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LEGO Stranger Things Set Available Now!

by Thita (admin) on May 15, 2019

in LEGO Exclusives

Something strange is going on, as the town of Hawkins, Indiana arrives in LEGO brick form. Last night, LEGO announced its first ever product collaboration with Netflix on the #75810 LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside-Down set. Fans were invited to special launch events at the LEGO store at Leicester Square in London, and the LEGO store at Flat Iron District, New York City. The set allows fans to enter the Byers’ house and the supernatural world of The Upside Down and includes minifigures of Eleven, Hopper, Will and more. Full press-release, set description, pictures, and other details below.

Something strange is happening in Hawkins, Indiana – but this time in LEGO brick form, as the LEGO Group unveils its brand new set, LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside Down. The first set, made in partnership between the LEGO Group and Netflix is a new build experience allowing fans of Stranger Things and LEGO bricks to explore the Byers’ house and the supernatural world of the Upside Down in LEGO brick form, released May 15, 2019.

The brand-new set was unveiled at the Leicester Square LEGO store in London with a special midnight opening experience. Visitors were greeted with the supernatural sight of the Mind Flayer illuminating the front of the store and a spooky LEGO brick recreation of Will Byers’ bike abandoned outside. Once inside the store, guests took their place in the Byers’ living room for a picture with the famous alphabet wall from season one, LEGO senior designer Justin Ramsden was on hand to sign sets and chat with fans. Guests were even able to take part in a make and take activity, creating a mini Castle Byers to take home.

The set was launched simultaneously at the LEGO store in the Flatiron District of New York City. The launch was celebrated with a late-night event, where guests took pictures in front of a LEGO brick-built alphabet wall and a replica of the Byers’ living room and helped a LEGO Master Builder in a live build of the set.

The set features eight Stranger Things characters recreated in LEGO minifigure form, including Chief Hopper, Joyce Byers, Eleven, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin as they try to save Will from a minifigure version of the Demogorgon! The set is full of authentic details from the award-winning Netflix original show, including the alphabet wall complete with a light-up function, a buildable version of Chief Hopper’s police cruiser and the phone in the Byers’ living room, Step into Will’s bedroom with a buildable bed and stickered elements of the posters decorating Will’s room. There are small Easter eggs to be discovered throughout the house including a ‘Will the Wise drawing’ and a picture of the iconic Mind Flayer hidden in the attic.

This Stranger Things collectible includes 2,287 pieces and a whole host of accessories for each of the characters including Hopper’s coffee cup, Eleven’s waffle, and Mike’s flashlight to help you solve the mystery of his missing friend. This is the ultimate collectible for Stranger Things and LEGO fans alike, allowing them to flip between the Byers’ house in Hawkins, Indiana and the mysterious Upside Down world. The perfect set to build ahead of Stranger Things Series 3 landing July 4, 2019.

LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside Down comes with two sets of building instructions allowing fans to play & display both sides of this unique upside-down set. The upside-down version of the model being a mirror image of its real-world counterpart with a dilapidated look, complete with dark vines and murky colors in keeping with the fan-favorite Netflix series.

Jamie Berard, Stranger Things Design Lead at the LEGO Group said, “It’s amazing to see the collaboration between the LEGO Group and Netflix come to life. The Stranger Things universe offers us a wonderful opportunity to be playful with the bricks and allow fans to get lost in the mysterious world of the Upside Down. The design team has created an impressive model that is not only fun to build but also offers lots of details and ‘Easter eggs’ that should delight fans of the series.” LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside Down is available directly from LEGO stores and the Online LEGO shop starting today, May 15, 2019.

And here is the official description of the set: The ultimate LEGO Stranger Things model to build and collect! Fans of the global hit Netflix original series will appreciate the authentic details of this highly collectible LEGO Stranger Things toy. The sturdy, brick-built model can flip between the real world and The Upside Down. The design of the model’s building instructions makes it a great, shared building experience with friends and family. The Byers’ house features Will’s bedroom, the living room, and the dining room. The Upside Down version of the house, from an alternate dimension, features all the rooms from the real-world model but with a dark, vine-covered, dilapidated look that fans will instantly recognize from the series. With eight Stranger Things figures, each with its own accessories, this playset makes a great gift for Stranger Things fans who will love to build and display this model to show their passion for the series.

This LEGO Stranger Things toy includes eight instantly recognizable Stranger Things minifigures from the hit Netflix original series: Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Will Byers, Joyce Byers, Chief Jim Hopper, and the Demogorgon.
The Byers’ house features a front porch with furniture, living room, dining room, and Will’s bedroom.
The living room features authentic details from the series, like the alphabet wall with a light-up function, couch, coffee table, telephone, axe, ‘have you seen me?’ flyer stickered element and a bear trap to catch the Demogorgon.
Will’s bedroom plays a central role in the series, which this model faithfully replicates, including details like Will’s boom box, bed, desk, desk lamp, drawings, and movie posters.
The dining room includes an armchair, boxes that store Christmas lights, fantasy game rule book stickered element and a potted plant.
The attic space includes a Mind Flayer drawing stickered element and a wizard hat for ‘Will the Wise’.
The Upside Down set captures the look and feel from the Netflix original series, including creepy vines, dark coloring, and a dilapidated look.
Chief Jim Hopper’s police truck includes a removable roof for easy access to the interior and a pumpkin element as a reminder of Season 2.
Accessory elements include Lucas’ slingshot and flashlight, Dustin’s walkie-talkie and compass, Mike’s flashlight and walkie-talkie, Hopper’s coffee mug, Joyce’s flashlight and drawing of ‘Will the Wise’, and Eleven’s waffle.
This Stranger Things collectible includes 2,287 pieces and comes in 11 bags, so the real world and The Upside Down can be built at the same time for a shared building experience.
Once fully built the set measures over 12” (32cm) tall, 17” (44cm) wide and 8” (21cm) deep and is created for play both sides up.
Recommended for ages 16+.

Below is the designer-video for the set with LEGO designer Justin Ramsden, along with a 1980s style advertising. It’s quite fun!

The #75810 LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside-Down set is available directly from LEGO stores and the Online LEGO Shop starting today, May 15th. Prices are as follows: US $199.99 – CA $269.99 – DE €199.99 – UK £179.99 – FR €199.99 – DK 1799DKK – AUD $349.99 (Euro pricing varies by country). To purchase, visit the LEGO Stranger Things section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Stranger Things: The Upside-Down set? Have you been watching the show on Netflix? Are you planning to get the LEGO set? 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:

➡ LEGO SHOP IN USA: Online LEGO Shop USA

➡ LEGO SHOP IN CANADA: Online LEGO Shop Canada

➡ LEGO SHOP IN UK: Online LEGO Shop UK

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Brick Breakdown: LEGO Creator Ford Mustang

by Thita (admin) on May 14, 2019

in LEGO Exclusives

(Written by William)

In my most recent reviews (see links at the end of this post), I talked about sets that are high profile from popular themes but with some controversial aspects. I wanted to form my own opinion on them, and share my thoughts and findings with our readers. When it comes to the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang, however, the set was pretty much universally well received, and I knew I was going to love it as well. Early copies of the set does have some problems with the white stripes not aligning properly, but from what I hear, LEGO has been good at correcting this in later copies, and also sending replacements to those who encountered the issue.

Unlike in some of the previous LEGO Creator Expert Builder vehicles, with the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang LEGO designers didn’t limit the customization options to just swapping out license plates. They knew that the real version of this car has been modified in so many ways that they had to acknowledge at least a few of them. In fact, the instruction manual lists all the modifications you can do: adjustable rear suspension, shorty exhaust headers, supercharger with scoop intake, front splitter, rear spoiler, and nitrous oxide tank in the trunk. Plus, you get your choice of front and back license plates (there are five sets of these, so you are quite flush with options – please note that the license plates are stickered tiles).

And if all that wasn’t enough, LEGO designers redesigned the wheel rings so that they could include functional steering (a first amongst the LEGO Ideas Creator Expert vehicles). Between this and the adjustable rear suspension, the Mustang really feels like an excellent successor to the feature-heavy #10262 LEGO Creator James Bond Aston Martin DB5. In addition, we also get all the standard car features like opening door, opening hood and trunk, removable roof, tilting seats, etc.

