Since 2008 Extra-Life has been raising money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals by enabling gamers to raise money through twenty-four hour marathons. I've been a supporter of their efforts for years, but I've always had a reason to not participate (usually BrickFair New Jersey or BrickCon). Thanks to COVID-19, my calendar is clear this year so from 10 AM Eastern on Saturday, November 7th until 10 AM Eastern on Sunday, November 8th I'll be streaming LEGO videogames for the kids! You can head over to our page to donate or help spread the word. We've got some great incentives, including Star Wars and Bionicle raffles, the ability to pick what game I play for and hour, and a NYCC 2014 Transparent Mask of Fire! I know 2020 has been a crazy year and not everyone can donate, but any support, even if it's just a Tweet or coming to watch, helps a lot. Thank you all!

Season 2 of Star Wars - The Mandalorian premiers in a week! I can feel the excitement! To celebrate, we're building a bunch of LEGO sets from the show this weekend - so many, in fact, that we're spreading it out to Saturday and Sunday! Join us tomorrow, October 24th, and Sunday, October 25th, on the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 1 PM Eastern both days to watch them come together. Of course we'll be giving away a bunch of LEGO Star Wars Buildable Figures throughout, so all the more reason to come by and chat with us as we assemble these sets from a galaxy far, far away!

After a tease earlier this week, LEGO is officially revealing the latest set to join the Ideas lineup. Introducing 21324 123 Sesame Street, celebrating the classic children's show from the mind of Jim Henson. The model is releasing on November 1st for $120 in the United States and contains 1367 pieces. To check out this awesome, nostalgic model including five brand new minifigs, and to see the full press release, read on!  

A new blog entry was posted by Hasan yesterday over on LEGO Ideas. The short video doesn't reveal much, but we do get a good look at the Cookie Monster minifig that will be a part of the 123 Sesame Street set, and he looks great! I'm excited for this set and looking forward to the imminent reveal. As someone who watched Sesame Street all the time as a kid and a lifelong lover of Jim Henson's work, this will definitely be something we'll be taking a look at on BZPower. As soon as we can share more info on the set, you can expect to see it here too!

I was catching up on some topics in our Bionicle Discussion forum recently and came across a couple of questions that were asked that our readers can perhaps help bring closure to. The first comes from Illuminatus who wants to know about All Insane Kids and Dial Zero - apparently there are rumors that the band that did Hero and Caught in a Dream later became Dial Zero and we're looking for evidence or confirmation to put it to rest. Meanwhile, Cheesy Mac n Cheese is wondering if anyone has or can help track down a Missing (very short) 2006 TV bumper featuring the Piraka that was used on Comcast's On Demand service back in the day. It seems like fans never stop having questions about Bionicle and anything relating to it, which is awesome! Hopefully you all out there can help shed some light on these subjects!

Tuesday again already? Well I guess we'll have to play some videogames tonight then. Come on by the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 7:30 PM Eastern as we dive back into LEGO Rock Band. I think we're a little bit over halfway done with the 'campaign,' at least as far as beating the Rock Power Challenges goes, so we still have a few more weeks to step on the stage and play song after song until our fingers get blisters - but that's half the fun! Looking forward to seeing you all tonight to chat as we play!

If you missed out on the adidas Originals ZX 8000 LEGO sneakers last month and are still craving some LEGO footwear, then you're in luck! Today LEGO and adidas have announced an official and extended partnership that will include footwear, apparel, and hardware (not sure what that means) made by adidas and covered with LEGO branding. They've shared a short announcement video along with a press release, which you can read on to check out. No products were announced today, but they promise we'll see the first ones before the end of the year!  

The past week has seen two new creations achieve ten thousand votes of support on LEGO Ideas, tossing their hats in the ring of consideration to be made into actual sets. First up we've got the Classic Castle by DERBOOR, which captures some of the feel of those castle sets from the 1980s while using modern parts and building techniques for a higher level of detail and fuller presentation. Next up is a bit of a unique one, the Open MRI by Apollo Exconde, who is a MRI radiographer and built the model to help explain to patients the MRI procedure in one of four configurations depending on the situation. These two projects probably couldn't be more different, which certainly says something about the Ideas platform. Best of luck to them both when they get to the review phase!

The Harry Potter fandom has been in a weird place the past few months, given the brand's creator, author J K Rowling, tweeting some very hurtful things against minority groups and people. Boycotts of the Wizarding World products have occurred, while actors from the movies have shared nothing but love for all fans. LEGO, a big distributor of such products, have addressed their ties to the brand and its cashflow. Read on for their message of inclusion and their business details for the sets.  

