Category: Miscellaneous

LEGO Makes Statement on Social Media Influencers Following Recent Backlash

With the rise of social media as a tool for online mass communication over the past decade or so, came the prominence of social media influencers, celebrities with large online followings who are then courted by major companies to advertise their goods, in return getting paid with cash or free products.

Even LEGO gets into this social influencers action, which is why The Drum, a marketing industry website, has called upon it and four other big-brand companies to say their two cents on the latest social media scandal of an influencer campaign gone wrong, according to comments.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnIlqUShl31/

UK-based influencer Scarlett Dixon (@ScarlettLondon) posted an Instagram promo for Listerine last August 31, which was eventually bashed by critical commenters for its “obviously staged” and “fake” styling. One heckler even mentioned how they wanted Scarlett to “step on a LEGO” for her “forced acting”.

To this little bit of controversy, The LEGO Group’s Director of Social Media and Search Lars Silberbauer noted that such flare-ups don’t, as detractors claim, herald the death of social media influencers as an advertising force. Rather, the whole model is undergoing an adjustment period. Despite hiccups, he says “It doesn’t change the fact that millions and millions of people all around the world are following and taking inspiration from Influencers.”

Silberbauer also made mention that LEGO also entrusts some influencing campaigns to The Drum to hype their various LEGO products. And recently, the company’s put an ad out for a new Social Influence Manager to work on YouTube. All in all, despite the nightmare unleashed on @ScarlettLondon for her Listerine post, she and her fellow social media influencers still remain…influential.

LEGOLAND Brick-or-Treat Party Nights Are Coming Back this Halloween

It’s never too early to plan for a party, and what bigger party for everybody can there be at the end of next month, except for Halloween? We can bet that theme parks across the country have got their own spooky celebration events planned, including the various LEGOLAND theme parks of course. The LEGOLAND yearly Halloween extravaganza is called Brick-or-Treat Party Nights, and guests of the LEGOLAND parks and Discovery Centers across the US can be assured that they’ll be having an awesome monster bash wherever they may be. Each location has its own dates for Brick-or-Treat, so let’s go over these.

brick-or-treat

First we have LEGOLAND California Resort. They’re having Brick-or-Treat Party Nights as early as September 29, and so on every consecutive Saturday until October 27. LEGOLAND Florida Resort is starting late, but with more dates on schedule including on October 31st itself (though with limited activities and no fireworks display). Their Party Nights will happen in all weekends of October.

True to expectations, the LEGOLAND Brick-or-Treat Celebrations will start at around 5 PM on all selected dates, featuring attractions running from flashy colorful costumes to creepy (yet still kid-friendly) scares. In California, they’ll have a new “Dr. Frankenbrick’s Lab” show that invites its kiddie audience to participate in the Doc’s experiments to animate a slime, with fun science lessons extra.

Other exciting things to look out for are the Meet and Greets, the costume contests, build-and-craft sessions with the LEGO Friends at Heartlake City, and all the yummy candy for sale at treat stations everywhere.

You may book your tickets at the LEGOLAND parks’ respective websites; California even has “Early Bat” limited-time offers in store. Each LEGOLAND Discovery Center in North America has their own Brick-or-Treat days so you can check them for yourself here. Look under “News and Events”.

The LEGO Education Master Educator Program 2019 Officially Announced

It is no secret that the LEGO Group has always been an advocate of learning through play, so much so when it is facilitated by the cutting edge technology and creative use of the LEGO brick. This is the impetus behind a particular subtheme of LEGO products which is widely known among schools and the academe, particularly the LEGO Education line of sets. These are non-retail sets and can only be ordered directly from LEGO, or any of its authorized international partners. LEGO takes education and learning seriously that it even came up with a certification program to recognize those dedicated builders who choose to utilize their teaching skills by utilizing LEGO bricks. Earlier this year, TLG introduced a new certification scheme connected to their LEGO Education line, dubbed as the Master Educator Program.

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The Master Educator program is a LEGO Education network that brings together primary and secondary educators who effectively use products from the Education line and other LEGO sets as tools for teaching. This is in conjunction with LEGO Education’s objective of promoting hands-on learning for skills development. Already LEGO Education has an initial group of certified Master Educators. In the US they comprise teachers from primary and secondary education – elementary, middle school and high school – that integrate various LEGO teaching tools and methods when educating their students.

Master Educator Program

But LEGO is keen on growing the number of Master Educators under their Education label. If you’re a schoolteacher who loves LEGO and are interested in learning how to make the best use of them for education, you can sign up for the Master Educator application. You’ll be notified by LEGO Education on when in 2019 their application process begins.

LEGO Costumes for AFOLs Now Available at Target Just in Time for Halloween

LEGO, for all the brand recognition muscle its name might bring, doesn’t seem like the first thing in mind when thinking of costumes for Halloween. Still, there is a market for children who want to go as LEGO minifigure characters or even LEGO bricks. And believe it or not, LEGO has obliged these. They’ve got licenses out for official LEGO costumes from its proprietary series like Ninjago to other franchises like the DC heroes in LEGO movies. What’s more, they’re not just for kids. Even grownups can get in the Halloween costume fun too with this recent collection of LEGO costumes for AFOLs or Adult Fans of LEGO.

LEGO Costumes for AFOLs

For those interested, these officially licensed LEGO costumes for AFOLs are from Disguise, and are now available at major retail chain Target. Of the newly released adult-sized costumes, shoppers can choose from blue or yellow 2×4 LEGO bricks, the generic red-shirted LEGO minifigure guy, plus LEGO Batman and LEGO Joker from their hit 2017 film.

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The minifigure LEGO costumes come in torso with arms (ending in the distinctive C-hands) and a minifigure head (with eye-painted visor). Prices range from $40 to over $60 each. These LEGO duds from Disguise were timed to celebrate (naturally) all of LEGO’s milestones this 2018, which is also a great way for you to show your love for the brick.

What’s your choice of LEGO props this Halloween? Let us know in the comments below.

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LEGO Speaks Up Against Fake LEGO Shopping Sites

Not so long ago, the LEGO news community – us included – shed a collective spotlight on the rise of some very suspicious fake LEGO shopping sites online. The insidious thing about these LEGO marketplaces are either their aping of the official shop.LEGO.com web design or the unbelievably low prices on offer.

We at The Brick Show have joined our contemporaries in telling all LEGO fans and collectors who read our news to stay away from these fake LEGO shopping sites. And now, our voices are being joined by the final authority in these things, The LEGO Group itself, in the form of an official statement about these posers.

LEGO’s word on the matter:

We are aware of the existence of websites that mislead consumers in different ways and we take all of these incidents very seriously. While we cannot comment on our specific actions, what we can say is that when we are made aware of or observe any situation where consumers are misled and our intellectual rights are violated we always take the appropriate actions to protect consumers as well as our brand.

We believe that consumers should always be aware of when they are purchasing a genuine LEGO product and when they purchase something else – and they should not be misled during the process of purchase.

We are aware that it may be difficult to identify a fake website, but if in doubt, consumers can be certain that the official LEGO shop on http://www.shop.LEGO.com is genuine.

Remember, shop.LEGO.com and trusted market platforms like Amazon are the only online places you can be sure to buy and get genuine LEGO sets at the right prices. As a rule of thumb, if the prices mentioned in any of these questionable, fake LEGO shopping sites are too good to be true, then they’re probably are. Making your purchases over LEGO Shop@Home and Amazon via our affiliate links also helps legit, LEGO-oriented blog sites such as ours to be up and running.

Yes, everyone wants the most out of their hard-earned bucks, but the investment that you will put on genuine LEGO sets will ensure that you receive a true product guaranteed to last years of play.

LEGO DC Super-Villains Printable Coloring Pages

We’re just a month away before LEGO releases its next video game offering that promises a ton of super-villain content hailing from the DC universe. The LEGO DC Super-Villains video allows players a wide range of customization to even create your very own minifigure villain avatar. Plus, with more than 200 DC baddies to aid you in your quest, this next LEGO video game title gets even better with an upcoming downloadable content that further expands your roster of minifigure characters. It’s definitely a huge game that rivals its predecessor from last year: the LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2. While waiting for the game’s release, Brick Show’s creative guys have prepared a treat for young LEGO and DC fans out there.  We compiled an initial list of LEGO DC Super-Villains and rendered them in coloring pages that you can download and print. Simply click on the images below and either save them or print them directly to your printer. Check out these LEGO DC Super-Villains printable coloring pages and be sure to share these to your friends.

