To celebrate BrickNerd’s pirate contest, I wanted to look at the many sets that LEGO has produced over the years that contain ships or boats. The early days of the LEGO System focused more on the Town Plan theme, so ships were rare in those days. But as early as 1959, the box of Town Plan set 200 shows building suggestions that could be two ships. In 1968, LEGO released the first set with a ship as its main model: 343 Ferry. Minifigures weren't around yet in 1968, but this set was certainly “minifigure scale”. Minifigure-sized ships have since appeared in many themes like City, Pirates and Vikings, but you might be surprised to find ships and boats in other themes such as Adventurers, Indiana Jones and Vidiyo.  However in this article I want to talk about “Model Ships”. In other words, LEGO sets with ships that are not populated by...

Best of BrickNerd: Weekend Highlight — Article originally published July 15, 2021. Today I have the privilege to shine the spotlight on another one of my favourite builders in the community, Josephine Monterosso, or Jigsawjo as she is also known. I can’t remember when I first started to follow her work, but I am sure it was because I saw one of her robot-builds. She creates some of the coolest robots around, often with a fairly limited number of pieces, that have connections that will blow your mind. And if you think I have mentioned the word robot quite a few times in this opening paragraph, you might as well get used to it, because this article will showcase quite a few of them. So…robots, robots, robots! Here we go. Andreas Lenander: Hi, and thank you so much for chatting with BrickNerd! Please tell our readers a little about yourself. Josephine...

Best of BrickNerd: Weekend Highlight (in celebration of our “pi-RATS & BUG-aneers” contest)— Article originally published June 8, 2021. Ahoy, me hearties! Are you ready to set sail on an adventure through the history of classic LEGO Pirates? This immensely popular theme has undergone various renditions since its origins in 1989, but continues to attract numerous scallywags young and old. To understand this fantastic swashbuckling theme, let’s jump into a deep exploration of what made the “Classic” Pirates one of the most beloved and still loved product lines. Come with us on a treasure hunt through history, because it is time for LEGO Pirates 101 to begin! LEGO Pirates 101 An early promotional ad for LEGO Pirates in 1989. Image taken from 1989 edition of the LEGO Builder’s Club Brick Kicks Magazine. We’ll focus specifically on the classic releases, sometimes referred to as Pirates I, which spanned from 1989 until 2002,...

Yesterday at LEGO CON 2021, LEGO announced three new LEGO Star Wars Mandalorian sets one of which is called Boba Fett’s Starship (75312). Fans of Star Wars know that it is originally called the Slave I and was wondering why it isn’t called that when previous sets were also called the Slave I. Speaking at Fan Media Days, LEGO Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen said that Disney have asked for the Slave I to be renamed Boba Fett’s Starship, as noted by Jedi News. It was also stated that dropping the Slave I name is “probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use any more.” Disney has moved away from the word “slave” in past years with merchandise and marketing of “Slave Leia” and it looks like it has also been retired from the iconic ship’s name. Since...

LEGO has just released a press release regarding LEGO CON 2021 and its “great success” for the event. I wouldn’t say it was great but it was entertaining here and there. I did like the interviews with the various LEGO designers as well as NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. The interactivity with viewers was also decent especially with the LEGO DOTS mosaic. There were also some things that I didn’t really like about it. The main thing was the connection issues with the stream. I was watching/listening to it at work and suddenly there was silence. I thought my network went down but it was the actual stream that crashed and gave an error. I saw that others also had the same issue and I think it happened a few times. As for the set reveals, there were a couple of them, one for LEGO Ideas and one for LEGO Star Wars....

LEGO has revealed three new LEGO Star Wars sets that are based on the second season of The Mandalorian. All three sets will be available starting on August 1. Imperial Armored Marauder (75311) – 478 pieces/$39.99 Star Wars: The Mandalorian fans can play out action-packed battles between Greef Karga and Stormtroopers with this LEGO® brick model of the Imperial Armored Marauder (75311) from Season 2. • Includes 4 LEGO® minifigures: Greef Karga with a blaster pistol, 2 Stormtroopers with blasters and a new-for-August-2021 Artillery Stormtrooper with a mortar gun and backpack accessory element. • The buildable Marauder model has 4 stud shooters, including 2 on the rotating rear turret, 2 foldout blaster cannons (non-shooting), a LEGO® minifigure cockpit and a cabin for 2 LEGO minifigures. • This LEGO® Star Wars vehicle also has a lookout point (with an opening hatch) for a minifigure, plus opening ammo compartments to inspire creative play....

A few days ago when LEGO announced the winner of the LEGO Ideas Third 2020 Review Stage, they were also supposed to reveal the winner of the We Love Sports! as well. That was delayed until today for LEGO CON 2021 and they have just announced that the Foosball Table by Constructions by Donat has been chosen to become a LEGO Ideas set. It will now go to the production phase and be released at a future date. The post LEGO Ideas We Love Sports! Winner Announced appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

This is just a reminder that LEGO’s big event today, LEGO CON 2021, will be happening today at 12pm EST/9am PST. Tune in for a variety of activities just as interviews, building challenges, and even two LEGO set reveals as well. There’s the LEGO Star Wars reveal which is still the most interesting one but there’s also the LEGO Ideas We Love Sports! announcement which was pushed back a few days ago during the LEGO Ideas Third 2020 Review Stage winner reveal. You can watch the show at LEGO.com/legocon. The post LEGO CON 2021 Happening Today! appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

To get fans hyped for LEGO CON 2021 tomorrow, LEGO has put up a free item in the LEGO Rewards Center. For the low price of 0 VIP points, you can get the LEGO CON 2021 Wallpapers Pack which consists of wallpapers for your desktop or mobile devices. It’s nothing too fancy but free is free. Below is a sample of what you can get but there’s more images in various sized provided. LEGO CON 2021 kicks off tomorrow at 9am PST/12pm EST and there should be a LEGO Star Wars set reveal somewhere in there. I’m guessing it’ll be towards the end so people keep watching the show. The post Free LEGO CON 2021 Wallpapers Pack in Rewards Center appeared first on The Brick Fan. Original linkOriginal author: Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

For those who have been waiting for the new adidas Superstar shoe and the LEGO adidas Originals Superstar (10282) set to launch on July 1 over on adidas’s site, there is some bad news as both items have been delayed. We have been notified that due to some unexpected transportation delays, it won’t be available on adidas’s channel until July 30 but it will still be be available on July 1 on the LEGO Shop. This is only relevant if you have some rewards over on adidas but I’m assuming most of you will be purchasing from LEGO. There have been unexpected transportation delays on both the Superstar wearable and Superstar LEGO set, meaning adidas will be launching the Superstar wearable shoe and 10282 Superstar LEGO set July 30th instead of July 1st through adidas. 10282 will still be available via LEGO channels July 1st. The post LEGO adidas Originals Superstar...