LEGOLAND California Resort is prepping up for its biggest reveal this week, particularly about its new LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and the announcement of grander attractions this year. Dubbed as the “biggest ride investment in LEGOLAND Parks history”, this latest innovation is said to combine dazzling 3D computer animation with “4D,” real-world effects.
LEGOLAND California Resort General Manager Peter Ronchetti is a little bit shy on the details, but what we do know is that the new LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, with its latest rides and attractions will be on an exemplary grand scale, and is expected to have a significant, positive influence and economic impact to the local Carlsbad community. First revealed during the early part of this year, the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel is said to have “250 themed rooms, including 20 suites, completely immersing guests into a castle experience from the minute they enter the grand hall, to dining in an amazing sit down royal restaurant to engaging in courtyard entertainment by the pool”, according to Ronchetti.
We don’t have any images yet, especially about the exciting, new rides slated to be operational in the summer of 2018, but we’ll keep you posted once these things are officially announced by LEGOLAND California within the week.
A week ago, we shared a piece of news regarding this year’s LEGO Seasonal Set Town Square Christmas (40263). This particular LEGO theme has proven itself to be quite popular among LEGO fans, especially with its vignette build design, and decorative value. Perhaps in a similar vein, LEGO saw the attractiveness of these seasonal sets and just in time for the holidays, TLG has not come with just one, but two Christmas Seasonal sets for this year.
Thanks to a lead pointed out by Hoth Bricks, we now confirmation that there are two LEGO Christmas seasonal sets that will be offered this year: The Town Square Christmas (40263) and the newer Christmas Train and Market Stalls (40262). The tip came from a certain Almir Sadovic who posted the following images at the AFOL Facebook group, BrickGeekz.
The first image that we have of the Town Square Christmas (40263) is a bit grainy, but thanks to these images posted by Almir, we can have a closer look at them. If you’ll notice, both Seasonal sets features three minifigures each, and if were to be combined together depicts a festive, Christmas market vibe. I like how the modular stalls are created, with each stall featuring a particular item or product on sale. For set 40263, we have like a desert/pretzel stand, while 40262 features a coffee shop and what seems to be like a bread and pastry shop (not really sure about this though). Each set also features a lamp post which is a nice build in itself – one being a train stop and the other with an attached mail box.
Noticeably, each seasonal set compliments the other with the 40262 featuring a mini train and 40263 featuring a miniature Christmas Tree with detailed railings. Both sets are expected to be available at shop.LEGO.com either in late September or October and will retail at $9.99 each.
In related news, rumor has it that LEGO is about to reveal its second exclusive set as mentioned in their September Store Calendar. We have information from Promo Bricks that this is another LEGO Creator Expert set that will be released alongside the much-talked about (and teased) LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon. The said LEGO Creator Expert set also has a winter holiday motif so it’s exciting to see how this will turn out. If this is the case, this will be the fifth D2C Creator Expert set that we will see with a Christmas yuletide theme similar to the likes of 2013’s Winter Village Market (10235), 2014’s Santa’s Workshop (10245), 2015’s Winter Toy Shop (10249), and last year’s Winter Holiday Train (10254). For those of us who would like to decorate our little Christmas corners with LEGO bricks, then these LEGO Creator Expert sets along with this year’s new Seasonal sets, are must haves to add some sparkle in this year’s festive yuletide celebrations.
Winter Village Market (10235)Santa’s Workshop (10245)Winter Toy Shop (10249)Winter Holiday Train (10254)
With almost a day before the official opening of Europe’s largest gaming event and trade fair for the digital entertainment industry at Gamescon 2017, WB Games UK has just released its latest trailer for the upcoming mega sequel LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 video game that features the expansive open world of Chronopolis, and the various, immersive locations within its world hub. We saw several new Marvel characters that were included in this year’s most highly anticipated LEGO video game sequel as revealed in this year’s San Diego Comic Con, and this time, we get to see the finer details of Chronopolis as brought to life by the diabolical Kang the Conqueror. Needless to say, it is by far the largest open world game that WB and TT Games ever created. It features new and classic locations straight from the pages of Marvel comic books such as Noir New York, Wakanda, Old West, Asgard, Medieval England and Knowhere to name a few.
