View image at FlickrThe Speed Champions theme has featured more than its fair share of cars from Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren, but one iconic supercar manufacturer has until now been conspicuous by its absence. You need to go back to 2010 for the last time that a Lamborghini was immortalised in LEGO, in the form of 8214 Lamborghini Polizia. The year before that LEGO released 8169 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 and that’s basically been it so far as the Lamborghini brand is concerned.
Until now, that is…. Speed Champions 2020 finally sees the return of the iconic marque to the LEGO line-up with 76899 Lamborghini Urus ST-X & Huracán Super Trofeo EVO. As a long-time Lamborghini fan I’ve been looking forward to getting my hands on this set, so let’s see if LEGO have done the cars justice.
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View image at FlickrNinjago was my 2016 theme of the year and I had high hopes for the 2018 Ninjago offerings. And then the sets for the first half of the year arrived, and I have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed. It’s not that they were bad, but they didn’t excite me like the 2016 or 2017 sets had done.
I’ve learned never to write Ninjago off, though, and true to form the theme bounced back with a strong-looking line-up for the second half of the year. 70654 Dieselnaut, with its Ninjago-meets-Mad-Max stylings, was a stand out for me and I’m therefore pleased to bring you a review of the set.
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Now in its fourth year the Speed Champions theme seems to be going from strength to strength, and some are suggesting that the 2018 sets may be the best yet.
Of the 2018 Speed Champions sets, 75888 Porsche 911 RSR and 911 Turbo 3.0 was probably the one that I was most looking forward to getting my hands on. On the basis of the box art, the tricky shape of the classic Porsche 911 Turbo looked to have been impressively reproduced, and I was eager to discover if the build looks as good in person as it does on the screen. Read on to find out….
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As a longstanding fan of LEGO mechs I was delighted when I first spied the mech-rich selection of sets making up the first wave of the LEGO Ninjago Movie theme; in fact, with so many mechs featuring in the line up it was tough to decide which of them I most wanted to build first...
In the end I went for 70615 Fire Mech and you can see what I thought of it after the break.
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You can always guarantee that there will be a level of anticipation when it comes to the release of a new LEGO Ideas set. After all, by definition at least 10,000 people must have been sufficiently motivated to log in to the LEGO Ideas website, vote for a project and fill in a brief questionnaire in order for an Ideas set to ever exist in the first place. That having been said, has there ever been a LEGO Ideas set which has been as eagerly anticipated as 21310 Old Fishing Store? Not by me, certainly; there have been a number of Ideas sets to date that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on, notably 21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V, but my enthusiasm for the Old Fishing Store exceeded even those. I’m therefore delighted to be able to bring you a review of the set ahead of its official release on September 1st.
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Like many other LEGO fans I was quite taken with the BrickHeadz when the first publicity shots appeared, and I’ve been following Huw and CapnRex101’s BrickHeadz reviews with interest over the past few weeks. Despite my initial enthusiasm, however, I hadn’t actually taken the plunge myself so was happy to oblige when Huw asked me to review one of the BrickHeadz, 41592 The Hulk, for Brickset. The set duly arrived, and I’ve now had a chance to build it. So did the BrickHeadz, and The Hulk in particular, live up to expectations? Read on to find out....
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Anticipation continues to grow ahead of the February 2017 release of The LEGO Batman Movie (TLBM). This has undoubtedly been stoked by images of the first wave of TLBM sets, some of which we’ve already reviewed here on Brickset.
As a big fan of LEGO mechs, albeit generally two-legged ones, 70908 The Scuttler immediately caught my eye so I’m pleased to be able to bring you a review of the set ahead of its retail release.
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View image at FlickrAs reported here the latest LEGO Ideas offering, 21307 Caterham 7 620R, was unveiled to the LEGO and non-LEGO press a couple of weeks ago. I attended the launch event and was therefore able to finally cast my eyes over the set for the first time. My initial impressions were positive, but final judgment could not be made until I had had the opportunity to build it for myself. I am therefore delighted to now bring you my review of the set which you will find after the break.
