10213 Shuttle adventure

Lego is launching a new set in June, The 10213 Shuttle adventure. This set includes 1,200 pieces and it's very detailed. It contains a launching pad, a fuel tank with rockets and of course a space shuttle. One of the main functions is the cargo that can open with an arm to attach the included satelite to.

Here's a video about the new product:

This is the official announcement from Lego:

10213 Shuttle Adventure

Ages 16+1,204 piecesUS $99.99 CA $129.99 UK £ 79.99 DE 89.99 €

Blast off on an outer space mission!

Standing 17.5″ (44cm) tall and 10″ (25.5cm) from wing tip to wing tip, this detailed and realistic space shuttle is ready to count down and blast off on its next exciting mission into space! You can take off from the launch pad, separate the detachable fuel tank and booster rockets, and deploy the satellite with unfolding antenna and solar cell panels. Shuttle model features realistic engines, retractable landing gear, an opening cockpit with seats for 2 astronauts, opening cargo compartment with a crane that can hold the satellite and a ground maintenance vehicle. Includes 3 minifigures: 1 male and 1 female astronaut, as well as 1 service crew member.

• Includes 3 minifigures: 1 male and 1 female astronaut as well as 1 service crew member!

• Features realistic engines, retractable landing gear, opening cockpit with seats for 2 astronauts and even a ground maintenance vehicle!

• Take off from the launch pad!

• Separate the detachable fuel tank and booster rockets!

• Deploy the satellite with unfolding antenna and solar cell panels!

• Open the cargo compartment to reveal the crane that can hold the satellite!

• Shuttle Adventure stands 17.5″ (44cm) tall and measures 10″ (25.5cm) from wing tip to wing tip!

One for the ladies...

Or rather, one full of ladies! This new Vintage Minifigure pack (vol. 5) includes four of the most memorable female 'figs, including the forestwoman, the female ninja, and tube top girl. "No CS minifigs" is the only thing running through my mind when I see this, but I guess you have to sacrifice some things for a full-female Vintage Minifigure Collection. 

TLG assure us that the quality problems with the previous Collections, but that doesn't mean it won't be made in China. These things have to happen, guys. We'll just have to grin and bear it.

Toy Fair 2010

Those nice guys at FBTB (From Bricks to Bothans) have been snapping pictures of all the new 2010 sets at the 2010 Toy Fair. Below you can see links to all the sets that were displayed there. There are multiple angles of each set, so don't hesitate to click away!

Star Wars

• 8089 Hoth Wampa Set
• 8093 Plo Koon’s Starfighter
• 8095 General Grievous Starfighter
• 8096 Emperor Palpatine’s Shuttle
• 8097 Slave I
• 8098 Clone Turbo Tank

Prince of Persia

• 7569 Desert Attack
• 7570 The Ostrich Race
• 7571 Fight for the Dagger
• 7573 Battle of Alamut

Harry Potter

• 4737 Quidditch Lesson
• 4738 Hagrid’s Hut
• 4840 The Burrows
• 4841 Hogwarts Express
• 4842 Hogwarts Castle

Atlantis

• 8076 Deep Sea Striker
• 8077 Atlantis Exploration HQ
• 8078 Portal of Atlantis

Space Police

• 5983 SP Undercover Cruiser
• 5984 Lunar Limo
• 5985 Space Police Central

World Racers

• 8863 Ice Race
• 8864 Desert Truck
• 8896 Road Bikes
• 8897 Power Boats
• 8898 Race Cars
• 8899 Jungle Boats

Power Miners

• 8191 Lavatraz
• 8190 Claw Catcher

Kingdoms

• 7946 King’s Castle
• 7947 Prison Tower Rescue
• 7948 Outpost Attack
• 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue
• 7950 Knight’s Showdown
• 7953 Jester
• 7955 Wizard

City

• 2824 Advent Calendar
• 3180 Tank Truck
• 3182 Airport
• 3221 LEGO Truck
• 7566 Farmer

Hero Factory

• 7145 Von Nebula
• 7158 Blaze Bike
• 7160 Drop Ship
• 7162 Rotor

Games

• 3837 Monster 4
• 3839 Race 3000
• 3841 Minotaurus
• 3834 Ramses Pyramid
• 3862 Hogwarts

Racers

• 8211 Brick Street Getaway

Creator

• 5658 Crocodile
• 5508 LEGO Deluxe Brick Box
• 5892 Jet
• 5893 Pick-Up

~John

More Minifig Collection pics...

