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New Awesome LEGO Sports Venue MOC Unveiled: Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena by LEGOLAND Discovery Center Auburn Hills

And now we’re going to have a look at yet another awesome MOC of a sports venue – a favorite large MOC subject – that’s been making the rounds online. This one’s fairly new in that it opened only last year, but has been a public favorite due to its multipurpose nature.

This is Little Caesars Palace in Detroit, current home to the NHL’s Red Wings and NBA’s Pistons. The MOC was created by resident builders of the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Auburn Hills, and was unveiled to appreciative viewers at the actual stadium concourse Monday, October 22, during the first-second period break in the Red Wings’ game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Composed of over 30,000 LEGO bricks, the MOC Little Caesars Arena is 6 feet long, with more than a thousand windows of the stadium, plus tenant businesses replicated. The set’s also populated by about 600 minifigures, and has attached lighting.

LDC Auburn Hills master builder Clint Parry described the construction process on Little Caesars as very challenging, especially when replicating the arena’s curved exterior and domed roof. Total work time was about 60 hours, with correspondence from the Red Wings and Olympia Entertainment to accurately copy logos and related signage.

The scale MOC of Little Caesars will be temporarily displayed on its life-sized counterpart. Afterwards it will return to LEGOLAND Discovery Center Auburn Hills, where it will be regularly reconfigured to have alternating playing surfaces and players to depict either Red Wings or Pistons games. All LEGO pieces used on the MOC by Parry were bought at retail, pricing the completed work at around $3,000.

LEGO Ideas Launches Build an Add-On Contest

The LEGO Creator theme has proven to be one of the most popular and longest running themed playsets that the company has to offer, and with the introduction of the 3-in-1 multibuilds it has become more appealing to a younger generation of budding LEGO fans. To celebrate the popularity of the LEGO Creator 3-in-1 sets, LEGO Ideas has launched its latest brick-busting competition with the Build an Add-On Contest.

Do you ever just feel the need to add something to an existing LEGO set to make it even cooler? Now we invite you to use your creative skills by building an add-on to the A-model of any 2018 LEGO Creator 3in1 product. Your add-on can be small or big, as long as it gives the product the ultimate coolness! Here is the chance to activate your LEGO bin and think outside of the box.

From a list of all 3-in-1 sets already released thus far, contestants need only create an add-on build to one existing 3-in-1 set of choice, and submit it as an entry. Let’s take Creator 3-in-1 Tree House Treasures (31078) as an example. An imaginative LEGO builder joining the contest on LEGO Ideas might create a MOC expansion to the tree-house structure; bonus points too if said add-on can be rebuilt to fit with the other alternate builds of the 3-in-1 set.

For more information on the mechanics of this contest, you may visit the LEGO Creator 3-in-1 Build an Add-On Contest page in LEGO Ideas. Interested contestants must submit their add-on designs by December 4, with the winner announcement slated not later than the 18th.

The Grand Prize winner in this Build an Add-On Contest will have the bragging rights to haul the full 2018 LEGO Creator 3-in-1 assortment, plus some selected sets from 2017 – a total of sixteen (16) LEGO sets to be won as listed below.

On top of these very sweet LEGO swag, the grand prize winner will also get to bring home a commemorative LEGO Creator 3-in-1 shirt, and a winner’s certificate in a Creator 3-in-1 themed frame.

Are you ready to build your coolest, most excellent LEGO Creator add-on yet? If you are, then be sure to check out the LEGO Ideas Contest Page for more details. Happy building!

LEGO Forma Indiegogo Campaign is Almost Over

Last month, LEGO wowed fans of the older spectrum that goes for big sets and the Technic line with a new theme. The ingeniously conceptualized LEGO Forma involves a stand and internal framework structure, over which goes a foil “skin” to create some truly artistic designs like some colorful fish.

What’s particularly notable about Forma was that LEGO debuted and promoted it on a crowdsourcing platform, namely Indiegogo. The idea behind this direction was that it could reasonably measure fan interest in LEGO Forma to see if consumers will be buying sets of the line for long after its release.

Of course, that was back in September. Crowdsourcing campaigns have a time limit, and that of LEGO Forma on Indiegogo is about to run down. There’s about half a month’s worth of days left, though there’s really no pressure left on the line. LEGO’s campaign goal after all has already been met a mind-blowing 1,107 percent with 5,539 perks claimed.

With the LEGO Forma campaign having two weeks remaining on crowdsourcing, only 600 and 300 Super Boxes are left to claim in the US and UK respectively. On the Super Box deal, interested LEGO fans can have the Forma Koi model (81000) plus three alternate skins, Shark (81001), Splash Koi (81002), and Ink Koi (81003). Forma on Indiegogo ends by November 6 and fans will get their sets delivered at the start of next year.

2006 Xbox/360 Game “LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy” Now Backwards-Compatible for Xbox One

Sometimes, when releasing digital copies of past videogame titles online in current gaming platforms, the chronological order of multi-installment series no longer holds. That’s why last September Xbox Live Gold featured the limited-time rerelease of 2011’s LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars on Xbox One, when there were other titles originally ahead of it.

Like now, Microsoft’s ongoing program of increasing the backwards-compatibility of Xbox One for past-generation Xbox games is featuring a LEGO title from Warner Bros. Interactive and Traveller’s Tales that came before LEGO Star Wars III in the Xbox 360 release order. We’re talking about LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy.

Released in 2006 for the original Xbox and the 360 among other platforms, this adventure game was a compilation of events from the legendary Episodes V-VI of the saga that was premiered during the late seventies to eighties. LEGO Star Wars II ensured by its great sales that WBI and TT would continue churning out videogame adaptations of the LEGO Star Wars licensed product line.

So it is that LEGO Star Wars II and fellow “new” old but now-compatible Tropico 4 are joining the ever-expanding library of past Xbox-line games that have become fully backwards compatible with the Xbox One, ever since Microsoft starting the conversions for choice titles in 2015. One can get LEGO Star Wars II on the Xbox Store now for $15.

LEGO Star Wars “Build the Galaxy” Event on First Weekend of November at London Science Museum

A while ago we made mention of the massive following of LEGO Star Wars, with the new set releases, promos, and events that keep getting attached to the product line by the company. Even Star Wars-themed occasions not organized by LEGO itself can garner plenty of interest and fan participation.

For instance, the London Science Museum in the UK is organizing a great LEGO family event on the first weekend of November. We can certainly expect quite the wave of families and groups of fervent LEGO and Star Wars fans to eagerly participate in “LEGO Star Wars: Build the Galaxy”.

There’s just one quibble however. LEGO Star Wars: Build the Galaxy at the London Science Museum is a ticket-only event. While tickets for it are free, they can only be gotten from a prize draw promo hosted as a Universe.com ballot. What’s more, the ticket ballot is only open until the midnight of October 29.

Still, if you’re an avowed LEGO Star Wars fan in the UK with companions in tow, passing the hoops involved will reward you with a weekend of building in the Museum to recreate scenes from the sprawling Star Wars saga. They’ll even get LEGO Star Wars character photo-ops and a goody bag for the occasion.

For more info, check out the LEGO Star Wars: Build the Galaxy Facebook event page, as well as the Universe ballot to join the draw. The big event itself runs from November 3 to 4.

LEGO Social Media Senior Director Lars Silberman Moving to MTV Digital Studios as Senior VP

With big companies like The LEGO Group, the shuffling and departure of high-level personnel around and from the organization can often draw attention from observers and analysts from the business world. This is in effect right now as one LEGO Global Senior Director has announced that he’s moving from the toy brand to an executive position on a cable network.

To be specific, Lars Silberbauer is taking his leave from The LEGO Group in order to become Senior Vice President of MTV Digital Studios. Silberbauer recently was in the spotlight on advertising news when he acted as spokesperson for LEGO in the company’s official position regarding the backlash on social media influencer Scarlett London’s Listerine plug way back in August.

At his highest office in The LEGO Group, Silberbauer served as Senior Global Director of Social Media and Video. The evolution of LEGO’s social media presence from just bare-bones to full of fun extras can be attributed to his direction.

It’s probably Lars Silberbauer’s successful launch of LEGO’s TV content in 2014, which can be seen in the content of the heavily visited LEGO YouTube channel that must have spurred MTV and Viacom to acquire his services for their own platforms. We therefore wish him well in his new endeavors.

LEGO Star Wars BB-8 (40288) Polybag from May the 4th 2018 Back at Shop@Home UK

LEGO Star Wars is definitely one of the best-selling licensed product lines in the gigantic toy company’s whole catalog. It’s easily seen from the various events, freebies and exclusives from LEGO Store and Shop@Home over the years. One might remember LEGO’s May the 4^th 2018 contribution, a free micro-build BB-8 polybag with a certain amount of LEGO purchases on site.

The year’s isn’t out yet, but it seems LEGO Shop@Home UK is bringing the BB-8 set (40288) from May the 4^th back. Even better, they’re reducing the minimum total purchase price needed to have this polybag added to shoppers’ carts.