It was announced this past week over on StarWars.com that a new Star Wars Holiday Special would be coming out this year. Forget 1978's mess with Chewie's son Lumpy and Boba Fett on a dinosaur, this year it's all about LEGO! The brick-infused show will be premiering on Disney+ this Life Day - November 17th for those of you not keeping track - and will feature voice talent from the live action films and animated shows. Among the cast will be Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Tom Kane as Yoda and Qui-Gon Jinn, James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Dee Bradley Baker as the clone troopers. The LEGO Star Wars games and shows have always had a great sense of humor while sticking to the core of what makes the universe great, so I'm definitely looking forward to checking this installment out in a month!

Our next LEGO live build will be this Sunday at the usual time of 1 PM Eastern! We've got the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 set and will be building it, chatting with all of our viewers, and of course giving away some LEGO sets all at the same time! I'm curious to see how it compares to some of the other Creator Expert cars that we've built over the years. We're looking forward to the stream and hope to see you over on the BZPower Twitch channel on October 18th!

Today Simone Giertz, a maker and inventor with a large Internet following, has unveiled her latest project. She joined forces with the LEGO Mindstorms team to use the programmable brick, motors, and sensors to create a Dog Selfie Booth for her pup Scraps. Not one to be confined by the rules, the build might leave LEGO purists a bit aghast, but overall I think it's a great collaboration showing off the inspiration LEGO can provide and supporting the idea that if you can dream it, you can build it. Read on to check out the reveal video, some images of the photo booth, complete with a cute dog, and the full press release!  

I'm pretty sure a decade ago I had never heard of a Chief Marketing Officer, and here we are in 2020 with Forbes announcing their top 50 CMOs from around the globe. Julia Goldin from LEGO places just out of the top five at number six, which is incredibly impressive considering she beat out her equivalents at the likes of Google, Microsoft, Volkswagen, Facebook, Netflix, and many other household names. They cite the company's #letsbuildtogether campaign as well as the donations to support children in need worldwide, whether it be due to the pandemic or systemic discrimination and similar issues. I'm glad to see LEGO and Goldin called out as leaders in the field and hope that they continue to work hard to maintain their position.

Recently a group of Bionicle builders organized a collaboration drawing from the 2008 story, recreating both the Phantoka and Mistika from that year. BZPower member Pohaturon's contribution was Toa Pohatu Phantoka - go figure! Inspired by the original set's twin propellers, he took the build one step further and designed a MOC that could transform from a recognizable Toa into a twin-rotor helicopter. I love how well both forms work so seamlessly. It's definitely worth a closer examination, and after you do that make sure you head over to Flickr to check out the rest of the reimagined Toa and Makuta!

Another Tuesday means another evening of LEGO gaming! As per usual, tonight at 7:30 PM Eastern we'll be going live on the BZPower Twitch channel to immerse ourself in the life of a minifigure rock star in LEGO Rock Band. The fans, the studs, the fame, the glory - all of it will be ours for the taking if we can tap buttons quickly enough in the correct order. Come by the stream to watch, chat, and heckle when stupid mistakes are made. With luck, I won't fail out of any songs and we'll get through at least one more Rock Power Challenge. See you there!

The most recent LEGO Ideas 10k Club interview slipped by us a couple of weeks ago, but thankfully there haven't been any others since to cause a backlog. Hasan from the Ideas team would like to introduce you to Valerie & Matthew, creators of Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket, a duo separated by half the world who managed to come together to create an awesome project that received ten thousand votes of support. Even though it wasn't approved to become a set, there's still plenty you can learn by reading about their building an promoting processes, plus it's cool to learn about the fans behind the projects!

Two more LEGO Ideas projects have achieved 10,000 votes, both coming from popular IPs: Avatar: The Last Airbender and Red Dwarf. Both themes have strong fanbases among various pop culture geeks, and both have a history with LEGO. Avatar had a line of sets over a decade ago, and Red Dwarf makes an appearance in LEGO Dimensions. That coordination between companies might come in handy in deciding which projects become sets, so best of luck to each in the next review round.

Now is the perfect time to get your holiday shopping done early, or pick up that set you've been holding back on. LEGO Shop at Home is offering double VIP points until October 20. With all the new stuff that's been announced lately, exclusives, polybags added, sales, and by using this link to support BZPower, why not take advantage of double VIP points? There's always something for everyone, and it's nice having the points at the ready to treat yourself.