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There are a couple of new LEGO books by Canadian LEGO fan, Charles Pritchett, that I wanted to make sure you know about. We talked about Charles’ earlier releases previously (see links at the end of this post), like the Building LEGO BrickHeadz Heroes and Building LEGO BrickHeadz Villains books, and the Expanding the LEGO Winter Village books. Another new book, the Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs & Other Extinct Beasts was released towards the end of last year, and the Building LEGO Trains book will be released in August of this year. Today, we will talk about these last two books.

In case you’re not familiar with Charles’ LEGO books, they basically include instructions for custom models based on established LEGO themes. So, if you want to expand your LEGO BrickHeadz collection, or LEGO Winter Village diorama, Charles gives you step-by-step instructions for additional models you can build from your own LEGO collection. The instructions are nicely arranged in a high-quality book format, with clear building steps, and decorated with beautiful images of the models.

The recently released Prehistoric Bricks: Building LEGO Dinosaurs & Other Extinct Beasts was written by Charles in collaboration with another LEGO fan, Jonathan Saukel. It follows the same format as the previous books, with step-by-step building instructions for eight different prehistoric creatures, each with its own display base. In addition, the book also includes complete lists of bricks and pieces needed for each model, and general information on each of the beasts with facts and figures regarding discovery, size, and time periods in which they lived. And there is also some helpful advice on acquiring bricks not already in your collection. You can get the book on Amazon: BUILDING LEGO DINOSAURS BOOK ON AMAZON

The book is an excellent way to extend the also recently released #21320 LEGO Ideas Dinosaur Fossils set, which features buildable, poseable, 1:32 scale models of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Pteranodon skeletons – each with their own display stands – to create LEGO-style natural history museum exhibits. You can find the set at the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.

The other new book by Charles Pritchett, Building LEGO Trains, includes step-by-step, fully illustrated building instructions for seven LEGO train models, including a coal gondola, milk tanker, open hopper, depressed flatcar, passenger coach, powered box car, and diesel locomotive. In addition, design alternatives suggest ways to customize the train cars, improve an existing LEGO train collection, or even pair the models in this book with an official LEGO train set. As I mentioned above, this book won’t be available until August, but you can already pre-order it on Amazon: BUILDING LEGO TRAINS BOOK ON AMAZON

And if you haven’t done so already, I recommend that you check out the other books by Charles as well. I especially recommend the two volumes of Expanding the LEGO Winter Village books. They include instructions for several charming buildings and vintage cars that go well with the LEGO Winter Village collection, or could be used in other settings. Here is the link to all the LEGO instruction books by Charles: LEGO BOOKS BY CHARLES PRITCHETT ON AMAZON

What do you think? Do you have any of the books by this author? How do you like them? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Ideas Medieval Blacksmith & Winnie the Pooh

Over the past four months, the LEGO Ideas review board has been evaluating the ten product ideas that reached 10,000 supporters between early May 2019 and early September 2019. In addition, they also continued their evaluation of Stephanix’ Anatomini model, due to its complexity. After all of that deliberation, LEGO Ideas Engagement Manager, Hasan Jensen, and LEGO Ideas Design Manager, Samuel Johnson, yesterday revealed which of these models will be released as official LEGO sets. Take a look at the details below.

One of the projects selected to become an official LEGO set is the Medieval Blacksmith by 22-year-old German geography student and LEGO fan, Clemens Fiedler (a.k.a. Namirob). LEGO Castle fans are already super happy about this project as it brings back one of the all-time favorite LEGO themes. It’s a really nicely built model, taking advantage of many new LEGO colors and building techniques that we haven’t seen in an official LEGO Castle set. If you’d like to learn more about Clemens then make sure to check out his 10K Club Interview on LEGO Ideas. I also recommend taking a look at his other LEGO Ideas projects, as he has some really beautiful models. I would actually like to see an entire medieval village from this talented young builder.

The second project selected to become an official LEGO set is Winnie the Pooh by British LEGO fan Ben Alder (a.k.a. benlouisa). It features Winnie the Pooh’s tree house in the Hundred Acre Wood, with Winnie the Pooh himself, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl (sitting in the tree), Piglet, and Eeyore. It’s a charming little set bringing to life one of the most iconic children’s stories and loveable characters. You can check out Ben’s other projects on LEGO Ideas, as well as his 10k Club Interview.

Following a further review of Stephanix’s Anatomini project, for which a result was postponed in the last review, the LEGO Ideas review board has made the decision not to move forward with this design. My guess is that they found the project too complex to be made into an official LEGO set.

The LEGO Ideas design team will be working on the Medieval Blacksmith and the Winnie the Pooh project for some time, so pricing and availability won’t be announced until later. And, the next batch of LEGO Ideas projects are already under review with twelve product ideas that reached 10,000 supporters between September 2019 and early January 2020. Results of this review will be shared sometime this summer.

Also, remember that three other LEGO Ideas projects are also in the works; Pirate Bay, Sesame Street, and the Playable Piano. The final design, pricing, and availability of these sets should be announced sometime soon. And, for the currently available sets that were originally submitted by LEGO fans, visit the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the selected projects? Were there any other projects that you would have liked to become official LEGO sets? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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