Celebrities Building with LEGO Bricks while Physically Distancing

If you’re reading this in April of 2020, you’re well aware of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the world. I won’t beat the deceased Thoroughbred talking about it as I’m sure you are sick of the media reports about it, but it has been fun to see how LEGO has popped up through it all.

One side note… my work has been using the term “physically distancing,” We need to stay apart physically so we don’t spread disease, but socially we need to remain connected to get through this together.

From 18 March 2020, there was Conan O’Brien who posted the picture below on Twitter (direct link). It looks like they were building #42110-1: LEGO Technic Land Rover Defender.

And then Daniel Radcliffe was interviewed by Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” and he mentioned building #75936-1: T. Rex Rampage over three days with his girlfriend. Not bad for a guy who has characters who appear in LEGO sets. The clip is below, but you can advance to around the 7.55 mark if you want to hear the LEGO discussion.

That’s it for now. Have you seen any others? Send them to me at store@bricksforbricks.com or post them in the comments and I’ll do another post.

Are you building anything while at home? I’m working on #10270-1: Bookshop. Haven’t finished it yet, but I’ll get a review out when I’m done.

Happy building and stay healthy!

Even David Beckham Builds LEGO Sets

Thanks to Zusamengebaut.com for finding this one. Jimmy Fallon interviewed former soccer star David Beckham on “The Tonight Show” and our favorite “highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system” was the topic of conversation. Mr. Beckham’s wife likes to make fun of him on for his bricking hobby, but according to him he loves to build as it helps to calm him. In fact he’ll stay up late into the night to finish up a set.

The clip on YouTube is below. If you don’t want to watch the full thing, skip to the 3 minute mark. That’s when the discussion about the brick begins. And how do I get a free copy of the Millennium Falcon given to me?

Enjoy!

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Saarbrücken, Germany

I wasn’t planning on it, but I had the opportunity to stop in a Brand Store in Saarbrücken, Germany during the Triple Force Friday sales event 2019 (4 to 6 October). The store front was full of some of the most recent new sets. With the focus on Star Wars, I’ll start there. The first picture I took included the new LEGO Boost Droid Commander (#75253-1), Kylo Ren’s Shuttle (#75256-1), another Millennium Falcon (#75257-1), and Yoda (#75255-1). They had all of the other new sets available as well. I didn’t look around at the sale sets to see what was available (sorry).

Additionally, they had the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer (#75252-1) assembled in the front window. Wow is it a big set! I was not the only one in the window taking pictures of the set. Still not sure if it is worth my money or not, but it’s definitely a cool display piece.

Additionally in the front window was the new Winter Village Gingerbread House (#10267-1). It was cool to see it up close and personal. I think I’ll be picking the set up at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Also on display was the new Disney Train and Station (#71044-1). Inside the store they had the Disney Castle built (#71040-1).

The LEGO Ideas Tree House (#21318-1) was on display in the front in the summer version. Inside the store they had it built in the fall version with the other set of leaves. It was neat to see how it looks with both versions if leaves.

LEGO Ideas Central Perk (#21319-1) from the TV show Friends was on display in two places. There was one in the front window and one inside the store. The one inside the store was a little easier to see and get pictures of so you get the picture here.

The Technic Land Rover (#42110-1) was available for sale and they had a built set that they were letting people touch and pick up. Props to LEGO for allowing that!

The Pick-a-Brick wall or “Suche & Baue” wall was in the back. According to Google Translate, this works out to be “Search and Build.” The wall was one of the better ones I’ve seen. There were a lot of pieces that I wanted to get, but I decided against it. There were numerous “gold” colored pieces, some different flower pieces I have never seen before, some colors that are not always out there, and a few cool pieces that would look great on MOCs for buildings. Bravo to LEGO for stocking this wall well!

I thought this display was cool. Two Statues of Liberty in different formats. The Brick Headz version (#40367-1) and the Architecture version (#21042-1). It’s cool to see the different sizes and versions next to each other. Behind it is the Architecture Trafalgar Square (#21045-1).

Most stores have some none standard builds that are usually larger in size. This one was no exception with a large Chewbacca holding a crossbow and then a Pirate Captain with a hook arm and a parrot sitting on his arm.

Overall, I was impressed with this store. They had everything in stock from what I could tell and a large amount of sets on display for viewing. There were numerous build stations for kids to play with in the store to see things before you buy. The workers were all very helpful with one dressed up as Princess Leia for Triple Force Friday. I talked to one who spoke German, French, and English and the one who rang up my purchase spoke English as well.

I purchased the LEGO® Brand Store (#40305-1) which is only available in Brand Stores. It was 24.99€ as compared to $24.99 in the US. The price I paid was roughly $27.37 with the exchange rate so the total varies since the VAT (value added tax) is factored in and the sales tax in the US varies by location. The last place I lived in the states had an 8.5% sales tax rate so it would have been $27.11… although we didn’t have a Brand Store. I’ll do a review of the set at a later date.

So if you’re in western Germany or eastern France and you’re looking for a LEGO® Brand Store, I highly recommend this one.

Happy building!

EDITORIAL: What Would You Say About a Set if LEGO Sent You it for Free?

I haven’t done this before so we’ll see how it goes… I’ve decided to write an editorial piece capturing an opinion that I’ve formed as of late after scouring the LEGO fan pages. Specifically, I’ve been following the recent release of the new UCS Imperial Star Destroyer Set (#75252-1). I had a blast building #75192-1: Millennium Falcon and news of the Imperial Star Destroyer set release caught my attention. Thankfully, the fan media has their set reviews ready to go soon after release. From the sites I look at, there were Imperial Star Destroyer reviews on Brickset.com, Eurobricks, and on YouTube, Beyond the Brick had a video review.

I’m trying to decide whether I want to save up my VIP points to buy a Star Destroyer set. The reviews have been helpful in pointing out things I wouldn’t even consider. They’ve highlighted the less than stellar minifigures included, the lack of internal designs unlike the Falcon, points where the design lacks detail, and the mere challenge of trying to display a model this large somewhere. They’ve also highlighted the positives like the cool “greebling,” the built in carrying handle, the intricacy of the various angles formed, and some of the many cool details. To be honest, I have not decided one way or another whether I want to take the plunge or not.

Onto the meat of the discussion… I am glad LEGO sends out free copies of the sets to various LEGO fan media influencers. It works out great for them to get reviews published right as a set releases for sale so the rest of the fan community can get an inside look at the set. It’s a smart move on LEGO’s part and they probably see more benefits by giving away a bunch of sets for free than they do by giving up sets. Also to be fair, all of the reviewers acknowledge that they have received a free copy. For example, Brickset says “This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.” But are we in the fan community getting true reviews? Many of the reviews have a comment about the set being expensive, but it seems like it’s worth it to buy. However, they didn’t actually buy it. How can they make an assessment like that? I almost feel like I need to wait and find someone who as actually spent their hard earned cash to buy this before I accept any decisions on price. Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if LEGO sent me free sets to review (hint, hint… if someone from LEGO is reading this…), but I don’t think I could make a fair assessment on the price LEGO picked for a set without actually paying for a set. Often times, that’s why my reviews are much later as I tend to wait for sets to go on sale before buying them.

I don’t mean to stir up discontent among the community. I think LEGO is doing a great thing by sending sets to the community to review. I appreciate and thank the fan media for taking the time to create videos, post professional quality photos, and assess sets from the prospective of a fan builder. My recommendation going forward is to continue with this process. I would also suggest that we as a fan look into finding ways to assess the price that are more objective. We have the somewhat meaningful price per brick. I have seen price per pound used as well. The Star Destroyer is also compared in price to the Falcon which I’m not sure is 100% accurate either. What else is there? Any ideas on how to make this process more transparent?

Thanks for hearing me out. Happy building!

Set Review - #10266-1: NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander - Creator Expert

It’s the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing and LEGO decided to put out a set to recognize the event. This one has received a lot of press on the fan media so there probably isn’t a whole lot I can say about this set that people haven’t heard so I’ll focus on the review. The basics are that it was released 12 June 2019 in the US. The price is $99.99 for 1087 pieces. This works out to $0.092 per piece. You can see the official LEGO Designer video here. You can see my review of #21309-1: NASA Apollo 11 Saturn V Ideas set here.

Onto the review…

The front of the box shows the set on a lunar surface with the Earth in the background. The back shows the assembled set with close ups on some of the details.

The contents are 8 parts bags with 7 of them being numbered and one of them containing larger pieces. The instruction book is in a plastic sleeve and the stickers are there as well to make sure they are protected. Bag 1 includes a part separator.

While I am not a big fan of stickers, I like how these stickers provide a chrome look to the set to re-create the heat shield. So maybe they’re not all that bad. I still hate applying them though. I never seem to be able to line them up right.

The instruction book starts off with an interesting introduction that repeats in Spanish and French. Throughout the book, there are various references to the design and what part of the actual lunar lander it relates to.

