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Hello all, Further to this post: Can anyone confirm if 42080 contains the revised pump variant, with the square, reinforced base? I know that the updated part was implemented in 2018, but I'm not sure if it made it into 42080. Thank you. -
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As modeled after previous years' discussion topics, share and discuss your thoughts on this year's best and worst offerings from The Lego Group, as according to the below posted criteria: Best Theme: Best Minifigure/Figure: Best Set: Worst Theme: Worst Minifigure/Figure: Worst Set: Most Anticipated for 2019: If you'd like to discuss the best and worst of recent years past, here are each of their respective discussion topics: The Best and Worst of 2017 by @Khscarymovie4 The Best (and worst) of 2016 by @BlockLogo The Best (and worst?) of 2015 by @BlockLogo The Best and worst of 2014 by @Robert8
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The final episode. The most demanded set of all Bricktober in the history. Is it the movie? Maybe. To me, more of the minifigures here that makes the difference. 5004938 - NINJAGO Minifigures 5004939 - TLBM Minifigures 5004941 - Classic Minifigures 5005257 - NINJAGO Minifigures (2018) 5005254 - Harry Potter Minifigures (2018) 5005255 - Jurassic World Minifigures (2018) Are you ready? Overview Name: 5005256 - Marvel Infinity War Minifigures Theme: Promotional \ Toys R Us (Bricktober) Year: 2018 Pieces: 22 pcs Minifigures: 4 Price: free with purchase of RM199 in Malaysia. Introduction All of them are exclusive to the set. You can find some of them outside but the printings are so different that you will like this version more than others. By going through them one by one, you will feel that it's a whole new experience of Infinity War after all. After they discontinued? Maybe they will be like SDCC exclusives? Okay, that's too much. Let's look into it. Box This box art is the nicest as Thanos is at the upper right corner showing off his fully powered Infinity Gauntlet. The most important number here is the 5005256 so that you can easily bricklink the set. LEGO version of Thanos. Clearer view without the plastic. Go protect Earth! Minifigures Wow! This is the most impressive war machine ever designed by LEGO! The accessories are still simple but the printings are exceptional! Let's look at it from the top to bottom. Helmet. It looks quite full with silver colored prints but when you open it up, you can see there are also printings at the cheek area makes it looked cooler than ever! Head. At the front is Ron Cheadle's smiling face but at the back you have a red coloured HUD printing! But here I think the red is too dark makes him looked like he had a punch in his left eye. Haha. Torso. The nanotech design looks very detailed with the chest piece that looks similar to Tony's mark 50. Back print is quite normal but the both side arm printings are phenomenal! Can we ask for side leg printings to make him complete? The left one is from the Airport battle set.You can see the new war machine prints are much denser than the previous version. The HUD prints are actually the same with Tony's version. The only difference is the colour. I think the red should be more transparent for it to look nicer. The side arm prints that is visible a little bit from the back here makes him look much nicer than the previous one. I can't take my eyes off of him. haha Here you can see the 004 indicating that this is actually Mark 4 war machine. See, the older one looks dull with nothing at the arm. Even Giant man wants the new one. Wong. The most anticipated character to appear in LEGO since the Dr Strange movie. The prints are very nice too. The red and blue colour combination of his robe makes him looks movie accurate. His Asian looking facial hair is also a nice touch to the minifigure. The 2x2 printed tile here is maybe one of the books in the library that he guards. Legs are well printed with the side ones too! Constipation at it's best. Tony Stark! He has side arm printings too! This hair captures the hair of Robert Downey Jr in the movie accurately. The grey jacket with the hood and the nanotech chest piece is also a very nice detailing to the minifigure. The startled face is also a very nice addition to this character. Wong! You are invited to my wedding. Bucky Barnes. This is him after cryo sleep and a new vibranium arm gifted by Black Panther, king of Wakanda. His beard is new and the use of gold colour for the vibranium arm makes it looks elegant! This minifigure also has side leg printings at the right side of the minifigure. The old arm was blasted by Tony so he had a new upgrade. Beard darkens in ice? I'm gonna get that arm. Conclusion I love this set so much as it completes my Marvel Infinity War collection! Everyone here is so amazingly designed, well printed and most importantly, EXCLUSIVE! Marvel fans, what are you waiting for? Review summary Design: 10/10 - Very nice design of minifigures that I have to give full marks for that. Minifigures: 10/10 - Can I be greedy to ask for the Collector to be added to this set as the fifth minifigure? Price / Value for money: 10/10 - Good luck getting them after they are discontinued. Be fast guys. Overall: 10/10 - Did I ever give full marks for any other sets? This is so awesome I have to put 10/10! I hope you enjoy reading my simple review and do express your comments below. Thank you and see you next October! All four sets of 2018 Bricktober.
