Category: Miscellaneous

Check Out These LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes Available on Amazon

The interlocking-brick system that defines the LEGO toy brand and its products have also proven itself a popular design aesthetic. Independent designers have made furniture that is “compatible” with LEGO bricks, or brick-shaped Halloween costumes. There has also been licensed decorative merchandise such as large stud-shaped wall hangers on Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, some more LEGO-themed products have been found listed on their platform. The LEGO storage brick-boxes are good for keeping little things organized. They come in either a box form, with an enclosing top lid shaped like a brick’s pegs, or drawer form with drawers coming out of one side.

Amazon’s LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes listings also include variations in color and shape. They’ve got primary colors as well as different shades. Box shapes consist of slim 1×2 bricks right up to the big 2×4. The boxes are also stackable like the LEGO image they invoke.

We have here a sampling of the LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes found on Amazon. Listed below are some notable items:

As it seems, some of these items are now on discount at Amazon, so you might want to consider getting them fast.

LEGO Fans Petition Company to Make a Set (Possibly Architecture Line) for Recently-Burned Notre Dame de Paris

It has been a calamitous Holy Week in Paris after the world-famous cathedral called the Notre Dame suddenly caught fire. It had been in the middle of a renovation. Now instead, the wooden roof and spire have been destroyed. The interior, while mostly saved, still took some significant fire damage.

Even as the French President, along with the country’s biggest business moguls and other world leaders have pledged support to finance a restoration of Notre Dame de Paris, the LEGO building community has decided to make their voices heard too. And they’re sounding their idea right to the company itself.

On the LEGO Reddit, redditor syneptico has proposed that The LEGO Group design and release a LEGO set of the Notre Dame cathedral. It could be of the Architecture line, and part of the proceeds from selling this hypothetical set could then be donated to the Notre Dame rebuilding efforts.

This post, only one day old, has gotten a 91% upvote on Reddit, plus over 300 comments. Some of these even offer their own ideas on how LEGO might conceptualize a Notre Dame set. How about, asks one, a set the size of the LEGO Creator Expert Taj Mahal (10256)?

On the other hand there are certain hurdles to overcome before a LEGO Notre Dame set is realized. First, The LEGO Group tends to shy from creating models of real-life religious buildings. Second, they surely already have a full design and production log. By the time the set is finalized and mass-produced, the restoration of the actual Notre Dame de Paris could be halfway done.

While there’s no official LEGO Notre Dame set (it was even excluded from the skyline of the new Architecture Paris [21044]), the Paris LEGO Store does have an exhibit of a fairly large Notre Dame build. Parisian LEGO fans are likely to visit it more often following what happened to the real one days ago.

LEGO Welcomes Master MOC-Making AFOL Carter Baldwin as New Product Designer

It seems the LEGO Group is just getting warmed up when it comes to recruiting new talent from its fandom. Last February they extended a company job invite to “Powerpig” aka Chris McVeigh. He’s now in Denmark as part of the LEGO Creator Expert and LEGO Architecture product design teams.

Recently another master MO-Creator with a prominent online presence has been given the opportunity to be an “ascended fan.” The AFOL in question is Carter Baldwin, who showcases his sweet MOCs on Flickr. His creations range in theme from military tech, to fantasy figures, to a scary rendition of the Xenomorph Alien Queen from “Aliens.”

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As reported by our fellow LEGO news source The Brick Fan, Baldwin has been hired by The LEGO Group in appreciation for his building skill. He’s now a product designer for an unspecified LEGO line in Denmark, very much like Chris McVeigh months before him.

Seeing as he’s working for LEGO in an official capacity now, he’s going to be silent about his upcoming projects. Nevertheless his Flickr account looks like it’ll be staying up. That way we can keep on admiring his past MOC work and have a reference for the kind of output he’ll eventually provide for LEGO.

Large-Sized Decorative LEGO Stud Wall Hangers Available on Amazon

LEGO has taken many of its familiar building elements and turned them into cool accessories. We’ve seen minifigure key-chains before. This one’s merely taking another kind of LEGO element and giving it a practical function. But first, it needs to get bigger; as in big enough to carry a weight.

Take a LEGO stud, the sort used as either a jewelry decoration for brick builds, or as ammo for stud-shooters. Now enlarge them and add a universal mount on the back, and you’ve got a LEGO-themed wall hanger. Yes, these are official LEGO accessory products, aged 3+ and numbered 4016.

LEGO Stud Wall Hangers

Interestingly, these LEGO Stud Wall Hangers (4016) aren’t listed on LEGO Shop@Home. Rather, they can be found on Amazon. The hangers come in three variant packages, each with three stud hangers in varying sizes (S, M & L). Variant 1 comes in Red, Blue and Yellow. Variant 2 has White, Black and Grey. Lastly, variant 3 contains wall hangers in White, Pink and Light Blue colors.

Each box of LEGO Stud Wall Hangers (4016), regardless of colors, is priced at $9.99 on Amazon. This would be just the right aesthetics for a LEGO fan’s room. Hopefully the universal mount hooks used to attach these hangers to the wall are sturdy enough.

UK Superbrands Index Again Names LEGO as British Consumers’ Favorite Brand

Just over a year ago, The LEGO Group proved its brand image to be stronger that their then-ongoing revenue difficulties. An annual survey of UK consumers attested to the industry research institute Superbrands that LEGO is their most favorite brand. This 2019, LEGO made that top ranking into a streak.

Likely because of their remarkable 2018 recovery from their dismal 2017 financial standing, LEGO managed to remain Number 1 in the British Superbrands index. That means many of the 2,000 UK consumer-respondents named the Danish toy giant their favored brand from a pool of 1,500. Criteria for their selections depended on quality, reliability and distinction.

British Airways, the UK airline that LEGO displaced a year before, has since fallen to fifth place. Its own performance somehow couldn’t hold a candle to the 4% global revenue and profit growths that The LEGO Group enjoyed last year.

Part of LEGO’s success has been its ability to draw in licensed IPs from various and often competing franchises. Under LEGO’s umbrella they get turned into fun construction sets and minifigures that are sought after by kids and AFOLs alike.

If you’re curious, here are the Top 10 Superbrands Index entries. Compare from 2018.

  1. Lego
  2. Apple
  3. Gillette
  4. Rolex
  5. British Airways
  6. Coca-Cola
  7. Andrex
  8. Mastercard
  9. Visa
  10. Dyson

Tuesday Marks 20th Anniversary of LEGO Star Wars Product Line

We at The Brick Show and all our fellow LEGO news sources have already shared that this year marks 20 years of LEGO Stars Wars. But when exactly does this anniversary of one of LEGO’s hottest product lines fall? It happened this week, April 9.

This past Tuesday, LEGO kicked off a milestone celebration of their IP franchise partnership, which eventually became one of their bestselling product lines. With over 700 sets released and more than a thousand different individual minifigures too, this is a big celebration. We’ve already seen an earlier beginning to the 20th Anniversary craze with their anniversary-edition LEGO Star Wars sets.

“LEGO play and Star Wars is a dream collaboration for us,” says LEGO Star Wars Creative Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen. “This 20-year milestone is really a dedication and testimony to our loyal fans who have built, reimagined, battled and shared their LEGO Star Wars adventures with us for two decades.”

Speaking on behalf of Lucasfilm, Licensing VP Derek Stothard answers, “Our collaboration with the LEGO Group remains a huge success because it allows people to explore the Star Wars galaxy in a very unique way. Whether you’re meticulously building the Millennium Falcon for a display shelf or reimagining the battles with LEGO Star Wars models, the LEGO Star Wars range allows us to engage with fans of all ages who find the Star Wars galaxy as special as we do.”

As part of their official press release commemorating two decades of LEGO Star Wars, LEGO released some great promotional images containing factoids about the popular product line over the years. Here we have a sample:720_SW_Fun_Fact_02

And here’s an illustrated history:

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You can find more of them at LEGO’s official website.

Duke University (NC) Senior Records Campus Life with Shoulder-Camera Rig Made from LEGO Pieces

We’ve covered a number of LEGO MOCs in the past that have gone beyond mere play or aesthetic purposes. These builds were of a utilitarian bent, like the wheeled frame for a post-surgery recovering animal, made from Technic pieces. Reading about them certainly reaffirms the sheer function versatility of LEGO.

Now here’s another MOC we found that may be worth talking about. Back when Jeffrey Wubbenhorst started as a freshman in Duke University, North Carolina, he was inspired to try recording his life as a student. His idea was to mount a camera frame on his backpack, pointing front over his left shoulder. His search for a steadying material to mount his GoPro cam led him to using LEGO Technic.

Thus, with his shoulder-camera LEGO-mounting named “Felix,” Wubbenhorst began documenting how he spent his day studying and attending classes at Duke, as well as other activities in between all that.

“I also have some kind of understanding that life at Duke is not normal,” says Wubbenhorst, “and that not-normalcy should probably be preserved for posterity.”

