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LEGO Space: Building the Future Book Review

August 2, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

I recently received a copy of LEGO Space: Building the Future by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard from No Starch Press. Over the past week, I had a chance to read it and I literally couldn’t put it down. Although I don’t know Peter and Tim personally, I’ve been familiar with their contributions to the LEGO community including Peter’s recently released LEGO Ideas Exo Suit (21109). LEGO Space: Building the Future is a very nice hard cover book that consists of 216 fully illustrated pages which retails for $24.95.

LEGO Space: Building the Future is not your ordinary book that showcases just models of spaceships but it is a story that pays tribute to many of the LEGO Space themes like Classic Space, Blacktron, Ice Planet, and Space Police with a wide variety of different kinds of builds. The book is written in past tense as if was a history of events that happened from the early days of space exploration to the colonization of the moon to reaching first contact with another species and beyond. All the themes mentioned above and are nicely represented and their roles are thoroughly explained throughout the book.

The first part of the book begins with an overview of actual space travel from the launch of Russia’s Sputnik, to Neil Armstrong landing and stepping on the moon, to the NASA Curiosity Rover exploring Mars. During this chapter, there are some LEGO builds to represent these events.

Not only are you just reading the story, you can also build … Continue

LEGO September 2014 Store Calendar Promos & Events

August 1, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 1 Comment

Today is the start of August and that means that the September 2014 LEGO Store Calendar is now available. This also means that there are some new promos that will be going on at the LEGO Stores and on Shop@Home. The biggest thing that will be happening is the FREE exclusive Classic Spaceman Minifigure for VIP members with purchases of $99 or more from September 1-14. We first revealed this little set back in June and was hoping that it would show up in the States later this year.

The other promo is the continuation of the FREE LEGO Legends of Chima Worriz’ Fire Bike (30265) with purchases of $50 or more until September 14th.

The FREE Monly Mini Model is a small Racing Plane.

The DC Comics Super Heroes The Tumbler (76023) will be available for the general public on September 1st while VIP members get it starting August 18th.

From September 17-30, LEGO VIP members again get early access to a new exclusive LEGO holiday set. This set will probably be the 2014 LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Workshop (10245). The set should be revealed very soon, hopefully at BrickFair VA this weekend.

On September 14 & 21, there will be a LEGO Fusion Demonstration Day at the stores.

FInally on September 27th, the LEGO Club Meeting will be City-themed and the t-shirt will feature a polar bear from the Arctic sets.

Overall, September is an okay month with the big promo for the Classic Spaceman Minifigure set for VIPs. It looks like I’ll … Continue

LEGO Jurassic World Sets Confirmed by Chris Pratt?

August 1, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 7 Comments

As I was coming out from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, I came across a very interesting post by Brick Fanatics. Since there was no information from Legendary Pictures at San Diego Comic Con 2014 for Jurassic World, this is probably one of the biggest info for the movie.

Chris Pratt, who portrays Star-Lord in GotG, was in an interview with The Empire Film Podcast and he dropped a big secret about Jurassic World but not what you expected. He has confirmed that there will be LEGO sets based on Jurassic World! In the podcast, he mentions that there will be at least one set with his character Owen from the movie. At 1:11:00 of the podcast, Pratt mentions, “I have approved and seen the look for my character Owen in the Jurassic Park, the Jurassic Park LEGO.”

This is awesome news for people who are fans of the Jurassic Park franchise, like me. For people who missed out on the LEGO Dino sets from a few years ago, these new LEGO Jurassic World sets gives us an opportunity to get more dinosaur figures. The movie has a release date of June 12, 2015. What are your thoughts on this revelation?

Update: After doing some research, another building blocks company has the license for Jurassic Park sets. I’m not sure if Chris was confused by that or if indeed LEGO will have sets based on the movie. Considering that he played the main character in The LEGO Movie, he should know the difference between LEGO … Continue

Chris McVeigh’s Mini Spaceship Instructions Now Available

August 1, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 1 Comment

You’ve probably seen Chris McVeigh’s miniature version of Benny’s Spaceship above. He has now provided the instructions for the build for free on his website. Head over to the “Sci-Fi & More” section of his building guides and you can download the instructions in PDF format along with many other building guides. If you have the pieces, you can display it next to the regular version of the 70816 ship. Be sure to follow his Facebook Page for more cool photography and notifications on when he releases new building guides.

Firestar Toys Custom Minifigures to Support NSPCC Charity

August 1, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 1 Comment

As we know by now, our friend Richard over at Brick Fanatics is an avid supporter of the NSPCC children’s charity. The charity was a huge part in his life and was introduced to LEGO when he was younger. Now Richard is giving back to the charity that saved his life and he’s been doing half marathons throughout the year to raise money for the charity. He has teamed up with Firestar Toys to create some custom minifigures that are in his likeness. If you’ve seen Richard in his running outfit, you can tell that the minifigures are a very good representation of him.

Although these minifigures won’t be sold, Richard will be posting details later on how you can get them. The money raised through the custom minifigures will go towards Richard’s challenge total which is then given to the NSPCC. If you want to help support Richard and his charity, head over to his fundraiser page.

LEGO Ideas Exo Suit (21109) and Research Institute (21110) Now Available

July 31, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 6 Comments

The time is now here and the new LEGO Ideas Exo Suit (21109) is now available on Shop@Home. It probably won’t sell out on the first day but LEGO Designer Mark Stafford has hinted that the set is currently a single production run so don’t wait on getting it if you plan to.

The LEGO Ideas Research Institute (21110), which is somewhat overshadowed by the popularity of the Exo Suit is also now available on Shop@Home.

Remember that there are a few promos that LEGO will be having in August including the free LEGO Creator MINI Cooper Mini Model Polybag (40109) with purchases of $99 or more. If the LEGO Ideas sets last until August 25th, you can also get the free LEGO Legends of Chima Worriz’ Fire Bike Polybag (30265) with purchases of $50 or more. Check out all the other things that is going on for August on the LEGO Store Calendar.

Update: The Exo Suit is already out of stock on Shop@Home and it will ship in 30 days. It was also listed on Target’s website but it’s also sold out. Finally, Toys R US has it listed sold in stores for $24.99 but YMMV.

LEGO BIONICLE 2015 Almost Confirmed?

July 30, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 6 Comments

News coming out of Brickipedia this evening is that the return of LEGO BIONICLE is pretty much now confirmed. When you do a search for the term “bionicle” on Shop@Home, it takes you to a “Coming Soon” page which tells you to check back later for more information. LEGO usually puts that placeholder for upcoming releases of new sets.

Earlier this month, we reported that there was a rumored list of 13 sets that will be released in 2015. Another thing that may confirm the return of LEGO BIONICLE is a leaked image that was posted on Groove Bricks of the sets in question. What are your guys’ thoughts on this piece of information? Is anyone excited for the return of LEGO BIONICLE after a couple of years hiatus?

Thanks to George over on Twitter for the heads up.