Go Off the Grid with LEGO ICONS 11371 Shopping Street. [Review]

11371Shopping Street is our Next Modular Building - January 1 2026

The Great LEGO Puzzle Book [Review] The folks over at No Starch Press have sent a new book over for review. Jacob Berg’s The Great LEGO Puzzle book does just what it says on the cover: It brings 120 building challenges using just a handful of basic bricks. Is this the perfect way to while away…

New 2026 Botanicals Revealed. After last week's reveal of the 11501 Bunch of Tulips at the Chinese International Import Expo, another three Botanical sets in the 2026 lineup have been revealed. These sets will be released on January 1, 2026, and cover the range of sets we are becoming accustomed…

LEGO® ICONS Prepares to Boldly Go. 10365 Normally a picture release of a large grey spaceship heralds the arrival of something from the LEGO Star Wars team. But this is much more exciting. After moving around a series of alternative toy brick companies over the years, the Star Trek License has…

LEGO® Spring Festival, Ninjago and Botanical sets revealed at Chinese International Import Expo. Monkie Kid Absent from the Announcement. The 2025 Chinese International Import Expo is now underway, and we have seen several sets across a range of themes revealed. These include Chinese New Year…

Get Your Brickvention 2026 Tickets: 50% Discount for LEGO Insiders! The countdown is on for LEGO® fans! Tickets are now available for the Brickvention 2026 Public Expo, and the team organising the event are thrilled to announce an exclusive 50% discount on tickets for members of the LEGO® Insiders…

10366 LEGO® ICONS Tropical Aquarium 3: Customisation We have been taking a look at the 10366 Tropical Aquarium, coming out in mid November 2025. This is a large, expensive set, quite unlike anything that the LEGO Group has produced at this scale before. It's not based on a renowned piece of…

Does the LEGO IDEAS review team look at competor brands? Or Vice versa? I enjoy looking through all the ideas that are proposed and reviewed on LEGO ideas, and I have gotten the impression I'm not the only one. More and more am I seeing competing brands release sets that seem very closely related…

What did I learn from 10366 LEGO ICONS Tropical Aquarium? The 1066 Tropical Aquarium will be released in mid November. In our previous article, we looked at the overall build experience. The set is the most expensive LEGO® Set that is not based on an external IP, such as a movie, or large piece of…

10366 Tropical Aquarium: Build Experience The Tropical aquarium is a premium LEGO® set, which at first glance seeks to tie the neat parts usage that characterises the Botanicals range, with the less official 'Life Size Objects' sub-theme that we have seen in recent years across LEGO ICONS and…

Goonies Never Say Die. Now they can say build? It was the mid-1980s, and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment seemed to do no wrong. On the tail of E.T. the Extra terrestrial (1982)and Gremlins (1984), in 1985 Steven Spielberg's production company went on to present Back to the Future and The…

Brickvention 2026 Convention Day Tickets Now on Sale Great news: Tickets for the Brickvention 2026's Convention Day are now on sale. As Australia’s AFOL networking event, we expect to see a fantastic collection of models on display. By attending the Convention Day, you are among the first to see…

Great Scott! The Delorean Time Machine gets the LEGO Speed Champions Treatment! Let your mind drift back to the past. To a time when things were much simpler. Take yourself back to 2013. The Time Machine from Back to the Future was the fourth set to be released through the relatively new LEGO…

10366 LEGO® Icons Tropical Aquarium Revealed The latest LEGO® Icons set has been revealed, a 4154 piece model of a tropical aquarium. If you have been observing the range adult-focused LEGO models released over the past few years, you will have noticed a number of recurring , popular subjects for…

Lego® Voyagers Review: A Unique Co-op Puzzle Adventure We first took a look at Lightbrick Studio's Builder's Journey back in 2021, and while that game has been updated a couple of times, the announcement of their latest game, LEGO Voyagers, back in June that really piqued my interest. We bought a…

If anyone can, 31173 Tropical Toucan, can! Birds are dinosaurs. This is no longer a weird statement but well established; birds are the only dinosaur species still alive today. It's no accident that Jurassic Park III starts with an opening shot of a raptor-like claw that turns out to belong to a…

10374 LEGO® Botanicals Bouquet of Pink Roses: More than just a recolour? When you are on a good thing, stick to it. When 10328 Bouquet of Roses was released in January 2024, I suspect the LEGO Group knew they had a hit. The set periodically sells out, and compared to actual red roses, it offers…

76785 LEGO® Wednesday: Thing’s Apartment (review) Growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s meant that sitcoms from the 1960s were standard after school fare in Australia, and among these was the Addams Family. Occasionally it would alternate with the 1973 Cartoon, and eventually the inevitable slew of…

31175 Unicorn Castle Gave Me a Visual Sugar-Rush! Do you know the feeling of having too much cake with icing and a soft drink? Perhaps you've seen the effect such a combination at a children's party? That is the feeling I got from this set. The highlight of this set would obviously be the unicorn.…

Feeling old in a good way with 31174 Retro Telephone It has been a little while since calling someone by phone actually involved 'dialling' their number. This term is still sometimes used, although I suspect the majority of humans in Australia have not had the experience of turning a rotary dial…

Build a Basketball Poster with 43010 Nike Slam Dunk We continue our look at the September Nike releases today with a look at 43010 Nike Slam Dunk. When I first saw pictures of this set, I felt it was setting out to imitate the posters of the 80s and 90s, with creative photography photography…

Melbourne Brick Show: LEGO® Fun Awaits This Weekend Melbourne LEGO® Lovers, rejoice. MUGs, the Melbourne LEGO Users Group have their inaugural Melbourne Brick Show coming up this weekend. at the Coburg Town Hall. The show will be open from 9am -4pm Saturday; 9am-3pm Sunday. Tickets are available…

Score a basket with 43021 Nike Dunk Trickshot I have to admit, 6 months ago, I had no idea what to expect from the LEGO-NIKE collaboration. It could have been all about producing replica life-size sneaker models, as well as LEGO-branded sneakers and other apparel, as we saw with Adidas a few years…

Minifigures On Parade (MOPs) Three years On: Updating our collaborative build standard. Time flies when you are having fun. Or have a lot going on around you. Or...and so on. I can't believe it is over 3 years since I published my original description of MOPs - Minifigures on Parade/ Minifigures…

Creator 3in1 31166 Beautiful Horse – 3 Model Review We have looked at a few creature builds over the last 2 years: the T. Rex, Panda, Kitten, Panda, Safari Animals, a Flamingo, and more - each coming with three options to build. One thing has been apparent: the number of brick designs in play has…

Two new Nike LEGO sets revealed: 43010 Slam Dunk and 43021 Dunk Trickshot Two new sets have been added to the LEGO x Nike roster - due for release on 1st September 2025 the 43010 Slam Dunk and 43021 Dunk Trickshot bring some contrasting basketball builds, inspiring vibes from posters of years gone…

The LEGO Group and Aardman Partner to Inspire Creativity in Young Builders Through Stop Motion. When my kids were a little younger, they would occaisionally use stop motion movies to bring their stories to life. Sometimes with LEGO minifigures, sometimes with plasticine, that illusion of movement…

A Haunting We Will Go…31167 Creator 3in1 Haunted Mansion Review and a Brief History of Spooky Sets I have a theory: Creator 3in1 sets and Collectable minifigures are the last bastion of the classic themes that we would love to see the LEGO Group bring back. Some of the August release Creator 3in1…

THE LEGO GROUP AND ALQUEMIE GROUP TO UNVEIL TASMANIA’S FIRST LEGO® CERTIFIED STORE  Ever since the first LEGO Certified Store in Australia was revealed, Tasmanians - residents of Australia's Island state, have been wondering 'When will we get one?' Today, it would seem, the answer is 'Soon'.…

10373 Mini Bonsai: Is there a lot to learn from these tiny trees? Trees are large, making them less than ideal subjects for life-size LEGO® models. Bonsai, the Japanese art of cultivating trees to grow in a miniaturized form in limited space, offers an end product that may be better represented in…

10372: LEGO® Botanicals Hibiscus The LEGO® Botanicals theme has gone from strength to strength, and the latest wave brings us contrasting builds, proving interesting building experiences. Today, let’s look at the Hibiscus: following in the footsteps of the Bird of Paradise and Orchid, it brings…

40789 Moon Car: A retro-futurist LEGO Insiders Reward [review]. Looking back to January 2024, LEGO® Ideas launches the Exploring the Cosmos challenge: "Can you imagine how awesome the spacecraft and bases on planets will look like in 100+ years as humans start to explore the cosmos? " Fast forward…

