It had been one of the most unusual bits of LEGO-related news that came out in June, when the globally renowned Danish toy company announced a collaboration initiative with the Swedish-Dutch king of ready-to-assemble furniture IKEA. The reason given for this LEGO-IKEA team-up was for increasing environmental sustainability in their products, but no clarification was given.
The only line said by LEGO and IKEA on the products they’re working on together was that they’re (obviously) geared toward children. A LEGO-IKEA team-up would go towards “encouraging more play at home, and allowing children to be more creative, to experiment and to dream”.
LEGO is only one of several companies that IKEA has forged collaborative efforts with lately. There are also deals made with audio brand Sonos, luxury house Byredo, and shoe and athletic wear giant Adidas. They’re said to embody having the quality of major brands while making them also IKEA-level affordable.
While this is rather old by now, here’s a teaser by IKEA on the products they’re collaborating on with LEGO, posted on Instagram. It’s a short scene of children playing with LEGO Bricks and an IKEA stool. These products will start coming out in 2019 and years beyond, to be found at IKEA’s children’s sections.
After confirming that the LEGO Harry Potter Bricktober 2018 minifigures will be made available in the US via Barnes & Noble, it seems that LEGO is now teasing on where we can expect the rest of this highly collectible minifigures. We know that these annual releases are usually available in Toys R Us before the toy retail giant closed all its stores in the US, UK, and Australia last June. Many LEGO fans were anxious then on whether the LEGO Bricktober minifigure promotions will still run in spite of TRU’s demise. But thankfully, LEGO still has something in store and the release of the official LEGO Bricktober 2018 images a few weeks ago has confirmed that we will still have our usual LEGO Bricktober minifigs soon.
A LEGO customer service email shared via social media seems to suggest that we will not need to look far and wide to find our share of these minifigs. According to an Instagram post that is now making its rounds across the LEGO community, LEGO’s costumer service has confirmed that the LEGO Bricktober 2018 minifigures will available in US LEGO stores this November and December. To quote,
“The Bricktober promotions will be available through the LEGO stores throughout November and December. This is the only information we have to share at this time. Please keep an eye out for more information.”
Well, I guess we should better start calling this Brickvember and Brickcember for that matter.
We should bear in mind that even if LEGO’s customer service email seems to have confirmed the availability of the LEGO Bricktober 2018 minifigures in local LEGO stores, it will still be wise to consider this as a rumor. In the past, LEGO’s customer service and their social media managers were a bit off the mark when it comes to accurately telling when and how new LEGO sets will be released.
We’re also not sure as of the moment if this will be a future store promotional of some kind. And since the LEGO Store October Calendar has already been released, and there was no mention of any Bricktober promos, then we have to probably wait for the November Store Calendar to be released next month. The LEGO Shop@Home portal is also mum about these LEGO Bricktober 2018 minifigs as of this writing. My best guess is that it may be a part of a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal in November. Whatever the case, we will soon find out.
Things must be rather busy at the global organization of The LEGO Group, particularly in the wake of their recently released revenue report for the first half of 2018. That however, doesn’t mean they won’t have time for goodwill activities, be they a large public event or something much quieter. Much like the main LEGO HQ is located in the Danish town of Billund, so too is their main US HQ, located in the town of Enfield, Connecticut. Not long ago, 30 LEGO US reps spent a day with preschool children students at nearby Tommie Johnson Child & Family Center, a preschool under the Square One umbrella.
A fun time was had by all as the LEGO team engaged around 150 Square One preschoolers in various building activities. One example has each child being given six 2×4 Duplo bricks having them copy, one by one, a design created by a chosen student.
That and other LEGO building games serve to help these preschoolers improve skills in memory, movement and creativity. As Square One development and communications head Kristine Allard says, “Playtime is a critical component of every child’s intellectual and social development. Who better to demonstrate that than the experts from LEGO?”
This is the start of a newly-minted partnership between LEGO US and Square One Preschools. Following the outreach activity by the company’s US staff with the kids at the Family Center in Enfield, LEGO will also design a new playroom facility for them. They’ll have LEGO sets aplenty, for sure.
It would seem that in the UK, charity events wherein units of donations are translated into LEGO bricks to be put together to make a scale model have become a trend. We reported on one of this fun, charitable activity last month, with Suffolk’s St. Edmundsbury Cathedral hosting a particular brick-building event to make a scale replica of its own historical cathedral. Now the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity (CCC) is making its own splash during the Great Brick Adventure event in Liverpool. This week they have launched a new £-a-brick charity drive in the Big LEGO Brick Hospital, building a scale model of what would be a real thing.
