Lego Minifgure book preview

Due out in September is Dorling Kindersley's latest Lego reference book, Lego Minifigure: Year by Year, A Visual History. This looks to be a real treat for any minifigure fans, presenting a pretty comprehensive guide to minifigures, broken down by both years and themes. It also comes with three minifigures (the ones in silver circles on the cover)! Here's the cover and blurb:

Take a trip down memory lane and explore the origins and growth of the amazing LEGO Minifigure with LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History.

Year by year, every range of LEGO Minifigures is included chronologically and by theme, running from the first minifigures introduced in 1978 to the brand-new Legends of Chima, Star Wars, Batman and Ninjago minifigures popular today. Perfect for any LEGO fan, this visual chronicle is filled with more than 2,000 of the most significant, popular and rarest Minifigures complete with stunning photos and additional information on key favourites. Plus, with 3 classic Minifigures embedded in the cover, it's the ultimate guide to the world of LEGO minifigures.

Dorling Kindersley have released a few sample pages, here's a taste of what you can expect to find inside:

This looks much more like what I was hoping the Lego Minifigures: Character Encyclopedia would be, when the title first appeared - That book turned out to be about the collectible minifigure series characters only. Should be good.

First details of The Lego Movie sets, video game, books, and other merchandise

Coming Soon has announced details of Lego's merchandising plans surrounding the release of The Lego Movie next year. Those plans of course include the release of a range of Lego sets based on the film. Seventeen sets are planned, which will take full advantage of the diverse Lego universe featured in the film, including City, Western, and Space settings. One image has been released, showing a set featuring the exotic motor bike seen in the trailer, apparently being chased by what looks like robotic police:

In addition to the sets one series of the Collectable Miifigures will be turned over to the film. The usual assortment of sixteen characters will include new and "new-again" minifigures, presumably meaning some of the vintage Lego designs seen in the film will be getting new life as minifigure releases.

As well as sets there will be a new Lego video game based on the film. Due to be released for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PC, 3DS and PS Vita, the game will feature fifteen levels and ninety characters, allowing us to use building skills to play through the events of the movie. Comicbook.com posted this teaser poster for the game, featuring the same moment in the story as the above Lego set:

Meanwhile Video Gamer posted screencaps, showing events in the City and Western settings. Continue after the jump to see those, and for details of other merchandise:

The Yoda Chronicles

Lego are up to something this year, something called The Yoda Chronicles. Building on the success of the excellent Lego Star Wars animated films, The Padawan Menace and The Empire Strikes Out, they are returning for a whole trilogy of films! Here's how Cartoon Network describe them:

LEGO Star Wars returns in epic style with THE YODA CHRONICLES, a thrilling, funny and action-packed new LEGO Star Wars story told in three animated TV specials! Set in the “Prequel” Star Wars timeline, THE YODA CHRONICLES stars the one and only Yoda—the Jedi Master who has seen it all, done it all, and taught generations of Jedi Knights—in an all-new adventure. With the help of a fresh class of Padawans, Yoda leads the Jedi in a desperate fight to stop Darth Sidious and his minions from creating a new super-weapon that could crush the Republic and win the war for the forces of Evil.

It's not just new animations though, they're making a whole new sub-brand, with the original story of the film due to give us new designs for Lego sets, starting with 75018 Jek-14's Stealth Starfighter. They are also bring out a Yoda Chronicles book, which promises to give us a look into the Lego life of Yoda. Here's a look at the exclusive minifigure that comes with the book, a Special Forces Clone Trooper (revealed today by USA Today), plus a sample spread from the book (as seen in the DK catalogue), the cover is at the top of the article:

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp.

On top of the longer animated episodes the Yoda Chronicles brand is also being used for some of the latest Lego Star Wars short animations, which highlight recent sets with light-hearted little adventures for the Star Wars minifigures. Here's the trailer for the awesome looking longer films. The shorter promo films play after in the playset of all the Yoda Chronicles animations so far: