Last month LEGO Star Wars Battles was relaunched on Apple Arcade after having a soft launch on iOS and Android platforms the year prior. Now it looks like a new game has shown up behind the paywall with little to no fanfare. LEGO Star Wars Castaways is developed by Gameloft and invites players to create their own unique Star Wars minifigure on a mysterious planet populated with their fellow castaways. In addition to exploring the planet, you can also play simulations that allow you to relive iconic moments in Star Wars history. Hopefully one day it receives a wider release, because it certainly sounds like an interesting concept that I'd love to check out!

Today The LEGO Group and the Ninjago team shared a message with the fan community. As many are aware, Kirby Morrow, who provided the voice of Cole since the show's start, passed away last year. This was after the voice acting for the 2021 episodes had been completed, and since then they have been trying to figure out the proper course of action to respect the actor's legacy and allow the series to continue in the best way possible. In the end, they decided that Cole would now be played by Andrew Francis, who is no stranger to the Ninjago team. Read on for the full message from Tommy Andreasen on their thought process and how the choice was made.  

Come on by the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 7:30 PM Eastern tonight for our weekly videogame stream. We will be continuing our journey through the world of The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame and tackling the last DLC level. If all goes well, we'll be able to complete it so that next week we can go back to the main game and keep collecting those bricks! Hope to see you there!

A 'new' project has achieved ten thousand votes of support on LEGO Ideas recently. I use quotes because Hocus Pocus - The Sanderson Sisters' Cottage - UPDATED by TheAmbrinator may seem very familiar, and as the name indicates it's a revision to a previous project. The model has been beefed up and includes some great details and techniques that could be a great addition to the Ideas theme and captures the feel from the 1990s film well. We've just seen with The Office that persistence can pay off, so we'll have to see how the review goes when this MOC makes it into that phase!

Today The LEGO Group, Gameloft, and McLaren Automotive announced a collaboration to bring LEGO set 42123 McLaren Senna GTR into Asphalt 9: Legends, which is playable on PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile platforms. Starting today and going until the end of the month, players will be able to participate in the LEGO Technic McLaren Grand Prix event, racing for a chance at a selection of prizes that will be awarded to nine players at the Grand Prix's conclusion. This is a really cool collaboration, and I only wish I wasn't so horrible at racing games so I could give it a shot. To learn more, you can read the full press release over in the LEGO Newsroom. Start your engines!

The annual Creations for Charity campaign has kicked off with a number of unique LEGO MOCs available in their store for you to purchase. All of the proceeds will be used to purchase LEGO sets to donate to children in hospitals. If you have a cool creation you don't mind parting with, there's still time to donate it to the cause as well! It's a great program and one worth checking out and supporting if you can.

Shortly after the latest LEGO Ideas review results were announced, a new project joined the ranks of the 10k Club! Take a look at The Dojo by SpaceBrick54, which captures a Japanese martial arts training facility in our favorite plastic bricks. Although it's not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the project, the build looks designed to go with the Ninjago City sets and could certainly be a place where Sensei Wu and the elemental ninjas train in between saving the world. It's a beautiful MOC with a ton of great details and techniques - we wish it the best of luck in its review phase!

Earlier this morning, Hasan from the LEGO Ideas team shared the LEGO Ideas First 2021 Review Results complete with a video featuring LEGO Model Designer Laura Perron and LEGO Ideas Design Manager Samuel Johnson. They revealed that out of the fifty-seven projects in the current review two would move forward to become sets: Jazz Quartet by Hsinwei Chi and The Office by Jaijai Lewis, proving that persistence can really pay off! Additionally, Harry Finkel's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is remaining in review for additional consideration and may become a set in the future. It's a shame that the other fifty-four ideas won't be making it onto shelves, since there were a lot of amazing models there, but I'm definitely excited to see the two new sets once they make it to their final form!

This December, Target will be your one-stop-shop not just for LEGO sets, but for clothing and household items themed after our favorite bricks. In a press release that went out yesterday, the two companies announced that Target and the LEGO Group Expand Partnership with Limited-Edition Lifestyle Collection, Just in Time for the Holidays. Apparently there will be nearly three hundred different items available, from various clothing items in child and adult sizes to pet accessories, home goods, and more. You can visit the landing page on the Target website and save the link for when the collection drops. What would you most like to see be released?

BZPower Member ARROW404 has been on a spree lately, sharing a bunch of cool digital MOCs in the Bionicle-Based Creations subforum. One of the ones that caught my eye was the Rock Lion, a Rahi that never received an official canonical appearance throughout the various Bionicle media over the years. The builder takes advantage of the digital medium to give the beast a glowing mane that is quite striking and adds some great contrast to the build. I also appreciate that as a Gen 1 Rahi, the model uses many parts from the original run, and some like the Bohrok torsos in the legs are very nice! Make sure you go give the creation, as well as ARROW404's other builds, a closer look, and then let him know what you think!

Earlier today Hasan from the LEGO Ideas team shared that the LEGO Ideas First 2021 Review Results were Postponed after originally intended to be announced today. They're using the extra day wisely though, by hosting a giveaway in the comments of that blog entry! All you have to do is guess which of the fifty-seven projects in review you think will be selected to become the next LEGO Ideas set. Two lucky winners who guess correctly will win the 21329 Fender Stratocaster and the next set to launch, both signed by the designers! While we're not hosting a giveaway here, we'd love to hear your theories on which project will become the next set before we all find out tomorrow!

Yesterday The LEGO Group shared a new video on their YouTube channel, the LEGO 10290 Pickup Truck Designer Video. You can go watch to hear from LEGO Designer Pierre Normandin about the inspiration that resulted in this set and the process he went through to create it. He points out a variety of interesting features and design choices and highlights the new prints and stickers the set contains. I love the classic look of this truck and hope to add it to my collection at some point in the future. How about you?

The last episode of season three of the Bits N' Bricks podcast released today, and it's a great finale! Hosts Ethan Vincent and Brian Crecente discuss the origins, launch, and failure of Galidor and the associated videogames surrounding it in Episode 37 - The Surreal History of LEGO Galidor, and boy did I learn some things! There's a bunch of fantastic guests to talk about the journey, including long-time LEGO Designer Niels Milan Pedersen, Galidor TV show director Tom Lynch, Galidor web developer Gabriel Walsh, Galidor electronics engineer Lau Kierstein, Galidor game developer Nick Ferguson, and creator of the Ong's Hat alternate-reality game Joseph Matheny. What does an ARG have to do with Galidor? You'll just have to listen to find out! It's a pretty amazing episode that's worth it for the information and insight!

Last week The LEGO Group announced the next addition to its Digital Citizenship program to help families across the globe become digitally smart, launching a number of new activities targeted at kids and parents alike. The company has continued to collaborate with DQ Institute to help educate on topics such as digital empathy, screen time management, privacy, and safe sharing. Having watched the Internet grow over the years, it's been interesting to learn many of these lessons the hard way as I grew up, and I continue to see others doing the same. It's great that The LEGO Group is trying to be proactive about these subjects to help keep future generations from making the same mistakes!

It's been a while since we've played some videogames on stream, hasn't it? Well let's fix that! Tonight, back at the normal time of 7:30 PM Eastern we'll head over to the BZPower Twitch channel to jump back into The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame and pick up with the DLC levels, going through the quests and collecting red bricks. Hopefully we'll see you there!

One of the annual deals we have come to expect from LEGO is Double VIP Points in October on all sets. It's received little fanfare on the main site, but Double VIP Points are now live and will go from October 11th to October 17th this week. If there was a particular set you were interested in getting, now's as good a time as any, especially with shipping delays expected this holiday season. And, as always, you can help support BZPower when you use this link to order from LEGO Shop-At-Home!

Earlier today, The LEGO Group shared a press release stating that girls are ready to overcome gender norms but society continues to enforce biases that hamper their creative potential. The release shares the results of a study conducted with the Geena Davis Institute into the biases that still pervade society when it comes to gender roles and career paths for men and women. It's very clear that there's still a lot of work to be done in this area to break down the barriers and create equal opportunities for all. In an effort to help with this, the company is kicking off its Ready for Girls campaign and have, "developed a fun 10-step guide and invite parents to share photos of their child's LEGO creations against a pre-defined AR backdrop featuring the words 'Get the World Ready for Me'." Every little bit helps, so it's great to see The LEGO Group adding their resources to the effort!

In less than two weeks, two BIONICLE comic artists will be at Baltimore Comic Con, October 22-24. Convention regulars Stuart Sayger and Pop Mhan well be in attendance again to meet fans, sell prints, and sign comic books. Check out BCC's Guests page for individual details and follow up with their COVID-19 procedures this year. These two always love meeting BIONICLE fans, and having a signed comic in your possession is quite the collector's item.

At the end of last month, The LEGO Group announced their financial results for January to June of 2021. The numbers are pretty astounding: sales grew 36 percent, revenue grew 46 percent, operating profit grew 104 percent, and net profit grew 140 percent, all compared to the same period in 2020. Obviously 2020 was a unique year, but I went back and checked, and the company saw growth then too, despite the pandemic that hit during that time, just not at this scale. The LEGO Group CEO, Niels B. Christiansen, did say that they expect the growth to stabilize and slow in the future as people continue to shift back to their spending patterns pre-pandemic. It will be interesting to see what result that has on product availability, as some sets have been very difficult to find over the past eighteen months. Still, the future looks very bright for The LEGO Group!

Recently LEGO Ideas kicked off a new contest to celebrate the release of its latest set, 21329 Fender Stratocaster, where you could win it, 21323 Grand Piano, and an actual Fender Stratocaster guitar! Check out the blog post for Strike a Chord with the Fender Stratocaster! to see if you're interested in building a MOC that represents your feelings about the instrument, whether its a recreation of an album cover or famous performance, or something more abstract and original. The deadline for entry is November 4th, so start brainstorming and get building soon!

With Venom: Let There Be Carnage in theaters now, it seemed like as good of a theme as any for a live build! Join us on Sunday, October 10th at 1 PM Eastern on the BZPower Twitch channel as we assemble LEGO sets 76187 Venom and 76199 Carnage, creating busts of these popular Marvel characters! We're looking forward to getting back to building and I'm curious to see just how similar the sets are. We hope you all join us for some bricks, chatting, and giveaways!

Over in the Artwork forum, BZPower Member Taka Nuvia recently shared a painting she did earlier this year looking back at the city of Metru Nui and Turaga Dume's Vahki. Go give "query - ruins" a gander and see what you think of the piece of art. I love the eerie mood it invokes, with a sense of dread and foreboding as the Vahki approaches. I look forward to see what the artist comes up with next!

The latest addition to the high-end, collector-focused LEGO sets has been revealed: 10294 RMS Titanic, based on the iconic ship that first launched 110 years ago. The huge model is over four feet long and contains 9090 pieces. Not only does it capture the exterior in exquisite detail, but there are even interior sections such as the engine room and grand staircase to complete the experience. If you have a spare $629.99 USD, you can preorder the set starting November 1st, before the model sets 'sale' on November 8th. You can learn more about the set in the press release straight from the LEGO Newsroom.

A new episode of the Bits N' Bricks podcast was partially posted online today - it's not showing up on the official LEGO Games website or YouTube channel, but you can listen to it on Spotify or other platforms. You can go learn about DUPLO World, Create & Cruise, and LEGO Games for Pre-K to find out about some of The LEGO Group's most-downloaded apps that happen to target some of their youngest users. I can't say I've ever checked out any of these games, as smartphones weren't a thing when I was in that age group, but it's still interesting to learn all about them!

Recently another cool creation has entered the hallowed halls of the LEGO Ideas 10k Club. A project that is quite out of this world will now be reviewed: Clockwork Solar System by ChrisOrchard, who teamed up with 10k Club veteran Brent Waller on the project. Quite frankly, this is an amazing creation and I would love to see the interior and all of the gears that make it work. I would love to see this added to the collection of official LEGO Ideas sets and wish it the best of luck!