Finn’s Basement – The Lego Movie Set is at Legoland California

Finn's Basement, The Lego Movie Set

Legoland in Carlsbad, California has recently opened a new exhibit. Finn’s Basement, which is the actual set that was used in the filming of The Lego Movie. It is a massive set with almost every scene from The Lego Movie built in Lego. The whole set up is just like every kids (and adults) dream. A massive basement level Lego studio, with a whole collection of Lego spanning decades of collecting. Even though this is only a set, it is extremely awesome!

Finns Basement, The Lego Movie Set, City

It appears that these photos were taken before the final exhibit was finished. In newer photos there is a plexiglass wall surrounding each set, making sure that hands stay away from all the hard work on display. The amount of work that went into building this set is staggering. A few poor souls are probably still recovering from calloused hands. The detailing involved in this set is amazing. With hand drawn signs, warning labels and posters which all appeared in The Lego Movie.

Finns Basement, The Lego Movie Set, Detail

Finn's Basement, The Lego Movie, ConstructionFinn's Basement, The Lego Movie, Castle

Finn's Basement, The Lego Movie, Wild West

Finn’s Basement is organized into different sections. Each one representing a theme from the film. Represented are City, Castle, Wild West, Pirates, Space, Cloud Cuckoo, etc.

Finn's Basement, The Lego Movie, Sea Cow

Based on the Classic Space section it looks like Benny got his spaceship! Spaceship!

Finn's Basement, The Lego Movie, Space

Legoland California has a great exhibit here. Hopefully it will stick around for a long while.

Check out the full series from Finn’s Basement posted by ared22 over on Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/w3WB2

Brickville is a Beautiful Lego SimCity

Brickville Lego City Overhead SimCity

Brickville is the closest thing to a Lego SimCity. Imagine if EA Games made a Lego themed version of SimCity. It would look like this. This micro scale city in completely modular. Usually these type of projects can look too artificial, sometimes being too constrained to a set of rules. Brickville seems to have found a way past this problem. This little city is currently 67 or so baseplates in size and is expanding.  Not only is Brickville extremely photogenic from overhead, but its profile looks almost real. The variety of the high-rises and skyscrapers help lend the project a sense of realism.

Brickville Lego City

Brickville recently made an appearance at a KLUG show. Where it was photographed by Luap31 and Jameson42. You can find more details over on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickville/10946567563/

Brickville Lego City Display

Lego Parisian Restaurant Modular Building (10243) Reviewed by Huw

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review

Lego has been steadily releasing new Modular Buildings for the past few years. The recent, Palace Cinema (10232), and Town Hall (10224) have proven extremely popular. The newest set is the Parisian Restaurant (10243) which should be hitting shelves in the near future. Huw, from Brickset, has recently posted an early photo review of this highly anticipated set. The Parisian Restaurant comes with the now standard 3 step instructions. Which, should take anywhere from 5-9 hours to complete.

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review Scooter

There are a whole lot of new and rare pieces included this time around. The most recognizable is the new Lego Scooter. This little red Vespa influenced scooter is extremely cute, and fits in perfectly with the Parisian Restaurant. Also included are a whole lot bricks in the new Olive Green Lego color. Since the whole building is based on this rare color, the Parisian Restaurant is probably the best source for these parts.

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review Minifigures

Featuring five Minifigures, a chef, waiter, two restaurant patrons, and the female scooter pilot. As usual, these included Minifigs all feature the classic smiling Lego head. I like to think of the blonde man as a Lego Owen Wilson.

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review Top View

Huw notes that the increased detail means that the Restaurant takes longer to build. All three floors are furnished, with the bottom floor featuring an impressive amount of details. From the fully tiled flooring, to the full kitchen, everything here looks great.

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review Front

The Lego Parisian Restaurant is an excellent new entry in the Modular Building theme. The previous two seemed to be missing a certain spark for some fans, but this set has reignited their enthusiasum. The other good news is that there are no stickers this time around. Everything here is given the premium treatment from Lego.

“Modular buildings have come a long way since Cafe Corner, which was just an empty shell, haven’t they…”

Huw's Parisian Restaurant 10243 Review Back

Make sure to go read Huw’s full review, with many more photos and details over on Brickset:

Part 1: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=8134
Part 2: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=8147

More details (including video!) of the Parisian Restaurant can be found on LegoGenre here: http://everydaybricks.com/lego-creator-parisian-restaurant-10243-modular-building-revealed/