Lego Minifigures Online game details revealed

Funcom have revealed the details of their new Lego MMORPG: Set to launch late next year is Lego Minifigures Online, featuring the designs from the Collectable Minifigures in adventures spanning multiple themed environments, including Pirate World, Space World, Medieval World, and Mythology World. Players will be able to explore those worlds, while building, unbuilding (aka destroying stuff), and battling. Each of the minifigures will have unique abilities, and most intriguingly future series of the Collectable Minifigures will come with codes, linking the real world toys with their online counterparts. Here's a trailer:



And here are the features Funcom list on their website, along with a smattering of screencaps (which continue after the jump):

Explore many wondrous worlds of LEGO each teeming with life, detail and awesome adventure! From lush islands held by swashbuckling pirates to alien worlds where the Galaxy Patrol must battle dangers such as the mind-controlling Pluuvian Brain-Beast!

Find, collect and play with almost one hundred different minifigures! The Ice Skater, the Chicken Suit Guy, the Roller Derby Girl, The Policeman and many, many more; millions of LEGO fans all over the world have held them in their hands and now they can step into their shoes as they explore the world of LEGO Minifigures Online!

Interact with the environment around you and use it to your advantage! Smash an enemy turret and re-build it to work for you, destroy a wall to discover a hidden passage and even build machines to help you take down the big bosses! Smashing stuff definitely feels good, but as all LEGO fans will know, building something feels even better!

Play together with thousands of other players from all over the world! Face the adventure together or engage in awesome player vs. player battles where you must build towers, traps, mines and turrets while taking on the enemy and smashing theirs!

Discover unique abilities with each minifigure! Take control of the rocked-out DJ and literally drop your beats on unsuspecting enemies, or assume the role of the Aztec Warrior and go to battle making sure no one is spared your mighty spear! Maybe the Plumber is your guy? Sure; unclog those baddies and make a mess of them!

Gather experience and level up minifigures by smashing your way through enemies, rocks and LEGO blocks! Customize your playstyle by collecting special bricks and put them together in unique shapes to upgrade abilities such as luck and creativity!

Since 1975, LEGO has made more than 3600 different minifigures available and Funcom will continuously keep adding more and more of these for players to collect in-game! Funcom and LEGO are working closely together to blend the physical world of LEGO with the digital one; for instance players who purchase bags containing real minifigure will immediately be able to jump into the game and play with their virtual counterparts!

Unravel what is surely an Academy Award Winning* story! Take on quests such as searching for buried treasure in the pirate world, rescuing the kingnapped king in the medieval world, and even helping Zeus himself in the mythology world!

It's... Lego Monty Python

Well here's a Lego product I've love to see, but for reasons of multiple non-child compatibly issues, sadly never will: Flickr user Rifiröfi has created a brilliant series of could-be sets designs based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Here are my favourites, including lovely details like a Lego Holy Hand Grenade, and cow-catapult. See the full series on Flickr.

Ghostbusters gets to Cuusoo review, again...

Well here's a curious occurrence, just a couple of weeks after a Ghostbusters project got through to the review stage on Lego Cuusoo, a second project, with pretty much exactly the same set design, has also got up to ten-thousands supporters, and so will also be in the next Cuusoo review. Like the preview successful project, this new reviewee proposes a set based on the Ghostbusters' car, Ecto-1:

I'm very curious to see how Lego deals with this. They clearly have strong support, with effectively twice the backing required to get to review. I rather hope they treat it as one submission, and split the credit.

New Marvel Super Heroes video game trailer

Lego and Marvel have released a new trailer for the forthcoming Lego Marvel Super Heroes video game. This one is more story focused than the previous teaser and themed trailers, and make the game look really fun! I'm not that keen on the introduction of voice actors to the games, instead of the grunts, squeaks, and other assorted minifigure noises of the earlier Lego games, but it looks like they're putting them to good effect here to tell a story and keep up the humour levels:

King Kong gets his first 100 supporters

Huzzah! My King Kong Lego Cuusoo project has passed the first one-hundred supporters milestone. Just nine-thousand-nine-hundred to go!

To celebrate I thought I'd reward Kong with one of his favourite snacks, a delicious Skull Islander - I'm endeavouring to emulate the cut-to-giant-head Kong shots from the 1933 version here:

If you're curious, I thought it might be an interesting scale comparison to see Kong alongside the Delorean set. His torso is about the same size as the car, so it would be a larger set with all his limbs too:

If you haven't already, please make your way to Cuusoo and support the project, so hopefully Kong can join the the Delorean as a real Lego set!

Next into the Cuusoo review: A pink rabbit with a robot...

The latest project to pass the ten-thousand mark and enter the Cuusoo review queue is Poptropica: Dr. Hare's Lair. Another proposal backed by an enthusiastic gaming fanbase, the set idea is for a lab-type setting featuring a giant rabbit robot, and the pink bunny-suit wearing character Dr Hare. I've never heard of Poptropica before, but it evidently has enough of a following to get the project backed, and indeed already has a variety of merchandise available, which would seem to give a bit more credibility to the saleability of a set. The proposed set design seems quite reasonable in scale, and seeing it purely as a potential set looks like quite a nice design; featuring location elements and a big robot, plus a unique and quirky minifigure:

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this, is how it got the support. Not just taping into the fanbase, the creators of the game and the set (one in the same), were very activity encouraging, and incentivising fans of the game, by offering in-game bonuses as the project passed various supporter milestones. Check out their blog to see all the effort they put into promoting the proposal. Having reached the end, they've now released a little celebratory video, featuring an animated version of the set:

King Kong, my first Cuusoo project

My first proper MOC in far too long, and also my first submission to Cuusoo: King Kong, eighth wonder of the world!

King Kong is one of my all time favourite films, both the original 1933 version, for it's pioneering visual effects and incredible atmosphere, and the 2005 remake, for bringing Skull Island alive so vividly, and giving us a much more touching relationship between Kong and Ann Darrow. I've yet to see the 1976 version, although I get the impression I'm not missing much there... The original is, incredibly, eighty years old this year!

To celebrate Kong's birthday, and to challenge myself to build something other than a spaceship for once, I decided to build Kong, and have also submitted him to Cuusoo, in the hope he might one day become a real official Lego set as well! As one of the icons of cinema he certainly deserves that privilege!

I've based my Kong mainly on the more realistic gorilla anatomy of the 2005 version, but I hope he feels right standing in for either incarnation. He has articulated hands and limbs, and a poseable head, so it's possible for him to stand on all fours, just about stable up on his hind-legs, and he can also carry Ann.

I've cobbled Ann together from existing minifigure prints, so a bit awkwardly she has white socks on with her white dress. If the set got made I'm sure she'd have a better outfit designed. I think the Hollywood starlet hair is perfect for her though.

Most of the parts in my design are readily available, although I did use the bulb-pin type pieces for his fingers tips, to give them a nice organic roundness. These are currently only available in transparent colours or metallic silver, so for the purposes of finishing my model I actually coloured a few in with a marker pen! The first time I've modified a Lego piece in that way - I feel like I've committed a crime, but he looked silly with bright coloured see-through finger tips! Should the Cuusoo project get the required support, and Lego chose to carry that element of the design over to the final set, then that part would become available in black, or maybe dark grey (to match the other fleshier highlights), for the first time.

When I was initially thinking about making him I had in mind that I would couple him up with the T-Rex (or V-Rex in the remake), to recreate the encounter between the two in the film. As I was building him I realised thought that Kong on his own would be quite a large set by Cuusoo standards so far (his torso alone is the size of the Delorean), so for the Cuusoo proposal I've just done Kong on his own. I'll probably still have a crack at making a T-Rex for fun too though, and maybe a biplane as well, for another fun combination.

There are a few more pictures after the jump. If you like my build, or you're a fan of King Kong, or just like gorillas, please make your way to the Cuusoo proposal and add your support. He'll need ten-thousand supporters to be put to the Cuusoo review for consideration to become a real set. So please also share him around your preferred social media to help drum up some support! It's a long shot given the number of Cuusoo projects already in review, but I really like the idea of the eighth wonder of the world becoming the eighth Cuusoo set!

