LEGO occasionally releases gifts-with-purchase tied to specific large sets, which are a fantastic reward for buying those sets immediately, but their limited availability can also be frustrating. 40639 The Lord of the Rings: Fell Beast offers a perfect example.
Fell Beasts were not available in the earlier The Lord of the Rings range and the set includes an exclusive Ringwraith minifigure. These are ideal add-ons for 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr, although depicting the Fell Beast with just 269 pieces has resulted in some compromises.
Many LEGO set designers use our BrickLists feature to maintain a list of the sets they've worked on and often provide interesting insights about their involvement.
Once a week we publish an entry from one of their lists on the home page to increase awareness of this information and to encourage more designers to create them.
Getting to reinterpret such a fan favorite as as well as a set designed by a designer I look up to (Adrian Florea https://brickset.com/sets/list-9388) was a great pleasure.
It's no secret that I love mechs and Cole and Jay are my favorite ninjas, so this was perfect. I tried to keep the attitude of the original. I wanted to take some of the most defining shapes of the original and blow them up to create a kind of caricature.
For the raider, I focused on the triangular plating on top that converges in one point. By using the tail rudder, I found a neat and new way to cover the back of the tracks a little bit.
For the mech, I wanted to really accentuate the big feet/lower legs and the shoulders. Because he needed to be folded up on the back of the raider, he needed knees, which I didn't mind.
Today's random minifigure is cty0133Overalls Farmer Green, Tan Fedora, Beard and Glasses, a Town figure that came in one set, 7637 Farm, released during 2009.
Our members collectively own a total of 5,703 of them. If you'd like to buy one you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $6.40.
The extraordinary 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell was released last year, recreating one of Middle-earth's most attractive locations, with superb detail. Barad-dûr seems an appropriate successor, representing the polar opposite and the home of evil in Middle-earth.
Though lacking the natural beauty of Rivendell, the sinister 10333 The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr looks spectacular in a different way. This model undoubtedly captures the menace of its source material and the Eye of Sauron is stunningly rendered in LEGO bricks. The minifigure selection is appealing as well, at last including the Dark Lord himself!
Welcome to "What's Up With That...?", the article series where I, ex-LEGO designer James and host of new YouTube channel TUBESIDE, will explore some of the frequently asked questions from AFOLs about the mysteries of the design decisions of The LEGO Group.
In the first part, we looked at what would limit a designer from using prints for every decoration in a LEGO model from a production standpoint. With all these limitations in place, in Part 2 we will see how a designer would decide when to use one of their precious SaPs (Swap a Piece - a colour change or printed element) on a printed decoration.
Herbivorous dinosaurs have rarely appeared in the Jurassic World range, although this appears to be changing, as the Brachiosaurus was finally produced last year. Now the iconic Stegosaurus joins the selection, in 76965 Dinosaur Missions: Stegosaurus Discovery!
This dinosaur is certainly welcome, although the design has attracted some criticism, lacking the studs common among large LEGO animals. The accompanying vehicle and scenery seem appealing though, joining a pair of unique minifigures, plus a returning Velociraptor.
When I mentioned the new style of removable lid box in the review of 21061 Notre-Dame it generated a lot of interest and discussion, so I thought it would be worthwhile taking a closer look at them.
21349 Tuxedo Cat is the 57th set to be yielded by the LEGO Ideas platform. It's based on a project by Damian Andres that passed review in May 2023. Everyone loves cats, right, so it came as no surprise to me that the project was selected!
Tuxedo is not a term we in the UK use to describe black and white cats, or jackets for that matter, so that will be the last time I use it in this review.
