exclusive lester minifigure now available in #LEGOStoreLondon!

Lester [40308]
(Photo by: Poncemel Ardiente)

Finally! Lester!

The rumors are true! As reported almost a year ago (yes, it has been almost a year since the biggest LEGO Store in London has opened), more Lester minifigures have been released!

In case you have forgotten, Lester is the official mascot of the LEGO Store London. He was featured heavily in the grand opening promotions, and also in the store design. The quintessential gentleman was said to spark an unexpectedly huge interest among brick fans that the initial plan of featuring him only in print and as an actual mascot was refined the last minute to convert him into brick form as well. During that time, there were only 275 ultra-exclusive Lester minifigures produced (no thanks to the limited and previously discontinued bowler hat piece). During the opening promotions, Lester can only be randomly obtained via a scratch card after a £55 (or more) purchase. He became super rare that a Lester minifigure was listed in the secondary market for up to £3500!

But now, for only £5.99, the Lester [40308] exclusive minifigure can be bought exclusively in the LEGO Store London in Leicester Square! It may not have the exclusivity of the first 275, but it's exactly the same thing! Actually, the new minifigure now comes with an added umbrella piece! Everything is neatly packaged in a pretty polybag. Purchase is reported to be limited to only three per household.

LEGO Store London Exclusive
(Photo by: Poncemel Ardiente)

It's really great for the LEGO Store London to offer something really exclusive, considering that it is a global flagship store for the brand. I was really expecting an I Heart London kind of theme, but Lester is definitely way better, in the sense that he has encaptured that classic British charm.

P.S. Many thanks to my best mates Kuys Ponce and Ate Joyce for snapping the pics, and for getting me my own Lester minifigure! See you soon!

disney castle [71040] gallery

Disney Castle [71040]

It's the LEGO Disney Castle [71040]! Need I say more?

My ever-loving wife bought the magical LEGO Disney Castle [71040] for her milestone birthday (and on triple VIP points with about £50 cashback!). As she claimed sole ownership to this huge set, I let her build it on her own. She actually enjoyed the long hours of solo building. She promised me to do a review on her favorite LEGO property. But as this post has sat on my drafts folder for a few months now, I'm just going to do a gallery instead. Until that promised review was done, this post will remain a gallery (ehem, ehem).

Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse

Minnie Mouse

Donald Duck

Daisy Duck

Tinker Bell

Disney Castle

Main Entrance

Clock Tower

Princess and the Frogs

Into the Open Air

Disney Castle Interior

Ballroom

Magic Carpet Ride

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo

Be Our Guest

Touch the Spindle

Der Zauberlehrling

Once Upon a Dream

Mirror Mirror

Gesundheit

Once Upon a Time

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

Welcome Party

Where Dreams Come True

unikitty x N-POP girl

N-POP Girl, Pink Teddy Bear, & Unikitty

Sugar and spice, and everything nice. That's what Princess Unikitty and the N-POP Girl are made of!

When The LEGO Movie was released, there were two characters who stole the whole film. One already has released his own feature film (ahem, The LEGO Batman Movie), and the other will soon have her own TV series. Who's that and what show? It's Unikitty!! (That's not a typo. The title really has an exclamation point).

Unikitty hails from Cloud Cuckoo Land, the capital of rainbows and puppies. She is half unicorn, half anime kitten, and one endless dance party. But don't let her facade fool you. She is one of the LEGO Master Builders who defeated Lord Business! And be careful! Sometimes, Unikitty can lose control of her positive nature and get enraged. She then becomes the red Angry Kitty.

The only Unikitty brick built figure that I have is from the LEGO Dimensions [71231]. I was still in my dark brick ages when The LEGO Movie sets first came out. I'll try to hunt down the other variants, but I think it's a bit impossible to complete the whole set. Why? Because there's a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive among them! With the upcoming release of the Unikitty! TV show, I hope there will be more LEGO sets with Unikitty figures to be released (even though the show deviated from the brick-style animation).

Unikitty

The popularity of Unikitty definitely has crossed over worlds. The image of the lovable crossbreed princess is seen in the shirt of one of The LEGO Ninjago Movie characters, the N-POP Girl. This minifigure is proving the be really popular in the series. With her cutesy sweet as cotton candy appearance, and her charming pink little teddy bear accessory, it's easy to see why.

In her official profile page, the N-POP Girl is said to be leading the dance revolution in the Ninjago pop music circuit. There's also a hint that she might also be the biggest fan girl of the secret ninja. I just really hope there's no cruel plot twist wherein she will end up as one of the villains!

N-POP Girls

Unikitty and the N-POP Girl have a lot in common so it's just natural to play with them together. This is one of my most fun photo shoots ever and I'm really, really happy with the end results. Something tells me that there will be more Unikitty x N-POP Girl collaborations in the future.

Cuteness Overload

The LEGO Ninjago Movie will be released 21 September in the Philippines, 22 September in the USA, and 13 October (I know!) in the UK.

P. S. My wife super loved the first pic that she rotated it and used it as her phone wallpaper and it's perfect!

Unikitty x N-POP Girl Phone Wallpaper

BB-8 [75187] review

BB-8-ception

BB-8!

I mentioned before that I fell in love with BB-8 [75187] set ever since I saw it in the previews, and I'm sure I'll fall deeper once I've built it. True enough, I did.

Before we go to the adorable droid, can we talk about the box first?

BB-8 [75187]

The packaging for The Last Jedi looks very sophisticated and futuristic with its white and red color scheme. It literally goes with anything. Then the LEGO logo in red made everything perfect, complementing the whole look of the box.

As if the brick built BB-8 is not adorable enough, the set comes with a minifigure as well. I remember two years ago, with the release of The Force Awakens, it's quite difficult to obtain this famous astromech droid in brick form. Now, it's in almost every LEGO Star Wars set (but that's not a problem. One can never have enough brick droids). The chase minifigure status has now been passed to its emo version, BB-H8 BB-9E, which is so far only included in Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter [75179] and in the First Order Star Destroyer [75190].

BB-8 Minifigure

In terms of building experience, I had tons of fun in making my own BB-8. For me, it has an average level of difficulty, though it's my very first time building a LEGO sphere. At first, I was having difficulties following the instructions but after a while, I was able to get use to it for they are pretty repetitive. Building small white on white bricks can be a bit of an eye sore, but that's nothing compared to what they do to your fingers. All in all, the BB-8 [75187] set has a total of 1106 pieces.

Brick Built BB-8

The final build has surprisingly a lot of tricks in store. Utilizing different Technic parts, you can turn one wheel at the side to rotate the detailed head. Another wheel can be moved to open the access hatch and extend the welding torch, giving you his famous thumbs-up pose. Unfortunately, the BB-8 model does not roll, but that's okay. It still gives a sufficient amount of play experience.

Welding Torch Up

This faithfully reproduced model also comes with a display stand and a decorative fact plaque, making it a great display piece in any room. Without the stand, the final build measures over 25 cm high and 15 cm wide. With the display stand, it measures over 26 cm long.

Display Stand & Decorative Fact Plaque

In terms of value for money, I think the BB-8 [75187] set is very much worth it (or maybe I'm just biased). It retails at UK £84.99, around 7.7p per piece.

Final BB-8 Display

Overall, the BB-8 [75187] set is a must have for any Star Wars fan, as evidenced by its current out of stock or backorder status. And my fearless forecast is that it has the same potential as the classic R2-D2 [10225] set. I just hope LEGO will release a BB-H8 BB-9E in the same format very, very soon!

LEGO star wars magazine: issue 27

LEGO Star Wars Magazine Issue 27

The LEGO Star Wars Magazine Issue 27 is already available and the awesome gift is Rey's Speeder!

Finally! the LEGO Star Wars Magazine has finally caught up with The Force Awakens (but then there's Rogue One and the upcoming The Last Jedi, no pressure)! And what's the best way to represent the new trilogy in this monthly magazine than with Rey herself (though she's just a tiny black round plate).

Rey's Speeder

Building the model is a lot of fun. The build starts with the hood on an upright position then eventually rotating to gradually reveal the final look. The design is really smart considering the scale, with every detail depicting something, like Rey's salvage bag and her hauls. It just fell a bit flat when placed on a surface. I have to place it on two transparent clear round tiles to make it appear like it's hovering.

Rey's Speeder microbuild reminded me a lot of Luke's Landspeeder (see it in this post), and it's really easy to see why. Both shared the same color schemes, and even the same elements. (Duh, they're both speeders in desert planets!).

First Order Snowspeeder

For next month's issue, which comes out on 11 October, make way for the First Order Snowspeeder. Yahoo! More The Force Awakens love!

P. S. I think the Original LEGO Star Wars Minifigure stamp pictured above is a mistake, unless they do include a minifigure. We'll see next month!

september mini model build: dinosaur

September Mini Model Build [40247]

The LEGO Store's Monthly Mini Model Build for September is a cutesy dinosaur!

For this month, the Mini Model Build not only moved up to the surface, but also traveled back in time. The splashy underwater theme was left behind in favor of this adorable prehistoric reptile. As always, the design is simple and colorful to appeal to the kids targeted in the monthly activity. It comes with a green body, bright red and green spikes, and articulated arms and tail! The head is also movable as it is attached to a turntable piece (though the 360° turn is a bit creepy for me, but I'm sure the little ones will find it funny).

Dinosaur

If you want to build your own amazing dino, check out the instructions here. It doesn't have to be the exact bricks and the exact color. Be creative and imaginative!

Next month's Mini Build is a high-tech robot! It will be available in UK Lego Stores on 5 October, from 1600 to 1800. For more details, contact your local LEGO Stores or check out their online Store News.

scarif stormtrooper [40176] review

Scarif Stormtrooper [40176]

More Rogue One minifigures!

One of the freebies in the LEGO Force Friday II offers is the Scarif Stormtrooper [40176] polybag. It's free with any LEGO Star Wars purchase over £25. It's the second from the (hopefully long) series of interlocking Star Wars display sets. The first one is the rebel droid R3-M2 (which I previously made a review post). At first I thought the series was limited to droids, but we obviously now know that's not the case. The good thing about this is it opened a lot more possibilities!

Shoretrooper

For the minifigure per se, it appears that the one included in this [40176] polybag is a Shoretrooper Squad Leader, as identified by his sand blue stripe along the top of the chest plate and onto the shoulder guards. Another visual cue is the kama attached to the belt. This is in comparison to the Regular Shoretrooper (all sand-colored armor) in the Battle on Scarif [75171] set, and the Shoretrooper Captain (mostly sand blue-colored chest plate and left shoulder guard) in the TIE Striker [75154] set.

Unmasked

The minifig head is the standard Stormtrooper head with black eyebrows, cheek lines, chin dimple, and a grimace expression. The Scarif Stormtrooper is equipped with a blaster rifle built by attaching a prismatic binoculars to a ribbed spacegun.

Backdrop & Stand

The backdrop and stand is almost identical to the one from the R3-M2 [40268] polybag, with the exceptions of gray connector pegs and a Scarif scenery. Of course, there's the sticker label announcing what kind of Stormtrooper he is. It's just a bugger that his rank was left out.

Scarif Stormtrooper

Overall, I am very happy with the Scarif Stormtrooper [40176] polybag, and, as I said before, the possible direction this line may go. (Can you give me my LEGO Lothcat now?).