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LEGO-Related Black Friday Deals with Three Major Retailers

Thanksgiving 2018 will be arriving next week, and the Friday immediately afterwards will thus be Black Friday. There are various (often conflicting) explanations on the origin of the name, and its claims of being the “busiest shopping day of the year” are contested, but the fact remains that many shopping deals come out this time.

We can count LEGO among those who have opened up some irresistible Black Friday deals for their own formidable global chain of branded stores. But if you’re looking for LEGO at other retailers that carry them, some of these have their own Black Friday offerings.

Here’s what we might expect from three major retail chains.

Best Buy (why an electronics retailer? There are LEGO videogames, of course!)

LEGO The Incredibles –$59.99 $29.99 (PS4, Switch and Xbox One regular editions only)
LEGO DC Super Villains – $49.99 $19.99 (PS4, Switch and Xbox One regular editions only)

Target (big mechanical sets)

LEGO The Ninjago Movie Garma Mecha Man (70613) – $59.99 $41.99
LEGO The Ninjago Movie Lightning Jet (70614) – $59.99 $41.99
LEGO Star Wars Y-Wing Starfighter (75172) – $59.99 $41.99

Walmart (for early-age LEGO fans)

LEGO Classic Creative Box (10704) – $39.99 $20
LEGO Duplo Creative Box (10854) – $39.99 $20

Now, this is likely just the beginning. There are 11 days left before Black Friday arrives, and more retailers with LEGO products in their shelves might yet hammer out some pretty amazing deals of their own.

LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) Now Exclusively Available at LEGO Shop@Home

Just a quick reminder, just in case you haven’t noticed it yet: the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) is now available at LEGO Shop@Home as our current promotional, gift with purchase set. This is also a nice freebie to go along with the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71043) if you’re planning to get this massive set which is now currently offered with Double VIP points at shop.LEGO.com.

The LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289) is available for free beginning November 9 until 21 or until supplies last, with a minimum purchase of any LEGO products worth $99 and above. LEGO seems to have a sufficient number of sets at hand since this gift-with-purchase set is still available at LEGO Shop@Home as of this posting. This set is also available at all local LEGO stores across the US, in case you want to pick up your own set personally.

LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (40289)

374 pieces; valued at $19.99

Recreate the magic of Diagon Alley™ with this magical LEGO® micro build featuring Gringotts™ Bank, Ollivanders™ Wand Shop, Flourish and Blotts, Quality Quidditch™ Supplies and Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, plus a Mr. Ollivander minifigure with a wand.

LEGO® Diagon Alley™ Micro Build (item 40289) offer is valid on shop.LEGO.com and at LEGO Stores from November 9 through 11:59pm EST, November 21, 2018, or while supplies last only. Qualifying purchase must be equal to or greater than $99 in merchandise only; any applicable taxes, shipping charges, or value of gift cards purchased do not apply to merchandise total. Offer excludes Bricks & Pieces and backorder items. Cannot be applied to previous purchases or combined with any other discount, offer or free gift. One free set per household. Item is valued at approximately a $19.99 (US) / $26.99 (CA) retail value and cannot be exchanged or substituted for any other item or cash value. Item is available exclusively through this offer; additional sets cannot be purchased. Offers not valid at LEGOLAND® Parks or LEGOLAND Discovery Centers. The LEGO Group reserves the right to cancel or modify these promotions at any time without advance notice.

The LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book Offers Plenty of Building Suggestions for Your LEGO Star Wars Sets

The new LEGO Star Wars book released by Dorling Kindersley looks to further enhance the experience for collectors and fans of the LEGO Star Wars line, by encouraging them to go beyond the official set builds and helping them find inspiration for putting together the LEGO Star Wars MOC of one’s dreams. This is the professed goal of the LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book.

LEGO Star Wars Ideas Bo0k

Find a galaxy full of LEGO® Star Wars(TM) ideas to build–from activities and art, games and challenges, to practical makes and your very own inventions!

This book features 200 imaginative play and building ideas, from LEGO projects that take just a few minutes and a handful of bricks, to builds to keep you occupied for hours. Set up a game of LEGO Star Wars skittles, create a pencil pot shaped like your favorite Sith or Jedi, build a fleet of tiny TIEs, design Darth Vader’s family tree, and customize a podracer. Challenge a friend to take on a rathtar, mix up your minifigures, stage your favorite movie battle scene with LEGO Star Wars bricks–and much, much more! LEGO® Star Wars(TM) Ideas Book is packed with a family friendly range of activities to inspire every LEGO Star Wars fan. What will you build?

Created by the authorial team of Hannah Dolan, Elizabeth Dowsett and Simon Hugo, LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book presents ways to take existing Star Wars sets and builds, then editing and customizing them into something new. Its contents are divided into quick-reference sections, from random builds of the day, to recreation of Star Wars scenes.

These tips and suggestions are then interpreted into beautiful LEGO Star Wars MOCs by a team of expert LEGO builders who have even included “Challenges” that involve creating MOCs a particular way and inviting the reader to figure them out. Solutions are provided, of course.

The LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book is available now at bookstores carrying LEGO books from DK, priced at $24.99 in the US, $31.99 in Canada, and £17.99 in the UK. It’s also available at a discounted price in Amazon here.

Take a Look at the World’s Largest Sundial Made of LEGO Duplo Bricks

Anyone with a wide enough scientific education would know what a sundial is: a device that tells time via available sunlight, which casts shadows on a dial of hour-lines, said shadow being cast by a raised gnomon. There are so many variations on the sundial structure, including “ring dials”, where sunlight passes into a hole and falls on marked hour-lines. Recently, Chinese-based LEGO educational group Playable Designs attempted a new LEGO-themed, Guinness Record to make the world’s largest sundial built using LEGO- to be exact – Duplo pieces. The group used a ridiculous number of large Duplo bricks in order to make a sturdy structure.

With some 45,000 LEGO Duplo pieces in several colors, the Playable Designs team went to work on the world’s largest sundial, out of these many Duplo bricks at the Beijing art district. Upon completion, the largest ring sundial in LEGO Duplo measured 2.81 meters in diameter and 08 meters in thickness, and proven to indeed tell time from the sun like any ring sundial would. Watch this featured video from Guinness World Records.

Playable Design group founder Mrs. Hou remarked that the project was primarily a teaching tool to encourage and inspire children to learn about science, astronomy, math and history, all subjects that pertain to sundials. Still, she adds, they’re very happy all the same that their work was recognized by Guinness as the new title holder for the world’s largest sundial made entirely of plastic bricks.

Playable Designs specializes in developing LEGO-related educational programs in Chinese schools. Their largest LEGO Duplo ring sundial project took three months to design before the actual building process, and involved Astronomy professionals and mechanical engineers.

LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit Animated Special to Air on NBC

The third installment of the Jurassic World saga from Universal Pictures is still a long ways off, but its recent sequel Fallen Kingdom is still quite fresh in the minds of moviegoers, enough that LEGO has announced new sets to come out in 2019, plus an animated special to boot. Said animated special was to be aired late this year, and at last LEGO has fleshed out information about it. The title is LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit, to be aired on NBC network. LEGO posits this special as taking place before the events of Jurassic World in 2015.

The LEGO Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit follows Claire Dearing, operations manager of the Jurassic World theme park, as she receives orders from her boss and park owner Simon Masrani, to transfer three dinosaurs to a secret exhibition area that houses a new attraction, touted as the greatest thing since the discovery of dinosaurs.

Claire thus takes animal behaviorist Owen Grady from his current assignment of teaching his baby raptors in order to transport the dinosaurs in question. But that mission’s a bit tougher than expected; and there’s something about the new attraction that’s more than meets the eye (though it’s not Transformers-related, sorry).

We can expect this LEGO Jurassic World animated special to premiere on NBC in two parts, on November 29. The Secret Exhibit will then be uploaded on several streaming platforms (NBC app and Hulu among them) on November 30, and will finally be available on DVD in January 15, 2019.

The LEGO Zoo Offers Easy-to-Build Animals Using Readily Available LEGO Bricks At Your Home

For younger-leaning LEGO builders, one favorite subject for brick creation would be animals. There’s something very imaginative about assembling basic LEGO bricks to create the basic shape of a beast or bird or dinosaur. A LEGO Animal Atlas released earlier this year by publisher DK featured plenty of animal-building instructions.Now, another brick-building book has come out that shines the spotlight on brick-built animals. Unlike the DK Animal Atlas, it’s not officially partnered with LEGO, but The LEGO Zoo by Italian author Jody Padulano is just as appealing to children (and probably to some AFOLs as well) with its charming photography and building steps.

The LEGO Zoo: 50 Easy-to-Build Animals

A children’s book that shows how to build 50 simple models of LEGO animals using only standard LEGO parts that every LEGO fan has in their collection.

The LEGO Zoo book shows kids of any age how to build 50 simple animal models using only standard LEGO parts that are already likely to be in their collection. Readers learn how to build models of animals like crocodiles, zebras, wolves, lions, flamingos, plus many more. Projects are ordered by increasing difficulty making it easy to jump in without getting in over your head. The animals are so cute and goofy, whether building as a family or solo The LEGO Zoo is sure to deliver a roaring good time!

Originally published in Italy 2017, The LEGO Zoo proved a popular enough seller that No Starch Press has brought it into an international readership. In 200 pages it details 50 animals famous as exhibits in zoos all over the world, and features instructions to recreate these using basic LEGO blocks.

The LEGO Zoo is divided into five chapters sorting the featured animals by level of brick building difficulty and complexity. But young readers shouldn’t worry; they’re not that difficult. The book is now available on Amazon for $13.36, as well as from No Starch Press. Hard copies come with the free eBook version.

LEGO Bricktober Harry Potter Minifigures (5005254) To Be Available in Barnes & Noble For Only 1 Day

After LEGO confirmed the release of the LEGO Bricktober Harry Potter Minifigures (5005254) at Barnes & Noble stores last August, there has been mixed reports regarding its availability at the different branches of the said retail giant. There has been numerous anecdotal reports that the highly sought after collectible minifigures were put on display at some B&N stores, selling for $7.99. For several months, Barnes and Noble was mum about it, and has neither confirmed nor has released any official confirmation if ever these collectible LEGO minifigs were actually being sold already.

However, it looks like that Barnes & Noble has now finally broken its silence and gives us a definite answer on when the LEGO Bricktober Harry Potter Minifigures (5005254) will be released in their stores. According to an email newsletter from Barnes & Noble, the company has now confirmed that the much coveted minifigures will now be officially released on November 17 as a LEGO promotional – and only, take note, ONLY for a day. The following ad was included in B&N’s newsletter correspondence, as shared by Brickset.

Barnes and Noble’s website also provided several details on its other in-store only exclusives, collectively tagged as Explore the Magic at B&N’s Wizarding World Event.

Thus on November 17, one day after Crimes of Grindelwald premieres in the US and UK, Barnes and Noble will be inviting guests to their stores for their Explore the Magic event, and it will be wise to expect that plenty of LEGO fans will rush to their stores on this date because of the release of the LEGO Bricktober Harry Potter Minifigures (5005254). Bear in mind also that these minifigs will be given for free but with a price point of $75 worth of LEGO products purchased in their stores, and while supplies last.

Here’s what else to expect from Barnes & Noble on November 17:

$10 reward card with the purchase of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald screenplay available (until Nov. 21)

10% off select Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts wands and wearables such as the Sorting Hat, Harry Potter Glasses, and Dobby Ears available

Free WREBBIT3D™ Harry Potter Ford Anglia™ Puzzle w/ the purchase of a Harry Potter WREBBIT3D Puzzle available

New Chocolate Wands will be 3 for $30 available (until year’s end)

$1 Bertie Bott’s 1.2 oz Every Flavour Beans available

That list doesn’t even include other freebies that B&N stores are going to shower guests with. Also, in contrast to previous reports, the LEGO Bricktober Harry Potter Minifigures (5005254) will not be available for regular purchase during this 1-day event, but will be accessible as a purchase promo.

I wish you all the best in bagging this one.

LEGO Stunt School Ad Features Ace Racer Ben Collins

The LEGO Technic line doesn’t just simply go for near-authentic mechanical functions for their sets; they can also include the odd gimmick now and then. This is illustrated in the new LEGO Stunt School ad video on YouTube, which showcases the long-released Technic sets WHACK! (42072) and BASH! (42073), plus a special guest.

Said guest is celebrated British racer Ben Collins, who also appeared on BBC’s Top Gear both as himself (presenter) and as one of the stunt performance drivers under the collective identity of “The Stig”. The video presents him as “driving” both the WHACK! (42072) and BASH! (42073) sets as open-faced and tinted-helm versions of himself.

The LEGO Stunt School video depicts a boy playing with the LEGO Technic WHACK! (42072) and BASH! (42073) sets, with clever camera editing that makes it look like both Technic sets have Collins on the wheel. Footage of the sets in motion are real, with the models running via their pull-back motor action as they wend their way around several other Technic sets, culminating in a neat sequence demonstrating the central sets’ primary Technic stunts.

42072 1 — The LEGO Technic WHACK! (42072)

42073 1 — The LEGO Technic BASH! (42073)

At one point the BASH! (42073) car collides with a wall, causing its engine to pop out – the other primary feature of it and its brother LEGO Technic set aside from its pull-back running function.

In interview, Ben “Stig” Collins remarked on the video, “This film was created not just for the awesome stunts but also to inspire children to think outside of the box when it comes to creative play. By showcasing my skills as LEGO’s official stunt driver, I hope to open children’s minds to the endless potential LEGO Technic offers when building.”

Collins says his children are big LEGO fans and the toy brand’s a major part of their family life. “It’s been a real pleasure to be able to combine my love of stunt driving with my love of LEGO in The Chase. I hope it inspires kids everywhere to create their very own epic stunts!”

Check out the entire LEGO Technic range at Shop@Home. None of the sets are retired yet; just out of stock if not listed as available.

Pre-Registration Opens for Philly Brick Fest 2019 LEGO Convention

LEGO fan conventions are often among the most heavily attended community events wherever they may be held. At times, the major LEGO fandom gatherings can get so huge that their organizers need participants to register well in advance. How advanced? Sometimes they open registrations the year before the event dates.

This is the case of the Philly Brick Fest of 2019, set to run four days of April next year. They have opened up their info page at Eventbrite this week for LEGO fans looking to participate in the convention events and lock down on display space for their builds.

One reason for the early pre-registration is that at this time the organizers are still offering some plenty affordable rates for participation and exhibit space. This offer is at a limited time, and in later registration periods the fee will be upped incrementally. Early-bird registrants get to pay much less.

At present, a would-be registrant will need only $78 to get access for all four days of the Philly Brick Fest, a display spot, brick badge and the expected bag of goodies. The event will take place April 25-28 at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks, northwest of Philly.

Here’s How to Win a LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309) From Guinness World Records

One of our previous articles had a list of said LEGO sets that are related to Guinness’ many World Records. It also contained a small contest on the official Guinness website for any visitor who answered one trivia question correctly to win a LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon (75192). That giveaway was last month. Now, Guinness World Records is back with another c has a new trivia question up on one of its LEGO World Record info pages. The winner this time around will win a LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309), the 17^th official LEGO Ideas set. Question: what year was the Saturn V first launched?

Do you think you have what it takes to prepare this record-breaking rocket for flight? Well now’s your chance to find out.

Guinness World Records 2019 features eight LEGO kits which recreate wonders of the world in plastic brick form.

The Saturn V is one of them and you now have the chance to win this kit.

To be in with a chance visit the dedicated Saturn V page and answer the question on the form.

Entrants from the UK, Ireland and Canada are valid and all entries must be received by 11:59:59 p.m. BST on Friday 9 November.

Interested parties can tick off the right answer among the provided choices, then enter their personal information and email address below. The entry form to win the LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V (21309) raffle is to the right of the Saturn V Guinness page. Entrants from Canada, the UK and Ireland have until November 9 to join.