(Written by Sarah)
I have very exciting news for fans of the LEGO Master Builder Academy (LEGO MBA)! There will be a level 3, with kits 7 through 9! It was recently announced, and those who are current LEGO MBA subscribers should have gotten an email about it. It’s currently available for pre-order at $59.99 and kit 7 will ship in May. Before I get to talking about it in detail, here is what LEGO posted on their product page:
More adventure, more techniques, more building!
Take your building to the highest level yet with LEGO MBA Level 3, the latest addition to our popular LEGO Master Builder Academy series! Three kits connect together to create an awesome adventure written by best-selling author, Daniel Lipkowitz! Learn the art of building scenes for your own stories with bricks, just like LEGO Designers do when they create new models! Master the techniques to create details like trap doors, stairways, arches, thrones and more with 33 new building instructions! Your Level 3 subscription includes:
- LEGO MBA Kit 7 – The Lost Village: Learn how LEGO stories and themes are created as you practice the techniques of story building and modular building! Includes 1 exclusive LEGO MBA minifigure, a brick separator, and a brick storage box with sorting tray. (229 pieces)
- LEGO MBA Kit 8 – The Forbidden Bridge: Learn how to create hidden functions to liven up your adventures, like trap-doors, rotating panels, secret treasure-troves and booby traps!! (220 pieces)
- LEGO MBA Kit 9 – The Dark Lair: As you reach the ultimate challenge of your Level 3 adventure, you’ll learn the special art of building models for your story’s villains! (183 pieces)
- Includes 1 LEGO MBA kit delivered every two months, for 6 months: 3 kits in total.
- Each kit includes a total of 11 separate building instructions in the Designer Handbooks and online.
- Each kit includes one 84-page Designer Handbook teaching 2 LEGO MBA techniques, building instructions to build 3-4 models, one at a time, and minifigure accessories for the Level 3 minifigure that is included in Kit 7. Another 7-8 building instructions per kit are found on LEGOmba.com.
- Learn more about Kit 1 and Kits 2-6 Subscription.
As you can see, this LEGO MBA level goes in a completely new direction with building actual buildings and structures. I’m very happy about this since this is the type of building I want to do. I have learned – and am learning – a lot of cool techniques from the first 6 kits, but most of the kits I’m not very interested in. I don’t build cars, planes, spaceships, or robots much, er… well…, not at all other than for these kits. I did enjoy the micro-building very much and I’m looking forward to the creatures one.
There is also speculation that this will tie-in and may be promoting the new LEGO Monster Fighters theme coming out this summer. I sure hope so! I’m also very anxious to get the new LEGO Monster Fighters. I think it’s been a long time coming. There needs to more monsters and more Halloween themed sets. If Christmas gets so much attention, why not Halloween? 😉
For these new LEGO MBA kits, the only thing I’m concerned about is whether they will live up to the advertisement. Will there be a unifying story? I’m especially skeptical about the extra instructions online since they promised the same thing for the first 6 kits and they’ve mostly shown alternate models without providing the instructions. Only time will tell.
Either way, I am definitely getting this, and hope others will too. Don’t let the price discourage you. It sounds like there will be a lot packed in. Plus, the instruction-books have been worth every penny. Especially now that they ship the kits in boxes – nothing should get damaged.
And you can get quite the deal if you pre-order during March 12-15th. There are several deals going on right now and they all overlap for those 4 days:
- Double VIP points on all purchases (March 1-15)
- Free Shipping on orders of $75 or more (March 12-31)
- Free LEGO Master Builder Academy Poster with any LEGO Master Builder Academy purchase (March 12 – April 5)
So all you need to do is order something that cost at least $16 more and you can get free shipping, earn double points and get an MBA poster!
So who here is going to get the new MBA kits? What are you looking forward to the most with these new LEGO MBA kits? Who’s not going to get them and why not? Anyone been getting the first MBA kits? What have you enjoyed the most? Please let me know in the comment section below. 🙂
To learn more about the LEGO Master Builder Academy, check here:
And to sign up for the LEGO Master Builder Academy, go here:
- LEGO Master Builder Academy Kit 1
- LEGO Master Builder Academy Kit 2-6
- LEGO Master Builder Academy Kit 7-9
I’m so glad that another adult has subscribed to the MBA! I feel like it has really helped my building. The only problem is finding time to build! My favorite kits so far have been Creature design and Robot Design. I was never interested in robots, but the kit came with such cool pieces that it was easy to build something new.
I showed Level 3 to my bro, but he says it looks dumber than the previous levels. I disagree. I think it’s very different, which is a good thing. I don’t think MBA would be successful if it just kept up with themed kits over and over again.
I’m most excited about just building with the new Level 3 pieces and learning how the Master Builders design new LEGO themes. I love to play pretend with my old Bionicle and my minifigures (my wife says I never grew up), so it will be fun to learn how the MB’s play.
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed the MBA kits! I’ve been trying to tell people that it’s not just for kids. Anyone can learn from these kits.
Finding time to build is definitely the challenge!
I’m also glad that they’re moving on to something different. Not sure how much more interested I’d be in singular creations like the 6 so far. I’m ready for buildings and larger creations.
I hope MBA goes on for some time. It’s not for everyone, obviously, but it is useful for a lot of people.
Thanks for your comments. Happy building! 🙂
LEGO MBA is a nice way to learn the master’s techniques, and I look forward to subscribe to it… when it comes to my country hehehe.
Yup, unfortunately, you won’t see the kits available without a subscription, and LEGO plans to make it available worldwide.
So, I am waiting 🙂
I still don’t understand why LEGO didn’t make kits 1 through 6 available worldwide. It just seems that they don’t quite realize how popular their products are.
I really hope that these new kits are available worldwide. Especially since the kits are limited by subscription, there aren’t that many on bricklink to buy.
Well, the books are a bit more detailed than your run-of-the-mill instructions, so translation costs/time alone will set MBA back further than other sets. But I am guessing that it’s still a pilot program, and they want to make sure it’s successful before expanding. That doesn’t mean we have to like it.
Very true. There are probably a lot of costs that we don’t understand or know about that LEGO has to weigh and decide on before producing something. We don’t have to like it, but we don’t have to stay quiet about it either.
I really encourage everyone who is in another country that wants this to call or email LEGO. They do respond to feedback. Maybe not immediately., but they do make changes based on what people tell them. If enough people tell LEGO that they want it in their country, it may just happen. But it won’t happen if no one tells LEGO.
The above post is from me, but my husband was logged in and I forgot to check that before posting.
He’d probably agree with me, though, so it’s not too much plagiarism to use his account to say what I want. lol!
This is definitely a very different direction for MBA! I’m sure castle fans will be happy! Very interesting idea of teaching skills in little kits like this! I like it!
It is a nice new direction and as a castle fan, this does make me very happy. 😀
And I can only hope that they’ll do more like this in the future for other themes such as City, Space, maybe even a licensed one. There are so many techniques to learn and so many themes to choose from. If LEGO does this right, this could go on for quite some time.
Sad news. I emailed LEGO customer service and they confirmed that they do not currently have any plans to sell this in any other country besides the U.S. They are forwarding on my comments and a link to this blog entry to their teams in charge of this area so hopefully it’ll change in the future.
As always, I recommend emailing LEGO yourself if there is something you want to say to them. Your voice does matter. 🙂
Interesting… I wander why they are so restrictive. I’m sure they have done some market-research on this, but it is surprizing that their decision was to make MBA available in the USA only. 😕
From talking to some of the LEGO employees at the store near me, the general public doesn’t understand MBA. So it’s actually not selling that well. It’s only interested those who are already fans of LEGO and want to learn building techniques.
A lot of parents view LEGO as playsets only and get mad at their kids when the the kids take apart a set to build something of their own design. They don’t understand that it’s a construction toy.
But then LEGO has really gotten into a lot of licenses that promote the idea of playsets rather than construction sets. So it’s a double-edged sword for LEGO.
Sarah, that is interesting! Maybe this is why LEGO is releasing the LEGO Movie! Kids already know what to do with LEGO, but those parents – oh, dear! – they need to be educated! So maybe the LEGO Movie is actually going to be for them, not really for the kids! 🙂
Here is the synopsis: “It is the story of basically a young man who doesn’t have a creative bone in his body and has to always build things from the instructions. He’s an ‘instructions worker.’ In the Lego city, they build buildings, and it turns out in this universe it’s illegal to build apart from the instructions. So what he finds out is that he’s actually descendant from these like super creative Jedi-type people who are called ‘Master Builders’ and he has been charged with saving the universe from being frozen together by an evil bad guy, so over the course of the movie he has to unlearn all of that lame-o, uncreative stuff and learn how to build without all of the instructions in order to save the universe.”
Wow! Yeah, that movie sounds more like its for the parents than kids. lol! When’s that coming out? I haven’t heard anything about it, but then I don’t usually follow a lot of the extra stuff that LEGO does, except the Ninjago TV show.
I did get the Adventures of Clutch Powers DVD and enjoyed it a lot. Too bad they never did another one.
I’m still hoping they’ll collect all of the Ninjago TV show on DVD at some point. I would really love to own that.
Sarah, I’m not sure when it will be released, but it is in the making! Yeah, Ninjago is actually a really-really good story! Great animation too! I don’t normally watch TV, but was watching Cartoon Network with one of my little friends the other day, and I was amazed how crappy kids shows are these days! Ninjago is way above those! 😀
Yeah, it amazes me too how bad modern kid’s cartoons are. That’s why there should be a LEGO channel of just LEGO-made cartoons. It’d be so awesome!
wow im getting it!!!
