Jason F., Author at The Brick Show

UK LEGO Star Wars Magazine #32 Offers a FREE Imperial Shuttle Pilot Minifigure.

LEGO Star Wars is such a big licensed line in the overall LEGO catalogue that it’s no surprise there are publications focusing on that theme in certain countries around the world. In fact, last month, the UK edition of the LEGO Star Wars magazine had a free Kylo Ren shuttle polybag as part of its promotional.

This month, they’re at it again. The February issue, coming out this Wednesday, February 7, will continue the LEGO Star Wars UK mag’s current streak of little freebie in their every succeeding release, from minifigures to micro-scale model builds. Now the giveaway is an Imperial Shuttle Pilot minifigure.

Said pilot minifigure on LEGO Star Wars #32 is actually quite fitting in terms of freebies. Not only does it come after the polybag for Kylo’s black and wide-wingspan shuttle, the scheduled giveaway for issue 33 on March is the basic “upside-down-Y” Imperial Shuttle, like in Return of the Jedi.

The UK-published LEGO Star Wars magazine is filled month after month with fun articles, features and comic-book stories set in the LEGO Star Wars universe. Their February issue #32 has two “great comic” stories and a couple of insert posters also included.

Note that the Star Wars Rebels series on Disney XD will be resuming this month as well, and the latest film installment, Solo: A Star Wars Story, is premiering in cinemas this May. All of these might explain why recent LEGO Star Wars magazine issues are so freebie-heavy.

LEGO Ideas Project SR-71A Final Flight Hits the 10K Support Mark.

Even as the latest LEGO Ideas release, Flagship Leviathan – Ship in a Bottle (21313) continues making waves in stores, the mechanics of having fan submissions being processed for a chance to become an official LEGO Ideas set continue unabated.

There may not have been any passers in the latest Ideas review round just last month, but there are always new and more submissions to the LEGO Ideas website that are competing to get noticed enough to get the prized 10,000 supporters mark that would put them up for a future review. The latest to hit that milestone’s a historical vehicle.

LEGO Ideas member JustOneMoreBrick must be very pleased to have hit the 10K support milestone for his submission, SR-71A The Final Flight. It’s a spectacular brick build of the famous Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance plane with NASA livery, depicting the last active aircraft of the line before its retirement.

For some added backstory, the Lockheed SR-71, introduced in 1966, was a cutting-edge image of the Cold War from the previous century. Used by the US Air Force for spy work, it was retired by the military in 1998, with two units retained by NASA for flight testing until 1999.

That last retirement year, specifically October 9, 1999 was the last time a Blackbird took to the air. JustOneMoreBrick’s design of the aircraft in LEGO is awe-inspiring despite the near-uniform black color scheme (barring NASA white and red). The details are exquisitely rendered and it even has a pilot minifigure.

The LEGO SR-71’s mechanical gimmicks include adjustable tail-planes, retractable undercarriage (landing gear), and cockpit for the minifigure. LEGO Techies will definitely love it. It’s still a ways off before we see SR-71A The Final Flight included in a batch of 10K Ideas entries for review, but at least its spot is secure.

LEGO Teases Carnotaurus as Part of Their Upcoming “Jurassic World” Sets.

Any toy collector could tell you that LEGO is one of the best there is at handling franchise licenses and manufacturing some of the most awesome tie-in products that do the license proud. LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Batman are some of the triumphant examples of their expertise, among others.

Take also for example, the Universal Pictures film series Jurassic Park, later Jurassic World. Remember that they’ve got the latest installment, subtitled Fallen Kingdom, set to come out in the middle of 20918. To build up the hype, LEGO is releasing some really sweet tie-in sets in the following months.

But they’re just getting started. LEGO newshounds combing their international websites have found a very interesting trailer on the Norwegian LEGO page here. What’s revealed is the LEGO rendition of one of the featured dinosaurs for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It’s a real beastie called Carnotaurus, depicted hidden among foliage.

This teaser would have it that the LEGO Jurassic World Carnotaurus will be designated set 75929. This curious sprinting two-legged dinosaur with the prominent “eyebrow fins” is seen in the Super Bowl LII trailer for Fallen Kingdom. Unfortunately its scene has it being chomped on by a T-Rex in a split-second.

After the teaser was spotted, LEGO went on to Twitter with another preview giving us a nice full look at their Carnotaurus (75929) in CG, playing a round of football with Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) in what seems to be a reference the Fallen Kingdom trailer during Sunday’s Super Bowl LII.

Can’t. Even. Wait.
Building up to an amazing comeback… New #LEGOJurassicWorld sets hitting the stores in April! #JurassicWorld #FallenKingdom @JurassicWorld pic.twitter.com/q4g8poAwT8

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) February 4, 2018

LEGO pegs their new Jurassic World sets to start “touching down” in stores this coming April. It’s therefore a safe bet that the Carnotaurus (75929) will be counted among them. We’ll be keeping an eye out for when images of the actual set will appear, so keep bearing with us.

60 Years of the LEGO Brick (40290) Now Out of Stock At LEGO Shop@Home.

If you’re still expecting to get the commemorative 60 Years of the LEGO Brick (40290) set as a free gift with purchase, then you’ll be a bit disappointed to know that the highly in-demand promotional set is no longer available at shop.LEGO.com. In just less than a week, it seems that LEGO has ran out of stock of this commemorative set, even weeks before the end of its planned promotional period from January 28 to February 14. It is now replaced with the very rudimentary LEGO City Dragster (30358).

Valued at $25 USD, the 60 Years of the LEGO Brick (40290) set was given away for free with a minimum purchase of any LEGO product worth $125 or more. But obviously, its suggested value is somehow underrated given the large demand for this collectible set. If you’re still hoping to have the 60 Years of the LEGO Brick (40290) added to your prized LEGO collection than your better off looking at the secondary market where eBay prices can soar for as much as $200, or at Amazon while there are still sets selling around between $35 to $40 per set.

Were you able to get your 60 Years of the LEGO Brick (40290) commemorative set? What do you like most out of it? Let us know in the comments below.

More Information on the LEGO Ninjago Movie The Dockyards (70657).

Now that we have official confirmation about the then rumored LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City Docks during last week’s Nuremberg Toy Fair opening, more information is slowly coming in about this set. As it turns out, an image of the now known LEGO Ninjago Movie The Dockyards (70657) is now circulating among LEGO fan forums online, giving us a glimpse of how large this set is.

First off, the image in question has a Confidential watermark on it, so I think I’ll be holding on the reins from posting its original image. Frankly speaking, I was expecting The Dockyards (70657) will be a bit larger as compared to what we saw from the film, but judging by the size of its base, which seems to be a 32×32 Green Baseplate (10700), it is definitely large and comparable to the floor size of a typical modular.

Similar to the LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City (70620), the Dockyards also follows a modular design with regards to its three-storey buildings. Two tower-like structures flank a central building which looks like a dojo of some sorts. Though the confidential box art image does not give the details on how these buildings and its rooms function, the levelled design of each room definitely suggests a modular function, as revealed at the Nuremberg Toy Fair.

portion 70657 — A portion of the LEGO Ninjago City The Dockyards (70657).

The Dockyards also features a sort of a port that is made of cylindrical LEGO pieces, made to look like pieces of bamboo. It also features a separate boat similar in size like that from the Ninjago City (70620). In terms of scale as compared to the mechs in the LEGO Ninjago Movie theme, one should not expect that much, that it will be on a proportional size as we saw from the movie. Nevertheless, it is large enough to be at par with the LEGO Ninjago City, and I’m excited to see how the Dockyards can connect with it.

Finally, if the leaked, preliminary image will be taken for what it is, then we can expect a whopping 13 minifigures from this set. That will give you a total of 32 minifigs if combined with Ninjago City (70620). That is one pretty impressive combination of a set if you’ll ask me.

Word has it that the LEGO Ninjago Movie The Dockyards (70657) will be released some time in June, with a price point of 229.99 Euros. No piece count yet were given, but as Promobricks estimates it, it might be around 2,500 pieces.

A Look at the LEGO Marvel Superheroes UCS Hulkbuster Ultron Edition (76105).

You might have already heard about this from Brick Show Brian, but unfortunately, his video about the upcoming LEGO Marvel Superheroes UCS Hulkbuster (76105) has been taken down by the Brick Police from Brick Show’s YouTube channel. Well, I guess it is expected at some point. So, even before LEGO’s corporate censorship machine comes knocking at our doorsteps, allow me to share this leaked image once more about this latest Marvel UCS from LEGO, or to be more precise, the Hulkbuster Ultron Edition (76105).

