The LEGO The Mighty Bowser #71411 features a fully poseable character with many authentic details. However, the most notable attribute of this character is that it features 100% NEW LEGO elements that consumers will have only seen in October of 2022.
LEGO explains, "This buildable figure uses new-for-October-2022 LEGO elements to recreate the look of Bowser's spikes and has many features, including a fireball launcher and a button to control Bowser's head and neck movements. His arms and fingers move too!"
The king of Koopas set also includes a display stand with two towers and a hidden POW Block for you to display The Mighty Bowser in all his glory.
With 2807 joyful pieces (Mama Mia), the LEGO The Mighty Bowser #71411 consumed quite a few hours of build time, so we definitely understand their recommendation for LEGO builders aged 18+.
The finished Bowser allows LEGO fans to admire the character from his display stand OR if you're feeling playful, LEGO has allowed Bowser's head to move, his jaws to snap, and if that wasn't enough, you could even launch fireballs, just like in the video games!
But let's be honest, we're not even at the fun part yet:
LIGHTING IT UP!
When getting this kit, we were curious about what we would be lighting apart from the flaming pillars on either side of The Mighty Bowser, which was obviously a given. However, we were inspired after having the kit in front of us and seeing its interesting techniques and overall scale; we sought to do much more. In addition, we also wanted to add a layer of theatrics to this genuinely awesome Lego Kit.
Taking inspiration from the many Bowser fight scenes in all the iconic Nintendo games, we started by adding 3 spot lights attached to the kit's base. We chose to opt for Orange Large Bit Lights instead of the typical White bit lights. This was to emulate the light from the ominous lava and fire touches throughout Bowser's Castle. The orange glow from these lights helps to highlight and perfectly capture Bowser's colour and shadows throughout those fight scenes.
After this, we moved on to the obvious... the Large Flame pillars. We started by testing the same Orange Large Bit Lights underneath the flame piece. However, this didn't light up as we had initially envisioned. It was far more on the red side, and we decided we owed it to Bowser to make these pillars truly FLAME-ing. So we decided to mix a few things up and try some new techniques. So, we decided to try Warm White Large Bit Lights, which worked perfectly! The flames became illuminated in the right colour, and we connected them to a Flicker Effects board to give that realistic fire feel.
Moving on from here, we removed Bowser from his base and thought wouldn't it be sweet to light up the Fire Ball inside his mouth? We wanted Bowser to be represented in his most authentic form. However, this presented a problem. This decision meant tethering Bowser to the base through a Connecting Cable. The playability of this LEGO set is crucial, and we were determined to allow LEGO builders to be still able to move Bowser around and pose him as they see fit. This meant that we had to get a little creative... So, we started experimenting with Wireless Power Connectors.
First, we tried underneath his feet. However, this proved difficult due to his feet' angle and inability to mount the connectors in a neat position. So then we had the idea of mounting the Connectors in his Tail! This allowed us to hide the connectors out of sight at the back of the Base Plate. TaDa!! It worked perfectly! Once we knew the connection was strong, we mounted an Orange Large Bit Light inside Bowser's mouth directly above the 'shootable' Fireball. Finally, we connected the other end of the wireless power connectors to the flicker effects board, and WE HAD FIRE!
Overall, we are so happy with the final result of Bowser, and the lighting additions genuinely add a layer of authenticity to this Super Mario Villian!
The LEGO The Mighty Bowser #71411 is one of the most impressive LEGO sets we have reviewed and lit up to date. It was an absolute blast to put together and even more fun to light! We highly recommend this set for any LEGO or Nintendo fan - You will not be disappointed!
]]>Well, we all know how that turned out, don't we?
Astonishing things originated from 4 Privot Drive, and now LEGO has given us the opportunity to travel back to where the Harry Potter story began.
This LEGO set is based on the iconic Dursley family home, which, as LEGO states, is "bursting with imaginative fun and adventures for Harry Potter fans to explore." LEGO also promises this set will provide endless fun for Harry Potter fans with various rooms, fun characters, and a flying car. Were we excited to receive this set? No. We were ECSTATIC. Our only complaint was that LEGO didn't offer 'Accio' (summoning spell) as a delivery option... we had to wait for the postman like everyone else.
Quite literally tearing into this LEGO set we discovered it included six Minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Dudley Dursley, Vernon Dursley, Petunia Dursley, Dobby, and Harry's pet owl, Hedwig. The detailing of these Minifigures deserves a round of applause. If those inclusions weren't exciting enough, LEGO also included the Hogwarts acceptance letters to re-create one of the most memorable moments in the entire series!
The Dursley home itself recreates the two-story residence complete with a detailed interior, including the living room, bedroom, and Harry's cupboard under the stairs allowing endless opportunities for creative play and recreating the movie scenes.
"The magical excitement continues outdoors when Ron appears at the upstairs window with the flying Ford Anglia. Kids open the trunk to attach a chain to its hook and, very soon, the window is dragged off and Harry escapes!" explains the LEGO team.
Anyone else immediately go to the escape scene when Harry says this to Ron:
"Ron, I should tell you, most Muggles aren't exactly accustomed to seeing a flying car."
All in all, LEGO has done an excellent job of bringing the magic of Harry Potter to life with this set. However, we never feel like a LEGO set is complete until our lighting technicians get their hands on it and add some extra magic of their own...
LIGHTING IT UP
With limited space to work with, adding the lighting additions was no easy feat... but who doesn't love a challenge?
The main issue was the car stuck to the window that pulled out. So we had to run the cable around the chain and through the window to the board. We left some length to allow it to be pulled out a bit. Finally, we brought the Ford Anglia car to life by adding two Yellow Bit Lights in the car headlights and two Red Bit Lights in the brake lights.
Lighting the rest of the Dursley home was pretty straightforward. We added some more Yellow Bit Lights in the outdoor lamps, a Large White Bit Light in the living room lamp, yet another Yellow under the stairs, and a Strip Light in Harry's room.
As the Dursley home was on the smaller side when it comes to LEGO sets, we feel the lighting additions we made really bring out the life of Pivot Drive and give it that 'lived in' feeling.
LEGO has done an excellent job of capturing the essence of the Harry Potter story with this set, and it will make a great addition to any fan's collection. Overall this is an excellent set for LEGO and Harry Potter fans alike.
]]>The LEGO Motorised Lighthouse #21335 was a truly welcome surprise after a string of movie and game-inspired sets.
The LEGO Motorised Lighthouse set was met with a lot of excitement from the Light My Bricks team as it is a callback to the classic days of LEGO, where you could just build for fun without worrying about recreating an exact replica of something on-screen. It’s for this reason that the LEGO Ideas series consistently produces some of our favourite sets!
With a hefty 2065 LEGO pieces in the set, it's one of the biggest LEGO sets currently available. The set allows you to shine your creativity with a buildable lighthouse that includes a pier with steps, a cave, and a lighthouse keeper's cottage.
Recommended for LEGO builders 18 and over, this set also comes with 2 Minifigures, a sailor, a lighthouse keeper, and a cat and seagull to bring the scene to life. The sailor also has a buildable rowing boat to explore the coastline.
This set is also unique because it is one of the first (and currently only) LEGO sets that uses new motorised lighting components... How's the nerve from LEGO trying to take our jobs by including their own lighting features? However, we can confirm that they should stick to the LEGO side of things and leave the lighting to the experts (us).
Even though this LEGO set comes with over 2000 pieces, the build itself is actually quite simple. With 404 glorious instruction pages, you'll be able to build this lighthouse in no time. However, we recommend not rushing the build, as some very intricate and small pieces require tender care.
LEGO added a nice touch to the lighthouse with some removable elements. This LEGO Motorised Lighthouse #21335 set allows you to remove a part of the back of the tower, revealing a staircase to the top, and you can also lift off the cottage roof to view the detailed interior and discover a treasure chest in the cave.
This is one of those sets where the reveal is just as good as the build. First, seeing all the different pieces come together to create a fully functioning lighthouse is impressive. Then, once you've added the batteries, watch in amazement as the beacon at the top of the lighthouse starts to rotate and light up the night.
Now that we've had a chance to build and test out the LEGO Motorised Lighthouse, it's time to put it to the ultimate test...
LIGHTING IT UP!
We're not going to lie to you; lighting the LEGO Motorised Lighthouse was a little troublesome. Especially because LEGO included their own lighting elements, and we had to find a way to work around them. But, we're nothing if not resourceful here at Light My Bricks, so we found a way!
First things first, we wanted to replace the dim lights initially included in the set to make a real beacon of light. To do this, we needed to almost wholly tear the model apart to access the battery box that powered the lights and the rotating tower. However, we have a custom Powered Up Cable that we have used for motorised sets in the past, and hoped it would work here. So we swapped the LEGO cable with with ours, and it worked perfectly. The motor is still on, and our lights are powered.
Afterward, we placed several types of spotlights around the base for the water. Eventually, we decided on their final placement, where they would fully cover the water areas without being distracting. We also added a cool White Bit Light under a Dark Green Trans Stud for a nice murky cave effect.
We then swapped LEGO's fireplace light for our Large Orange Bit Light connected to a flicker effects board that mimics a functioning fireplace. We also added an orange candle to the flicker board and yellow light to the outdoor oil lantern that fills the front of the scene. We used wireless power connectors for the house roof that power the yellow lantern, so you can look inside easily without cables.
We felt that the tower needed something in the windows, so we found a good way to clip a White Led onto the ladders of each level. They complimented the lighthouse beautifully and gave it a homely feel while still being able to remove the back panels to view the interior.
Now, the problem child... the rotating beacon. Technically we tried to light it first but decided to return to it later. We tried many types of bricks and lights to find the best solution and found that a Large Cool White Light inside a black round brick was the best at projecting the light directly into the mirror sticker LEGO provided. The luminosity of this light was comparable to the bright shine of an actual beacon and had no problem spinning with the motor.
Finally, we decided we needed an extra white spotlight as there was a dark spot next to the house. This filled out the space and completed the lighting kit.
We found the lighting additions themselves easier than trying to take instructional photos for our Light My Bricks customers. LEGO decided to stack many levels of plates and bricks on each other and the entire tower. We could only imagine the frustrations of LEGO and Light My Bricks builders who didn't have infinitely clear instructions to follow. We had to juggle components and route them in the easiest way we found, so the customer did not get too frustrated when installing. We go through the pain, so they have a more enjoyable experience. You're welcome.
The LEGO Motorised Lighthouse is a beautiful set, no doubt about it. Even with the challenges we faced through the building and lighting process, we couldn't be prouder of the final result. This LEGO set is the perfect addition to any seaside-themed LEGO collection!
]]>Inspired by the now legendary classic LEGO Castles - LEGO’s modern designers have created something truly special for young and old LEGO fanatics - inspiring us here at Light My Bricks to do the same!
As soon as this set was announced, we knew we had to get our hands on a copy - but also, so would every other LEGO enthusiast this side of the equator, as it was perhaps the crown jewel of the always loaded August 1st release day!
After lining up at our nearest LEGO store and thankfully securing our treasure, the team got to work quickly with the build process - castle brick after castle brick. Though it must be said, that they couldn’t help admiring the classicly styled packaging! Taking some of the older (but not too old!) team members for a trip down memory lane. Those yellow and blue corner ribbons, that adorned each and every LEGO box brought back memories of our very first interactions with the plastic bricks that we still obviously love very much to this day!
Once the castle construction was complete, it was time to bring some medieval illuminated ambience to this nostalgic new build!
