Category: Featured

LEGO Japan Showcases Two-Set Fusions of Sets Available on Amazon.JP

The key concept of LEGO has always been that, with any given number of bricks, one can build anything. True, most packaged LEGO sets are to build a specific building/vehicle/etc. They even have instruction manuals so that builders can assemble the pieces exactly as pictured. But ultimately, building with LEGO bricks can be one of the best outlets for creative freedom. LEGO Japan two Saturdays ago demonstrated that fact in partnership with Amazon Japan. The results of that promotional activity on social media would grab attention and ignite builder creativity.

Brick Fanatics brings us this interesting social media activity made possible by the Japanese divisions of LEGO and Amazon. The challenge: How would you combine two different LEGO set builds into a unified creation? LEGO JP’s original Twitter post (November 13, 2021) even provides an example.

The “Before” photo showcases the completed LEGO Technic Off-Road Buggy (42124) and LEGO Monkie Kid Lion Guardian (80021). The “After” photo reveals the Buggy revamped to have the Lion Guardian as a motif. LEGO Japan invites viewers to visit Amazon JP’s page, and post their own two-set fusions in the comments. Let’s go over to Amazon’s Japanese page now.

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In the page, we see two LEGO Friends sets, Friendship Bus (41395) and Heartlake City Organic Café (41444). They get fused into a curious double-decker food truck.

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Two Ninjago sets – Jungle Dragon (71746) and Zane’s Titan Mech (71738) – fuse into a dragon robot. It looks similar to mecha plastic models by Bandai.

lego amazon jp ideas botanical

The real Japanese essence of this LEGO-Amazon team-up lies in this particular build. LEGO Ideas Tree House (21318) plus Botanical Collection Bonsai Tree (10281) equals Sakura Tree House. The featured LEGO sets are mostly available on Amazon.jp, or you can just go LEGO.com. They’re very inspiring fusions, right?

Not Two But Four LEGO Astronaut Minifigs on Artemis 1 2022 Space Mission

As 2021 nears its end, space flight fans await February 2022 and the first (unmanned) launch of the Artemis program. This unmanned mission will send an Orion spacecraft on a trip around the moon. The journey will test these all-new space delivery systems in anticipation of carrying a manned crew. But “unmanned” doesn’t mean “unoccupied.” The Orion capsule will carry humanoid test dummies to simulate flight conditions and test for radiation. Extra “passengers” include astronaut minifigures from LEGO, a partner with NASA for promoting the Artemis program. Initial reports noted two minifigs for the mission. Apparently the number’s actually double.

Brick Fanatics reports that there will be four LEGO minifigures going up with the Orion spacecraft on Artemis 1. We already know two of them: animated characters who star in LEGO Education’s “Build to Launch” STEAM exploration series. Their names, if you recall, are Kate and Kyle. Now apparently, they will be joined by two astronaut minifigs from the main LEGO City theme. The names of the new additions: Julia and Sebastian. The quartet gets to follow in the space-flight footsteps of three aluminum-built minifigures aboard the Juno space probe. They reached their destination, the planet Jupiter, back in 2016.

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LEGO looks to be harnessing their NASA partnership to synergize their upcoming space-flight LEGO City sets. We already covered the rumored Rocket Launch Pad (60351?) supposed to launch (product-wise) on March 2022. We have to wonder if Artemis 1 “astronauts” Sebastian and Julia are part of that set’s minifigure crew.

Dubai Toyota Dealership Showcases 1:1 Scale-Build LEGO Land Cruiser 300

LEGO and cars make a perfect combination, and it has been since the brand’s early days. The evolution of LEGO bricks and pieces led to many automobile sets over the years of varying complexity. Even actual car brands know the power of promotional partnership with LEGO. Car enthusiasts must have been just as excited as LEGO collectors were to see the 1:1 scale Bugatti Chiron. That reconstruction may have made news due to being fully-mobile, but other parties have been building life-sized LEGO cars. So, in a topic we haven’t covered in some time, consider this to-scale LEGO car MOC from the Middle East.

Car and Driver tells us that the MOC build was commissioned by a Toyota dealership in Dubai, UAE. The subject: the 2021 Toyota Land Cruiser 300. Luckily for Al-Futtaim Toyota, they were able to contact a locally-based certified LEGO builder to work on this masterpiece. Said certified builder led a 12-member team to work on this life-sized brick-built Land Cruiser. It took them 2,688 total work-hours to complete the sculpture using 440,000 LEGO bricks. But what beauty the result was! The LEGO Land Cruiser 300 copies the actual SUV’s dimensions perfectly. Its combined brick-weight of 4,500lbs/2,050kg even comes close to the original’s over 5,700 lbs.

This LEGO Toyota Land Cruiser will be on display next to the real thing at Al-Futtaim’s showroom inside Dubai Mall. Emirati shoppers and tourists can drop in to check it out up until December 15. One might just imagine an official scaled-down LEGO set (Technic/Speed Champions?) just looking at it. Interestingly, the real Land Cruiser 300 is not going to be available in the US. Only the luxury-edition 2021 Toyota Lexus LX is coming over.

Recycled LEGO Brick Part of TIME’s “100 Best Inventions of 2021”

LEGO’s been on the material sustainability kick for well on several years now. One can safely say that the toy megabrand’s efforts go well beyond mere lip service. When their products are made of lots of plastic, LEGO owes it to the environment. Thus the company has been studying various alternative raw materials for their bricks and pieces. One example would be using plant-based materials for LEGO plant elements. Then in the middle of this year, LEGO produced a prototype brick from recycled PET plastic. It’s a start and there’s still a long way to go, but their breakthrough just got some major media recognition.

According to The Brick Fan, LEGO got a mention in the 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by TIME magazine. The citation mentioned LEGO’s long-term pledge to make their bricks out of sustainable materials by 2030. And their triumphant prototype brick introduced back in June was the result of three years of research. The aforementioned piece is touted as being identical to the feel of a regularly-molded LEGO brick. With the process now proven possible, the company could begin increasing use of sustainable pieces in their sets. This immediate goal has been given a timetable of about 18 to 24 months.

To give a perspective, TIME notes that LEGO’s annual manufacture of plastic resin for their products is 100,000 metric tons. Why make lots of new plastic that could go to waste when waste plastic could be recycled? We wish LEGO luck in implementing their breakthrough, and congratulate their inclusion in TIME’s 100 Best Inventions 2021.

Neat LEGO Star Wars Promo Video and LEGO Vidiyoland Teaser Released!

Given the epic grand entrance of the LEGO Star Wars UCS AT-AT (75313), a pretty cool LEGO Star Wars promo video is expected. LEGO certainly did not disappoint with their ad for the set, posted on their official Twitter account. Viewers are treated to a minute of superb visual storytelling with lots of Star Wars shout-outs. It starts innocently with a guy walking out of a London LEGO Shop, UCS AT-AT in his arms. Then we hear the actual AT-AT sounds as he walks. He sees a car with a Millennium Falcon license plate, then Princess Leia. The rest of the shout-outs are seen in the eyes of the audience.

While looking at that this latest LEGO Star Wars promo video, we also stumbled upon this interesting new video. It features Vidiyo, the hybrid minifigure-AR music video theme launched just this year. While an exciting bop during its introduction, sales-wise LEGO Vidiyo was a bust. It wasn’t surprising when LEGO announced that no new Vidiyo products were coming next year. They apparently plan to revamp the theme for a 2023 soft re-launch. So what is this LEGO Twitter teaser video trying to tell us?

Judging from the animation style reminiscent of “Animal Crossing,” “LEGO Vidiyoland” could possibly be a new animated series. Of course, that’s only our opinion based on a 15-second video. Don’t take our word for it and probably just wait for LEGO to elaborate on this. Unless…the character design is less “Animal Crossing”-like and more an actual “Animal Crossing” crossover, now that would be surprisingly exciting.

LEGO Putting Two Minifigure Characters from its LEGO Build to Launch Series in 2022 Space Mission

Earlier this year, the LEGO Education line announced a partnership with NASA and the planned Artemis 1 space mission. From this collaboration arose their STEM exploration series, LEGO Build to Launch. The series featured space program character minifigures explaining all the stuff that goes into a rocket launch and moon mission. There have also been recent rumors regarding its cast featuring in some upcoming LEGO City sets. The said space-themed City sets are supposed to arrive next year. Meanwhile, it is confirmed that two LEGO Build to Launch minifigs will be physically made and put into an actual space launch.

According to Brick Fanatics, LEGO Education’s “Build to Launch” series is sending two of its characters aboard the Orion spacecraft. Said characters have been rendered digitally for the STEM exploration series. But LEGO will make physical versions of Command Pilot Kate and Mission Specialist Kyle. They will be put into the Orion reusable spacecraft to be carried by NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). This mission, Artemis 1, will commence on February 2022. The Kate and Kyle minifigs will take the place of a manned crew in this test flight. LEGO Education President Esben Staerk notes that this event will culminate in the Build to Launch exploratory series.

The fact that these Build to Launch characters will be made into actual minifigs seemingly lends credit to earlier rumors. After all, why stop at two when all of this LEGO Education STEM series (animated) cast could follow suit? And maybe they might just show up in the aforementioned upcoming LEGO City space sets. Viewers of the “Build to Launch” series could dream. Anyway, here’s the first video in the exploratory series, so you know what Kate and Kyle look like.

WATCH: LEGO Titanic Designer Video is the Longest Yet Made

When one mentions the word (or name) Titanic, the context has always been of sheer size. Almost anybody could rattle off the story of the doomed passenger liner that hit an iceberg in 1912. The Titanic was the biggest ship afloat at the time. And well over a century after it sank, LEGO released a massive set for it. Even scaled down, the LEGO Titanic (10294) really makes its size come across. It had to be huge so that builders and viewers could make the details out. In reference to the idea of hugeness, its corresponding LEGO Titanic designer video is appropriately lengthy.

LEGO set designer videos are on average around 5 minutes long. For this LEGO Titanic designer video, however, we get treated to a nine-minute presentation of the massive build. No other set video released until now has gone that long. LEGO designer Mark Psiaki explains the minutiae of how the design teams recreated Titanic in LEGO. Intercut with his monologue is a mini-documentary on the actual ship. This part is narrated by Andrew Skinner from the SeaCity Museum of Southampton, UK. That was the port city where Titanic departed on its maiden, and only, voyage. LEGO designers rarely have non-LEGO guests in designer vids. But this is a Titanic set, after all.

Some of the details touched upon by Psiaki about 10294 include the accessory US flag. As a sample, he notes the flag only has 46 stars (only 46 States in 1912). He also points out how the mini-flag’s plastic foil material. They could print the design on one side and it shows mirrored in the other. All these interesting tidbits would surely get deep-pocketed collectors interested in LEGO Titanic (10294). They’ll have to contend with it being temporarily out-of-stock though.

WATCH: LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster (21329) Designer Video

There’s no denying the LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster (21329) has become one of the biggest set releases this year. After its October 1 release the Ideas Strat was the subject of a Contest back on LEGO Ideas. Days later, LEGO did a showcase on Tomas Letenay, the Ideas member from Slovakia who originated the build. It was a short video snippet about the man behind the product idea. However, a LEGO designer video it wasn’t. And over a month after its launch, LEGO finally released the official video for its latest LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster (21329). Check out the video below.