In the video above, I mention some of my additional thoughts on the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang, and below, I will discuss some of the unique building techniques that can be found in this set.

LEGO WORM GEAR FOR FIXED POSITIONING

Worm gears are essentially a hollow cylinder with a spiral shape on the outside. When the cylinder is rotated, the spiral acts like a gear and can move the teeth of a gear along its length. I have played around with warm gears before, and up until building this set, I mostly considered them an easy way to create propulsion. Worm gears are rather compact parts that can drive a regular gear forward. But there are other ways to use warm gears as well, as demonstrated in the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang set.

The technique involves creating an adjustable control that can set a fixed position. The key is that the worm gear can easily interact with a normal round tooth gear, but the reverse is not true; a normal gear that tries to move a worm gear will just get locked in place. As an added bonus, the normal gear often acts like a tension element for the worm gear. This means you can pretty much mount it in place and not worry about it turning on its own. The end result is a very precise way to fix the position of geared elements.

VEHICLE STEERING WITH LEGO

To make steering large LEGO Creator vehicles possible in the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang, LEGO created a new element. It’s interesting to note that even much older LEGO Technic sets accomplished steering without the need of this new part. My guess is that the new element was made to keep the scale of the LEGO Creator Expert Builder vehicles more or less the same. But whatever was the reason, I’m happy with this new part.

To build the steering system, the first thing needed is a swivel point. The #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang uses a part with three ball-joints. Ideally, what you are looking for is something that turns in place, can accommodate a wheel, and has a connection point so that you can control it. In this case, two of the ball-joints are what controls the motion, and the third joint controls the whole contraption. Next, the two swivel points need to be connected together in some way. Here, LEGO designers used links to connect each swivel point to a central hub. Finally, the connecting bridge needs to be moved in some way. In this set, a small lift-arm is attached to a big gear. Everything else is there just to control that gear.

To summarize, the crucial elements are the swivel points, the connecting bridge, and how to move that bridge. If you get all these in place, then the hard work is over. This will synchronize the wheels while at the same time not creating a lot of excess movement (like if they were just attached to the same axle and the axle could move). This method of steering does not give up stability, which is what can cause catastrophic failure in poorly planned vehicles.

USING LEGO STUD ROTATION AS A HINGE

If you watch the designer-video for the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang (see links at the end of this post), the designers mention working on a new hinge design. It’s not a new piece or even a new method in how the piece can connect. Rather, it is in the doors of the model, and the lower two hinge-plates working together. One of the hinge-plates handles the opening of the door. The more internal hinge-plate then acts as a limiter for the door’s movement. It accomplishes this by making two distinct movements. The first is its normal hinging action, the second is that it swivels on a single stud.

For this to work properly there needed to be clearance for the hinge-plate in every direction around the stud so that the plate doesn’t run into anything. Most LEGO fans are no stranger to tilting a plate on a stud, but we weren’t sure if using it as a moving joint would be considered a bona fide and safe building technique that doesn’t stress the parts. Well, given that the technique is included in this set, and LEGO’s vigorous quality control procedures to test building techniques, it looks like we can use it safely. Just make sure to lock the stud in place before you go crazy with the motions.

APPLYING WHAT YOU LEARN

The #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang is full of very practical techniques that are easy to use, but a bit novel in their implementation. For anyone making a joint that needs to hold some serious weight, you might just want to throw in a worm gear to see if it can handle the job. As for steering, just like any advanced effect you are trying to create, start by identifying the key elements in the system. As I pointed out in steering section, you’ll want to build swivel points, connect them together, and then figure out how to move the connector piece. By breaking down a more complex design into much smaller obstacles, it can be a lot easier to solve. And who doesn’t like another way to use a basic stud? As using studs for rotation is a LEGO-tested feature, we can use it with confidence knowing that the involved parts won’t break. So, twist the night away in this sleek muscle car.

What do you think? How do you like the #10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang? Do you have it already? Have you built it? And what do you think of the techniques mentioned here? Are there any other interesting building techniques that you found in the set? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!