LEGO News Archives | Page 187 of 413

Character Distribution and Rarity for LEGO Disney Collectible Minifigures Series 2 (71024) Revealed

Just over a week ago, LEGO finally unveiled in full their second Disney-themed Collectible Minifigures batch, numbered 71024. Already fans are salivating at the 18 minifigures included: the “Ducktales” main cast, vintage-era Mickey and Minnie, plus supporting cast for Aladdin and the Incredibles. By the time the collectibles become available next week, the anticipation will be at some fever pitch.

When dealing with LEGO collectible minifigures, there’s a pattern on how many minifigs of a character is available per box. Everybody knows that. So what are the chances of getting what you need from Disney Collectible Minifigures 2 (71024)? Brickset, seminal LEGO set guide and news source, has the answer.

A LEGO Collectible Minifig box has 60 packs, compared to the 18 individual characters of Disney Collectible 2 (71024). Brickset determined that collectors buying the whole 60-pack box will likely complete the set two times (18×2=36). This is because three characters have been designated as “chase,” or rare minifigures; which means there are only two each in every Collectible box.

To summarize, Brickset and several other news sources in communication with them can confirm that of the 60 packs in a box, nine characters have four packs each. Six characters have three each; and the three chase minifigs have only two copies in a box.

FOUR: Vintage Mickey AND Minnie, Scrooge, Chip, Dale, Elsa, Anna, Frozone, Hades
THREE: Jafar, Jasmine, Hercules, Jack Skellington, Sally, Edna Mode
CHASE/TWO: Huey, Dewey, Louie

One last thing: five minifigures have capes or cloth accessories that are kept in a smaller inner bag within the bag. Better watch where you cut with your scissors or you might ruin them:

Elsa, Anna, Jafar, Hercules, Jack Skellington

Enjoy collecting Disney next week.

Potentially Non-Expiring Points, and Other Changes to LEGO VIP Program

Earlier this March, LEGO announced what might be the most significant developments to their VIP program yet. This involved the introduction of a digital VIP card version, already being tested with selected existing VIP members. That’s merely the beginning, if the LEGO emails being sent to members is any indication.

Our fellow LEGO news source, The Brick Fan, has made public the contents of this message from LEGO regarding upcoming changes to the VIP program. We already know about the implementation of digital cards, but LEGO’s now stressing the importance of having all existing (physical card) VIP accounts registered online.

The biggest part of the news is the new duration of earned LEGO VIP points before they expire. Originally they can only be kept every two years before a member’s point-count is reset to zero.

Two months from now, they’ll only last one-and-a-half years, but potentially they can remain valid “forever.” How is that so? It’s because LEGO VIP’s online digital point meter will reset the 18-month validity of VIP points every time you make a purchase and use your LEGO VIP card doing it.

So even if you buy LEGO only once every 18 months, that’ll restart the “validity clock” all over again. Technically that means what points you don’t use will remain okay to use forever; awesome, right?

One last thing: LEGO recommends that registering multiple VIP accounts in your name be done with a unique email address for each. Otherwise you might see different accounts using the same email address end up being merged by the online VIP system. Conversely, if a single registered VIP account has more than one email address registered to it, it might be split into separate ones.

LEGO Builds Another 1:1 Brick (Non-Functional) Sports Car: McLaren Senna

Using LEGO bricks to build life-sized vehicle models isn’t a new thing. The practice did get a boost following LEGO and Bugatti’s 1:1 recreation of the Technic Chiron set as a functional brick-built car. Many creations from other builders followed, though they lacked the Chiron’s ability to move under power.

Recently LEGO has partnered with McLaren to once again do an official life-sized brick build. The subject is McLaren’s Senna sports car, currently interpreted as one of this year’s LEGO Speed Champions sets (75892). A 42-person team took 5,000 hours in total to assemble 467,854 to form the finished product.

In comparison, within the same timeframe as the LEGO and McLaren collaboration, the latter could have manufactured nine real Sennas. Like the brick-built Chiron, this creation also included non-brick components from its namesake car. We’re talking real McLaren tires, steering wheel, pedal box and carbon-fiber driver’s seat in the thing.

