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LEGO Cloud City & Fire Station available!

by Thita (admin) on September 15, 2018

Just a quick reminder that two new exclusive LEGO sets are now available for LEGO VIP members, ahead of the official release data on October 1st. The two sets are the #75222 LEGO Star Wars Betrayal at Cloud City, and the #10263 LEGO Winter Village Fire Station. We talked about both sets already (see links at the end of this post), but I will include the general description for each set for your convenience. 🙂

Here is the official description for the #75222 LEGO Star Wars Betrayal at Cloud City set: Relive a world of unforgettable moments from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back or add your own fun twists to the story with this #75222 LEGO Star Wars Betrayal at Cloud City set. The amazingly detailed set is divided into 4 sections, each depicting scenes from the classic movie. There’s a landing platform complete with Boba Fett’s Slave I ship, a detailed promenade, a dining room with seating for 5 minifigures, a garbage processing room with incinerator, and a sensor balcony for epic Luke vs. Vader Lightsaber duels. There’s also a carbon freeze chamber with a function to ‘freeze’ Han in carbonite, an interrogation chamber and prison cell, a secondary landing platform for the Twin-Pod Cloud Car, and so much more. Add an astonishing 18 LEGO minifigures plus 2 droids to the mix, and you have a set that Star Wars and LEGO fans of any age would be proud to add to their collection. This amazing set is part of the LEGO Star Wars Master Builder Series. Cloud City measures over 6” (16cm) high, 22” (58cm) wide and 22” (56cm) deep. Slave I measures over 4” (11cm) high, 7” (19cm) long and 7” (18cm) wide. Includes 18 minifigures: Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker in Bespin outfits, Chewbacca, C-3PO, Lando Calrissian, Lobot, 2 Cloud City Guards, 2 Cloud Car Pilots, Leia and Han in Hoth outfits, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, 2 Stormtroopers and an Ugnaught, plus R2-D2 and an IG-88 droid. 2,812 pieces. Price: $349.99 – BUY HERE

Here is the official description for the #10263 LEGO Winter Village Fire Station, and below it you can watch the designer-video: Welcome to the snowy #10263 LEGO Creator Expert Winter Village Fire Station, where the firefighters are enjoying the calm of the holiday season. This delightful LEGO set features a 2-level, holly-adorned building with an upper-level kitchen, complete with a red telephone, table, fold-down bed and a LEGO light brick. Behind the large red fire station doors, you’ll discover firefighting equipment and a fire pole, while outside there’s an ice rink with a decorative firefighter statue, a decorated Christmas tree with transparent star and gifts, plus a bench and lamppost. This set also features a classic red fire truck with a turntable ladder, hoses, toolbox and deep-tread tires. Gather the family and bring the magic of the holiday season to your home with this festive LEGO Creator Expert set. Fire Station measures over 9” (23cm) high, 9” (25cm) wide and 5” (14cm) deep. Fire truck measures over 2” (6cm) high, 1” (4cm) wide and 5” (13cm) deep. Includes 6 minifigures: 3 firefighters, ice hockey player, musician with saxophone, and a girl with a scarf. It also includes a Dalmatian, brick-built snowman, and a baby figure with a moose sweater. 1,166 pieces. Price: $99.99 – BUY HERE

Also, remember that there are some other specials going on right now as well. Until the 20th of this month you can get a free LEGO Friends Friendships Rings set with LEGO Friends purchases of over $25. And you can also get Double VIP Points on the #41346 LEGO Friends Friendship Box, and the #41352 LEGO Friends The Big Race Day during the entire month. For a full inventory of new sets and promotions, visit the What’s New section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the new LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Winter Village sets? Are you planning to get either of them? What other new sets do you really like and would like to purchase? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

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

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The story of the LEGO minifigure – Part 2

by Thita (admin) on September 14, 2018

in LEGO History

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the minifigure, LEGO collected and sent out a big bundle of assets to LEGO fan sites to enjoy and share with their communities. The original date when the first minifig patent was registered in Denmark was August 29th 1977, however, the first minifigures weren’t launched until 1978. Last time, we looked at the timeline of the development of the LEGO minifigure (see: The Story of the LEGO Minifigure – Part 1), and today, we will take a look at the minifig moulds. 🙂

The standard LEGO minifigure is assembled from nine pieces; head, torso, two arms, two hands, hips piece, and two legs. To make the pieces, eight different moulds are used. Two sets of these moulds are the same in design but reversed to mould the right and left minifigure arms and legs. As we discussed in the first part of this series, the precision that goes into these moulds is exceptional, and because the original moulds are almost identical to the ones LEGO uses today, minifigures from 1978 can be mixed and matched with the more modern characters from today. A couple of things that changed, however, is the number of elements each mould can produce and the speed of production. For example, the minifigure head mould construction has improved from an initial eight elements per 9.8 seconds to 128 elements per 14.7 seconds today. Below, I’m including again the footage from the LEGO factory in Kladno, Czech Republic, just because it’s so awesome.

In the video above, you can clearly see how the moulds are used for manufacturing the different body parts of the standard LEGO minifig, and below are close-ups of the moulds. The first image shows the two sides of the minifig head mould.

The second image shows the two sides of the minifig torso mould. Notice all those intricate small pieces inside the torso, which helps with rigidity and keeping the studs of the hips piece in place.

The left and right arms and the hands are made in separate moulds, and attached to the torso later in the manufacturing process as seen in the video above. I found it especially interesting how the machines clipped those tiny hands in place. So impressive!

The leg assembly is made up of three pieces; the right leg, the left leg, and the hips piece. The left and right legs are produced in the same moulding assembly, and the hips come from a separate mould. These are also later assembled by machines.

It’s great to get such an intimate glimpse into how LEGO minifigs are made! What do you think? How do you like the mould images? Did you notice any interesting details during the manufacturing process? 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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LEGO Cloud City & Fire Station available!

The story of the LEGO minifigure – Part 2

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