Author: bluephotographs800

LEGO Aims for Wide Adoption of Sustainable Plastic Materials by 2030

One of the principles and guiding words for The LEGO Group’s future direction with regards to its business is “sustainability”. From the energy used to run their infrastructure, to the very material they use in their LEGO bricks and other related products, the company’s working to make using sustainable sources their watchword. With regards to sustainable materials, LEGO has made a significant inroad with their special set Plants from Plants (40320), using plant-derived plastics rather than petroleum-based. The LEGO Group has deemed it successful enough to announce steps towards a full implementation of eco-friendly, sustainable plastic materials, across their products by the year 2030.

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The LEGO Group is well aware that their factories around the world have an annual carbon dioxide emission of a million ton, coming from raw materials used in production like petroleum plastics. Seeing how sustainable plastic materials worked for a single set, the company has begun hiring more people to do further research on plastic-alternatives, with investments worth 1 billion kroner (over $100 million).

“We need to learn again how to do this,” remarked LEGO production supervisor Henrik Ostergaard Nielson, from the company’s main product factory in Billund, Denmark. As long as the new sustainable materials result in LEGO pieces that connect snugly yet separate easily, it’s all good.

Already, the LEGO Group has been pleased at meeting some of its sustainability targets, such as the pledge to utilize renewable energy in their factories, reached last year while the goal was for 2020. Let’s see how they go about a wider use of sustainable plastic materials in the future.

 

Source: Evening Standard UK

Nebraska-Lincoln to Attempt World Record in Building Giant LEGO Mosaic of Huskers Team Flag

Some LEGO works don’t even need to be three-dimensional constructs of wonder. They can be perfectly 2D and beautiful, in the form of LEGO mosaics that use small one-layer thick elements and pieces of varying colors on a LEGO mat canvas to create glorious art; or break a world record. That at least is the plan for John Lang, age 18, from Omaha. He and a group of volunteers are working with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to build a giant LEGO mosaic flag, featuring the logo of the Nebraska Cornhuskers college football team, to be laid down on the university campus.

Lang seeks to have the giant LEGO mosaic building event raise money for medical charity and be used as a celebratory tribute to Huskers head coach Scott Frost. But primarily, their objective will be to snag the Guinness World Record for the largest LEGO mosaic, measuring 60×30 feet, or totaling 17,000 square feet.

The record attempt is to be made this Friday, August 31, with the mosaic building area being the open space in front of the Nebraska-Lincoln Student Union. Lang is looking to raise a dollar for every seat in Memorial Stadium for audiences watching the event. The proceeds are to go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The year before, Lang and his volunteer team created a LEGO-brick US flag occupying over 1,800 square feet; interlocking bricks were used rather than the mosaic method for the Huskers flag this year. Building the flag starts 9 AM of Friday, and the event will end upon the mosaic’s completion.

Avengers: Infinity War DVD/Blu-Ray Comes With Free Teen Groot Minifigure Key Chain (5005244) on Sainsbury’s this September

In the aftermath of the disintegrating conclusion to Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War on cinemas this past April, among the plentiful LEGO tie-in items that came out was a polybag for a minifigure keychain of Teen Groot (5005244). It’s been available at LEGO Stores and shop.LEGO.com (via May promo) since. Now, Infinity War has also been available for digital download since the end of July and on DVD/Blu-Ray since the middle of this month. But UK store chain Sainsbury’s isn’t releasing their home media for the film until September 3 next month, and it comes with a nice surprise: a FREE Teen Groot minifigure key chain that LEGO fans will surely welcome.

FREE Teen Groot minifigure keychain

Long story short, Sainsbury’s shoppers who would purchase Avengers: Infinity War on DVD, Blu-Ray and Ultra HD Blu-Ray will receive a free Teen Groot minifigure key chain (5005244). That’s another means of acquiring a representation of the heroic (and sadly doomed) adolescent talking tree before Avengers 4 arrives 2019.

Aside from this upcoming Infinity War home media promo, Sainsbury’s is still in the middle of its ongoing promo period for the second wave of LEGO collectible cards for the new Create the World line “Incredible Inventions”. All in all, the UK store chain’s shaping up to be a great place to get some peripheral LEGO products such as these.

LEGO Wins Its Legal Battle Against Copycat Brand Lepin in China

For many years, LEGO’s effort to establish a strong market presence in China has been challenged by rip-off brands from manufacturers producing fraudulent copies of official LEGO sets. Even the awarding of “well-known trademark” status to LEGO by the government has not stopped the appearance of new fake-sets from copy brands like Xingbao and Lepin. Recently however, the public’s been made aware that LEGO may have just scored a powerful legal blow against Lepin in the Guangdong People’s High Court, the resolution of a copyright infringement lawsuit where LEGO wins its legal battle eventually against the Chinese copy-brand two years ago.

LEGO wins its legal battle

The penalties Lepin incurred, as LEGO  wins its legal battle, include the paying of 15 million Yuan ($2.2 million) in damages to LEGO; a warning to desist in further copyright infringement, including creating similar labels for sets from some of LEGO’s well-known themes such as Star Wars, Ninjago, Nexo Knights to name a few; a prohibition on conducting online business transactions over Chinese social media; and finally paying full legal costs for the proceedings.

Actually the court decision was already long finalized since July 21, 2017. It was only recently that word of it has gone out, and Lepin also can’t make any further appeals on the decision and have no choice but to comply.

Lepin being Lepin however, they’re finding ways to survive and still roll out LEGO knockoffs for buyers who want a brick-building experience on the cheap. Since the infringement covers only their product packaging and labeling, Lepin has resorted to discreet boxes when shipping. It was also discovered in the publicized court decision that both the Lepin firm and fellow copy-brand Xingbao are subsidiaries under the MeiZi Model company. It’ll be interesting to see what further steps LEGO will take to put a stop to these knockoffs once and for all.

LEGO Sheds Light on the New Master Builder Series Models

Ever since the new LEGO Star Wars Betrayal at Cloud City (75222) came out, it’s been accompanied by a lot of speculation borne out of some wording on its official product info. Some may have expected the set to be classified as an Ultimate Collectors’ Series (UCS) set. So the new designation of Master Builder Series threw everybody off.

Following days of jawing about the implications on social media, LEGO fans and experts finally get the official world from The LEGO Group itself. As many news sites already called it, the LEGO Master Builder Series is “for play, not display”.

We’ve made this comparison on the disparity between UCS-branded sets by pointing out how the LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon (75192) is more designed to be put on a shelf while the Assault on Hoth (75098) is more for active posing and play-acting in nature. Again, we applaud LEGO’s prudence in finally making heads and tails out of the UCS line by shifting play-worthy sets to the Master Builder Series instead.

Here’s how the LEGO statement puts it:

The Master Builder Series models are large playsets and beside being complex builds they are characterized by having many play features and functions, interior details as well as a range of minifigures. Ultimate Collectors series will remain highly detailed display models providing complex builds with a focus on authenticity and both Ultimate Collectors Series and Master Builder Series will continue as a way to highlight the unique characteristic of each style of model.

Soon-to-Open LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus Gives Hard-Hat Preview Tour

For those LEGO fan families who can’t find time or have the funds to travel to any of the LEGOLAND theme parks around the world, they’re lucky if they happen to live close enough to a smaller-scale alternative, the LEGOLAND Discovery Center. There’re more of them than the theme parks. At present, there are around 19 individual LEGOLAND Discovery Centers operating in major LEGO markets around the world. The lion’s share of these attractions, usually found in malls and shopping centers, is in the US. And they’ll be joined by another one soon, with the new LEGO Discovery Center Columbus, Ohio due to open September.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus

There’s still some finishing work to be done at the Easton Town Center where the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus will open. But officials in charge of the attraction have deemed the site ready enough to conduct a hard-hat tour for the public’s benefit.

If somebody’s been to another LEGOLAND Discovery Center then they know what’s in store with this one: a 4-D cinema for LEGO animated movies, cafeteria and retail store for LEGO products, a Miniland containing Ohio landmarks (built by resident Master Builder Maxx Davidson), LEGO and Duplo play areas, party rooms and LEGO building classes too.

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The main draws for the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus are two rides: Kingdom Quest which is a 2-3 minute ride to rescue a LEGO princess; and then there’s Merlin’s Apprentice which takes the concept of bicycles for an unexpected spin.

LDC Ohio will open for the public in a grand ceremony on September 28 at 10 in the morning. However, annual pass holders can drop in over there as early as September 21, seven days earlier. For more info on those passes, and the Discovery Center as a whole, you can visit their official website.

This LEGO Stop-Motion Animation Commemorates 2013’s Iron Bowl Kick Six

College Football season is starting all over again in the US as this week draws to a close. That makes it a great time perhaps for LEGO builders to be inspired in making some new football-related MOCs in celebration. Granted, there have been MOC builds of football stadiums before, but this one’s a real eye-catcher. Builder Jared Jacobs, aka @goldyeller on Twitter, has recreated a significant moment in college football from five years ago in 2013 during the Iron Bowl match between longtime rivals the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Followers of ACFB would remember this momentous play as the Kick Six event.