Now a Duke Senior, Wubbenhorst remarks that the constant presence of his recording camera somehow helped him make friends around campus, due to interest in his video-taking and the LEGO rig he uses for it. The fact that footage is constantly being recorded of his interactions has also aided him in keeping his “social consciousness.”

Wubbenhorst has begun uploading some of his video footage on YouTube. Thus far sample footage looks relatively stable for being atop his shoulder, a testament to Wubbenhorst relying on stable construction offered by LEGO sets.

LEGO Designers Make Brick-Built Captain Marvel Statue to Help Promote “Avengers: Endgame”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe will come to an ending that’s been ten years in the making this month. Fans of the franchise and Marvel superheroes can catch that this April 26 when “Avengers: Endgame” premieres. Merchandising partners such as LEGO have already begun releasing their tie-in products. But leave it to LEGO to do extra.

In what’s undoubtedly another contribution to promoting the upcoming MCU movie, the longest running-time of all series so far. LEGO designers have constructed a brick-built statue of one of the heroes involved. It’s none other than Captain Marvel, the superhuman cosmic champion lead character of her own film last month, and the most powerful good guy in the franchise yet.

With possibly all the LEGO-piece resources they could need, LEGO’s pro builders used 17,661 of them over the course of around 165 hours to assemble the brick statue. They even went the extra mile to match the physical dimensions to the character’s actress Brie Larson.

Upon completion, LEGO’s brick-built Captain Marvel statue matched Larson’s height of 5 feet seven inches. The design team even included an Avengers logo for background, making the figure a prime photo-op opportunity for MCU fans.

LEGO hasn’t quite revealed yet where this sweet build will be located for promotional purposes. It’s also possible that it could be located away from an obvious spot like a cinema. The Porg promotional statues during “The Last Jedi” were scattered in London, for example.

“Avengers: Endgame” arrives at last in theaters on April 26.

Brick Formation Introduces Licensed “Homeworld” Spaceship Sets Built with LEGO Bricks

Among the many imaginative constructs that have been designed by LEGO as official products are star-faring spaceships. The most easily recalled example may be the LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon (75192), but there are others. Indeed LEGO pieces are prime material for assembling model spaceships. Just ask Brick Formation.

As a company, Brick Formation treads a fine line by taking official LEGO elements and using them to make construction kits of vehicles from licensed properties. The kits are official merchandise to the franchise they depict, but they’re not official to LEGO which doesn’t “sponsor, authorize or endorse” these products by Brick Formation. Confused yet?

Currently Brick Formation has revealed their LEGO-built construction sets based on the innovative PC game series “Homeworld,” developed by Relic Entertainment since 1999 but now IP-owned by Gearbox Software.

For the moment, Brick Formation only has three “Homeworld” ship sets ready for orders. Each are worth at least $250, so they’re incredibly pricy stuff. But it only makes sense considering there will only be 100 of each set being produced. Instant collector’s items, these sets:

Hiigarans

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Frigate_thumb

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Aside from Gearbox’s “Homeworld,” Brick Formation is also looking for more licensing partners to make their LEGO-built sets for. In a way, their “official-for-this-franchise” but “not-official-for-LEGO” approach is novel, though it does sort of give some IP franchises that tend to be passed over by LEGO to get their own toy merchandise made out of LEGO’s iconic building bricks.

Note: Much obliged to Doug Rass for the correction offered.

Christmas Comes Early as LEGO Previews 2019 Holiday Minifigure Ornaments

We’re roughly getting to the middle of springtime this year. But thanks to a recent product announcement by LEGO you’d be forgiven to think that Christmas is coming again. Then again, it’s pretty much standard for the toy giant to start advertising their seasonal products ahead of their associated seasons.

So for the 2019 Holidays we can look forward to getting these cool large-minifigure hanging ornaments for your Christmas tree. As before, these licensed ornaments are officially manufactured by Hallmark for LEGO. They’re making large hanging minifigs based on “LEGO Movie,” “LEGO Batman Movie,” and “LEGO Star Wars,” the third one in line with their 20th Anniversary celebration this year.

“LEGO Movie/2”

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“LEGO Batman Movie”

  • Robin – Since Joker was made into an ornament for Christmas 2018, this is a natural progression

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LEGO Star Wars

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And there’s one original LEGO minifigure ornament not tied to any line or licensed property. Here’s Santa Claus:

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These hanging minifigure ornaments are priced at $16.99 and will become available starting October 5. However you can now add them to your wish list at Hallmark’s official website, to reserve yours for that day. We can thank LEGO for letting us see what our Christmas 2019 might look like.