Category: Miscellaneous

Soon-to-Open LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus Gives Hard-Hat Preview Tour

For those LEGO fan families who can’t find time or have the funds to travel to any of the LEGOLAND theme parks around the world, they’re lucky if they happen to live close enough to a smaller-scale alternative, the LEGOLAND Discovery Center. There’re more of them than the theme parks. At present, there are around 19 individual LEGOLAND Discovery Centers operating in major LEGO markets around the world. The lion’s share of these attractions, usually found in malls and shopping centers, is in the US. And they’ll be joined by another one soon, with the new LEGO Discovery Center Columbus, Ohio due to open September.

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There’s still some finishing work to be done at the Easton Town Center where the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus will open. But officials in charge of the attraction have deemed the site ready enough to conduct a hard-hat tour for the public’s benefit.

If somebody’s been to another LEGOLAND Discovery Center then they know what’s in store with this one: a 4-D cinema for LEGO animated movies, cafeteria and retail store for LEGO products, a Miniland containing Ohio landmarks (built by resident Master Builder Maxx Davidson), LEGO and Duplo play areas, party rooms and LEGO building classes too.

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The main draws for the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Columbus are two rides: Kingdom Quest which is a 2-3 minute ride to rescue a LEGO princess; and then there’s Merlin’s Apprentice which takes the concept of bicycles for an unexpected spin.

LDC Ohio will open for the public in a grand ceremony on September 28 at 10 in the morning. However, annual pass holders can drop in over there as early as September 21, seven days earlier. For more info on those passes, and the Discovery Center as a whole, you can visit their official website.

This LEGO Stop-Motion Animation Commemorates 2013’s Iron Bowl Kick Six

College Football season is starting all over again in the US as this week draws to a close. That makes it a great time perhaps for LEGO builders to be inspired in making some new football-related MOCs in celebration. Granted, there have been MOC builds of football stadiums before, but this one’s a real eye-catcher. Builder Jared Jacobs, aka @goldyeller on Twitter, has recreated a significant moment in college football from five years ago in 2013 during the Iron Bowl match between longtime rivals the Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Followers of ACFB would remember this momentous play as the Kick Six event.

As a recap, on that November 30 Auburn-Alabama clash, with 1 second left and scores tied 28 all, the Crimson Tide decided to go for a 57-yard field goal for the lead and the win. It was short and fell onto the hands of Tigers Captain/cornerback Chris Davis, who did an epic run, end zone to end zone, that resulted in a spectacular Auburn win with memorable reaction shots in the stadium caught on TV. It was since then burned into the memories of fans and was dubbed eventually as the legendary Kick Six moment.

You can see above, not only did Jared Jacobs make a detailed set of Jordan-Hare Stadium – complete with teams, officials, coaches and audience – he also rendered the whole Kick Six event in stop-motion animation, capturing every iconic scene from the televised footage.

This is the kind of commemoration that’ll be just right to welcome another season of College Football, and another feather in the cap of his various LEGO recreations of various sporting events shown on Twitter.

LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience in Sydney, Australia Celebrates Father’s Day

The primary draw for playing with LEGO sets and minifigures has always been the opportunity to imaginatively play out stories and adventures with the characters, props and settings provided by the massive toy line. Some have taken things further by producing elaborate stop-motion mini-movies with their LEGO sets, uploaded online. Even The LEGO Group is getting into this craze, and they want to share the set-movie making experience with Australians in Sydney next month. This is the LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience, a prime opportunity for parents and their children to bond by learning to shoot mini-films using LEGO Star Wars sets and minifigures in stop-motion.

Interested parent-and-child pairs can head on over to the Comber Street Studios in Paddington, Sydney where they will first sit down to a one-hour class on stop-motion animation and filming techniques. Then, they’ll have the run of the studio and provided LEGO Star Wars sets: posing minifigures and props, filming, editing and even voicing their very own Star Wars movies.

While the LEGO Star Wars All-Stars Studio Experience event is free, interested participants need to book tickets in advance, and they better hurry because this happens on Father’s Day Weekend, September 1 and 2. But what a Father’s Day gift for Aussie dads this is! After they’re done producing their LEGO Star Wars stop-motion movie, they can bring it home in video form. Thanks to Star Wars fan site Rebelscum.com for bringing our attention to this special event.

