Natural History Museum and other projects get to Ideas review

The Natural History Museum modular building project on Lego Ideas has become the latest to reach the ten-thousand supporter mark, and therefore qualify for the next Lego review period, where it will be considered for production as a real set. The beautiful build is based on the iconic Natural History Museum in London, featuring many of it's most famous exhibits, including Dippy the diplodocus, the huge redwood sample, and the statue of Charles Darwin. The creator of the project, tjspencer1, recently updated the project with a slightly smaller version (pictured), bringing it in line with the piece count of existing modular building sets.

I'm normally pretty sceptical of huge projects on Ideas. But I love this design, and given it would fit in so well with the other modular building sets, I really hope Lego consider going ahead with it.

Several other projects have also reached the ten-thousand mark since I last updated on Ideas, when the Marvel Helicarrier project became the first to enter the latest review period. Continue after the jump for a look at the other recent successes:

The Lego Movie 2 to feature more female characters

Good news for equality in the Lego-verse, The Lego Movie 2 is set to feature more female characters! In a recent interview with the BBC, the writers and directors of The Lego Movie, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller commented on their efforts to have a bit more gender balance in the next chapter, with Miller noting:

I don't want to give spoilers but there will be more female characters and more female stuff.

Lord put it this way:

It's important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men.

Lord also expressed a feeling the film culture is finally moving in the direction of better gender representation:

You can feel that the whole movie culture is now starting to wake up to the fact that half the audience are women. Frozen is reflective of that - and I think we are all going to find a great flourishing of women film makers and subject matter in the future.

Whatever the inspiration, sounds like a good move to me! I wonder if the Ninjago and Batman Lego movies that are set for release before The Lego Movie 2 will also manage to incorporate more female characters.

How The Lego Movie should have ended

How It Should Have Ended and Brotherhood Workshop have teamed up to make several alternative endings for The Lego Movie. The latest looks at the love triangle between Batman, Wyldstyle, and Emmet, aka Starlord!



The previous two videos pock fun at at the ending of the film, and are equally as amusing. Check them out after the jump:

Lego particle accelerator

Check out this really impressive working Lego particle accelerator, doing important work to help Lego scientists understand the fundamental building blocks of the universe:

This delightful ball spinning-build is by JK Brickworks. And you should definitely check out their blog and youtube channel, they have many other equally impressive and creative builds.

Amazing Lego Doctor Who animation

Might we get Lego Doctor Who sets? The jury is literally still out, as two Doctor Who projects are still under review on Lego Ideas. Until then, here's an awesome animation by Robert Medina, showing how wonderful a Lego Doctor Who could be. This is the regeneration scene of the most recent Doctors, complete with a gloriously Lego way of changing appearance:



Hopefully this is exactly what we'll see in a future Lego Doctor Who video game, made like the good old days when the video game minifigures only mumbled and grunted!

Medina also made a Lego version of the teaser trailer for the newest Doctor. Check that out after the jump:

Justice League vs Bizarro League

News of another Lego DC Comics Super Heroes animation has surfaced. Coming early next year is Justice League vs Bizarro League. A post on the Blu-ray.com forums has revealed the bluray packaging, and the Batzarro minifigure that will be included.

If the trailer is anything to go by, the title might be misleading, as the Justice League and Bizarro League appear to be working side by side against the malicious forces of Darkseid.

UPDATE: ToonBarn have revealed further contents from this release. In addition to the main animation the disc will also included another recent animation, Batman Be-Leaguered (see previous report for a trailer). There will also be a blooper reel, and a featurette exploring Bizarro.


UPDATE 2: Amazon have now put up a listing for this, including another image, showing the full bluray cover (without the minifigure packaging), and the Batzarro minifigure loose. Check it out after the jump:

The Lego Movie at Christmas in new Sky Movies advert

Tis the season for making showy adverts, fa la la, la la la, la la la. And one of those adverts comes from Sky Movies, who introduce us to a Christmas family, before taking them on a movie adventure, transforming them as they go into the worlds of The Muppets, The Amazing Spider-Man, Frozen, and most importantly, The Lego Movie. Check it out:



An impressive job Sky! Continue after the jump for some stills from the Lego section, which gives us a glimpse at Christmas time in the world of The Lego Movie:

Two new Lego Ideas sets on the way

The Lego Ideas have team have announced the outcome of the first 2014 review period, and decided two of the six projects that got to the ten-thousand mark will be going into production, with another two still under consideration.

The two sets that have made it already are The Big Bang Theory, and the Lego Bird Project. The two sets both still being considered are both based on Doctor Who (fingers crossed they make it later). Here's the announcement video:



Continue after the jump for a look at the projects that will become these two new sets:

Watch Your Step

Here's a poster that anyone with even just a few Lego bricks in their home should probably display, lest a visitor fall victim to the most painful experience known to humanity:

Watch Your Step, by John Lucke is available as a poster from TeeFury.

Batman movie, and more new Lego screen productions

Love the deadpan, bat-punning, too cool Batman of The Lego Movie? Well good news, forget all the big live-action Batman movies, the future of this character lies in a new Lego movie, Lego Batman, which will see Will Arnett reprising his role from The Lego Movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this new film in the developing Lego movie franchise is being fast-tracked into production, and is set to be the third Lego movie, due for release in 2017, after the Ninjago movie in 2016. As a result The Lego Movie 2 will likely be pushed back to later than the originally planned 2017 release.

Chris McKay, the animation supervisor on The Lego Movie, is set to direct a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith. Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller, will be producing, in their roles overseeing the Lego movie franchise.

If 2017 seems a long way off, fear not, as Lego Batman is also returning to the small screen in the coming weeks, in a new one-off animation, Batman Be-Leaguered, which as the name implies, also features various Justice League characters. Here's the blurb (via Comic Book Movie):

Batman prides himself on being a loner, a totally self-sufficient one-man-band. Just ask anyone; Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, Alfred… anyone. So, he is understandably irritated when his nightly cleanup of Gotham City villains is interrupted by Superman, who pesters Batman to join his new superhero team, The Justice League. After Batman makes it quite clear to the Man of Steel that his invitation has been declined, Superman flies off disappointed… whereupon he is overcome with a strange energy and vanishes!

This new animation looks to be in the same vein as the previous Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite, and is also set for release just in time to support the release of the third Lego Batman video game. Continue after the jump for a look at the trailer for this, plus even more news of Lego on TV: