Lego NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (21104) Reviewed with Designer Stephen Pakbaz

The new Lego CUUSOO set, NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover (21104), has recently been released and is extremely hard to find. Not only that, but reviews for the the Rover are also rare. Maybe it is because YCF Lego Reviews has pretty much posted the definitive video review. Not only do they have the set designer (and Curiosity engineer!), Stephen Pakbaz, assisting in the review, but this 18 minute video also features a Lego studio tour. The Lego Curiosity Rover is the smallest CUUSOO set yet. With 295 pieces and a price tag of $29.99. The little Rover features a unique 6 wheel rocker-bogie suspension, an articulated arm, and even a model nuclear power source. This thing is ready to explore Lego Mars.

One of the most interesting aspects of this review is that they spend a great deal of time comparing the released Rover with the original proposed Rover. The most apparent change is the color of Mars (baseplate) and its rocks. Opting for a gray color because the dark orange is not in production. Good news is that there are many gray rocks on Mars, so it stays accurate. There are two other big changes. The articulated arm has been reinforced, to prevent accidental breaking. And, the suspension has been refined. Stephen Pakbaz compliments Lego with designing a more accurate and sturdy suspension in the released Rover.

The video from YCF also features a pretty extensive tour of Stephen Pakbaz’s studio. Featuring other space themed models (Voyager, Juno…), Transformers, and even Samurai Jack’s villain: Aku. This is a great setup for a Lego room… wow.

http://youtu.be/63R25E4FigY

Check out the Mars Curiosity Rover over on Amazon: Curiosity Rover (21104)

Lego The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Lake-town Chase (79013) Reviewed by the Brothers Brick

The newest wave of the Lego The Hobbit sets are now available. The Brothers Brick have a great review of the star set, Lake-town Chase (79013). This set has 470 pieces, 5 minifigures, and can be found at $49.99. Lake-town Chase features two buildings, and a long boat. Interestingly, the long boat is made out of two smaller row boats. With a mast, and two shields hiding the seems. A nice barrel is included that helps tie this in with the previous Barrel Escape (79004) set. You can never have enough Lego Barrels.

These Lego Hobbit sets have proven to be slight spoilers for the films. Here it looks like there is some action scene and/or jail escape in the Lake-town portion. Which seems exciting, even though nothing like this happens in the books.

The weakest part of Lake-town Chase is the minifigure selection. By now most collectors will have a Bilbo, and maybe a Thorin. The last thing we need in a new set is a Bilbo and/or Gandalf unless they contain new prints/designs. It would have been great if one or two of these minifigures could have been town guards. What funny hats.

Make sure to read the whole review for the Lego The Hobbit, Desolation of Smaug, Lake-town Chase (79013) over on Brothers Brick: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2013/11/25/the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-79013-lake-town-chase-review/

Lake-town Chase is also available on Amazon here: Amazon.

HispaBrick 018 – Kaneda’s Bike, Miniland Building, Mindstorms & More!

It’s time for another issue of HispaBrick. Issue 018 is available for download now. This is easily one of the best Lego Magazines out there. Even better, it is free. There is no excuse for not checking it out.

HispaBrick 018 features some great articles about, Kaneda’s Bike (Akira), Miniland Figure Building, Mindstorms, Legostar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Technic, and LDD. Plus many reviews and interviews. The 101 page magazine keeps getting better.

Download the English version here: http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/en/content/english-hispabrick-magazine-018

The Spanish (Español) version here: http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/content/hispabrick-magazine-018-0

Lego Minifigures (71004) The Lego Movie Series Reviewed by WhiteFang

The new Lego Minifigures (71004) The Lego Movie Series is about to hit store shelves. WhiteFang has done a full detailed photo review over on Eurobricks. This new series is a slight departure from the normal Lego Collectible Minifigures. This is the first series to focus on one theme. Here it is the upcoming Lego Movie. It has been assumed that this would be Series 12 of these Minifigs, but there is no mention of a series number anywhere on the packaging. Instead Lego has made slight design changes to call it “The Lego Movie.” WhiteFang notes that we won’t be able to get a definitive answer on the nomenclature until the either Series 12 or Series 13 shows up. And, who knows where the upcoming Simpsons Minifigures will fit in.

The Lego Movie Series contains a whole lot of personality. The Lego heads (faces) are all new, with a wide variety of happy and angry expressions. Combined with some of the new hair pieces means that this set will blend in well with other Lego minifigures. It looks like Emmet, President Business, Scribble-Face Bad Cop, and the Panda Guy are the common minifies this time around. With Calamity Drone, Mrs. Scratchen-Post, William Shakespeare, Gail the Construction Worker, Velma Staplebot, and Marsha the Queen of the Mermaids being the rare figures.

