The Art theme has come a long way since the first 'dots by numbers' sets, with every new one introducing novel techniques to recreate artwork and illustrations in LEGO form.
Given that space-themed sets have dominated the product assortment this year, it should come as no surprise that the latest Art set is space-related, depicting our spiral galaxy from a viewpoint light years away.
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.
Mark Stafford wrote this about their work on 75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar:
Spaceship! It's been so long since I got to do a spaceship. :) I played Overwatch from beta, but I have to be honest I had hardly noticed the spaceship at the end of the Gibraltar map. It's a beautiful design though. I flew around it in the game, looked at every image of it Blizzard have. Then turned it into what I hope is a good toy.
It looks like the one in the game is a multi-level launcher, maybe dividing into three sections. I wanted to fit Winston in the back so it only ended up splitting in two. I also added a hidden pewpew shooter into the front part. The new angle slopes and 4x6 angle plates were both designed by Star Wars and I got special permission to use them and gave a headache to the engineering department by putting them in a set three months earlier then they planned to.
The landing pad I had a flash of inspiration looking at the new rollercoaster tracks, I'm pretty happy with that part of it too.
Oh - and first Teal coloured brick separator. (Zombie-teal :) )
Today's random set is 6618 Blue Racer, released during 2000. It's one of 45 Town sets produced that year. It contains 23 pieces and 1 minifig.
It's owned by 626 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $7.20, or eBay.
Today's random minifigure is sw1281Rebel Pilot Garven Dreis (Red Leader), a Star Wars figure that came in one set, 75365 Yavin 4 Rebel Base, released during 2023.
Our members collectively own a total of 2,861 of them. If you'd like to buy one you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $12.50.
71046 Collectable Minifigures Series 26 - Space further expands the collection of space-themed sets available this year, featuring twelve creative characters to populate them. They represent all aspects of space, between its possible denizens, exploration and future technologies.
Of course, this series also presents homages to some notable Space subthemes from LEGO history, continuing a trend across various recent series of Collectable Minifigures. M-Tron, Ice Planet 2002 and Blacktron II are all represented, alongside a selection of original characters and those inspired by space archetypes.
Official images of two new Animal Crossing sets have been published by JB Spielwaren, prior to their release on the 1st of August.
77051 Fly with Dodo Airlines and 77052 K.K.'s Concert at the Plaza recreate some memorable locations from Animal Crossing: New Horizons and introduce several new villagers to the theme.
A number of LEGO Star Wars books have been published over the years, notably including the often-updated Visual Dictionaries, developed by DK. These are sometimes interesting, but none examine the popular theme in the depth many fans, myself included, would like.
5008878 LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity is therefore an intriguing prospect. Created for the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, this book encompasses all aspects of the range, from its inception in the late 1990s to the design of modern sets and minifigures, as well as video games, animated series and fan creations.
However, this is an expensive book, costing £129.99, $149.99 or €149.99. While not unusual for coffee table books of its kind, no previous LEGO book has cost so much, so The Force of Creativity will need to impress!
LEGO has produced a short animation to mark the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, which features several new minifigures, likely teasing their appearance in sets later this year!
Covering multiple eras of Star Wars, the video includes plenty of existing minifigures, beside some as-yet-unreleased characters, such as Cal Kestis, Nien Nunb, Ezra Bridger from Ahsoka and a young version of Leia Organa, inspired by the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
It is possible these characters have been created as minifigures purely for the animation, but I highly doubt that, as the video also focuses on minifigures already released to celebrate the anniversary.
Watch the three-minute video and view screenshots below...
The smallest set in the Friends first half this year is 42608 Tiny Accessories Store. Typically these smaller Friends sets have shown to be quite a good value with plenty of play opportunities, so I'm expecting the same in this case.