-
Shopping news (UK) Posted by Huw, Aug 1 2009 9:34AM
The new LEGO Games are starting to appear in many shops now in the UK: Toys R Us is stocking 8 of the ten games (no Lunar Command or Creationary because that is an Argos exclusive) and even my small branch of Tesco had seven of them in stock this morning in a card display case at the end of one of the aisles.
Looking at the Games list I see nobody has reviewed any of them yet so, please, if you have them, let us know what you think of the game itself and the parts selection. I have Creationary and Ramses Pyramid but I've not actually played them yet, but I'll add my review once I have.
-
Shopping news (USA) Posted by Huw, Aug 1 2009 9:49AM
The highly anticipated limited edition Home One™ Mon Calamari Star Cruiser™
featuring an Admiral Ackbar minifig is now available for order in the USA, priced at $109.99. This is an excellent set with excellent figures and a new A-Wing.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 5 2009 1:36PM
Some of you have asked where I had the minifigs with the Brickset logo on their chests printed. So, in answer to that, they were done by Caspar of CJB Graphics in Denmark. They have been done to such a high standard that I have no hesitation in recommending Caspar's work. He can print virtually anything on a range of different bricks (as long as they are white) from any artwork you supply.
If you remember me asking last month for a vector graphics expert to help me with a project, this is what it was for. Brickset member def stepped up and created an Adobe Illustrator graphic of the site's logo which was then used to generate a high resolution PNG from which Caspar printed the logo. Take a look at Caspar's website and see what else he can do. Prices are in Danish Kroner but are very reasonable: a single printed minifig torso is about $3.50 or £2.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 6 2009 5:13PM
The Brickmaster Castle and Brickmaster Pirates books can now be ordered in the UK directly from the Dorling Kindersley website. The books come with 140-odd pieces and instructions for building many different models using them and it looks like they'll be great fun. The US DK site still shows them as 'not yet published', though.
(Update: although you can order these now, they are not actually shipping yet, it seems. I received an 'out of stock' email this morning. )
While we are on the subject of DK books, the 
other two that are due for release in October can be pre-ordered from Amazon. Both of them look like being must-haves for the discerning LEGO collector.
- UK: LEGO Star Wars the Visual Dictionary and The LEGO Book
- USA: LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary
and The LEGO Book
UPDATE - The LEGO Brickmaster: Castle
and LEGO Brickmaster Pirates
books are now available to pre-order from Amazon USA for $16.49 each; expected shipping date is 31st August.
-
New set news Posted by bluemoose, Aug 11 2009 12:18PM
It's been reported in a number of places already, but Amazon Germany has published details of 7 Star Wars LEGO sets that are expected in the next 'wave', officially Jan 2010, but they would typically start appearing late November / early December
The sets are -
No pictures yet, and this far out there's a chance things might change before then.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 12 2009 11:12AM
So say Variety, Empire and Major Spoliers! It's certainly an interesting proposition: let's hope it's more Transformers than Gi Joe!
Thanks to the_isolator for alerting us to this news.
-
Site update Posted by Huw, Aug 14 2009 3:05AM
It's been around 5 years since we've been able to record our collections at Brickset and now we've reached a landmark: Brickset members own one million LEGO sets! Last night, member hrkica added a gold 2x4 keyring to his collection: the one millionth to be added. With 15,000 people using the facility that's an average of 63 sets each.
Somehow I don't think it will be another 5 years before we rack up 2 million.
-
Site update Posted by Huw, Aug 14 2009 3:25AM
I've been modifying the site's JavaScript lately and today have replaced all my long-winded hand-crafted code with more concise code using jQuery. Other than possibly pages being more responsive when they first load you shouldn't notice any difference but if you do see JavaScript errors popping up then do let me know via the contact form.
However, you no doubt will have noticed that I added a 'suggest' feature to the search box last week which hooks up the the database as you type and returns matches based on what you've typed so far. I'd be interested to know what you think of it: I've had some good feedback but also some negative. Is it a help or a hinderance?
-
Shopping news (UK) Posted by Huw, Aug 14 2009 11:27AM
If you have a chrome Darth Vader and gold C-3PO you'll also need one of these to complete your collection. They've been a little hard to come by unless you live near a LEGO brand store until now, but now you can order a Chrome Stormtrooper 
magnet from LEGOshop.com. And remember, remove the magnet and you have a normal minifig!
-
New set news Posted by Huw, Aug 14 2009 11:29AM
It would appear that Amazon has added most of the first wave of 2010 sets to its German site, which I'm sure must be somewhat annoying for LEGO who usually like to keep them under wraps until much later in the year. Five Technic sets have been listed and linked to over at the TechnicBricks blog, which I wasn't aware of until today (thanks Jarkko). It looks to be an excellent resource if, like me, you like your Technic. The sets are:
- 8045 - Technic Mini-Teleskoplader (Mini Telescopic Handler)
- 8046 - Technic Hubschrauber (Helicopter)
- 8047 - Technic Kompaktbagger (Compact Excavator)
- 8048 - Technic Buggy
- 8049 - Technic Traktor mit Forstkran (Forest Tractor with Crane)
Update: The full list of 2010 sets revealed at Amazon.de can be found over at Eurobricks.
Update 2: And it now looks like they've all been taken down from the Amazon website.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 18 2009 11:17AM
A press release issued today at LEGO.com shows that in the first thalf of this year its sales and profits have increased significantly due in part to "continued strong growth in classic product lines" which has to be good news for us all. It's interesting that Bionicle is not mentioned because in the past it has been attributed with being the cause of strong sales but this time it's Star Wars and City.
What's more, LEGO seem to be bucking the industry trend of falling profits. This article at Bloomberg states that Mattel have reported a 19% drop in sales during the last quarter so it's great that LEGO's high quality traditional products are still in demand with consumers.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 20 2009 1:39PM
The Great Western LEGO Show will once again be taking place at the STEAM museum in Swindon this year, on the 3rd and 4th of October.
The event, jointly organised by the museum and The Brickish Association, the UK's club for adult fans of LEGO, will be bigger and better than ever, with more displays and more traders. I'll be there again, contributing to the train display.
To give you a taste of what to expect, check out the video, and for more information, see the Great Western LEGO Show page on the BA's website.
I hope to see you there!
-
New set news Posted by Huw, Aug 22 2009 5:20AM
The two DK Brickmaster books are now shipping. I received mine today directly from DK, and our very own Dr. Sinister found the Pirates one in Waterstones. He's posted pictures over on his Tabletown blog. As you'll see they are about 2.5cm (1") thick with a card box attached to the inside of the front cover, which contains the bricks, and a 44-page book attached to the back cover.
Each book contains instructions for multiple models, and look as if they've been generated in the usual way by LEGO rather than by DK. They are accompanied by cheesy text like "Help the LEGO knight out by making a catapault" but I'll excuse that given the target age range is 5+.
My only criticism is that the book can't lay flat because the card box attached to the front cover gets in the way so you need to prop it open somehow when building. Other than that these are an excellent purchase and I highly recommend them, particularly if you're into Castle or Pirates!
I've added them to the database so when you get your copies, do let us know what you think of them by posting your own review.
-
Miscellaneous news Posted by Huw, Aug 28 2009 5:04AM
Want to tell us what you like and dislike about Brickset and how we could improve it? Now's your chance! I've been playing with a new online survey tool and have created a short questionnaire to gather feedback from you.
I'm interested in feedback from everyone but particularly from adults, so if you have 10 minutes spare, click on the image to complete it and I'll be eternally grateful...
Update 1st Sept: The survey is now closed. Thanks to all of you who completed it. I now have nearly 800 responses to analyse. When I've done so I'll post the analysis here.
-
Shopping news (UK) Posted by bluemoose, Aug 31 2009 2:57PM
News from a reliable source tells us that the new 'Tantive IV' (10198) and 'Fire Brigade' (10197) sets will be on sale in the UK LEGO Brand Stores (Milton Keynes / Bluewater / Brighton) from this Friday, 4th September. No updates on their availability in non-UK LEGO Brand Stores, or from LEGO Shop on-line at this time, but we'll post updates if and when we hear anything!
Usual caveats apply - e.g. ring ahead before making a long journey.
UPDATE - It isn't confirmed, but it looks like the US LEGO Brand stores, and probably the German LEGO Brand stores too, will also have these two sets on the shelf on Friday morning !
UPDATE #2 - Thanks to Brickset member 'cvillone' for pointing out the instructions for both these sets are now available for download (in Adobe PDF format) from LEGO.com's service pages. Thanks cvillone ! ... And now, several hours later, they have gone again.
UPDATE #3 - After a confusing mixture of dates on the LEGO Store website over the last couple of days, the Tantive IV is now available to order world-wide !