Also for the first time, we get to see the minifigure characters of Adam Warlock, Man-Thing, Heimdall, Nebula, Iron Fist, Black Bolt and many more. It is one truly grand, LEGO Marvel comic book mashup that you don’t want to miss. Here’s the latest official game play trailer.
Let’s go to Chronopolis! Travel through a myriad of iconic Marvel locations, all ripped from time and space to form one huge, incredible open world for players to roam and explore, from the mythical land of Asgard and deep space base of Knowhere, to the vibrant jungle of Wakanda and the pyramids of Ancient Egypt. Other Marvel settings revealed in the trailer include the Coliseum, Hala, Hydra Empire, K’un-lun, Lemuria, Manhattan, Medieval England, Noir New York, Nueva York, Old West and The Swamp, which will be joined by Attilan, Kang’s Citadel and Xandar to make up sprawling open world that is Chronopolis.
The LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 video game is set for release in the US on November 14, 2017. It comes with a Deluxe Edition that grants you early access to the Classic GOTG Character Pack, Season Pass, and an exclusive Giant-Man minifigure.
Since Tyler launched his very first LEGO LOTR Prancing Pony custom set, LEGO Lord of the Ring fans have been clamoring for more similar custom LEGO LOTR wishlist sets from our master builder. This time, another iconic scene from The Fellowship of the Ring is now captured in LEGO bricks – the cliffhanging, edge-of-your-seat, tear-jerking Bridge of Khazad Dum scene, complete, with a brick-built version of the monstrous Balrog, as well as minifigures of Gandalf and Frodo Baggins, and of course the Bridge of Khazad Dum itself. This and much more are perfectly captured in this custom LEGO Lord of the Rings Balrog build.
First off (and quite obviously, the one that we want to dive in first since this is our favorite part) we have the brick-built model of the Balrog. Among the 12 sets that LEGO officially made under the Lord of the Rings theme, I certainly hope that this is the 13th one. As of to date, we only have Balrog in his digital form in LEGO Lord of the Rings video gamewhich was released in back 2012, so it’s kind of sad that we never got to see him as an official LEGO set. But thanks to Tyler, we can have this legendary monster built, and hopefully (fingers crossed), LEGO will take notice.
Tyler’s custom LEGO LOTR Balrog may not be at minifigure scale as seen in the video game, but given that it comes as a part of the overall Bridge of Khazad Dum custom set, it is scaled in such a way similar to how LEGO may actually design it. It is also neatly articulated using a lot of ball joints for the legs and arms. The Balrog’s wings are even mounted on ball joints as well, so it can be posed upward or downward including the skeletal parts of its wings for a more accurate and menacing look.
The headpiece of Tyler’s Balrog MOC is also an impressive build on its own. From its mean-looking horns to Tyler’s use of trans-orange pieces for the rest of its head and torso, this build captures the hellish character of this unholy beast from Moria.
But perhaps the best reason that Tyler has for this choice of pieces, which also happens to be one of the set’s best play feature, in my opinion, is his inclusion of a light brick inside the Balrog. The light brick is activated with a touch of a button that Tyler cleverly added at the back of the Balrog’s head. I can’t just put into words how nice this play feature is, especially when you turn off the light brick inside a room – the Balrog’s fiery demeanor simply stands out.
Of course last but not the least, we have the actual Bridge of Khazad Dum from the LOTR – The Fellowship of the Ring, which is also scaled down so as to look like an actual LEGO set. If you remember this scene in the film, the bridge begins with a relatively small entrance (as far as the size of the Balrog is concerned), that narrows down to a very slim and restricted pathway. On the bridge, you have Gandalf in his classic ‘you shall not pass!’ pose, while at the other end of the bridge is Frodo holding the One Ring in his minifig hand.
