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Lego Friends Advent Calendar 2016 (41131) Review

By
Richard
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0

Lego advent calendars should be a great choice to keep your kids entertained on the countdown to Christmas, but this 2016 Friends edition just left us confused and annoyed.

This is a £19.99 set in the and $29.99 in the US, and has 218 pieces. That includes just two minidolls, which is really disappointing considering the price. The rest is a lot of small pieces which are going to be quickly lost after Christmas is over, and 22 models of varying quality.

There’s a few standout days, like the Christmas tree, and the piano, but a lot of them are also difficult to recognise because there’s so few pieces involved. There’s a general theme of a holiday party with singing, and guitars and microphones therefore feature. But there’s also seats, and ice-skates, and a lot of cooking equipment, and it never seems to quite gel together they way it should. The lack of a big finish on the 24th is criminal.

It has an age range of 5-12, but younger kids are likely to struggle working out how to build each model based on just the picture. The larger models also have the problem of having to be printed smaller on the back of the door, which only makes that issue worse. I’m not sure what the alternative would be, short of including a little instruction booklet in every bag, but that does seem like it would be overkill.

You can watch our video if you want to see everything that was included, and see if you think it’s as disappointing as we did. We still have the Lego City Advent Calendar 2016 to open, so hopefully that one is better.

Lego Black Friday Deals UK

By
Richard
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0
Lego Santa Snow-Globe

It’s Black Friday, which of course means your favourite plastic bricks have been discounted across the UK. It’s a great time to pick up some Lego, including on some sets that don’t often see price reductions.

The official online Lego store has a number of sets at 20% off today, including sets like the TIE Fighter and the Minecraft Village. There’s also a free Lego Christmas snow-globe if you spend more than £60. On Monday 28th (Cyber Monday) they will also have 20% off for one day only on the City Police Station, Creator Expert Tower Bridge, Friends Heartlake Riding Club, Star Wars Millennium Falcon and the massive Lego Technic Bucket Wheel Excavator we reviewed earlier this year. So if you had any wish to pick those sets up, it could be a good time to do so.

Amazon also have lots of discounts, some up to 60%, including on last years Lego Dimensions fun packs and level packs. Prices seem to be changing all the time, but they did have the Ghostbusters level pack down to just £15.99 earlier, so maybe worth watching to see if it hits that again. They’re also pretty big into Cyber Monday, so I would expect these deals to last throughout the next few days at least.

Asda, Argos, Smyths and Tesco also have random deals on a number of different sets, like this half price space set, but stock is definitely limited.

Lego Batman Movie Minifigure Series

By
Richard
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0
Lego Batman minifigure series

Coming on January 1st, Lego have announced that the next series of collectable minifigures is from the Lego Batman Movie. There are 20 figures in total, and all of them will be exclusive to this series, they won’t be available in the same configuration in any of the Lego Batman Movie sets that are also being released next year.

Just from that one photo above I think these look great, and will be a nice addition to our growing minifig wall.

Humble Bundle Lego Book Set

By
Richard
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0
The Cult of Lego cover

This is a Lego book bargain of epic proportions, the chance to buy 16 Lego books in PDF/EPUB format for just $15.

This deal comes courtesy of No Starch Press and Humble Bundle, and is a “pay what you want” setup. Pay $1 and you get 4 books, pay $8 and get 6 more, pay $15 and get all 16. The deal is available until November 23rd, and your purchase of these DRM-free books will also help fund the charity of your choice.

The books available for $1 are…

  • The Lego Adventure Book Vol 1
  • Medieval Lego
  • Lego Build-It Book
  • Beautiful Lego

Those plus these for $8…

  • Lego Build-It Book Vol 2
  • The Cult of Lego
  • Lego Space: Building the Future
  • The Lego Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions
  • Incredible Lego Technic
  • Forbidden Lego

And all of those plus these for $15…

  • The Lego Architect
  • The Lego Christmas Ornaments Book
  • The Lego Mindstorms Book
  • The Lego Power Functions Idea Book
  • The Lego Neighborhood Book
  • Steampunk Lego

An absolute steal if you ask me.

Lego Beatles Yellow Submarine Released Today

By
Richard
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0

As a fan of The Beatles, it’s nice to say that the Lego Yellow Submarine is available from today for £49.99 / $59.99. It’s a 550 piece set, so that’s 9.1p / 10.9c per piece.

This is a really great looking display model, with four perfect Beatles minifigures included. It’s obviously more of a display model or a gift than a playset, but I have no problem with that.

Direct from Lego…

The submarine features a removable top for easy play, a cockpit that accommodates the included John, Paul, George and Ringo cartoon minifigures, two rotating propellers, four periscopes, an adjustable rudder, plus assorted accessory elements that The Beatles have collected on their journey. The set also includes a Jeremy figure – on board to help the musicians defeat the Meanies.

The marketing photos for this set are fantastic, so I’ve included a few of them below. Somebody obviously had a lot of fun travelling around Liverpool putting these together.

We’ll do a video review of this one eventually. Too many sets to build!

Lego Beatles Yellow Submarine

Lego Beatles Yellow Submarine Strawberry Fields

Lego Beatles Yellow Submarine The Cavern Club

Lego Beatles Yellow Submarine Penny Lane

Lego Modular 10255 Assembly Square Revealed

By
Richard
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0

I love the Lego modulars, so the announcement of any new release in that range immediately gets me excited. That’s why I was pleased to see that this week saw the reveal of set 10255 Assembly Square, a 4002 piece set which is out on January 1st 2017. This giant modular is two baseplates wide, and will of course connect with all the existing modulars to help you build out your city streets. A modular building over 4000 pieces? Sold!

There’s so many features in this one, I’m just going to give you the bullets from the Lego press release…

  • Includes eight minifigures: a dentist, barista, baker, florist, music store assistant, dancer, photographer and a LEGO fan, plus a baby figure.
  • The three-level Assembly Square features an authentic, elaborate facade with detailed windows and doors, three buildable shop signs, spired tower, decorative roofline and a rooftop terrace, plus a detailed tiled sidewalk with a fountain, outdoor café furniture and two streetlamps. The highly detailed interior includes a bakery, florist’s shop, café, music store, photo studio, dental office, apartment and a dance studio.
  • Ground level features a bakery with counter, cash register, shelves, opening oven, wedding cake and assorted buildable pastries and treats; a florist’s shop with counter, cash register, garden tools, flower arrangements, bouquets and a blue and yellow macaw parrot element; and a café with espresso machine, counter, bench seating and pie elements.
  • Middle level features a music store with a buildable drum set, two guitars and saxophone element; photo studio with buildable classic camera and adjustable tripod; and a dental office with buildable reclining chair, waiting area, telephone and a sink.
  • Upper level features a dance studio with buildable piano and reflective mirror element; an apartment with buildable foldout sofa bed, detailed kitchen, toilet, micro LEGO® train, modular buildings and Eiffel Tower, and access to a rooftop terrace with buildable barbecue, table and a neglected plant.
  • Accessory elements include a ballerina skirt, Chihuahua, pretzel, ornamental chicken and candy. Also includes a buildable telephone, grill, baby carriage and buildable lamps.
  • Remove the building sections to access the detailed interior.
  • Adjust the camera tripod and take photos all around the square.
  • Recline the dentist chair and reveal those pearly whites!
  • Open the oven door to remove your freshly-baked pastries.
  • Fold out the sofa bed and relax while you admire your modular buildings collection!
  • Celebrate Modular Buildings with this awesome 10th anniversary LEGO® Creator Expert set!
  • This set offers an age-appropriate build and play experience for ages 16+.
  • New decorated elements include a dentist torso, dentist window and 2×3 tile with the 10182 Café Corner box front.
  • Includes lots of curved and corner angle tiles, garage doors used as box windows and LEGO Technic excavator scoops used as roofing elements.
  • Collect and build an entire town with the LEGO Creator Expert Modular Building series 10243 Parisian Restaurant, 10246 Detective’s Office and 10251 Brick Bank.
  • Measures over 13” (35cm) high, 14” (38cm) wide and 9” (25cm) deep.

