The year 2023 has passed us by, and it was chock-full of exceptional LEGO creations. As is always the case, it’s a mammoth task to pour over 365 days of posts to find the most outstanding one in that span of time. But we narrowed the field down to these five finalists in the running for our 8th annual TBB LEGO Creation of the Year award. We’ve got our top 5 picks listed below (in no particular order), and we’ll be announce the winner of TBB’s LEGO Creation of the Year 2023 later this week. Also, be sure to check out the LEGO Creation of the Year announcements for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 for all of our past winners. The first LEGO build on our list was a creation popular with the TBB staff as well as all of our readers (#5 in our Top Articles post). Kraken...

We’ve gathered our top-10 articles of 2023 based on clicks and views. Opinions may vary but keep in mind we’ve crunched the raw data and this is how it all shakes out. #10 Our first spot on the top-10 list harkens back to a time when flight attendants were on the forefront of style and air travel could happen at twice the speed of sound. The supersonic Airbus Concorde was retired over twenty years ago now but LEGO fans are a nostalgic bunch. LEGO launched the 10318 Ideas Airbus Concorde set in September and just the mere mention of it secured its corresponding article in our top-10 list with over 9500 views. #9 We reviewed the new and improved 43222 Disney Castle set and over 9600 of you decided that indeed this was the Happiest Place on Earth. With an updated color scheme, more gold filagree, and about 750 more pieces...

Let’s just deal with the major issue right away. When the official reveal for set 76281 hit, you could practically hear the collective gasp from LEGO fans around the world. An average of ten cents per piece tends to be the benchmark for judging the value of a set, but the X-Men’s aerial transport clocks in at nearly twenty-five cents per piece. I saw a lot of comments online from people writing the set off because of the price alone. So, exactly what is it that’s commanding such a lofty price tag? Back in the 90s, superhero cartoons were all the rage, and one of the most popular was X-Men. And Disney+ is about to debut a new animated series called X-Men ’97, a direct sequel to that previous animated adventure. And a new series means new merchandise, including a LEGO tie-in set featuring four of the most popular mutants as...

The east coast of the US is celebrating the calendar change over to 2024, and LEGO fans are celebrating the release of new sets at the beginning of another month. And with about 150 new sets hitting virtual store shelves, there’s certainly plenty to celebrate. This latest wave of new sets includes an interesting concept: a space-based cross-theme concept showing up in Technic, City, Creator, and Friends. Of course we won’t be able to cover everything, but check out a smattering of the highlights on this New Year’s Release Day below. And if you want to see everything in the new catalog, head on over to the LEGO website (US | CAN | UK). LEGO Ideas 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera | 516 Pieces | Available Now | US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99 You can read more on TBB’s coverage of the 21345 Polaroid OneStep SX-70 Camera from...

It’s been nearly six months since our first “Ace Parts Usage” article. In it, we sifted through hundreds of LEGO creations to determine our top 10 favorite build techniques from January through June of this year. If you’re unfamiliar, builds that feature particularly cool techniques are said to have NPU (Nice Parts Usage). We’ve seen everything, but occasionally we’re extra impressed by something new and unique – an “ace” parts usage. Although we’re about to announce our overall favorite builds (using several criteria) in the running for the TBB Creation of the Year , we want to honor some ace parts usage right here, right now. There were too many awesome considerations over the past 6 months, so we decided to give you our favorite 15 instead of our favorite 10. Join us as we count down the best of the second half of 2023! #15 – NPU out of ordinary pieces...