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Viva Las Vegas! I haven't bought a LEGO set in quite awhile, so I went into the NYC LEGO Store while I was home just for a look around to see the new sets. I haven't really been paying attention to the news coming out, besides the beautiful Cloud City that was on display. But I digress, I was attracted to the Architecture Line wall where some sets were on display. I couldn't help but buy the new Las Vegas set even though I went into the store not intending on buying anything. I guess I just have a fondness for Vegas and all the colorful and interesting buildings that are there. I haven't been to Vegas for a couple years, but I'd always like to go back. Theme: Architecture Year: 2018 Pieces: 501 Prices: £34.99, $39.99, €39.99 Here's the front of the box. Vegas is very flashy and this set picks some pretty good landmarks of Vegas, following in the tradition of other Skyline sets. The back of the box shows what each landmark is. I've personally never heard of the Fremont Street Experience. All the others I've been to or seen. Here's the first page of the instruction book. It's a really nicely bound book like the other Architecture sets. Each page gives a really nice description of each of the landmarks included in the set. It's absolutely important to include the LLC after the Bellagio. I'll reference that again at the end in regards to something else. Every page of the book has a quote about Las Vegas from someone. I'm not sure who Jeff Maguire is, personally. Google says he's a screenwriter. Isn't this true? There's a couple other quotes as well. The booklet also includes French and Spanish translations for what was in English at the start. Thankfully this is printed piece. It's great! Perhaps it's on a clear tile to make it seem like the sign is free standing? I've never seen this piece before. I'm not sure if it's new because I've been out of the loop on new sets for awhile, but it's still an interesting piece. Not sure what else it would be used for beyond its use which you'll see later. The full piece layout. I know you're not supposed to build LEGO sets on the carpet, but doing so brought the child out in me for only a moment. There's a lot of clear and darker-clear tiles included. Now it's time to begin construction! Here's the base of Las Vegas. I bet you didn't know that Vegas was built on blue and yellow! Every once in awhile there will be a fun little blurb about something you're building. At the moment, you're supposed to be building the Freemont Casino and Street Experience. Here's the Freemont Experience completed. It's apparently a mall from what I can understand from the instruction booklet, and like everywhere in Vegas (even the airport) there's a casino in it. Now it's time to build the Luxor... The other half of the Luxor pyramid doesn't exist. I understand why - it would make the set stick out further in the back. It already sticks out because of the front of the pyramid and the back of the Bellagio. Here's the pyramid on the base. When you add more buildings to the base, it'll become less obvious that the pyramid is cut in half behind. I really like the use of the Pharaoh's headpiece for the Luxor Sphinx. Could it have been improved by a printed face on the head? I'm not sure, if they printed an ugly sphinx face it would have made it an eyesore. I think they did the right thing with a blank head. Now it's time to build the Stratosphere Observation Tower. While to me this isn't the most notable Vegas landmark, I believe it's the tallest structure in Vegas and it's the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States. Therefore, it's understandable why it made it into the set as a part of Vegas' skyline. The way that the Stratosphere fits into the base is really clever, and it's not the last time we'll see it. The yellow pole bit goes through the propeller bit and goes into the yellow. Here's how it looks when it's placed down. You continuously improve the area around the Wynn with foliage pieces. You think you're about to start on the Wynn several times and then all of a sudden you're doing some other landmark. True to its size in real life, the Stratosphere is tall. It's clever that they use those bendy Technic looking parts for the curves of the tower. It seems that the Stratosphere has turned to the dark side as well. Luckily as we'll see later, the Bellagio is on the light side of the Force. After several false starts on the Wynn Hotel, it's now finally time to build it. Interesting that it goes at a curve. The rest of the hotel is built on a curve too. Building this was a bit of a slough. The entire thing is built of one piece bits and three piece bits so it can end up curving when you put it on the base. It's worth it though once it's placed on the base piece. The curve is a very nice touch. I don't know what this is supposed to be for the life of me. A sign for the hotel maybe? Maybe a little tree would've been better as a nod to the palm trees that line Las Vegas Boulevard? Even the page for the Wynn in the booklet where it includes its description has a palm tree in front of it. Personally when I went to Vegas I never went to the Wynn either, so if someone who frequents Vegas is reading, please leave a comment on what you think this is supposed to be. Here's the start of the penultimate landmark on the Vegas Strip - The Bellagio Hotel. If you thought that the Wynn was an ache using small pieces, you haven't seen anything yet. Once again, the designers used a clever way to put one side of the Bellagio in. Like the Stratosphere, the Bellagio's white pole goes into the one by two open piece that you see. Here's the first wing put in. As I said, now that more buildings have been added to the base, it's very tough to tell that the Luxor Pyramid is halved. The rear and center of the hotel are in, last up is another build of the wing. Make sure you note all the tiny 1x1 pieces. And that's the Bellagio done, with the Las Vegas tile in front of it. Once again, very appreciated that it's a printed tile. I've noticed that the other word tiles that I've seen in other Architecture lines are printed too. Not sure if this is the case for all of them, but it's much appreciated because for the life of me I cannot handle stickers. Thank the Gambling Gods that there's no sticker sheet! Here's the completed set all done! The final monument is the Las Vegas sign that you can see all the way at the end next to the Bellagio. Unless you're really looking up close the sign isn't that emphasized. Nevertheless, the whole set looks very nice! Those clear pieces with a bit on it that I highlighted earlier are used for the Bellagio's fountains along with some lightsaber blades. The Bellagio's fountains are beautiful. When I visited, it really stuck out to me. It's also very famously seen at the end of the film Ocean's Eleven. I might have made fun of building the set being a slough when using all those 1x1 pieces to built that you could see in the piece layout above and in the close up pictures, but this was an enjoyable build altogether especially for my first LEGO purchase in several years. So, what do I think of the set? It's just my opinion but I really like it. Some of the buildings used might not be the most iconic, at least to me. I think instead of the Wynn Hotel and Freemont Center, they could've included maybe Excalibur (the castle one), New York, New York, Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, Treasure Island or Mandalay Bay. Even the Paris hotel. Obviously all of those couldn't have been included, because Skylines sets can only be so large. I can understand the Venetian being excluded because of the Venice Skyline set and the Paris hotel because there's an Eiffel Tower Architecture set, as well as New York, New York because that's a Skylines set too. I think Excalibur with it's multiple and colorful castles, Treasure Island or Mandalay Bay with the pirate ship and volcano out front could have been good additions instead of the Wynn and Freemont. The inclusion of the Luxor and the Bellagio were smart ideas though. Perhaps though they couldn't get the rights somehow to include some of those hotels that I mentioned? Back earlier I mentioned that they call the Bellagio, "Bellagio Hotel LLC". These buildings are of course privately owned and most are not "landmarks" in the same way that other buildings in the Skylines sets are. Nevertheless, I think the set itself is pretty good. Most architecture sets are a bit overpriced, yes, but for $40 it's pretty good. I said that some of the buildings used weren't the most iconic, but all the buildings look really nice and portray a great skyline. The Bellagio's fountain is really nicely done as well, I'm glad they were able to get the shooting water effect. I think I'd buy a Bellagio only Architecture set. Even with the Stratosphere and Wynn, that are much larger, the Bellagio catches your eye. Poor Luxor looks like it's shoved in, but it's a great inclusion because that's an iconic part of the Vegas Strip as well. Altogether, I give the set an 8.5/10! I highly recommend it. It was between Vegas and the other latest Skylines set Shanghai, which does look very nice, but I think I made the right decision. This is only my second review of a LEGO set. Hopefully I did a good job and hopefully there's no review of the set waiting to be made public.If you'd like more pictures of this beautiful set, just ask!