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As mentioned earlier by CapnRex101, a media launch event was held today to reveal the latest addition to the LEGO Ideas stable, 21307 Caterham Seven 620R. The event, which was held at the Caterham Cars Crawley headquarters in the UK, was attended by representatives from the LEGO and non-LEGO press, Caterham and LEGO staff, and Carl Greatrix who submitted the original Ideas proposal. I attended on behalf of Brickset, and you can read my event report after the break.
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In contrast to many AFOLs, I am largely ambivalent about the LEGO Architecture theme, which has at times felt like the epitome of style over substance. Although a few sets have caught my eye and tempted me into a purchase, for every Big Ben or Trevi Fountain there has been a disappointing Sydney Opera House or Burj Khalifa, and overall there have been just too many below-par Architecture offerings to win me over. My interest has definitely picked up this year, though; while my scorn at the pricing persists, I am definitely a fan of the new skylines sets, and another set – 21029 Buckingham Palace – immediately stood out in the publicity shots. When LEGO offered Brickset a copy of 21029 to review I was therefore quick to volunteer….
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I was quietly impressed by 70327 The King’s Mech when I reviewed it for Brickset earlier this year, so when the chance arose to run the rule over a larger Nexo Knights offering I was happy to oblige. After all, as a longstanding fan of LEGO mechs, I guess it was always pretty likely that I would enjoy building and messing about with a Nexo Knights-inspired mech, but would I be quite as enthusiastic about a larger non-mech Nexo Knights release? Read on to find out….
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After a somewhat lacklustre first half of 2016 dominated by Police- and Fire-related releases, LEGO City has thankfully burst out of its enforced slumber with a couple of interesting Summer subthemes in the form of Volcano Explorers and Airport.
It’s been three years since the release of the most recent City Airport set, namely, 60019 Stunt Plane, and a full six years since LEGO gave us a number of Airport releases at any one time. Of the five summer 2016 Airport releases, 60103 Airport Air Show was one of those that I was most interested to get my hands on, and I’m pleased to be able to bring you a review of it today.
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I suspect that I wasn’t alone in not really knowing what to make of Nexo Knights when images of the latest LEGO ‘big bang’ theme surfaced a few months back, and when the sets started to appear on shelves I was still on the fence. On the one hand, what’s not to like about a Steampunk Castle mash-up? On the other, however, some of the set designs are a bit ‘out there’ for me. What I really needed was a Nexo Knights offering to encourage me to dip my toe in, and thankfully that temptation presented itself in the form of Set 70327 The King’s Mech. As a big fan of LEGO mechs going back to the likes of Exo-Force and beyond, I was interested to see how a Nexo Knights-styled mech would stack up against some of its robotic predecessors. Read on to find out….
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I was a teen back in 1984 when Ghostbusters was released, and it’s fair to say that the movie and its subsequent sequels made a massive impression on me and countless others. Decades later and there’s no doubt that the appeal of Ghostbusters has endured, as evidenced by the popularity of the numerous Ghostbusters submissions on LEGO Ideas, and Brent Waller's Ecto-1 submission subsequently being turned into a successful retail set.
Ghostbusters fan frenzy clicked up a couple more notches back in October 2015 with the announcement of a massive official version of the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters building, and thanks to the LEGO AFOL Relations & Programs team I’m pleased to bring you a review of the set - let's go!
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As a big fan of the original Agents theme I was intrigued when I heard that LEGO was going to be giving us an Agents reboot under the Ultra Agents banner. My first hands-on Ultra Agents experience came in the form of Set 70162 Infearno Interception which I reviewed over at Gimme LEGO about a year ago; although my overall impression of the set was positive, I still felt at that time that the jury was out on the theme as a whole. Having since aquired all of the first wave sets, however, I guess you could say that I ended up coming off the fence.... Even so, a relative lack of bigger first wave sets along the lines of the Agents Volcano Base and Aerial Defence Unit meant that for me the Ultra Agents theme was still a bit lacking, and I was therefore really pleased to discover that we’d be getting a second wave of Ultra Agents sets this year which I hoped would rectify the situation. Of the 2015 Ultra Agents sets, I quickly homed in on Set 70173 Ultra Agents Ocean HQ as the standout offering, and I’m pleased to bring you a review of the set here on Brickset.
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Fans of NASA’s Space Shuttle have been well served by LEGO, with a multitude of sets featuring the iconic Space Shuttle orbiter having been released over the years.
The first recognisable LEGO Space Shuttle appeared in Set 1682 Space Shuttle Launch back in 1990 and we’ve had more than ten further iterations since then, with the most recent System Scale version, Set 3367 Space Shuttle, debuting in 2011.
When NASA’s remaining Space Shuttles were finally retired in 2011 after thirty years of distinguished service, I feared that we had seen the last of the LEGO Space Shuttles. I was therefore delighted when a new set featuring the Space Shuttle, Set 60080 Spaceport, was revealed as part of the LEGO City Summer 2015 product line-up. Read on to find out how it stacks up against its predecessors...
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As a huge fan of dinosaurs and an enthusiastic collector of LEGO dinosaur sets, the launch of a new LEGO dinosaur theme is always a major cause for celebration from my perspective. The new Jurassic World theme has appeared a mere three years after 2012’s well-received Dino theme, and the fact that the new sets are a prelude to the release of the highly anticipated Jurassic World movie in June has only served to ratchet up the excitement still further.
Huw and CapnRex101 have already run the rule over some of the Jurassic World sets over the past few weeks, and I’m delighted to now bring you a review of the largest set in the Jurassic World theme, Set 75919 Indominus Rex Breakout.
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Having filled one glaring gap in the Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Series line up with the recent release of Set 75060 Slave 1 LEGO has quickly moved to plug another hole with the imminent arrival of the latest offering in the Star Wars UCS line up, Set 75095 TIE Fighter.
It's always seemed strange to me that LEGO has already released two TIE variants in UCS form – Set 7181 TIE Interceptor and Set 10175 Vader's TIE Advanced – but the basic TIE Fighter, one of the most iconic of all Star Wars craft, has been repeatedly overlooked for the UCS treatment. Star Wars fans can now rejoice, however, as LEGO has finally rectified that omission. Has LEGO nailed it, though? Read on to find out…
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The enduring LEGO Racers theme took a short break in 2014 but it’s back with a bang in 2015, rebranded and reskinned as Speed Champions. A total of seven Speed Champions sets have recently hit the shelves, with more rumoured to be coming later this year. Huw and CapnRex101 have already brought you reviews of some of the smaller sets, and today I’m going to be taking a close look at the largest offering in the first wave, Set 75913 F14 T & Scuderia Ferrari Truck.
Scuderia is the name of Ferrari’s racing division, and LEGO have produced a number of sets featuring Scuderia support trucks over the years, including Set 8654 Scuderia Ferrari Truck from 2005, Set 8185 Ferrari Truck from 2009, and more recently, the Shell polybag Set 30191 Scuderia Ferrari Truck. So how does the latest version stack up? Read on to find out…
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Since Set 7191 X-Wing Fighter made its debut back in 1999, LEGO have tempted LEGO Star Wars fans with a slow but steady procession of large, detailed Star Wars-related sets under the Ultimate Collectors Series (UCS) banner. LEGO have covered most of the bases over the past 15 years, releasing UCS versions of the majority of iconic Star Wars vehicles and even recently revisiting the X-wing with Set 10240 Red Five X-wing Starfighter last year. However, a few obvious gaps remain in the UCS line-up, and to the delight of many, LEGO have finally moved to fill one of the most glaring gaps of all, Slave 1. Thanks to the LEGO Community, Engagement and Events team I’m delighted to bring you a review of Set 75060 Slave 1 ahead of its January 1st 2015 release.
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