As we draw closer and closer to the minifig collection's release date, we inevitably get more and more pictures of those desirable minifigs. Now, FL from Flickr has found some close-ups of individual minifigs through Nori-Gallery on Brickshelf...

At the moment there's only pictures of the Robin Hood-like minifig:

FL correctly suggests that you should keep checking the Brickshelf gallery, as there's a folder there that hasn't been moderated yet. Who knows what it could contain?

And yet again, we have no idea of the quality of these minifigs. TLG have assured us that the 'crappy plastic made in China' problem was simply an issue with manufacturing... but will these minifigs be made of good ol' Danish ABS? We're yet to find out, but I certainly hope so.

~John

Minifig Collection - Wave 2!

Remember the Minifigure Collection? The one that hasn't been released yet? Well, it seems that we now have images of the second wave, to be released in September this year. Talking about getting ahead of yourself!

Courtesy of Dano as always, this picture shows the first wave of minifigs on top of the podium whilst the second wave - including a mime, a Vamire, a pop singer and a Mexican - are standing around the base.

This second picture gives us a close-up of some of the second wave's figs. Most notably, the Roman centurion - TLG's way of politely saying 'up yours' to BrickForge. Then there's a remake of the Vampire 'fig, the perilously un-PC Mexican (plus maracas and poncho) and some guy with new skis. I seriously can't wait for these to be released...

~John

Space Police III 2010

Dano's got his Animé-loving claws on yet another batch of leaked images - this time of the Space Police III summer sets. There's some big 'uns as well...

First up there's 5985, a Space Police base and we all knew was coming eventually. The quarter-domes are huge - so there's opportunity for some big cockpits there. And hey, don't forget the little truck!

Another addition to the Space Police's fleet is 5983, a set which a Flickr user called, very rightly, the Space Police Turbo Sub (it's certainly shaped that way). In this set you can see the new alien, which features in all three new sets. They're clearly trying to get the new fig out there as much as possible.

Then there's the alien's ship, set 5984. It's pretty much an alien-styled duplicate of the Space Police ship, with the same alien plus some purple-suited fellow.  This set looks decent enough.

So there we are, here's the completion of the SPIII line for 2010. We've had the small sets, and now here's the big ones. These aren't licensed - so it looks like we'll get some big sets that are actually affordable nowadays.

~John

REAL Collectable Minifigure pictures!

As the saying goes, pictures speak louder than words... and so I leave you with this first ever non-render picture of the collectable minifigures to be available in newsagents or somewhere-like-that this June.

Images courtesy of good ol' Dano courtesy of Pocket-Lint. See close ups of the minifigs:

Clown

Diver

Crash-Test Dummy

Spaceman

Emo Kid

Magician

Ninja

Caveman

Robot

Wrestler

~John

You build what now?

Say hello to the first ever 'teaser trailer' for a Lego series. It's for the Bionicle successors, Hero Factory.

~John

MUJI + LEGO

Remember when I blogged about the new MUJI+Lego sets which combined paper crafts with Lego? Well,  Flickr user Ateliers Kazu.Raitu has bought two of the sets, and posted images on his photostream. Let's take a look at what the sets are like inside...

The box of this set shows the series' best model: some sort of strange dragon made with lots of different pieces of card to create a fluffy body. Apart from the obvious layout and graphic design differences, the box seems similar to a normal Lego box.

The box contains card with pre-punched holes, as well as a small instruction manual (or 'ideas book' as they used to call it in the Creator line). It seems like you have to cut out the shapes yourself... not the best idea, as people could always cut it out wrong and it will almost always look roughly cut, and not perfect. Then again, keeping the templates blank means people can make whatever shapes they like. It's only an ideas book, after all. I'd rather have both pre-cut templates AND blank sheets.