Guinness World Records Celebrates Records Claimed (and Honored) by Official LEGO Sets and MOCs

When we say that several products by LEGO have set records, we certainly mean it: Guinness World Records. This international database of statistics for “the most x of y” also includes some official LEGO sets and notable MOCs, with records established ranging from biggest to tallest and so much more.

This week, Guinness World Records has put up a new section on their official website called “Making History with LEGO Bricks”. As stated, this section shines the spotlight on LEGO sets or MOCs builds that either hold official World Records, or represents an object that holds a World Record.

One example of the former category is the news-making LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon (75192), which holds a GWR on its own right for “Largest commercially available LEGO set (7,541 pieces)”. Then we have the long-retired LEGO Creator Maersk Triple-E Container Ship (10241); while not a record-holder itself, the set does depict the (former) GWR holder for “Largest Container Ship”.

The Building History with LEGO section on the Guinness World Record website details 8 such LEGO sets and builds that have world records attached to them. It’s also apparently going to be a special feature in the 2019 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. They have a list of stores from 10 countries where that book, and its other special spinoffs (Wild Things and Gamer’s Edition) are available.

The Guinness Book of World Records 2019 edition went on sale this Tuesday, August 28.

Fake LEGO Dealer in South Korea Receives Fine and Suspended Prison Term in Court

Ever since LEGO products have been in Asian markets they’ve had to contend with brazen knock-offs, usually coming from China. It was only recently that the brand has received protected status in the People’s Republic, allowing The LEGO Group to crack down on impostor manufacturers, and merchants that sell them.

Lately that hunt for fraudulent LEGO sets in Asia has paid off once more. A counterfeit seller in South Korea, who sold sets from notorious copycat brand Lepin in both a real shop and online, was brought before the Seoul Southern District Court. Here he was slapped with a fine of 10 million South Korean Won (just over $9000). He also received a 10-month prison sentence, though this was suspended.

The defendant was caught by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism’s Special Judicial Police last year. He was found in possession of 1,348 sets from not only Lepin, but fellow LEGO clones Lele and Sy. The merchant was found guilty in court for these, selling in his store and listing them on online marketplaces; he sold 2,627 knockoffs over the internet in 2017.

LEGO VP Legal Counsel for China and Asia-Pacific Robert Smith was appreciative of the efforts of the South Korean authorities for this successful conviction of a copyright violator for their brand. “We appreciate the South Korean Courts and authorities for taking such a strong stance on intellectual property protection and enforcement,” he said. “We will continue to take action against companies who infringe our copyrights in order to protect the reputation of our much-loved brand.”

New LEGO Build the World – Incredible Inventions Trading Cards Now Available in Sainsbury’s Stores and Supermarkets

Last week we got the first word that Sainsbury’s in the UK was about to reintroduce their Create the World Series of LEGO Collectible Trading Cards. It was something of a hit for the UK supermarket chain when they did it last year, and in 2018 it’s time for their LEGO shoppers to collect cards again under a new theme. This new series of LEGO trading cards from Sainsbury’s is called Create the World: Incredible Inventions. The promotion started this week, with Sainsbury’s store and markets now carrying the trading card packs and the special album books in which to put together the LEGO cards.

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Steps to collect the Incredible Inventions series of Sainsbury’s LEGO cards remain the same as before. Sainsbury’s shoppers will receive a free pack of 4 collectible cards at the counter for a minimum shopping receipt of £10. The card albums – blue this year – are priced at £2.50 apiece and come with two free card packs.

Time will tell if this new Create the World: Incredible Inventions trading card series from LEGO will be as popular as last year, when the card albums after the promo period were being sold online at expensive LEGO-set prices. Sainsbury’s has yet to announce if the trading cards can only be acquired in the promo process, or sold conventionally as well.

Check Out This Custom LEGO Sanctuary Battle Map MOC from Overwatch Fan Festival in South Korea

Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated new and upcoming merchandise from LEGO or any other toy brand is the former’s recently announced wave of set tie-ins to Blizzard Entertainment’s hit FPS franchise Overwatch. It has been hoped that perhaps a first glimpse to those sets could be found in a South Korea fan event.

But the Overwatch Fan Festival in Seoul has come and gone, without significant news about the confirmed LEGO sets many have been anxious to see. The company was still present at the event anyway, and it featured quite a magnificent brick-build of an Overwatch battlefield.

A central fixture among the displays for the South Korea Overwatch Fan Festival is a great rendition in LEGO bricks of the Sanctuary map in all its Far Eastern glory. Korean BBS Ruliweb managed to capture some quality images of the build, which is NOT an official LEGO Overwatch set.