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Hi I'm here again for a quick and simple review of the second bricktober of 2018, Harry Potter minifigures. This is another theme that I'm not familiar with but I will still try my best to review them as minifigure collectors. 5004938 - NINJAGO Minifigures 5004939 - TLBM Minifigures 5004941 - Classic Minifigures 5005257 - NINJAGO Minifigures (2018) Let's start with them. Overview Name: 5005254 - Harry Potter Minifigures Theme: Promotional \ Toys R Us (Bricktober) Year: 2018 Pieces: 25 pcs Minifigures: 4 Price: free with purchase of RM199 in Malaysia. Introduction This set is target only for Harry Potter fans specifically as they are not much appeared in other sets or only appeared in one or two old sets. Prints are detailed but not as detail as the Ninjago minifigures in my last review. However this set does attract the attention of Harry Potter fans. Box Same limited edition box, this time in dark blue and Harry Potter shooting some lightning at the top right corner. Same but a little bit different. Let's bring them out. Minifigures Madam Rolanda Hooch. She has short grey hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk with goggles. She is the teacher in Hogwarts teaching Harry and friends how to ride on a broom. Her grey hair needs a new mould as I personally don't like this hairpiece. She is wearing her black robe with a Hogwarts batch at the torso. No side printings and the interesting part of this minifigure is the alternate face with the goggle. No leg prints and carrying a broom and a tan wand. These are the other Madam Hooch that appeared in the past. Year 2002 and 2010. I feel that the 2010 version had better printing of the torso and the head. Not sure what is the reason behind the re-release of this minifigure here. (Pictures taken from Bricklink) New Students in Hogwarts. Money can't buy everything. Horace Slughorn. He is a potions master hence the green bottle of juice in his hand here. He is retired and recruited by Dumbledore hence the wrinkles on his face of retirement. His torso is well printed with a bow tie, and back is simple printing of the buttons. No side printings and he is with an ordinary grey hair. I suppose this is the first time he appeared as a minifigure as I can't find any in bricklink. Wrong wizard. Professor Dolores Umbridge. She wears a nice pink outfit with a cat badge on her torso. I suppose she likes cats very much. She is holding a brown wand and a teacup which I suppose it is a new cup in LEGO. Her hair is nice in brown and the legs are printed as well as the side. So this is how high heels looks like in LEGO minifigure! She has a smiling face and looks a bit scary when she gets angry. These are other versions of her. The microfig is very nicely printed (Every microfig is nice to me, haha). I feel the 2007 version's hair is nicer and if anyone have both can swap it and you are welcome to show us in the comments area. Torso print I think the latest one is nicer. (Pictures taken from Bricklink) Beauty and the Beast. Boggart snape. They say Boggart is a shapeshifter who can take shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most. However this Boggart actually brighten up this set. I love his bag, his torso and the continuity of the scarf part to the torso print with a cat biting a mouse. To me, this is the best minifigure in this set. This is the previous version of him. Awfully looking torso print and face and the hair is totally bad. However the glow in the dark head is quite interesting part here. (Pictures taken from Bricklink) In the movie, the Boggart comes with a crow on his hat. Here we have a hat but no crow. However there is a hole there and we can actually snatch that crow and put it there to complete the minifigure. Not bad at all. Conclusion As a non-Harry Potter fan, I really have a hard time appreciating them. Maybe someday after I watch the movie I will love them better. However for Harry Potter fans out there, this is a must get set as the minifigures are upgraded version of old uglier version! Slughorn is exclusive! Review summary Playability: 6/10 - Same as Ninjago. Design: 8/10 - I think I'm spoilt by the legs and side printings of the Ninjago Bricktober 2018 minifigures. Minifigures: 8/10 - As I said, I barely know them but after comparing them to their older version, they are certainly better. (Except for Madam Hooch) Price / Value for money: 8/10 - Worthy for Harry Potter fans. Overall: 7.5/10 - Maybe a Harry Potter fan will rate this higher. Should I go watch the movies? I hope you enjoy reading my simple review and do express your comments below. Jurassic World is next. Stay tuned.
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I just did a review of the new LEGO Harry Potter Minifigure Pack for Bricktober 2018. In the video, I just overall talk about my opinions on these new minifigures, and compare them to there predecessors Hope you enjoy it :)
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Dear everyone, we hope you all have a great start of your autumn! With September drawing to a close, and October quickly approaching, the time has come to announce our latest installment of our OcTRAINber build competition! This year, the challenge is… The Foreign Challenge! The goal of the foreign challenge is to promote outside-the-box thinking and change up people’s build lists. In general, most builders tend to stick with what they know, which is often what is local to them. As such, not as many people break that mold and build something that is not local to them. Hopefully all participants can appreciate building something out of their comfort zone! BMR is certainly excited about this challenge, and we hope to see many rise to the occasion. Rules: “Foreign” is defined as: Any locomotive, rolling stock, structure, or other railroad-related item that was NOT designed OR used in the native country of the builder. So, being from the Unites States, I could not enter legitimately with a United States locomotive such as a Santa Fe F7. I’m sure you get the point. Entries must be original models. No stealing. We are making no rules for the scale you choose to model in. We are welcoming models of 6, 7, and 8 studs, and anything in between or beyond. However, we appreciate detail and accuracy. Reasonably sized models are usually better for that, but we don’t knock anything or anyone with serious skill. NEW BUILDS ONLY. We are willing to accept anything unpublished or anything that was not published before September 1st 2018 as new. We want to inspire and promote a challenging build, entering an old model doesn’t quite work in that regard. Entries MUST be made on our Flickr group in the appropriate thread: real-life entries in the real-life thread, and digital entries in the digital thread. This is the ONLY place we will be looking for entries, nowhere else. Sending photos to us on social media or showing us in person do not count as entries. We will be accepting entries from Midnight on October 1st to midnight on November 1st. There is possibility of a grace period to ensure those that need that one final Bricklink order have a fair chance. Entries and Prizes We are allowing digital entries and real life builds, but everyone is limited to one entry only to keep things fair. We will have three prizes available: Top staff pick of the real-life entries Runner up real-life entry Top staff pick of the digital entries We want to focus on and inspire some real building here, so this explains why more prizes are available for the real-life entries. Prizes will be revealed in an upcoming article on BMR. Different from the previous year, we want to encourage you to show off your WIPs this year as well, to make OcTRAINber really a month that is all about trains within the Lego community. Therefore, extra credit will be given to the best WIP stories and/or pictures during the event. Specific information about WIP points will be mentioned in an upcoming article on BMR. We will pick the winners after we have announced the official close of the competition and have stopped accepting new entries, which will be some time after November 1. Once the judges have come to a sound conclusion regarding the winners, we will post one final article announcing them, and then we will be in contact with those winners regarding their prizes. Judges will also be announced in an upcoming article on BMR. Thanks for reading, and now it’s time for some building! Again, we will only accept entries after midnight on October 1. Until then, start planning! We are seriously looking forward to this competition, especially after how much fun last year was. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask us; we are more than happy to provide clarification. Happy building from the Staff of Brick Model Railroader! BTW: For more information and extras it's always wise to check out both Brickmodelrailroader.com, our Flickr and our Facebook, but we will ofcourse try our best to also answer your questions here on the famous Train Tech forums!
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Long-time member, sometime speaker. I thought it was time to get more active in the AFOL community, so I've started a YouTube channel. The first batch of videos will consist of my reviews of the new Harry Potter sets and Collectable Minifigure Series. Please find the first video, a review of the polybag 30407: Harry's Journey to Hogwarts, below. I'll add more reviews as I make them. Apologies for the varying picture quality. It's my first try! And I'm thinking: I should probably include more close-ups of the actual LEGO next time... Still, I hope this proves useful and/or entertaining to you. Thanks! -
The upcoming 42082 Rough terrain crane has inspired a whole list of possible improvements because I believe that at this scale some cool functions could/should be modeled (in random order): Two stage outriggers, preferably PF controlled Multiple steering modes (minimal 2: 4WS and front wheel steering) Pendular front axle Luffing jib, folding away against the boom Second winch for secondary hook Replace LA’s which lift the boom with an actuator with a longer stroke for bigger range in the boom angle Cosmetic changes to cabin, engine cover and upper structure to resemble real cranes more like Grove or Terex Some of these are probably overly ambitious and I’m not claiming to be able build all these MODs in one single model, but I am curious to see how far I can take this. My first step is to take a look at possible two stage outriggers. So far I’m tinkering in LDD to find mechanisms for the horizontal stage which are rigid enough to support the Crane and compact enough to fit on both ends of the 42082. I think it must be possible to fit the outriggers in a module measuring 5x7x23 studs. The ultimate goal would be to lift the crane from its wheels, but considering the size and weight of the 42082, I would be happy if the outriggers can simply provide actual support. Progress so far: -
Tree of Worlds Each year, a group of Eurobricks members meet together in Schaumburg, Illinois, at the annual Lego convention Brickworld Chicago, to construct one large and crazy collaborative build. This is the result: This year, 18 members of our online community came together to build one crazy display--a massive free-standing tree, six feet tall, holding on the end of its mythical branches, Elemental Worlds--realms embodying all of the most important elements of the universe. This build took a year of planning, building, headaches, and Swedish Fish to construct, transport, rebuild, and finally display to the public and private attendees this past weekend. To build the tree itself, a small number of us met up a for a few weekends prior to the event to pre-build the entire piece. This worked wonders, as it meant we didn't have to build on site...in theory...until we arrived and found out we didn't organize well enough and had to rebuild half the trunk from scratch... One of the coolest aspects of the tree was that it was situated on the convention floor, in a wide open space. Utilizing planning and generous fire safety regulations, we are able to position the tree in a vast wide open space, which meant that all the aisles in the hall seemed to lead to it. This made the display a landmark of the convention, so much so that we noticed people start to use it as a meeting-point. For those interested in logistical construction, we supported the tree with a simple wooden frame (somewhat visible on the progress picture above). It was...mostly successful! Additionally, we must thank LEGO themselves for their great Event Support program (via their Ambassador Program)--which allowed us to buy many many many more brown bricks that we thought we'd need at an affordable rate. We otherwise would not have been able to build this creation. --- So who built this? Eurorbricks--that's who! Well more accurately, a number of Eurobricks members did: Front Row, Left to Right: @Hinckley, @Quarryman, @Ryushi, @CorneliusMurdock, @soccerkid6, @LittleJohn Second Row, Left to Right: @Darkdragon, @ZCerberus, @Kristel, @Captain Nemo, @MKJoshA Third Row, Left to Right: @Prune Face, (Tree), @Silver.Smith, @Rogue Angel, @Gideon, @Vincent Kessels Not Present at Convention: @Bob De Quatre @RoxYourBlox ---- Who Built What? Each member of the collab built a realm on a branch and/or helped construct the tree itself. The Ice Realm, by @Gideon, who also apparently took 1000 photos at the convention, many of which are shown here. The Night Realm by @Kristel--her Dragon was nominated for Best Creature...it was also at one point destroyed after a great fall and had to be rebuilt...thanks in no part to unnamed persons who know who they is Edit Z- There was one sober person there... he takes no responsibility for the incident. The Gem Realm, by @Quarryman, who also came so close to finishing his individual build this year! Edit:Z- Quarry was also nominated for Best Land Vehicle for another build! The Harvest Realm, by brother builders @soccerkid6 and @LittleJohn. This was their first Brickworld Chicago, and we were very excited to have them join the team...and teach them the important lesson that you need to put Technic in heavy things if you want it to hang upside down. Edit Z- Little John was nominated for Best Teen Creation and SoccerKid6 was nominated for Best Individual Layout and won a Judge’s Award for their castley creations. Speaking of heavy things, @MKJoshA built the Earth Realm--which ended up being too heavy for the tree when it snapped a branch overnight (although for the record, all the sober members were not in the convention hall at the time of the incident...) So we were forced to make a quick fix by moving his realm to a nearby table and moving the Bee to the end of the branch. So...sorry again Josh! The Water Realm, built by @Captain Nemo, because of course. Edit Z- Nemo wracked up 4 more nominations for Best Creature, Best Sea Vessel, Best Large Building and Brick World Master! The Heart Realm, by @CorneliusMurdock, who we apparently don't love enough, because we broke his heart like three times. The Thirst Realm, by @Darkdragon, ironically located next to the Water Realm and under the furnaces of the Forge Realm. Dark Dragon also won the award for Best Train, which was part of her individual layout. The Forge Realm, by @Silver.Smith, with a very cool Forge Deity. The Nature Realm, by @Rogue Angel, which contained numerous flowers that were constantly knocked off. The Nebula Realm, by @Hinckley. The fire ship on his realm was nominated for, and won, best Sea Vessel. Edit Z- Hinckley also took home a small brick for his Best Large Building! Additional Builds In addition to the Tree itself, we constructed numerous other builds to decorate the display. Builders: @Captain Nemo (Dragon Snake, Bear, Dream-Catcher) @Hinckley (Bee, Beehive, Mushroom) @Ryushi (Greenery placement) @ZCerberus (Frogs, Flowers) @Bob De Quatre (Stag Hall Design), @Prune Face (Lighting) Edit Z- Ryushi captured a big brick for Best Replica and ZCerberus got the nod for Best Spacecraft thanks to table space donated by Hinck and Nemo! Transformation One of the best things about the display was that it transformed. During the annual World of Lights (in which the convention hall lights are turned off, leaving only lights on the builds) the tree transformed from a mythical representation of the universe to that of a physical one--with the realms becoming floating planets. Accolades The Tree of Worlds was awarded the Best Group Display at Brickworld Chicago 2018. This is the third consecutive win for Eurobricks! The Fire Ship won the award for Best Sea Vessel and the Night Dragon was nominated for Best Creature. Additionally, our very own Root-Admin @Hinckley finally won the prestigious Brickworld Master award. -- Finally I'd like to thank everyone once again who participated in this undertaking that was our display! It was a lot of hard work but we are very happy to show off the results. If you would like to see more images, please view the Flickr Pages of Gideon and Hinckley -
This is a small build for the Eurobricks 2018 event in Billund. The goal was to build a car in the Speed Champions style, either an actual car or a movie car. Since I'm not a car buff I opted for the latter. The car is Captain Nemo's car, from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I took some creative liberties to make it more Speed Champions like rather than going for accuracy. Comments are welcome, and check out my Flickr for higher resolution photos! Wasn't quite sure which forum this belonged in, but since it's a steampunk car it ended up here.
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Let's keep them all in one thread for clarity, shall we? I will be adding videos to this first post as they are released. Be advised of the possible animal content, including angry hamsters and sleepy pugs ;) First, the 42078 Mack Anthem: 42077 Rally Car: 42076 Hovercraft: 42075 First Responder: 42074 Racing Yacht: 42071 Dozer Compactor: -
Here is my take on modifying the Downtown Diner. I used two sets, and sort of mirrorbuild one set. The footprint is 56 studs. I widened the stairs on both sides with one stud to reach the 56 studs.