2014 set rumours

All of a sudden there seem to be a lot of rumours detailing some of the late-2013 and early-2014 Lego sets. Below you'll find details and set lists for new themes including Disney Princess, The Simpsons, The Lego Movie, as well as all the returning themes: Star Wars, The Hobbit, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Friends, City, Legends of Chima, Ninjago, Junior, and Creator. Keep in mind though these are rumours at this stage.

Continue after the jump for a theme by theme listing. Updated October 9th.

Official images of the new Minecraft sets

Due out next month are two new Minecraft sets, setting a new precedent in not being Cuusoo projects themselves, but building upon the success of a Cuusoo set (21102 Minecraft Micro World). Eurobrick's GRogall has released images of the two new sets, 21105 The Village and 21106 The Nether:

 

 

Ghostbusters gets to Cuusoo review

Another Cuusoo proposal, featuring the Ghostbusters, has passed the ten-thousand supporters mark, meaning it is now in the queue for review, with the possibility of it becoming an official set. The proposed set would be the Ghostbusters' car, Ecto-1, along with the Ghostbusters team, and the ghost Slimer (the latter of which makes inspired use of the existing Star Wars Huttlet molds)

It will be some time before we know the fate of this project, as there are several other Cuusoo review periods awaiting outcomes before this will be up for consideration. I expect it has a pretty good chance though, with a similar case to the just released Back to the Future set; a popular and iconic film, a distinctive design, and a realistic sized set for the mass market.

Review: 21103 Back to the Future - Delorean Time Machine

Out now is fourth set to successfully pass through the Lego Cuusoo system; gathering ten-thousand supporters, ticking all Lego's boxes, and being made into a real Lego set.

21103 Back to the Future Delorean Time Machine comes in a slightly sturdier box than your average set, with the front opening as a flap, allowing you to use the box as a tray. The instructions are also a bit chunkier than your average book for a set of this size, printed on thicker paper than usual. I guess Lego want to give a nice impression for any Lego-newbies picking this up for the Back to the Future novelty.

The first picture here has the box and everything in it, which includes a brick-separator, and whole bunch of extra parts; not just your usual spares of the smaller bits, but addition parts which allow you to rebuild the set in three different forms, which is probably the coolest, and one of the most unique, aspects of this set.

The first build, with the various extra parts to tweak it into other versions of the Delorean.

Continue after the jump for a look at the parts, minifigures, and features of this set:

MOC Daleks

Everyone excited about Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, and the forthcoming regeneration to Doctor number twelve? Good, so you should be! Especially as the Daleks are involved, and Daleks are cool (like bowties, and fezzes, and stetsons...). Lego builder Steven Locke would evidently agree with that, as it seems he's a bit of a Lego Dalek specialist; if you check out his MOCpages you'll find all variety of Daleks, from the classic greys to the technicolour horrors that seem to be being quietly forgotten lately.

Here are my favourites from his collection: The greys, the brilliant ironside Daleks ("WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEEEEEA?"), and the lovely bronze Daleks of the new era, including the impressive Emperor and Supreme Dalek variants:

Be sure to check out Steven Locke's MOCpages to see more of his Dalek creations. I shall leave you with my very favourite Dalek quote, from comedian Frankie Boyle, on Mock the Week some years ago:

WELCOME TO MY DALEK POETRY READING,
THIS ONE IS CALLED DAFFODILS.
EXTERMINATE DAFFODILS!

New Mindstorms alternative builds

With EV3, the third generation of Lego's Mindstorms robotics system, due out next month, Lego have announced the new set will feature twelve additional builds, alongside the five models detailed in the box. Instructions for the twelve alternative designs, which have been created by members of the Mindstorms fan community, will be available to download once the EV3 is launched. Robot Squared posted images of each of the alternate designs, check them out (continues after the jump):

EL3CTRIC GUITAR, by Daniele Benedettelli - Play music (with the sensor slider I guess)

BOBB3E, by Kenneth Madsen - A forklift truck

EV3D4, by Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulos - A little Star Wars inspiration