10325 Winter Village Alpine Lodge Revealed.

We are approaching the end of September, and around the world, people are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the annual Winter Village set. Today we can reveal that the set for 2023 is a warm and cosy alpine lodge. Over the last few years, we have gone from the fantasy of the Gingerbread house and the Elves clubhouse to the urban reality of Santa’s Visit, and the holiday main Street. This year, we are headed out of town, as we move towards the Alpine Lodge. With 1517 pieces, 5 minifigures and a brick built outhouse, the LEGO® Icons Winter Village set will be available for LEGO insiders from 1st October 2023 at www.LEGO.com/alpine-Lodge and LEGO Stores for all from 4th October 2023 priced at €99.99 / £89.99 / $99.99/ 899.0 CNY/ 169.99 AUD /129.99 CAD.

Continue reading

75367 Star Wars Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser officially Revealed

This year marks the the 20th anniversary of the Clone Wars – the animated series from Genndy Tartakovovsky – introducing new characters and events to the Star Wars storey, it helped to prepare viewers for the Revenge of the Sith in 2005 – introducing characters such as General Grievous, Asajj Ventress and more.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of delving into the mythos of the Clone Wars, the LEGO Group have today officially revealed a 5374 piece version of one of the the Republic’s Capital ships, the Venator Class Attack Cruiser. Priced at 649.99 USD/649.99 EUR /999.99 AUD/559.99 GBP /15254.9 TRY /263990.0 HUF /849.99 CAD/5499.0 CNY, the set will go on sale on 1st October for LEGO Insiders and on the 4th for everyone else.

Continue reading

Halloween BAM Figures Spotted in the Wild.

Here we are on the eve of the final quarter of the year and our local LEGO Certified Store has already put the new Build-a-Minifigure (BAM) elements in the station, and loaded up some new figures into easy to carry 3-packs. With closing time mere minutes away, I didn’t have the time to see if there were any other new figures to be found. You may or may not find any when you next visit your local LEGO Branded store.

There is a distinctive Halloween flavour in the air with some of these figures, even though there are still more than 2 months to that time of the year. Lets take a closer look (Special thanks to Tash for her work on this week’s cardboard cut out backdrop).

Continue reading

LEGO® Braille Bricks Come Home

When the LEGO Foundation’s support of Braille Bricks, as an aid to teach the Braille alphabet to blind children and their families was announced back in 2019, the acclaim was universal. When they started to roll out in 2020 to organizations involved in supporting the blind, people’s enthusiasm continued, although there was some disappointment at the fact that the bricks were not available for purchase.

Starting in September this year (pre-order available now, in some markets), the bricks will be available for purchase through LEGO.com. There will be two forms of the Bricks: an English version and French – the French version of Braille features around 14 additional characters, allowing for the different accent marks used, compared to English. German, Spanish and Italian sets will be available next year.

I’ll have my review coming soon, but you can read on for further details.

Continue reading

21342 LEGO® IDEAS Insect Collection Unveilled

I hope that this is not just a cloned version of Ramblingbrick .com, listed atanother site. If the words ramblingbrick.com are not in the address bar, you have been misdirected. I have no idea why they chose to clone my site.

Last September, it was revealed that @hackiruko42’s Insect submission to LEGO® Ideas was going to be progressing to the development stage. Today, we can present the final set, due for release on September 4 2023. With 1111 pieces, the set brings us a Morpho Buttfly, Chinese Mantis and Hercules Beetle. The set will cost $USD79.99/ €79.99/ £69.99 / $AUD124.99 / 33990.0 HUF / 2033.9 TRY /$CAD99.99. The three models within each set each come with a separate manual, to allow you to build with friends.

Continue reading

Take Off with the LEGO® ICONS 10318 Concorde

Growing up in the 1970s, it was apparent that the world was getting smaller: not so much by cumulative erosion by billions of residents shuffling along in their daily lives, but rather as air travel was becoming faster and more efficient. While air travel from the Antipodes to the rest of the world was most likely to be restricted to to 747 Jumbos and their variants, travelling at around 1037km/k (mach 0.84) my library books focussing on The Way Things Will Be In the Future reported that the Concorde has just started to fly across the Atlantic at over twice the speed of sound!

Concorde. by Eduard Marmet (retrieved 2023, August 10). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

The product of a collaboration between Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation, the first prototypes started test flights in 1969. In 1975, it received its airworthiness certificates, with commercial flights taking off in 1976 . The Concorde fleet flew passengers for British Airways and Air France between London/Paris and the United states – particularly Washington and New York. Typically carrying between 92 and 128 passengers. In July 2000, an Air France flight crashed shortly after takeoff killing all on board.The fleet was grounded for a period while safety modifications were rolled out. The Concorde Fleet was retired in 2003, with the final flight in November.

And so…20 years later, the LEGO Group have announced their latest ICONS set – a 2083 piece model of the Concorde. Over 1m long, this scale model will be available in September (4th September VIPs/7th September Everyone Else). It will be priced at $USD199.99/€199.99/£169.99/299.99 AUD/1699.0 CNY/4474.7 TRY/84990.0 HUF/259.99 CAD.

Continue reading

New LEGO® Star Wars Sets Revealed At San Diego Comic-Con

I have to admit, I am kind of excited for the new Ahsoka series (coming real soon now… or at least 23 August). And, after seeing a revamped Ghost unveiled a week or two ago, we have three new Star Wars sets revealed at SDCC today: Coming in September 2023: 2 from Ashoka (Ahsoka Tano’s T-6 Jedi Shuttle, and New Republic E-Wing™ vs. Shin Hati’s Starfighter™) and a new Buildable Sculpture…of Chewbacca

.

Continue reading

76417 LEGO Harry Potter Gringotts Wizarding Bank Revealed

Here’s your first look at the hi resolution images from the long rumoured Gringott’s bank With over 4800 pieces and 14 minifigures, it is designed to fit in to be part of your diagonally display. It will be released on September 1 for VIPs and 4th September: Everyone else. It is priced at AUD629.99/ USD429.99/ £369.99/429.99€

One of the first major releases since Discovery took over Warner Brothers, Wizarding world is now under construction in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products. A somewhat unwieldy name, if I say so myself.

this version of Gringots

Classic Pirates or Disney not your thing? Seek Peace with 10315 Tranquil Gardens

As the deep fandom from around the world migrates towards Brickworld Chicago, the LEGO Group is making sure that there will be something for everyone to be talking about once they arrive – Old school fans can talk about the Eldorado Fortress, while Disneyfans can talk all about the Ideas Hocus Pocus Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage revealed on Monday. Today: fans of contemplative, mindful builds get a look at the another Icons set: 10315 Tranquil Gardens.

Continue reading

10320 Eldorado Fortress Revealed: Another 80s Classic gets a Modern Makeover

And out of nowhere, the Lego group have announced 10508 El Dorado fortress: a reimagining of the classic 1234 from 1989. This set will be released on 4thJuly 2023 (VIPs; 7th July for others), has 2508 pieces and comes with 8 mini figures, along with a monkey (but perhaps not the classic monkey we nostalgically long for, but rather the 2022 version) as well as a small boat for the Imperials. It is priced at $aud329.99/$USD 214.99/€214.99/£189.99.

The fort can open up for classic play experiences after the kids have gone to bed, and can be closed up to help keep the living room table tidy. In its open configuration, the model measures over 10.5 in. (27 cm) high, 27.5 in. (70 cm) wide and 9.5 in. (24 cm) deep.

Continue reading