This series contains 16 minifigures: Calamity Drone, Gail the Construction Worker, Abraham Lincoln, Larry the Barista, Panda Guy, Velma Staplebot, William Shakespeare, Taco Tuesday Guy, “Where are my pants?” Guy, Wiley Fusebot, President Buisness, Wild West Wyldstyle, Hard Had Emmet, Scribbe-Face Bad Cop, Mrs. Scratchen-Post, and Marsha the Queen of the Mermaids.

Check out the whole review of the Lego Minifigures, The Lego Movie Series, written by WhiteFang, over on Eurobricks: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=88428

Lego Parisian Restaurant Modular Building (10243) Reviewed by Huw

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.

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.

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 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.

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…”

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/

Lego Life of George (21200, 21201) Review (Build Your Brain with George): Awesome!

A few years ago Lego released Life of George, a building game involving Lego and your phone. It has been an under appreciated experiment of combining Lego with technology. The original release of Life of George (21200) has recently been updated and repackaged as Life of George (212001). It seems like the only difference between the two is a redesigned box. The original box has almost no details and was quite minimalist. The packaging appears to have been created before the iPhone app was completed, so there are almost no similarities with the box and the app. There is also no mention of the Android version. All of these oddities have been corrected in the new release. The original box is pictured here.

Life of George contains:

144 Lego bricks
1 Play mat
1 George sticker
1 Life of George App
1 Build your Brain with George App

The normal retail price is $29.99 but can be found for much less. Amazon currently has it listed at ±$20.00.

Life of George

Life of George is a world wide tour where George is filling out his travel journal with photos. George finds himself exploring North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Each continent has many journal “pages” with a good amount of photo challenges to do. There is even a special Holiday 2012 chapter filled with many more levels.

If you happen to finish all of the include content, then you can move on (or skip) to the user generated challenges. This is where the creativity of Lego shines. The hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of online user challenges offer many many hours of Lego fun. With just 144 Lego bricks and 6 colors, the variety of what can be built is limitless. Pikachu, Spiderman, Mario, Link, Jake, Mickey Mouse, Boba Fett, and Angry Birds are just a few of the challenges in the User Gallery.

There is also a Build Your Own mode, where your own creations can be photographed, documented, and uploaded for other Life of George users to view and build.

If you happen to have some friends or family around, there is a multiplayer mode to try out. After five quick challenges the scores are totaled and a winner declared. If you can find them, Life of George supports up to 4 different players.

To play Life of George, you need to use the included Lego bricks, the play mat, and your phone. Select which “photo” challenge to do, and then build it as fast as possible. There is a generous timer counting down, which can really build up the tension.

When the challenge is completed, you place the model on the play mat, and line up the board with the camera on your phone. This portion of the game can give some people trouble, but I found that if the whole play mat is in the camera frame then the app worked perfectly.

Life of George then compares your photo to the model, and assigns a score based on accuracy and quickness. The app needs to be balanced for people of all ages. So it can be pretty difficult to get a full 5 star score. To earn 1-2 stars you really need to mess up, most scores seem to land in the 3-4 range.

Overall the Life of George app is full of fun. Everything looks good and works well. Lego has been focused on making this a great experience. It alone is worth the price of admission.

Build Your Brain with George

Build Your Brain with George is another app that works with the Life of George set. Build Your Brain is free on the various phone app stores. This time around the focus is on small challenges that test your ability to recognize patterns, and non-traditional Lego instructions.

This time around George is now a host of a game show. Randomly assigning tasks from six different categories. Such as Silhouette challenges, Logic puzzles, Bonus modes, Memory challenges, and Shape Finding.

Some of these challenges are super easy, and some are really difficult. Once again the game can be played between 1-4 players. Competing for high scores, and the largest ”Brain Level.”

Build Your Brain with George is not as smooth of an experience as Life of George. A lot of the challenges can be unclear, and the camera recognition is not as accurate. The nature of Build Your Brain can lead to frustration, and the small technical issues do not help. It is still a good experience, and has a whole lot in common with the Nintendo games “Brain Age” and “Big Brain Academy.”

Conclusions

Lego Life of George is a whole lot of fun. Even the box says so: “Awesome!” The whole package adds up to be a good value. It is amazing to see what can be built with only 144 basic Lego bricks.

Lego Life of George (21201) is currently available at Amazon.

Lego United Nations Headquarters (21018) Reviewed @ Toys N Bricks

The newest set in the Lego Architecture theme, the United Nations Headquarters (21018) is now available
(Amazon). With 597 pieces and a $49.99 price tag this is one of the more reasonably priced Architecture sets. Over at Toys N Bricks, Brickbuilder0937 has recently posted a full pictorial review of the set. The Lego United Nations Headquarters seems to be one of the best Architectures sets with an extremely accurate (for Lego) and professional design.

The set depicts not only the U.N. tower, but the other four surrounding buildings too. By the time you complete the base, the layout of the complex is very apparent.

If you have been looking around for “1 x 2 trans light blue” bricks then this is the set to get, with 155 included. They are put to good use, creating some beautiful windows. This set also features some of the “smoothest” brick built slopes. Achieved by combining “headlight bricks” and the “1 x 1 with stud-on-one-side” bricks. These half step slopes can be seen on the smaller surrounding buildings.

The little Lego lever is a perfect representation of a flag pole, one of the best details in this set. Making the building instantly recognizable as the U.N. Headquarters. Just don’t accidentally brush up on those levers.

The whole build is quite a bit larger in person then it looks on the box. Which, is the opposite effect from most of these Architecture sets.

“In the past I was skeptical of buying the Architecture series sets because they seemed small for their price, but after seeing how accurate and profesional this model was, I was impressed.” — Brickbuilder0937

Read the full Lego United Nations review over at Toys N Bricks: http://toysnbricks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9403

The Lego United Nations Headquarters (21018) is available from Amazon: here.

HispaBrick Magazine 017 – Vehicles, Mindstorms, Reviews & Interviews

The best digital Lego Magazine is back. HispaBrick Magazine 017 is available now for download as a PDF in english or spanish.

Featuring articles on Lego vehicles, Mindstorms, Robotics, Modular Landscapes, & Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Plus many reviews and interviews. This 100 page PDF is full of so much Lego content it might be the greatest issue yet.

http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/en/content/english-hispabrick-magazine-017

Lego Star Wars: Jabba’s Sail Barge (75020) Reviewed by Csacsa234 @ Eurobricks

The new Lego Star Wars: Jabba’s Sail Barge (75020) has officially been released and is starting to show up at some retailers. This set comes with 4 minifigures (Slave Leia, Max Rebo, Weequay, and Ree-Yees), 1 bigfigure (Jabba the Hutt) and 1 droid (R2D2). It contains many hidden play features, and some nice details. Jabba’s Sail Barge comes in at 850 pieces and a $119.99 price tag. Which is a good deal cheaper then the previous Jabba’s Sail Barge (6210) on the secondary market.

Eurobricks user Csacsa234 has already posted a full photo review. Noting that there are hidden pirate cannons, flick firing missiles, undercarriage wheels, a removable deck/roof, and foldable sides/walls. This set is full of play features.

Inside Jabba’s Sail Barge is a kitchen, jail, throne room, and a music stage. Max Rebo and his futuristic piano (or is it an organ?) steal the show from Jabba in this set. He just happens to be a perfect Lego minifigure, oozing cuteness and a hot blue color scheme. Interestingly, Lego has provided film (thin plastic) sails for the Sail Barge which will hopefully last a long time. There are also 26 stickers, which luckily are not required. Jabba’s Sail Barge looks great with and without stickers.

The Lego minifigures are extremely detailed. With a newish version of R2D2 (grey top, and better printing), Slave Leia, Jabba the Hutt, Ree-Yees, Weequay, and Max Rebo. While the Jabba the Hutt and his goons look great the real star is Max Rebo (sorry Leia). Just look at that little blue dude.

Go check out the full review of the Lego Star Wars: Jabba’s Sail Barge (75020) with more photos and details over at Eurobricks: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85841

Jabba’s Sail Barge is usually on sale for a few dollars off over at Amazon, check it out: Lego Star Wars: Jabba’s Sail Barge (75020)

Lego Mindstorms EV3 (31313) Reviewed by Lee Hutchinson @ Ars Technica

The new Lego Mindstorms EV3 (31313) is almost here with an official release of September 1st. The early reviews are starting to be published, with an especially good review by Lee Hutchinson over at Ars Technica. The whole 601 piece set includes an Intelligent EV3 Brick, 3 servo motors, a remote control, a color sensor, a touch sensor, an infrared sensor, an instruction manual, and Mac/Win software. And, to no surprise, no batteries.

“Still, price is really the only downside to this set. They’re ludicrously fun to play with, and I had a great time sitting on the floor like a kid piecing a robot together (and the whole process was made even better by the fact that I got to do it on the clock!). It’s hard to deny that making robots and then programming them to do your bidding is just straight-up awesome.”

Check out Lee Hutchinson’s full review of the Lego Mindstorms EV3 (31313) over at Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/review-lego-mindstorms-ev3-means-giant-robots-powerful-computers/

For a quick video review, Lee Hutchinson made a great video: