If you saw my post for the April 2017 LEGO Store Calendar, you probably saw that the US is finally getting the LEGO Creator Mini Volkswagen Beetle (40252) as part of a promotion. It is a 141 piece set that is basically a smaller version of the Volkswagen Beetle (10252) which was released last year. We will be getting it from April 1-15, while supplies last, with purchases of $50 or more at LEGO Stores and on Shop@Home. The April 2017 LEGO Store Calendar is now available and we can see some of the promotions and events for the month. April 1-15: FREE LEGO Creator Mini Volkswagen Beetle (40252) with purchases of $50 or more, while supplies last. April 1-30: FREE LEGO Friends Tic Tac Toe game with a $20 LEGO Friends purchase, while supplies last. April 1: LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales The Silent Mary (71042) available to the general public. April 4-5: VIP Monthly Mini Build event for a Chick. April 1-16: Easter Egg Hunt at LEGO Stores.
Find all the Easter eggs and get an Easter sticker sheet, while supplies last. April 15: VIP LEGO Friends Mini Build event. Sign up is required. April 7 & 21: Family Game Night. April 22 & 29: LEGO Life meeting. February was a pretty news heavy month and here’s a recap of some of the more popular LEGO posts from the month. LEGO Disney Beauty and the Beast BrickHeadz Officially Announced – LEGO announced the new LEGO Disney Beauty and the Beast BrickHeadz which now available to everyone on Shop@Home for $9.99 each. LEGO Named 2017 World’s Most Powerful Brand – LEGO was named the world’s most powerful brand in the Brand Finance yearly Global 500 rankings. LEGO Dimensions Wave 8 Expansions Packs Announced – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced the new LEGO Dimensions expansion packs which include The Goonies Level Pack (71267), the Hermione Fun Pack (71243), and LEGO City Fun Pack (71266). The LEGO Ninjago Movie First Trailer Released – Warner Bros. released the first official trailer for the upcoming The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
LEGO House Website Now Live – LEGO launched a new website for their LEGO House which opens in September. The LEGO Batman Movie The Ultimate Batmobile (70919) Revealed – LEGO revealed one of the new The LEGO Batman Movie sets with The Ultimate Batmobile (70917). LEGO New York Toy Fair Set Images – The 2017 New York Toy Fair kicked off and there were a lot of images for the upcoming summer 2017 LEGO sets. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Spider-Man: Homecoming Sets Revealed – During the NY Toy Fair, some of the sets for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Spider-Man: Homecoming were shown off. LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 17 Revealed – Also shown off at the Toy Fair was the characters for the Series 17 LEGO Collectible Minifigures. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales The Silent Mary (71042) Officially Revealed – The last major thing that was revealed at the Toy Fair was the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales The Silent Mary (71042).
LEGO Ideas Second 2016 Set Winner Announced – The winning LEGO Ideas project for the Second 2016 Review Stage was announced to be the Women of NASA. A reader has let me know this morning that there are some LEGO minifigure plushies that has been released in stores or will be released soon. Currently, there are four characters to choose from including Batman (853652) and Batgirl (853653) from The LEGO Batman Movie and Kai (853691) and Nya (853692) from LEGO Ninjago. Each minifigure plush will stand 12″ tall and are made with brushed tricot fabric with silkscreen-printed decoration. Update: They have shown up on Shop@Home. Today is the last day for the promotion to get The LEGO Batman Movie Disco Batman/Tears of Batman (30607) polybag at LEGO Stores and on Shop@Home. You can get it for free with purchases of $75 or more. The polybag is fairly easy to get especially with a lot of new sets already available. I’ve already done a review of the polybag if you haven’t checked it out yet.
LEGO Ideas has announced the winner of the Second 2016 Review Stage and it is the Women of NASA. This set was stated to be releases in late 2017 or early 2018. In addition, the Voltron – Defender of the Universe project is still under consideration so that could also be a set in the future. The results of that will be announced at the Third 2016 Review results. There were twelve projects that qualified for review which included Voltron – Defender of the Universe, Spaceballs – Eagle 5, The Addams Family Mansion, the Merchant’s House, the Large Hadron Collider, LEGO Observatory – Mountain View, Modular Construction Site, the Women of NASA, Star Wars UCS X34 Landspeeder, Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, Lovelace & Babbage, and The Plum Creek – The Little House on the Prairie. Honestly, the Women of NASA project didn’t really surprise me because LEGO does have a partnership with NASA and there are a few space-themed sets already including the upcoming Saturn V one for later this year.
What do you guys think if the project that was chosen to become an official LEGO Ideas set? Sound off in the comments below. If you haven’t picked up the LEGO Ideas Caterham Seven 620R (21307) yet, Amazon has it on sale for a pretty decent price of $59.99 which is 25% off the retail price. I’ve done a review of the Caterham and it is arguably one of the best LEGO Ideas sets to be released so far. With the sale going on, it’s worth picking up even more.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11Want to save money? Show them how to make a profit of their hard work but be wary, they will likely become more addicted.Erik Varszegi knows his Legos. One of only a few dozen master builders the Lego Group employs around the world, Varszegi makes large-scale models that use thousands—if not millions—of the tiny plastic pieces at a time. Like any craftsman, he has strong opinions about his tools, and the toymaker’s engineers in Billund, Denmark are constantly designing new elements to work with.
While laypeople may think of all Lego pieces as “bricks,” “elements” is Lego’s preferred catch-all term for its bricks, plates, tiny people, and other pieces. Since 2004 Varszegi has kept a running list of the bricks he likes best. Below, he shares his favorites with Quartz: Element name: Lego roof tile 1x1x2/3 Varszegi says: One of the smallest Lego elements made. When the 1×1 roof tile came out in 2004, I immediately saw the potential for adding a lot of subtle detail when I design my work. After that came out I started making mental notes of my favorite new element designs of the year. My own Academy Awards, if you will. Element name: Angular plate 1.5 bot. Varszegi says: This one is a variant of a bracket piece that has been around for years. When used in conjunction with that older piece it expands the possibilities of sideways model building—adding detail, while at the same time making your model designs stronger. Element name: Plate 2x2x2/3 with 2 horizontal knobs
Varszegi says: While similar in appearance to the element above, this element allows sideways building with a completely different set of Lego geometry rules. Element name: Plate with bow 1x2x2/3 Varszegi says: We’ve added a number of different curved slopes to the Lego palette in the last dozen years or so. This version is the smallest of the family and adds a lot of interesting shapes to a design. Lego isn’t all square anymore. Element name: Plate 2×2 with 1 knob Varszegi says: This one was a long time coming. The offset stud in the center is very welcome in architectural type models. Element name: Brick 1x3x2 with inside bow Varszegi says: This inverted arch is something we should have had years ago. I just used it in one of my latest works, a life-like model of Poe Dameron from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Look for it on the life support module on his flight suit. Element names: 1/4 circle tile 1X1; flat tile 1×1 ½ circle Varszegi says: Between these two, I haven’t decided what my favorite piece from 2016 might be.