Glad to hear it! Enjoy!
Ouch! I just had to tell somebody that today was the first time that a model I submitted was rejected on the MBA website. What a shot to the heart. I made a small Bionicle creature for the creature design challenge, and I included pictures of it grappling with a Toa. The rejection message read, “Your creation is off–topic.” I feel so deflated. Has this happened to anybody before?
Gabriel, I’m really sorry to hear that! Is there a way to respond that notice and ask them why they thought your MOC was off topic? It may have been a mistake or misunderstanding. CUUSOO is still in its beta stage, so stuff could happen. Let us know how it goes.
Thanks for the sympathy. It helps. Nope, no apparent way to respond to the message. They just say that it has to be edited before I can resubmit. I took out the pictures of the rahi grappling with Gali, so maybe if it’s just the creature they’ll like it. But I think it makes it less cool because everybody wants to see backgrounds and context. And I added some story because I’m anticipating the new Level 3 theme. So bummer. But maybe it was a mistake. Who knows?
Gabriel, maybe you can just resubmit the main picture on CUUSOO, upload the extra images on Flickr, or some other picture-sharing site, and link to them from the back-story and description. Actually this has a great benefit, especially if you upload the extra images on Flickr. Flickr has a huge LEGO fan-base, and adding your images to the main LEGO Flickr Group and some other LEGO groups that are relevant would get much more exposure to your MOC then CUUSOO could ever get you alone. There is a silver lining in everything. 😉
Did you post it to the LEGO MBA gallery or to CUUSOO?
I’ve never heard of rejections from either, but I do know that the LEGO MBA gallery is much more controlled and moderated than CUUSOO. They obviously don’t understand that your Bionicle is a creature. I say try to load a different picture and write out as much detail as you can about your creation.
I have to say that I have only finished the first two kits and those models went up just fine on LEGO MBA gallery. I haven’t posted since last August though so they may have changed their process a bit.
I hope you get it figured out!
Sarah, that was actually my bad. I don’t know why I kept thinking Gabriel was talking about CUUSOO. I guess that’s what was stuck in my head. 😳
Alright, so I just heard back from LEGO customer service, and they said that it MIGHT have been classified as off-topic because it was too violent because my tentacled creature had a Toa in its grasp. I already took that picture off, so my creation should go through in the next day or so. However, if violence was really the problem, shouldn’t the message have read “Your creation is too violent”? Meh, it’s an imperfect world.
Gabriel, good to hear that they got back to you! Let us know when your creation gets posted! 😉
Alright — it’s live! Phew! Hope you like it, even though it was just a simple build.
Gabriel, you have a link?
http://mba.lego.com/en-us/member/creature/gallery/c4f0dfda-13ff-4e6d-bff8-43e9b0be1cde/?&sort=latest
I don’t know if that will work since it’s on MBA. Haven’t loaded it to MOC pages yet.
Gabriel, thanks for sharing! Non-MBA members can’t look at it, but current MBA members can certainly check it out. Let us know when you post it on MOCpages as well. I’m glad your project was finally approved! 🙂
I’m actually feeling really self conscious about posting so much here, but here is the MOCpages link:
http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/317023
Thanks for being so supportive; you guys are great!
Looks great! You’ve got quite some talent there. Thanks for sharing the link. 🙂
Gabriel, no need to feel self-conscious. You obviously haven’t been over to the Ninjago section of our website, where kids leave hundreds of comments a day! 8)
Looks like MOCpages is down though. I just get an “Internet Explorer cannot display this page” message. So I will have to wait to see your MOC later. 😥
Hey I pre-ordered kits 7-9 the first one ships may 1st I can’t wait oh and also I got a free really neat poster with it so If you you want the poster you must preorder kits 7-9 before may 1st
The poster is a really cool mba poster featuring kits 7-9 with pics and info of it very neat if you are an mba fan
Oh sorry in the post above I meant it is very neat not it neat! Sorry about that 🙂
Oh sorry about so many comments but I keep forgetting to wright stuff but the poster I mentioned in my posts above it is different than the other one this one is about 7-9 and the other one is about 1-6 but yes this one is different I personally think this one is cooler and it goes on until kit 7 comes out! 🙂
Ok so sorry about all these comments but sorry for incorrect info the mba 7-9 poster ends on April 30th sorry about that! 🙂
Hi – we are having trouble locating the level 3 MBA kit on the web to purchase – every link above only goes to levels 1 and 2. Can you help?
Thanks Joel
Joel, they are available on LEGO’s website. Here is the link: LEGO MBA Kits
