Lego Aims to Use Plants to Make Their Bricks

What if one day the world’s Lego bricks were made from plants?

Sounds like a bit of a stretch, but it might actually happen.

Lego bricks today are made from the same type of petroleum-based plastic they were made from since 1963. Now, considering Lego’s booming success in the market, today, that’s a lot of carbon being projected into the atmosphere. Fortunately, the Lego Group’s doing something about it.

The Lego Company has devoted itself to make all of it’s Lego bricks and packaging mediums from sustainable materials by 2030. And one of the sources of these materials are plants; sugars are extracted from vegetation, such as wheat and corn, and then are used as a substitute for petroleum in the bricks. The Lego Group’s prototypes are still undergoing development, as quality, safety, and play-ability are major foundations of the company's success.

Lego has already stated that they will spend 1 billion Danish Kroners (143,317,810.00 USD) and assign at least 100 employees in order to make this happen.

So, maybe not tomorrow, but one day Lego bricks will be made from plants! Great job going green, Lego!

-JonBlueFire

Lego Worlds Gets New Agents Pack

Lego Worlds, the toy company’s open sandbox game, just got a new upgrade!

Now fully released on Xbox One, Playstation, and Steam, the game has introduced one more little addition upon it’s release: Lego Agents! Unfortunately, this update is a Playstation 4 exclusive, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome!

Given a throwback to the original Lego Agents line from 2008, this update includes 4 characters - two agents (Agent Chase and Agent Trace) and two evil masterminds (Dr. Inferno and Dyna Mite). Also introduced are new vehicles and gadgets, such as a Jetpack, which were actual Lego sets at one point. Even a glowing octopus was added! (and yes that was from a set, too).

No release date was given for the game on the Nintendo Switch console, yet. But that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the game!

So what are you waiting for? Play some Lego Worlds already!

-JonBlueFire

New Lego Architecture Set - 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Through man’s existence, humanity has accomplished amazing feats and passed it’s creativity and ingenuity down to the next generation. One such achievement stands out in our everyday lives in the buildings we work in and pass by throughout the world. And one more of these works of art is being turned into a Lego set!

Set 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is going to be released in the Lego Architecture sub-theme in this new year. With 744 pieces, fans of the sub-theme will quite enjoy building their very own replica of the museum located in Manhattan, New York!

The original Solomon R. Guggenheim museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1958, but with this new Lego set, YOU can be the designer! So be sure to buy this when it comes out, and build your own model of the art museum!

-JonBlueFire

The Lego Batman Movie Promotional Plethora

With the Lego Batman Movie coming out in less than a month, it would make sense that The Lego Group would be going crazy with promotions for their new film. And, my goodness, have they done so! With the new sets already being released, tons of posters created,  five total trailers, 11 TV spots, and other commercialism moves, it’s no question that Lego is trying to make this movie the hit of 2017!

To start, Lego has produced an enormous amount of television advertisements showcasing new hints at plot devices for the movie, not to mention, a plethora of jokes! Some of these commercials include the disclosing that Batman likes Barbara Gordon, the new police commissioner in the film, who also happens to fight crime as Batgirl! It’s also revealed that Joker, Batman’s arch-enemy, is uniting with other villains, both well-known and obscure, to take down the hero!

Additionally, The Lego Batman Movie has been the subject of many posters, some of which include graffiti portraits of both the heroes and villains, group shots of all the characters, and high resolutions of the characters in the style of the movie itself!

The film has also received an app, by the Lego Group, where the down-loader can play a collection of mini-games, in order to beat the bad guys, to his or her heart’s content! The Lego Batman Movie has also attracted the attention of a certain fast food firm; the restaurant chain known as McDonald’s has been confirmed to give away toys for the Lego Batman Movie with a Happy Meal purchase as a promotion for the film. The toys given will be specialized cups and collector cards with a total of eight to accumulate. Lastly, Lego and Chevrolet, the automobile company known around the world, have teamed up to bring the fans of the brick, the Bat, and the car together. With 344,000 bricks, Lego master-builders were able to recreate Lego set 70905 The Batmobile into a life-sized version of it! The model was then proudly displayed at the North American International Auto Show for fans to enjoy. And that’s not all! Lego and Chevy also teamed up to make a parody of one of Chevrolet's many car focus group commercials!

