If you’ve been following my blog then you probably have figured out that I am really excited about the new game LEGO Rock Band. As a Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, and Sing Star fan (Can you tell I like music video games? I also like to do karaoke, but that’s another story. ) LEGO Rock Band seems like the perfect combination to me.
Now I know that several, okay more than several, true AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) may not see it the same way. They see LEGO just following on the bandwagon (yes, pun again intended) to make more money. And maybe that is the case, but I really don’t care. I mean its LEGO, its fun songs, and its a video game. Plus the more and more I see of the game, the more and more I just can’t wait to get my hands on my very own copy!
If you’ve been waiting to see just what the actual gameplay looks like, well wait no longer! *Warning these are spoilers, so if you don’t want to see them till you play the game, don’t watch the videos.
“Kung Fu Fighting”
“Suddenly I See”
“A-Punk”
*Read no further if you don’t want to find out some of the LEGO Rock Band secrets — you’ve been warned.
By watching these and the other 37 game play video games you get a very good idea of the crazy shenanigans and situations that the video game designers place our favorite Minifigures in. The game covers various themes, eras and genres, mixing them as only LEGO can. In one song you are defending a castle with the “power of rock,” another you are deep underwater (I sense overtones of LEGO Atlantis), and in yet another you are trying to escape from the Securiti-T-Rex (don’t ask, its in the song “Monster”).
Although the game play itself is like any other Rock Band or Guitar Hero, the back ground stories and videos are LEGO at its best! The only problem I see is that you will want to watch the videos and won’t be able to concentrate on the game at the same time!
And though I still haven’t really played the game myself (except for a very brief moment at Comic Con with the demo game) I’m pretty sure that this will be very high on my Christmas wish list.
P.S. Any donations in that department will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to The Green Giant LEGO we finally have a release date for LEGO Atlantis — November 24th, 2009!!!
Although I figured that they would be releasing some of the 2010 sets for Christmas, I didn’t expect them to advertise it.
He also has several close up pictures of the actual Atlantis sets and elements.
The disks (or rings) look particualarly cool. Although I find it rather diceptive that the promo picture and the actual picture of the rings look different. From what I surmised from the concept pictures, there would be a different printed image on different rings. Of course that is why it’s called a “concept” picture. But I would have rather had the different images, that would have made them cooler looking.
If you would like to see more of his pictures, including some of the new 2010 Power Miners and some other extras you can check them out in his Official LEGO sets set on Flickr.
The LEGO Board Games won’t be available in the States till next year, but considering the season, I figured I’d post this very timely set. Over at EurobricksOky Wan Kenobi has posted a review of Monster 4.
The back of the box
The board game after you build it
A close up of the heads
I really like the different heads and the built spider (although he does only have 6 legs). Also, if you notice on the front of the box that the spider has 1×1 round plates with a hole in the middle. This is a new piece. I don’t know if this will replace existing 1×1 round plates, hopefully it will be in addition too. I can see some good uses for that piece already. And of course it comes with the new dice piece.
The one thing this set doesn’t have is any of the Microfigs that I mentioned in a previous post.
I finally got a chance to look at the Microfig at my SandLUG meeting last week. Andy Grubb, one of LEGOLAND’s Master Model Builders had bought the new set Creationary when he was in Denmark recently.
Although they have been tried in the past, the new LEGO Board Games seem to have been better thought out and better packaged. They certainly peaked my interest from the first time I saw them and I look forward to purchasing at least a few of them when they come out.
Sometimes I forget to check BrickShelf.com anymore. With Flickr so much more user friendly, BrickShelf just isn’t what it was. But if you don’t check it out once in a while, you miss out on some great things like Evildead’s great model “Hunting or being Hunted…”
The brick built Rhino is truly stunning!
I also like the split bush that the Rhino plunged through to get to his quarry. It’s details like that that make me happy.
When I first saw this I misread the title and thought that it said “Underwater Picnic.” Upon closer inspection I realized the actual title and what the scene was about. What I think is kind of funny is that either title works.
Ricardo Silva aka Evildead on Flickr has created this fun and expressive scene. I really like how he used the new fish element with trans lightsaber bars to suggest that they are swimming away from the underwater behemoth. And I really love how some of the submarine passengers look concerned while others are taking pictures or enjoying the unexpected entertainment.
I know that I’ve been focusing mainly on new LEGO product and not mentioning any of the cool MOC (my own creations) built recently, but with the holiday season fast approaching LEGO is pulling out all the stops when it comes to retail sales.
I wanted to let everyone know that Gamestop is having a promotion if you pre-order LEGO Rock Band. I first saw it at the store and snapped this picture:
I thought it was really cool especially when I saw that it said “Pre-order today and receive this keychain.” But then I saw the little asterisk at the end and did a little more digging online.
What it actually looks like is this:
Still cool, just not the same. And the whole “Backstage Pass” concept is more indicative of game. But at the same time I can see why LEGO would go with an actual LEGO keychain.
LEGO Rock Band retails for $49.99 USD for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and it retails for $29.99 for the Nintendo DS. The game will be available November 10, 2009.
The 2010 sets just keep popping up. I found out about these over at Eurobricks. LEGO Space Police Raid VPR 5981
LEGO Space Smash ‘n’ Grab 5982
They both look like pretty cool sets. With the new alien in LEGO Space Police Raid and the purple elements in Smash and Grab I’m definitely adding them to my want list. According to Amazon.com they will be released January 1st.