As a recap, on that November 30 Auburn-Alabama clash, with 1 second left and scores tied 28 all, the Crimson Tide decided to go for a 57-yard field goal for the lead and the win. It was short and fell onto the hands of Tigers Captain/cornerback Chris Davis, who did an epic run, end zone to end zone, that resulted in a spectacular Auburn win with memorable reaction shots in the stadium caught on TV. It was since then burned into the memories of fans and was dubbed eventually as the legendary Kick Six moment.

You can see above, not only did Jared Jacobs make a detailed set of Jordan-Hare Stadium – complete with teams, officials, coaches and audience – he also rendered the whole Kick Six event in stop-motion animation, capturing every iconic scene from the televised footage.

This is the kind of commemoration that’ll be just right to welcome another season of College Football, and another feather in the cap of his various LEGO recreations of various sporting events shown on Twitter.

LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience in Sydney, Australia Celebrates Father’s Day

The primary draw for playing with LEGO sets and minifigures has always been the opportunity to imaginatively play out stories and adventures with the characters, props and settings provided by the massive toy line. Some have taken things further by producing elaborate stop-motion mini-movies with their LEGO sets, uploaded online. Even The LEGO Group is getting into this craze, and they want to share the set-movie making experience with Australians in Sydney next month. This is the LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience, a prime opportunity for parents and their children to bond by learning to shoot mini-films using LEGO Star Wars sets and minifigures in stop-motion.

Interested parent-and-child pairs can head on over to the Comber Street Studios in Paddington, Sydney where they will first sit down to a one-hour class on stop-motion animation and filming techniques. Then, they’ll have the run of the studio and provided LEGO Star Wars sets: posing minifigures and props, filming, editing and even voicing their very own Star Wars movies.

While the LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience event is free, interested participants need to book tickets in advance, and they better hurry because this happens on Father’s Day Weekend, September 1 and 2. But what a Father’s Day gift for Aussie dads this is! After they’re done producing their LEGO Star Wars stop-motion movie, they can bring it home in video form. Thanks to Star Wars fan site Rebelscum.com for bringing our attention to this special event.

Unikitty! Sparkle Party Season 1 Animated Series Now Available in DVD

It’s always great whenever one character of an ensemble cast in a film or TV series becomes a breakout popular star, to the point that they eventually get a show or movie of their own. Where LEGO media is concerned, among the best-known ones are LEGO Batman and Princess Unikitty from 2014’s The LEGO Movie.The latter not only got to headline her own animated series, Unikitty! on Cartoon Network, but also launched quite a respectable product line around herself and her own circle of characters. Her show premiered with special episodes late 2017, fully starting New Year’s Day 2018. Having racked up quite a number of episodes for its inaugural season, Warner Bros., LEGO and Snipple Animation are ready to make the first part of Unikitty! season 1 available for home media. Season 1 of Unikitty! Sparkle Party is now available in DVD, consisting of 20 of the over 30 episodes aired so far.

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Unikitty! stars the familiar voice talents of Tara Strong as the titular character, Grey Griffin as her brother Puppycorn, plus Kate Micucci and Roger Craig Smith. While season 1 has yet to wind down on Cartoon Network, a second season has already been announced by the network back in July.

The Unikitty! Sparkle Party DVD is a great catch for fans of the hyper and cute LEGO unicorn-cat royal and Master Builder to tide themselves over until her major big-screen return next year on The LEGO Movie: The Second Part.

Guinness World Records Celebrates Records Claimed (and Honored) by Official LEGO Sets and MOCs

When we say that several products by LEGO have set records, we certainly mean it: Guinness World Records. This international database of statistics for “the most x of y” also includes some official LEGO sets and notable MOCs, with records established ranging from biggest to tallest and so much more.

This week, Guinness World Records has put up a new section on their official website called “Making History with LEGO Bricks”. As stated, this section shines the spotlight on LEGO sets or MOCs builds that either hold official World Records, or represents an object that holds a World Record.

One example of the former category is the news-making LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon (75192), which holds a GWR on its own right for “Largest commercially available LEGO set (7,541 pieces)”. Then we have the long-retired LEGO Creator Maersk Triple-E Container Ship (10241); while not a record-holder itself, the set does depict the (former) GWR holder for “Largest Container Ship”.

The Building History with LEGO section on the Guinness World Record website details 8 such LEGO sets and builds that have world records attached to them. It’s also apparently going to be a special feature in the 2019 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. They have a list of stores from 10 countries where that book, and its other special spinoffs (Wild Things and Gamer’s Edition) are available.

The Guinness Book of World Records 2019 edition went on sale this Tuesday, August 28.