The Lego Group has gone all out with promotional material for The Lego Batman Movie. From jokes to posters to sets, there’s something for everyone! The Lego Batman Movie premieres at theaters on February 10th, so be sure to be there to watch Batman kick some villain butt!

-JonBlueFire

Lego Boost Product Announced

Lego Mindstorms now has a little brother! In the second half of 2017, a new sub-theme of Mindstorms, called Lego Boost will be released for consumer purchase. This new kit will include bricks to build five models - a robot, cat, guitar, a factory, and a space rover - and will cost $160 upon it’s release.

Lego Boost is aimed at kids as young as seven, some of which may not be ready for the complexity of Lego Mindstorms. This factor can be seen visually through the bricks used; whereas Mindstorms has more bland colors - white, black, and red - Boost’s bricks features the vibrancy of blue and orange, along with the basic white. Also, programing differs quite substantially between the two themes. Mindstorms uses a special “Intelligent Brick” which can be attached to different sensors and allows the builder to program their creation straight from that brick. Lego Boost, alternatively, uses a different brick, dubbed a “Move Hub,” which can also connect to different Lego sensors. However, the Lego Boost brick can link to an app, which will arrive at launch of the product, downloadable for Android and IOS tablets, and tablets only.

This app grants the purchaser of Lego Boost complete control over their model, as long as he or she is willing to code it! While it’s not real coding (no typing required, thankfully!), it allows for users to connect lines of instructions for their creations to relay, and interact with.

Lego is definitely looking out for the younger children with this move, and introducing kids to coding will also make parents ecstatic as well. Let’s hope that Lego continues this trend, and makes 2017 their best year yet!

-JonBlueFire

The Dark Side of Lego

The company known as Lego is widely famous across the world for their awesome sets and amazing brick art done by creative master builders and numerous bricks loved by kids and adults alike. Some of these fans, however, Lego could go without!

Since 2014, stores carrying Lego sets have lost tens of thousands of dollars in stolen Lego sets with few being recovered. And it’s all over the world. Michael Peebles, a proud AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego), of Bendigo, puts it as, “We’re hearing more and more about it, especially from America. Australia has perhaps been a bit behind in this, but in America it’s a big thing, a really, really big thing.”

Many of these sets are valued very highly and can fetch quite a lot of money on online selling sites, and considering Lego’s popularity increase it’s really no surprise that people would try to get them whatever way they can - even if those ways are illegal. It’s even worse when these stolen sets contain exclusive pieces, which sell for even higher prices, just for single parts.

And it’s not just sets that are being snatched up; Lego statues of all shapes and sizes are also being stolen. These statues - remarkable works of art crafted through individual Lego bricks by many talented people - are appreciated very deeply by the AFOL community, and raise many burdens when they are broken or taken forcefully. Fortunately, these sculptures are glued together in order for them to remain whole, which decreases the value of individual bricks and their use, giving them some protection from the Lego black market.

Whether or not these thieveries will decrease in the future is a question no one is certain as of now, but if the Lego Group continues to grow as it has been, one can safely predict that robberies of Lego products will only continue to increase. So be careful; one day, the Lego set you bought on eBay might just have been stolen!

-JonBlueFire

The Cold World of Economics: Intruding on Lego’s Fun

Lego is built around the concept of exercising creativity and imagination, appealing to young and old alike. It can be used to teach and put the mind to work in many different ways. And recently, Brexit is causing Lego lovers in the UK to learn economics! But not in a way that they can appreciate.

Due to the recent devaluation of the British Pound because of Brexit, Lego has decided to raise prices in the UK. As described in a letter from Fiona Wright, general manager of Lego UK, the rise will be enacted starting the first of January 2017 – the same day that the newest wave of Lego sets will be released to the public. Each set will increase by five percent, so smaller sets will be hardly affected, whereas more expensive sets will take a rather significant price growth. Bear in mind that the price increase is from distributor to retailer. This means that Lego will be distributing sets at the increased price rather than the retailers raising the price themselves.

But it gets even better (that’s sarcasm!) According to Wright’s letter, there might be even more price increases in the future, depending on the fluctuations of the British Pound’s value. The Lego team is currently hard at work to find a way to minimize the impact on consumers… here’s to hoping that they’ll find a solution.

-Yveran

LEGO Pull-Back Racers 2.0 App Released

Everyone knows Lego for its distinctive brick elements and minifigure designs. But few seem to realize that the Lego Group branches out into many more themes as well, one of them being the pin and axle system known as Lego Technic.

This theme is usually built by older fans and includes building moving vehicles, motorized mechanisms, and functionalized sets through pins, axles, beams, gears, motors, and rubber bands, among other elements.

One of the sub-series of the technic theme is a collection of buildable pull-back-and-go racers, which do exactly as they claim. This particular series in receiving a new app from the Lego Group, entitled LEGO® Pull-Back Racers 2.0, which is currently available for both PC and mobile devices.

Lego has had a game similar in the past, but they have improved with this one, granting gamers new features such as new vehicles - Record Breaker, Quad Bike, and Extreme Off Roader - replicas of the real-world sets, endless racetracks with obstacles and grabbable items, a new garden environment with further explorable routes, and the ability to fly through the air while jumping.

This new app looks jam-packed with new features and abilities, and I would encourage anyone who loves Lego Technic, or racing cars, to go ahead and give it a try!

-JonBlueFire

Lego Pentatonix 360-Degree Music Video Released

During the Christmas season, there are certain traditions most families partake in. One of the most prominent tradition is the singing and listening of classical Christmas music expressing the joys of giving by a man dressed in red and white - Santa Claus!

Recently, a popular a capella group called Pentatonix has emerged into this Christmas cheer! Releasing their second album of Holiday Songs, one of their carols in their newest album, A Pentatonix Christmas, however, has received special attention.

To put it simply, Pentatonix’s version of the classic song , Up on the Housetop has had a Lego revamp!

The band, consisting of members Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, and Kevin Olusola, were re-imagined as minifigures by the Lego Group itself. The result is an animated 360-degree music video, which can be viewed over at the band’s channel and the Lego website.

This is all possible due to a partnership between Lego and Sony Music Originals, which Pentatonix is partnered with through its RCA Records label.

While not the best video that the Lego Group has ever produced, it’s still an amazing work with awesome music!

Finally, if successful this Holiday season, this may cause Lego to give more bands revamps through the minifigures we all know and love!

-JonBlueFire

Lego Brickheadz VR App Comes ... Then Goes

Humanity is living in an age where technology surrounds us. These days, some companies plan to use that phrase quite literally. Recently, the world’s largest toy company, The Lego Group, has done just that.

On December 7th of this year, Lego released a free to play, no in-app purchase application, called LEGO Brickheadz Builder VR that was available for download in the Google Play store and at APK Mirror, in its ‘beta’ stage. This app was required to be used with Google Daydream, a virtual reality headset, something that Lego has never done before.

The app allowed players to create their own unique Brickheadz characters, mess around with other pre-made characters and items, and, of course, build with virtual Lego bricks!

If you don’t know what Brickheadz are, don’t worry! This new theme, released earlier this year, revolves around building block-like characters, only from licensed lines so far, and then displaying them rather than playing with them. Differing drastically from what Lego has done before, this new style most closely resembles Mighty Muggs or Funko Pop characters - products existing more for display than play value.

Going back to the virtual side of things this app is, as stated, a completely new area for Lego - a new division of potential ready to be explored. But the company has done similar feats in the past. 4D movies and scannable items were explored, with some ending up more successful than others. The closest feat, however, that Lego accomplished was augmented reality in its various Lego stores. This type of reality differs from virtual reality in that the real world is still there on the screen, but virtual animations and pictures are added to enhance the experience or game. In Lego stores, a consumer would walk up to a display on the wall with a Lego box. He or she would then hold the box horizontally in front of the screen so that it would be scanned. After, animations of the Lego sets building itself and certain set functions were displayed to the eyes of the consumer further enticing him or her to buy the product. Only certain sets worked, however, mainly the larger ones, and the animations were still about 20 - 30 seconds.

