First 2013 Castle Set Revealed

With the German Toy Fair in full swing, we've finally received a picture from the new 2013 Castle theme. Not much of a difference from previous castles, but it has been a couple years since a castle line, so I'm sure it'll be well received.
I don't see any new pieces besides the new horse armor. Which is beautiful. And that just might be a new helmet on the black night in the bottom left corner of the box.
Notice the evil castle on the hilltop in the background. We'll probably be seeing that set next.

76002 Superman's Metropolis Showdown

The first set from the upcoming Man of Steel film has been revealed. In it, we have Superman taking on  what appears to be an Evil Superman. I don't follow Superman or any of his villains, so I can say that I'm really not sure who the villain is. But judging by the outfit, it's a black Superman-suited Clark Kent wanna be. EDIT: His name appears to General Zod.

 76002 Superman's Metropolis Showdown
$12.99. :)
Release date: June 14th 2013.

2013 Star Wars Sets Revealed

Flickr user Motayan has published some pictures from the summer 2013 Star Wars wave. I do wonder how he came by them. But he seems to come by a lot of future LEGO sets.
The two sets revealed are 75019 AT-TE, and 75018 Jek-14 Stealth Starfighter. Even though they're new sets, they are barely even that. Why? The AT-TE is nearly exactly the same as the one from 2008. And the Jek-14 is the evil(?) equivalent of the Republic-class Strike Starfighter.
But there is still plenty of stuff to be excited for. Such as the brand new Jedi in the AT-TE (I believe this set will be from Episode II). And the great blue Stormtrooper figure. He'll be an expensive one for sure. Check him out below!

LEGO Games Legends of Chima and Super Heroes

We'll be seeing two new LEGO Games later this year. 50003 LEGO Games Batman, and 50006 LEGO Games Legends of Chima.

Both should be available in the summer.

Thanks to Flickr user Motayan for the info!

Forest Town by Yoshi X

Those of you that attended BrickFair Alabama were lucky enough to see Yoshi X's Forest Town. It is quite a large diorama, with autumn colored leaves decorating the trees. And a grave yard full of zombies.
How he managed to get the whole thing to the convention I'll never know. But I sure wish I could've attended. To see this in person would be awesome. But pictures will have to suffice.

See it on Mocpages.

CMF Series 10 Picture and News

A picture has come up from I don't know where of the Collectible Minifigures Series 10. My guess is the picture was taken at the London Toy Fair from above the LEGO booth.
Series 10 will be available in May in gold bags. For this series, LEGO will be sorting 4,000 gold minifigures into random boxes. That is what I believe I read. Though I can't remember where. No word on wether the gold minifigures will be gold versions of one of the figures, or a plain gold figure.

Series 10:
Sea Captain
Sad Clown
Librarian
Grandpa
Bumblebee Girl
Roman Commander
Warrior Woman
Decorator
Tomahawk Warrior
Trendsetter
Baseball Fielder
Revolution Soldier
Motorcycle Mechanic
Medusa
Skydiver
Paintball Player

An updated version of the Series 11 lineup has also been released.
Yeti
Evil Mech
Welder
Lady Robot
Jazz Musician
Constable
Holiday Elf
Bavarian Lady
Scarecrow
Mountain Climber
Grandma
Tiki Warrior
Gingerbread Man
Barbarian
Dinner Waitress
Scientist

I'm very excited for the rest of 2013! What do you think about Series 10 and 11 of the Collectible Minifigures?

Cobblecrock Cottage & Haldur's Crypt by Luke Watkins

Luke Watkins (Derfel Cadarn) has built two gorgeous Medieval MOCs to start off 2013. The two are part of a story which he will be continuing throughout the year.

First, the larger of the two models, is Cobblecrock Cottage. The stone base is crumbly and crooked, and the wooden frames in the walls look like they've been around for many a year. The upper part of the house is a ramshackle mess. I love the shading on the walls. How painstaking that must have been to create. 

Next to the cottage lies a lovely little well, and a bizarre tree. Luke Watkins is the master of fantasy!

His second MOC may be smaller, but it certainly packs just as big of a punch. I honestly can't say what is my favorite part. The only way to truly enjoy this brilliance is by clicking the links below. Only then do you realize the crazy wall on this place, and the stunning landscaping.

See Cobblecrock Cottage on Mocpages.
See Haldur's Crypt on Mocpages.

LEGO Games LOTR Battle of Helm's Deep

LEGO Games will be releasing their first Lord of the Rings game. I can't figure out how to play by looking at the picture, but it looks as though the Uruk-hai need to get through the Deeping Wall to the Hornburg (duh). Not having played any of the LEGO Games myself, I can't see any similarities between this and other games. But with at least 11 microfigures, I just might have to pick up my first one.

50011 LEGO Lord of the Rings Battle of Helm's Deep.
Ages 7+. 338 pieces. Estimated price: $39.99.
Available in August.

LOTR 79008 Pirate Ship Ambush

With the London Toy Fair nearly over, I'm surprised that we haven't seen more images from upcoming sets. But thanks to Flickr user Motayan we have two that have just made my day. The images may be small, and they're definitely blurry, but who cares? Anything is better than nothing.

79008 Pirate Ship Ambush.

Minifigures: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, King of the Dead, Soldier of the Dead x2, Corsair of Umber (Peter Jackson), Mordor Orc x2.

Coming Summer 2013.

A very good selection of minifigures. Hopefully this set'll cost no more than $80. I take it back. Whenever I guess the price of a set I'm always way off. 

I'm very glad they're including the Peter Jackson Corsair character over just any random corsair. And of course, The fact that there are three dead people makes this set even more awesome! Though I wonder about the Mordor Orcs.

A very good size ship, with the spike off of the bottom of the hull. Yes! I'm very glad they left that part in, even though it was never seen in the movies. That's just the nerd in me coming out. :)

Let's hope we'll see many more LEGO goodies before Toy Fair is over. But then, the New York Toy Fair is the real cheese. That's when everything is out in the open.

BrickEnd Celebrates 2 Years! + Giveaway!

Today, January 21st 2013, BrickEnd celebrates 2 years of existence! It's been a great experience, despite the ups and downs. I have personally written over 300 posts for this site, and I'm very happy so many of you have the same enjoyment in reading them as I do in writing them.
Even though I've only been blogging consistently for about a year, the response has been better than I could hope for. And I've got you to thank for that. So in honor of this milestone, we'll be hosting our first giveaway!

We will be giving away two brand new Series 5 Collectible Minifigures. One Gladiator and one Evil Dwarf. Two people, chosen at random, will each receive one of the figures. Both are brand new, never been assembled. The bags have been opened to verify the contents, but nothing has been taken out. 

To enter: Send an email to me (Aidan) at Brickendblog@gmail.com with the subject BRICKEND2YEARS. Remember to include your name and address. 

One entry per person, per email. However, other family members and/or other people living in the same house are allowed to enter. But please use a different email per person. Otherwise your entry will not be counted.

The giveaway is open from now, until February 21st at 11:59 PM, ET. Make sure you remember the Eastern Time. Any emails received after the deadline will not be counted.

We use Random.org to choose our winners, so everything is fair. If you have any questions, contact me at the email above.

Thanks for supporting BrickEnd over the last 2 years. I hope that in 2 more years we'll still be going strong!

LEGO LOTR Battle at the Black Gate Preliminary image

The Sears Canada website has listed one of the yet-to-be-released LOTR sets. The image has a confidential watermark on it, so thanks to ToysNBricks, we have a white-out version. I believe the release date for this set is Summer 2013. I have no idea how Sears got so priviledged. They'll probably be hearing it from LEGO very soon. UPDATE: The set is out of stock. Either LEGO pulled it, or many lucky fans lucked out.
Set info below:

79007 Battle at the Black Gate. 655 pieces. $59.99. Minifigures: Gandalf, Aragorn, The Mouth of Sauron, two Mordor Orcs.

Fly the Great Eagle high above the Black Gate of Mordor where Aragorn and Gandalf the White must distract the Eye of Sauron. Use them to stage a scene while Frodo Baggins and his friend Sam throw the One Ring into the fiery depths of Mount Doom and destroy it forever. To reach the Ring's final destination, you must defeat the Mouth of Sauron and the Mordor Orcs positioned high in the spiked gate walls. Then breach the gate and lead the attack on the enemy! Includes a Great Eagle and 5 minifigures with weapons: Aragorn, Gandalf the White, Mouth of Sauron and 2 Mordor Orcs

Despite the fact that the Black Gate is so short, this should be a great set. And I'm very excited for the Mouth of Sauron figure. As is the case with most early images, the minifigures are nowhere near final.

Hailstone - GARC Racer by Brian Corredor

Lovely SNOT work covers this extremely solid GARC Racer by Brian Corredor. The engines are massive, and are ready to fly this thing to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. One very subtle thing, most of you probably haven't even noticed, is the fact that there are no weapons. Speed and skill keep this ship alive.

See it on Mocpages.

War Machine Minifigure Revealed?

 I had refrained from posting this earlier because of it possibly being a fake, but because so many other sites have been accepting it as fact, and because I can't bear not to speculate, I have decided to post it here. If it's fake, we shall be laughed at together.
This War Machine minifigure from Iron Man 2 was listed late last week on Ebay. How the seller got this figure we shall never know. LEGO does seem to have a problem with Ebay sellers listing figs months before the release date.

If these are real, it means we will be receiving Iron Man 2 sets as well as Iron Man 3 sets. Because, as most of us know, this suit (with this paint job) has so far only been seen in Iron Man 2. In Iron Man 3 it gets a stars and stripes paint job by the US Military.
An Expo fight scene set would be great. With Iron Man, several rogue machines, and War Machine. Wouldn't a chain-gun look great mounted on the shoulder of this thing?

LEGO DK Books for 2013

Details of the 9 newest  2013 LEGO DK books have been released by Dorling Kindersley. A few Brickmaster books, some sticker books, and my favorite: dictionary/encyclopedia books.

Brickmaster: Legends of Chima: The Quest for Chi (Available in May)
Brickmaster: Star Wars: Battle For The Stolen Crystals (September)
Friends Ultimate Sticker Collection (March)
LEGO Hero Factory Ultimate Sticker Collection (August)
LEGO Legends of Chima Ultimate Sticker Collection (May)
LEGO Minifigure: Year by Year (October)
LEGO Minifigure Character Encyclopedia (May)
The LEGO Play Book (September)

The Year by Year Minifigure book should be awesome! Especially if it contains every minifigure ever made. This will be a big collectors item. And if the Character Encyclopedia has every minifig too, that'd be great!
Of course, the LEGO Play Book should be a lot like the LEGO Ideas book from a while ago. But with  models like the Ideas book, It'll be a treat to look through.
Can't wait for these to be available!

The Sea Dragon by Justin Knelsen

One Knight and five brave soldiers have set out in a much-too-small boat to kill the horrendous Sea Serpent. Any thoughts on the outcome of the confrontation?

I really like the Sea Serpent. While the head seems a bit cramped, the long, spiky body and ferocious tail really make this MOC what it is. And if I were those soldiers, I would've brought a bigger boat. 

See it on Mocpages.

LEGO CUUSOO: Exo Suit Reaches 10,000

Peter Reid's very popular Exo Suit Mech, has just reached the 10,000 supporter mark on LEGO CUUSOO. This project now enters the very long review stage.
This project is so great, and so full of detail, I almost don't want to see LEGO make a set and butcher the model. Up to this point, the most detailed project was the UCS Sandcrawler, which was very large and therefore could hold lots of details. This model is so much smaller, and is so much more fragile, I'm afraid LEGO might not pass it just for the detail and fragility. But, I very much hope they do! As I would love this thing sitting on my shelf.

Exo Suit on LEGO CUUSOO.

Marvel Super Heroes Video Game Announced

Imagine playing as the LEGO Hulk, running around a video game world smashing everything(and everyone) in sight! I'm sure most of you have wanted to do this very badly, I know I have. But want no more! Soon you will be able to play as the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and many other Marvel characters on LEGO's newest video game.
Though I don't usually get the LEGO games (unless they are extremely awesome), I will be getting this one as soon as I can.
Official press release below.

Marvel super heroes are assembling for an action-packed, brick-smashing good time! Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games, The LEGO Group and Marvel Entertainment announced today that “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” will be available beginning Fall 2013 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, the Wii U system and Windows PC, as well as the Nintendo DS handheld system, Nintendo 3DS handheld system and PlayStation Vita handheld entertainment system. “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” is the first instalment in the highly successful LEGO videogame franchise to feature famous Marvel characters.

“LEGO Marvel Super Heroes,” coming Fall 2013

“LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” complements the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes construction toy collection, which brings the characters, vehicles and action of Marvel’s renowned universe to the world of LEGO build-and-play adventure. There are currently eight iconic scenes from the X-Men, Iron Man and Spider-Man franchises available and more construction sets tied to the new “Iron Man 3″ feature film will launch later this spring.

“LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” offers an original storyline in which Nick Fury calls upon Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine and other heroes spanning the Marvel Universe to save Earth from such threats as the vengeance of Loki and the hunger of Galactus, Devourer of the Worlds. LEGO and Marvel fans will enjoy classic LEGO videogame adventure and humor, while playing as their favorite Marvel characters.

“We’re very excited to bring a myriad of classic Marvel characters to life in LEGO form for some fun, family-friendly gameplay in ‘LEGO Marvel Super Heroes,’” said Tom Stone, Managing Director, TT Games Publishing. “Players will brave the ultimate mission to save the world as they explore famous landmarks in LEGO New York and take the adventure beyond Earth to iconic locations in the Marvel Universe.”

“Fans of both LEGO and Marvel have wanted this game for years, and we’re addressing that demand with more Marvel Universe characters than ever in a console game,” said TQ Jefferson, Vice President, Games Production, Marvel Entertainment. “If you’re a fan of Spider-Man, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy or scores of other Marvel characters, this is the game for you.”

In “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes,” players will unlock more than 100 characters from across the Marvel Universe, including fan favorites like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Deadpool, Loki and Galactus! The game will pack in a plethora of super-cool character abilities, combat-like action sequences, epic battle scenes, puzzle-solving and a unique story told with playful LEGO humor.

“LEGO Marvel Super Heroes” is being developed by TT Games and will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. For more information, please visithttp://videogames.lego.com/en-us/lego-marvel-super-heroes.

Sound exciting? Wicked exciting! The thing making me most happy now will be to see Cap's awesome shield-smashing abilities. And Spidey's web-flying from building to building.

Coming Fall 2013 after the release of Iron Man 3 and just before the release of Thor: The Dark World.
This will be a game you won't want to miss!

LEGO Introduces Mindstorms EV3

LEGO has launched a new version of Mindstorms. And it's a BIG upgrade from the several year old NXT. The biggest difference, besides the parts, is that you program it using the actual EV3 and not a Mac or PC.
The official press release is available over at Engadget.

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 will be available later in 2013 for the price of $349.99.

The Lone Ranger Polybags

Two new polybags are headed our way from the new Lone Ranger theme. Each set contains one of the two main characters in the film, so this may be a bit of a disappointment for some. With Tonto appearing in nearly all the sets from the wave, and the Lone Ranger appearing in all of them. But for those of you that want the figures but don't want to spend a lot of money on the sets, this is good news.

30260 Lone Ranger's Pump Car
30261 Tonto's Campfire

These should be available in April or May. Hopefully they won't be limited to TRU.

2013 Star Wars Polybags

 Four new Star Wars polybags have been discovered. All of them are miniature versions of existing Star Wars sets. With two of them from this year's wave. As always, these should be available at Toys R Us within the next few months.

30240 Z-95 Headhunter
30241 Gauntlet
30242 Republic Frigate
30243 Umbarran MHC

These look great! I can't wait for these to be available. I probably won't get them because of the $5 price-tag these usually bring, but I love seeing reviews of mini sets.

21017 Imperial Hotel

2013 begins with a peek of what's to come from the LEGO Architecture line: 21017 Imperial Hotel.
A pretty good representation of the famous building. This set must've been quite fun to design. But I can't say I envy the designer.
Overall a good Architecture building to start off the new year.

Thanks to Eurobricks for the picture.

Favorite LEGO The Hobbit Set Poll Closed

After such an amazing movie, I would've thought there'd be more votes in last month's poll. But there were barely any. And the final vote count does makes me wonder. But yes, 79001 Escape From Mirkwood Spiders won the poll fair and square. (I hope)
This set won with 50% of the vote. That is a lot for a set going up against what many consider the best set of all time. That set would be An Unexpected Gathering.

Welcome to 2013 everyone! The Holiday's are over, and it's time to get back to normal life. We'll start that off with a brand new poll. Favorite Action/Adventure Theme.
Now this poll will offer a lot of choices, I hope you don't find it too hard to choose a favorite.

If you have any poll ideas, send them to me and your idea could be one of the 2013 polls. Just go to the Contact page up the top.