21063 Neuschwanstein Castle Revealed Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle - and by extension, the stereotypical Disney Castle, has been the subject of a number of interpretations at a number of scales, aimed at varying age groups over the years. Now at last, Neuschwanstein Castle, the original…

10357 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C revealed It's been a hot minute since we had a LEGO Icons car revealed. The latest is the Shelby Cobra 427 S/C: this 1960's sports car is set for release on July 1, has 1241 pieces and is priced at $AUD249.99 / $USD159.99 / €149,99 / £139,99 First released in 1965, with…

The LEGO Builder’s Journey Continues: Robot’s Adventure Introduced (now on iOS, other platforms soon…) For reasons best known to myself, I have installed Light Brick Studio’s Builder's Journey on my Apple TV. Last week, the onscreen icon changed, and I thought I should find out why. The game has…

New Game from LightBrick Studio: Voyagers 4 years ago, LightBrick studio brought us LEGO Builders Journey. This game received a major update last week and continues to provide me with joy after all this time. (My review is following soon). Today at Summer Games Fest, the studio have revealed their…

Eight One Piece Sets Revealed: Preorder Now. I might be a little late to discovering the incredibly popular Manga/Anime One piece. My first exposure was probably on an airplane coming home from Japan last year, and then watching the recent series on Netflix. We can say what we like about whether…

How to Train your Dragon to sit on a shelf: Toothless Revealed in LEGO form. I'm a little late to How to Train Your Dragon, only watching the original animated film 15 years after its cinematic release, or a couple of months before the release of the live action version. Of course, live action…

10349 Happy Plants Spark Joy Yesterday, we took a look at the latest 18+ Botanical set, the Japanese Red Maple. It demonstrates a great balance between organic form, a functional pot and a striking colour palette. Today I would like to look at the other June 2025 Botanicals release: the 10349…

10348 LEGO Botanicals Japanese Red Maple Bonsai Tree (review) A Bonsai Tree (10281) was one of the first sets released under the Botanical Collection label, back in 2021. Four years later, and it is still in the catalog. With Botanicals becoming their own theme this year, we have seen some…

First LEGO x NIKE products revealed Last August, Nike and LEGO announced an upcoming multiyear collaboration. And then we heard nothing. Until today. Today, we have received out first glimpses of the results of the collaboration, with both LEGO and NIKE releasing collaborative products over the…

10367 LEGO The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook [Set review and lighting experiments] I find the idea of a book nook appealing: a sculpture or landscape hiding out between the books on my shelves to provide a whimsical distraction in the quest for information, stories and ideas. I must confess,…

You Shall Not Pass! With the10367 Balrog Book Nook, Durin’s Bain Comes to a Shelf near you! LEGO Themes have taken their origins from many places: the world around us, films, comics, television, scientific and exploratory adventures, our favorite cars and other machines. And some come straight…

What’s up with white? In which we examine a few elements in the new shade 426 White, and explore the effect of some of these changes and more. While I was reviewing at the 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft recently, I noticed that the white tiles and plates appeared to be ‘more white’, and indeed…

Everyone’s a Winner with the LEGO® Ideas Minifigure Vending Machine About 18 months ago, Rob Vangansewinkel's Ideas submission based on a capsule toy vending machine was accepted. Today the final model has been revealed, and it is sure to excite many members of the broader LEGO community. While…

60473 The City Tower: Celebrating 20 years of LEGO City It was 2005 and the LEGO Group was in the process of turning away from near collapse and ruin. The Evergreen Town range had been out of development for a few years while licensed themes such as Star Wars and Harry Potter occupied the…

40767 Up-Scaled Space Baby: A good reason to order fresh LEGO? After weeks of rumor and innuendo, the 40676 Scaled Up Baby Astranaut is going live as a gift with purchase on May 15th, with a purchase threshold of $USD150/€150/Aud 245 Space Babies have been a cause of some excitement over the last…

10360 Shuttle Carrying Aircraft: Rambling Review After the conclusion of the Apollo Moon Landing, the public's interest in Space exploration waned. Then we saw our first images of the next phase of NASA's manned Space Program: the Prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise being transported on the back of…

10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft: Swoosh Test. The latest LEGO ICONS set, 10360 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, brings us the modified 747-100 and the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise. The defining point of all LEGO Spacecraft and Airplanes is their swooshability. While this set is intended as a display…