Category: Community (Page 129 of 177)

LEGO at the 2017 London Toy Fair

January 23, 2017 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

The 2017 London Toy Fair is set to kick off and LEGO again this year will be on hand to show off some of the upcoming sets for later this year. Photography is still prohibited so we’ll have to wait until the Nuremberg Toy Fair next week to see initial images but for now, we’ll have to rely on attendees who are able to describe the sets in detail to give us a tease of what to expect. We’ve already had an initial list of the rumored Summer 2017 LEGO sets already so I’m excited to see what all is included with these sets.

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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LEGO Brand Store Valentine’s Day Building Events

January 15, 2017 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

LEGO 2017 Valentine's Day Building Events

If you checked out the February 2017 LEGO Store Calendar here in the US, you can see there are two building events to celebrate Valentine’s Day. On February 11, there is a kids event to build a mini rose that they can take home. This event is for VIPs and requires a sign up.

Adults also get to join in on the fun on February 14 as they also have a building night. This event is from 6-8pm and it appears the rose build is the same as the one the kids get. Registration is not required but may be necessary if there is a lot of demand for it so you may want to ask an associate just in case. I know the Fashion Valley location has started taking sign ups so there is demand for it at that particular location.

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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LEGO Message Boards Shutting Down in March

January 5, 2017 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

After over a decade of being online, the official LEGO Message Boards will be shutting down on March 6. This move makes way for more of LEGO’s resources to go to LEGO Life which they’ve started to push more for. The message boards are still active but check out the announcement post for deadlines to do things on there.

To be honest, I’ve been on there once or twice but I didn’t really get into it that much and somehow I don’t think it appealed to adults as it did with younger kids. Were you a part of the LEGO Message Boards and are you surprised that it’ll be closing down in a few months?

After much consideration, a very difficult decision has been reached that the Mods need to share with you all. The LEGO.com Message Boards will be retired on March 6, 2017. The entire community, including all forums and all content within them, will be taken offline permanently.

Just like a LEGO set, theme, game, or site nothing can last forever. In order to make way for the exciting features of the future we must occasionally retire older features. That is the current case with the message boards.

The Mods would like to thank you all for being such amazing community members. Every forum is filled with creative, inspiring, and exciting writings thanks to you! We truly appreciate the passion each of you has contributed to this community and hope that LEGO passion will carry through this transitional time.

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

When

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LDraw Releases new Parts Update for 2016

January 1, 2017 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

If you’re using LDraw as for your virtual LEGO building, you’ll be glad to hear that there is a new parts update that has been released for the program. This update adds 475 new parts to the catalog while adding 572 new files to the core library. Check out the press release below to see the details of this update.

The 2016-01 LDraw Parts Update has been now been released. This adds 572 new files to the core library, including 475 new parts and 43 new primitives. This update also includes updated versions of the colour configuration files (LDConfig.ldr and LDCfgalt.ldr) thanks to enthusiasm of Sven v. Beuningen and the co-ordination of Willy Tschager and Magnus Forsberg.

Thanks are of course due to all the part authors who created or corrected parts for this release, including several first-time authors. The reviewers also play an important role in keeping files moving through the parts tracker and deserve just as much credit.

You can preview the new parts in 2016-01 here, download the zip-file update or Windows install package here. Alternatively you can use the LDView menu option File | Check for Library Updates… to install the update.

Please accept our apology for this being the only parts update of 2016.

The LDraw Team

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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The Brick Fan 2016 Recap

January 1, 2017 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

2016 went by just like that it was a very eventful year here on The Brick Fan. Like with previous years, I’m going to go take a look back at what happened on the site last year. Because I love looking at stats, there will be some of that.

We ended the year with 9,416,861 page views which remained steady from 2015. There was some growth in terms of unique visits which went up 3% from the previous year while first-time visitors also went up by 3%.

Monthly-wise, we averaged about 780.000 views per month with January being busiest month when we hit 1 million page views for the first time ever. Hopefully we can replicate that this year with the Toy Fairs coming up. Our highest recorded day was January 26 when we had 65,906 views.

Since we’re in the age of technology, one new thing that we’re taking a look at is devices used to view the site. Mobile devices used actually increased by 15% from 2015, while desktop and tablet use decreased by 6% and 10%, respectively. This means that many of you are switching to your mobile devices to check out the site instead of the traditional route. I have a feeling that this trend will be continuing for 2017.

As far as social media is concerned, we’ve been a little more active on various sites. Over on our Facebook Page, we ended the year with 11,153 likes which was a 39% increase from 2015.

On Twitter, we had 6,758 … Continue

The Brick Fan Top 10 LEGO Reviews in 2016

December 31, 2016 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

A few days ago, I did a post on the most viewed LEGO posts in 2016 and today I have the most viewed reviews of the year. There were 828 sets released in 2016 and I’ve reviewed 79 different LEGO items from a number of themes although there were a lot more that I wanted to do but didn’t have the time to build.

1. The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures (71017)

One of the more recent reviews of the year but still managed to make the top spot was The LEGO Batman Movie Collectible Minifigures (71017). They won’t officially be released until January 1 but you can probably find them in stores now.

2. LEGO Star Wars UCS Assault on Hoth (75098)

The UCS Assault on Hoth (75098) was one of the more controversial sets of 2016 mainly because of the “UCS” tag that it was given. Even so, it was the second most read review of 2016.

LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector's Series Assault on Hoth (75098)

3. LEGO Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (42056)

My first ever Technic build and review did not disappoint. If you want a set that has everything you could want in a set from design to packaging, then the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is the way to go.

4. LEGO Disney Collectible Minifigures (71012)

The LEGO Disney Collectible Minifigures were pretty popular this year and it seemed that many people read up on my review of them.

5. The LEGO Batman Movie The Penguin Arctic Roller (70911)

Another more recent review for 2016, The Penguin Arctic Roller is … Continue

The Brick Fan Top 10 LEGO Posts in 2016

December 29, 2016 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

We’re winding down 2016 and it’s time to continue with my “Top 10” lists and this time it’s for the most viewed LEGO posts of the year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love to look at statistics. In regards to what the top posts were this year, I was actually a little surprised to see what showed up on my analytics.