So it seems the recent events such as the Overwatch Fan Festival didn’t end up showing any new previews for the LEGO Overwatch sets that we know are already coming next year. If LEGO and Blizzard are planning to do a tease it’ll have to be on PAX West this week or on November’s Blizzcon.

Some new (non-LEGO) Overwatch stuff that was shown in South Korea include an animated short starring D.Va, plus a new Control-type map DLC for the game, based on the real-life city of Busan, an honor for “Blizzard Country” South Korea.

Is LEGO Giving a Hint About an Upcoming Harry Potter Diagon Alley Set?

By now we would have seen and heard all that needs to be known about the ambitious LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71043) micro-scale set. A great deal of what we have learned was courtesy of the requisite designer video for it, with the heads of the LEGO design team. However, starting from around this week a new wave of questions and speculation has arisen regarding the Hogwarts Castle (71043). It’s not about the set itself but rather, something spotted in the designer video background. The prevailing theory is that the object, which was blurred, might be another Potter set.

From a quick read of the comments for the LEGO designer video on YouTube, it seems that inquisitive viewers are seeing the same thing: at the 4:30 mark, behind the LEGO System set box are what appear to be brick-built buildings. One is shaded blue-purple and orange, familiar colors to Potter-fans.

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The rumor that sprung from this view of the Hogwarts Castle (71043) is that LEGO’s working on possibly a building set for the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes shop in Diagon Alley. You can see the similarly colored building above. Does it match the blurry figure in the clip? You tell us.

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Some of the ongoing rumors mention that LEGO has pulled this method of advance teasing before. Is it really a tease in this case? Remember that this is a rumor for now, at least until LEGO comes clean about it. But wouldn’t such a set be magical in the future?

Metroidvania-Style Action Game “Guacamelee! 2” Has LEGO “Unikitty!” Background Cameo

True, LEGO is quite well represented when it comes to videogames. WB Interactive and Traveller’s Tales have seen to it that LEGO gamers are never left wanting for more digital adventures similar to LEGO Incredibles and LEGO DC Super-Villains. Sometimes, even non-LEGO-themed game developers can’t help but sneak things in.

DrinkBox Studios has quite recently released Guacamelee! 2, a sequel to their 2013 action platform videogame (similar in structure to some Castlevania games by Konami). A mere day or two later, eagle-eyed gamers saw something pretty awesome in the game environment and posted it to electronic gaming news source Gamespew.

Guacamelee! chronicles the adventures of resurrected and super-powered masked luchador Juan and spirit mentor Tostada in a wacky quest through the Land of the Dead (before Disney’s Coco even). The sequel features more adventuring, and in one of the travel locations Juan stumbles into there’s a nifty LEGO Easter Egg.

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While exploring the Palace of Pedro Piñata, Juan enters a room full of piñatas to smash up, plus more stuck in the background as decoration. One of these piñata is a colorful unicorn with a kitty head; yep, it’s Princess Unikitty herself! What’s she doing there anyway? Bravo, DrinkBox Studios.

It was probably just a case of LEGO fandom from some of the graphics designers, but LEGO fans may love them a little for that stunt. Fans who’re interested can check out DrinkBox Studio’s Guacamelee! 2. It’s available on Steam right now, and on preorder for the Sony PlayStation 4. The LEGO Unikitty! animated series airs on Cartoon Network.

Sainsbury’s in the UK to Reoffer LEGO Collectible Trading Cards

It seemed like it was only last month – which it was – when we covered a special release of LEGO Star Wars collectible trading cards, courtesy of the publisher of the official LEGO Star Wars Magazine in Europe. They started becoming available this August, some of them being “limited-edition” extras to issues of various LEGO Magazines.

So speaking of LEGO trading cards, there will be more of them coming out soon on that side of the Atlantic. While the LEGO Star Wars cards started arriving in Germany, this one’s going to be in the UK, courtesy of major supermarket chain Sainsbury’s.

This is a repeat of a similar exclusive LEGO tie-in with Sainsbury’s last year, the Create the World special set which featured trading cards that could be bought or earned with minimum purchase at their various superstores and convenience stores. The retailer broke the news of its return on Twitter.

As can be read from Sainsbury’s tweet, while we know their tie-in LEGO collectible trading cards are coming back, the date for that return hasn’t been spoiled yet. It’s probably going to be soon, so like with other LEGO news, UK LEGO fans will have to wait for more details.