The 2013 edition of the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar is now available on LEGO Shop@Home and at Amazon. Shame on you, Shop@Home, for putting an image of every model as the default image for the product page. There are a lot of people who prefer to remain spoiler-free and actually open up the models on their designated days. So if you’re one of those people, try and avert your eyes from the main picture and hit the Add to Bag button on the side. Price is $39.99 and, spoiler alert!, comes with the awesome new Scout Trooper, Holiday Jango Fett, and baby Boba Fett along with a bevy of micromodels and other minifigures.
For those of you interested in the other themes’ advent calendars, Friends (Shop@Home, Amazon) and City (Shop@Home, Amazon) calendars are available as well. These will run you $29.99 each.
LEGO Shop@Home is running two promotions for the month of September that are designed to drain your wallet dry.
Spend at least $50 on LEGO Star Wars product and receive the previously hard-to-get Clone Trooper Lieutenant minifigure. This offer is valid from September 1 all the way through October 31, assuming supplies last that long. Though if I were you, and you’ve been pining away for this minifig, I wouldn’t wait. You snooze, you lose
In addition to the Clone Trooper Lieutentant promo, LEGO has another promo to drain your wallet dry: spend $75 or more on any LEGO product and receive a free polybag of a MINI Volkswagen T1 Camper Van. Offer is valid from September 1-30 or while supplies last.
Both offers should trigger in one order if you spend $75 on LEGO Star Wars, or $50 on LEGO Star Wars and another $25 on any other product(s). If you do spend $75, you’ll also enjoy free shipping!
Two new Minecraft sets are now available: 21105 Micro World – The Village and 21106 Micro World – The Nether. Both cost the same as the original 21102 Minecraft set, $34.99. They each come with over 460 pieces and feature the same quad design as the original where the final model is made up of four separate sections. All of the sections from all of the models can be linked together at the base creating an expanding Minecraft world.
I haven’t seen it popup on Amazon or any other retailer yet but we’ll post once they do.
Update: The Nether is available from Amazon. No sign of The Village yet.
The latest version of LEGO Mindstorms robotics kit, EV3, is now available from LEGO Shop@Home and Amazon.com. The set will cost you $349.99 and is a vast improvement over the previous 8547 Mindstorms NXT 2.0 system. Below is the feature set copies from the page at LEGO Shop@Home:
Combining the versatility of the LEGO building system with the most advanced technology we’ve ever developed, unleash the creative powers of the new LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set to create and command robots that walk, talk, think and do anything you can imagine. Follow the step-by-step 3D building instructions to create TRACK3R, R3PTAR, SPIK3R, EV3RSTORM and GRIPP3R and bring them to life with an easy, intuitive and icon-based programming interface. Grab the enclosed remote control and take on challenging ready-made missions or download the free app and command your robot using your smart device. Want to share your own creations and be inspired by others? Logon to LEGO.com/mindstorms to access loads of cool content and interact with a huge online community of other LEGO MINDSTORMS fans. The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robot revolution has begun!
• At the heart of the product is the Intelligent EV3 Brick with powerful ARM9 processor, USB port for WiFi and Internet connectivity, Micro SD card reader, back-lit buttons and 4 motor ports
• Includes 3 interactive servo motors, remote control, improved and redesigned color sensor, redesigned touch sensor, infrared sensor and 550+ LEGO® Technic elements
• Control your robot via the infrared sensor system
• Intuitive software (PC and Mac) with icon-based drag-and-drop programming interface
• Control and command your robot with the enclosed remote control or download the free app for your smart device
• Includes 550+ LEGO® Technic elements – everything you need to create amazing robots!
• Building instructions for 5 robots included. Download bonus building instructions developed by real fans and endorsed by LEGO at LEGO.com/mindstorms
• Take on challenging ready-made missions
• Share your creations with a huge online community at LEGO.com/mindstorms
• Check out the cool black, red and white design
• Batteries not included
• If you can think it, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 lets you create it
• SPIK3R (incl. legs) measures over 16″ (41cm) high, 14″ (38cm) long and 15″ (40cm) wide
• EV3RSTORM measures over 16″ (41cm) high, 7″ (19cm) long and 8″ (21cm) wide
• R3PTAR measures over 13″ (35cm) high, 31″ (81cm) long and 3″ (8cm) wide
• GRIPP3R measures over 11″ (30cm) high, 9″ (24cm) long and 7″ (18cm) wide
• TRACK3R measures over 3″ (9cm) high, 10″ (27cm) long and 8″ (21cm) wide
Still curious? LEGO Education put up this page that breaks down the feature sets side by side for easy comparison. And yes, all NXT components are usable with EV3.
So you went to Jabba’s Palace with an elaborate, multi-tiered plan to break out your favourite smuggler/coffee table and you ticked off your host by walking in, killing his guards, brainwashing his toadies and threatening him. Obviously, Yoda didn’t teach you any manners in that five minute training montage that culminated in you deciding that getting your butt whooped in your first real fight meant you were now a full-fledged Jedi Knight. I don’t suppose any of those plans you made included the fact that Jabba has a gigantic, hungry and decidedly not particular about who it eats, creature in a hole directly under the spot you chose to tell that fat disgusting man-slug how things were going to go down, or else. I didn’t think so.
Marvel.com has announced Annoying Guy #3 (Bradley Cooper) from the Academy Award Winning-film, Hangover Part III, as the voice of Rocket Raccoon. There are any number of jokes I could throw in here, like how he was basically the annoying “boyfriend” of Batman’s wife in Alias, or how he played what was basically himself when he was Face in The A-Team…
But ultimately, I’m mostly just disappointed that they didn’t tap Billy West for the role, since he was doing it in the Ultimate Spiderman. With Futurama ending, he has more time. Plus, he’s awesome! So… everyone enjoy the fact that the guy from Silver Linings Playbook is going to voice the most butt-kicking rodent in the Marvel Universe.
Of course, that being said… I am totally looking forward to getting a Rocket Raccoon minifig!
YoYo.com is offering customers two coupons that stack which well net you a savings of about 37% once everything is said and done:
20LABORDAY will save you 20% 20OFFTODAY will save you 20%
Yep, stackable 20% coupons. The critically acclaimed 75021 Republic Gunship and the critically condemned 75020 Jabba’s Sail Barge are both $119.99 MSRP, apply both coupons and the price drops to $74.99 before tax. Free shipping threshold is at $35 or enjoy a $4.99 flat rate if your order is less. The catch is 20LABORDAY can only be used by new customers. Otherwise, you can only use 20OFFTODAY which is still pretty nice.
I saw this pop up in the Flickr LEGO Group, and knew it was something that we certainly had to feature. Misterzumbi has his own take on the DeLorean from back to the future that does more than a few things right. First and most obvious, it’s silver. Second, it showcases the changes throughout the movies, which is very nice. Third, it’s just nice looking! Look at how nice that inside looks!
This shot really shows off the design of it, getting the 50s madcap on the front and whitewalls added by Doc Brown, and the good-ole Mr. Fusion in the back for running the time circuits. You can check out some more pictures on Misterzumbi’s photostream on Flickr.
While the Lord of the Rings LEGO line has only been out for a couple of years at this point, it’s still surprising to think that the movies they’re based on are twelve years (Fellowship was released in 2001) old at this point. There’s a lot that’s changed in the years since then, both for LEGO (having more than one licensed line) and the actors involved (remember when people thought Elijah Wood was going to be in everything after these movies).
I remember being in the theater, not yet awed by Fellowship and bought in to the setting that was going on, and thinking about the actors that I knew from other films. Frodo was in that gawd-awful Rob Reiner movie, North. Gimli played Leonardo Di Vinci on Star Trek Voyager (he may have also had some small role in some independent film about an archeologist). Aragorn was in love with Steven Tyler’s daughter… I can distinctly remember seeing her and just waiting for some Aerosmith ballad to start playing in the background (Armageddon ruined that band).
But more than that, when the council scene started, it was Agent Smith walking out in a rare break in all the walking that made me snicker. By the end of the movie, I would associate all of the actors with their characters in the film, but for a brief, happy moment, I was just waiting for him to go flying through the air on some wire stunts.
This set sets up a lot of the rest of the movie, and introduces two of the lesser (yet important) characters from Lord of the Rings, Elrond and Arwen, along with giving us another Gimli and Frodo. It also comes in at $25, which means it’s obviously not going to have the size/scope of the council scene in either movie (which featured a lot of people in both). I was suitably impressed with the Wizard Battle, the smaller set in the new line, so I’m curious how this stacks up in comparison.
Hot off all the rumors yesterday of trying to connect Jarvis with Ultron, Hank Pym still not being part of the sequel, and Matt Damon as the Boy Wonder (okay, he denied that, but I can hope, can’t I)… we get an actual, official announcement: Marvel has cast James Spader, otherwise known as the guy who was originally Dr. Daniel Jackson in Stargate (but no one remembers that because the vastly better TV show used Michael Shanks for that role).
Okay, he’s also been on Boston Legal, The Practice, and was in Lincoln, but this is an interesting turn. Ultron is a tough villain to cast, and one has to assume that the villain will mostly be CGI. Not sure how his role will shake out, but certainly is a bigger name to see attached than we’re used to for baddies. Then again… in Whedon We Trust…
You can read their full release over at Marvel.com .
