In advance of Toy Fair starting this Saturday, LEGO has shared some details on two sets coming out later this year based on Star Wars: The Mandalorian - the Disney+ series that helped launch the streaming service. Making up for the initial dearth of baby Yoda the Child merchandise, we're getting a BrickHeadz set of the cutie and the titular Mando, as well as a set of the hero's ship, The Razor Crest. To check out some early pictures of the sets and learn all about their design and play features, read on!  

Sometimes builders go out of their way to take 'specialized' or 'single-use' LEGO elements and incorporate them into MOCs. Recently CZQ and StevetheSquid shared their Metroid fan-designed Powerups which take things to the extreme, using Kraata canisters, rubber band holders, 2001 Toa torsos, and Star Wars CCBS blaster pieces in a variety of interesting ways. I'm particularly a fan of the Technic ribbed tubing coiled up inside the Kraata tub and think it's a great effect. Go check out the MOCs for yourself, see if you can learn any cool techniques from them, and let them know what you think about their creations!

It's that time of the week again! I'm pretty sure I've used that line before, probably many times, but it's still technically accurate. That time is Tuesday, which means we'll be over on the BZPower Twitch Channel tonight starting at 7:30 PM Eastern to play some LEGO videogames. We'll be diving back into LEGO The Lord of the Rings, after surviving the battle of Helm's Deep last week, and seeing what they throw our way this time. I'm looking forward to the fun-filled action and the seeing you all there!

Last week BZPower, The Brothers Brick, Brickset, and True North Bricks had the chance to talk with the host of LEGO Masters - the one and only Will Arnett! Sadly our time with him was short, but we did our best to learn what it's been like for him to host a reality TV show, what his time on the set was like, and what sort of impact he sees it having on his career. Oh, and also how often he uses the LEGO Batman voice. So what are you still reading this for? Go check out the interview!  

I came across an article today that's a little on the old side but no less relevant than when it was posted back in September. Over on Sifted, Maija Palmer has written about 7 ideas you can steal from Lego's intrapreneur [sic] in residence, based on an interview with David Gram. Through it, you learn a little bit about the backstory of the LEGO Ideas platform and, more importantly, the concepts the team used to make the service viable and eventually successful. I especially found the idea of 'pretotypes' interesting and helpful, but each one certainly seems like it could be useful in innovation. Give it a read for yourself and see what you can learn!

On the first episode of LEGO Masters, BZPower member Nuju Metru (Aaron on the show) and his teammate Christian dazzled the judges with their Dream Park Theme Park Spaceland. Now, Aaron has given us an inside look at the creation of this enormous diorama that took 30 man-hours to assemble. Check out his blog for a behind the scenes look at the builds and the thought process to bring it from a generic theme park to an alien-filled Spaceland. He also gives us an in-depth look at Space Smash, their space station designed to explode in last week's episode. Will they build another sci-fi creation this week? Check out LEGO Masters in Fox every Wednesday at 9pm e/c.

LEGO World in Copenhagen, Denmark started earlier this week, and LEGO had a bit of a surprise there. The Lead Users Lab, which aims to find partners to create products that fill niches LEGO currently doesn't, has displayed mock-ups of lighting kits for sets like the Downtown Diner, Treehouse, and Ford Mustang. They're not for sale - the Lab is just using this to gauge interest in the concept and get feedback - but it's certainly an interesting development and one I look forward to seeing progress. If you want to see more about these mock-ups, head on over to Brickset to check them out!

Yesterday BZPower, The Brothers Brick, and True North Bricks had the awesome opportunity to interview two of the contestants from LEGO Masters - the two who were eliminated in episode 2! We won't spoil who they were here, but you can read on to learn more about their experiences on the show, what it was like working with Will Arnett and the other competitors, and about their personal LEGO interests. Hopefully we'll be doing more of these interviews each week, so let us know in the Talkback what you'd like to hear from other contestants!

 

We're going to be trying something a little new with our streams this weekend. Next up on our build list, based on your feedback, is the Creator Expert 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5. Instead of one build session, however, we're going to have three, with the first being tonight at 7:30 PM Eastern on the BZPower Twitch channel, followed by streams on Saturday and Sunday at the same time. We expect each one to be about an hour, and we'll still be doing giveaways as always. We'd love your feedback on splitting things up like this and look forward to seeing you tonight!

