Theme Guide: The Lego Movie (2015)

I'm glad to see that 2015 will continue to deliver sets based on The Lego Movie, as the film still has lots of potential for sets - They could mine it for eternity considering how many Lego models there were within it! The three sets coming in the winter wave are all quite small scale, ideal ways to collect the main characters if the larger sets in the second wave of 2014 sets are a little too pricey for you.

Continue below for a look at each set. (Images first revealed by Youtuber just2good):

70818 Double Decker Couch

• One of the most iconic designs in The Lego Movie - Ok, that might be overstating it, but the double-decker couch is certainly memorable. I'd have loved an all-clear version from the Emmet mind-meld scene, but any version is pleasing. This has already appeared in the much larger 70810 Metal Beard's Sea Cow, so this is the more accessible version, this time coupled with Emmet's car and a jumble of characters from the film, including ghost Vitruvius!

Bionicle 2015 concept art

Bionicle is back next year, with new characters sporting new masks. The Bionicle Facebook page has released a series of artwork and behind the scenes imagery showing what goes into the development of just one mask. Continue below to see the Mask of Creation take shape:

New mini modulars at Toys'r'us

In 2012 Lego released a set of mini versions of the big modular building sets, rescaling the first five buildings in the series down to tiny proportions. This year a similar effect has been used for a series of four buildings, available exclusively at Toys'r'us' for their Bricktober promotion.

While the new mini buildings reflect some of the same building types as the larger modular building sets, this time they are not really miniaturised versions of other sets, just generic smaller buildings. Included in the series is a cinema, pizzeria, fire station, and city hall, each set also comes with a couple of small vehicles to populate the streets of the tiny city.

Continue after the jump for a look at all four (images via Lego on Facebook):

Latest Shell promo sets

Lego have been working with the oil company Shell to produce promotional sets since way back in the 1960s. There have been regular releases ever since, and this year those come in the form of seven new polybag sets, available with purchases of Shell products. The promotion is expected to run in several countries, starting in Singapore a few weeks ago. Four cars, a podium/finish line, service station, and a tanker are on offer, with each set available for a limited period of time over consecutive fortnights, with the exception of the tanker, which is available by a different promotion (which varies from country to country).

Continue after the jump for a look at each set:

40190 Ferrari F138

New seasonal sets

Lego have several new seasonal sets on the way, and some out now, ready for the forthcoming autumn and winter festivities. Here's a look at the various holiday sets:

First up there's a new brick-built reindeer, with two Christmas presents, in set 40092. This set continues a range of seasonal sets this year which feature brick-built animals paired with some sort of accessory, following the Valentines bear (40085) and Easter bunny (40086) earlier this year, and other sets you'll see down page.

And even longer running seasonal range is Lego's series of Christmas tree baubles. Each one contains miniature Lego build, held within a bespoke Lego ball. At least two new designs are coming this year, a cat and log cabin:

Continue after the jump for more Christmas sets, plus Halloween and Thanksgiving builds:

Helicarrier gets to Ideas review

The first project in the new review period on Lego Ideas has hit the ten-thousand supporters mark. That project is the Avengers Helicarrier, a ginormous rendition of the flying aircraft carrier from the Marvel cinematic universe. The new review period doesn't close until the new year, so it will be some time until we hear how it fares.

As originally submitted the model would have been over twenty-two-thousand pieces and more than two meters long! At the five-thousand supporter mark Lego Ideas recommended a more realistic build size, so the creator, YoSub Joo, redesigned to a mere six-thousand-seven-hundred piece design at a bit over a meter long - To put that in context, the biggest set by piece-count ever was 10189 Taj Mahal, and that was just short of six-thousand parts!

At both scales the proposed model is very impressive, and would certainly make a nice UCS style set. I imagine the Marvel brand is popular enough that such a set might sell. So I guess the question is, has Lego already considered making it, outside of Ideas?

Continue after the jump for more images of both versions of the model:

UCS Slave 1 revealed

Due out later this year is a new Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series rendition of Boba Fett's Slave 1. Eurobricks forum member just2good has posted images of the set, revealing it to the world for the first time.

The most detailed Lego rendition of the Slave 1 yet comes with oodles of curvy pieces, many in dark red and shades of green, plus a big new cockpit window piece. The set is also presented at minifigure scale, and comes with four minifigures, plus Han Solo in carbonite. Check out the stand on the box-art too, which will display the ship in upright flight position.

Hubble Space Telescope gets to Lego Ideas review

One more Lego ideas project has made it too the review stage, just in time to make it into the latest review period, which has just closed tonight. The Hubble Space Telescope is one of eight projects that will now be considered for production as a real Lego set.

The space telescope project is for a minifigure scale version of one of the most well known and influential spacecraft in the skies. Given Lego Ideas has already given us the Hayabusa and Curiosity Rover as sets, I'd say there's a pretty good chance of another space science project getting through the review - Especially as it's such an iconic subject, and so perfectly timed for Hubble's twenty-fifth birthday next year.

Pictured above is the first version of Gabriel Russo's proposed model, while below is the more recent update of the model, which has a smoother finish, and is a bit smaller too. Even if Lego made is smaller still (it's quite big as proposed), if they went for the metallic finished of the latter version of the model, that would be a very tempting set for parts alone!

Continue after the jump for a reminder of the other projects that will be considered in this review period: