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LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book review

by Thita (admin) on October 13, 2018

From all the LEGO books, some of the best ones are those that provide building inspirations and seed ideas for your own LEGO projects. These books are like trusty shop manuals that are flipped through over and over again to find solutions, learn new techniques, and even provide step-by-step instructions. They are used by both young and old LEGO fans to start or expand on projects. DK Publishing has a whole series of such books, usually referred to as the LEGO ideas book series. So far, there have been three books in the collection, with a fourth one recently added. We already reviewed the first three books previously (see links at the end of this post), so I will only mention them briefly, and today we will focus on the fourth book. 🙂

Here is a little summary of the first three books of the series. The original THE LEGO IDEAS BOOK – UNLOCK YOUR IMAGINATION was released by DK Publishing in 2011, followed by the LEGO PLAY BOOK – IDEAS TO BRING YOUR BRICKS TO LIFE in 2013, and the LEGO AWESOME IDEAS – WHAT WILL YOU BUILD? book in 2015. They are all full of inspiring models to help you discover ideas and techniques for your own creations. The pictures are big and beautiful, and the more complex models are broken down into smaller chunks to easily see and replicate the details. The creations include buildings, vehicles, spaceships, ships, creatures, craft projects, micro-models, mosaics, home decor and holiday decor, games, puzzles, gift ideas, and a lot more. All three books are still available at various bookstores and on Amazon (just follow the links).

I should also mention that there is another book by DK Publishing that is similar to the LEGO ideas book series, but with more focus on games and other creative activities instead of building inspirations and seed ideas. This book is titled 365 THINGS TO DO WITH LEGO BRICKS and was released in 2016. We have reviewed this book previously as well (see links at the end of this post).

The latest in the LEGO ideas books collection is the LEGO STAR WARS IDEAS BOOK. This is the first time a book in this series has a specific theme, which means that all of the included models, building ideas, and games are related to Star Wars in some way or another.

The book includes more than 200 games, activities, and building ideas, from projects that take just a few minutes to make, to builds that will keep young and old Star Wars fans occupied for hours.

The book begins with a double-page spread asking different questions to help LEGO fans decide what they might like to build. Questions such as “How many bricks do you have?”, “How much time do you have?”, and “What are you in the mood for?”

The book is broken down into four color-coded main sections; Recreate, Expand, Challenge, and Use It! The Recreate section features favorite characters, scenes, vehicles, and prop from the movies that Star Wars fans can build. The projects are not too big or complex, so someone even with a medium-sized LEGO collection should be able to build them. The Expand section features projects that are not directly from Star Wars, but they are in the spirit of the movies; fun robots, alien creatures, alphabet starfighters, creative rebuilds of official Star Wars sets, and more. The Challenge section features various brick-built strategy and memory games, and activities to play alone or together with friends and family. And the Use It! section features Star Wars-themed useful objects like piggy banks, pencil holders, organizers, display-stands, key ring holders, gift items, and more.

Each of the projects includes big and clear pictures, so they can be easily replicated. For larger models, there are breakdowns of the more complex sections, tips on how to simplify or adapt ideas if you don’t have the exact pieces, and explanation of the techniques used. And there is also plenty of LEGO humor. There is so much to do, play with, learn, and read, this book can keep both young and old LEGO fans busy for a long time.

The huge variety of inspirational models and games featured in the book are built by well-known LEGO fans, Alice Finch, Rod Gillies, Tim Goddard, Kevin Hall, Rhys Knight, and Barney Main. While they are all suitable for children ages 7+, many of them can be very interesting to teen and adult LEGO fans as well. And the projects found in the games and activities section can be fun for the whole family.

I’m a big fan of the LEGO ideas book series, and would highly recommend any of them. The first three books are not tied to any particular theme or franchise, so I would say they are more appealing to a wider audience. However, if you are a die-hard Star Wars fan, THE LEGO STAR WARS IDEAS BOOK may be a better choice. The book offers a great variety of creative projects all related to the Star Wars universe. But you really can’t go wrong with any of these books. They are great for both personal use and as a gift for other LEGO fans. You can find them all on Amazon with excellent discounted prices:

What do you think? Do you have any of the books from the LEGO ideas series? Have you built any of the projects from the books? Or, did any of the models inspire you in your own projects? 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 FORMA backer feedback survey

by Thita (admin) on October 12, 2018

in Other News & Updates

As we discussed last month, LEGO is currently running its first Indiegogo campaign to test out a new marketing strategy, as well as new product concept called LEGO FORMA. You can read all the details of the campaign here: LEGO FORMA – LEGO Teams Up with Indiegogo! The campaign is doing well with around 5,000 backers the last time I checked the campaign page, and there is still plenty of time left to participate. 🙂

I was part of the early test group for LEGO FORMA back in July via the LEGO Ambassador Forum, and I also backed the project once it went live on Indiegogo. I couldn’t help myself and ordered the LEGO FORMA Super Box with all four skins, so I have a chance to try them all out and also share my thoughts on it in a future review.