As seen in the video above, two LEGO designers and a graphic designer talk the audience through the set’s evolution. Marin Stipkovic and Ricardo Dias reminisce about developing the pieces, such as the tuning keys and the “strings”. This being a licensed IP set, aesthetic elements such as accurate brand lettering were important. That part gets covered in the video by graphic designer Beatrice Amoretti. One can tell that a lot of love was given to forming the guitar, its accompanying amp, and its accessories. Truly, the LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster (21329) is a must-have for musically-inclined LEGO collectors, reasonable at a $99.99 price range.

In other news, the Ideas contest to win a Stratocaster set (21329) and a real Player Strat is nearly done. The idea intake phase, which began back on October 5, times out this November 4. Experts will review the submissions until the 18th, followed by a Crowd Vote on November 25. The winners will be announced next month, on December 2.

New LEGO “Rebuild the World” Promo Video Encourages Imagination with (Parodied) Queen Song

Ever since their first promotional video in late September, LEGO’s “Rebuild the World” 2021 campaign has been expectedly charming. Interpreting the free-form play of LEGO bricks and minfigures as SFX-laden random adventures really grabs the audience’s attention. In addition, the “Rebuild the World” promos sneak some sage advice appropriate for kids and children-at-heart. So how do you top a promo depicting people helping a knight cross a river (with lessons in creative problem-solving)? Why not illustrate how children’s imagination can say “anything goes” when playing with LEGO? And how about spicing it up with a cute lyrically-rewritten song from Queen?

According to Brick Fanatics, that’s the gist of “Anything can happen when you put LEGO bricks in kids’ hands.” This new Rebuild the World video again takes viewers on a patchwork fantasy adventure that’s really just kids playing LEGO. It starts normally enough with a girl building a LEGO City rescue helicopter and imagining herself as a rescuer.

Then we see a boy acting out “Star Wars” Imperial Stormtroopers fighting bees. How about a dragon working in the fire department (with his fire-breath replaced with water)? A racecar trying to “reach the stars” finds itself replacing a gondola on the Ferris wheel. With LEGO, you can hear imagination singing Queen’s hit “Don’t Stop Me Now” (with altered kid-friendly lyrics, naturally).

Some key LEGO sets seem to take center stage in this promo-vid. Brick Fanatics points out obvious shout-outs like LEGO City Wildlife Rescue Operation (60302). Even LEGO Vidiyo, the mixed-received AR/minifigure theme, gets a spot here. We don’t know if this promo will reignite interest in Vidiyo products, but that’s neither here nor there. All told, this is a great Rebuild the World video and we can’t wait for more.

Singapore Scientists Test Using LEGO for Re-Growing Coral

How long has it been since we looked into special-interest news involving LEGO, but not necessarily involving The LEGO Group? Here’s one interesting tidbit courtesy of BBC. Usually when LEGO and the sea are mentioned together, one thinks of LEGO pieces polluting the ocean. The nightmare of plastic pollution remains very palpable worldwide, even if LEGO is taking steps towards greener materials. There’s no way LEGO can benefit oceanic life-forms like coral reefs, can they? Well according to researchers in Singapore, some throwaway LEGO bricks can be repurposed to save corals. The island of Singapore has reefs that need saving.

According to the report, scientists from the National University of Singapore found an ingenious method of re-growing corals. Since these creatures need to attach to a solid surface underwater, why not use LEGO bricks? Their research teams scour the reefs outlying Singapore for breakaway pieces of coral. They attach these to LEGO pieces attached to string, and leave them in lab aquariums where they would grow. The grown coral fragments can then be taken back to Singaporean waters for transplanting. The LEGO-piece aquarium growth setup was tested for its utility in vertical farming, growing more coral in limited aquarium space.

Singapore’s usage of anything on hand to salvage their coral reefs is understandable. Their island nation’s waters are home to a third of all 800 coral species worldwide. Their reefs suffered in decades past due to land reclamation. So the usage of LEGO pieces to aid in vertical coral farming is commendable. One hopes the idea works, and probably be looked at by other coral conservation efforts around the globe. A LEGO Ideas submission in the Third 2021 Review Stage might jive with this initiative.