Top Hot LEGO Sets for Christmas 2013 Season

LEGOs are perhaps more popular than ever.  So it's no surprise to see LEGO on every 2013 Christmas hot toy list.  The only real question here is which sets are going to be hard to find this season.  Well, I'm here to help and give you an idea of what's hot in the world of LEGO as we enter into Black Friday and the final stretch to Xmas.

1.  Minecraft Micro World - The Village - 21105

Maybe the most obvious licensed LEGO property of all-time.  The Minecraft video game is essentially a LEGO video game, so it only makes sense that it crosses over to the real thing.  This is the second Minecraft set released, and features a pig, zombie, and villager buildable minifigs.  The set clocks in at 466 pieces and a retail price of $34.99.  Not bad for a mid-range priced model, you might be thinking.  However, the nature of the Minecraft sets is lots of little pieces and tiles, so the actual size of the completed set is smaller than you might imagine from the piece count.  But with the popularity of the game, this set has been among the top sellers since its release and remains a hot set for Christmas.  Two other Minecraft sets are out, 21102 and 21106 (21102 features the best-known characters Steve and a Creeper), but this seems to be the hottest one right now.  That said, any one of these will please a Minecraft fan.

2. The DeLorean Time Machine - 21103

Never sleep on the popularity of Back to the Future.  This one appeals to kids and adult fans of the movies alike.  Selected by LEGO Cuusoo for a custom release, this has proven to be a hot seller this season.  This set clocks in at 401 pieces and a $34.99 retail, and works equally well as a toy in the playroom, or a display piece on a shelf.  It also comes with Marty McFly and Doc Brown minifigs.  

3.  Legends of Chima - The Lion CHI Temple - 70010

The first big set on the list.  Chima has been a popular line for LEGO, with a tv series on Cartoon Network to promote the sets.  The Lion CHI Temple clocks in at 1258 pieces and a $119.99 retail price.  It also includes a whopping 7 minifigs and is over 1 foot high!  This set serves as the main base for the Lion tribe and features a tower cannon and lion claw bike and eagle drone fighter vehicles.  The Chima sets really benefit from detailed mini figure characters and lots of character accessories.  This particular set is no different and serves as a full playset form which to base adventures!  Just be warned, this one is a complicated build and might require help from a parent.

4.  Castle King's Castle - 70404

Another big set, and this one's a bit of a throwback.  Not a licensed property, just a good old fashioned medieval LEGO set.  A good choice for a child who loves LEGO, but may not be a fan of Chima or Ninjago.  This set comes in at 996 pieces with a $99.99 retail.  Comes with 7 minifigs as well as a catapult and battering ram.  Comes in at just about a foot high, so slightly smaller than the Chima Temple and $20 cheaper.  The construction is more straight-forward than some of the licensed sets, and maybe more versatile as a general medieval setting for LEGO adventure.  A great purchase idea especially if mom and dad are big Game of Thrones fans!

5.  Friends Dolphin Cruiser - 41015

A set that's become increasingly hard to find, despite being released within the last few months.  Designed to appeal to children who may not be interested in catapults, missiles, and space monsters, the Dolphin Cruiser is a luxury yacht complete with jet ski and even some friendly dolphins.  Playsets are nice for big xmas gifts, but LEGO really shines when given the opportunity to design vehicles.  This set is no exception and measures 14 inches long.  The top of the yacht lifts off to expose living areas and it even has a water slide!  The set comes in at 612 pieces and a $69.99 retail, although as often happens around this time of the year, there are reports of resellers snapping this set up and selling online for as much as $95. (check out this Amazon page LEGO Friends Dolphin Cruiser)  So if this one is on your list, don't hesitate to buy early.

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And as always, the current series 11 Minifigures blind pouches always make great stocking stuffers and offer unique characters.

LEGO Execution: Things Were Gentler In Medieval Times

Busy week with work, and a heavy errand day today.

Came across this cartoon earlier this week.  Comes from Truck Bearing Kibble.  Definitely check out that site, bunch of funny stuff there.  Don't think they update it anymore, but there's a small archive.