So, anybody in the UK who hasn’t gotten the 40288 polybag in May will be happy to know they’ll spend less getting it this time around. A minimum total purchase tag of £30 in LEGO Star Wars products is enough to get BB-8 (40288) for a belated May the 4^th.

Early Holiday shopping has never been as rewarding as with LEGO. In addition to this returning promotional polybag, recall that Shop@Home is at double VIP points until the end of October. Buying enough LEGO Star Wars stuff to earn 40288 ought to also make for a nice VIP point haul.

LEGO Mosaic Maker Now Available to LEGO Fans in Japan

The LEGO Mosaic Maker is one of the most eye-catching and rare LEGO treat that any fan of the brick can experience. And though its end result is the LEGO Personalised Mosaic Portrait (40179) which is only composed of 1×1 plates, a 48×48 baseplate and generic brick separator, each boxed set is somehow unique in itself because it comes with the customer’s portrait photograph interpreted in LEGO tiles.

The machine for LEGO Mosaic Maker is somewhat huge and also complicated, that there are less than ten of them around the world. But a LEGO Store here or there has slowly been getting its own machine in recent months. And its Japan’s turn to have their very own.

Indeed, the LEGO brand is already ubiquitous in Japan, and the inclusion of the Mosaic Maker makes it even closer to the hearts of LEGO fans in the region. In fact, in just weeks after LEGO set up a Mosaic Maker machine in their second branded store in China, another store unit was opened this week at the Yokohama Landmark Plaza.

Like its regional counterparts, the LEGO Mosaic Maker in Japan functions the same way: visitors have their photo taken in a booth, and the machine renders the image in five colored LEGO 1×1 plates to be tacked onto a large baseplate. It’s a visual feast as you wait for your picture to be printed, while the boxed set of mosaic pieces is slowly dispensed.

Pricing in Japan for the LEGO Mosaic Maker falls reasonably around big LEGO set prices in the country at ¥10,455 (US$93). This is still somewhat lower as compared to the US debut of the machine which cost at $129.99 a pop. That’s two significant Asian markets that now carries the exclusive set. Where else will it be showing up next?

Source: Retail News Asia

Autograph Signing Event with Designers of LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (21315) this Weekend

The “Once Upon a Brick” Pop-Up Book (21315) is the newest release of the ever-popular LEGO Ideas platform, set to become available very soon. Created by the tandem of Jason “JKBrickWorks” Alleman and Grant Davis, its ingenious pop-up mechanism brings to life and offers players a choice between two fairy tales: “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”.

In the grand tradition of LEGO Ideas sets so close to their wide release, there’s going to be an official autograph signing event for the Pop-Up Book set (21315) with the original designers, and it’s happening this Saturday, October 27.

LEGO Ideas collectors and fans in the Portland, Oregon area are in luck as the LEGO Ideas set signing event with Alleman and Davis will be held at the LEGO Store in Washington Square. Those wanting to get an early shot at the Pop-Up Book (21315) will not only be able to buy them there ahead of release, but be able to snag the design team’s signature on the box.

For those making plans to be there when it happens, the autograph signing for the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book (21315) with Jason Alleman and Grant Davis at Washington Square, Portland (whew!) is on October 27. It starts 11 AM PDT until 3 PM. They can be kept abreast of any further updates from LEGO on the official Facebook event page.

LEGO Juniors Going Away, to Be Replaced by “4+” Designation on Regular LEGO Sets

LEGO has always prided itself on being a toy brand with something to offer for all ages. They have a hand in early childhood play/education with the Duplo line, and serving as a bridge between that and regular LEGO is the intermediary Juniors label. But that distinction’s being phased out.

Starting in 2019, LEGO sets with simplified construction that would’ve been labeled LEGO Juniors will instead be folded into the regular LEGO sets but with a new designation of “4+”. That indicates that the sets are optimized for age 4 and up. This labeling has already been used on certain Spider-Man themed sets coming up for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes.

Aside from that, four LEGO Juniors Star Wars sets mentioned on Star Wars news source Rebelscum will now be simply LEGO Star Wars 4+ when they eventually released. They are:

X-Wing Starfighter (75235)
Slave I (75236)
TIE Fighter (75237)
A-Wing Starfighter (75247)

So by next year, we can expect that all LEGO lines that have gotten Juniors variants (City, Ninjago, Elves, Disney Princess, DC, etc.) will now instead feature 4+ marks on their future sets to indicate a more entry-level build between the full LEGO sets and younger Duplo. LEGO Marvel’s Spider-Man sets will lead the way this coming December.