Bag 1 completes the base of the model. It is very similar to an Architecture theme build with the black tiles around the outside and the printed tile with the name of the set. While Apollo 11 actually landed on a much smoother surface, the designer tried to replicate his version of the lunar surface. The minifigure footprints are a nice touch.

Along the corners are where the landing gear of the model sit which helps you to display the model itself.

Bag 1 includes one of the minifigures. Not sure which astronaut it is, but that’s okay. There’s also a US flag (sticker) to attach to the surface of the moon.

The second bag starts the construction of the actual lunar module. The initial build includes some of the main structure to include the start of the heat shield. It also includes the oxidizer (white) and fuel (red) tanks. The first 2 pictures I posted show the one heat shield folding down to reveal a camera. As I understand it, this is the camera that recorded the astronauts as they reached the surface of the moon and walked around.

The next 2 pictures show the other side. This includes one of the shields that folds down to reveal one of the laser reflectors. The “laser reflector” is a separate assembly that you can remove and place on your lunar surface if you want. Fun fact… they still use the laser reflectors to this day for experiments.

Here is a top view of the build after bag 2. The build is not your normal build of stacking bricks as you would expect from a Creator Expert set and includes some good building techniques.

Bag 3 adds on the landing gear and finishes the heat shield. When initially building the landing gear, they seemed pretty flimsy to me. Once they were finished, they are actually pretty sturdy. In looking at pictures, the designer did a good job recreating the actual gear. I have said this before, but I’m a fan of mixing System and Technic parts into a model. This set is no exception to that statement.

The gold colored pieces help to match the coloring of the heat shield. Even if you don’t like the model when you are done, getting so many of this color in a set is pretty rare so there are lots of opportunities to use the gold color in MOCs elsewhere.

Bag 4 completes the crew compartment or Ascent Stage. The outside contains various antennas as well as some of the thrusters for maneuvering. The inside doesn’t have a lot of space for minifigures, but then again I don’t think it was designed for play. There are some details inside to include some stickers that I assume are the various control panels, but the 2 minifigures with their gear on will definitely have to squeeze in here. As you can see from my pictures, the designer built it so you can take a side off to see inside or put a minifigure in.

There’s a lot of SNOT use on this section and it is a pretty fun part to build in my opinion. I like the techniques used to capture the design of the actual section of the craft.

This section snaps into place onto the Decent Stage of the lander. Thankfully it snaps in easily and you don’t have to force it in or yank it out. I didn’t break the set while attaching or removing these parts.

Here’s the final model. Overall it was a fun build with some challenging techniques, but it went pretty quickly. I believe the designer captured the design of the original system well and still added some features that you would expect in a LEGO set like being able to disconnect the stages and being able to see inside the crew compartment. Someday when I have a nerd cave, this set will definitely go on display next to my Saturn V rocket.

The price isn’t too bad. I bought when the patch and #40335-1: Space Rocket Ride were being offered so that helped. If you’re looking for a better price, wait for double VIP points or maybe towards the end of its life we’ll see discounts on Amazon or at Walmart. Have fun building this one if you buy it!

Gartenschau Kaiserslautern, Germany - Back with Another Great LEGO Display in 2019

In case you missed it, I visited the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern, Germany back in 2018. It just opened again for the season back on 1 April 2019 and I had the opportunity to go for a visit this past weekend. The ads for the park highlighted another big LEGO based display, but I wasn’t sure if it was just the same display from 2018 or not. I was pleasantly surprised that Lauter Steine eV put together another awesome display for 2019. There were some returning displays and items, but there were also some brand new ones. I was only able to get a few pictures, but I plan to go back soon and will post more. Here are a few highlights.

Some brick built, larger scale minifigures greet you as you walk in…

One of the new displays is of the Pfalztheater-Kaiserslautern (link should take you to a Google Images page for the theater).

There was a classic space focused display last year with a big monorail. While they still have pieces of classic space, there are some changes this year. There is a Ice Planet themed section. The light in the room makes it hard to take photos, but it does make the orange and white of the Ice Planet theme look pretty cool.

Some classic space and M-Tron sets.

I was a huge M-Tron fan as a kid. I had a bunch of the sets and thought the magnets were great. Here’s an awesome M-Tron space station.

Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! (#70816-1) from the first LEGO Movie makes an appearance.

As a kid, I saved up and purchased the Mega Core Magnetizer (#6989-1). Still a great set!

The first case has some larger scale, brick built versions of various pieces along with the brick art underneath. The next picture is a working minifigure head designed out of bricks clock.

The next two picture are various architecture themed type sets. There are some actual LEGO sets mixed in, but many are fan built sets in the format of LEGO Architecture. There are also a few larger scale buildings.

I took a picture of this display and the sign that goes with it, but the sign that goes with it is all in German and I haven’t translated it yet. So enjoy the picture and I’ll update this post with info on this display once I translate what this is.

26 April 2019: Okay, I had time to use Google Translate… long story short, this is a model of a power plant built in Germany in 1894.

I included a picture of the info sheet so you can try and translate yourself, but this display is of a section of Kaiserslautern that is being re-developed. The buildings are models of what the final area will look like.

A returning display from 2018 is the Cologne Cathedral. I talked about it a bit more during my 2018 post. My family was able to visit Cologne in December 2018 for the Christmas Market. We got to see the cathedral while there. It is incredible on the outside and on the inside! If you are ever there, definitely check it out. Here is the picture I took of the LEGO brick built version and then a picture of the actual cathedral that I took from the nearby Christmas Market.

I visited with my kiddos so I had to rush through the displays and get the the play area that they have. I didn’t get the pictures that I wanted so I’ll have to go back (oh darn!). Last two I’ll post for now… one is an Elves themed display and the other is a cool looking building that I’ll need to get a picture of the sign and translate. Sorry.

I have never been to a LEGO Fan Convention, but I imagine that going through Gartenschau Kaiserslautern is what it’s like. A ton of cool displays to look at everywhere. Well done Lauter Steine eV! It’s another incredible display this year and they did a phenomenal job putting it all together! If you’re ever in the area, you definitely need to check it out.

Happy building!

LEGO® Appearance - CBS Sunday Morning

Normally all of the major fan sites are great at posting LEGO related items that appear in the media. If you’re a regular reader of The Brothers Brick site, you’ll note that on Mondays they do a role up for the week to include LEGO items that appeared on various blogs, websites, and news media outlets.

Well I found one video that I haven’t seen anyone post yet. CBS Sunday Morning pushed a roughly 5 minute long clip about LEGO on 16 December 2018 that you can see here:

The video’s main focus is on the quest to find alternative, sustainable materials to make bricks out of. There are some clips of testing materials and some interviews with the company personnel involved in finding new materials. There is also a short discussion on the material used to make some of the plant parts. Definitely check it out.

Happy building!

LEGO at the Deutsches Museum - Munich, Germany

One of the great things about being an American living in Europe is the chance to see a lot of places you’ve never been to before without having to fly across an ocean to get there. I recently got back from a road trip with my family to see a few places and one of those stops was to Munich, Germany or München as it translates into German. While there, my family stopped at the Deutsches Museum to walk around. It was an interesting museum that had enough to keep my kiddos interested and it had some English translations too for those of us who can’t speak German.

One of the sections of the Museum was the Technical Toys area. As expected it included LEGO. The picture here is Godtfred Kirk Christiansen who was the third child of Ole Kirk Kristiansen. He was also the managing director of the LEGO Group for many years. You can read more about him on the LEGO website here. According to the museum exhibit and Google Translate it says that he was the “inventor of Lego-plastic construction kits.”

The LEGO article has some information I had never heard of. The “10 Lego Characteristics” are spot on. I definitely think they met their goal. Good thing they decided to go away from wooden toys. Otherwise, where would we be?

The museum display had some bricks placed in some fun designs, but more importantly it had some of the boxes from the very first LEGO System sets. Even better, some of the boxes are in German. The box towards the upper right corner says “System im Spiel.” Google Translate says it means “system in the game,” but a spielplatz is a playground so I’m pretty sure it is system of play or something similar.

I think the museum could use some AFOLs to help beef up the displays they have. While the designs are good, they could use some new designs. Maybe some German architecture?

It was hard to get good pictures of the boxes from behind the glass display case, but here is one of the boxes. I looked it up on Brickset and I think it is 311-4: Airplanes from 1961. Am I right? Maybe some LEGO history experts can help me out here.

Interestingly enough right next to the LEGO display was IDEMA. I took some pictures because I wasn’t familiar with this toy at all and I couldn’t read the German next to the display. The best I could find was a website from Portugal that says it was a German building toy started post World War II made of Bakelite. I had to look Bakelite up as well… it’s a kind of plastic. Anyways, IDEMA did not catch on and ended up fading away in the 1970s. Looks like part of the reason it didn’t catch on was competition from LEGO. Hard to say as I couldn’t find a lot of info on it. Here are a few pictures to include a mug shot of its German inventor Josef Dehm. Here is the website I found which looks like it is Portuguese. The site has a good picture comparison picture between IDEMA bricks and LEGO bricks. You’ll also notice a a version of London’s Tower Bridge which isn’t quite as detailed as set 10214-1, but still is pretty impressive.

And finally a Ferris Wheel along with a few other builds out of this toy. Interesting stuff. I had never heard of IDEMA before. It might be that the toy didn’t make it out of Europe so we never saw it in the States. I don’t know. If you’re in Munich and you have some free time, check the Deutsches Museum out.

Set Review - #75192 - LEGO Millennium Falcon - Star Wars - Ultimate Collector Series

Part 1 - Unleashing the Falcon

You can see part 2 here.

It's been a bit since I've posted because I broke down and bought the LEGO Millennium Falcon.  I had $155 in VIP points and I used EBates to get another $20 back.  Besides the discount I also got a Darth Vader Pod polybag (#5005376-1).  I ordered it from LEGO Shop at Home, but at the time of ordering it in early May 2018, it was also available at Target, Walmart, and Amazon.com in the US.

LEGO Shop at Home shipped it off pretty quickly and I got a notice from FedEx that we would have to sign for the package.  I think this is the first ever LEGO order that someone had to sign for.  The email I got said that the package would be 34 pounds.  Whoa!  Here it is:

Like many of the other big sets these days, the LEGO Group has packaged the set inside another box.  The first time I saw this was in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  It is a great way to protect some of the sets that cost a bit more.  If you're going to put a bunch of money into a LEGO set, it had better show up in pristine condition.  This set up helps to make it happen and I'm glad the LEGO Group made this change to their product.

The inner box had a few labels.  Of note to me was that this set was made in April of 2018 and I purchased it in early May 2018.  Considering the LEGO Group's trouble in keeping up with demand for this set, they definitely made up for it with some sped up production.  Also of note is that this set was made in Mexico which I'm pretty sure most sets sold in the US are made there.

Here are some pics of the set box itself.  The front shows a good illustration of the set from Episode VI: Empire Strikes back with a Tie Fighter and Cloud City.  On a side note, there were rumors about this set on other earlier sets and there have been a lot of rumors about a Cloud City set coming out.  Could this picture be a rumor for it?  The back side shows the set itself with some of the details.  

The sides have a schematic, the minifigures, and the other side has a picture of the set with a write up about the set itself.  

I included the top just because.  Nothing really special there.

Inside the big box are 4 smaller boxes with some Falcon art and a few quotes from the movies.  I did some reading of other reviews prior to building and learned that you have to open them all to sort out the bags.  I opened them all and with my helpers, sorted bags 1 through 9.  We put 10 through 17 back in the boxes for later.  I didn't take a picture of all the contents like I usually do because of lack of space to take a giant picture with all of the bags.  I think everyone gets the idea anyway.

A set this big and they had to include a sticker sheet.  Thankfully there are only 12, but still for the price, couldn't they have printed on the stickers?  Most are fairly small and easy to put on, but the big label is a pain as you'll see.

Okay so there is the opening... next up will be the build.  I was up against a move so I had to get it built quickly.  Thankfully a friend and 2 of his boys pitched in to help and made sure we could get it done beforehand.  The build will be up next so stay tuned...

How did I miss this? A Lego Brickumentary...

Apparently I'm a few years behind.  Sorry.  The other day I got to watch "A LEGO Brickumentary" which was released in the US on 31 July 2015 (according to imdb.com).  Has everyone else seen this and I just missed it?  In case you haven't seen it either, this is a full up documentary on LEGO starting with the history of the brand and going into all of the modern day LEGO world to include AFOLs, conventions, LEGO Ideas (the film was done when it was still CUUSOO), using LEGO in films, the start of the Architecture theme, LEGO art to include a bit on Nathan Sawaya, and more.  

I did some searching online and a lot of the reviews of the film weren't so good.  Apparently it made much less than the budget of the film and there's a lot of trash talk.  As an AFOL, I say who cares about all of them?  I thought the film was awesome.  Interviews with members of the LEGO company to include builders like Jamie Berard and a look inside the company, how awesome is that?  I say when is video #2 coming out?

If you're an AFOL like me and you haven't seen it yet, definitely do it.  I'm not a Netflix-er, but it's probably there.  You can check out Amazon.com or Youtube to see it too.  It's worth your time.  Trust me!