Having had the experience of lighting up the Medieval Blacksmith and 3-in-1 Castle quite recently, gave our designers a good jumping-off point to begin the design and sped the process up considerably. Our designers were able to grab copious amounts of Orange, Yellow and Warm White Bit Lights - knowing that those warm hues were what would be needed without too much experimentation necessary.
Again the contrasting blue of the water was known to be needed ahead of time for that awesome moat! Two Blue Bit Lights were installed under the trans clear bricks, giving the water a lagoon-like quality, balancing the warm colours of the candles, lanterns and flames that light up the rest of the set.
Now we head inside the castle walls. As mentioned above, a ton of lanterns, fireplaces and candles light up the cavernous walls, rooms, halls and corridors. With the aforementioned Orange, Yellow and Warm White Bit Lights a series of Flicker Effects Boards were connected and incorporated to really bring the set to life.
With a set this big that also has a ton of interactive, playable components. Cable management and concealment is of the utmost importance. Our team expertly laid, arranged and managed each wire involved carefully so as to retain complete functionality in the sets moving features. LEGO open studded bricks were incorporated in several instances to thread wires in advantageous positions. Play or display - that’s the Light My Bricks way!
Finally, the team decided what was needed to really complete this epic set, were a trio of Spotlights to shine upon the towering castle walls! Sound the trumpets and raise the flags! The Lion Knights are in for a fight - better provide them with some light!
And there you have it! Step back in time - all the way back in time with the nostalgic LEGO Lion Knights’ Castle 10305! Let us know what you think? Will you be lighting the lanterns and sounding the trumpets? Tag us on social media if you do!
]]>This LEGO set recreates Vincent van Gogh's famous painting, The Starry Night, with incredible accuracy and attention to detail.
Van Gogh was famously known for living with mental illnesses. In fact, many of his most famous paintings, including The Starry Night, were painted during his stay at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum. The painting depicts the view from his asylum window with the addition of an imaginary village.
In a letter to his brother, Theo, during his stay at the asylum, van Gogh wrote, "hope is in the stars." This gives us a small insight into the artist's mindset at the time and that the inspiration behind the painting was perhaps the hope of better things.
The actual 'The Starry Night' van Gogh oil-canvas painting is sitting pretty at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This world-famous painting is currently retailed at a whopping one billion dollars... which is a little out of our budget. So, our team was extremely eager to receive what they considered the next best thing, and to say we were excited to get started is a serious understatement.
‘The Starry Night’ on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
As soon as we opened the box, it was clear that this set would be something special. With 2316 pieces, including a Minifigure of van Gogh himself, the level of detail and thought that has gone into every aspect is amazing.
The LEGO team explains, "This wonderfully detailed LEGO Ideas model (21333) comes with an adjustable display arm on which the Vincent van Gogh minifigure can stand with his paintbrush, palette and easel."
We were also impressed with LEGO's innovative idea to allow this set to be displayed as an artwork piece by a hook on a wall or freestanding.
The build itself was relatively straightforward, and the result was an accurate and beautiful replica of van Gogh's painting. In addition, the team was highly impressed with how the LEGO bricks imitated the fluidity of the painting. We also found the three dimensional depth of the set to be really effective, with the village, stars, and the cypress tree popping right out of an otherwise two dimensional picture.
Once built, the next step was of course adding lights to really make this night come alive!
The beauty of The Starry Night, one of the most famous landscape paintings of all time, is that you could spend a lifetime gazing into it yet still discover something new with each glance. So the LMB lighting team became near-obsessed with subtlety lighting this LEGO set without subtracting from the traditional beauty that is The Starry Night.
In terms of lighting opportunities, we knew we wanted to light up the stars to recreate the mood van Gogh had been inspired from while staring out his asylum window. We also thought the town needed some lighting additions to allow LEGO builders to envision the real-life Saint-Remy-de-Provence that served as the backdrop to The Starry Night. However, from the initial glance, our lighting designers were concerned there wouldn't be many opportunities to subtly place the lights without distracting too much from the LEGO set. So, here's how we worked our lighting magic on the Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night #21333 LEGO set.
First, we lit up the town church and boathouse buildings with Yellow Bit Lights to give the town some life, but without making it too neon-bright - as it was still 1889, and we of course wanted to depict the town as van Gogh would have seen it.
Next, we lit up the stars and moon with many different colours of our Bit Lights and a range of stud elements to find the best combination possible, for each variation of the star pieces.
After stepping back a bit, we liked the dark atmosphere the sky created in the town, which would probably be the most accurate. However, we opted to add three spotlights to highlight the dynamic LEGO structures.
The Starry Night was largely based on van Gogh's emotions and imagination, both of which we tapped into to create the lighting additions to this magnificent LEGO set.
And there you have it! Overall, the team felt they enhanced the stunning LEGO model and created a more 'realistic' night sky as Van Gogh himself may have originally observed it.
]]>If you’re a fan of 80’s pop culture just like the crew at Light My Bricks, LEGO have more than got you covered, especially in the last couple of years with sets inspired by Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Back To The Future and of course a near-infinite number of LEGO Star Wars sets! So many Star Wars sets in fact, that we struggle to light all of our favourites! (trust us, we’re working on it!) So to be honest, we were completely blindsided by the announcement of a LEGO Optimus Prime! A total surprise - but as die-hard fans of the original transforming robots, we’ll take it!
As soon as the set was announced, the design team all jumped online to devour the early reviews and any set information they could feast their eyes and ears on. They were pleased to uncover a few minor - but crucial details. First, the set was based on the original Gen-1 Optimus Prime toy and from the looks of the preview images, a very faithful representation in LEGO. We of course later learned that the LEGO designer who recreated Optimus in brick form, was previously a toy designer at Hasbro and, you guessed it - used to work on Transformer toys! No wonder this set is so accurate!
Second, the set features a ton of awesome looking printed bricks (long time readers will know we’re not crazy about applying stickers!) especially Optimus’ awesome Autobot shoulder pads! Then finally, and most importantly - this LEGO set actually transforms, just like the original toy as well! Incredible! We couldn’t wait to get our hands on a copy of the set to experience this brick wizardry ourselves. In the meantime our resourceful design team had seen enough to being preparing initial component lists, lighting strategies and clever solutions to anticipated design challenges.
June first couldn’t come fast enough, but finally the day arrived when one heroic Light My Bricks team member lined up early to make sure our set was secured on the day of release, bringing our precious Autobot leader to home LMBHQ. Time to build!
The build was fun, fast and relatively straightforward considering how complex the design of this set must have been! We were especially impressed with the number of classic bricks used in this set. Normally, when LEGO recreate an existing character in bricks, they are required to produce several unique pieces in order to get it to look accurate - but here, the majority of bricks used are almost as old as the original Transformers cartoon!
Once built, we were once again pleasantly surprised and impressed. We had suspected that in order to transform Optimus between truck and robot modes, the set's construction may have been a bit flimsy in order to accommodate all those complex moving joints and hinges. But in fact, Optimus is actually quite sturdy and compact allowing (with some care!) to transform between truck and robot modes! Awesome!
Now, to really bring the truck to life! It’s time to give Optimus his spark - in the form of a Light My Bricks light kit! Our designers pounced on the completed build to extend their ideas based on what they had seen online prior. Time to add some cinematic flair to this incredible display piece.
While the LMB design team are certified miracle workers when it comes to all things LEGO and lights, it was clear from the start that our kit would require the assembler to first decide to light up and display Optimus in truck from, or in robot form.
While Optimus in truck mode is iconic, robot mode is really where it’s at and that’s what our designers chose to focus their attention on overall with this light kit. It was important to make sure both modes were able to be lit up accurately and impressively, while also having the instructions easily reflect that.
The starting point our team began with was those commanding eyes. Out of all the awesomely printed bricks mentioned previously, the custom eye plate was the only one that left just a little to be desired - his eyes were just too close together! This was replaced with two Trans Blue 1x1 Round Plates that shone out a cleverly placed Blue Bit Light, positioned to face back into Optimus’ helmet. Allowing the glow amount to be ju-ust right.
Next was the obvious truck features that needed to be accounted for. Headlights - check! Taillights - check! Indicators - check!
Then came a pretty cool detail on the Autobot leader - the Matrix of Leadership! In quite an ingenious fashion, our design team captured an authentic cinematic look by using another Blue Bit Light inside the Orange Trans Round Plate that’s central to the Matrix. This created an interesting contrasting blue and orange gradient, like that seen in the Michael Bay films. To really take this feature from the silver screen and into the LEGO model, a Pule Effects Board was brought on to give the Matrix that ethereal glow - a light in the dark!
Ok, time to focus on the firepower! The set provides Optimus with both an Energon Axe and his iconic Ion Blaster. For anyone of a certain age who was able to play with a Gen-1 Optimus Prime figurine, they will remember his hands famously to be removable (watch out, easy to lose as well!) This produced yet another stroke of inspiration in our design team looking to pay homage to the classic toy using our Wireless Connectors. Placing corresponding plates on each arm and weapon, meant easy removal and reconnection without any additional power source or tethering cables! - more than meets the eye!
Speaking of firepower, the big guns were called in for special effects once more in the form of a Gun Effects Board for Optimus’ Ion Blaster and the existing Pulse Effects Board for the Energon Axe - cleverly illuminated with a Light String! This single component contains 10 individual LEDs and connects via a single expansion board port, making it the perfect solution in this instance. Decepticons we warned!
Finally, the finishing touches came in the form of some ingenious cable management inside Optimus’ Jetpack, which then had it’s boosters lit via a pair of Yellow Bit Lights and a Flicker Effects Board - a final special effect for this special display piece.
And there you have it! We’re certainly thrilled with this latest offering from LEGO and really satisfied with the kit our team produced! Fingers crossed LEGO adds to the Transformers lineup in either the form of a friend or foe, so that Optimus isn’t the lone ranger in a LEGO Transformers display! Let us know what you think and which character LEGO should release, perhaps Megatron? or Bumblebee?
]]>Suffice to say, if you're a fan of LEGO cars or Formula One, this set is an absolute must-have! So get ready to light the track up as well as your amazing F1 racing display model!
Knowing that this LEGO set was a close collaboration between the LEGO and McLaren Racing made enduring the wait for delivery close to impossible. However, the idea of creating a replica of one of F1's most renowned hybrid engines had our pulses racing, and to be honest, our lighting experts couldn't wait to get their hands on it!
Recommended for ages 18+, this LEGO set arrived with 1432 exhilarating pieces and also included sponsor stickers that add a nice finishing touch to the model. The set also came (as always!) with clear, step-by-step instructions, and one of the biggest sticker sheets we've ever seen also included some McLaren and FxPro stickers - just like the real cars!
LEGO wasn't kidding when they said, 'This McLaren F1 replica offers adult LEGO builders the opportunity to become immersed in their passion...' Because that's exactly what happened. With a build time of 8-10 joyful hours, we were beyond excited to see the finished car in all its glory.
The model includes a V6 cylinder engine with steering, moving pistons, suspension, and differential. Making it a realistic and inspiring build. The sponsor stickers were the perfect finishing touch to the LEGO set (obviously, apart from the lighting additions we'll get to a little later on).
The build was as challenging as we expected a TECHNIC set to be, with the engine being just as detailed and therefore as challenging as other TECHNIC autos from past builds. However, the result is so worth it, and once complete, this is one model that is sure to turn any fan of motorsport’s head!