Best of all, modular buildings continue to offer some of the best price per piece ratio available, with this set coming in at just £169.99 / $279.99 – that’s only 4.2p per piece.

Here is the Lego designer video…

Lego Ideas First 2016 Review Results

By
Richard
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0
Lego Old Fishing Store

Lego revealed the results of the latest Ideas review today, this is for all the submitted sets that received 10,000 votes between January and May 2016. The winner, and I can’t quite believe it, was the Old Fishing Store.

I wrote about the sets from this review earlier in the year, remarking at the time how much I loved the Old Fishing Store, and my interest hasn’t waned. Not only is it essentially a modular building, which is probably my favourite kind of Lego, but it’s also a very different kind of Ideas set. Along with the Saturn V, which was confirmed in the last review, it’s further proof that Lego are willing to do pretty much anything with the Ideas range. That makes it much more interesting, because it’s a lot harder to guess what they might pick next.

The next review results are due early next year, with the sets below up for review. The Addams Family Mansion, Merchant’s House and Modular Construction Site all look great, but I think the Observatory will win. Let’s wait and see if I’m right.

Lego Ideas Early 2017

Lego Angry Birds Piggy Pirate Ship 75825 Review

By
Richard
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0

This is a 620 piece set that retails for £59.99 in the UK, or $59.99 in the USA, which makes it 9.7p per piece. It’s one of the many sets for The Angry Birds Movie that were released by Lego earlier this year.

I put this one together (because Noah is more interested in playing with them than building them at this point) and it’s a nice little build. There’s nothing too taxing about it, the most difficult part for me was threading the rope for the hook on the back, and the finished ship has a nice design. It’s a bit on the small side, but I may be a bit bias because I liked the giant ship from The Lego Movie so much.

There are four included minifigures, Red, Bomb, Leonard and Pirate Piggy. Two Angry Birds and two pigs. I use the term “minifigure” loosely, because while they have Lego hands, they’re all just one piece (with the exception of the pirate hat). That means there’s no opportunity to mix and match and build your own birds and pigs, which seems like a missed opportunity.

Lego Angry Birds Red

Lego Angry Birds Bomb

Lego Angry Birds Leonard

Lego Angry Birds Pirate Piggy

There’s plenty features to play with, including a rope net for carrying the captured eggs, hooks at the back and front (one of which lowers), side doors and a trap door on deck for hiding items in, and even a separate trebuchet model for chucking the birds at the ship. Any child that’s a fan of Angry Birds will find lots to enjoy here.

My biggest complaint is the cost. At almost 10p per piece it is neither the cheapest, nor most expensive set out there, especially if you’re into the Lego super hero range. But there’s something about Noah having spent his own money on this that makes me more sensitive to the price than normal.

I wouldn’t suggest that anybody rush out and buy this one, but Amazon UK have it for 25% off, so if there’s an Angry Birds fan in your life, they could probably do a lot worse.

Lego Star Wars Rogue One Sets Released Today

By
Richard
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0

Today is the official release of all the toys from Star Wars: Rogue One, and that includes a whole series of Lego sets. I have the Rebel U-Wing Fighter sitting here right in front of me, and will be doing a build and review just as soon as the pain in my back subsides enough to let me sit over a table for a couple of hours!

Below is the official description of each of the released sets, all of which are available from today, September 30th. There are special deals at the online Lego store on these sets for the next couple of days only, including TRIPLE VIP points on any of these…

Lego Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle 75156

Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle (#75156 RRP £79.99)

When a tough transport ship is needed, Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle is the perfect choice. Put him into the pilot seat, open out the thick-armour plating and position the Death Troopers. Lower the ramp and check the blasters are secured, then arm the spring-loaded shooters and seal the hull for take-off. Raise the landing skids, lower the wings for flight mode and set off on another dangerous mission. Includes five minifigures: Pao, Director KrennicTM, Bohdi RookTM, Imperial Death TrooperTM and K-2SOTM.

Lego Rebel U-Wing Fighter 75155

Rebel U-Wing FighterTM (#75155 RRP £69.99)

Open the cockpit and place the U-Wing Pilot in his seat. Fire up the engines and launch into the sky. Keep a lookout below with the transport window, and when you spot the enemy, fire the front spring-loaded shooters and stud shooters mounted in the side doors. You can even fold the wings back for a bigger model! Includes five minifigures: U-Wing PilotTM, Jyn ErsoTM, Cassian AndorTM, Rebel TrooperTM and BistanTM.

Lego Tie Striker 75154

TIE StrikerTM (#75154 RRP £59.99)

Prepare for launch with the amazing TIE StrikerTM, the Empire’s atmospheric patrol fighter! Open the minifigure cockpit from the top or front and put in the TIE Pilot. Help the Imperial ground crew member put supplies in the rear hold and arm the spring loaded shooters. Then adjust the huge wings and launch into the skies in search of rebels. Includes four minifigures: TIE PilotTM, Imperial Ground Crew, Imperial ShoretrooperTM and Rebel TrooperTM.

Lego AT-ST Walker 75153

AT-STTM Walker (#75153 RRP £39.99)

Go on the hunt for Baze and the Rebel Trooper aboard the All Terrain Scout Transport. Open the top hatch, load up the AT-STTM Driver and move the legs to speed into action. When you’ve tracked them down, turn the wheel to rotate the top and prepare to fire the spring-loaded shooters. Can Baze and the trooper escape the advancing AT-STTM? That’s for you to decide…Includes three minifigures: AT-STTM Driver, Baze MalbusTM and Rebel TrooperTM.

Lego Imperial Assault Hovertank 75152

Imperial Assault HovertankTM (#75152 RRP £29.99)

Help Chirrut battle the Imperial Assault HovertankTM as it patrols the streets. This tough urban patrol vehicle has a two-minifigure cockpit and a rotating and elevating turret gun with spring-loaded shooters to target enemies of the Empire. And if the Rebel forces hide out of sight, open the storage container, grab the blasters and play out your own mini urban battles! Includes three minifigures: Chirrut Imwe and two Imperial Hovertank Pilots.

Sergeant Jyn Erso 75119

Sergeant Jyn ErsoTM (#75119 RRP £19.99)

Help the Rebel Alliance take on the Empire with this buildable and highly posable Jyn Erso figure. Featuring a blaster rifle with spring-loaded shooter, wheel-operated arm swinging battle function, and detachable back mounted truncheons, this durable figure is just the thing for recreating intense battles from the movie, Star Wars: Rogue One.

Lego K-2SO 75120

K-2SO™ (#75120 RRP £19.99)

Once an imperial security droid, K-2SO is now ready to fight for the Rebel Alliance. Build the droid, then push the button to the side to swing each arm or push it straight to swing both at the same time! The powerful K-2SO has he strength and skill to take on the Empire!

Lego Imperial Death Trooper 75121

Imperial Death Trooper™ (#75121 RRP £19.99)

Defend the Empire’s elite with this buildable and highly posable Death Trooper figure. Featuring a blaster rifle with spring-loaded shooter, blaster pistol with holster and imposing decorated armour elements including a pauldron with attachable ammo pouches, this durable Death Trooper is ready for action.

Caterham Seven 620R Set Revealed

By
Richard
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0
Caterham Seven

This week Lego revealed the next set being made as part of their Ideas program – the Caterham Seven 620R (21307). This is a 771 piece set, measuring in at 28cm long, that will be available on October 1st for $79.99. A UK price hasn’t been announced yet, but going by how poor current exchange rates are, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it at £79.99.

Lego Caterham 620R Box

We’ll have our review of this one eventually, but I can already say that this looks like a great model. Very accurate to the real thing, and no doubt going to be a great success with any car fan.

The official description of the set…

Create a LEGO® version of the Caterham Seven 620R, a custom-built sports car with an unashamed old-school vibe. Power steering? No chance. Electric windows? Forget it. The Caterham Seven is definitely not for the faint-hearted—luxury is for wimps! Remove the nose cone, engine cover or engine to take a closer look at the authentic details of a LEGO model that’s for true car connoisseurs only.

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