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So I wasn't sure where to put this, but this is a thread to talk about lego board games: your board game MOCs, whether lego will ever make any more, your collection, reviews, anything! My favourite lego board game is Lego Champion (it's got so many little sub-themes! ) or Pirate Code (I like the skill and well, pirates. )
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Copied from Facebook User Noman Iqbal from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. I can split this into a separate topic.
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Welcome to legozebra's pictorial review of 72004 Tech Wizard Showdown! Retailing for $39.99, 72004 is one of the 2018 Nexo Knights sets, although it, like many other 2018 sets, will be released officially on November 29th, most likely to capture the holiday spirit of frantic gift-buying. I was swinging by my local Toys R Us for something completely different (My branch for some reason has four Lego-related giveaways all around the $30-$50 price range - Geoffrey the Giraffe, Kai's Dojo Pod, Friends Ski Pod, and R3-M2) and happened to see this - the only 2018 set on the shelves. They seem to be appearing out in the wild at greater frequency and earlier than they've ever been, so stop by your local TRU - chances are at least one or two 2018 sets will be on shelves. But you didn't come here to read about how I got the set - so without further ado, let's jump into the box art! Packaging/Box Art (First of all, apologies for the slightly blurry pictures of the box - I noticed my camera lens was smudged after I had already thrown out the box) Emblazoned on the box art for 72004 is Clay's Tech Wizard Mech, facing off against the much smaller crawler mech that Monstrux boasts. The Infecto Byter appears to be attempting to block stud shooter bullets with his scythe (not a good plan), while the Cyberbyter is doing his best to impede the mech's progress by whacking it with his tiny axe. Neither seem like they are going to accomplish anything here. On the other hand, Monstrux is firing infecting bugs at the mech - which may seem small at first, but who knows if they'll manage to take over the mech's systems... The back of the box boasts seven golden Merlok Powers, each corresponding to a knight plus Merlok himself - a Claymore for Clay, Bow for Aaron, Lance for, well, Lance, Mace for Macy, Hammer for Robin (I guess he's a full-fledged knight now), an Axe for Axl, and a Wizard's staff for Merlok. On an aside, typing out each of these weapons and their corresponding knight really hammers in the pun names. Enough of the box though - let's get into the minifigures! Minifigures, Named Characters, and Accessories Starting off the minifigures we have Clay Moorington, the only knight not to boast golden armor due to the mech suit he fits in. I expect some sort of retailer exclusive or other set we haven't seen yet to include him with full armor, presumably the only unrevealed set containing the Merlok Staff Power. But for now, this is all we get. Here's a shot of the figure's back printing to get a good look at the sweet blue and gold printing. Everything about this figure is pretty superb save one detail - the Tech Wizard arm. Spoilers for Season Four of the TV show follow, as well as comparison photos to how it should look. As you may or may not have seen in the spoiler box, Clay's arm look pretty drastically different in the show than it does in the set - in the show, without giving away spoilers, it is part trans orange and part blue, with technology lines receding from it. Pretty cool, right? In the set, however, it's just... orange. Yeah, that's right. Just a plain orange arm. This feels like a missed opportunity here - In Ninjago, for example, when Cole unlocked his Elemental Fists, his arms gained an effect in the TV show not unlike Clay's arm here, except the set version was trans-black with orange rock highlights. That arm looked amazing, whereas this plain orange arm is a bit of a let-down. I don't know anything about how well Nexo Knights is performing financially, but presume that this lack of detail could have arisen from budgetary constraints, not technical difficulties in making it look good. Here's a look at all variants of Clay we've gotten so far - it's more than I realized at first! From left to right: 2016 Knight Clay, 2016 Ultimate Clay, 2017 Knight Clay, 2017 Battle Suit Pilot Clay, 2017 Cursed Transformation Clay, 2017 Gray Knight Stone Clay, and finally 2018 Battle Suit Pilot/Tech Wizard Clay. Note how the sword molding has changed over the years to reflect shifts in color scheme - silver, gray, and gold. Anyways, with Clay done, let's take a closer look at the other character on the side of good: Merlok. The Merlok we get in this set is indeed a printed part - thank goodness he wasn't a sticker, or there would be fingerprints all over him. Here's a lineup of all Merlok variants we've gotten so far, from left to right: 2016 Fortrex Merlok, 2016 (Sticker) GWP Training Pack w/Shield Merlok, 2017 Merlok Mech Suit, and 2018 Tech Wizard Merlok. Of all of them, the worst is by far the obscure promo version, which makes sense, as he's a sticker and way too small as well. As for the 2018 vs 2016 hologram variants, it's not obvious as first but the 2016 variant is printed in silver on the piece whereas the 2018 variant is in warm gold. It's a really nice way to emphasize the change in color scheme between the years (more on that later) but especially the change from silver highlights in 2016, orange highlights in 2017, and gold highlights in 2018. It's a cool detail I didn't notice at first glance, but am really liking how the Merlok holograms evoke that year's secondary color scheme. But now, we must move onto a more... monstrous side of the figures, starting with the CyberByter. This cute little fellow seems to be a Squirebot who has been infected with Monstrux's tech virus. A closer loom at his face shows he is trying very hard to appear as menacing as possible, to somewhat comedic effect. His alt-face is a bit more grumpy - but evil nonetheless. Now if only this virus will improve their lackluster fighting abilities as well as their facial prints... but we'll have to wait and see for Season Five of the show. Next up is the Infecto Byter, sporting a brand new vampiric helmet. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of this figure than I was of other generic baddie types in the past, like the magma and stone/lightning monsters, but I appear to be in the minority in that regards. Perhaps it's because I've never been that big of a castle fan and more of a space fan, but I really welcome these new, high-tech designs. With the helmet removed, we get a better look at that creepy face - I absolutely love this vampire-esque mask and suspect it will prove very useful in custom Space characters in the future. Turning the figure around, however, and we see one of the major flaws in the helmet - much like the masks of the 2011 Hero Factory Fire Villains (anyone remember these?), it is double sided, serving as a different helmet from the back. The only problem with this unique design, however, is the inclusion of an alternate face, which sticks out more prominently than Han Solo's scowl underneath his old hair element. Now, these may be elements of the story - perhaps these villainous fiends do indeed have eyes on the backs of their heads (props to Tommy Andreasen if he's worked this element of the sets into the show) - but until that's confirmed, this is an unfortunate side effect of having both a dual sided helmet and an alternate expression. Speaking of that alt expression, here's a look underneath the helmet, as well as a side shot for a close-up of the new mold. Next up is Monstrox and his creepy crawler platform. The hologram element is indeed printed, which came as a nice surprise. Here's a look at all iterations of Monstrox over the years, from the diminutive Book of Monsters, to the Cloud of Monstrox, and finally the Hologram (?) of Monstrox. I've obviously excluded the Stone Colossus of Ultimate Destruction, another form of Monstrox, because of his, well, colossal size. The crawler alone sports three new molds as well - a tiny tech bug (I'm sure the official name is in some set description somewhere, but it's a tiny tech bug) and a cool new wing/claw element in trans green with hexagonal patterns, a bit like a tiny version of Galaxy Squad's Insect Wings. Here's the element in question: And here's the most exciting element of all - the new shield. It's both insectoid and techy, with what appear to be coiled wires streaming down the sides of the element. It's much more visually appealing than the rock shield, and is my favorite new mold from this set. Also, here's some shots of the new tech bug element, in case you were curious. It's a neat amount of detail for such a small piece, down to the legs at different angles. I dig it! Before we move on, I just wanted to highlight the new Merlok Power: It's cast in some sort of gold, although the shine is a bit different from the other warm gold parts. It may be just me, but it looks really great and feels like a high quality collectible item. I really like this element! With all the figures and and characters covered, let's move on the the main build! Build/Model We're a bit ahead of ourselves - let's backtrack to a nice surprise inside of the larger mech suit... A baby mech suit! It's a standard build, nothing too exciting - but it's to be expected with builds piloting other builds (see 8943, 8942, 70810, the list goes on). Here's a comparison to another rather standard build: Clay's original Battle Suit. (Excuse the lack of Nexo Powers - they're all part of a large wall display) The Battle Suit features the cockpit in element in warm gold, the first time it's ever been in that color, but otherwise features no other exciting recolors or molds. The weapons can be held in a back jetpack attachment, also featured on the main mech. This attachment, while looking alright from the front and back (save the awkward giant sword placement) really does not look good at all from the side: As you can see, it juts out with the thickness of almost another Battle Suit entirely. It does this too, but to a much lesser extent, in the larger mech, and I feel that it could have been executed a bit better and way slimmer than it is. Let's take a look at the battle suit fitting inside the larger Tech Wizard suit: There's an orange click-hinge attachment point to the suit that fits the Battle Suit nicely. The box art and instructions show the legs and arms hanging out rather haphazardly; I prefer folding the legs back and squeezing the arms together as you can see in the photo. The legs especially are unwieldy as they hang out - they hamper the already extremely limited leg articulation if you pose it like it is on the cover, and can cause the mech to dislodge from the already fragile connection. Once it's in there, close up the front plate (yes - that is a Nexo Combo Power shield in glorious light blue/aqua) and fold down the shoulder pads and helmet to secure it. It reminds me a lot of 8557 Exo-Toa, a set I loved as a kid because I could remove and add a large scale figure to it, and I expect this set will be just as well-loved by children as well, as this is a really neat play feature. Once situated, here's a look at the overall suit with the helmet, shoulder pads, and chest element closed. It really brings it all together, don't you think? The Battle Suit is remarkably well-concealed, and I didn't even notice it in early images of the set. Compared to the two other mechs we've gotten, it stands about as tall as King's Mech (without its amazing 21109 Exo Suit-esque knee articulation) and is dwarfed by the Black Knight Mech. This shot especially highlights some of my issues with the mech's legs - the upper torso and arms feel like they belong to a mech the size of the Black Knight Mech, but the legs are way too stubby for it - it's almost like they took upper legs/thighs and attached feet to the bottom, foregoing lower legs completely. It's a less extreme version of the legs on 70904 Clayface Splat Attack, if you know what I mean. Because of this stubbiness and lack of articulation, you can't do much with posing in terms of the legs, as you can see: The last photo here really shows the extent to which you can pose it - and this isn't a unique issue. For better or for worse, Lego mechs in recent years have swung on thew opposite end of, say, Exo Force mechs, with lots of articulation but not much stability. Recently, they've gone with extreme stability - just take a look at 70615 Fire Mech, for example - its legs are pretty much just thick, long stalks, with no knees or feet articulation at all. Personally, I'd like a better engineered mix of two extremes - articulation and stability at the same time. I will concede, however, that this is quite difficult to accomplish. Moving upwards, I wanted to pause and highlight this bit of neat shaping - the SNOT connections with the half arches really mesh well together - props to the designer (probably Mark Stafford, he does pretty much all the mechs) to making this work out really well! Moving to the sword arm, here's another look: The cylinder hilt is