Being a close collaboration between LEGO and McLaren Racing, the unique thing about this LEGO set is that both cars (the actual McLaren and its TECHNIC piece counterpart) were developed simultaneously. As a result, both teams of experts were able to collaborate to develop their versions of the car for the 2022 race season. Making this an extremely rare and exciting build, and the reveal was nothing short of amazing. Just WOW! The final model measured 13 cm high, 65cm long, and 27 cm wide, making it the perfect size to proudly display.
However, our work wasn't done yet of course. We still needed to add some lights to really bring this set to life. And that's where the Light My Bricks design team comes in!
First up, perhaps the most obvious starting point, was the central taillight, for which our Flashing Red Bit Light was a perfect emulator.
Another easy component to place was the cockpit’s Green and Orange Changing Bit Light, as the orange matched the car colour, and the green is reminiscent of the rev counter lights on an actual F1 steering wheel.
However, the rear lights were a little trickier to place, and the two on either side of the wing had to put a little more thought into them. Our lighting experts built a whole set of custom tail lights to house the lighting components needed! This led to many variations and discussions between our team to ensure we nailed the design. The option we went for proved to be the easiest to build, the most effective to light, and the least intrusive to the original design with. We opted for non-flashing red as we felt three flashing lights would be a distraction to the overall aesthetics of the car when displayed.
Then, we had the rest of the car to consider. The McLaren’s body did not offer a whole lot of lighting opportunities, and while we always strive for realism and accuracy in all of our kits, there had been some discussion online between die hard F1 fans regarding the creative licence LEGO took on the car’s design. Well, we also like to take creative cue’s from LEGO and in this instance, felt it appropriate to go all out.
We used an array of blue and large orange bit lights, precisely placed, to illuminate the angular body and bold colours of the F1 car. This took hours of refining as most positions didn't look right, disrupted the original design too much, or didn't light enough areas.
We settled on the design you see now by lighting up as much of the body as possible with as few lights to avoid making it so cluttered. We had to create a new sizeable Orange Bit Light that was bright enough and a matching colour just for this model.
Overall, the lighting design highlights the F1 bodywork and main features, making those race ready colours pop in a dim room. Finally, we’re most pleased with the tail light design as whenever we add to a LEGO set with additional LEGO elements, it's our goal to modify the set for the better - never an easy task!
The LEGO McLaren Formula 1 Race Car will have pulses racing with an exciting build followed by an even more thrilling light kit addition. Described as a must for any LEGO motorsport enthusiast, fans of the F1 will flock to get their hands on the LEGO McLaren F1 Race Car and Light Kit and will be left with a display piece to savour.
]]>Ever since LEGO released the original DeLorean 21103 all the way back in 2013, LEGO fans around the world have speculated on whether LEGO would release a larger format model. Well, time-travel to 2022 and we don’t need to speculate any further! It seems after the wildly popular release of last years Creator Expert ECTO-1 (another beloved 80’s automobile, modified in all the best ways!) LEGO got all the feedback they needed to give the larger DeLorean the green light and it’s flown here at top speed… 88mph I believe is the official record!
The Light My Bricks crew knew two things (hey that rhymes!) First, that this was going to be a VERY popular set and that we’d do almost anything to get our hands on one as soon as it was released - and second, that this was an opportunity to create one of the best light kits we’ve ever produced, due to perfect storm of amazing LEGO design, great subject matter and optimal lighting features and opportunities. If we missed out on securing a copy for ourselves, we might have to build an actual working time machine of our own to make sure we had our light kit ready on time!… hmm, perhaps build one out of LEGO? Maybe we should give Brickman a call.
Back to the matter at hand! Fortune had it, we were able to preorder and pick up our copy of the DeLorean right on schedule from our local LEGO store! Our team tore straight into those bags of bricks while excitedly flipping back and forth through the instruction manual. What a blast!
The LEGO Back To The Future Time Machine 10300 contains 1872 Pieces, Measures 12cm tall, 35cm long,19cm wide and includes an awesome display plate and base for Doc and Marty to stand, which are two very cool mini figures to add to our collection!
A very prominent design feature of the set is that it comes with the option to build 1 of 3 final modes, each representing the look of the Time Machine as it appeared in each Back To The Future film. Our designers took note of this for when planning out how the finished light kit would come together from an assembly perspective. But for now, the build was complete and the second mode seemed to be the consensus best option! BTTF Part Two is definitely the best film right?!
The time had come to light the sky up with 1.21 gigawatts of power!… or at least a USB Power Pack. Our designers set out to make this light kit as amazing as the 10/10 LEGO set… a high bar to reach, but you know they were up to the challenge! Firstly, it became clear during the build that the final light kit would suit all three build options quite easily - as opposed to say the Porsche 911, which required a firm decision on which option to build and light up due to the construction of that set. The next question was… where to start! Aside from the obvious headlights and taillights, there was simply so many amazing options to got after first, our designers were in light heaven!
First, as usual we had to put our own spin on LEGO’s light brick used for the Flux Capacitor. The light bricks are always cool to see in a set, but as you can imagine… we never want to stop at one brick being lit! Next that amazing dashboard with all those great printed display bricks. This was a perfect opportunity to bust out our Color Changing Bit Lights, as seen on the LEGO Star Wars UCS R2D2 light kit.
So then there was the question of the interior light. As usual our instincts were to connect the driver’s (or flyer’s) side door via one of our NC push boards, but this time it was a bit trickier thanks to those iconic gullwing doors. There was actually much debate between designers as to whether to add the interior light at all - as it was already bright enough inside with the Flux Capacitor and Green to Orange Color Changing Bit Light on the dash. But, it was an effect that we felt we couldn't make a car light kit without, especially a car as iconic as the DeLorean! Finding the right spot for the NC Push Board took a bit of trial and error as the doors are quite loose and in some positions wouldn't apply enough pressure to engage the NC Push Board’s lever.
Laying the cables was also something our designers had to give a lot of thought to. Of course the challenge with having so many lighting options, is for every light that’s placed in the circuit… there’s a wire that needs to be concealed! Originally the wires were all directed towards the underside of the vehicle - but there ended up being too many to hide comfortably down there. The solution ended up being to redirect excess wires to the rear of the car to hide within the awesome details of whatever actually makes the DeLorean travel through time! The wires were certainly not out of place amongst Doc Brown’s crazy contraption!
The final addition was the wheel lights. The designer taking lead on this aspect of the kit, knew they wanted to use the dazzling headlight component, used for the Porsche 911 that was mentioned above. On first pass it was placed under the wheel’s rim, which looked good (fingers crossed!) buuuut it didn't fit properly and let light emitted wasn’t bright enough (fingers uncrossed!). Never to be deterred, what was tried next was flipping the wheel rims around and adhering the lights to the outside of the wheels! Perfect fit! Genius! This suited the overall design of the set really well and was so bright we may have needed some of those sunglasses Doc likes to rock!
Finally, for the master’s flourish that brought this kit together and firmly placed it at the top of Mount Light-More, a second NC Push Board was added craftily, so that the wheel lights only turned on when they were flipped down into flying mode, film accurate and incredible to see in action! Great Scott!
The result is really something we’re proud of here at Light My Bricks. We always try to innovate and come up with new techniques and features for our LEGO lighting kits, but once in a while a set comes a long that brings it all together and the LEGO Back To The Future Time Machine is DEFINITELY one of those sets. We hope you enjoy lighting yours up as much as we did ours! Let us know what you think of set and the light kit! Drop a comment on social media, or get in touch via the contact form on this website. See you next time and remember, where we’re going we don’t need roads… but we do need LIGHTS!
]]>Talk about an oldie but a goodie! the Disney Castle (or Cinderella’s Castle as it’s also known!) set was released in 2016 and to this day is one of the most iconic and sought after sets on any LEGO collectors want-list!
We can still remember when our copy arrived on our doorstep like it was yesterday (though paradoxically 2016 feels like forever ago? I guess that shows how much we love thinking about LEGO!) and building this beauty of a castle was a real treat.
The classic set is made up of a whopping 4080 pieces and measures a gigantic 74cm tall! The flow of the build is broken up into three sections - the lower great hall, the main building and the tall tall tower. These all come together to form the finished castle as you progress! Part of what made this such a pleasantly memorable build, was the wild techniques the LEGO designers employed! All kinds of interesting LEGO elements are put to use to produce the architecture, detail and interesting features packed into this set, where much simpler and less engaging bricks might have been an easier solve!
Now back in 2016 Light My Bricks was still a young company, with only a handful of light kits under our belt! So the (much smaller) design team at the time was determined to give this magnificent castle, a corresponding light kit fit for a king… or Mouse!
The first opportunity to add an exciting feature, were the custom made Pearl Gold Torches that greet the castle’s guests upon entry. These are carefully created with genuine LEGO elements with one of our most trusted 30cm Bit Lights pre-assembled inside. It’s very rare, but on occasion there is a feature of a set that simply must be lit up - but needs a small, but precise amount of modification to allow said feature to be lit by the kit assembler! Our LEGO Street Lamps, featured heavily in our Modular Building Series are another rare example of this, but these Pearl Gold Torches we’re really proud of. All torches need flickering fire right?!
Secondly and most importantly, the team knew it had to recreate the iconic colour show that the castle is known for around the world. For those not lucky enough to have seen the castle in person at night, when the sun sets on Cinderella’s Castle in real life, it comes alive with a changing colour show! To replicate this incredible vision, we produced a pair of Multi Colour Strip Lights as well as a series of LEGO elements, so that these lights could be positioned to shine up and on the outer walls of the castle.
They automatically change colour every 7 seconds, accurately recreating the renowned light show see by millions of Disney fans around the world each year… now Disney can add LEGO fans to that list as well! The effect of drenching the amazing set in a wide range of colours remains on of our proudest LEGO model moments and one that still generates a lot of positive feedback from fans today!
There's always more to get into with an awesomely iconic set like this, from the great Minifigures included, to the sheer number of Bit Lights necessary to light it up from turret to toadstool! But we just wanted to highlight some of the finer points on this flashback today!
What can we say, we (still) love our work here at Light My Bricks and it’s worth stopping and smelling the LEGO roses every once in awhile, amid the flurry of new sets and light kits that are released week to week to week. The Disney Castle remains on of LEGO’s most popular sets to date (regularly listed as sold out online even today!) and it’s corresponding light kit is unsurprisingly one of our most popular too.
If you’re as big of a Disney LEGO fan as we are, and picked up the set back in 2016 as well - drop us a line and let us know one of your favourite memories about building and lighting the set too! We always love to hear from fellow fans and also get feedback on our light kits! You can reach out via the contact page on our website, leave a review on the product page, or just drop a quick note on social media! Bye for now!
]]>While initially, there were a few flummoxed looks on the faces of some LMB team members when this set was first announced (was it a Hedwig set?) Those looks were very quickly followed up with ear-to-ear grins, once it became clear how different and unique both a build experience and a lighting experience this set would be. “Accio LEGO set”… or “Add to cart!”
Now being major Potterheads ourselves, we were so under the spell of the Wizarding World, we half hoped the Hedwig would deliver our Icons Collection direct to LMB! And while it was swift to arrive… the Postman who showed up instead, did look a little different to everyone's favourite owl!
One thing was for sure, this was a LEGO set like no other! It obviously called for a much different approach than many, if not all of our other light kit designs that had come before it.
The main concept our team had to get it’s design heads around, was the construction of this set was a combination of free floating elements like Ron’s Chocolate Frog and Harry’s Glasses, for example - and a mostly solid central construction, consisting of iconic objects like Tom Riddle’s Diary at the base, with Hegwig at the apex.
