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Ice Planet 2002.

Lego Star Wars: Ewok Village (10236) Reviewed by Jared Chan

The recently announced Lego Star Wars: Ewok Village (10236) has been reviewed early. This massive new Lego set has an announced release date of September 2013. With 1,990 pieces and a price tag of $249.99 this is a massive Lego Ewok Village. The whole set comes with a total of 16 minifigures. Four complete brick built trees with a canopy village, make this one of the largest Lego sets out there. The Star Wars: Ewok Village is bound to become a legend.

The new Lego Ewok Village offers a lot of earth tone bricks. Including reddish brown, dark brown, tan, dark tan, dark orange, medium dark flesh, dark green, sand green, green, etc. Based on this selection this set may become the best place to source pieces for landscape / castle / and forest MOCs. All of these bricks come together for an extremely sturdy playset, with many hidden features. Also note, that this set includes the new 3×3 plate that has long been requested for release.

Jared Chan, from Legend Bricks, received an early Ewok Village from the Lego Group. He then promptly reviewed it in extreme detail. Jared concludes that the set is highly detailed, and offers a whole lot of fun. And, although it is not the most advanced build, it does not disappoint.

Make sure to read the full Lego Star Wars: Ewok Village (10236) review at Legend Bricks: http://forum.legendbricks.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=17987&page=1&extra#pid18755

Previously on LegoGenre: Lego Star Wars: Ewok Village (10236) Preview, with designer video! http://everydaybricks.com/lego-star-wars-ewok-village-10236/

San Diego Comic-Con (2013) Exclusive Lego Minifigures

San Diego Comic-Con is the ultimate comic book convention. This year it will be held from the 18th of July through the 21st. USA Today revealed these exclusive Lego minifigures just a few days ago. These four exclusive minifigs will be available only to Comic-Con attendees. This year Spider-Man and Spider-Woman from Marvel Comics will be available. While from DC Comics, Superman and Green Arrow will also have exclusives. These four figures will fit in perfectly with the Lego Super Heroes line.

If you can attend, make sure to pick these up. These usually run out pretty quickly. In previous years, the exclusive Lego minifigures have always become high priced collectors items.

USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2013/07/12/lego-superhero-comic-con-minifigures/2513603/

Lego is also offering two exclusive sets at SDCC this year: http://everydaybricks.com/san-diego-comic-con-2013-lego-exclusives-micro-bag-end-star-wars-jek-14-starfighter/

Lego Winter Village Market (10235)

Lego has announced its latest entry in the Winter Village theme. The Lego Winter Village Market (10235) will be available in October, just in time for the upcoming holiday season. This new set will come 1,261 pieces and be part of the Lego Creator theme. The whole set will include 9 minifigures, with Lego specifically calling out that there will be 3 females, 2 males, and 4 children. Sadly most of these minifigs have been seen in other previous sets.

This Winter Village is actually a Winter Carnival. Featuring a brick built Merry-Go-Round, Bucket Challenge carnival game, and 3 food stands. The Carousel includes two horses, with some extremely lovely bridle printing. This set is great for filling in your Winter Village with more life and activity.

It is not too late to build your own Lego Winter Village. Some of the sets from previous years are still available, for instance the Lego Winter Village Cottage (10229) can still be purchased at Amazon.

Check out the official Lego Design video for all the details:

http://youtu.be/KVnqxgxiwQw

“Bring home the holiday spirit with the Winter Village Market, continuing the popular LEGO® Winter Village Series. Turn the handle and take a ride on the rocking horse as the carousel spins! Visit the carnival booth. Fill up on holiday and fair favorites including a pie, pretzel and croissant at the baker’s stand, chicken and sausage at the grill stand or sweet treats at the candy shop. Celebrate a holiday season full of traditions and building with the Winter Village Market! Includes 9 minifigures with accessories: 3 females, 2 males and 4 children.” — Lego

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Spyrius Droid.

E-Mote: Lego Robots with Personality

E-MOTE: Butterflies

Lego robots have made a lot of progress in the last few years. With the increased variety of Technic / Bionicle / Hero Factory parts, and people getting more comfortable with mixing them in with standard Lego bricks the options for Lego robot builders have blossomed. Flickr user, Legohaulic, has recently created a very charming series called E-MOTE. A series of scenes between two extremely expressive robots.