Now, don’t go running to the Play store to download this app just yet. Phil Oakly of Androidpolice.com states that, “The app has disappeared from the Play Store, having been presumably unpublished by the developers.” Somehow, someway, this new feat did not sit well with Lego, even as a test run of sorts. Assuming that it was just taken down for developing reasons, one can only hope that the app will return. Until then, however, we can only hope that The Lego Group will utilize this new range of possibilities with the best of intentions in mind.  

-JonBlueFire

           December – it’s the most wonderful time of the year! A month of Christmas cheer, sparkling lights, rosy cheeks, snow, and… Golden bricks?

           Amazon is currently hosting a scavenger hunt-style sweepstakes across their Lego retail pages. It began on the 4th of December and will last until 10th. Fans are invited to look across the sets that line Amazon’s virtual shelves in search of a Golden Brick – the entry ticket to a drawing for one of four prizes:

          These certainly are not light rewards. If you are interested in participating, you will need to look for a pop-up that looks like the picture below. The notification will bring you to a digital entry form to fill out, and the winning entry will be drawn on December 15th and posted at www.amazon.com/goldenbrickwinners, where it will remain until the 17th of March, 2017.

           Alternatively, according to the official rules, you can mail a 3x5 postcard with your full name (first and last), e-mail address, and phone number (area code included) to: Amazon.com Find the Golden LEGO Brick Sweepstakes, P.O. Box 6009, Morton Grove, IL 60053. All entries will not be valid past 11:59:59 Pacific Time on December 10th, so it would be best for you to get hunting soon! Please be aware that the sweepstakes is a US-exclusive event, open only to legal US citizens age 18 or older. Further information and rules can be found at www.amazon.com/goldenbrickrules.

On November 28th, the Lego Group opened its first factory in Asia, making a total of five factories throughout the world that are now dishing out bricks for the most powerful company on the planet. The Jiaxing factory, which is located in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, employed more than 1,200 people throughout its 40 acres, and is planned to manufacture almost 80% of the company’s toys in the growing Asia market.

The factory was an investment of $105.9 million, the company stated. However, most of that money will surely be remade due to the 20,000 solar panels that were installed on the roof. This action is also expected to reduce carbon dioxide commissions in the city by over 4,000 tonnes per year and generate roughly six gigawatts of clean energy annually.

Constructing such a factory, though it may be expensive, is sure to improve the Lego Group’s overall profit on a yearly basis. In 2015, for example, Lego’s revenue reached more than 50% in the region, doubling the firm’s global average.

While Lego has been skeptical of certain intentions for use of its bricks which the company may not necessarily approve of, mainly for political opinions and beliefs in general, it has since removed all specific questions pertaining to reasons of bulk orders, that would otherwise prevent that purchase altogether.

One major obstacle that Lego may run into from selling its merchandise in China is the vending of cheap copies of Lego bricks, also known as “bootleg” products. Other firms all over the world have produced clones of Lego bricks that, to the untrained eye, would pass off for the real thing. The Lego Group has taken legal action with some of these copiers, but with little success.

In the end, Lego has made a smart decision with this new factory. New income in a country is definitely a sign to invest and accomplish the task efficiently, both of which Lego as accomplished. Taking down requirements for huge orders in also a good idea, because no matter what the consumer says, Lego is the final word. And while there may be those who lazily hand off fakes for the real thing, the mass majority of the public will go to the honest company who produces the quality bricks that they want, no matter where the are made: The Lego Group.

-JonBlueFire

“Lego Worlds” Officially Launches in February 2017

“Lego Worlds”, the “Minecraft” of the world’s largest toy company, is stated to officially release on various game consoles on the 21st of February, 2017. The game, which was and still is purchasable for an early access beta version on Steam priced at $14.99, will launch on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One gaming systems, as well as on Steam for PC gamers.