After the livestream yesterday, Hasan from the LEGO Ideas team has announced the Second 2019 Review Results. Two projects made it through the gauntlet and will be turned into LEGO sets in the future: Medieval Blacksmith by Clemens Fiedler (aka Namirob) and Winnie the Pooh by Ben Alder (aka benlouisa). Both of them look like fantastic models that I look forward to building at some point. I'm bummed by a couple of the models that didn't make it through, but getting ten thousand votes is still an achievement! The Ideas team has also announced that the third 2019 Review Results will be coming this summer, which will include The Legend of the BIONICLE project!

If there's one thing I've learned about LEGO fans over the years, it's if there's a subject or topic worth diving into, someone out there will make it their passion. Every LEGO color ever made? It's out there. The exact specs of every LEGO motor? That's there too. One thing I have not seen discussed too much, and what BZPower member fabSheers is looking to learn about, is the distribution of Bionicle masks in mask packs. They recently started the topic Percent odds for Kanohi mask/krana/kraata packs 2001-2003 to learn more. I feel like someone out there has to have some good data or information/insight into this, and hopefully they're able to share it with everyone. Head over to see what you can add to the conversation or learn from it!

After some unfortunate technical issues last week, we're going to try our hand at streaming some LEGO The Lord of the Rings action again tonight. Come on over to the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 7:30 PM Eastern as we hopefully get through more than one level in a reasonable amount of time. I'm looking forward to getting to chop up some Orcs this time and if I see an Ent I'll be super stoked. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

It seems like every other time I post here it's about LEGO Ideas. And then it keeps stacking up! Tonight, for instance, I was going to tell you all that in a blog entry today, Hasan Jensen let us know that on Wednesday, February 12th at 4 PM CET they will be announcing the results of the latest review period on the LEGO Ideas Facebook page. Before I could share that, however, the Mini-fig Scale Project Gemini by Stevenhoward27 achieved ten thousand votes of support and joined the 10k Club. I'll definitely be rooting for this one to become a set and can't wait to see the results tomorrow!

Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan recently announced a new head of their group, as reported on by TechRaptor. Nicolas Doucet will be the new head of Sony's game team in Japan. Why are we posting about that here? Well, it turns out that earlier in Mr. Doucet's career, he was the test lead for Bionicle: Quest for the Toa, following it up as a producer on Bionicle: Matoran Adventures. From humble beginnings to new heights - it's interesting to see a 'where are they now,' sort of situation like this. Good luck with the new position!

Earlier this week, LEGO shared a new trailer for the upcoming Prime Empire season of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. This definitely focuses more on the videogame aspect of the upcoming episodes than the recent shorts we've seen, and it looks like they're be referencing all sorts of different genres of games. It's certainly catching my eye more than the past few seasons and makes me want to catch up to see what happens!

The LEGO Group seems to have embraced Apple's Arcade platform, with LEGO Brawls and LEGO: Builder's Journey launching on the service last year. What you might not know is that the latter title was actually developed in-house by its own studio named Light Brick. GamesIndustry.biz recently talked to Karsten Lund, the creative director of Light Brick, about why the game strays away from the typical action-adventure fare we've come to expect from licensed LEGO titles and what they hope to accomplish as a studio. It's a really interesting read and makes me look forward to what they release in the future, especially if it's not locked to a single platform.

Tomorrow, February 7th, starting at 6 PM Eastern, we'll be diving back in to finish the LEGO Technic 42070 6x6 All Terrain Tow Truck. Join us over at the BZPower Twitch channel to watch, chat, and hopefully win some prizes. There's still a lot of cool functions to build and play with, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it all come together.

There's been a bunch of news on LEGO Ideas since our update earlier this week. You need to go watch the Designer Interview for LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station to see Design Manager Sam Johnson and LEGO Designer Corvin Stichert (BZPower's very own Vezok's Friend!) talk about what went into the design of the set. Keeping with the space theme, the SpaceX Falcon 9 (Saturn V Scale) by Lego_Aviator achieved ten thousand votes of support and will be reviewed to become an actual LEGO set. Finally, Jacob announced the winner of the fan vote to choose an upcoming Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series set - you can look forward to seeing the Republic Gunship on store shelves some time in the future!