Yesterday a whopping 35 LEGO Ideas projects were announced for qualification review. Earlier this year, 26 sets were shortlisted for also achieving the 10,000 votes required for a submission to be reviewed. Achieving 10,000 votes is no easy feat as we’ve seen in the past, but with the recent support of projects skyrocketing, there has been chatter amongst the community if the rules should be tweaked or changed to bring it back down to more palatable numbers. This has prompted Hasan Jansen, Engagement Manager from the LEGO Ideas Team to share the official insights on what the decision point may be. The short answer is that things will remain status quo, and the sudden increase in the number of submissions and votes was assumed to be largely due to the current pandemic, which kept builders and audiences indoors, giving the opportunity to focus on creations and a wider reach for those...

According to legend, Wan Hu was the first man in space. How? By strapping dozens of rockets to his chair and then going for the ride of a lifetime. Well, he made it to space in some versions of the legend, anyway. In a lot of them, the chair (and presumably Wan Hu) just explode on the ground. But no matter which retelling sounds the most likely to you, you have to admire this brilliant LEGO recreation by Bert Van Raemdonck. I particularly like the way that the curved bricks in the robe create a sense of rushing wind. On the explosive edge, the billowing smoke formed by 4×4 domes in white work really well, as do the 1×1 cone bricks in red as the tips of the rockets. Wan Hu himself is just as expressive, with quarter-circle tile and curved slope brick creating the perfect expression of “maybe I didn’t...

Autumn doesn’t really start until later in the month, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get hyped up now for fall festivities. (After months of quarantine, I’m pretty sure time is meaningless, anyway. ) So who’s up for a haunted hayride? Oh. Right. COVID. Staying indoors is still the better part of valor, so maybe not. But wait! LEGO has come to the rescue! 40423 Halloween Hayride is available in North America from the LEGO Shop Online for US $12.99 | CAN $16.99.  But is this set a trick or a treat? Read on and see! The box and contents It’s been a couple of years since we’ve seen a Halloween Seasonal set. (The last one was 40260 Haunted Haunt back in 2017) This year’s offering recreates a popular North American tradition, the haunted hayride. We get a tractor towing a trailer full of hay, a spooky entrance gate, a jack-o-lantern, two...

LEGO store is practically giving away a total of 150 free VIP store points for simply answering a Harry Potter online quiz. All you need is 6 out of 9 answers right and you’re set to receive them almost instantaneously. Log in to the VIP Center to take the quiz. If you’re signing up a new VIP account, you can accumulate  an additional 50 points totalling 200 points if you pass the quiz. If you’re already signed into your VIP account, click here to go directly to the quiz. We do want to help you pass the quiz with flying colours, so here’s a refresher course on all things Harry Potter. Remember, all you need is 6 out of 9 questions answered correctly to grab the 150 VIP points. If you’ve been paying attention in class, use your wand to make the invisible appear! 1. What store in Diagon Alley has...

LEGO released the new Harry Potter Collectible Minifigures recently and Dishbrick placed the Weasley twins in the perfect setting: Brewing potions for their own practical joke shop. I like the use of the 5 point crystal and the power blast to show that the potions in the cauldrons are either exploding or steaming hot. Also the use of the back of the hidden side ghost faces as a bottled substance is very nice. But the best thing about this creation is the clever use of the lantern for the bunsun burner set up. The post Mischief Managed appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Bart Willen

For the past several years, my friend Steve Witt has been collecting the necessary LEGO bricks and fiddling with his design to produce a 7-foot-long (2.1 meter) recreation of a Paris-class UNSC heavy frigate from the Halo video game universe that he’s dubbed the Katara. After following his work-in-progress photos on Facebook and Flickr for five years, I’m very pleased to share this closer look at the finished ship, exclusive to The Brothers Brick. We’ll take a closer look at the details and share some of the build’s history in a moment, but let’s pause and take in just how massive a LEGO ship 7 feet long really is, with this photo of the builder working on it. From stem to stern, Steve’s Katara is packed full of greebly details. The front section bristles with communication arrays and sensors, and the brick-built numbering is just the first of many we’ll see...

LEGO just announced a new record of 35 submissions by fan creation  submissions to be considered for the second 2020 review, the highest ever amount since the inception of the programme for a single review period.  The first review earlier this year had 26 submissions, making it a total of 61 sets now in the pipeline of options for LEGO to decide what creations would be made into official LEGO sets. The qualifying entry period for these sets were between early-May and September 7 2020. These creations all had tremendous support from the community and the threshold to meet the criteria of 10,000 votes on the LEGO Ideas platform. Below are the 35 qualifying fan creations. 1. The Mountain Windmill by Hanwasyellowfirst 2. Community – Greendale Community College by bulldoozer 3. Lego HeroQuest by KingGloriousSquirrel 4. Brickwest Studios by Bricky_Brick 5. House from Up by bramant1 6. Animal Crossing New Horizons: Nook’s Cranny by Micro_Model_Maker 7. Trabant 601 by pedankopet 8. Night At...

Bionicle Day, 8/10 (810nicle), is behind us, and we’re catching up by celebrating some builds that incorporate the popular buildable figure elements from LEGO’s past. Blake Foster found inspiration to use Bionicle elements such as Macku‘s helmet and Hero Factory feet (ball and socket configuration) for the side of the hull. The standard blue LEGO Classic Space hue is an obvious homage to the 1986 LEGO Cosmic Fleet Voyager. Just don’t expect to see Benny fit into this space fighter, because it is micro-scale. After some quick research on novae, I get why Blake Foster named it “Nova Class.” It is akin to nova, the astronomical event where new stars form and explode, shining bright and slowly fading, just as Blake described how the build constantly came apart during its construction. For now, bask in its glow. The post The stars align for a classic space nova appeared first on The...

If you are from Europe and between 30 to 50 years old then this LEGO creation must be instantly recognisable for you. I am talking about Rickard Stensby’s Mr. Owl from the Daily Fable (Fabeltjeskrant in the original Dutch). Every day the wise owl would read from his local newspaper while perched up in his tree. He would tell the kids wonderful stories about the events taking place in Fableland, and especially the mishaps, quarrels, experiences and emotions of its furry and feathered animal inhabitants. Fablernas managed to capture the essence of Mr. Owl perfectly with his wise but gentle facial expression and his noble composure. The plumage is especially well done and resembles the source material perfectly. The original puppets were made from fabric. Also check out another LEGO owl we featured yesterday, though of the more wild variety. The post It’s time for your Daily Fable appeared first on...

As a response to the new methods of remote work and learning that many of us are experiencing from the global pandemic, CDW-G, Intel Corporation, and the LEGO Foundation are collaborating with the nonprofit organization First Book to start the Creating Learning Connections Grant (CLC). The grant will fund new learning methods for several thousand students and families in Title I schools in the United States impacted by the pandemic. LEGO says the students will receive critical at-home and in–the-classroom learning resources, including internet connectivity, technology devices, and hands-on STEAM learning solutions. Based on a recent survey data from First Book, 40% of children in the United States do not have reliable internet and almost as many are without access to functioning devices. The closure of schools in March exacerbated the digital divide, which was an existing issue in education. 45 school districts across the U.S. have been selected to receive...