Again, however, this impressive 1:1 LEGO McLaren Senna is lacking the multiple Power Functions motor setup that enabled the brick-built Bugatti Chiron to actually drive. In compensation, the car’s start button will instead play a recorded Senna engine sound over loudspeakers. It’s a poor substitute for the real thing though.

The LEGO McLaren Senna build can only be appreciated in images for now, but it will debut “in the plastic” later this summer. UK fans can catch it on exhibit at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England.

Third-Gen LEGO Owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen Leaving LEGO Holding A/S Board of Directors

What’s quite impressive of the global toy brand LEGO was that for its worldwide reach it never needed to go as a publicly trading company, but one that remained a true family business. To this day ownership of LEGO ultimately rests with the Kristiansen family of founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen.

In the latest development concerning the Kristiansen family, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen has announced his departure from the board of directors for LEGO A/S effective next month. The now 71-year-old grandson of the original LEGO founder is leaving his son Thomas Kristiansen as deputy chairman of the board, again passing the family baton, generation to generation.

Kristiansen tells The Financial Times that his stepping down from the LEGO board of directors is part of the whole family’s procedure on maintaining generational ownership of the global toy company. With this step complete, the only position Kristiansen still holds is the chairmanship of their investment firm KIRKBI A/S.

His successor Thomas Kristiansen became a board member of LEGO back in 2007, and was appointed to the deputy chairmanship two years ago. His presence ensures the Kristiansen family retains a voice among the directors as “the most active owner.”

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen took over as LEGO CEO following the death of his father Gotfried in 1979. He stepped down from active management of the company in 2004, replaced by the first non-family CEO of LEGO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. He himself was replaced by Niels B. Christiansen, though he remained chairman. Knudstorp and Thomas Kristiansen are now selecting candidates to replace Kjeld on the board.

LEGO Ideas Launches “LEGO Tower” Floor Design Contest

When we announced the new LEGO-themed mobile app “LEGO Tower” this Monday, we also said a related contest is coming. Said competition is to be hosted on LEGO Ideas, and involves creating custom content that developer NimbleBit can add later. The announcement was to be made “later;” that meant now.

LEGO Ideas finally opened their official contest page in relation to “LEGO Tower” on Tuesday, March 26. Effective immediately, all interested contestants need only to use their digital LEGO construction tool of choice to design a themed floor that could be implemented in the NimbleBit app before its launch date.

“LEGO Tower,” based on NimbleBit’s “TinyTower,” has players acting as developers of their own multi-story skyscraper complex, with each floor occupied by minifigure residences or businesses, all paying rent to enable further construction of more floors and extra building facilities.

Six contest winners will be chosen to each win a $200 Shop@Home spree, a LEGO Creator Expert Corner Garage (10264) and LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle (21313). Their custom “LEGO Tower” floor will be an option in the game app, and they’ll also get a “special unlockable feature” when they play the game themselves.

For more details and in-depth contest rules, visit the official “LEGO Tower” Contest Page on LEGO Ideas. The final submission of entries is on May 2. Judging takes place from that date up to May 10, and the winners will be announced on May 22.

Researchers Use LEGO Pieces to Build Setup to Create Lab-Grown Meat with “Organic-Like” Texture

This won’t be the first time we’ve featured a LEGO MOC that’s geared towards scientific ends. Before, we’ve covered a brick-built sundial and even a scanner setup for detecting nerve gas and airborne biological agents. And now, we’ve come across another far-out scientific application for LEGO bricks, producing cultured meat.

Lab-grown meat research isn’t exactly new, but using LEGO pieces to make equipment to do so is now a thing. Researchers from Penn State University and the University of Alabama have been pondering on how to make cultured meat from starch fibers have an “organic” texture. The solution was a device that spins the starch fiber into a “meat-like” structure.

According to Food and Wine, the research teams hit upon constructing a spinning wheel for the cultured-meat fabric using various LEGO parts and moved by Power Functions motors. Plastic was the material of choice they used due to being non-conductive.

