Lego

11377 LEGO® Icons The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith™ revealed: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Lord of the Rings

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It was December 27, 2001. The Knoller in Chief and I went to the movies to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary, as well as to enjoy a quiet night out with our two young children. It is hard to believe that this is now 25 years ago. Over the next few years, our wedding anniversary would be recognised as a chance to get out of the house together and catch up with the latest cinematic sage being released in the post Christmas period. We had both grown up with the Lord of the Rings and seeing the story translated into film was a defining moment in popculture for us both.

After the original run of sets based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit from over a decade ago, we have been getting a steady drip feed of related sets over the past few years: Starting with Rivendell, we have seen Barad-Dur and Bag End as ‘regular’ display sets, while we have also seen a selection of Brick Headz, a book nook, and more recently, Sauron’s Helmet. While our display spaces rapidly diminish, today, the LEGO Group are revealing their latest model: 11377 LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith.

This latest set will be available at the start of June (1st for LEGO Insiders, 4th for everyone else). It comes with 8278 pieces – measures over 23.5 in. (59cm) high, 24.5 in. (62 cm) wide, and 14.5 in. (37 cm) deep, and comes with 10 minfigures. It will be priced at $AUD 999.99 / £579.99 / €649.99 / $649.99.

LEGO set box for Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings, featuring detailed depiction of the iconic white city with intricate architecture, showcasing various towers and gates.
LEGO set box featuring the Lord of the Rings model, showing architectural details and mini-figures, including illustrations of its features on the sides.

Let’s find out more…

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11506 Rocking Plants still keep us Happy.

ramblingbrick Botanical Collection, Lego, Review , , , , , , ,
Two cheerful, colourful LEGO plant models: one in pink with a happy face and a single green sprout, and another in yellow with vibrant flowers, both titled '11506 Rocking Plants'.

Last year, the LEGO® Botanical theme gave us 10349 Happy Plants, anthropomorphic potplants with a whimsical grin and a green hairstyle. Botanicals has been one of the big successes in the LEGO portfolio over the past few years, bringing new people to LEGO building, and bringing others back after a many-year gap. Happy Plants was one of those sets that was relatively inexpensive, simple to build, and brought a delightful end result to the display space.

Knowing that when you are on a good thing, stick to it, it would appear that “Plants in small, whimsical smiling pots” is becoming a subtheme of Botanicals with the upcoming release of 11506 Rocking Plants. Adding to last year’s pale yellow and baby blue pots are bright pink and spring yellowish green versions, this new set brings some new gimmicks. But at what expense?

This set has 253 pieces and a RRP of $AUD 29.99 / $USD22.99 / £GBP17.99 / 19.99€. It is aimed at builders aged 9 and up and set to be released on May 1st, 2026. The LEGO Group sent these over to take an early look…

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75442 UCS The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter Revealed in Time for May the Fourth

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LEGO model of the UCS The Mandalorian's N-1 Starfighter, showcased on a desk with various items, with a caption celebrating its reveal for May the Fourth.

With the cinematic release of The Mandalorian and Grogu just around the corner, this year’s May the Fourth release brings us The Mandalorian’s Naboo N1 Star Fighter, with the Ultimate Collector Series Treatment.

With a load of Silver laquer elements, The LEGO Star Wars™ The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter™ (75442) set will be available for LEGO Insiders* Early Access from 1 May 2026, and available for all from 4 May, priced at $AUD429.99 / £229.99 / €249.99 / $249.99.

LEGO Star Wars The Mandalorian's N-1 Starfighter Ultimate Collector Series box featuring a detailed image of the starfighter, showing its unique design and parts.
LEGO Star Wars set featuring a detailed model of The Mandalorian N-1 Starfighter with a display stand and informational plaque.
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New LEGO® Builder Virtual: new digital platform development accelerated to offset looming raw material crisis.

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Geopolitical instability in the Middle East is threatening the supply chain of the petrochemical precursors to Acetyle-Butyl-Styrene, the primary plastic used in the creation of LEGO® Bricks. With the potential shortage of physical bricks, the LEGO Group have fast-tracked the beta testing phase of their new digital building tool, LEGO Builder Virtual.

An unladen oil tanker in more certain times

“We were not anticipating this supply problem to become significant until 2035, which is why we had accelerated our approach to developing sustainable plastics in recent years. The current situation has caught us short, with crude oil deliveries already slowing around the world.” up and coming digital luminary April Løjer explained from the LEGO Group’s new Digital Hub in Copenhagen

The Copenhagen digital hub, prior to its opening in 2024
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LEGO ICONS 11378 DC-3 Pan American Airliner

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A LEGO model of a DC-3 Pan American airliner, displayed on a stand with a plaque, featuring blue and white colours, alongside LEGO minifigures in pilot and passenger attire.

LEGO ICONs appears to be on a roll with its collection of large-scale aircraft. In 2023 we saw the 10318 Concorde, and last year we gained the 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft – a combination 747 and Space Shuttle. This April, athe 11378 DC-3 Pan American Airliner is being released. Introduced in the 1930s, the DC-3 was the first airliner to be able to cross the continental United States in only 18 hours, with 3 stops. Carrying up to 36 passengers, it had a top speed of 333km/h. The DC-3 was in production until 1942. While around 600 DC-3’s were built, its military equivalent, the C-47 Skytrain, was produced in the thousands.