Standing in at a towering 10.43 inches in height, this UCS model is based primarily on the Age of Ultron Mark 44 Hulkbuster model, and not from the newer version as we saw in the MCU Infinity War trailer. The set also comes with an exclusive Iron Man suit, which is not available in any other set. I have to admit that I’m a little puzzled at LEGO’s choice of offering this Hulkbuster model given the fact that it will be better to have one that is most updated. However, it is still expected to be a crowd favorite once it is released in the first week of March, as LEGO’s March Store Calendar have suggested. Now it should be noted that the recent LEGO Store Calendar does not mention any UCS type of set to be released alongside the LEGO Marvel Infinity War sets, so we are still guessing here on when this Hulkbuster will actually be available.

Though most of us were probably expecting a long overdue UCS Milano, I can’t deny the fact that this most recent version of the Hulkbuster looks kind of cool. But if you’re still waiting for the UCS Milano to happen, then you might want to check out Tyler’s seriously awesome UCS Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Milano MOC.

DOWNLOAD THE BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR TYLER’S CUSTOM LEGO UCS GOTG 2 MILANO MOC RIGHT HERE.

Now, truth be told, I’ve seen a handful of better Hulkbuster MOCs from the AFOL community, and one which even garnered 10,000 votes of support as a potential LEGO Ideas set. The Hulkbuster UCS by Raymond Chow is one magnificent set to behold. Not only did he manage to create on a minifig scale, but he also got the proportions right, which is somehow lacking from this current UCS Hulkbuster offering from LEGO.

Nevertheless, it’s a great move forward by LEGO in giving us a LEGO UCS Hulkbuster, particularly with regards to brick-built mechs and robots. We’ve seen some improvements in this virtually neglected aspect of LEGO sets when the LEGO Ninjago Movie sets came out. But in the end, I’m just glad that LEGO designers got those feet and legs right.

LEGO Black Card VIP Members Will Receive Double-Points for LEGO Star Wars Purchases This February.

LEGO and Star Wars together have done so many wonderful things together in several decades of licensing partnership. Look no further than the epic UCS Millennium Falcon (75192) that’s been a sought-after prize for collectors. The fact that it comes with a black LEGO VIP membership card is a bonus.

Despite some initial trouble on LEGO’s part in getting those sleek black Star Wars VIP cards to their designated owners, things have settled down enough that LEGO is ready for its first major promo with them. Black VIPs have a great deal to look forward to in February, for sure.

For starters, throughout this month all Star Wars VIP card holders will have plenty of motivation to purchase as much and as often as possible. That’s because LEGO is doubling VIP points for Black Card holders when it comes to all purchases of LEGO Star Wars products this February.

This is certainly good news for Black Card VIPs considering that regular LEGO VIP card holders have only two months this 2018 that are designated double-point periods. February gives the Star Wars VIP members one extra month for doubling their points, and who could turn down a prime opportunity like that?

Double points for February aren’t the only thing Black Card holders have to look forward to this year. There’s enough LEGO Star Wars exclusive privileges spread throughout 2018 to make the expense of getting the UCS Millennium Falcon (75192) for the VIP card worth it.

A Star Wars: The Last Jedi DJ minifigure polybag is just one sample of those special privileges. Members will be constantly updated on upcoming promotions through their email for as long as their Black Card VIP membership is in effect.

LEGO BrickHeadz Seasonal Easter Bunny (40271) Available Now.

It’s the second month of 2018, two more months away from this year’s celebration of Easter (incidentally on the same day as April Fools, by the Western calendar reckoning). LEGO, as expected, has some nifty seasonal treats for fans, like the Iconic Easter Minifigure (5005249). But wait- there’s more, and in fact, we all have this coming since we saw the reveal of this year’s line-up of LEGO seasonal BrickHeadz.

After the announcement of the LEGO BrickHeadz Valentine’s Bee (40270), the highly collectible BrickHeadz has revealed its next seasonal entry: The LEGO Easter Bunny (40271). Check out the images of the BrickHeadz Easter Bunny, now uploaded via LEGO’s servers.

The LEGO BrickHeadz Seasonal Easter Bunny (40271) is made out of 126 pieces and is priced at $9.99 like the rest of the line. Not all of the 126 pieces are needed for the main Bunny figure and its handheld accessories; some of the extra elements go into forming additional decorative builds.

That pattern of having little decors to go along with the primary BrickHeadz build was already done before in the Easter Bunny’s immediate predecessor, the Valentines Bee (40270). You recall its accompanying LEGO flowers? In the case of set 40271, the Bunny comes with little LEGO Easter Eggs.

This next seasonal BrickHeadz is now available both LEGO Stores and at LEGO Shop@Home.

LEGO Unikitty Collectible Minifigures (41775) Confirmed at the 2018 Nuremberg Toy Fair.

Earlier last January, we reported that a new LEGO theme will be released this June following the debut of Unikitty’s TV series over at Cartoon Network. This time around, the titular unicorn/slash posh kitten will now have a Collectible Minifigure Series of her own, as announced during this year’s Nuremberg Toy Fair. Thanks to Zusammengebaut, who has been covering the event of Germany’s grandest toy fair, we now have a firsthand account that LEGO has indeed confirmed the availability of the LEGO Unikitty Collectible Minifigure series (41775).

This latest CMF series is slated to arrive sometime in August, and will retail for 3.99 Euros per blind bag. Speaking about the series’ blind bags, Andres of Zusammengebaut further describes that this CMF will be a little hard, if not close to impossible of distinguishing one from each other, given that there are 12 colored variants of Unikitty to collect. It’s like feeling your way through the LEGO DFB series blind bags, with only the hairpieces having some distinguishable marks. There were also rumors that the LEGO Unikitty CMF may also bear a sort of resemblance to the now discontinued LEGO Mixels with regards to being brick-built characters rather than actual minifigures. However, given the ‘blocky’ features of the show’s characters, it is highly possible to see LEGO Unikitty CMF characters be made up of several LEGO pieces – after all, Unikitty herself is made up of 14 LEGO elements. I just hope that beyond the 12 Unikitty variants, LEGO will throw in additional characters from the CN series, since its kind of unusual for LEGO to offer a limited CMF with only 12 characters in it.

One thing that wasn’t mentioned yet from Nuremberg is that as far as Zussemengebaut is concerned, the confirmation of 5 LEGO sets under the Unikitty theme (sets 41451, 41452, 41453, 41454, and 41455), including two Cartoon Network inspired sets earlier reported by Brick Show Brian, is still yet to be heard. As a last note, since the LEGO Unikitty CMF is slated to be released in August, it will be quite a while before we see any official images from this set circulating the internet.

Thanks again to Andres Lehmann of Zusammengebaut for keeping us posted.

Power Functions 2.0 Will Be Featured in Upcoming LEGO City Train Sets.

For many toy collectors, LEGO play sets are already the best there is in their opinion. But even the best can be made better. And how do you make LEGO even better? By giving static models of vehicles for example, the power to move, light up and generally be animated.

This has been the purview of LEGO Power Functions, mechanical and electric components that give certain LEGO models motion and sound. In fact, the brand has already developed a new version of these systems with Power Functions 2.0, and two LEGO City train sets will be the first to incorporate them.

In yet another wave of updates coming from this year’s Nuremberg Toy Fair, word is out that the two latest train model sets carrying the LEGO City line name will incorporate Power Functions 2.0 as part of their inner workings. Expected to be released this summer, the first sets that will incorporate the latest power functions will be the LEGO City Passenger Train (60197) and the LEGO City Cargo Train (60198), which bares a remarkable similarity to previous sets such as 2014’s High Speed Passenger Train (60051) and Cargo Train (60052).

60051 1 — High Speed Passenger Train (60051).

The expected Power Functions 2.0 add-on features haven’t been specified just yet, but Promobricks, who also happened to be on the floor at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, reports that this new feature will do away with the old, infrared remote control system, and will make use of a newer Bluetooth wireless protocol that allows the train to be controlled remotely using an app on any mobile device. Pretty cool, right? The only caveat is that the new Power Functions 2.0 is not compatible with its predecessors. Meaning that the old plugs of the previous system will not fit the new Smart Hub.

The future reception of these upcoming LEGO City sets 60197 and 60198 will be the first major product test for Power Functions 2.0, so model train enthusiasts would be among those who need to keep an eye out for these sets when they do come. Original Power Functions accessories will still be available in LEGO stores that carry them, as well as on shop.LEGO.com, so that’s that for now.

Credits again to Promobricks for this piece of info.