CCC is looking for more funding towards building a new cancer research and treatment hospital for the UK, and they mean to get it from this Big LEGO Brick Hospital event. It begins with a LEGO-built construction site, where interested donors pay £1 a LEGO brick that will be assembled to make the planned cancer hospital, rendered in LEGO.
Building instructions for the model were made for CCC courtesy of Bright Bricks, the same brilliant minds behind the St. Edmundsbury Cathedral £-a-brick model design. When finished, the whole model will measure 1.6 meters by 2.8 meters in floor area, and 1.6 meters in height.
On the day the Big LEGO Brick Hospital opened for donations, two thousand bricks equal to £2,000 of charity was raised by well-meaning donors patronizing the event. CCC boss Katrina Bury approves of the successful launch. “We were thrilled to be part of The Great Brick Adventure and show LEGO brick enthusiasts to see the model so far,” she said.
The real cancer hospital this event is helping to build is estimated to be completed by 2020. Surely its LEGO version won’t take that long. For more information visit the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity official website.
It has been almost a year since the canceled LEGO Dimensions theme was upon us. This sad end for a beloved theme was officially announced by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Many forces were at play during this time which left the once booming toys-to-life genre eventually helpless against the tide of low consumer demand. The final wave of LEGO Dimensions sets, dubbed as Year 2 or Wave 9 titles, consists mainly of characters coming from Teen Titans GO!, the Powerpuff Girls, and the 80s comedy-horror icon, Beetlejuice. With the unfortunate cancellation and end of development for LEGO Dimensions, it now seems that any future sets that were rumored to be part of a Year 3 series are now eventually canned.
Is the Canceled LEGO Dimensions Theme Bound to Happen?
It was common knowledge among game developers and those who were closely working on developing future LEGO Dimensions packs, that the LEGO Group had already planned things, with projects that were actually in the middle of development before the unpopular decision from the LEGO Group came out.
Without the intention of showing disrespect to game developers or insensitivity towards the LEGO Dimensions community in general, toys-to-life authority, Bricks to Life, came up with a report that summarizes every intel that it gathered on what this canceled LEGO Dimensions Year 3 titles could have been. It is noteworthy to mention that the LEGO Group is not to be entirely blamed for the demise of this beloved theme. In general, it seems that the trend for the toys-to-life genre has now become a fad, suffering from a very steep downward spiral of interest from video gamers and collectors.
Again, we don’t intend to show any disrespect whatsoever, but as Bricks to Life puts it, “…thisis now nothing more than preserving history”. This rumor is speculative at its best, but as the report goes, is a result of a thorough collection of lists of franchises and properties coming from a whole assortment of sources: “bits of leftover code, secured LEGO licensing rights, plus bread crumb clues from people who worked on the game.”
True that LEGO is suspiciously quiet on this one, but with a bit of brick detective work, Bricks to Life managed to gather as much info on what could be a highly likely wave of what-could-have-been collection of canceled LEGO Dimensions sets.
The canceled LEGO Dimension theme has plenty of potential. And it is even more disheartening to consider that we will never get to see a ton of new characters that is suppose to receive the same treatment.
We will roughly categorize this into four types, based on the target audience that these rumored sets could have intended. Remember: please take this list of supposedly canceled LEGO Dimensions Year 3 titles as plainly as it is, a rumor. Unless the LEGO Group confirms this, then please take this with a grain of salt.
Canceled LEGO Dimensions Themes – Modern Cartoons Targeting A Younger Audience
Despicable Me
Captain Underpants
How To Train Your Dragon
Shrek
The Croods
The Smurfs
Canceled LEGO Dimensions Themes – Big Blockbuster Releases
Avatar
Pirates of the Caribbean
King Kong
Godzilla
Canceled LEGO Dimensions Themes – Video Game Mashups
Minecraft
Angry Birds
Megaman
Canceled LEGO Dimensions Themes – Classic Characters Appealing to Adult Fans of LEGO
So what are your thoughts about this rumored list of cancelled LEGO Dimensions Year 3 titles? Do you think there could be some truth in them? We would like to hear your take on this, especially if you’re a LEGO Dimension fan. Just hit the comment button below and join in the conversation.
As we count the weeks before the holiday shopping season begins, it’s imperative that we veer away from any fake LEGO shopping websites that have popped up here and there.
Be Wary of Fake LEGO Shopping Websites
Most of us have already begun preparing our Christmas wish list (and bracing our wallets in the process), for that very special LEGO set that we’ve been eyeing for so long. We naturally love LEGO, and because we know that our LEGO collection is varied only as far as our budget will allow us, it is only normal that we take advantage of any promotions or discounts that either LEGO (through Double or Triple LEGO VIP points) or other legitimate online selling platforms such as Amazon are offering.