E-MOTE: Bashful

With detailed hands, some eyes, eyebrows, and posable limbs, these little Lego Robots can emote almost anything. One of the great tiny details is the use of a transparent brick to represent the heart on each of these bots. These robots are extremely minimal in design, making it easy to study the techniques and assembly. These two Lego bots have set a new standard in expression, humor and personality.

E-MOTE: Bot-y Building

Check out the whole series of E-MOTE (over 15 photos!) over at Legohaulic’s Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/people/legohaulic/

Lego Macross VF-1 Valkyrie + Fast Pack + Armored by maxvf1

Macross (also know as Robotech) is one of the most famous anime series from Japan (Gundam being the other). First appearing on television in 1982, Macross has been steadily available across a variety of formats. The most recent incarnation is the movie Macross FB 7: Ore no Uta o Kike! (Macross Dynamite 7: 15th Anniversary) and the Macross 30: The Voice that Connects the Galaxy video game. This science fiction series is centered around gigantic mecha robots known as variable fighters (veritech fighters in the Robotech variation). These variable/veritech fighters, commonly referred to as Valkyries were essential during the first Human-Alien war.

The VF-1 Valkyrie looks like a modern fighter aircraft, but it has the ability to transform into different modes/configurations. The standard space/jet fighter mode, the GERWALK (guardian) mode, and the Battroid (Battloid) mode. The GERWALK resembles a “chicken walker” style mecha and has VTOL capabilities. While Battroid mode is a full humanoid mecha. The pilot of the Valkyrie is Hikaru Ichijyo.

The Lego Macross VF-1 Valkyrie + Fast Pack + Armored is the creation of maxvf1, and has a fully detailed Lego CUUSOO proposal. The proposal is for a single VF-1 Valkyrie that can transform between all three modes (Fighter, GERWALK, Battroid) while retaining the detailing and design from the Macross series. The designer, maxvf1 has even included many variations that could be produced. Including the VF-1S and VF-1J. Although the focus is on the VF-1 Valkyrie. Even a hanger dock and Armored variations have been proposed.

These Macross Valkyries are extremely well made. Featuring fully posable articulation, and transformations (check out the YouTube video below). These are exceptionally accurate models. If for whatever reason this project never makes it out of the CUUSOO process it would be great if instructions could be provided. Mecha MOCs are always in demand.

The designer of these VF-1 Valkyrie mechas, maxvf1, has kept up a great and detailed Lego CUUSOO page here: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/638

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFRhaNnne8c

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Bifur.

Lego Friends: Lovely Hotel, A Wonderful Cafe Corner (10182) Mod

The Lego Friends theme has been a wild success for Lego. The first truly successful “girls” line of Lego. There have been many other attempts by Lego to break into the “pink“ isle at the local toy store. But this has lead to a lot of criticism about the separation based on gender of Lego themes. And this segregation away from the other Lego sets certainly doesn’t help Lego keep a gender neutral position. There sure is a lot of pink, purple and tan in the Lego Friends theme, but the building designs, techniques and imagination involved are the same that makes Lego so popular.

One of the most impressive Lego Friends MOCs is this Lovely Hotel. The actual design is almost an exact match to the famous Lego Cafe Corner (10182). The designer of this put a lot of work into modifying the Cafe Corner, and converting it to the Friends color scheme. With some really great ideas, such as using the hair decoration pieces for window dressing. Even the trademark entry sign has been recreated with flowers and ice cream (the original is made from ski’s and a coffee mug). It makes the ground level of the Lovely Hotel an Ice Cream parlor instead of a Cafe, which is a great fit with this theme. This whole build almost feels like it is made out of candy, and it could easily fit into a larger candyland theme.

More information about the Lego Friends: Lovely Hotel can be found here:
http://legoblog.exblog.jp/15189357/

The site is in Japanese, so some details, such as the designers name are still a mystery. If you have any information feel free to leave a note.

Lovely Hotel Update:

Some new information and photos of the Lovely Hotel have popped up online, see them here: http://everydaybricks.com/more-details-about-that-charming-lego-friends-lovely-hotel/

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Thorin II Oakenshield, King Under The Mountain, & King Of Durin’s Folk.