Serenity MOCed

Having recently watched Firefly for the first time (Gasp! I know, I am not worthy of considering myself a sci-fi fan for such lack of attention to a modern classic) I have an extra bit of appreciation for this neat little MOC of the star ship of the show, Serenity, made by Baron von Brunk:

Baron von Brunk will actually be giving this away, at a Firefly themed burlesque show (yes you read that correctly) in New York, this weekend. You can find out more about that event, here, and see more of the model, here.

Theme Guide: Lego Minifigures, Series 11

The eleventh series of the Collectible Minifigures is set for release next month. Lego have now released official images of all the new characters, giving us a closer look at yet another irresistible collection of new minifigures, with some cool new parts, and subjects never before rendered in Lego form.

As we saw when scans of the leaflet for this series were posted online a couple of weeks ago, this series comes in green packaging.

Continue reading for thoughts and analysis of each figure in the new series.

Yeti

• My absolute favourite of this series is the oh-so-cute little yeti. The cool blue details on this guy make him look suitably icy, including the blue lollypop - The first time that food part has been offered in a blue I believe.
  
  This is at least Lego's second Yeti, having previously released a big-figure version in the Orient Expedition set 7412 Yeti's Hideout. This new version obviously somewhat less imposing than the previous larger design, but has so much more character!
  
  The only place I think they missed a trick here is that the face appears to be printed on the new molded headpiece. It might have been nice for the blue part to have been an opening, with a standard minifigure head inside; allowing Lego to include an interesting alternative head print hidden behind the hair.

Island Warrior

• Here we have Lego's latest minifigure inspired by the world's cultures; in this case a Polynesian islander with an impressive tiki-style mask.
  
  Perhaps a perfect companion for the hula dancer from way back in series 3, but I'm sure this guy is reminding most Lego fans of the classic Pirates: Islanders series; a new native person for the pesky pirates to deal with.

Scientist

• A rare, and very welcome, non-stereotypical female minifigure! They still managed to sneak in a purple top beneath the lab-coat, and a purple pen in her pocket, but that's pretty mild compared to the garish pink that adorns so many of the females in the Minifigures range!
  
  Trumping Series 4's male "Crazy Scientist", this professional looking researching comes with two flasks, ready to equip her Lego lab.
  
  Hopefully we'll see more figures like this both in future Collectible Minifigures series, and if the female minifigures project passes the Cuusoo review.

FTL reaches Cuusoo review

Another Cuusoo project has passed the ten-thousand supporters mark, and thus is now in the queue for Lego's review, to determine whether it has what it takes to become a real Lego set. Once again a video-game community has amassed to get the required supporters, this time with a proposal based on the game Faster Than Light. The final suggestion for the Cuusoo project is a set of three mini-ship models, although the creators floated many other ship designs before settling on this selection.

I'd not heard of FTL before, as far as I can gather the game focuses on maintaining a ship's operations by looking after all your systems, rather than focusing on shooty space battles. At a glance that would at least seem to be child-friendly enough for Lego. I can't really say the proposed set excites me all that much though, the ship on the right looks kind of neat, but not so much that I'd want to get a set to have one. The scale at least seems quite reasonable, and probably quite fun too, having a bunch of little starships to swoosh about.

FTL will be in the autumn review, alongside the female minifigures project and the ATLAS detector, as well as any other projects that get the required supporters in time. Before we hear anything about those though, we still have the outcome of nine other projects to hear about waiting in the winter, spring, and summer review piles!

Cuusoo: World Map

Here's an excellent example of Cuusoo innovation: A brilliant proposal for a Lego world map, designed with the intention of it being hung on the wall. Lego have occasionally released mosaic-type sets, experimenting in using Lego as a two-dimensional or low relief medium, but this idea goes a little further, as it's not just a pretty picture of the world: Making it out of Lego gives it instant functionality, with the possibility of being able to add Lego plates or tiles as markers on the map (like pins on a normal map) to keep track of your travels, or fantasy expeditions. The proposal also suggests it could come with a set of tiles printed with national flags, which of course you could stick on in the appropriate places (could be quite a fun geography game in that).

At the proposed scale it would be a huge set, requiring multiple base-plates, especially if you made it large enough to include flags of the world, even on 1x2 tiles. But it would surely be worth it for the impact and fun you could have. After all you needn't stop with flags and markers, you could build micro-scale landmarks, or stick on your favourite national-dress minifigures. Great fun! It's still more than nine-and-a-half-thousand supports short of Cuusoo review though, so go and support it!

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.

Brick bags for the Lego fashionista

Check out these awesome Lego-inspired bags. They're designed and hand-made by Karen Booker, who sells them through her Etsy shop, Luxford St. She make both bricks and plates in a variety of colours, out of cotton demin, with leather straps. The front flap is held down magnetically.

Cuusoo: Burj Al Arab

I really like the idea of the Architecture series, but so far I've found most of the sets don't excite me; either because they're buildings I don't like, Lego interpretations that I don't feel have worked that well, or they just come out looking a bit too simplified or plain dull. The latest Architecture proposal on Cuusoo has managed to avoid all those problems! Srezkall's rendition of the Burj Al Arab, the iconic hotel in Dubai, takes a subject that could be difficult to render in Lego, and captures it perfectly. It's refreshingly bright and colourful for an Architecture set too, with that lovely sea of transparent blue tiles for the base really setting it apart from other sets.

Isn't it exquisite? I hope you agree and give your support to the Cuusoo project, it's got a long way to get to ten thousand!

Meet the Mixels

Lego have launched a teaser site for a new range due next March: Mixels will be a new Cartoon Network series, with associated Lego toys.

UPDATE: Lego have now put out a press release detailing the new theme. Mixels have been co-designed by Lego designers and Cartoon Network animators from the bottom up, to create a new TV and play collaboration, which will also extend to an interactive game, books, and other merchandise. The Lego sets will be released in three waves over the course of 2014. The series will embrace the buildability of the Lego toys:

...the colorful Mixels creatures that can mix and combine with one another in creative and unpredictable storylines.

It appears Lego are aiming to make these accessable to child-collecotrs too, with the entire range consiting of small lower-priced sets. You can read the full press release, here. And here's the teaser image from the website, which highlights the use of some really nice new elements, or elements in new colours:

UPDATE: Lego have released photos of each of the characters, giving a great look at all the lovely parts they contain; the new ball-joints should be especially interesting:

Each character will be it's own set. Flickr user Allen Tran posted a photo of a display of these first three sets at the San Diego Comic Con. You can see the cartoon versions of each character on the boxes behind.

The sets pictured are 41508 Volectro Electroids, 41500 Flain Infernites, and 41504 Seismo Cragsters. Each character is based on natural elements, these three appear to be something like electricity, fire, and geology. The characters so far look kind of fun to me, but more exciting is the parts selection they offer; I look forward to seeing what other characters are in the range.

First look at 2013 The Hobbit Lego

At the the San Diego Comic Con Lego revealed the first set in their 2013 range of The Hobbit sets, due to come out along side The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in December. Here's the first look at 79013 Lake Town Chase (image via Lord of the Brick):

Doesn't seem to most exciting of sets to me, although I do like using the little row-boats like that to make one big boat, and some of the new minifigures are pretty elaborate!

Speaking of new minifigures, Lego also gave away a few Azog minifigures at the Comic Con. He has a non-standard head, and a nifty artificial hand-piece (picture again via Lord of the Brick):

This minifigure is a Comic Con exclusive, but he will apparently be released in a different colour in one of the future sets.

Big new trailer for Marvel Super Heroes video game

Marvel have released a new trailer for the forthcoming Marvel Super Heroes Lego video game. This particular trailer focuses on the numerous big-figures featured in the game:



For more trailers, and other details of the game, see my previous report.