UCS AT-AT walker gets to Lego Ideas review

Another project has passed the ten-thousand supporter mark, so now a Ultimate Collector Series AT-AT walker awaits consideration from the Lego Ideas review board.

This has to be one of the biggest projects ever to get through to the review stage, and for that reason alone I think it's chances are slim. Another Star Wars UCS proposal, a Jawa Sandcrawler, has already tried, and failed, to get through the review. I think the AT-AT walker is arguably a much more iconic design (certainly a more interesting one!), but that could also be a limiting factor - Many Star Wars projects have got to review, but none have so far been produced as an Ideas set. I think the only chance a Star Wars project has on Ideas is something very creative, that wouldn't be likely to already have been considered by Lego for production as a set (such as the brick-build lightsaber props project, which is also awaiting review). The AT-AT walker has been released many times by Lego already, and while it is an obvious candidate for UCS treatment, I'm sure all that means is Lego have already thought about it and have it on some to-do list for future sets.

The project design is none-the-less very impressive. You can see more of it in the creator, Peter Brookdale (aka Cavegod)'s Flickr gallery.

Research Institute official images

Due out in August is another Lego Ideas set, 21110 Research Institute. Known at the project stage as the Female Minifigure Set, this build demonstrates women in science. Ahead of the release, Lego have updated their image servers, with the official images of the set, showing us the palaeontologist, astronomer, and chemist, in action.

For a look behind the scenes of this set, check out the recent Lego Ideas blog post, with a report of a visit by the project creator, Ellen Kooijman, to the Lego offices.

More images of the set continue after the jump:

Rocket Raccoon going to Comic Con

Lego will be offering an extra Guardians of the Galaxy set at this year's San Diego Comic Con. The Wall Street Journal have announced Rocket's Warbird, a 145-piece set which will be available exclusively at the con. Here's Rocket Raccoon's ship:

Exo-Suit official images

Lego have updated their image servers with official images of the forthcoming Lego Ideas set 21109 Exo-Suit. Those include the box, front and back views of the suit, and a close-up of one of the new green space minifigures.

The images continue below, and for more on this Ideas project, check out the latest post on the Ideas blog, which looks at the development of the set from the original proposed model, to the final version pictured here.

Ideas: Tropical Beach Hut

Here's a cracking little new project from Lego Ideas, a Tropical Beach Hut. The proposed set is bursting with quirky details, such as using ores as railings, and a wall of bars to make the front of the bar on the building. It's also packed with wildlife, with loads of animals and lovely dense foliage. The set makes excellent use of some of the parts from recent Friends sets, to add lots of tropical fruit and lovely bright colours to a well-worn and well-loved little beach retreat. I think this would make a great set, so I hope you'll join me in supporting it too.

More photos after the jump:

Minifigure head clock

Here's a cool creation from Etsy creator Jean-Philippe Lannoy, a Lego minifigure-head clock, made from Lego, of course. This is available now from Lannoy's Etsy story, MakeItBrickIt, where it can be bought either pre-assembled, or as a kit, complete with instructions, to built it yourself. Everything but the clock kit at the center is Lego, even the wall mounting!

Exo-suit revealed

Lego have released a short animation to reveal the next Lego Ideas set, 21109 Exo-Suit. Have a watch:



The final set will include not just the suit, but two classic Lego spacemen (a man and a woman in fact), for the first time in green, and a small robot companion for them. Brickset came across the box art for the set:

As you can see, the final set has maintained the overall character of the originally proposed design, but added in more robust joints, and slightly different detailing.

UPDATE: Brickset posted a comparison image of the originally proposed design and final set, which is also the best image yet of the set:

In the past couple of days, the original project designer, Peter Reid, has been posting teaser images leading up to the reveal. You can find all those on his Flickr account, and a couple of my favourites after the jump, as well as screencaps from the above video to get a better look at the final design.

The set is due to be released in August.

Ideas Research Institute revealed

Alatariel Elensar, the creator of the forthcoming eighth Lego Ideas set, 21110 Research Institute, has posted an advanced review of the set, revealing its final form to the world.

The original proposal

The original proposal for this set was a "Female Minifigure Set", Elensar proposed numerous vignettes demonstrating females in all sorts of roles, to help balance out the persistent inequality in the Lego world. As the proposal neared the ten thousand supporter mark it had to be narrowed down to a small selection; three of the more science based roles were chosen, hence the final set is a multi-disciplinary research institute.

The final set has stayed remarkably close to the original vignette designs, with just a few minor refinements to polish them off. We get a palaeontologist with a fossilised T-Rex to study, an astronomer with a big telescope, and a chemist with her lab.

You can see more photos, and Elensar's thoughts on the final set, in her review.

While not their main focus, Lego does quite a good job of representing science in at least some forms, be that astronauts or exotic expeditions. Plus of course many of the previous Ideas/Cuusoo sets have been inspired by real world scientific devices. The closest comparison I can think of to this lab environment is one of the first Friends sets (and one of the least stereotypical roles for the Friends girls), 3933 Olivia's Invention Workshop. While that was a nice little set, I'm very happy to have a female scientist (or indeed several) that doesn't have to live in a pink world!

A Lego bus stop in London

Lego and Transport for London have teamed up to build a whole full size and real bus stop in London, just outside the Hamleys toy shop on Regents Street.

The one-hundred thousand brick build will be in active use as a real working bus stop for the next four weeks. It comes complete with Lego signage, huge transparent Lego windows, and really comfortable looking Lego benches.

Photos via Transport for London on Twitter, and Lego's Facebook and Twitter. More after the jump:

Lego bridges reality and the virtual world in Fusion

Lego have announced Fusion, a new range of construction and virtual play sets which build upon the strengths of the Lego brick and video games. Launching in August and September will be four building games: Town Master and Resort Designer (the latter based on the Friends theme) allow you to build up virtual cities from your creations, having to look after the citizens of your settlements. Battle Towers is a castle-theme defence game, and Create and Race, a racing game. Each comes with a specially designed base plate which can be recognised by the Fusion mobile and tablet app, allowing players to build a set and then capture it and recreate it virtually.

The real world models must be 2D facades, within a 16x16 brick block to be captured. But once in the virtual world the software extrapolates a complete 3D building from the design. Once captured, players can then go on to build more models in the real world, with their creations now part of a growing virtual world. The game also comes up with tasks and challenges to keep the player engaged.

On top of that different players can interact and compete with each others virtual realities over the internet.

Continue after the jump for a closer look at each set:

UPDATE, but first here's a video from Lego demonstrating all four: