Presenting the 10196: Grand Carousel

A couple of posts back I mentioned that there were some new sets coming out later this year. The first of the sets mentioned was the 10196 Merry Go Round. 😀 Well, now I can officially say its called the Grand Carousel. Over at Eurobricks you can see the full post, but here are the highlights:

This set was presented to us “LIVE”, at the AFOL Event, “1. Obernauer Fanausstellung” in Germany.

#10196 Grand Carousel
Ages 16+. 3,263 pieces
Available July 1st 2009

It’s a wonderful day for a ride on the merry-go-round! This elegant and beautifully detailed LEGO model isn’t just for show – it really spins and plays music while the horses and swing boats move up and down! Built with intricate, lifelike ornaments and features, the Grand Carousel is a spectacular addition to any LEGO display or carousel collection. Includes 9 minifigures and LEGO Power Functions motor and sound brick. Measures over 12” (30 cm) x 12” (30 cm) x over 12” (30 cm).

Features and Benefits
– Experience the romance of this merry-go-round decorated with brightly colored elements!
– Features 9 minifigures including ride operator!
– The platform rotates clockwise/counter clockwise and the music plays!
– The swing boats and galloping jumper horses move up and down!
– Lots of realistic details including reflective decals on the center pole, ornate ornamentation, fleur de lys, bejeweled horses and profiles of jesters!
– The tent-like top is made of canvas!
– The Grand Carousel measures over 12” (30 cm) x 12” (30 cm) x over 12” (30 cm).

Pricing
United States $ 249.99
United Kingdom £ 166.35
Central Europe € 229.99
Canada $ 349.99

From the first moment I saw this set, I fell in love with it! LEGO just seems to be getting better and better. The Taj Mahal, the Medieval Market Village, and now this! It looks like LEGO is finally listening to all of us adult LEGO fans and giving us what we want. Okay, so the set is expensive, but at that piece count I can’t really fault that either. It simply is a stunning set with so many oodles of goodness I can’t seem to get over it.

With the Medieval Market Village I was amazed at all the detailed parts and the special pieces that they provided (including the much coveted Turkey). The Grand Carousel far surpasses even the Village (which I love, by the way 😉 ) with all the special elements included — tan beards, jester hats, sound and animation.

I am very, very excited about this set, except for the dent its going to make in my wallet. 😀

New LEGO Sets coming later this year

I found some interesting news today. Talk of new LEGO sets always gets me excited. 😀 I didn’t see the images, they were already taken down at the request of LEGO before I got a chance, but the descriptions sound interesting. 😉

10196 – Merry-go-round : with motor and sound parts, so I suppose it can rotate and play music! To be released in July 2009!

The two coming Advent Calendars, this time City and Pirate, to be released in October 2009!

10198 and 10199, no set box pictures yet, but confirmed to be “SW Blockade Runners” and Creator Christmas Set

I’ll keep looking for you. As soon as I know more, or have pictures, I’ll post it.

Special Star Wars offer May 3rd and 4th on LEGO.com

LEGO Star Wars is 10 years old! To celebrate, LEGO.com has a special offer of a limited edition Star Wars poster with any purchase starting midnight tonight, May 3rd and 4th while supplies last.

Each (poster is) individually numbered up to 15,000, celebrating the LEGO Star Wars 10th Anniversary and featuring over 160 minifigures that have appeared in a LEGO Star Wars set in the last 10 years. You will also automatically be entered to win a first-edition LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon™ – number 5, 6 or 7.*!

If your a LEGO Star Wars fan, this is just the offer for you. 😀

LEGO Rock Band Is Real

The rumors have been floating around the internet for months, people have speculated on if it was just somebody’s pipe dream, or somebody leaking things a tad too early. Many people, including me, thought it was an unusual combination, but that just made the rumor seem more true. 😉

Well now, after all the speculation, it’s been confirmed. You can read the entire press release or you can read the highlights here:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games are joining forces with the LEGO Group, Harmonix and MTV Games to merge two of the most popular videogame franchises with the creation of LEGO® Rock Band®.

The game will be available for the Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3 and Wii™ home videogame console (as well as) LEGO Rock Band for Nintendo DS™. All versions are scheduled for release holiday 2009.

LEGO Rock Band combines the multiplayer music experience of Rock Band® with the fun, customization and humor of the LEGO videogame franchise packed with brilliant chart-topping songs and classic favorites suitable for younger audiences, including:
Blur: “Song 2”
Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting”
Europe: “The Final Countdown”
Good Charlotte: “Boys and Girls”
Pink: “So What”

Players will become rockers as they embark on a journey to stardom that the whole family can enjoy as they work their way through local venues, stadiums and fantasy locations on Earth and beyond that mimic the imaginative settings that the LEGO world offers. Also continuing the LEGO “build-and-play” gaming experience, players will be able to create their own LEGO Rock Band style as they customize their minifigure avatars, band and entourage, including roadies, managers and crew. LEGO Rock Band supports Rock Band instruments, as well as other music game controllers.

Now, the only problem I have with this is that I don’t have a PS3 yet! 😦 However, hopefully by the time this comes out for the Holidays, my gaming situations may change. 😉

I have heard, on the same forums that talked about this when it was a rumor, people complaining that it looks just like every other LEGO Video Game the TT and now Warner Brothers Interactive has produced. That is completely fine in my book. I’ve loved every single one of them, so I have no problems with it. Heck, I even helped launch the LEGO Batman Video Game in New York last year.

I’m pretty excited for this game, I love Guitar Hero, I even made a Guitar Hero Controller a while back. I haven’t played Rock Band yet, so I don’t have an opinion on that one, but I really am looking forward to this game! Two of my favorite things — LEGO and music combined — sounds like music to my ears.

Indy’s Temple of Doom — 7199

If you’ve wanted to see the new Indiana Jones Temple of Doom set here it is. (Click on the image to see the hi-def image) The first thought I had was — roller coaster!! Well, okay, I’m pretty interested in the set itself. There looks to be a lot of cool elements here. But I have to say the track is the coolest part. Of course to do a proper one you’d have to get four or five sets or even more to make it.

If you want to get in on a discussion of this set you can check it out in Eurobricks.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter, originally uploaded by TooMuchDew.

Bill Toenjes posted this picture of the April 09 LEGO Store Easter bunny promo model. Each month the LEGO Stores are providing a free LEGO mini model.

The Easter eggs are from a previous year’s LEGO store promotion.

General Mills LEGO Promotional

General Mills LEGO Promotional, originally uploaded by ILikePi 🙂.

ILikePi:) posted a review of the Promotional LEGO Racers from General Mills. It looks like this is a US only promotion. There are five different kinds of cereal that have them and six different cars randomly inserted.

What is really interesting is that the chassis is 2×7. A rather strange number, considering most of LEGO’s other chassis have an even number of studs.

Check out his full review on Eurobricks.

What’s under the black cloth?

what’s this, originally uploaded by Old Republic.

Although I previously mentioned the new set Emerald Night there’s been a video floating around on Youtube where AFOL-turned-Designer Jamie Berard officially annouces Emerald Night (now available at LEGO.com ) and talks a little about the process behind designing it.

What has also been floating around is the question of what is under the black cloth that so suspiciously is sitting on the shelf in the background. Considering that it is right next to the Green Grocer and the Market Street and the fact that its about the same height, there is a lot of speculation that it is the next Modular Building. No one knows what it really is (except the LEGO designers of course 😉 ) but time will reveal if it is really a set or not.

A Joke, or not?

I’m not a big fan in general of April Fool’s Jokes, especially ones that hurt someone’s feelings or are just plain mean, a harmless prank now and then is okay.

FBTB.net “formerly” known as From Bricks to Bothans, a website dedicated to all things LEGO Star Wars is reportedly changing tactics.

For Immediate Release: FBTB.net announces today that it will be refocusing its core theme away from LEGO Star Wars, to concentrate on the new Power Miners theme instead. After a decline in membership and losing popularity due to its controversial “Respect The Brick” policy, site founder and editor-in-chief, Ace Kim, has decided to shift the site’s team’s energies into covering all news relating to the heavily neon-green colored theme.

“Power Miners was just a natural fit. The price per part ratio was one of the main reasons for switching.” He also commented that with the Star Wars license expiring in 2011 and no chance of renewal, now was a good time to transition to a new theme to keep the site running.

Go to the website to read the entire release.

They’ve also added posts with titles like:Photo Contest: “Rock Monster Impersonation”, “Power MOCers: The Best Builders!”, “Which Rock Monster are You?”,and “Review: 8707 Boulder Blaster.”

More than likely it is a joke. But I’m not completely sure after reading some of the forum posts.

Whether it is or not, I think its totally brilliant! 😉

A game by any other name

Recently on Eurobricks I found images of the the new LEGO board games that are coming out this summer. Still no word on whether they will be available in the States yet.

From the looks of this, Creationary is basically Pictionary with LEGO bricks. Or it might be similar to the old Creator game that came out a few years ago.

Minotarus looks interesting. For the first time LEGO is venturing into an ancient Greek theme. Who knows if this will manifest itself into an actual Greek Minifig theme. Considering that Playmobile has had a Gladiator theme for a while now, it would be cool if they went in a similar direction.

Pirate Code looks pretty cool too.

There are more images on this site. One of the images shows Lunar Command, which has a space/UFO theme. It also has a close up of the new dice and you can see one of the Microfigs (the game pieces) in the background. From that it looks like the Microfig is only one piece, not two as some have speculated, and that the head is smaller than the standard Minifig head.

Legomilk posted a list of the ten games that will be available:

From August 2009 for sale in Germany and England.
Lego games and a number plus prices overview.

3835 robo champ € .9,99
3836 Magikus € .9,99
3837 sample 4 € .12,99
3838 Lava dragon € .12,99
3839 race 3000 € .19,99
3840 Pirate Code € .19,99
3841 mintotaurus € .24,99
3842 Lunar command € .24,99
3843 Ramses pyramind € .29,99
3844 Creationary € .34,99

On Eurobricks CopMike wrote:

Ten games will first be launched costing between €9.99-34.99. The dice has studs on all six sides and a rubber edge all around. There are 18 different Microfigs.

The more I see of these game the more interested in them I get! 😉