bluephotographs800, Author at The Brick Show

LEGO Super Mario Princess Peach’s Castle (71408) Teased Ahead of Mar10 Day Event

By now, we can perhaps safely say that LEGO Super Mario isn’t just a one-off gimmicky product line. It may well be a new long-running LEGO theme all on its own, with regular set launches year after year. Having electronic buildable characters from the Nintendo videogame franchise electronically interacting with the sets is sheer genius. Every new set released can potentially be a new interactive playground for the LEGO Mario Bros. And if you think the sets launched last January were all there is for 2022, think again. In fact, LEGO Super Mario is soon expanding its playable brick-built characters.

As told by Brickset, LEGO has spoiled us with its next big Super Mario tie-in: Princess Peach’s Castle (71408). A now-deleted post on LEGO’s Instagram inadvertently revealed this bombshell. But we’re sure to get the low-down very soon. That’s because Thursday, March 10, is being celebrated as Mar10 Day. (Mar-10, get it?) The event already graces the front page of LEGO Shop online. No word on Peach’s Castle. Still, other LEGO Super Mario promotions are taking center stage. The upcoming set 71408 features a Castle build inspired by “Super Mario 64.” But it features cross-franchise characters like Bowser Koopa, Ludwig Koopa, Toadette and more.

Mar10 Day Details

Meanwhile, Mar10 Day is bringing back some cool stuff according to The Brick Fan. During March 10-24, LEGO Super Mario purchases worth $40 will again get the Fuzzy & Mushroom Platform (30389) polybag. This GWP already ran in August 2021 so apparently LEGO still has stock left. In-store shoppers can bring their LEGO Mario/Luigi figures to the nearest LEGO Store to receive the Super Mario coin. Finally, LEGO is offering three bundles of past Super Mario sets. Buying them will net not just VIP points (if member) but also Nintendo Platinum Points.

The Team-Up Bundle (5007060) – $199.98 for 1,000 VIP Points and 50 Nintendo Platinum Points
Luigi’s Mansion Madness Bundle (5007337) – $209.96 for 1,500 VIP Points and 50 Nintendo Platinum Points
The Beach Blast Bundle (5007338) – $149.97 for 1,200 VIP Points and 50 Nintendo Platinum Points

These set bundles can only be gotten on LEGO.com, so grab them if you haven’t already.

Rumors of More New Big (and Pricey) LEGO Marvel Sets for 2022

Even as a new LEGO Marvel set officially launched at the start of March, more products are on the way. The once believed-cancelled latest Mech Armors will debut next month, alongside new Brick Sketches sets. And those are only for the confirmed upcoming arrivals. On the rumor front, we have some numbers and product details speculated late last February. Their alleged prices range from mid-grade to a 3-digit quotation for a new Sanctum Sanctorum (76218). And if this new LEGO Marvel rumor from social media checks out, we have more arriving, including another epic set.

As told by Brick Fanatics, some additional LEGO Marvel sets are believed coming later this year. Instagram user brick_clicker provides at least three numbers and product descriptions. One of them is actually the (apparently modular) Sanctum Sanctorum (76218) we mentioned earlier, priced $209.99.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brick Clicker (@brick_clicker)

The other two additions are more 3-digit price sets. In fact, the values provided makes the new Sanctum Sanctorum look rather affordable. Now, brick_clicker notes that he made a mistake in the LEGO set number-description pairing, as outlined in the caption. We’ll lay out the further details on these Marvel builds here:

76210 – Unconfirmed; believed to be either Avengers Tower or Helicarrier, $499.99
Hulk-Buster (76215) – more or less 2,500 pieces, $299.99

Yep, we’re probably getting a new Avengers Tower or Helicarrier sometime in 2022 for around $500. That could put the size of the build anywhere between the Titanic (10294) and UCS AT-AT (75313). Now that’s an acquisition for the Age 18+ LEGO collector. That said, the above info must be considered rumor for now until LEGO officially opens up about them.

WB Games Reveals “LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” DLC, Release Dates

Next month…scratch that, less than a month away, LEGO gamers can finally play that long-awaited “Star Wars” mega-title. “LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” became the first name in the exercise of patience with its lengthy release date. Those development and pandemic-related delays were notoriously not much help either. Even some heavily-anticipated movies premiered in cinemas before “Skywalker Saga” would hit game shops. But as the days count down it seems the April 5 date is now rock-solid. And as if to make up for the “torture,” Traveller’s Tales and WB Games announced a nicely-packed DLC release schedule for fans.