Once the Floo dust had settled, it was clear that our trusty Spotlights would make up the bulk of this lean light kit and positioning and placement would make all the difference in making sure this must have display piece for Muggles and Magic-folk alike took centre stage among the most die hard fans collection cases.
And while the bulk of the load is being carried by said team of Spotlights (8 in all!) it wouldn’t be complete without a little magic… in the form of a Light My Bricks effects board! A Pulse Effects Board to be precise!
Our Pulse Effects Board was carefully placed in Hermoine’s Potion Tray to make sure the Bit Lights that lit up her crafty concoctions shimmered and swirled, just like in the films!
That’s where we say “Mischief Managed!” on this short but swift lighting challenge! Will you be adding the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Icons Collectors Edition 76391 set to your collection? Let us know on social media - we love to discuss all things LEGO hobby on all of our channels! Or better yet, if you do and pick up the light kit as well, leave a review and earn some Volt points while you’re at it.
]]>While there are plenty of Supercars lining the LMB shelves, there’s only one lonely motorbike thus far (though we love our Harley Fatboy!). So you can bet that we were thrilled beyond belief when LEGO announced the upcoming release of the massive 1:5 scale BMW road bike. We picked it up as soon as it became available and wouldn’t you know, it showed up on our doorstep almost immediately! Must be that 3-speed gearbox!
Now, while the bike was fast to arrive, it was not necessarily fast to assemble! As the team began building the set, they were quickly reminded of the time and attention required with these ‘super’ Technic sets. So much labour and care has gone into authentically designing the working parts that make the motorcycle hum - and this fact becomes instantly apparent from page one of the very thick instruction manual. The LEGO Technic design team partnered up with BMW to make sure this set was as absolutely accurate as possible - the result is the largest and most detailed LEGO motorcycle ever!
Once the concentration heavy build was complete, the lighting designers took off laying cables and positioning Bit Lights from zero to one hundred. While the headlights were the obvious starting position in terms of what to light, the team really had to think about which exact components to use. The headlights in the LEGO set are trans-clear, which is perfect for our Bit Lights, but, enter challenge number one - they had stickers over the top! The team briefly (very briefly!) considered taking the stickers off entirely, but thankfully our Cool White Large Bit Lights pack enough firepower to shine through the stickers and also keep the detail. The result is the best of both worlds.
The taillights however… were much more difficult! Try as the might, the team couldn't find clear images online, of taillights being apparent on this model of the bike. So an executive decision was made to add them, as the road version does in fact have taillights. A LEGO loophole if you will! However as with most things, easier said than done… the team still had to actually construct something to house the lights! There wasn't much room for any extra LEGO elements in the rear of the bike, so the team went back to the creative drawing board to use a very select number of additional LEGO elements to solve the conundrum once and for all. The result takes the kit to the next level!
With the stars of the lighting show taken care of, the design team turned its attention to a most important feature of a kit like this - display! Our trusty Spotlights are always favoured for this topic and with the incredible presence the finished model has when seated on the LEGO mount provided, it was decided that not only we add a pair of Spotlights, but that both a red and blue Bit Light should be housed in each to really pay homage to the BMW signage provided. After all, this is the first LEGO model designed in tandem with the German auto-engineering powerhouse!
Finally, while the Spotlights provided good ambient coverage for most of the bike from the ground up, the top end of the bike was still lacking slightly in terms of overall illumination. After trying lots of different positions for an additional Spotlight to be, the team ingeniously settled on attaching it to the end of the handlebar which points perfectly at the "M" logo and lights up the rest of the bike. Making the Spotlights in this kit a trio.
And that's time to wave the checkered flag on this blog entry! What really drove the overall design of this kit, was capturing the excitement and scale of LEGOs largest ever motorbike model. As ever, economy of component was important - to get the absolute most out of the smallest number of Bit Lights, but at the same time making sure the the display of this incredible build was taken ever higher with the addition of lights.
]]>All of these incredible sets have been on our radar for quite some time (one LMB team member has managed to collect them all!) But as the release of Chinese New Year sets tend to arrive around the same time as Modular Buildings, it’s been tricky to fit them in… that changes now!
The Spring Lantern Festival is right up there with our favourite sets - and we don’t mean only in the Chinese New Year series, we’re talking ALL sets! It’s got a bit of everything, family fun, great colours, amazing minifigures, super details, modular baseplates and of course, incredible lighting opportunities that we’ve been itching to get our hands-on.
As we mentioned above, the set is somewhat of a ‘mini’ Modular Building set, with a reconfigurable baseplate that makes it the perfect addition to any Modular Majors LEGO province! As such, our designers knew exactly what to do with this one. They didn’t waste a second longer after the final brick was laid, and began adding lights faster than you can say “Gong Hei Fat Choy!”
Without a doubt, the hero detail to highlight in this set was all of those amazing lanterns! With a mixture of trans and solid lantern bricks included in the set, the team knew that a heavy dose of our regular white bit lights would amplify the traditional red that signifies good luck, prosperity and warm wishes as a real lantern festival - and that’s just the desired effect that was achieved here!
Our designers applied all of their tricks and tips to ensure cable management was at its most efficient, knowing that chaining together many exposed lights this way can become tedious for even the most patient assembly enthusiast! Once again taking extra time, and triple-checking their work to make sure the assembly instructions were clear and easy to follow. The results? Dazzling!
The Spring Lantern Festival officially celebrated The Year of the Ox, and so a real focal point of the set is the charming LEGO Ox Lantern included! While the mini did come with one of LEGO’s simple Light Bricks, you can bet we had our own designs in mind when it came to lighting our horned, four-legged friend!
Not to mention a pair of our cool custom-built Black Lamp Posts! Normally reserved for Modular Buildings, but of course, we had to include a couple here, blending with the LEGO lanterns provided in the set - special edition!
Finally, it’s always a pleasure when there is the challenge of lighting up and emphasising a body of water for display. Be it pool, ice rink, river or… anything wet really! This is an aspect of the hobby that can easily be overdone. Too many LEDs, or perhaps the incorrect colour choice and those LEGO trans plates look more like a light-up neon dance floor rather than a calm and realistic pond. A tasteful Blue Bit Light (or three) was all our designers deemed necessary to complete this cherished LEGO set.
But why stop there? There are so many great LEGO Chinese New Year sets, we might as well keep our good luck flowing and light up some more right? Are you as big of fans as we are of this charming and family-friendly series? Let us know what other sets we should light up?… perhaps the Year of the Tiger? Time for some tasty Nian Gao
]]>All mayors of a LEGO City know to expect a Modular Building at the start of each year, so January always kicks off with a bang for those of us who look forward to adding a further location to our studded streets! You can count Light My Bricks in that camp! The previous year is always full of grand speculation as to what the next Modular landmark may be, and this year was no exception! Everything from a Hospital to a Bowling Alley was rumoured across all of the LEGO Blogosphere and for good reason - 2021 marks the 15 year anniversary of the Modular Building line, and we all know LEGO never miss an opportunity to celebrate!
The Boutique Hotel is certainly a reason to celebrate! It took a few of us off by (pleasant) surprise with its 'corner' design, but more on that below! Some brick fans out there brought attention to the fact that the first corner modular available, the Cafe Corner was being retired in 2021 and that this may have played a factor in LEGO's design decisions. Who's to say really? What we were interested in was the sets details and of course we're not disappointed!
The stylish new addition packs a ton of cheeky nods to the series' history as you would have expected with a set that's celebrating 15 years of modular city planning (says it right there on the box!) but the build also stands on it's own, anniversary or not! Weighing in at a decent 3066 pieces and measuring your standard 25cm by 25cm, the Boutique Hotel sits on a standard 32 stud baseplate. It is worth noting that the mammoth modular Assembly Square, which LEGO released at the 10 year modular mark was on an enormous 48 stud plate, maybe we'll see another supersize set like this in 5 years time when we mark 20 years. The clock's ticking!
The build process was a real treat and it was especially enjoyable observing the triangular floor plan of the build, something we'd not seen before. Our designers watched on wondering if this would produce any cable management challenges, quietly confident that they'd solved every issue for each Modular that had come before the Boutique… some diagonally directioned bricks wouldn't stop them now!
Ambience is always high on the list of notes our designers want to hit with not only Modular Buildings, but all kinds of high detail sets (Winnie The Pooh, Harry Potter and Sesame Street all come to mind) but with the Boutique Hotel this was paramount based on the sets elegant, turn-of-the-century European design. If you put your imagination caps on (not hard for LEGO fans!) you can believe the Boutique Hotel has been hosting all kinds of classy guests for over 100 years, so tasteful, warm and cozy ambience is what the brickitect ordered for each room. Carefully places Warm White Bit Lights in each lamp produced the required effect.
The lamps didn't stop there in this detailed decorative build, they continued out onto the rooftop terrace! Our designers thought it fitting to use two of our posable Spotlights, carefully positioned to bring attention to the hotel's magnificent looking facade. The idea here is to not just place our LEDs inside LEGO elements shining out, but also tasteful shining down and on certain parts of the build to again add realistic ambience and highlight the incredible detail sets like this offer.
Perhaps the most signature celebration of Modular Buildings is the removable floors, revealing yet even more detail in the interior. The Modular Building series has pushed Light My Bricks as a company to pioneer several lighting techniques over the years and high on that list are our Wireless Connectors. These 2-Stud stars allow Modular Building fans to seamlessly light each floor while still allowing the - you guessed it, wireless removal of each floor! Sacrificing neither playability nor displayability and functioning like turning off a room light to sleep at night.
There you have it! The Boutique Hotel light kit is complete and that marks 15 years of Modular Buildings! Blow out the 15 candles and power up the iconic custom LMB Street Lamps (of course we included one here). It's no secret that the Modular Buildings are among our favourite sets to build and of course design light kits for, the ultimate breeding ground for next level break-throughs in LEGO lighting techniques and the opportunity to deliver the best possible product for everyone from the first time Modular builder, to the Mega-LEGO City Major!
]]>My Name is Matt, I'm from Melbourne and my first LEGO set was the TMNT Lair Attack!
Haha! An awesome set, so were you a Ninja Turtles fan prior to getting into LEGO and that set caught your eye?
Yep! I've been a big Ninja Turtles fan since I was a kid, so once I discovered the LEGO sets I've been hooked ever since!
How did you come across it?
I actually stumbled across it by accident whilst looking for a present for my niece. Turned into a present for me! Haha.
Haha, I think we've all gifted ourselves a set at some point! When did you become familiar with the term AFOL?
I learned of the term AFOL about a year later after picking up that TMNT set, so around 2014 I reckon.
Ok, so the Aus Lego Collection started off with these great TMNT sets, when did Modular Buildings and a more organized LEGO City come into the picture? and then when did you discover lights? Which was the first set that you lit up?
It wasn't until around 2016. I was looking around online at what other LEGO sets and themes I could find, when I came across Modular Buildings. I was totally blown away at how awesome they looked and how an actual city could be created! I picked up four Modular Building sets there and then and the building hasn't stopped since, haha.
It was about 12 months later when I got the idea to light them all up, which is what led me to find Light My Bricks on eBay. I grabbed a kit for each of my Modulars, starting with the Brick Bank.
You’ve got a really good mix of different LEGO themes in your city. How do you decide how much of one theme to include over another to make sure it’s balanced?
When I was planning my city, I knew I wanted to have a good mix of different buildings and sets as well as a theme park. So I tried to pick at least one iconic build from some of my favorite themes and incorporate it into the city, as well as some of the iconic rides you would traditionally see in a theme park.