The bridge also comes with neat play features and movable parts, one of which being is the ‘collapsible’ archway which the Balrog knocks down as charges his way towards Gandalf, while the latter shouts his ever-famous battle cry.
Now if you still remember this part of the film, the highlight of this scene is when the Balrog advances to attack and Gandalf causes the middle portion of the bridge to collapse taking the Balrog with it. Tyler once again impressively added a play feature where this middle portion of the bridge collapses by a push of a button at the other end, sending the Balrog hurling downwards the abyss. Then we have Gandalf (when things seem to be a walk in the park) falling and barely catching on at the edge of the bridge where he hangs on and eventually falls into the chasm together with the Balrog.
This is one custom LEGO LOTR set that is simply packed with cool, and accurate play features as closely as you can see in the film. Here’s Tyler with his own thoughts on this latest addition to our LEGO LOTR wishlist.
The good thing is we can have our try on this custom LEGO Lord of the Rings Balrog set and build your own using Tyler’s building instruction which you can find over at BuildBetterBricks.com. For a minimal fee, you can simply download a digital copy of its building instructions in pdf format (a total of 87 pages) plus a Stud.io file so you can easily import the files over at Bricklink. If you want more LEGO LOTR custom sets to be added to your wishlist, simply share to us (either via the comments section below, or thru our Facebook and Twitter page) your most favorite Lord of the Rings scene and will see what brick-building wizardry our master builder Tyler can come up with it.
A few days back, LEGO Dimensions has released a new gameplay video highlighting some of the iconic characters included in its most recent Wave 9 characters. First revealed at this year’s E3, we now have a closer look at Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup as they make their way through the LEGO Dimension’s multiverse.
The girls are back in a brand new adventure, going and exploring in their unique, new LEGO Dimensions world alongside other classic LD characters that you have played with before. You can go everywhere from Poky Oaks Elementary, Rainbow Land, and of course professor Utonium’s laboratory in this expansive open world game. Here’s the official trailer.
Sugar, spice and everything is awesome! Save the world before bedtime in the LEGO® Dimensions™ multiverse with Blossom™, Bubbles™ and Buttercup™ in the LEGO Dimensions The Powerpuff Girls™ Team and Fun Packs!
Bring Townsville to life in the LEGO® DIMENSIONS™ Multiverse with Blossom™ and Bubbles™! Build and place the sugar-coated, Chemical X superheroes and launch them into the Multiverse to save the day. Fly around and use ultra-super powers to fight crime and battle the forces of evil. Visit the exclusive Adventure World to unlock iconic locations like Pokey Oaks elementary, Rainbow Land, and Professor Utonium’s lab, and go head-to-head in the Battle Arena for endless fun! Once again, the day is saved thanks to The Powerpuff Girls™!
LEGO Dimensions is available now for Xbox One®, Xbox 360®, Sony PlayStation® 4, Sony PlayStation®3, and Nintendo Wii™U. Start your adventure!
Just in case you’ve noticed, things are kind of quiet with BrickShow.com for the past few days. Jason and the rest of the Brick Show team have been playing around with the idea of revamping our site’s look and layout design, and after a few days of crunching data and coding, we are now happy to present to you our faster and more optimized website!
If you’re a frequent visitor here in our blogsite, you may have noticed also that the site tends to load slowly as compared to others. No, there is no problem with your browser, hardware or internet connection – it so happens that our previous site has plenty of features that tend to consume a relatively large amount of resources that causes the pages to load more slowly than usual. To remedy this, we now streamlined our blog content to feature only the most important parts of the site which focuses mainly on LEGO-related news, MOCs, reviews, and events all happening under the LEGO brick-built sun.
You may have also noticed that as of the moment, we have removed access to our Brick Show database where we curate all the known LEGO sets that were reviewed by Jason and Stephen since their inception of the Brick Show. We decided that removing the database is the right direction to take since we want to encourage our audience and subscribers to see more of our YouTube channel’s content and other cool stuff.
The changes that we introduced in our Brick Show blogsite are still works in progress. We’ll be adding more awesome surprises during the next few days, so I hope you’ll stay tuned and keep tabs with us. You may also reach out to us and the rest of our Brick Show community through social media, particularly via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We included several handy links at the bottom of every blog page so you can easily jump to them.
So what can you say about these changes? What particular blog feature or design do you want to suggest, if any? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
LEGO is now celebrating its 85th birthday this year, and as a sort of prelude of good things to come, it seems that 2018 will likewise be a great year, particularly for LEGO’s various classic and vintage themes. This piece of news (aka rumor) came from trusted LEGO insider and Eurobricks member Sir von Lego, with his take on what LEGO has in the works in line with the LEGO brick’s 60th anniversary next year.
According to Sir von Lego, there will be five specific sets to be released in commemoration of the iconic LEGO brick. He managed to have a glimpse of what the boxes look like at its early development stage, with all of them blacked out and without images as of the moment. However, what seems to stand out among these is a Creator-type box that looks exactly like a LEGO brick which is quite different from the usual. He also suggested that these five sets may also represent five different themes – which may, or may not represent vintage fan favorites such as Classic, Space, Castle, Town or Pirates. But of course, who wouldn’t want to see these sets again in all their classic glory?
It is pretty exciting to see what TLG has in store for the 60th anniversary of the iconic LEGO brick. Perhaps a re-launch of one of these classic themes, or perhaps a D2C set centered around these vintage sets? We’ll cross our fingers as we wait for LEGO’s confirmation anytime soon.
Image credits for the 60th anniversary logo shown above goes to Jeep’s 60th anniversary editions.
This month of August is a very special month for LEGO, since this year marks the 85th year of the world’s most trusted toy brand. In case you don’t know yet, LEGO began as a humble wooden toy factory in 1932 at Billund, Denmark and it was 14 years later in 1946 that the idea struck the creative mind of Ole Kirk Kristiansen to create toys made of plastic bricks. Three years later in 1949, the company saw the production of its very first plastic bricks with a very much different design from what we know today. It was not until 1958 that tubes were added inside the plastic bricks that radically improved the LEGO pieces’ clutch power, and thus giving us the LEGO brick’s iconic design. The rest as they say, is brick-built history.
To celebrate 85 years of creativity and imaginative play, LEGO has launched a social media campaign that captures the true meaning of the LEGO brand and what it ultimately stands for. You can follow the month-long celebration by keeping tabs with LEGO over at Twitter and Facebook, and sharing some of the moments that you have with a LEGO set or toy.
Also, back in 2012 when LEGO celebrated its 80th anniversary, the company released a short animated video that describes in detail how LEGO began as a humble wooden toy factory in the quiet town of Billund, and later to become theworld’s largest toy manufacturer today. I’m reposting the video here for us to better appreciate the rich history of LEGO.
What is your very first LEGO set? What is your fondest memory of creating and playing with LEGO bricks? Share us your stories in the comments below or head over at our Facebook and tell us what you think.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw an early reveal of the LEGO Thanksgiving Set (40261) slated to be the next seasonal set right after November’s LEGO Seasonal Halloween Set (40260). Thanks to Eurobricks forum member Umbra-Manis, we now have our first look of this year’s anticipated holiday seasonal set – the LEGO Seasonal Set Town Square Christmas (40263). This year’s collection of LEGO seasonal sets follows a vignette form of design, and our holiday seasonal set for this year is exceptionally impressive within this category. Though the image is a bit grainy, we can manage to see some of the details on this seasonal set such as the nice build of the miniature Christmas tree with detailed railings around it, together with a neat lamp post, a sled, stand, and three minifigures. In terms of value for money, this seasonal set is a nice buy considering a price point of $9.99.
The Town Square Christmas (40263) is a great addition to your LEGO decorative Christmas sets. Though the LEGO Christmas Ornament (5004934) was not that well received by LEGO fans design wise, having these two seasonal sets adorn your Christmas corner is a pleasure to behold. We have no information yet on when this set will be officially announced and released, but a good guess will be sometime in late September or October.
Thanks to our friends over at Hoth Bricks for the tip.
Last June, we saw the unveiling of the gigantically awesome – and third largest LEGO set ever created – The LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City (70620). Slated be released to the public in 1st of September, this highly detailed D2C set consists of 4,867 pieces retailing at $299.99. We already saw Ninjago City’s (70620) official images last June, and this time, LEGO has shared a designer video for this awesome set which you can see below.
The level of detail and effort given by these designers to create Ninjago City is simply insane! I love how the set is built from the ground up following a modular approach along its 3-level structure. The set itself is not just a compact version of Ninjago City as seen in the trailers of The LEGO Ninjago Movie, but it also offers a tour of the different sights, sounds and stores of the bustling city. The designer video is presented in such a way that it follows Lloyd as he travels around the city, exploring all of its nooks and crannies. There are plenty of cool details and play features that come along with this set. It even has a printed collection of a translatable Ninjago language which is fun to decode using the Ninja Language Translator.
Here’s a complete description of what to expect from The LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City (70620).
The LEGO Ninjago Movie Ninjago City (70620).
Live the life of a ninja in NINJAGO® City!
Enjoy endless role-play fun in NINJAGO® City, a hugely-detailed 3-level model connected by a sliding elevator. Level 1 features a traditional fish market, house, a bridge over a stream, and a fishing boat. The second level has a modern fashion store, comic book store, crab restaurant with ‘crab-grilling’ function and cash-dispensing ATM. The vertical city is topped off with Lloyd Garmadon and Misako’s apartment, a rooftop sushi bar with sushi conveyor belt, and a radio tower. This action-packed THE LEGO® NINJAGO MOVIE™ set also includes 16 minifigures and Sweep the maintenance robot.
Includes 16 minifigures: Jay, Kai and Lloyd Garmadon (each with new-for-August-2017 high school outfit decoration), Green Ninja Suit, Misako, Jamanakai Villager, Sally, Ivy Walker, Konrad, Severin Black, Tommy, Guy, Juno, Mother Doomsday, Shark Army Gunner and Officer Noonan, plus Sweep the maintenance robot.
Features a 3-level model (each level lifts off for easy play) connected by a sliding elevator, plus a traditional fishing boat.
Level 1 features a bridge, sewer outlet, stream with translucent-blue and translucent-green water elements, sliding elevator with room for a minifigure, traditional fish market with fish and crab elements, house with dining room and bedroom with sliding screen doors and foldout ‘solar panels’, Sweep the maintenance robot’s service station with assorted tool elements, and a taxi stand with telephone element.
Level 2 features a modern fashion store with 2 mannequins and assorted NINJAGO® product elements, a construction site with a bonsai tree, a comic book store with brick-built sign, cashier desk, comic book stand with assorted elements including collectible NINJAGO training cards, a crab restaurant with brick-built crab entrance sign and oven with ‘crab-grilling’ function, a cash-dispensing ATM, 15 bank note elements (ATM can dispense up to 13), and a movie poster display stand with 4 interchangeable movie poster elements.
Place the uncooked crab element in the oven, turn the dial and open the oven to reveal a cooked crab element.
Press the handle behind the ATM to dispense bank note elements.
Level 3 features a radio tower, modern rooftop sushi bar with sushi conveyor belt function and brick-built food, bathroom with sliding door, and brick-built puffer fish and squid sculptures, Lloyd Garmadon and Misako’s apartment with an opening window, bunk bed, kitchen unit and attic space for the Green Ninja Suit minifigure.
Turn the dial to activate the sushi conveyor belt.
Weapons include Jay’s chain with spike and Shark Army Gunner’s fish flame.
Recreate and role-play exciting THE LEGO® NINJAGO® MOVIE™ scenes.
NINJAGO® City measures over 24” (63cm) high, 12” (31cm) wide and 16” (42cm) deep.
Traditional fishing boat measures over 1” (4cm) high, 3” (10cm) long and 1” (3cm) wide.
