accio brick - the lego harry potter comm

There's not a lot going on in the world of JKR's Harry Potter lego right now, so I've been exploring lego representations of a few other authors' works, particularly where I feel they might slot in nicely with the lego Wizarding World. Today the Lego Jane Austen GWP special went live, in honour of the 250th anniversary of her birthday. Sticking with the theme, in the coming days I'll be taking a look at two Jane Austen MOCs from TJBricks - Barton Cottage from 'Sense and Sensibility' and Pemberley from 'Pride and Prejudice' - which have been submitted to lego Ideas, a platform where fans can vote for sets they like and if they reach 10K votes, lego considers them for production. Personally I think that's an excellent way to get people to engage and a great way to showcase fan creativity. It's free to register, and you can vote for as many designs as you like, and there's never any obligation to purchase if it does get released, so support away to your heart's content! And even if lego decides not to release the set? There's still a chance fans will - with official lego pieces and everything - via Bricklink. All very cool, even if not always affordable. 😆

One unfortunate drawback to the Ideas projects is they aren't forced to discuss piece counts or keep potential pricing realistic. Another is that lego generally doesn't rework the sets in a significant way, and as a result some of the design choices are more simplistic or, at the other end of the spectrum, senselessly extravagant than they would be were they projects exclusively from lego's eminently capable hands. Some adjustment of expectations is required due to those aspects. Lego is also perfectly aware of the pricing problems, and support of a project increases the chances that some form of it might see the light of day, so don't let minor quibbles keep you from voting for it, especially as lego remains MOCable. Change at will, my lovelies!

Today I'll be reviewing Barton Cottage...( Read more... )

As a whole, great job, or I frankly wouldn't bother to niggle. This really gives you a starting point to work with, material to sink your teeth into. Further I'd like to mention the effort they've gone to on social media, reddit, youtube, Jane Austen forums, Ideas subreddits, Classical Lit, Period Dramas, National Trust, etc. interacting with, y'know, people (I know, right?) to promote their work, which is a non-trivial part of launching an Ideas campaign, and something in all honesty I can't see myself ever having the energy to do. (No way, no how. 😐) There's even a little commercial (video) that I'm non-trivially jealous of 😆 that they've made for the Pemberley project, which was ... is there a chef's kiss emoji? There should be. 👩‍🍳💋 Anyway, phenomenal work all around, and I wish them a boatload of success with it, not the least because I want this set, naturally... 😉

So if you have a moment and are so inclined, you can help support them here by voting for their project on the lego Ideas site.

This summer lego is introducing three different book nooks. One from the Harry Potter theme, one from the Lord of the Rings / Hobbit theme, and the third is a tribute to Sherlock Holmes. All three have a 01 June 2025 release date. Pictures of the LotR set have leaked now, so let's take a look at them, shall we? ( Read more... )

And that's the three new Book Nooks for you. Which, if any, are you more likely to buy? Did I miss any Easter eggs in the Sherlock Holmes set? And is it too, too frightfully obvious which set I liked best? 😆

There's a leak from Max Baut, generally deemed reliable, via his YouTube channel (and signal boosted by Brick Tap, cheers), that we can finally expect to see a Star Trek set coming from lego, presumably next autumn! w00t!!! ( Read more... )

Anyone else inclined to squee?

As a diehard Potterhead, I still keep an eye out for other fantasy / witchy lines / themes of lego with an eye to populating my Diagon, Knockturn and Horizont Alleys. As such, I was curious what the new theme accompanying the film release of the musical Wicked might bring us. The first disappointment - for me - would have to be the fact it's clearly part of their mini doll princess scheme of things (feh) and doesn't use minifigs, because I know I would have very much liked some of these characters if it had been a minifigure format instead. We'll take a look at two of the sets below.


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Bottom line, while there are plenty of pieces that can be repurposed for Wizarding World builds here, there are unfortunately not nearly as many as there would have been had they gone the minifig route instead.