The punishments weren't too harsh in the Medieval LEGO world.  And everyone did it with a smile.

Burning at the stake was horrific though... melted plastic everywhere

   

LEGO Captain America Movie

You know, sometimes it really seems like a movie can fail because it gets stretched in too many different directions... Especially with superhero movies.  Studios want them to be at the same time gritty and family-friendly; realistic, yet true to the comics.  You can't always have it both ways.

 Captain America sort of felt this way to me.  I saw it in theaters this past summer with my 9-year-old cousin.  He liked it just fine, but his taste in movies isn't all that discerning.  In fact, he stopped mentioning the movie the next day and was back to his previous obsession (not a good sign).  It left a similar impact on me.  The movie was entertaining in parts, but felt very bland and generic.  A fine summer movie, but nothing I'd recommend to anyone or feel the need to watch a second time.  In all honesty, the beginning of the movie wasn't bad, but the second half just didn't have the same flow.  It's an origin story set in WWII.  Did we really need the alien cube thing?  Were they really that desperate to tie this movie into the Avengers setup?  Seemed a bit forced to me.  

In general, I'm a little worried with the direction Marvel in particular is taking with their movies.  Captain America was ok, Thor was ok.  Iron Man I was good, II was admittedly bad.  They all just seemed like setups for 'The Avengers', which for Marvel's sake, better be good.  They have a lot riding on it, since almost all of their other movies are tied into it.

The one departure seems to be the next Ghost Rider movie, which actually looks pretty decent in the sense it isn't trying to capture the young kid audience.  That's a good thing since Ghost Rider really isn't a character for kids, and never was.  It should be noted that the first Ghost Rider movie was very tongue-in-cheek and seemed to want to capture the kid audience, again an example of being stretched too many different ways.  Didn't work.  It should also be noted that the first Ghost Rider movie was not a Marvel Studios film.  Check out the trailer here

Who knows... I'll likely keep watching them.  It's just one of those things where since I have a familiarity with the characters, I'll always have a sense that some things could have been done better.  That some parts of those movies should have better met my personal expectations for how that character would be portrayed.  It's a double-edged sword: a built-in fan base, but one that is overly critical.

Anyway, the reason for my ramble was a cool little Captain America LEGO short that got me thinking about super hero movies.  It's one of the more over-the-top LEGO films I've seen, and I've seen quite a few.  It almost makes me wish the actual Captain America movie wasn't so kid-friendly so we could have had some scenes approaching this.

Super over the top, right down to the Wilhelm scream and the screaming eagle sound effect.
 Kudos to ForrestFireFIlms, this was really well done.

You Shall Not Pass... Up on These LEGOs

With all of the merchandising LEGO does, (I'm looking at you Star Wars), I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened earlier.  I'll let LEGOllum speak for himself.

With Peter Jackson's 'The Hobbit' set to be released at the end of the year, LEGO has announced they will start releasing LOTR-themed LEGOs this summer.  Some of the sets already announced include: The Battle of Weathertop, The Mines of Moria, and The Battle of Helm's Deep.  Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather have medieval fantasy themed LEGOs than space-themed anyday.  

LEGO also released photos of some of the individual minifigs.

Check out the teaser LEGO Lord of the Rings site here.

Can't wait to reenact Helm's Deep.  And those hobbit mini-legs crack me up

LEGO Man in Space

So probably about two years ago, there were a rash of amateur videos of people cheaply sending cameras high enough into the atmosphere to photograph the curvature of the earth.  Very cool stuff.  Recently, a similar video has popped up from two Canadian high school students.

This time, along with the camera, a tiny LEGO astronaut went up too.  The entire project took 4 months to plan, but only cost the students $400 total.  Their apparatus consisted of three point and shoot cameras, a wide angle video camera, and a cell phone with a GPS app.  They packaged them all in a lightweight styrofoam box, with some disposable hand warmers so the cameras would function at high altitude, and set it aloft with an $85 weather balloon.
Full story here (LA Times)

It took a little over an hour for the cameras to reach their max altitude of about 80,000 feet, and a half hour for them to drift back down to earth via their homemade parachute.