Ah, I remember when you added in the Fair Ground Haunted House! The perfect set for your theme park inspired city!
Scarily perfect! Haha
So with your multi-themed City, are you able to pick out a favorite LEGO theme?
This one is always a tough question to answer, but if I had to pick - my favourite theme in set collecting would be Star Wars as it has the biggest range.
Wow, that's a bit of a surprise considering how much time and effort you've put into your City, but from a collectors point of view we totally get it! The LEGO Star Wars universe never stops expanding!
That's it, for me it's all about the collection.
You’re well known for creating large-scale MOCs such as the underground TMNT lair and your enormous Batcave. What’s the process for designing and building a project of this scale? Do you plan it all out before the first brick is laid? Or do they evolve organically over time?
A little of both. The TMNT lair evolved as I laid the bricks down, the Batcave was roughly planned on paper - however as I started building, it evolved and changed which is the more common outcome when I build MOCs.
Okay, so it sounds like a pretty free-form or intuitive way to build and create. Build as you go! Where do lights play into this design process?
Yep, totally. I feel building as you go allows you to be more creative, you never know what ideas you might have along the way!
When I'm MOC building, I generally install the lights in tandem, bit by bit as I build. This way I find it easier because whilst I'm designing and laying down bricks, I am also free to be creative in where lights should go and what details I think should be lit up in the build.
You recently completely redesigned the entire layout of your LEGO City. What inspired you to undertake such a huge project and were there any surprises along the way?
I have always wanted to add a subway underground as that's generally what a major city has. After also seeing how some other fellow AFOLs have created subways, I really wanted to take the plunge and give it a go. So far, no surprises lucky for me - as I made sure everything was measured properly to accommodate for plates and height.
Well, diving in has paid off because the results are fantastic! There's definitely something about the split level display that gives a LEGO City that extra something!
It certainly has! Totally agree, I feel that having split levels allows you to see the buildings that can get lost being at the back when there is so much going on towards the front. Completely changes the viewing experience for the better.
Are there any other builders in the LEGO Community that you get inspired by?
There are some fantastic builders that inspired me to want to build my own city as well as MOCs. I believe all AFOLs inspire each other when building in some way
Some of my favorite LEGO City creators would have to be Downunder Bricks! His city was actually the first one I had ever seen and is why I started building a LEGO City in the first place. Also @digibrix, @bluesbrickcity and @mrookieboo are some other fantastic LEGO City creators.
What, if anything, do you think is missing from the LEGO lighting hobby? (or missing from the LEGO collecting hobby)
You know, being someone that has been using LEGO lighting for almost 5 years for various projects now, I really can't think of anything missing or that can't be made possible with DIY components!
Well, sounds like our work here is done, haha. Thankfully there's still plenty of sets for us to light up for someone who's not as experienced with our DIY range... like those TMNT sets for example!
Haha! Well credit where credit's due, you guys have done a great job covering a wide variety of sets and DIY options when it comes to lights.
It's true there will always be sets ready to be lit but I also do appreciate going the DIY route, as sometimes it is exciting and challenging for more experienced builders to get super creative and let your mind run wild.
On top of building and maintaining your impressive LEGO City, you also create a lot of content documenting it. Which platform do you enjoy creating content for the most?
Hmm, I do enjoy Instagram probably just a little more than YouTube as I have met many awesome AFOLs through Instagram. I've found it's much easier to connect with builders and form friendships through Instagram as opposed to YouTube which is a little more time-consuming in terms of actually creating the content! Both have their pros and cons I guess.
That's a very interesting insight. It does seem like both platforms have different kinds of communities that serve different types of creators. We've noticed that the AFOL community and specifically the LEGO City community is very active and supportive on Instagram, which is great to see
For sure!
Finally, we’ve all got our dream additions to the Modular Building series, what would you like to see LEGO release at some point?
I would like to see a Hospital Modular Building or even something like an Arcade or Bowling Alley set.
I think a LEGO Hospital is at the top of quite a few Modular fan's lists, but an Arcade Bowling Alley combo is right at the top of ours! We've seen some examples of fan sets online and we loved playing around with the arcade machine included in the recent release of LEGO Ninjago City Gardens! We'll take a whole set full of those thank you very much LEGO!
Haha, exactly - sign me up!
Matt, thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through your LEGO City and giving us a real insight into what's gone into it's design. It's for sure one of our favorites and we love keeping up with what additions are going in next. Before we let you go, can you give the LMB audience any hints as to what updates we might see in the future?
It just so happens I'm putting the finishing touches on an underground carpark for the city! Light My Bricks fans can expect to see certain characters from The Fast And The Furious pulling up in their rides!
]]>It doesn't seem all that long ago that we were all abuzz about what was then the biggest LEGO set ever released - the Expert Creator LEGO Colosseum. It was the talk of the town in terms of size and brick count - that is until now! The Titanic set is officially the largest LEGO set ever released as of this writing (though who knows, maybe LEGO are already working on something even bigger?). Weighing in officially at 9090 pieces, it beat out the Roman icon by just 54 bricks! Perhaps the real colosseum is having the last laugh however... it's still standing! Sorry, dad joke. Couldn’t help it!
Now there was a lot of buzz on the blogs about the LEGO Titanic when it was announced, just like there was plenty of buzz in the newspapers of the time when the real Titanic was announced! Just like demand for a ticket on the real passenger ship was through the roof, we know demand for these special sized sets can be equally high! So it was a bit of a nail-biting process waiting to confirm our order on LEGO.com! Thankfully we were lucky enough to secure a set for ourselves and we set about waiting for our cargo to be delivered. Once it did safely arrive at it’s destination, what first struck us as we got our hands on the box… was just how big and heavy the thing was! 9090 bricks is no joke and a serious workout for any postal worker getting one of these across town, not to mention a lighting designer getting one up several flights of stairs! A real workout!.. we’re not complaining though!
Once our bounty was safely secured however, the real journey of clicking together all 9090 bricks truly began. It took a team of three builders to complete the build, one on each section, together totalling a build time of approximately 10 hours all up. While some other LEGO hobbyists may have drawn out the process and really savoured taking their time with such an epic, mesmerising project, we in part wanted to complete the build as quickly as possible in order to get to the reason we’re all here - the lights! With a light kit as involved as this one, part of the overall challenge is taking the correct amount of time to get it right (and we always do!) but also in a timely manner as we know LMB fans all around the globe are eagerly wanting to light up their LEGO set as soon as possible. It’s a balance we’re constantly trying to strike as closely as possible!
Which leads us perfectly to the next section of this blog - the lighting design! The Light My Bricks design team has been growing of late, adding fresh new talent to the stable. This was the first major project to get all hands on deck with and it was a real thrill to watch the new team in action together. Once the build was complete they went into design mode, attempting to solve the puzzle that is lighting up the biggest ever LEGO set! It makes sense right? The bigger the LEGO set, the bigger the light kit… the bigger the light kit the more cables involved! If you reach a point of having too many cables, the whole thing becomes a mess and an overall unpleasant experience. So due to the size, detail and structure of the LEGO Titanic, our designers really had their work cut out for them!
The first major question was, how to light up so many windows and portholes while keeping wiring to a minimum? This is a scale 1:200 model and is absolutely packed solid with detail as you can see via the genius display cross sections in it’s design. There’s very little room allowed for something like a Strip Light - which is what we initially considered solving the problem with. Then came breakthrough number one. Starting from the bottom and considering how to light level one, one designer had the brainwave to employ one of our Warm White Light Strings! Normally reserved to emulate festive lights, this handy component found a new use as a time efficient way to quickly and easily thread a lot of lights through a small space! This not only solved both issues of cable management and lighting up a lot of detail at once, but also meant far less assembly work for the customer in terms of having to remove far less bricks to insert the lights! What will they think of next!
The Warm White of the light string also worked well in terms of aesthetics, making sure the light kit was true to the time period in which the Olympic Class ocean liner was built. Keeping with this theme our designers we also tasteful in highlighting several of the internal details like the engine room with Orange Bit Lights and then Red and Green Bit Lights for external details like the bridge.
There was some minor disagreement initially about wether or not to incorporate out trusted Spotlights in this build. On one hand, it’s clearly a display piece - exactly what our Spotlights are designed for! But early attempts at including them in the overall design in a uniform way, proved to be clunky and out of place. The question was resolved by using an asymmetrical approach, that encourages the user to decide for themselves wether or not to install them. An added bonus to their inclusion being that they perform dual duties, first shining up on the epic build heroically, in all it’s glory! Then secondly, appearing to mimic what would have looked like the reflection of the moon shining down on the Atlantic Ocean on a frosty evening in 1921.
Finally on that note, it was of course doubly important for our designers to make our light kit as historically accurate as possible. After all, LEGO have done an incredible job recreating the famous ship in 1:200 scale bricks - we were inspired to match them with that same level of accuracy! This mean pouring over as many reference images, plans and historical documents as possible to get a feel for how the deck would have been lit up on that fateful night as well as how well the ships stacks were illuminated.
And that's where this story ends! Out heart will go on... to the next set to light! If you’ve been lucky enough to get a LEGO Titanic and have decided to light it up - let us know on social media, tag us in posts or even just drop us a message. We’d love to hear from you and remember, you can earn Volt points by leaving a review! Let us know what you thought, we always love to hear feedback from the awesome LMB community.
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As a category, LEGO Ideas never, ever disappoints. But despite that high bar, LEGO and fan-designer Alex Storozhuk have topped our expectations once again with this incredible set.
Clocking in just shy of 4000 pieces and measuring a solid 37cm x 34cm deep and wide as well as 27cm high - Home Alone is officially the biggest Ideas set to date! and those bricks aren’t just filler either; there is so much detail in this set covering both easter eggs from the film and just great LEGO design in general, this set is really in a category of its own - almost a hybrid of a Modular Building and a Winter Village set! Home Alone is a Christmas movie after all!
Demand for this set was through the roof, but we here at Light My Bricks were determined to get our mitts on a copy and light it up as soon as possible. The postman was spotted arriving one morning and the parcel that he handed to us was suitable large enough to signal today was the day. Time to build!
No sooner had we begun to leaf through the huge and heavy instruction manual (with Kevin’s battle plan on the front!) head of LMB Customer Service informed the build team that inquiries on when our light kit for Home Alone would hit the shelves were pouring in at an unprecedented rate! Better get clicking!
Once the spectacular set was complete we couldn’t help but take turns in playing with it! So many details to admire and movable features to interact with, we knew we had something special on our hands. Special sets call for special measures and the Light My Bricks lighting design team working on this kit project was the biggest and best of any kit to date! All of our super-star designers worked around the clock to really take this kit to the next level!
What became clear during the build process was that the overall challenge of this project, would be making sure every detail was lit and every exciting opportunity to include our components was taken advantage of, while at the same time retaining 100% of the playability that the set affords. We don’t think we’ve ever seen a set at this size with both this level of detail and this amount of play!
This meant really challenging ourselves to look at how we might light certain sections of the build, working and then re-working where cables were laid and finally double, triple, quadruple checking our work to make sure we’d come up with the best overall solution possible! We couldn’t be happier with the results… if we do say so ourselves!
Let’s look at a few examples of the above. First, the treehouse really only needed one light (economy of component always top of mind for LMB!) the question then was how to supply power to this single Bit Light? Initial ideas were to thread a Connecting Cable around the biplane… but quickly this broke our rule of retaining 100% functionality!