If this year is anything like past years however, I have a sneaky suspicion that a great deal of these “leaked” sets that are due to release in January will more than likely start showing up on the the shelves just around Christmas time. (This is just my personal opinion, not a fact).
One thing that I think is pretty funny about the new Smash and Grab set is what the alien is trying to steal — an ATM embedded in an asteriod (at least I think that’s what the set designers were going for).
You can see a zoomed-up version of the picture at Amazon.comUpdate: And if you look really closely you will see the new 1×3 tiles on the front. (Thanks Bruce for pointing that out)
Tomorrow I’ll preview some of next year’s Creator line so stay tuned.
Although not quite as exciting as the new LEGO Atlantis theme, I still think this is note worthy in the fact that LEGO is adding yet another member to the Minifig animal population in 2010.
The image is not as crisp and clear as the Atlantis pics, but you can still plainly see what the set is all about — pigs.
When I saw this on Dano’s photostream I thought about adding it to yesterday’s post but then I decided that it deserved its own post.
What I think is interesting is that LEGO is following the lead yet again from BrickForge. BrickForge has offered both LEGO compatible cows and pigs as well as sheep for quite a while in several different colors.
The official LEGO version will obviously be different from the BrickForge version but that’s okay, they can just be different breeds.
I own several of both the pigs and the sheep and I really like them. I have found BrickForge items to be high quality and worth the cost and I highly recommend them.
To be honest, I don’t usually pay as much attention to BrickForge and BrickArms as some of my male contemporaries for the simple reason that I’m not interested in weapons and armor. So although I do notice when new items are posted on Brothers Brick or Eurobricks I don’t always post them here.
One of the newest items that BrickForge has available for sale now that I think is quite fun — the mushroom.
Apparently the red ones were so popular that they are already out of stock! Hopefully they will get more soon.
BrickForge also has those fun scooters that have been popping up lately in several MOCs (my own creations).
Everyone who has one seems to enjoy them, in fact I’ll probably order some myself pretty soon. I’m looking forward to the LEGO City Farm in 2010, but I’ll make do with my BrickForge ones till then.
I mentioned earlier about the new 2010 theme LEGO Atlantis. We briefly got a glimpse of some of the sets at a Russian event called Festival Rossiyskogo Fan Forum before LEGO requested the images to be taken down. Well now because of Dano we can finally see what all the fuss is about.
Here you can see the new Minifigs
Check out the new trident and disk elements.
Here’s a close up of the new air tank helmet.
These sets and elements look like they have a lot of potential. I look forward to seeing them in real life soon. You can check out all the images here.
When Joe Sparano wanted to ask his girlfriend Kristin Kacerik to marry him he could have just gotten down on one knee. But that’s just not his style.
Instead he came up with an elaborate and really clever scheme in the guise of a “spontaneous” picnic celebrating their anniversary on July 18th, 2009.
Here’s Joe in his own words:
We were technically celebrating our dating anniversary, and since we regularly buy LEGO sets for each other, she didn’t suspect a thing. She didn’t know it at the time, but I had actually been planning the picnic (and all of its trappings) for months. It was a complicated scheme, but I couldn’t turn down the perfect opportunity to show her just how much she means to me.
Last September, after looking through a LEGO catalog together, it struck me just how perfectly LEGO represents our shared experience. Not only were we both huge LEGO geeks growing up, but neither of us really stopped (being geeks or growing up). Plus, we first met at a toy store (working at Toys R Us).
Over the next 6 months, I secretly assembled three custom LEGO sets. And on July 18th, I wrapped them up and gave them to her as “anniversary” gifts. The sets, the photography, and the boxes were assembled from the ground-up. The basic design was modeled after the 1980’s style, which is the era that she and I (separately) became life-long LEGO fans. All of the bricks were purchased new from Pick-a-Brick and BrickLink, and there were lots of amazing people online that helped me with my planning and research.
She and I decided awhile ago that we wanted the proposal to be a surprise, so I created a LEGO ring and box to stand in for the real thing.
Joe was able to capture the exact moment when Kristin realized that these were not just anniversary gifts.
The three gifts were opened in succession (#7181 Kristin & Joe, #7182 Our Favorite Things, and #7183 Engagement Picnic). She gasped in surprise as soon as she unwrapped the last set. At that moment, I proposed with the LEGO ring, and she said yes! It’s absolutely wonderful!
Here’s the real Joe and Kristen.
This is one of the best marriage proposal stories I’ve ever heard and the fact that it centers around LEGO makes it extra special in my book. Go check out Joe’s Flickr photostream to see even more pictures. Not to detract from the story itself, but Joe used some pretty clever building in his sets as well. You can see just how he made the Minifig scale ring too.
Congratulations to the happy couple!
I wonder if we’ll be seeing a “Wedding Day” set from Joe in the future.
I'm Mariann Asanuma, a former LEGO Master Model Designer and now a Freelance LEGO Artist and Author. Thanks for checking out my blog dedicated to all things LEGO. ;)
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a custom LEGO model.
) LEGO Rock Band seems like the perfect combination to me. 
(Thanks Bruce for pointing that out)