LEGO The Riddler Coloring Page
LEGO The Riddler Coloring Page

 


LEGO Commissioner Rex Gordon Coloring Page

 


LEGO Reverse Flash Coloring Page

 


LEGO Livewire Coloring Page

 


LEGO Lex Luthor Coloring Page

 


LEGO Harley Quinn Coloring Page

 


LEGO Deathstroke Coloring Page

 


LEGO Darkseid Coloring Page

 


LEGO The Catwoman Coloring Page

 


LEGO The Joker Coloring Page

This is just an initial roster of LEGO DC Super-Villains printable coloring pages, and we will update this page as soon as more superheroes and high-powered villains are revealed in the next few days. The LEGO DC Super-Villains video game comes with a Deluxe Version that offers a Season Pass and an exclusive Lex Luthor physical minifigure. The game is available across major gaming platforms and will be released on October 16, 2018. You may pre-order a copy right here. Be sure to keep tabs with us here on the Brick Show for more LEGO DC Super-Villains update.

From the Rumor Mill: Will a LEGO Legend of Zelda Video Game Really Happen?

This piece of news (aka rumor) has been floating around social media sites since yesterday, that even LEGO-oriented blog sites started picking them up. Yes, you read it right: there have been talks around LEGO community sites that LEGO might have entered into a partnership with Nintendo to come up with a LEGO Legend of Zelda video game. It spread like wide fire that even Kevin Hinkle, former community manager for LEGO in the Americas, has joined in and gave his two cents on the matter over on Twitter.

Here is the Instagram post that allegedly claims to be the source of the rumor. An anonymous source claims that he or she managed to hack the Nintendo Switch eShop and was able to extract the following information from the site. According to his account, these are upcoming games that LEGO intends to announce later on through a Nintendo Direct Episode. However, due to the recent earthquake that hit Hokkaido, Japan, the scheduled stream of this Nintendo Direct episode was put on hold. As you can see from the list, a certain LEGO Legend of Zelda is mentioned.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnez_tzgoC0/

Now it can be argued that LEGO is no stranger to collaborations with other video game companies and titles such as Minecraft and the more recent and still to be revealed, LEGO Overwatch theme. However, it is quite strange for LEGO to take a highly popular video game and render it in to another LEGO video game format. This doesn’t make sense because there is the possibility that this will compete against one of Nintendo’s video game titles, unless this speculated LEGO Legend of Zelda video game will have a new story line or will be a sequel (or prequel) of some sorts.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_dbF9wicQs/

Furthermore, the rest of the titles mentioned in this ‘leak’ seem to be dubious. I really don’t go with the idea that Nintendo will be comfortable naming one of its upcoming games such as WarioWare: Fart Mania, or Metroid Equestrian Races. The former will not go well with Nintendo’s sense of video game decency, while the latter seems to go against the very idea and character of the Metroid video game.

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Here’s the original image in case it gets deleted.

Then there are licensing issues if ever Nintendo enters into a formal partnership with LEGO for future LEGO sets. Nintendo and LEGO must find a way to hurdle any proprietary issues that Nintendo entered and agreed upon with other companies in the past. For what it is, we have to take this piece of news with a handful of salt and to be cautious not to immediately jump in the bandwagon. These are all speculations and rumors that will be hopefully addressed once the latest episode of Nintendo Direct airs soon.

Credit for the featured image:  The Brick Addict via Instagram

 

German Teen Arrested for Having a LEGO Machine Gun

Every now and then, we come across some weird stories that relate to LEGO, whether with its retailers, or with the people who play with them. They can range from a case of brick theft with a stolen Duplo statue head in Gloucestershire, to getting in trouble with the law because of a dangerous-looking brick-build. Earlier this week in Ludwigshafen, Germany a teenager was arrested by local police because of LEGO. The reason: he had built a submachine gun out of LEGO bricks that – a LEGO machine gun – when seen from a distance, looked terribly like the real thing. Anybody would panic at that.

So when the 19-year-old “suspect” looked out the window of his house with the LEGO machine gun in his hand, neighbors immediately contacted the authorities, seeing as Germany has some of the strictest firearms laws in the world. That was reinforced by how quickly the police responded to the suspect’s address.

There they found the man with another companion, aged 23, and some LEGO bricks, some of which went into building the machine gun MOC in the teen’s hands. Regardless of the true material being discovered, the poor suspect is now under an official investigation, because the prop weapon he made was in the unfortunate shape of a firearm prohibited under both the German Weapons Act and the larger European Firearms Directive.

Though we can give credit to that teen for building an impressive, closer to real-life LEGO machine gun, I can just imagine his regret for his lack of good and sensible judgment on this one. The lesson of this story: mind your local firearms laws, and make sure your brick builds won’t be mistaken for anything that could get you in trouble with the police. Perhaps settle for a less conspicuous build next time – maybe a brick-built gun like the featured image above, will do.

Source: Deutsche Welle.com

LEGO BrickHeadz Newt Scamander and Gellert Grindelwald (41631) Set Officially Revealed

A new LEGO BrickHeadz duo will soon finally find their way from the MACUSA to your nearest local LEGO store. The new LEGO BrickHeadz Newt Scamander and Gellert Grindelwald (41631) dual-pack has been officially revealed via LEGO’s Facebook page earlier today. Numbered #76 and #77 respectively, this dual-pack set comes in at 247 pieces and will retail for the same price of $19.99 like other previous LEGO BrickHeadz dual sets.  In my opinion, these are one of the best LEGO BrickHeadz sets that I’ve seen so far, with a very accurate brick rendition of their hair and clothes while still retaining that particular BrickHeadz vibe.

It is a welcome surprise that the LEGO BrickHeadz Newt Scamander and Gellert Grindelwald (41631) set is slated for an early release of October 1, ahead of the film’s November 16 release. Check out LEGO’s press release for more information, courtesy of The Brothers Brick.

41631 1

This LEGO® BrickHeadz™ 41631 Newt Scamander™ & Gellert Grindelwald play set is fun to build using colorful LEGO bricks that recreate all the iconic details from the Fantastic Beasts™ series, including Newt’s waistcoat, coat and detachable case, plus Grindelwald’s different colored eyes. Both come with detachable wands and stand on a buildable collector’s baseplate for easy display in your home, office or anywhere you like.

Buildable Newt Scamander™ & Gellert Grindelwald LEGO® BrickHeadz™ construction characters feature decorated eyes and authentic details from the Fantastic Beasts™ series, including Newt’s waistcoat and jacket, Grindelwald’s different colored eyes and 2 wands.
Each LEGO® BrickHeadz™ construction character comes with its own buildable collector’s baseplate.

Have fun growing your LEGO® BrickHeadz™ collection with other characters from your favorite movies, TV series, games and comics. Fantastic Beasts™ toys measure over 2” (7cm) tall without baseplate. Baseplate measures over 1” (4cm) square.

LEGO to Pursue Sustainable Material Changeover Despite Possible Adverse Effect on Profit

The business situation for The LEGO Group has been rather touch and go over the past year or so, despite the sheer volume of new building sets and related products that are always being released. Recently they have, in the span of mere days, announced both their intention to change over and pursue sustainable material by 2030 and a report of recovering profits and stable revenue for half of 2018.

It was after the release of that report on LEGO’s financial results for H1-2018 that CEO Niels B. Christiansen reiterated the company’s goal of transitioning from traditional plastic to plant-based alternatives on all product bricks and pieces. He also noted that he is aware of how this ongoing development could bite into their profit margins.

“I’m not even sure that we currently yet can live up to the quality that we want,” Christiansen noted. “But it’s an agenda that we want to drive and an agenda that our owner is behind. We want to become a leader on this.” He speaks of course of LEGO’s owners, the Kirk Kristiansen family, from which the directive to move on to sustainable materials for brick production came from.

Already LEGO manufacturing has gone with bio-plastics for all plant pieces on new and upcoming sets, including the special Plants from Plants (40320) package; only time will tell when they would completely pursue sustainable material use and to begin transitioning the rest of their bricks and elements in the process.

LEGO sales in the US have been heavily affected by the closure there of once-titanic retailer Toys R Us. Only improving figures from European markets ensured that the first half of this year resulted in an even keel for revenues.