After building the Wet Bandits truck, it was a no brainer to ensure it could be lit independently of the main circuit via one of our Flat Battery Packs, nestled neatly in the back of the cab. However, after discussion amongst our crack team of designers, it was decided that an extra Connecting Cable should be included to accommodate those hobbyists who would prefer to display more so than play.
Now the difficulty began to increase. The next two-part challenge was achieving that spectacular red-hot glow of the front doorknob. We all remember cringing as Marv got a ‘warm welcome to the McCallister home in the film! Step one, we went straight to our trusty White Micro Bit Light and placed it under the red crystal used as a doorknob, these particular components fit anywhere! The next important step was ensuring that the door could still open and close normally, retaining that ever-important functionality. The first pass was to have the wire running to the ceiling, with ju-ust enough slack that the door would still swing. But as noted above, this set saw us revising and reviewing at every turn making sure that we had landed on a premium result for each aspect of the kit. As such in this instance, we ended up actually running the wire along the door and finally through the hinges, which allowed for all important flexibility without sacrificing tidiness.
As you can see, there are so many awesome details in this set that we made sure to light up. It was commented that this set is kind of a cross between a Modular Building and a Winter Village set... and strange as that sounds, it's kind of true! The addition of our Wireless Connectors, normally employed in our Modular Building kits are used here to both ensure maximum set access and playability - while also allowing the warm and cozy ambience normally reserved for a Winter Village addition, to be on full display. From flickering candles, flames and fireplaces to Christmas lights, trees and decorations! It's the sum of all our components composed together that achieves the overall result... and what a result!
If the walls of LMB HQ could talk, there would be quite a few more insights to give on this one! But as you’ve just read, the story of the Light My Bricks Home Alone light kit is once again, as LEGO continue to level up and produce bigger, better and more detailed sets, we push ourselves to match LEGO’s innovation and excitement with our light kits.
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Ever since we lit up the wildly popular LEGO Old Trafford 10272, we've been wondering what football (soccer for our North American friends!) stadium will be released in brick form next. Well, after a few months of rumours we got our answer at the start of September, with the equally famous Catalan stadium available for purchase. *click* add to cart - gracias!
Once our set arrived, we set to work and actually built it quite quickly all bricks considered. The build design follows a very similar structure to Old Trafford (if it ain't broke don't fix it right?) and while the piece count of Camp Nou is considerably higher (3898 vs 5509 respectively) we were able to get in a good clicking rhythm in order to finish the build more or less in a single sitting.
Those of you who followed along a few months ago as we attempted to build the Colosseum, will remember the repetitive nature of that behemoth set caught us a little off guard and the team ended up dragging their heels a little to get it done! The quadrant design of these stadium sets presents a similar situation, as once you have completed one section there is little variation moving forward. Fortunately with these stadiums, the issue is not presented at the same scale and this time we were aware of what we were getting into!
Once the build was complete the lighting designers went to work laying cables and positioning Bit Lights. Traditionally the rule is, the bigger the LEGO set, the more complex the lighting design process is. However, despite its size, Camp Nou proved to be one of the easier to light! This again, came down to both its symmetrical construction - the way it is designed to be separated into four quarters. Then, by pure chance to top it off - the set also features an abundance of open space between bricks. Much more so than your average LEGO set which utilise traditional building techniques.
The main goals were kicked by two of our most dependable components, the always versatile White Strip Light and our handy Spotlights, who formed the perfect all-star team and lit the stadium from the stands to the fields (with lots of support from both our large and regular Bit Lights of course!) The Strip Lights being were easily adhered under the roof and the Spotlights connected easily to the outer walls at several strategic points, in order to highlight different details featured in the set.
The main design challenge faced by our designers was whether to amplify the stadium's colours by adding extra red and blue coloured Bit Lights in various locations? Or to remain faithful to the architectural angle and not take any creative license, utilising only neutral coloured lights. ultimately the latter was opted for, as while the red and blue bricks are tastefully striking, adding red and blue lights was just that *bit* too much - even for the most die-hard Barca fan!
And that's time to blow the whistle on this blog entry! Just like FC Barcelona is more than a club - the 10284 is more than a bunch of LEGO bricks, it's a real statement display piece for the Catalan football fanatic out there! Whether you're adding Camp Nou to an already huge collection, or it's the first set in a sports room - this is a great addition to any Barca display! Be sure to send us your review on the kit or tag us on social media, show us your colours!
]]>That’s right, an official Ultimate Collector Series set is finally here and we are all beyond excited to see the LEGO Star Wars UCS Republic Gunship 75309 lit up and on display, among the other hall-of-famer UCS light kits!
While we absolutely loved the R2D2 upgrade we got for May 4th this year, technically that wasn’t a UCS set (even though it was chock full of UCS level detail and came with the display panel to boot). Long time LMB fans will know what the UCS series means to us in terms of opportunities to take the lighting hobby to the next stratosphere - and the Republic Gunship is a chance to do just that!
Landing somewhere in the middle in terms of UCS build size, the Republic Gunship is a respectable 3292 pieces and once built, sits at 68cm long, 74cm wide (wingspan baby!) and 33cm tall and comes with a strong and sturdy display stand - a very welcome and much needed addition to this heavy duty display piece!
Once the Gunship or Low Altitude Assault Transport (LAAT for short) had been built, we had to take a step back and admire the huge, hulking LEGO ship. One of our designers noted that it’s a fairly unique build in terms of it’s bulk and profile. The Razor Crest coming to mind as another space craft from the Star Wars galaxy that shared a similar stocky shape, as opposed to flatter, more streamlined ships. It had to be noted also that this is in part due to the open and functional cargo/carrier area accessible to builders.
Where to start with lighting the Geonosis battling beast? What became apparent to our designers almost immediately, is that due to not only the gunships size but more importantly the distribution of it’s weight, extra special care was going to have to go into the creation of the step by step instructional guide for this light kit! As the experienced LMB fan will know, our light kits are designed to to be assembled after the set is built. With some minor deconstruction, the lighting process is much, much easier than building and lighting in tandem.
Of course this was not your standard LEGO build by any means! Deconstructing the Republic Gunship once it had been built was going to be a little precarious due to the aforementioned size and overall positioning of weight. The most important part of the Light My Bricks experience… is the experience! Our designers took extra care to clearly explain how to safely handle and remove certain parts of the build in order to light it, without risking it toppling over. They even found a new use for our slick new kit boxes!
Some insight into the lighting specifics - those twin cannons upfront were an easy solve with our standard Green Bit Lights combined of course with an awesome Gun Effects Board. Ditto for the spherical gun turrets (such a cool feature!)
We had a little bit of cinematic wiggle room when it came to lighting the interior of the craft. While the inside of the Gunship isn't lit during scenes of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the wildly popular Clone Wars animated series showed the LAAT during the Battle of Umbara, with an awesome deep red glow. These scenes and the Clone Wars series in general are certifiably awesome in LMB opinion! so it was a no-brainer to head in the latter direction and adhere a few of our Red Strip Lights internally. This dials the drama and tension of the display right up. You can feel the intensity of those moments before troops are deployed before battle!
The final piece to this kit was of course making sure Mace Windu’s lightsaber was lit and ready for battle!
There you have it, another Star Wars UCS kit ready to display! Where do you think the Republic Gunship ranks among the existing UCS sets so far? Let us know in the comments below and if you plan on lighting up your Gunship, be sure to tag us in your social media posts! Until next time - may the force be with you... watch out for that Count Dooku!
]]>Hi there, my name is Gen Santos and I’m from Sydney, Australia. My first ever Lego set was the Creator Expert Detectives Office (LEGO set 10246).
Definitely a great one to start the city off with! What was it about the Detectives Office in particular that made you select it over other Modular Buildings available at the time? Was it a particular detail that caught your eye?
I was fortunate enough to visit Legoland Malaysia a few years ago with my boyfriend. Unfortunately although they had on display a selection of the modulars, it was only the Detective’s Office that was available at the time... So I guess it was destined to be my first modular, haha!
It was meant to be we think! So, how long have you been collecting LEGO?
I have been an avid LEGO collector for just over 5 years.
When did you become familiar with the term AFOL and when did you start collecting and building as an adult?
I actually never played with LEGO as a child. I only started looking at LEGO sets when purchasing it for friends and family, mostly my nieces and partner. I became familiar with the term AFOL after seeing the acronym on an Instagram account. I actually had to google it to find out what it stood for! I started collecting and building in May of 2016, after our trip to Legoland.
So it sounds like you came straight into the hobby via the Modular Building series? Is that right? Or did another LEGO theme start you off?
Yep, it was the Modular Buildings that ignited my love of LEGO. I saw that modular city display on that same trip with my boyfriend decided I wanted to start a city there and then!
Legoland must have made a real impression then, how did you come up with the name Seahaven?
I was inspired from the movie The Truman Show. The city of the make believe town that Truman lived in was called Seahaven Island and I thought it was appropriate for my make believe LEGO City.
Oh of course, I didn't realise the name came from The Truman Show! I should have caught that, as it's a great movie. Do you have a favourite Modular Building in Seahaven? or a favourite street or section of town?
I think the Detectives Office will always hold a special place in my heart since it was my first ever modular. I love every aspect of Seahaven, but the view down Main Street would be a favourite. It also caught Lego’s attention
We're not surprised it's come up on LEGO's radar, that view down Main Street is a real show stopper! It must have taken many hours to get it looking like that as well. Do you work on Seahaven as a solo hobby? Or is the city maintained with the help of friends and family?
Seahaven is a solo project of mine.
Are there any other builders in the LEGO Community that you get inspired by?
There are a few LEGO city builders out there who I follow and love what they’ve done with their cities, but Mark @mrbookieboo inspired me to join Instagram and light up my city. He continues to inspire me to keep working on my city.
How did you come across LEGO lighting?
I came across Mark’s account and loved the lights for his modulars. I decided to try a light kit which I bought from the Sydney Brickshow. It looked amazing but quality was very poor. Max @mk_bricks suggested I try Light My Bricks and I never looked back
What, if anything, do you think is missing from the LEGO lighting hobby?
I would love to have both my Ferris Wheel and Carousel lights operate with the lights on without using a power bank but be connected to mains power. I know there’s a slip ring option for the Ferris Wheel which another light brand came up with. I find power banks too bulky. Would also love lights that flash to the beat of the music, especially for the Ferris Wheel.
Hey, now that's a great idea! We'll have to have a word with the Light My Bricks component designers about that one! In the meantime, what keeps you growing and expanding Seahaven?
The release of new modulars and sets I can incorporate into Seahaven is what inspires me to work and continually improve the layout of Seahaven.
Of course, we're all waiting for the next Modular Building each year aren't we? We’ve all got our dream addition though, what building would you like to see LEGO release at some point?
There’s a few buildings I would love LEGO to release. One would be a museum and the other a hospital. I would also love LEGO to re-release Cafe Corner and Green Grocer. I already have both modulars in Seahaven after I bought the parts from Bricklink but would love it if LEGO added more interior details.
I don’t think you’re alone in wanting those two re-released! But wow! A museum would be an amazing addition to the series! I can see the LEGO dinosaur fossils in my mind now!
Gen, thanks so much for sitting down with us for a chat. It’s been so great to get an insight into Seahaven and learn a bit more about the builder behind the city! Is there anything we’ve missed or something else you’d like to share with the LMB audience?
I guess the only additional thing is that my partner’s collection is not displayed in the Lego Room. His collection is in his office. He doesn’t light them up though... yet!
