After the official announcement and release of the LEGO Marvel Superheroes Avengers: Infinity War sets earlier this month, we now have images of the upcoming BrickHeadz collection that now focuses on our MCU characters. Though we already knew about them since last year’s New York Comic Con, it is only now that we get to see them up close. We’re still waiting for their set images, and since these new batch of LEGO BrickHeadz will be launched next month, it’s just a matter of time before we get to see them. The way I see it, these wave of LEGO BrickHeadz pays tribute to those characters that are also included in the Thanos: Ultimate Battle (76107) set, with the big baddie himself Thanos wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, Iron Man in his MK50 suit, and GOTG members Star-Lord, and Gamora. Among the four, I find Thanos’s BrickHeadz rendition most appealing, with the inclusion of the unique Infinity Gauntlet printed part.
Like the rest of the BrickHeadz sets, the LEGO BrickHeadz Marvel Avengers: Infinity War sets are expected to retail for $10 each and will be available both online and in-store sometime in April. For now, let’s check out their official box art images.
Last month we featured the wide variety of LEGO books coming out this mid-2018, courtesy of their longtime British publishing partner Dorling Kindersley (DK). There are three titles coming out; one a LEGO DC picture dictionary, then a Ninjago building idea book, and the third a “Choose Your Path” adventure.
The first two LEGO-DK books are noted to have freebies attached. In particular, the multi-ending “Choose Your Path” story has a free minifigure. For those wondering what it might be, we now confirmation on what or who this mystery minifig is. It’s been revealed by LEGO via its official Twitter account that the included minifigure is C-3PO’s fellow protocol droid, U-3PO from A New Hope.
If this little update feels anticlimactic to you, it’s understandable. The LEGO Star Wars U-3PO minifigure isn’t exactly uncommon. Its last jaunt in an official LEGO set was in the LEGO Star Wars 2016 Advent Calendar. It’s a letdown compared to the more exclusive figures added to past DK-published books.
Still, not all of it’s a waste. Those who never got the LEGO Star Wars 2016 Advent Calendar with the U-3PO droid, and are interested in acquiring it, can just opt to by the LEGO Star Wars Choose Your Path book instead. It’s cheaper at $19.99 and releases June 5 which you can pre-order via Amazon.
It’s that time once again for “weird LEGO stories”. Today we go to the UK, one of LEGO’s major markets, for a one-and-done tale of a strange act of vandalism involving everyone’s favorite brick-building toy brand. I followed this when it started; now that it’s ended, I’ll report its entirety.
Late last week, residents and shoppers in Cirencester, Gloucestershire were surprised to find the statue outside Crocodile Toys defaced. To be precise, the statue – made out of Duplo blocks – had gotten its head removed. Said statue, provided to the retailer by The LEGO Group, has stood outside for seven years.
The Cirencester Crocodile Toys store manager noted the incident as simple vandalism, though he was still upset because the Duplo statue, depicting a workman in cap and suspenders, has become a local landmark and photo-op spot. The manager posted the headless statue on Facebook, feeling it pointless to bother police.
Luckily, there was a good ending to this story. The missing Duplo statue head was located briefly at Woolmarket, late evening of Monday, March 5. The following morning it was apparently returned by the thief to Crocodile Toys, along with an apology note, explaining he was drunk when it happened.
The manager and store owner expressed relief at getting the missing head back and stated his intention to repair it no matter how long it might take. Then again, as the statue was given by LEGO, a Master Builder might soon be dispatched to reassemble the statue. Only time will tell.
Following in the footsteps of the LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle (21313), we now have confirmation that the next LEGO Ideas set will be available sometime next month. If you recall last November, the LEGO Ideas Review Team had announced that the Disney inspired TRON Legacy Light Cycle project of AFOL siblings Tom and Drew of BrickBros UK, is the next official LEGO Ideas set. Tagged as set 21314, this upcoming Ideas set is based on Disney Picture’s 2010 film TRON: Legacy. As typical of LEGO, information has been scant as of to date with regards to how the LEGO Ideas Team will modify this set to capture that iconic light cycle bike.
After three months since its announcement, it looks like LEGO has been teasing about the set’s release date as found in the March and April 2018 Italian LEGO store calendar. Italian LEGO fan site Mattonito was able to grab a copy of the said store calendar, and opted to share some of its pages, including the cryptic announcement that teases on the arrival of the LEGO Ideas TRON (21314) sometime in April. Other than its official name and set number, no further details were given regarding its price or piece count as expected from LEGO’s way of revealing new sets. Here’s an image of the announcement and its written in Italian, so it will be better if you have your Google Translate app on hand.
Will be updating you soon once more information comes in, so be sure to keep in touch with us. Thanks again to Mattonito for the heads up.
Easter is just around the corner, and with roughly three weeks to go before that much awaited Easter Egg Hunt, why not take some time and check out these 10 suggested LEGO sets all under $20 to fill up that basket of LEGO goodies. Now cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean that these sets are ought to be desired less, especially considering the relative advantage that these sets have in terms of price per piece ratio. In any case, LEGO is LEGO and the timeless appeal of a any LEGO set is sure enough to bring out those warm Easter smiles. So, if you haven’t finalized yet your LEGO Easter Basket, then why not take a few minutes to go over this list. Just click on the links below and see more of these sets via Amazon.
If you recall last month, the LEGO Ideas Team launched a contest that pools the best original ideas for the next Gift With Purchase (GWP) set through crowd voting within the LEGO Ideas community. Dubbed as LEGO Ideas Moments in Space, the contest seeks out the best build that may be adapted as the next GWP set to be offered sometime in 2019.
Exactly a week ago, a Grand Prize Winner has already been declared – the Cosmic Rocket Ride! (Coin Operated) by mjsmiley. This winning entry garnered the highest score amongst 1,000 and so entries with the following criteria in mind:
Overall coolness and originality: 25%
Most inspired details: 25%
Relevance to contest theme: 25%
Best use of LEGO elements: 25%
This is no easy feat, considering that mjsmiley’s creation bested more than a thousand other entries. The contest also gives special mention to 10 runner ups, and in case you’re interested to see these entries, just head over to the LEGO Ideas blogsite. Now I have to say that I really appreciate how mjsmiley’s Cosmic Rocket Ride turned out. From its color scheme, minifig scaled-build, crank play feature that allows the Rocket Ride to move, and its overall simplicity, in these aspects, this set is an absolute winner. Needless to say, it’s not hard to imagine how this nice, little cute build can become the next GWP set.
However, as it turned out, not everyone shares a common understanding if this is indeed an original work or not, especially for one keen AFOL, who spotted the apparent similarity of mjsmiley’s Cosmic Rocket Ride! to an already existing LEGO set. The case (or set) in question is the Rocket Ship Arcade LEGO Manager Exclusive set given away to attendees of LEGO’s annual Brand Manager Retail Conference back in 2016.
A portion of the building instructions of the Rocket Ship Arcade LEGO Manager Exclusive set from 2016.
Rumors were rife when Brickset forum member Bumblepants called out how similar this winning entry is to that of the Rocket Ship Arcade. Now to be fair, there are still notable differences between mjsmiley’s work (who also goes by the name Mark, as I got to know his first name through one of his comments in my previous article) from the ground up: we have a slightly different base with plenty of modifications to make it more attractive, a relatively different color scheme (though there is still the conspicuous red and yellow pieces), and an over-all different rocket design.
But considering how samiam391 feels about it – the original uploader of the instructions for the LEGO Manager Exclusive set – he believes that someone have definitely benefited from his humble contribution in the forum. It should be noted though that samiam391 does not claim ownership for this set, for what he did was to only share the existing instructions to the Brickset community in the hope that others will appreciate this set as much as he does. To quote,
It would definitely seem that someone abused the gift and used the instructions for their own personal gain to win a contest.
If they truly did rip off the instructions then I hope one day they are challenged by their conscience.
It’s a shame, but life is much too short to get upset about it. At the end of the day, I’ve probably distributed close to 200 copies of the instructions and will continue to do so for as long as people request them. The true joy for me in all of this is getting to help my fellow AFOLs and friends add a fun little model to their cities. Keep building!
Another build inspired by the Rocket Ship Arcade (from Brickset forum member, elspankdog).
Now, I am not the one to judge the intentions of people particularly in a case like where a winning LEGO entry seems to have been called out for allegedly plagiarizing an existing work. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the designer and creator this LEGO Ideas winning entry, then one can argue that perhaps mjsmiley REALLY does not know that such a set exist, which leads to the possibility that this fan-made set is completely original. Perhaps it’s just by sheer coincidence that his entry is very similar to that of the LEGO Managers exclusive… so, what could be the odds about that happening? As I said, I am not in the position to pass judgment whatever mjsmiley’s motives are, but it certainly raises questions on how “original” an entry should be. Will simply replacing a part here and there from a copied work will already qualify it as an original work? Were the panel of judges of the LEGO Ideas Moments in Space contest aware of an already existing set that may look strikingly similar to what they have chosen to be as the winning entry? These questions may likely pass off unanswered.
Since LEGO has already made the announcement and will unlikely retract their decision for any reason, I guess only time can tell how much of the Cosmic Rocket Ride build will be modified or retained once the final design is revealed sometime next year.
So what do you think LEGO fans, do you believe the LEGO Ideas Moments in Space Grand Winner is 100% original? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
So by now, the LEGO Group’s annual financial report for 2017 has played out and, as it seems, it was a bit of a downer revenue-wise. For the first time in 12 years, LEGO reported that their profits suffered a noticeable drop, with a net profit decrease of about 17%.
This turn of events, according to the Annual Results, was due to shrinking markets in Europe, particularly Germany, and surprisingly the US as well. But a spokesperson for The LEGO Group has also floated another reason for the sales slump: turns out their products have been overstocked across multiple markets.