Here you can see the dragon-like creation. It's quite a clever design, using the bracket to connect the head to the body.

I really like this peacock. Whether it's the Flickr user's very own design, or one included in the 'idea book' I don't know. I only wish there were more Lego in it - it seems as if the Lego pieces are just used as fasteners for the card, not part of the actual shape itself.

There's also a cute little crab. Yay!

Ateliers Kazu.Raitu also bought something which we weren't shown in the Design Milk post - A specialised MUJI+Lego holepunch, which punches stud-sized holes. At least it saves you on buying more and more of the actual sets. To be honest, I like accessories. If this line is ever released by MUJI in Europe, I'd definitely buy this. Think about it this way: you could cut your own minifig capes! Stud-width is the width of a minifig's neck. You could also cut fabric for minifig clothes, boat sails, tent canopies... the possibilities are endless!

The hole-punch also comes with a template to punch studs in a line, all perfectly aligned to the studs on your bricks.

Well I'm glad I found out more about these MUJI sets - I've been wondering what's happening ever since I found and blogged them in December. Hopefully they'll come to Europe and the US sometime. If anything, buy the hole punch.

~John

New Grand Emporium images released

The next in the line of Café Corner-styled modular buildings is, as you may have noticed on Dano's photostream, the Grand Emporium! Luckily someone at Eurobricks has provided much clearer pictures of the set...

The whole set: with billboard, window cleaner, ice cream seller and lots of new curvy Prince of Persia arches.

The first floor of the Grand Emporium. Note the clothes rack, floor tiling and escalator. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the upper floors...

New quarter-domes, as seen in the Prince of Persia sets. Is it just me or are they a different texture to normal LEGO bricks? Is it a different material?

~John

Mid-2010 sets: World Racers

Loved that bit of old-school Lego design in the last post? Well, here's something to whet your appetite for the new year further. World Racers, a new theme for 2010, just screams Lego: two different 'factions', racing in different parts of the world, on different vehicles. They race in the ice...

In the desert...

There's the obligatory speedboat chase...

Hovercrafts in the jungle...

And of course the street race. Just take a closer look at that globe graphic on the box art: does anyone remember the Drome in the old Racers sets? Ah, memories.

Finally, we've got our first peek at the Bionicle replacements. I'm not too sure whether the top and bottom rows are the last line of Bionicles (Bionicle Stars) or the replacements, but they look very Bionicle-ish. Luckily the replacements are not Ben 10, which is a relief. If you're getting stressed in the days leading up to Christmas (three days left to go!) then you can calm down knowing that Lego didn't leave Lego fans including everyone at BZPower Ben 10 sets [which cost more than $1 per piece] as the Bionicle replacement.

Oh, and there's some of the larger Space Police III sets:

~John

Newly leaked images: Mid-2010 Castle sets

Dano, along with some other people, has just released images from a Dutch Lego catalogue of mid-2010 sets. Without further ado, let's take a look at what will be available in June and July next year...

The new Castle theme is called 'Lego Kingdoms' and features the usual two factions fighting each other, kind of like those bull-crest soldiers fighting the guys with the eyepatches in an old Castle theme. I think you can tell I'm not a Castle fan...

There's all the usual stuff - catapults (quite old school, if I remember correctly), knights on horses... and what looks like a great new helmet! The 'baddies' have a dark green, brown and gold colour scheme (that should provide some good dark green parts), whilst the 'goodies' have a white, red and silver colour scheme.

The big castle looks, as many have commented, very old school, and I have no problem with this! It's fantastic to see Lego going back to their roots, especially with Castle themes. "More of this!" Is all I can say.

Even this £7er looks like a great set for parts - there's even a new horse face guard and what may be a new horn piece. I'm getting serious déjà vu from this set!

This new Castle theme looks like the best in a long time... Lego have shrugged off the façade of blatant popularism, and ditched doll-like knights and giant trolls. They've gone back to the basics with Kingdoms, and boy am I glad to see it. I may just buy my first Castle set in 9 years.

~John