LEGO News Archives | Page 234 of 405

LEGO Shop@Home Offering a Free Minifigure Display Frame this October

For LEGO fans that focus their collecting efforts on minifigures, they might be wondering how best to showcase their fave minifig characters on display. LEGO has answered that in the form of the minifigure display frame, a framed sturdy LEGO mat with brick-built perches for minifigures to stand on, for hanging on walls, or a portrait stand, or on flat surfaces. The LEGO Group has already offered a similar minifigure display frame for both the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO Batman Movie themes. If these are too “branded” for your taste, however, then this new promotional item on shop.LEGO.com this October is for you.

From the 15^th to 31^st of next month, LEGO will be offering a free minifigure display frame for shoppers with a minimum LEGO purchase of $75. This promotional gift features a gray display mat with a black border frame, white minifigure perches and 2×2 LEGO tile-logo in the corner.

This LEGO Minifigure Display Frame also seem to come with a summery minifigure with shades, white tank top, shorts and duck-head life-preserver. There are 16 minifigure perches in the set and the mat pegs can also support LEGO brick builds. Supply is also limited, so get ready to pounce this coming October.

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.

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

Here’s What To Watch Out For In LEGO DC Super-Villains Season Pass

It looks Warner Bros Interactive and TT Games are expanding the LEGO DC gaming universe with their latest offering, LEGO DC Super-Villains just in time with the release of Warner Bros’ next superhero films slated for December (Aquaman) and April next year (Shazam!). We know that like previously released LEGO video games, this latest video game offering will also come with a Season Pass which promises a ton of superhero material that DC and LEGO fans will look forward to. Thankfully, WB and TT Games will not keep us guessing on what will be included in the LEGO DC Super-Villains Season Pass since they have fully revealed what to expect from this downloadable content.

The LEGO DC Super-Villains Season Pass will include a good number of 6 Level Packs and 4 Character Packs, offering a vast array of minifigure superhero and villain characters that can be unlocked and played in the game. They also come with their own levels and story-building missions. The Character Packs for example, will feature playable minifigure characters based on DC’s TV series such as Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Black Lightning. This is one super powered character pack that is hard to resist.

Level Packs

Aquaman Movie Pack 1
Aquaman Movie Pack 2
Shazam! Movie Pack 1
Shazam! Movie Pack 2
Batman: The Animated Series
Young Justice

Character Packs

DC Super-Villains: TV Series
DC Super Heroes: TV Series
Justice League Dark
DC Films

The LEGO DC Super-Villains Season Pass is immediately available for those who will opt to pre-order the game’s Deluxe Edition (available across major gaming platforms) before its scheduled release date on October 16. The Deluxe Edition also comes with an exclusive, Lex Luthor physical minifigure for those extra bragging rights.

Thanks to Brick Fanatics for the heads-up.

2018 LEGO Advent Calendars Now Available

September is finally here, and we can now have our Christmas shopping wish list ready just in time for the holidays. It may only be September, but LEGO understands very well the virtue of offering their latest Christmas-themed sets as early as this month. We already had a glimpse of this year’s collection of LEGO City, Friends, and Star Wars Advent Calendars when first images of these sets came out as early as spring. This time, LEGO has finally listed these 2018 LEGO Advent Calendars at shop.LEGO.com and are now slated to be available in your local LEGO store.

Designed to be opened each day starting December 1st until Christmas Eve, these Advent Calendars comes with plenty of minibuilds and minifigures that you can add up to your collection. I’m very impressed on how this year’s LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar (75213) turned out. The minibuilds are spot on when compared to their larger counterparts, and its relatively new selection of minifigures will not disappoint. The LEGO City Advent Calendar (60201) also features tons of minibuilds that will make a great addition to any Winter Village you’re building this season. A LEGO Santa minifigure is always welcomed treat. However, I feel that the LEGO Friends Advent Calendar (41353) set still has room for improvement, and it will be nice if LEGO included a minidoll or two other than just having a collection of minibuilds. Nevertheless, this selection of 2018 LEGO Advent Calendars surprises are still great and will surely add some brick-building cheers this Christmas.

If you wish to know more about the 2018 LEGO Advent Calendars, just click on the following links and check them out at shop.LEGO.com and what they have to offer.

LEGO City Advent Calendar (60201)

LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar (75213)

LEGO Friends Advent Calendar (41353)

LEGO Store October 2018 Calendar Now Up

The US LEGO Store October 2018 calendar is now available online, and it gives us a glimpse of the some of the promotional items that we can receive during this month. It also highlights the recently revealed LEGO Star Wars Betrayal at Cloud City (75222), dubbed as the first set under the Master Builder Series. Read on for the rest of cool things to look forward to at your local LEGO store.

October 1-14: FREE Han Solo Mudtrooper (40300) with LEGO Star Wars purchases $35 and more.

October 2-3: VIP Monthly Mini Build is a Scarecrow (40285).

To avail this freebie, LEGO VIP members need to register at shop.LEGO.com/Minibuild-registration beginning September 15.

October 15-31: FREE Minifigure Collector Frame (5005359) with purchases over $75.

October 20, 27: Join a LEGO Life Meeting

For LEGO fans who want to get together to test their building skills, these are the last LEGO Life meetings for 2018, so be sure not to miss them out.

October 1 to November 4: Enter the All-Star Zone!

Come into the LEGO Store and build your very own Star Wars battle fighter! Load your ship into the launcher, aim for the target, and let it fly into the galaxy! This activity intended for children ages 6-14.

The LEGO Store October 2018 calendar also highlights some of the latest LEGO sets to watch out for like the LEGO BrickHeadz Halloween Witch (40272), the LEGO Star Wars Porg (75230), and 2018 Advent Calendars. Lastly, watch out for this month’s sets with Double VIP points for more awesome savings. For this month’s copy of the LEGO Store September 2018 calendar be sure to check out a copy right here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.