The LEGO Group sent this set over for an early look, ahead of it’s April release – but all opinions are my own. Let’s take a look at the pieces, the minifigures, and the final build, and then consider reasons that might exist behind some of the design choices with this set.

Let’s take a closer look:

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Survey from The LEGO Group: The LEGO® Fan Compass- Helping Us Navigate Together

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The LEGO Group’s Deep Fandom Team is calling on the wider LEGO® community provide some opinions about the role LEGO Plays in you life, and how you engage with the company and the bricks!

“At the LEGO Group, the best part of what we do is the community that builds alongside us. 
We’re exploring new ways to really listen to you, and your feedback is a vital piece of the puzzle. We want to hear about your individual LEGO journey; what inspires you, what you enjoy, and where you think the hobby could grow. While we’d love for you to share this survey with your friends and fellow fans, please make sure your own answers reflect your personal views and habits. We’re here to listen to you.”

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LEGO Ideas 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket: Hands-on Review

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LEGO Ideas 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket set displayed with five astronaut minifigures and a dog figure, featuring a red and white rocket in the background.

I mentioned in the post announcing the upcoming release of LEGO IDEAS set 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket that this set represents a key factor in one of the earliest fandoms I was part of: I first read Destination Moon in January 1977, during the summer holidays. As the new school year began, I hunted the books down, eventually hunting most of them down through various school libraries over the following years. As I put the rocket together, I was excited by a sense of nostalgia as a childhood memory, now pop-culture icon, came into being on my desk.

I am grateful that the LEGO Group sent this copy of the set over in advance of the release on April 1. This set is based on the moon rocket from TKel86’s LEGO Ideas submission, which also included a gantry. In the design process, the team decided to focus on the rocket, which ties into the two books telling the story of Tintin’s journey to the Moon: Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. The rocket’s gantry is only a feature in the first of these. However, I might have some parts lying around the house, which I picked up for another project a couple of years ago.

During properation for this review, I had the chance to take part in a round table discussion with designers Jordan Scott and Ellen Bowley – I’ll add their insights as we go along…

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Destination Home! Tinitin’s Iconic Moon Rocket Arrives, thanks to LEGO Ideas.

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A stylish interior featuring a wooden shelf decorated with books, a red and white rocket model, and framed artwork. The image promotes LEGO Ideas bringing Tintin's Moon Rocket to life.

It’s January 1977 and 8 year old me is on holiday in New Zealand with my family and I am needing something to read. One day we are looking around in some local specialty stores (I seem to remember beeswax candles being bought at the time), and we take a detour to a book shop. I have never seen a tintin book before: More substantial than a 22 page comic – and with far more words than you might ever expect to see in tone too. I look over the shelves and one in particular catches my eye. Destination Moon. I am sure I was drawn to it by the large red and white rocket on the cover. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that the story continued in a second book, Explorers on the Moon. Not one to be deterred, I devoured every Tintin book that I could find in my primary school library.

Two vintage comic books featuring 'Destination Moon' and 'Explorers on the Moon' from The Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé, set against a golden background.

The appeal of this rocket is undeniable: for me, I first saw it in the years between the end of the Apollo program, and the arrival of the Space Shuttle. And it was not until a couple of years later that I realised that this book predated the original Sputnik launch in 1957 by several years.

Fast forward some 29 years to 2006 and I am sitting down in front of the TV with my kids, while we watch the 1990s Adventures of Tintin animated series on DVD. At some point in the next year, my son is given a copy of Explorers on the Moon: at last we have the complete story.

Fast forward another twenty years to 2026 and the LEGO Group are proud to announce that LEGO IDEAS set 21367 Tintin Moon Rocket. With 1283 pieces, and including five minifigures (and one dog), the set presents the Rocket from Destination moon and Explorers on the Moon in LEGO Form. Based on the submission by Tkel86, the final model has done away with the gantry from the original submission, choosing to focus on the iconic rocket.

LEGO set of Tintin's Moon Rocket, featuring a large red and white rocket on the box, alongside five minifigures in orange space suits.
Box art for LEGO Ideas rocket set featuring a large red rocket with white stripes, detailed interior, and five astronaut minifigures in orange jumpsuits.

Read on for more pictures and the official Press Release…

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The Evolution of LEGO® Dragons: Part 2 the Legacy of Galidor.

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A LEGO figure standing next to a red dragon model, with a text overlay titled 'The Evolution of LEGO Dragons Part 2: The Legacy of GALIDOR'.

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?

A row of colourful dragon toys in various designs, including a green dragon with red wings, and a black dragon with ornate patterns, accompanied by a large question mark.

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..

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40955 Maersk Dual Fuel Container Vessel

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A model of the 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel displayed on a wooden shelf.

The partnership with Maersk is one of the oldest that the LEGO Group has in its portfolio. The announcement of 40955 Maersk Dual Fuel Container Vessel was greeted with excitement (back after 12 years), apprehension (will there be more or fewer stickers than the 133 seen in 2014’s 10241 Maersk Line Triple E) and disdain (It doesn’t look like they have brought Maersk Blue back.)

The LEGO group have sent over a copy of the set: Let’s take a closer look and see if those concerns should affect you.

Box of the LEGO 40955 Maersk Dual-Fuel Container Vessel featuring a detailed model ship design with multiple containers, suitable for ages 12 and above.

The set is priced at $AUD249.99 / £139.99 / €149.99 / $USD149.99, has 1516 pieces and will be released on March 1, 2026.

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