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Build LEGO Christmas holiday ornaments!

by Thita (admin) on December 4, 2017

in Useful Resources

It has become a Christmas tradition that Canadian LEGO builder, artist, and photographer Chris McVeigh releases a series of charming LEGO Christmas ornaments for the holidays. You can either download the instructions to make your own ornaments, or purchase the ornaments as building kits from Chris’ website. Chris also published a beautiful book, which includes instructions for many of his previously released ornaments. Below, we will look at the Christmas ornaments Chris designed for this year. If you would like to learn more about the book, you can find my review here: The LEGO Christmas Ornament Book Review 🙂

The new LEGO Christmas ornaments designed by Chris for this year include some fun twist ornaments that take advantage of LEGO’s new colors and pieces, as well as other traditional Christmas ornament shapes. In addition, there is also a whole series Chris calls Platecraft Ornaments. They are made of LEGO plates and some small decorative pieces, and include a gingerbread man, gingerbread bear, Mr. and Mrs. snowman pair, a reindeer, and a small gingerbread house. And of course, there is also a traditional gingerbread house ornament.

As I mentioned above, you can download free instructions for all of the ornaments, so you can build them yourself from the pieces you already have. Many of the ornaments are small, with about 50 pieces, so if you have a decent selection of basic LEGO bricks and shapes, you should have no problem building them. And, of course, you can swap out some of the colors and pieces if you don’t have them, or you want to create a greater variety of ornaments. You can get all the instructions here: DOWNLOAD LEGO CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS INSTRUCTIONS

If you rather have Chris mail the pieces to you, you can buy the ornaments as building kits, with all the needed parts and instructions. The kits also make very unique Christmas gift for LEGO fans, and your purchase supports Chris’ effort to provide free designs. You can buy the LEGO Christmas ornament kits here: BUY LEGO CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS BUILDING KITS

Chris also released a book last year, featuring fifteen of his LEGO Christmas ornaments with step-by-step instructions. I have reviewed the book here: The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book Review. In summary, it is super nice, and I highly recommend it. It also makes a great Christmas gift for LEGO fans both young and old. Please note that the book is best for those who already have a decent LEGO collection of at least basic shapes and colors, so they can build the designs themselves. You can find the book here: BUY THE LEGO CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS BOOK

Decorating your Christmas tree with LEGO ornaments is a fun pastime for the whole family. Once you try out some of Chris’ designs, and get a hang of it, you can also experiment with making your own LEGO Christmas ornaments. I would recommend putting together a good assortment of LEGO plates, tiles, and some fun little decorative pieces in bright colors in a tub or box, then gather the whole family around to begin building!

What do you think? Do you use LEGO for your holiday decorations? And what do you think of these LEGO Christmas ornaments? Have you built any of them already? Feel free to share your own design ideas in the comment section below! 😉

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

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LEGO The Joker Manor – yay or nay?

by Thita (admin) on December 3, 2017

in LEGO Super Heroes

One of the most interesting sets that were released for this holiday season is the #70922 LEGO Batman Movie The Joker Manor. It is big, colorful, and looks very fun. I don’t know when any of our contributors will have a chance to get the set, so we can publish a hands-on review, but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you a couple of very interesting videos. They should help you make a decision if you have been considering purchasing the set. 🙂

First lets start off with the official description, so you have all the stats in front of you: Help Batman, Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth (in his classic Batsuit) and Nightwing regain control of the jokerized Wayne Manor with this massive The LEGO Batman Movie set. The Joker Manor is packed with iconic details from the movie and cool functions, including a rollercoaster encircling the whole building, a huge buildable The Joker head with trapdoor and slide, punching boxing gloves, a rocking ‘The Joker’ sign and rotating ‘big eye’ tower. The interior includes a cinema room with a romantic DVD element, kitchen with buildable microwave plus lobster and lemon-slice decorated tile elements, living room with a buildable grand piano, fireplace and bust, swimming pool room, and a music studio with guitar element and buildable mixing desk and loudspeakers. Build this magnificent manor and then recreate your favorite scenes from the movie. Includes 10 minifigures: The Joker, Batman, Barbara Gordon, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Alfred Pennyworth Classic Batsuit, Disco Batman, Disco The Joker, Disco Batgir and Disco Robin. The Joker Manor measures over 21” (55cm) high, 25” (66cm) wide and 10” (27cm) deep. Rollercoaster train measures over 1” (3cm) high, 5” (15cm) long and 1” (3cm) wide. 3444 pieces. Price: $269.99 – BUY HERE

The first video I wanted to share with you is with LEGO Senior Designer Marcos Bessa, and LEGO Graphic Designer Paul Turcanu. It is not just the standard designer-video we are used to from previous set reveals, but a more indebt look at what goes into designing and building a large and complex set like this. I actually quite like this new video style, as it goes into more detail about the creative process. And I also like to hear personal stories from the designers, like what Marcos shares in the video. It makes purchasing a new LEGO set a more intimate experience than just buying a product, as we get to know a bit more about what the designer went through to create it.

While I haven’t had a chance to build the set, I really like the overall look and color combinations. The whole set has a sort of jumped-out-of-the-pages-of-a-comic-book feel to it. The Joker sign above the entrance, the HA! HA! sign to the side, the rollercoaster, and the bright and beautiful color-combinations of The Joker over the more muted colors of Wayne Manor, all make this set a piece of art. And the backside of the Manor with more fun details and colors, and clever small builds make it look good from every angle. So, being happy with what I saw, I was very surprised that JANGBRiCKS’s review on the set is quite negative (watch below).

I’m sort of torn after watching JANG’s review. I still very much like the look of the set, and I think it makes a wonderful and very colorful display-piece, with some fun play-features. I do understand at least some of JANG’s points though, especially that a set of this size and price could have been better balanced as far as what you can do with it. I think if LEGO designers would have made it possible to transfer The Joker Manor into the regular Wayne Manor with alternate instructions, that would have added the additional value LEGO fans like JANG are looking for.

I do feel like JANG’s review on this set is kind of harsh though (which is surprising, as he is usually more positive and even forgiving in his reviews). Even with some faults, I wouldn’t call this set “severely limited and dominated by compromises”, or say that “it doesn’t accomplish anything particularly well”. I think it looks awesome, and represents well what LEGO is all about; colorful, fun, and beautifully detailed. But again, I haven’t build it as of yet. And of course, I don’t always have to agree with JANG (although I usually do, and I very much appreciate his reviews).

What do you think? Do you have The Joker Manor already? Have you built the set yet? Or are you planning to get it? How do you like it? Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so 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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Build LEGO Christmas holiday ornaments!

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