stickered all the way around with an attractive gold pair of stickers - they're a pain to put on, but look so good when applied. moving along the sword you'll notice a clever resting spot for Clay's dual molded minifigure-scale sword. It also may not seem like it at first glance, but there's a solid amount of articulation here - the sword can be slashed from left to right and right to left diagonally (as well as up and down), making it good enough for play to me. Too bad the vertical placement is a little awkward to pose. Moving onto the other arm, here's a look at the gun shield: It offers a neat place to store Clay's new warm gold Nexo Shield, but the placement of said shield is a tad awkward, and it leaves an exposed clip on the other side. I do, however, love the shaping of the build - it's simple, yet visually attractive - the slight angles of the wing elements along with the circular stud shooter make it the best large-scale Nexo Shield, in my humble opinion. Moving to the back of the mech: You'll see its decently armored-up, complete with a jetpack that is much better scaled to this than it is to the Battle Suit, although it still juts out a tad. The natural shaping of the mech's back, while attractive, doesn't help this lopsided side view. And there you have it - 72004 Tech Wizard Showdown! It's a solid set for $39.99. $29.99 would have been really nice (Like the King's Mech), but I understand the pricing due to the extra Battle Suit inclusion. Does it have its problems? Certainly. The sizing is the one major problem, making it look like a dwarf with its large torso and short legs. Is it a solid parts pack? Most definitely. Would I pick it up again? For sure. Despite the problems, it's a solid mech, and the Battle Suit really blends in well (the helmet that covers it is a sweet build as well). I'd recommend picking this up if you see it on store shelves. That's it for now - hope you enjoyed the review! I'm a relatively new reviewer experimenting with different techniques (I don't think any of my reviews have shared the same background, as I'm playing around with my setup), so any feedback, good or bad, will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading! -
I think it's high time we started a 2018 Lego Trains thread after a pretty disappointing 2017. 2018 has to be an improvement right? Quite a few people seem to believe that there is a "pattern" to the City train releases and according to this pattern we should expect a new Passenger Train, Cargo Train and Train Station in 2018. @Duq explained the pattern very well on the 2017 Trains thread. In addition to these expected releases, there is also a rumour that the next modular building could be a central train station. Personally I find that a bit hard to believe but you never know!
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Some of you may remember that last fall there was some sort of dicussion concerning a blade piece, which at the time was going to debut in a 2018 Ninjago set. While it clearly looked like a piece designed with constraction in mind, it made its first appearance in a System set. Some of us, me included, thought it could be a hint that something was about to happen in the constraction departement. As we all know, it wasn't the case, but simply because we were looking in the wrong direction: it wasn't a hint about constraction's near future, but about its near past. Infact, once I got my hands on the piece thanks to Bricklink, I immediately noticed a tiny detail... (sorry for potato quality) As you can somewhat see, the piece was trademarked in 2016, and yet we get to see it only in 2018. But why? Because it was a piece designed for BIONICLE G2's third year. Since development of new sets usually happens at least 12 months before they hit stores, it's highly possibile that in late 2015 designers were already working on 2017 sets, and this blade piece was on of those that was fully designed before the decision to axe the line was made. Since it already was in their pool of "trademarked pieces", why not using it? And there we are. Sure, this is not a 100% foolproof theory, but because of the year printed on the blade and the fact we first saw it only in 2018, I don't think there are many other alternatives. Chances are that we might see more "unreleased pieces" in the near future, since it's safe to assume a huge chunk of G2's third year was already designed when the reboot was canned. -
So, now that we know that there will be no new NK sets in the summer releases, I wanted to open the floor to anyone who feels like they want to expand the ranks of the Virus Vampires with their own creations. So. Who's first?
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Who let the dogs out? ;-) A colourful, cheerful, crowned canine takes centre stage in the winning design as our official poster for the 2018 Adelaide Fringe. Originally Created by Sydney-based graphic designer Jacqueline Daniel, the poster celebrates the Year of the Dog with a balloon version of the Chinese horoscope. Ms Daniel, whose winning design was picked out of more than 300 submissions, said 2018 would be the year for Fringe-goers to unleash their festive spirit. “My poster design is about crowning everyone who joins in on the festival and unleashes themselves into the night,” she said. “With the jewels of the festival to light their way, they will experience the true treasures of the Adelaide Fringe.” Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO Heather Croall said the design was a perfect fit given next year’s festival opening would coincide with Chinese New Year celebrations and the Year of the Dog. “We asked poster competition entrants to represent the playful, inclusive and cheeky spirit of the Adelaide Fringe, and we feel that Jacqueline’s design has really embraced that brief,” Ms Croall said. “She has given us a quirky new mascot with a royal flair and surrounded by diamonds to highlight that the Adelaide Fringe is the jewel in the crown of Australian arts festivals.” In keeping with Adelaide Fringe’s open access nature, there is a long history of the official poster being chosen from a design competition that anyone from around the world can enter. This year saw over 300 entries submitted. The festival will run from 16 February until 18 March. This is the second time a poster coincided with a Chinese horoscope (2007's celebrated the Year of the Pig). Adapted from this OC by Artisan Bricks: https://www.flickr.com/photos/artisanbricks/27865798499/in/dateposted/ -
Here follows are the current confirmed upcoming Lego Marvel Superheroes themed sets, for early 2018 release: Additional Content Forthcoming...