Using the setup pictured above, the researchers were able to have the spinning mechanism cause the starch fabric to align into muscle cells just like with real steak-grade meat. Of course, the small LEGO setup used means the quantity of lab-grown meat isn’t much, but the experiment has proven the concept, making the team confident in replicating the method with a larger version in future.

If you’re curious as to whether the experimenters will continue to use LEGO in their later studies of making organic-like cultured meat, the answer’s actually no. But again, the iconic toy brand has come through with its wondrously wide applicability that even scientist can rely on it for their work.

LEGO Shop@Home Doubles VIP Points Until March 31

Even when there’s a new LEGO set you really like releasing soon, and you’ve got the money for it, sometimes it can pay to wait beyond the set’s release date especially if you’re a VIP. You never can tell when LEGO, particularly its online Shop@Home, will suddenly announce Double-Points time.

Sometimes the 2x VIP points apply only to specific sets. The best moments are when it’s a blanket double-pointing on all available products. It never lasts long enough so LEGO VIP members need to “pick their battles” as it were. Like right now, Shop@Home has Double-Points going until March’s end.

Considering a lot of cool new released happened at the start of the month and even last February, there will be plenty of choices. Many of them are “pricey” enough to really rack up the VIP point multiplier upon purchase.

Whether LEGO VIP members fancy a March 1 release like LEGO Ideas Flintstones (21316 as stated in the preceding article), or go for a 3-digit set like the LEGO Creator Ford Mustang (10265) and LEGO Movie 2 tie-in Welcome to Apocalypseburg (70840), they’ll be maximizing the Double-Points gained for sure.

Five major LEGO Shop@Home markets have twice the VIP points to offer until March 31. May you make them count; for who knows when another opportunity might be announced again?

Designer Video for LEGO Ideas Flintstones (21316) Released for Viewing

Whenever a major themed LEGO set is released, it’s inevitably followed by a designer video. What isn’t quite sure is how soon a designer vid will come out following the set’s availability. For instance, both LEGO Creator Ford Mustang (10265) and Ideas Flintstones (21316) released March 1; the former got its video the following week.

Not until March 22 – three Fridays later – did the LEGO Ideas Flintstones set (21316) have its LEGO designer talk about its official genesis on video. Ricardo Silva, in charge of finalizing the initial concept by Ideas member Andrew Clark, gives some backstory on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon the set’s based on.

That element’s very important particularly in the LEGO design team’s efforts to replicate the distinctive facial features of the Flintstones and their Rubble neighbors into rounded minifigure heads. Also given the spotlight was the rare fabric piece serving as the roof of the Flintstone boulder-car.

Silva also touches on the various aesthetics of the Flintstone residence build, from the cave-art painting tiles and even the fur “curtain” tiles. The designers certainly had fun filling the set with plenty of call-backs to the original sixties animated series, even if stuff from Clark’s original submission were omitted.

The LEGO Ideas Flintstones (21316) is barely a month old and therefore very much available on Shop@Home. At $59.99 it’ll fetch LEGO VIP members a lot of points, particularly in conjunction with a promotion they’ve got going. We’ll be covering that VIP thing up next.

Next LEGO Sets on Sale at Amazon: 2019 Speed Champions Releases

Sometimes we at The Brick Show can’t help but feel that there’s a pattern to how LEGO sets on Amazon are chosen for price discounts. It could be that they’re selected because they’ve been prominently featured in media, even if it’s been weeks or months since their initial release dates.

Looking at the 2019 LEGO Speed Champions sets that are now on sale at Amazon, the best reason we could think of is that one of them warranted a feature article in the latest issue of “Brick Fanatics Magazine” (#4), now available online and in UK/US store shelves by April.

In any case, for the automotive LEGO fans out there that are interested in this year’s offerings for the Speed Champions line, haven’t gotten any of them yet, then this Amazon sale’s a grand opportunity.

Ferrari F40 Competizione (75890) – $14.99 14% discount for $12.93
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Race Car (75891) – $14.99 14% discount for $12.93
1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 Mini John Cooper Works Buggy (75894) – $49.99 20% discount for $39.99

Category: LEGO News