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Light My Bricks has a lot of fond memories when it comes to VW auto sets. The T1 Camper was one of our first ever light kits, followed shortly by The VW Beetle. Back then LMB hadn’t develop more advanced components like our NC Push Board or Flicker Effects Board, so in comparison to more up to date kits, it may look a bit more stripped back! However the fundamentals of a great light kit are all there with the original T1 Camper Van and as a result that light kit is one of most popular to this day!
So having said all that, you can bet when LEGO announced the T2 we marked our calendars and counted down the days to release! Relishing the opportunity to show how our lighting skills have evolved in the release of the T1! In the meantime we wanted to know what differences there would be outside the obvious, between this beach babe and the original red rocket!
A surprising difference that caught us off guard, is the different in piece count. The T2 clocking in at almost a thousand bricks more than the T1, while only being marginally larger in physical size. This points to the overall increased level of detail in the T2, especially with the interior (more on that later) as well as the extra bricks and pieces like the surfboard and beach chairs etc.
Once the set arrived and the updated Camper Van had been built it was time to light it up! Our designers definitely took queues from the original campster, but were determined to take the lighting experience to the next level with this update with more than a fresh coat of paint!
A go to for all expert creator auto set’s is to implement one of our wildly popular NC Push Boards on the driver’s side door to control an interior light on or off. What instantly caught our design teams imagination with the T2 is that awesome functioning sliding door! Very quickly a decision was made to implement a second push board that would serve to control the lighting in the rear of the van while the drivers cabin interior light would be separately controlled by the original board.
It wouldn’t be camping without a portable stove right? A versatile Flicker Effects Board and trusty bit light made sure this camper van staple was lit up for dinner. Ingeniously, the stove light runs on a separate circuit to the interior lights - so is not affected by the doors opening or closing. Makes sense!
One challenge the team faced while designing the T2 light kit was navigating the reasonably small, but highly detailed interior space. More commonly a LEGO set will have wider open space to work, like with a Modular Building for example. Or a more traditional creator auto will focus on the exterior with head and taillights featuring more prominently like the Porsche 911. Much like an actual VW Camper Van, space inside is at a premium, so our team had to work their nimble fingers very diligently, in and around the bricks that made up camper’s kitchen!
What a blast (from the past) lighting up this peace loving flower power mobile! Before we go we have to highlight some of those final brick details, like the additional licence plates, surfboard and beach chairs. But most interesting is the canvas pop-top roof! We personally love this new non-brick LEGO innovation. What about you? Let us know what you think in the comments below, or tag us in your Camper Van posts on social media! Until next time… Surf’s Up!
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Set in a distant, post-human future, RELICS explores an imagined world where humans have left the planet. Scattered populations of LEGO minifigures have risen up to build new civilisations within the everyday household objects left behind. The Jackson and Alex combined elements of robotics, engineering and Light My Bricks lighting to create an interactive, immersive storytelling experience!
RELICS officially launched on the 18th of February and was open to the public until the 30th of May, it was presented as part of Scribblers Fest and held at The Goods Shed in Western Australia. A whopping 50,000 people came through and experienced the immersive exhibition created by the creative pair.
Jackson and Alex were already familiar with the Light My Bricks DIY range of products and effects from previous LEGO lighting projects they had worked on.
They knew exactly what bit-lights, expansion boards and connecting cables and power supplies they wanted to utilize, in order to produce the dazzling light component of RELICS! Light My Bricks was fortunate enough to be able to support the boys, by supplying them with everything needed to light up their brilliant builds - and there was a lot of lighting to be done! The pair built not one or two, but NINE complete standalone installations. Each installation represented a different part of their post-apocalyptic world, let’s take a closer look at some of them.
The biggest installation of RELICS and possibly our favourite! Jackson and Alex salvaged an actual 1969 VW Beetle from a sandpit in Dunsborough, WA and dragged it all the way back to Perth! The minifigs of Beetlesville have commandeered the engine of this iconic tiny car to generate power for their small township.
As you walk around it, motion sensors at the rear of the vehicle initiate a sequence of pistons, flywheels and gears. Jackson and Alex ingeniously interfaced the moving parts of the engine directly with the LEGO bricks to create a whole new machine!
A beautiful old piano which the boys built into a home for an eclectic bunch of circus performers and magicians, vaudeville cabaret artists and musicians!
Jackson and Alex painstakingly gutted the piano, removing hammers and strings and creating ornate theatre interiors along a cobblestone street. This was one of the more interactive pieces of the exhibition. While playing a tune you would find that hitting certain keys lit up the many sections of the installation via switches hidden beneath the keys.
If you look a little closer at this bookcase, you’ll see each build is paired with a book of the same genre on each shelf! From Science & Technology to Medieval History, this installation caused exhibition goers to take a second… and third look.
This retro arcade game cabinet is now home to an intergalactic spaceport! Jackson and Alex gutted the electronic components and CRT screen to make way for a rocket launch silo, hangar bay, astronaut training centre and even an intergalactic customs and immigration checkpoint. With a name like SpaceBase ButtonMash, you know hitting those buttons is going to have an effect!
Wow! What absolutely amazing work! That’s all we can say at this point. Again, it’s absolutely incredible what Jackson and Alex were able to create out of some discarded household objects and a lot of LEGO bricks (as well as some LMB lights!) We’re delighted to have been able to play a role in bringing their vision to life and of course most importantly, to promote creativity, big ideas and thinking outside of the box. We’re passionate not just about lighting up LEGO here at LMB, but about creating something new, unique and personal within the LEGO hobby - that’s exactly why we do what we do!
Once again a massive congratulations to the boys, it’s safe to say we’ve never seen our lights implemented on a stage and scale such as RELICS before! A monumental achievement, be sure to follow along with their creative pursuits and to see what amazing exhibition they create next! We will be!
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Measuring a towering 82cm tall, with 3772 pieces used to create 5 separate levels of Marvel mayhem, the Daily Bugle is definitely an 18+ set! You know the team here at LMB wasn't intimidated or deterred at all by the enormous size of the Bugle - we always relish the challenge. Add to cart thank you very much!
Once our local postman delivered the extra large LEGO package, we tore into those bags faster than Spiderman swings through a block of New York City skyscrapers!
We must say, a surprisingly enjoyable build overall! At first due to its sheer size, we may have over estimated its complexity. It ended up taking as much time and skill as a Modular Building more or less... well perhaps a little longer on the LMB clock - we did get side tracked playing with all those minifigures! 25 in total!
Once the build was complete, it was time to wire the building and light the levels of the comic-world's most famous newspaper!
While visually it appears different, our design team approached this task like any other Modular Building - start with the base and work upwards!
Also like Modular Buildings, we divided each level with a set of Wireless Connectors, however a fairly significant challenge presented itself quite quickly - the abundance of window bricks in this set meant that there were significantly less opportunities to properly conceal the wires. Adding to that issue was the enormous size of the set naturally meant that there were even more wires than a standard Modular Building. A perfect storm kind of problem!
But, like previously mentioned, our team here at LMB relish a challenge and all it took was some extra time, consideration and creative brick problem solving skills to make sure this set was as neat and tidy as any other! All kinds of techniques were used on this one. A personal favourite being the 'braid' technique used to make sure Firestar's flickering effects is what catches your eye - not the wires that make it possible!
Another obviously awesome feature of the Daily Globe set is the huge rooftop sign and digital billboard display, just like any respectable newspaper building needs! it was important to highlight these details properly, so care was taken to select the correct colour bit lights. First attempted was regular white, which proved to be too warm. This is a high-paced, inner city hub of action and activity, not a cosy cabin in the woods! Cool white gave the billboard that digital glow and the rooftop sign that neon night spotlight buzz!
Perhaps the most excited breakthrough achieved with this set was the first official vertical use of our Wireless Connectors!
This is something we've been playing around with behind the scenes for a long time, but finally we had the right set to implement it on. The trick is the plates still need to be set horizontally to function correctly! As you can see demonstrated here here, when you remove the section of window that Green Goblin exits through (couldn't he have used the door like everyone else?) while the top of the section is connected and removed vertically, the bottom is connected flat allowing for the perfect placement of our Wireless Connectors!
These crafty connection also allow you to recreate a scene fit for the silver screen wherein the lights of the globe are blown out, but the Green Goblins firey flight is still flickering! What a thrill!
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! That about does it for this weeks edition of the Light My Bricks Blog! Keep an eye on your inbox for more breaking news in the future and keep an eye out for a certain Marvel universe golden glove snapping it's way into the LMB universe soon!
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It’s no secret that we love all things LEGO Star Wars, so we were all ears (do minifigures have ears? perhaps a question for some other time!) when rumours started to circulate about an all new LEGO Star Wars UCS set to coincide with May 4th celebrations earlier this year. At first, several members of team LMB were certain it would be a long anticipated UCS Death Star… and not just any Death Star, a build so big it would set an all new record for size and piece count, knocking the famous Colosseum off it’s podium.
And while it wasn’t a planet sized set this time around, we were in no way disappointed with what LEGO delivered instead - an all new R2D2! We hit add to cart and checked out in less than twelve parsecs!
As we alluded to in the intro, this technically isn’t a UCS set, but there is so much detail packed into this black box build you wouldn’t be criticised for thinking it was! Hair splitting aside, the time had finally come to re-build (or upgrade) everyone’s favourite droid.
A smooth build from start to finish, the most notable differences from this set to the now ten year old 10225, is first, the added detail and interactivity found in R2’s tools and tricks. Most notably his working periscope and retractable claw. The second, is visually with the switch from exposed studs on R2’s domed head, to a sleek series of curved bricks. A minor improvement, but an improvement all the same we think!
Once the build was complete it was time to bring this droid to life! It was time to light him up!
While there wasn't too much difference structurally in each LEGO R2D2 builds as discussed above, there was a universe of difference between light kits! The original R2D2 was one of our first and only featured a handful of lights. A very simple solution for a simpler time! With the 75308 version, our designers relished the opportunity to really give R2 the cinematic, Lucasfilm treatment! 360 degree lighting, special effects boards and of course the option for a remote control and sound kit!
From a technical point of view, the most difficult challenge faced was taking full advantage of lighting up each detail available - while making sure to retain complete functionality and the ability to fully rotate R2's dome-shaped head!
While several complicated systems were sketched out in initial stages, as with a lot of things in life, the simplest solution worked the best! All it took was one of our extra long 50cm connecting cables to be cleverly inserted into the circuit, allowing R2's head to swiftly rotate back and forth completely without any interference whatsoever! Occam's cable?
Now it was time to really step things up, if we wanted this set to do the galaxy’s most loyal droid justice, we knew we had to take things to the next solar system and design not just one, but two brand new purpose built components!
The first of these was the Sparkle Effects Board to mimic R2's logic function display. An ingenious solution was provided by our production partners when discussing what we needed. Almost immediately they fired straight back with a board that allowed several bit lights to flash quickly in a randomised order. The effect is motion picture perfect!
Next was replicating R2's main photoreceptor lens and radar eye. Admittedly quite a bit more time was spent on this, but in the end the solution was effective as it was simple! The color changing bit-light turned out to be one of the biggest 'ah-ha!' moments in LMB history! Wanting to really pull out all the R2D2 bells and whistles (figuratively from a design sense, while also literally via our sound kit!), we racked our lighting brains trying to figure out a way to make a single bit light change color. In the end the solution was to simply produce a single bit light head with two separate LEDs inserted, that would smoothly toggle when powered! Star Wars superfans will know, R2 needs two different color pairings - red to blue and green to orange! We've got him covered, each color changing bit light phases at a slightly different timing, making it seems like he's interacting with us!