Not a bad test flight for the first LEGO astronaut.

The LEGO Beer Song

So I'm at my grandparents' house for dinner last night, and my 9-year-old cousin is on his itouch killing time.  He calls me over and shows me this video, which he finds hilarious.  It is funny, but I was a little taken aback by how funny he thought a song about beer was, especially the "schlitz" joke.  I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised... I was probably the same way at that age.  It just seems a little young for beer shit jokes.  But who knows what goes on in public schools these days.

In any case, here's the video in question, which is older than the hills.

LEGO Minifigs Series 6 Release Preview

LEGO Minifigs Series 6

Set to be released in January 2012, the new series of Lego Minifigs offers what we've come to expect: a mix of cool unique character pieces and different plays on old standby designs. 

The series 6 roster in full:

ROMAN SOLDIER, HIGHLAND BATTLER, MINOTAUR, BANDIT, CLASSIC ALIEN, GENIE, LEPRECHAUN, INTERGALACTIC GIRL, BUTCHER, MECHANIC, SKATER GIRL, SURGEON, SLEEPYHEAD, CLOCKWORK ROBOT, LADY LIBERTY and FLAMENCO DANCER.

I always tend to gravitate towards the figures with unique new pieces and concepts.  The soldier-type figures are always cool, but rarely offer something really new we haven't seen before.  I'll highlight some of the different ones.

Lady Liberty

 

Definitely a nice display piece, the unique crown piece should be pretty cool.  One thing I'm not crazy about that a lot of the female designs fall back on is the bottom piece of the figure.  Instead of the traditional legs, these come with a solid piece meant to resemble a dress bottom, which is tapered in the back.  Fine for display, but can make things tough if you actually want to play with the figure.

Genie

 I think this one looks awesome.  A big departure from the normal design, this figure features a unique ethereal leg piece complete with a lamp.  Again a display piece, but one that really stands out.  I'll definitely be picking this one up.

A list complete with pictures of all the new figures can be found here at LEGO's website:
http://minifigures.lego.com/en-gb/Bios/Default.aspx

Once again an issue that always comes up with these figures is how to tell what's what when buying them.  I had an article on the site a while back about a Lego barcode decoder, which applied to series 2 of the figures.  Unfortunately, Lego changed the barcode system with series 3 to get rid of this "cheat".  Since then, I've had to rely on groping the packages to feel for the unique pieces... with mixed results.  This can get really annoying, especially when trying to complete the sets. (My cousin always ends up one figure short which he can never find)

The best option really seems to be to get a checklist of all the figures and do a blind feel test through the packages.  Not a perfect system, but somewhat better than the random grab.  As an example, the leg piece of the genie above should be easy to distinguish from the other figures.

Happy hunting!

Lego Minifig Barcode Decoder

So my cousin recently had a birthday and on his list of wanted items were a bunch of LEGO Minifigures. To that point I hadn't heard of them, but after checking them out I have to say they are pretty awesome. Little individual LEGO people with unique accessories following different themes. LEGO has made two different series of figures with 16 different characters in each.

The big problem for me was that my cousin of course wanted specific figures, and they are only sold in blind packages so you can't tell which is which. Now I can see how this is a nice marketing strategy by LEGO to promote trading among kids etc. However, I can imagine it getting really frustrating when you're trying to complete a set and end up with 4 Pop Singers, but can't find that lone Spartan Warrior to save your life.

Lo and behold, a hole in LEGO's strategy... each blind package has a unique barcode corresponding to a specific figure. Check out this handy chart:
Pretty cool litte trick to find those ones you are looking for. I managed to find some of the figures he was looking for, and picked out 3 for myself. The only other problem was finding them in stock in stores. They seemed to be pretty much sold out everywhere, that is until Target started stocking them in their Halloween section.

Enjoy the decoder now though, rumor has it that series 3 of the figures due out in January 2011 will have fixed the barcode loophole.

Happy Hunting