Normally when new LEGO products are made available to retailers, they are quickly put on shelf display, with large numbers to entice buyers. However, if they still have significant stocks of older LEGO sets, the retailer would prefer to keep displaying them until they run out. This time, LEGO is competing for more shelf space.
“There wasn’t enough room to get 2017 toys into the stores,” the LEGO spokesperson said in this regard. To promptly have these older sets sold, retailers would try to reduce prices to attract buyers, but discounted prices mean a reduced gross, leading to lower revenues and profits for LEGO than before.
LEGO Group CEO Neils B. Christiansen followed up on this, saying, “During 2017, revenue in our established markets declined, primarily due to actions we took to clean up inventories.” There would be other contributing factors to this decline; but for now excess stocks and discount prices are held responsible.
On a more positive note, the LEGO Annual Results 2017 report also announced their top-selling themes, though they’re not entirely a surprise: LEGO City, DUPLO, Creator, Friends and Star Wars. LEGO Boost has also been getting a lot of attention thanks to its new compatible LEGO sets.
Just now we have newly presented the latest big update on LEGO Star Wars products yet, with our first good look at the massive waveof tie-in sets for Solo: A Star Wars Story that are coming our way starting next month. Yes, that includes the Kessel Millennium Falcon (75212).
This first wave also includes one buildable figure, those brick-built poseable action figures often referred to as ‘constraction’ sets that are often major characters of licensed franchises. The one set that was part of the LEGO Star Wars Han Solo blitz was a wicked figure of the Darth Maul (75537). But there’s also a problem.
Back in December last year, LEGO had announced a couple of buildable figures coming out in 2018. Interestingly, their set numbers come immediately after Darth Maul (75537). They have been labeled as the LEGO Star Wars Super Battle Droid (75538) and the 501st Legion Clone Trooper & AT-RT Walker (75539).
Well, they’re supposed to be released this year. But rumors have manifested and are being discussed on Eurobricks, that the releases of the Super Battle Droid (75538) and 501st Legion Clone Trooper & AT-RT Walker have been canceled. The poster who shared this gave no reason for such a move. However, further down the thread, several reasons were offered, and some even gave their passionate rebuttal on the issue. For a comprehensive summary of the arguments presented, for and against the rumored discontinuation of this relatively new line of LEGO Star Wars playsets, you may want to check out the post shared by RebelScum.
As always, LEGO-related rumors will remain such until the company itself confirms or denies them. That also includes one last rumor that LEGO might be ending the buildable figures line by next year, though this has been bandied several times before. Meanwhile, let’s look forward to Darth Maul (75537) soon.
UPDATE: I’ve included official images of sets 75210, 75535, and 75536, courtesy of Bouwsteentjes. The Dutch LEGO fan site mentions that these images were found on Amazon, though I couldn’t determine what particular Amazon regional site.
We already saw some of these sets at this year’s New York Toy Fair, and we had a glimpse of their official product descriptions earlier last week. This time around, it looks like we have our first official images of the LEGO Star Wars Han Solo sets, plus a couple from the general Star Wars theme courtesy of Amazon France. It is should be noted that this is not the complete line-up since Amazon’s French website has not yet listed the LEGO Star Wars Moloch Landspeeder (75210), and the buildable figures of Han Solo (75535) and a Range Trooper (75536). I assume that this has something to do with Disney and Lucas Films plugging the leaks on some of the finer details of the Han Solo film, scheduled to be released in theaters on May 25. Well, truth be told, the images of these LEGO Star Wars Han Solo sets have been well distributed all over the internet for quite some time now, and such damage control from the part of these entertainment giants now seem to be just an afterthought.
We do not have any price points yet in USD, and as it turns out as of this posting, Amazon France has listed these sets as temporarily out of stock. So we just have to probably wait until April to see more of these. For the meantime, check out these official images. A hat tip to The Brick Fan for sharing this info.
It’s usually around this time of the year that major companies would make their annual financial result . That too is the routine for The LEGO Group, hailed as the largest toy company in the world, and makers of our many favorite brick-building play-sets.
For LEGO, this is a major event. That means they’ve set up a live stream of their Annual Results 2017 announcement from their Billund, Denmark HQ for the public’s information. It’s scheduled for Tuesday, March 6, at around 10AM Central European Time, or about 4AM EST/1AM PST in the US.
This report will be very interesting to know, considering the problems LEGO has been having revenue-wise in certain key markets last year. Their mid-year report in September 2017 already noted some noticeable losses in that regard. This led to LEGO restructuring their company to the point of doing some layoffs.
But the LEGO Annual Results 2017 report isn’t just going to be about the business side of things. Also included in the announcement is a sort of “honor roll”, identifying the best-selling LEGO themes and sets from the previous year. Collectors would find that information useful for prospective future purchases.
Interested viewers may follow the live stream of Annual Results 2017 here. True, the broadcast time’s a little early stateside-wise, but sometimes it’s best to hear important LEGO news out of The LEGO Group itself.
