YourCreativeFriends has taken a trip to the local LEGO store and have gotten their hands on one of the three new LEGO Legends of Chima Speedorz sets, the Jungle Gates (70104). The set contains 81 pieces and retails for $14.99, a $0.19/piece ratio. The Jungle Gates features Lennox as the minifigure included. His Speedorz itself is pretty neat because there are two wheels on the back for easier balancing. What’s interesting with the new wave of Speedorz sets is that they connect to each other to create a race with obstacles. Check out YCF’s video below to see more details of the set.
In October 2010, LEGO released The Burrow (4840) for the Harry Potter theme to tie into the sixth book and movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The set contains 568 pieces and retailed for $59.99, about $0.11/piece. It has since been retired by LEGO and the lowest you can find it new is around $150. The box contains two instruction booklets and a sticker sheet.
If you’re wondering what a retired LEGO mold looks like after producing 120,000,000 bricks, the above image shows it. A recent picture that was posted on Reddit shows a mold that was producing red 2×3 plates in it’s last cycle of it’s life. A commenter did calculations on how long the mold lasted and suggests it’s been at work for around 7 years nonstop, minus maintenance and color changes.
120,000,000 bricks / 8 bricks per cycle = 15,000,000 cycles
15,000,000 cycles / 4 cycles per minute = 3,750,000 minutes
3,750,000 minutes / 60 minutes per hour = 62,500 hours
62,500 hours / 24 hours per day = ~2604 days
2604 days = 7.135 years
According to the Pick-A-Brick page on Shop@Home, these 2×3 plates cost $0.15 each so if prices haven’t changed since the mold started production, it would’ve made LEGO around $18,000,000. As someone who has worked in the plastics industry before, the molds are the centerpiece to getting the bricks produced. Needing to be very intricate and precise, they can cost upwards of tens of thousands of dollars to make. They take a few hours to change out of the plastic injection machines and can weigh between 150-1500 kilos. If you have time, I suggest watching National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories/Megafactories of the LEGO factory in Denmark on how the bricks are created. The video talks more about the molds starting at 13:15.
There have been some new battle packs that have been showing up at LEGO stores which was first reported on Brickset by murphquake and jlbblue. These new battle packs include a Ninjago Accessory set (850632), a LEGO City Police Accessory set (850617), and a LEGO City Fire Accessory set (850618). All three of these packs retail for $14.99.
The Ninjago battle pack contains 36 pieces and includes Zane ZX, Jay ZX, a Stone Warrior, a Stone Scout, and a small weapons rack.
The Police battle pack has 34 pieces and contains four policemen and a dog. There is also a new metal detector piece with one of the officers.
The Fire battle pack has 43 pieces has three firemen/woman as well as the fire chief.
When the new LEGO Creator Expert Palace Cinema (10232) was announced last month, a lot of people were excited for the next modular set. It is currently available on Shop@Home for VIP members and will be available next month for everyone. The cinema contains 2196 pieces and retails for $149.99. That comes out to a nice $0.07/piece. YourCreativeFriends has done an extensive review on the set and gave their opinion on how the set turned out.
spieletest.at has released a video today showing a couple of the new LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes Man of Steel sets. The video features Superman: Battle of Smallville (76003) and Superman: Black Zero Escape (76009).
The Superman: Battle of Smallville set will feature five minifigures: Superman, Colonel Hardy, General Zod, Faora, and Tor-An. The set will include a tan military jeep that Hardy drives and a spacecraft that will sit Zod and his minions. The set contains 418 pieces and will retail for $49.99.
The Superman: Black Zero Escape set has three minifigures: Superman, General Zod, and Lois Lane. This set will include some sort of pod and as well as a chamber. It contains 168 pieces and will go for $19.99.
The video also gives a closeup of the minifigures from the 2013 Super Heroes sets from DC Universe as well as Marvel.
At LEGO World in Copenhagen, LEGO has officially announced the next LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Set, the Red Five X-wing Starfighter (10240). A few days ago, Kevin Hinkle did mention that a new exclusive set will be revealed outside the US and today, we now know what that set will be. The X-wing will contain 1558 pieces and will retail for $199.99. It will be released in May 2013. This is the second incarnation of the X-wing with the first one being released back in 2000 (7191). Like the previous model, this X-wing will also include a R2-D2 minifigure which we probably have about 3 or 4 of already.
With the release of this X-wing, I feel that the phrase “Ultimate Collectors” is diminished because in my opinion, sets shouldn’t be remakes of previous models but something new that haven’t been released before. On the other side of the coin, it’s nice for newer collectors who didn’t get a chance to get it the first time around. With that said, I’ll probably be picking it up since I got back from my “Dark Ages” a little late.
Below are the details of the UCS Red Five X-wing Starfighter:
10240 – Red Five X-wing Starfighter™
Ages 16+. 1,558 pieces.
Build the ultimate LEGO® Star Wars™ X-wing Starfighter!
US $199.99 CA $249.99 DE 199.99€ UK 169.99 £ DK 1699.00 DKK
Build the ultimate LEGO® Star Wars™ X-wing Starfighter!
Collect and create the most highly detailed LEGO® Star Wars™ X-wing Starfighter ever produced… ever. This iconic