However, this also means that unscrupulous individuals will also be equally aggressive in trying to scam you for your hard-earned cash, and they will do so by ingenious means. Such as the case of these fake LEGO shopping websites that were brought to our attention by concerned LEGO community member Hoth Bricks.
According to their report, there are now a handful of fake LEGO shopping websites that actively seek to deceive LEGO fans into buying from their site. Their site is even made to look very much the same as that of shop.LEGO.com, with its layout and design closely resembling the real thing. Take a look at this screenshot from legovipclub.com (I will not share its link here, sorry).
It’s quite amazing and blatantly shameless of these websites how they managed to copy the look and feel of the real LEGO.com site. From the layout, down to the choice of fonts, everything about these sites simply reeks of deception.
Legovipclub.com follows a web design and layout that closely resembles that of shop.LEGO.com. This fake LEGO shopping website can deceive any unsuspecting LEGO fan from purchasing from them, enticing them with their outrageously low prices.
The tell-tale sign of this deception is not so much on how they cleverly mimicked the real LEGO.com site, but rather on how they entice unsuspecting LEGO fans (especially those who are new to the hobby) to “buy” from their site because of the enticingly low prices.
This site offers outrageously low prices that will make you spill your coffee out of excitement. However, as other LEGO fans will attest, some of their orders (and after paying in the process) never arrived on their doorsteps. Worse, even if a particular set does arrive, what they eventually received was a fake, Lepin set – this is raw, shameless, marketing deception at the highest levels.
Online, they peddle their items as genuine LEGO sets complete with lifted official images and product descriptions, and will even advertise on social media sites like Facebook just to land a sale.
Another example of a fake LEGO shopping website. Legoca.com also follows a very similar page design like that of legovipclub.com. Such stark similarities may suggest that there is only one group behind this fraud.
Fake LEGO Shopping Websites Are Just Dime a Dozen
Other than the legovipclub, other fake LEGO shopping websites to watch out for are legoeu.com, legoengland.com, and legoca.com. The general rule of thumb is, if the advert or offer is too good to be true then it is exactly what is: a dubious scam that you better avoid. Remember to shop only at legitimate sites like shop.LEGO.com and Amazon. Yes, authentic LEGO sets may be hard on the wallet, but an excellent and well-made toy that will last for a lifetime is without a doubt, a worthy investment.
Thanks once again to Hoth Bricks for alerting us about these fake LEGO shopping websites. Be safe and stay tuned here on the Brick Show for more LEGO news and updates.
To those who have an eye on the business side of LEGO, they would be aware that, in spite the veritable non-stop flood of new sets and whatnot, the company has been a bit worried about their financial standing last year. It didn’t help either that one of the brand’s biggest retail partners, Toys R Us, has since closed its doors. But if we know anything about how LEGO runs as a business, it’s that they’re quick to realize where they have problems. By pegging their enterprise as having “grown complicated”, and taking steps to simplify things again, LEGO’s profits began turning around for the better in 2018.
Notwithstanding the loss of Toys R Us, LEGO has been able to report a rise in consumer sales for the earlier half of this year amidst flat rates in the company’s revenues. In spite of last year’s market uncertainties, LEGO’s profit gained some considerable traction and improvement even if the desired growth targets were still far from the vaunted growth of 25% in 2015.
LEGO prides itself on always bringing something new; the fact that 60% percent of their total product output in a year being new sets and minifigures. At present, sets from their Ninjago, Creator and Technic lines like the recent Bugatti Chiron (42083) are the hottest contributors to the rise in customer sales that the company has reported for 2018.
Western Europe and China have been noted as being the source of the increase in LEGO’s profits. CEO Niels B. Christiansen remarks his satisfaction at the stabilized growth of the old but constantly evolving brand, adding about China, “The Chinese appreciate and emphasize that children learn something when they play … There is a really nice fit between China and Lego.”
Hot on the heels of the LEGO Seasonal Christmas Carousel (40293) reveal, we now have our first official images of the this year’s series of LEGO Seasonal Christmas Ornaments as shared once again by the LEGO Certified Store Network in Russia. This collection of Christmas Tree ornaments follow the tradition of previously released buildable holiday decors consisting of microbuilds inside a clear, transparent sphere. As of this posting, there are three 2018 Christmas Ornaments that are currently known: A Christmas Ornament Penguin (853796), Christmas Ornament Presents (853815), and Christmas Ornament Train (853810). As you can see, these are now listed for sale in Russian LEGO certified stores, and we can expect these to be available in US LEGO Stores starting October 1, retailing for $7.99 like those from previous years.
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.
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.