According to The Brick Fan, “LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” is getting seven DLC batches right off the gate. Even better, four of them will drop right on the April 5 release date itself. These DLC packs feature additional characters, primarily those that appeared outside the nine films of the three movie trilogies. That means the two “Star Wars Story” cinematic spinoffs and the limited series streaming on Disney+. Here’s a rundown on what to expect per DLC pack:

April 5

The Mandalorian (season 1)

Mandalorian/Din Djarin
Grogu (NPC)
Greef Karga
Cara Dune
IG-11
Kuiil

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Han Solo (young)
Chewbacca (young)
Lando Calrissian (young)
Qi’ra
Tobias Beckett
Enfys Nest

Classic Characters

Luke Skywalker
Princess Leia
Han Solo
Darth Vader
Lando Calrissian

Troopers

Death Trooper
Incinerator Trooper
Range Trooper
Imperial Shore Trooper
Mimban Trooper

April 19

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Jyn Erso
Bodhi Rook
Cassian Andor
K-2SO
Chirrut Imwe
Baze Malbu
Director Krennic

May 4

The Mandalorian (season 2)

Ahsoka Tano
Boba Fett
Bo Katan
Fennec Shand
Moff Gideon

The Bad Batch

Hunter Wrecker
Tech
Crosshair
Echo

“LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” releases on April 5 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Series X/S, Sony PlayStation 4 and 5, and The Nintendo Switch.

LEGO Ideas: Lepralego’s Magical Village Over the Bridge Gets 10-K Support

The latest 10K-supported submission to the LEGO Ideas First 2022 Review Stage hits two trending criteria. First, this product idea adds to the all-too-common house/building set majority. Second, it joins two other builds in being “off-season,” as it were. First 2022 already have one idea for a winter cottage for Santa, plus an anniversary celebration of “The Polar Express.” The now-third aspiring set is also an original concept. Its creator Lepralego however found a way for his submission to stand out. Any old house or building is boring, Why not put the structure on someplace interesting, like on a bridge?

That’s pretty much the gist for Lepralego’s “Magical Village Over the Bridge.” It takes the medieval-era convention of building houses on stone bridges and gives it a Christmas Village spin.

Here we have a row of snow-covered shops lining one side of an arch bridge spanning a frozen river. These businesses are run by Elves for their number one customer: Santa Claus.

Does he fancy a haircut? There’s a beard trimmer. Oh, and let’s not forget the Candy and Nutcracker shops too. For ease of access, the shop buildings are fully open at the back, to better showcase the interiors.

If you’ve been following our LEGO Ideas 10K submission updates, you might recognize Lepralego’s handle. This 10K Club Member also created “The Meeting Place,” which got into the preceding Review Stage. This LEGO Ideas Third 2021 is currently the focus of expert review after Second 2021 revealed its results late last February. If LEGO Ideas was like the lottery, Lepralego is technically a ticket-holder for both the current and upcoming “draws.” We wish him well for Meeting Place and now Magical Village Over the Bridge.

LEGO Brick Sketches for Marvel Now Listed Online

Not even the pandemic will slow LEGO down when it comes to making new sets. In fact, it was during 2020 when LEGO introduced a new art-oriented theme line. Where LEGO Art sets comprise plentiful colored tiles on a baseplate, Brick Sketches uses conventional flat pieces. There’re still plenty of contours on them to give the completed brick-built portraits a 3D-like relief effect. Several Brick Sketches sets debuted these past two years, featuring characters from DC and Disney. Now, LEGO is gearing to launch two new additions to the line. This time they’re featuring familiar faces among Marvel Super Heroes.

According to German LEGO news source Stone Wars, we can expect two new LEGO Brick Sketches sets come April. They were officially listed on LEGO Shop online earlier this month. Quite tellingly, they depict the faces of two key film franchises on cinematic Marvel. One’s from the now-massive MCU focused on the Avengers, while the other is from Sony-Columbia’s separate Spider-Man projects. Expect these two sets next month and collect them both if you’re an artistically inclined LEGO Marvel fan.

Iron Man (40535)

Age 8+ | 200 pieces | $16.99 | Coming April 1

LEGO® Brick Sketches™ Iron Man (40535) lets Iron Man fans aged 8+ create their own buildable artwork of the iconic Super Hero. Display it on a surface or use the built-in hook to hang it on the wall. A 12×16 baseplate holds all the LEGO bricks firmly in place. It’s a great gift for kids’ birthdays and holidays and an impressive addition to any collection of LEGO Brick Sketches character portraits.