The ‘sandbox’ game has already received tons of positive feedback and has gone through several updates to it, adding to the enjoyment of consumers. As Jonathan Smith, Head of Production, TT Games, puts it: “In LEGO Worlds, players will go on an exciting journey to become a Master Builder in an open-world made completely of LEGO-built environments. Whether customizing characters, exploring in vehicles, building structures, or discovering an expansive range of items, characters and creatures throughout the worlds, there’s the freedom to create anything imaginable.”

This is the reason that Lego Worlds has gotten so popular, even in its pre-release stage. It gives gamers the freedom to explore and to build whatever they want without limits; and this is the reason why I think that Lego Worlds will be a smash hit on February 21.

-JonBlueFire

Lego Panama Canal Set 2000451 Releases in Decmber

Over 100 years ago, the 48 mile (roughly 77.2 kilometers) long, man-made waterway known as the Panama Canal was finished. In the month of December, this 10 yearlong watercourse will be available for purchase as a Lego set.

The idea for this set was originally constructed by Lorena Degracia, the founder of the Panama STEM Education group and a Lego Education distributor for Panama. She showed her proposal of such a set to Jorge Quijano, the Canal administrator, who loved the idea.

The 1,184-piece set replicates the canal’s three water-levels, which rise and lower in the set as they do in real life to allow ships to go from a higher water level to a lower water level, and vice versa. Featuring all this plus a brick-built double gate, it is, as Quijano puts it, “A very good model of the Canal locks.”

Thinking of the subject of the product, the set, which also includes a written explanation of the Canal -further educating consumers, is only scheduled to release in stores in Panama. Only 40,000 are being produced. At $250 per set, however, consumers had really better appreciate the Canal for that big of a price tag!  

-JonBlueFire

Three New Sets to Join Lego’s Architecture Skyline Series:           London, Chicago, and Sydney

Throughout the course of history, monuments and buildings of towering size have dominated the landscape of their respective cities, protruding high above the general metropolis. The creation of these gargantuan structures takes years on end, and the finished product is only truly appreciated by those who see it firsthand.

While building a model of such attractions isn’t exactly a firsthand experience, appreciation for these feats of construction can still be had, thanks to Lego. Continuing the Architecture Skyline series, three new sets will be released next month- 21032: Sydney (361 pieces), 21033: Chicago (444 pieces), and 21034: London (468 pieces). Each is decorated with varying landmarks in micro-scale with new recolors, most notably pearl gold and light tan.

All three of the sets will cost around the $40 price mark, and will hit the shelves on December 11th. Bear in mind that each set will remain exclusive to LEGO Stores in their respective cities (for example, 21034: London will remain exclusive to the new LEGO Store in Leicester Square, London) until January of 2017. So unless you live near or in Chicago, London, or Sydney, don’t add these sets to your Christmas list.

-Yveran

Remembering Adazai

Life is a fragile thing. In the span of 80 years, we are born, we live, and we die. And I think I speak for the good majority of us when I say that I detest that it has to be that way. However, things break, and eventually the entire machine of life breaks down. And whatever you believe comes after that, we don’t get a second chance at life. For some people this realization that there is an end to the road turns them catatonic, and yet for others, it makes them move at the speed of light.

Adazai joined on November 4, 2014, just a couple months after I did. During his time on the boards, he created numerous topics dedicated to his LDD mocs, most of which focused around dragons. Now, I’m not a moccist in any way. I prefer my sets to stay the way they’re meant to be, and I don’t have quite enough time to experiment and fiddle with custom builds. But what Adazai did, despite his illness, is truly inspirational. Not once did he try to peddle off a mistake or critique of his creations as excused. He took compliments and criticism the way they were supposed to be taken.

Now Adazai has left us, off to run on the golden streets of forever. But regardless of whether he was your best friend or a mere acquantaince, I believe that if you ever had the slightest encounter with him, he touched you in some way.

Rest in peace my man.

--T’Challa

TTV Interviews Nathan Furst (BIONICLE Music Composer)

TTV recently had the great honor to sit down for a conversation with Nathan Furst, who composed the music for the BIONICLE film trilogy! We talk about his history with the BIONICLE Franchise, what it’s like in the industry, and some tips for people looking to pursue music as a career! Read on for audio link and transcript.