More from Lego isn’t just for kids: the latest news for nostalgic adults and adult budgets
Did you know you can freely download instructions for loads of Lego? The Lego Group has its own searchbox, and the Internet Archive now hosts an easily browsable backup of 6,854 sets (via Hacker News).
Neither has my childhood favs yet, but Lego’s scanning in new instructions all the time — you can already recreate the Black Seas Barracuda or the valuable Cloud City sets. Bricklink fan designs have downloadable instructions too.
[archive.org]
Papa wants an Exoplanet Explorer to go along with the reimagined OG spaceship. You’ll help me out, right? Or maybe a literal sub sandwich shop. Or a working desk fan. Or an amazing arcade. Or a gorgeous train station. You’ve got till 12PM PT June 30th to vote on your fan-designed favs.
Here are the previous winners.
This was one of my “sets that got away,” so I’m overjoyed it’s coming back — particularly now it’s composed of several modular islands with their own secret underground passages instead of a single rigid baseplate. (You can “unfold” it kind of like the Lion Knights’ Castle.)
It’s coming July 7th for $215, and I can’t wait to pair it with Lego’s Black Seas Barracuda remake when I find the cash.
The second round of voting in Lego’s 2023 BrickLink Designer Program has just begun, meaning another chance for you to help Lego pick five fan-designed sets to produce. Fingers crossed for the Sub Sandwich Shop to shine this time! I would also happily own a Galactic Medical Transport or this mobile-home-on-a-big-rig, though.
The latest fan design to become an official Lego set: The Sanderson Sisters’ cottage from Hocus Pocus. It’s a little less spacious than the original Lego Ideas submission, but still sure to put a spell on a certain persuasion of grown-up ‘90s kids! It’s $230, coming July 4th. Yes, Mary can fly the vacuum.
It’s filled with detail — and comes with Alfred, Catwoman, Penguin, and Max Shreck mini-figs.
Lego Dreamzzz is one of the most imaginative series of sets the company’s come up with in a while. (I’m also partial to the school-bus-turned-spaceship and nightmare shark pirate ship.) They’re all tie-ins for a new Lego show coming May 15th to Netflix, Amazon, and streaming to YouTube for free. The sets won’t arrive till August.
375 designs — and Lego will turn five of them maximum into limited-edition sets. Vote by 12PM PT on March 31st.
Personally, I’m pulling for:
The Sub Sandwich Shop, this tricky Japanese castle, an incredibly detailed Victorian home, a working mini golf course, this Space Museum (for Lego Space), a badass Boogie Boombox, a simple Snack Shack that reminds me of Hawaii, and this decadent Parisian Street.
[www.bricklink.com]
Somehow, these ones made it to stores before they were even announced — and @echoalive122_ has already built ‘em for us. More at their Instagram.
I told you about the Bricklink Designer Program in January, but this weekend is your last. February 28th is the deadline to submit your design to be judged by peers and by Lego. You can make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars if your design is one of the five winners.
This is, to me, a perfect Lego video — just a person putting bricks together to make a fun and clever idea, then showing it in action.
PS: if anyone wants to take this concept and slow it down to make a clock, that would be extremely cool.
621 sets vied for your vote, and a winner has now been chosen: Lego will be producing a version of BoltBuild’s Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End as its first Dungeons & Dragons set. Lego designers will take it from here, so the final result might not look exactly like the pics — but it’s confirmation that the Lego Castle renaissance will continue.
My favorites are The Travel Suitcase and the Japanese Castle, though I’d be happy with many of them! Here’s the full list.
Don’t get your hopes up for a Zelda castle or the house from Up, as Lego has repeatedly rejected designs like those before. And since Lego’s new Jazz Club already has a pizza parlor, I’m afraid the amazing Modular Arcade might not make the cut.