As I mentioned above, LEGO is using the Indigogo campaign not just for introducing a new product, but also for testing a new way of marketing and getting feedback. The LEGO FORMA team has been very responsive to questions and comments on the campaign page, and a couple of days ago, they also sent out a survey to get more detailed feedback from those who backed the project. If you are a backer, you should have received an email with the survey link, and for those who are not backers, I have included the questions below, as they offer some interesting insights into the development and future possibilities with LEGO FORMA.

To introduce the survey, the LEGO FORMA team explains that they would like to get some feedback to make sure the final product is something fans are going to be very happy with.

Thank you again for backing the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo. We are incredibly pleased that you’ve decided to join us on this journey. We’re still working on the final LEGO FORMA product and we’d love to ask you some questions to get the prototypes just right. We’d love to ask you a couple of questions and hear your thoughts on what you like about LEGO FORMA, and even more importantly, what you believe could be improved. The survey should take around 5 minutes to complete, and to make this a little more interesting for you, we will be sending an additional LEGO FORMA Super Box (base model + all skins) to one lucky respondent.

Some of the questions are pretty basic, asking for age, gender, country of residence, if you purchased other LEGO products for yourself in the past year, how often do you build with LEGO, who do you typically build with, and which LEGO building systems do you use the most often. Then there are also some basic questions about LEGO FORMA, like whom you purchased it for, which package did you choose when backing the project, and why. Other basic questions are about if you ever supported new products on a crowdfunding platform, and if you would recommend backing the LEGO FORMA campaign to friends or relatives. Then, the questions start to get more interesting:

On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the statements below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? 1.) Owning a new product before anyone else 2.) Owning a limited-edition LEGO product 3.) Purchasing a LEGO product at a discount 4.) Being part of LEGO’s innovation process

Based on what you know about LEGO FORMA, how strongly do you agree with the below statements? 1.) LEGO FORMA can help me be creative 2.) LEGO FORMA looks cool and different 3.) LEGO FORMA can help me unwind and relax 4.) LEGO FORMA is something I can share with others 5.) LEGO FORMA is something I can build with my kids 6.) LEGO FORMA lets me use my hands 7.) I will be proud to display LEGO FORMA in my home or office 8.) LEGO FORMA is innovative and renewed my passion for LEGO

On a scale of 1 to 5, how important were the product features below when you decided to back the LEGO FORMA campaign on Indiegogo? 1.) Ability to customize skins 2.) Ability to display the model 3.) The overall building system 4.) The kinetic movement of the model 5.) The nature theme 6.) The fish theme

Which information was the most helpful for you to make the decision to back the LEGO FORMA campaign? 1.) Project video 2.) The project story 3.) The project FAQ 4.) Project updates 5.) Project comments from other backers 6.) Perks 7.) News articles 8.) Blog posts 9.) Recommendation from others 10.) Posts on social media

If there’s anything you haven’t had a chance to tell us about LEGO FORMA or the Indiegogo campaign, please share your thoughts. 1.) What is your number one favorite thing about LEGO FORMA? 2.) What is your number one doubt or concern about LEGO FORMA, if any? What 3 words describe the future of LEGO FORMA for you? Anything else you’d like to tell us?

As you can see, the LEGO FORMA team asks good questions to get useful feedback both on who is supporting LEGO FORMA, and what they like/dislike about the project. In addition, LEGO Ambassadors can also share feedback from their communities via the LEGO Ambassador Forum.

What do you think? Are you a backer of the LEGO FORMA campaign? Did you respond to the survey yet? Feel free to share some of your answers that you feel are important. And if you are not a backer of the campaign, you are welcome to answer the questions in the comment section below! 😉

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

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LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book review

LEGO FORMA backer feedback survey

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