will be released through LEGO Branded stores on October 1, and in other retailers in 2022.
Welcome once again to Throwback Thursday, and our regular Builders’ Journeys. In this column, AFOLs write about a set that had a profound influence on them, and the LEGO® builder they were to later become. Today, we hear from Inez, known as @iv_lego, on Instagram.
Inez lives in the Philippines and has become renowned for crafting MOCs based on real-world flowers, particularly those native to her part of the world. But it turns out that there was one set that showed her the way towards using LEGO bricks as a medium to create these flowers and trees…
“When I started with LEGO sets in 2012, I knew immediately that I wanted to build plants and landscapes. At that time, the landscapes included in LEGO sets were still rather drab, and their trees were still very blocky. My first MOCs were trees, but they weren’t all that great. Probably because I didn’t know what I was doing. “
Football Stadia represent the tribal Colosseums of the modern world. In their simplest form, they represent places where your tribal heroes don colours and fight it out with the opposition, in front of their supporters. Of course, we live in a far from simple world, and before long, the trappings of big business and high finance enter the fray.
In 2020, we have seen the Old Trafford football stadium as well as the Roman Colosseum released in LEGO form. These structures are similar in form and purpose, although the nature of the contests within may vary. Perhaps it is only appropriate that this year, as the LEGO Group release a 5500 piece version of Camp Nou, the home base for FC Barcelona, it has been designed by Rok Zgalin Kobe, who has been responsible for the majority of sets released with the architecture badge in the last few years, as well as the Colosseum.
Certainly this model features a part count in between that of 10272 Old Trafford and the 10276 Colosseum, and more blocks of colour than were offered in the Colosseum set!
The new LEGO FC Barcelona Camp Nou set is fantastically detailed. Features include the stands, pitch, team tunnel, media boxes and even the team’s coach. The score board also references the club’s momentous 5-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in 2010 and two of the stands proudly feature the “Mes que un Club” motto that is known by fans around the world.
Welcome to another edition of Builders’ Journeys, where Adult FANS of LEGO present a set that was, in some way, pivotal in their development as a builder.
Today, we hear from Sue Ann Barber. Sue Ann has been around the LEGO Fan community for many years, and is one of the founders of MUGs – the Melbourne LEGO Users Group. I first met Sue Ann in January 2008, when I attended the public expo at Brickvention with my family. Her passion for the hobby was apparent, and she introduced me to the concept of being an Adult Fan of LEGO, and the concept of LEGO User Groups. As such, she is one of the people I credit with bringing me out of my Dark Ages.
Sue Ann is going to tell us about a set, released in 1974, that inspired her earliest attempts to create a MOC (My Own Creation).
The last time I was having a chat to adult visitors at a public exhibition (remember those?), something came up on more than one occasion: LEGO® Themes these days are not what they used to be. It used to be pretty simple – you’d build the set (and it was probably Town, Space or Castle. Unless you were a bit younger – then it may well have been a Pirates set) – and you’d pull it apart and build something else. It might be one of the alternate builds on the back of the box, it might be something completely different. It may not have even been related to the original theme.
These days, many sets thrive on 3rd party IP, and the majority of the in-house, story-driven themes are tied in with either an animated series or an overly complicated app.
For those of us yearning for a simpler time, in a world where things have become increasingly complicated, things are looking bleak! Unless you want to go straight to the 4+ sets.
Thanks for joining us for another Throwback Thursday, in which we take a look into our reader’s personal Builder’s Journeys. Take that old set that is important to you for some reason, and write up a paragraph or two about why it is important to you: was it your first set, the set that brought you out of your dark ages, or something else entirely?
This week we hear from Greg M aka @danishspaceprogram over on Instagram. Greg lives in Indiana, USA, and has graciously shared his story today, where he takes us to Iceplanet2002 to revisit at 6896: Ice Sat V.
This Imperial Light Cruiser forms the base of operations for Moff Gideon during the second season of The Mandalorian. The minifigure selection in this set is based on that final confrontation between the Mandalorian and Moff Gideon, with several other supporting cast from the season also included. This review might contain some spoilers for the episode.
The set has 1336 pieces, and 5 minifigures. It went on sale on August 1 2021, world wide. I was fortunate to be sent a copy by the LEGO Group for review. So, how does the largest regular set of the August 2021 wave stack up? Read on to find out.
Back in the mid 1970’s, I was prone to bouts of tonsillitis, and, as was the fashion back then, I went into hospital for a tonsillectomy. Apart from a spectacular bout of coughing up blood a few days later, everything was unremarkable.
But that’s not what I remember most vividly.
Certainly the diet of jelly and icecream were a highlight, but within 6 months I had forgotten them.
I remember receiving 687 Caravelle Aeroplane around this time. The wings were the first ‘non rectangular’ elements that I owned, the printed bricks were terrific as a way to represent the windows, and the wheels. They offered a special challenge.
Bowser’s Airship plays a major role in a number of the Super Mario Games, and the LEGO form has been long awaited by many fans. I should not be surprised by its popularity, we saw a couple of versions of the airship submitted in our ‘What Next for LEGO Super Mario?’ Competition. The ‘Bowser’s Airship expansion’ is the largest expansion set seen to date with LEGO Super Mario sets, with over 1100 pieces. It will be officially on sale on August 1st 2021.
This set was sent over by the LEGO Group for review purposes, and its certainly quite a different experience to the other sets I have built and played with for this wave. It will be prices at $USD 99.99/€99.99, £89.99 and AUD149.99
We will take a look at the parts, the enemies, and some of the ‘action aspects’ of the set, as well as a playthrough video.
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