Miles Morales (40536)

Age 8+ | 214 pieces | $16.99 | Coming April 1

Spider-Man fans aged 8+ can create their own Super-Hero artwork with LEGO® Brick Sketches™ Miles Morales (40536). Hang it on the wall using the built-in hook – the 12×16 baseplate holds the LEGO bricks firmly in place. It’s a great gift for kids’ birthdays and holidays and an impressive addition to any collection of LEGO Brick Sketches character portraits.

2022 LEGO Easter Seasonal GWP (40527) Available Early at Certified Stores in Australia

While LEGO keeps to a timetable in launching their newest upcoming sets, it doesn’t always happen without any deviations. Sometimes some sets or GWPs would be delayed in coming or never show up at all. Conversely, these items might appear on store shelves before their official launch date as given by LEGO. This could happen even in certified or branded LEGO Stores. We even touched on one such case of early availability not long ago. As it happens, a new seasonal GWP set for this year has popped up before its time, just Down Under.

Brickset has it that certified LEGO Stores now have available the Easter 2022 seasonal GWP has appeared in Australia. Said Easter gift with purchase set (40527) can now be found in several Australian certified LEGO Stores. It wasn’t specified however if these items were conventionally purchasable, or have their GWP pricing active. The GWP consists of a buildable Easter egg and two yellow chicks. It’s possible that the egg is big enough to contain the chicks once assembled. Under normal circumstances, LEGO would launch the 40527’s GWP period on April. For Aussie collectors though, they may have an early start.

Don’t confuse this with the purchasable seasonal Easter Rabbits Display (40523), which launched this February.

Monthly In-Store LEGO Build Activities Become Online Challenges in LEGO.com Creativity Page

Many (many) years ago, when LEGO still released monthly Store Calendars, they might have contained dates for in-store build activities. New LEGO sets and possible GWP promos could be alternatively claimed online. But going to one’s local LEGO Store to make that month’s mini-build was a unique sort of fun. Sadly, the pandemic forced LEGO to scupper in-store activities. Eventually they even discontinued the monthly store calendars as well. It felt like the end of an era. It doesn’t have to be that way, however. LEGO found a way to revive the monthly build activities by making it available online.

That’s how Brick Fanatics tells it. LEGO.com has launched a new page, the Creativity Hub. Here, the in-store building activities of pre-pandemic yesteryear have returned. They’ve even increased in potential frequency, from monthly to weekly. Every week, LEGO plans to provide an online building challenge for site visitors. Several new micro-build will be introduced, their building instructions placed in downloadable PDF form. Interested participants can then build the challenges using their LEGO pieces on hand. If they photograph their creation and take it to their local LEGO Store, they’ll get something exclusive for their efforts.

For their pictures of their completed Creativity build challenge, home LEGO builders will receive one DOTS Craft Felt Sticker pack. Each contains four sheets of felt stickers that can be cut into desired shapes. And this giveaway may not be permanent if LEGO.com warns us “while supplies last.” But for as long as they do, builders could re-experience somewhat the enjoyment of building little LEGO things. Instead of every month, they could come every year. And now they can be accessed with a quick visit to the LEGO Shop online.

Rumored “Coconut” LEGO Sets Not for “Indiana Jones” but for “Avatar 2”

This past January we touched upon rumors of some upcoming LEGO sets for a specific theme. What’s notable about this was that the sets were collectively identified by a code word instead of a theme name. The word was “coconut.” At the time, LEGO news sites had some inkling about the licensed IP this codename represented, which we shared. It was believed that “coconut” was an obscure reference to the limited-run LEGO Indiana Jones line. This theme saw several sets and even videogames released in the late 2000s before going dormant. And this is why we marked it as “rumor.” The details could change easily.

Case in point, The Brick Fan reports that the alleged LEGO “Coconut” sets numbered 75571-75574 aren’t for LEGO Indiana Jones. Instead they’ll tie into the long-expected sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi epic “Avatar.” We also have a launch window for these LEGO Avatar 2 tie-ins: October 2022. Finally, the individual European prices for these sets were revealed. We’ve converted them to $ for convenience.

75571 – 560 pieces | €39.99/$43.63
75572 – 572 pieces | €54.99/$60
75573 – 887 pieces | €89.99/$98.18
75574 – 1,212 pieces | €139.99/$152.74

Those are some pricy LEGO sets. 75574 could either be quite big or very complex/intricate. Anyway, we have an estimate on when they’ll come out. Thus we can expect official word from LEGO before October this year. Until then however, we’ll keep this information filed under rumor. We already saw how the theme line changed. Sorry, Indy; maybe next time. Now as for “Avatar 2,” Cameron and 20^th Century Studios expect to premiere it during the Holidays, so stay tuned.

Five More 10K Product Ideas in First 2022 Review Stage

Over the previous week, there were a good number of LEGO Ideas submissions that have reached 10,000 review supporters. It was our bad that we couldn’t quite keep up. To that end we’ll have a digest feature on each of the new 10-K product ideas joining First 2022 Review. True, LEGO itself has noticed that plenty of builds go through Ideas review with only handfuls becoming official sets. We agree with some fellow LEGO news sites that LEGO Ideas’ process may need re-tweaking. In the meantime, we’ll cover the 10-K sets like we’ve always done.

“The Gilmore Girls” House by marodipietro (10K Club Member)

It’s a great modular recreation of the house of the titular Gilmore family from the 2000s The WB/The CW series. There’s a two-story house and separate garage. Said house can open in half on hinges, along with the roofs for play access. The garage also contains the family car. This set has nine character minifigures: Lorelai Gilmore and daughter Rory, plus supporting cast. The interior is supposed to contain several Easter eggs from the TV show. Depending on when it might release if approved, this set could commemorate “The Gilmore Girls” on its 25^th premiere anniversary.

“Aladdin”: Friend Like Me (30^th Anniversary Special) by Lud985 (10K Club Member)

2022 marks the 30^th Anniversary of Disney’s “Aladdin,” released in 1992. This set depicts the “Friend Like Me” musical sequence at the Cave of Wonders. The buildable Genie boats points of articulation in his hands and even mouth. Aladdin (and microfig Abu) is also surrounded by quirky minifigs from the big dance sequence. Their performance platform even rotates. You ain’t never had a LEGO Disney set like this!

The Market Village by Commander Brick

Want to expand the world outside your LEGO Castle sets/builds? This product idea will help jumpstart your medieval village by giving it a market square. We have three key buildings: tavern/inn, smithy and storehouse. There’s also an open grassy area where outdoor stalls can set up. Being a village set, it’s also populated with minifigures. From villagers to peddlers to knights and noble ladies, you can meet almost anybody in this brick-built village.

Air Jordan 1 by legotruman (10K Club Member)

The LEGO-Adidas collaboration may have resulted in nice sportswear for the latter and limited-edition brick-built shoe sets for the former. But this product idea by legotruman may trump Adidas in terms of being iconic. How would you like a LEGO-brick replica of the first iteration of the Nike Air Jordan athletic shoe series? It may even come in different colors, either as included alternative pieces or set-color variants. This is sure to remind sporty collectors of when “Air Jordan” was the first name in shoes for athletics.

The Legend of the Sea Serpent by rebeljackot and jackotrebel

A mom and son duo had the idea of LEGO-building a house on a rock out at sea. From that project was born this submission, and it’s much bigger and better than its origin. Check out this family of three defending their island home from the massive sea serpent. We have a blend of heart-stopping action and potential drama playing out. Will the beast be driven off? You get to decide, if this set makes it past LEGO Ideas review.

And there we have it. Five 10K product ideas in the LEGO Ideas First 2022 Review Stage have been duly featured.

Exclusive Set Dagny Holm – Master Builder (40503) Available at LEGO House

It’s true that LEGO has resolved to phase out the idea of sets exclusive to one region or other. Nevertheless, some LEGO products are so integral to a particular location that it could only be found there. A few years ago there was an exclusive LEGO Architecture set (40199) of Billund Airport. It was available only at the LEGO Store of said airport’s departure hall. From this snippet alone you could discern that Billund, Denmark aka LEGO’s company town has some sweet exclusives still. In fact, there’s a new set that might be found at LEGO House, according to Promobricks.

LEGO House/The Home of the Brick in Billund is LEGO’s gallery/museum/indoor experience center and events venue. Oh, and it also has its own LEGO Store quite naturally. There, one may find the new Dagny Holm – Master Builder (40503) exclusive set. Said product is a tribute to Master Builder Dagny Holm (1917-2004), a niece of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen. Holm transitioned her education in Classical Sculpture Design to making fantastic large-scale LEGO-brick models and structures. She would remain a company master builder until retiring at age 70. The Dagny Holm – Master Builder set (40503) went on sale at the LEGO House this past March 1, 18 years after her death.

Visitors to the Home of the Brick could get this exclusive set there for DKK599 (roughly $89). For now, Danish and possibly mainland European tourists have easier access to buy it. For everyone else around the world, remaining pandemic travel restrictions (and a crisis several countries eastward) can be challenging. Hopefully supplies of Dagny Holm – Master Builder (40503) will last for future LEGO House guests.