The result is a lighting effect George Lucas would be proud of! Straight from the silver screen to your LEGO set!
And there we have it! R2D2 in all his droid glory! We’ve come a long way as a company since our first R2D2 light kit, it’s great to be able to not only create a light lit for the updated 75308, but also look back on our progress and what we’re able to bring to the hobby today! We’re not slowing down however, we’re hitting hyperdrive and blasting ahead with full power. Imagine where we’ll be next time R2 gets an update!
]]>An amazing follow up to the wildly popular LEGO IDEAs Central Perk set, the LEGO Friends Apartment is roughly twice the brick size and a lot more than twice the detail size! This thing is full of great details spanning all 10 seasons of the show!
Set size comparison image courtesy of Jay Bricks Blog!
After the somewhat no-nonsense design challenge of building and lighting the NASA Discovery Shuttle and Hubble Telescope, the LMB team relished the opportunity to kick back and have a few (or a ton!) of laughs building the apartments! After putting in our VIP order, the set arrived quicker than ***
Several members of the design team who’re huge fans of the show took it in turns to build the set, first Chandler and Joey’s iconic but messy pad, then, of course, the much tidier Monica and Rachel place.
With so, so many hilarious references from the show, it was truly a joy to build and discover all the different details tucked into the design of the set. In-between howl’s of laughter, the team certainly made note of the layout and structure of the build and began forming a plan on how best to light this soon to be fan favourite display!
The main challenge in lighting the set was in that it's a very open build! A single wide-open level, made for interactivity with all those great details included. The designers went back to lighting layout 101 and hid the majority of the wires underneath the set, resulting in a simple and easy to navigate the instructional process.
Speaking of wires, technically our designers could have gotten away with a 15cm connecting cable to join both sides of the hallway to each apartment, but it was decided a 30cm cable would make the assembly experience more enjoyable with the extra length!
From there it was quite intuitive, however there we several points of the set that called for additional bit lights to brighten them up. These were the kitchens in both apartments, which due to their locations in the layout of the build, made them a little cramped and tucked away. We solved this by adding in an extra bit light above each stove, evening out the ambience in general.
We love the ‘on set’ design that's emphasised most with the stage lights. We first saw these ingenious items of course with the Central Perk set!
A perfect opportunity to really let our lights… well, shine! The secret is to employ a large warm white bit light, instead of a regular-sized one. This helps produce the ‘lights! camera! action!’ effect and gives the kit that on set look that is the icing on Phoebe’s birthday cake.
The other point to note is the balcony outside Monica and Rachel's apartment, again it's narrow build created a shadowy nook, while in the TV show it was always brightly lit by the New York City lights... either that or some set lighting! We relished the opportunity to implement our lights, making the set true to fan detail by installing a trusty spotlight above the balcony area. Mission accomplished!
While we think most fans will want to display all three 'sections' of the set as LEGO intends, it's still quite easy to display them separately. Perhaps with the boys on one end of a bookshelf and the girls on the other? Or in two different rooms completely! All that's needed to achieve this is an additional power source and a few quick switches of the expansion board ports.
There you have it, whether you're an OG fan from the 90's or just tuned in for the reunion, there's something for everyone in this certified fan favourite set. What's your favourite detail? Let us know by attaching a photo in your review!
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We’re all galaxy sized fans of all things LEGO Space, and the NASA series is no exception. Some of our all time favourite sets include the Saturn V, the ISS and of course the Lunar Lander!
LEGO have kept up the attention to detail on this one! Not only is the awesome shuttle set packed full of realistic engineering details, there's an equally engaging Hubble Space Telescope build included! The actual telescope was originally deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery by NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan in 1990, the first American woman to ever complete a spacewalk!
A moderate 2354 piece count, the Expert Creator shuttle measures in at 21 cm high, 54 cm long and 34 cm wide. An enjoyable build process for our team, who really got a lesson in aerospace engineering with this one! The set has a seriously official* feel to it with all the moving mechanical details like the retractable landing gear and the swivelling wing flaps. All in all a great build process, even adhering the stickers had an official feel to it!
Once the build was complete it was obviously time for the design team to solve the challenge of lighting the shuttle and sending it into orbit!
First was the question of the telescope - should it be positioned in the payload bay? or displayed alongside the shuttle? The answer? Why not both! It was actually fairly easy for our team to design the light kit as such that it’s quite easy to light the telescope either way and then switch between the two to change things up. This isn’t always the case when a LEGO set has multiple build or display options, as we saw with last months release of the Porsche 911 Turbo! That LEGO set in particular meant that the assembler has to decide which main direction they want their kit wired in, as it’s quite a lot of work to switch! Not the case this time around with the NASA Shuttle.
One clever team member suggested the novel use of our NC Push Board to engage and disengage the payload bay lights! Normally the NC Push Board is used for LEGO automobile sets, however this proved to be an awesome opportunity to use the handy component in an alternative way.
The lights switch off when the payload bay doors are closed, and while the pieces are opaque, the lights are bright enough to be seen switching off in tandem with the doors. A really effective trick! Speaking of effects boards, the kit wouldn't be complete without some flickering for those powerful jets and a Multi Effects Board to light each wing up.
Our design team felt that this completed the kit, after all it was an authentic space agency tone we were aiming for… however looking at the Shuttle sitting there on it’s display stand emitting a healthy glow it did dawn on us that something was missing? Which of course was the luminous glow of planet earth shining up on the shuttle!
Enter our trusty spotlights! Which give any light kit the extra display-ability it needs by allowing a Bit Light to shine on the intended set as opposed to out of it like the majority of the kit.
Two spotlights did the trick, they can be positioned to focus on the shuttle itself - or on the corresponding NASA Shuttle and Hubble Telescope display panels!
Permission to launch... granted! We so excited to see LEGO adding to the NASA Space series and what a set to return with! Will you be adding the NASA Shuttle Discovery and Hubble Telescope to your collection? Let us know in the comments below and keep an eye on the stars. It's time to light up!
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Appealing to a slightly different audience, the Expert Creator auto models contain a considerable amount more detail than a Technic set, though less ‘engineering’. Built more for display, they are a joy to build… and of course to light!
Now mentioning detail, the Porsche 911 is on another level! Moving gearstick, emergency brake and adjustable seats. We’ll definitely want to get in there for a play around once it’s built… will most likely need an interior light to see what’s going on! ;)
Our design team got underway quickly with this one, after the epic project that was the Colosseum, everyone was turbo charged for a faster build time and away they went.
Now the main question or challenge the team faced was the interesting option of building the 911 as the Turbo or Targa models! We don’t think a LEGO set has faced us with this challenge before and we met it head(lights) on. While the Targa option is effortlessly cool (who hasn’t imagined themselves driving one of these with the top down?) we are partial to power here at Light My Bricks, so Turbo it was going to have to be!
Finally if the 911 didn’t already offer enough interesting build options, the set comes complete with three different kinds of number plates! Japanese, European and New York. All very cool, like the car itself, but we couldn’t resist those European plates.
Once the build was complete it was time to tackle the design of the lighting kit. Again, the main question the team faced from a design point of view was how to give the Light My Bricks audience the option to light both modes, more on that a bit further down.
When it came time to light those iconic headlights, the team knew something unique was going to be required - a single standard bit light certainly wasn’t going to cut it! First they tried several large bit lights, which are usually reserved for a challenge such as this. The result was definitely bright-er, but still not suitable for the show stopping classic car.
The lead designer then began to get a strong sense of deja vu... “feels like we’ve been here before with needing a custom solution for an iconic headlight?” He was of course referring to the Lamborghini Sian! Which saw the team work side by side with our manufacturing partner to produce the now famous 48 LED light bar! The decision was made there and then to call them up and see what they could do to produce an ultra bright Porsche 911 headlight.
A much quicker process this time around, the team whipped through several prototypes before landing on the final completed component. The finished headlights each contain 14 LEDs, arranged in such a way to produce a steady ring of light. Fit to light up any dark highway the touring car might find itself on!
With such an awesomely detailed dashboard, a working interior light was an absolute must. Light My Bricks automobile fans will already be very familiar with our NC Pushboard, but for and LEGO lighting hobbyists who are new to our products, the NC Push Board is made up of a tiny circuit board measuring 10mm x 10mm, featuring both and IN and OUT ports and of course, a push trigger. When connected to power via the IN port, once the trigger is engaged or pushed in, it will cut power to whichever lights are connected to its OUT port. So, perfect for a working interior car light! Checkout that moveable gearstick!
In terms of choosing between lighting the Turbo or Targa options, there is very little to do from a lighting point of view. Simply a matter of repositioning the interior light down to where the gearbox is located. However, from a build point of view, there is a little bit of work to be done with those extra LEGO bricks. So we’d advise selecting your favourite mode before undertaking the assembly.
Finally, it was important for us to highlight those ultra-cool European plates. But in a subtle way - you don't put bumoer stickers on a Ferrari and you don't put neons on a Porsche! We switched out these tail bricks and with some open stud replacements, which allowed our trusty bit lights to work their magic!
And there we have it! A really cool, unique Expert Creator automobile. We’d never produced a kit like this before, allowing for two different build options and we relished the challenge! Which option will you light up? Let us know via social media! race you there, vroom vroom!
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Light My Bricks fans have been asking since the sets release "will you design a light kit for the Colosseum?" and "when is the light kit for the Colosseum going to be released?!". We're proud to say the wait is finally over and the historical Roman LEGO landmark is now lit.
The extended delay from LEGO set release and light kit availability was the result of a few different factors. First, when the LEGO announced the set back in November of last year, it wasn't obvious to our team straight away that this set needed to be lit. It's extremely unique in not only it's size (we'll get to the piece count below!) but also the fact that the actual ancient structure didn't exactly have too many light bulbs screwed into it!
We polled some fans and consulted the internet and feedback was mixed, though those who wanted a light kit were very passionate about it! Always a positive sign. The deciding factor came from one design team member who pointed out that while yes, when the Colosseum was constructed it wasn't technically lit up, the LEGO set before us is in it's present day, erroded state and that if you visit the famous Roman tourist destination today it IS in fact lit up for display at night!
That settled it and some Google searching provided the initial inspiration for the finished lighting design.
Now another reason this kit was delayed, as you may have heard this is the biggest LEGO set EVER! The piece count clocking in at a colossal (had to) 9036 pieces - and with all those pieces came a lengthy, extended build time! It wasn’t a set we could race through the build on either, it was quite repetitive (column after column) and became actually quite relaxing and almost meditative. We ended up taking it in turns to work on the build on section at a time, because there are always several projects going on at once here at LMBHQ and the lights never turn off so to speak!
Finally, historically, thankfully the build of the largest LEGO set to date was completed. It’s enormous, heavy bulk struggling for room in our photography studio. It was time to add lights to the Roman landmark!
Out of the gate our lighting design team knew that they wanted to strike a balance between the spectacular and the subtle. The symmetry of the sets design meant that it was unique to other LEGO sets in that there were no major points of focus or details to highlight. The lighting needed to be even and ambient, giving the build an alluring overall glow that drew the viewer in closer.
If you’ve been following along with our most recent releases, you will have heard us mention Spotlights and the broader lighting theory of ambient light and bringing attention to set details in a more subtle way. Less is sometimes more and rather than inserting a bit light inside a brick to light it, sometimes it’s more appropriate to light an area from the outside, turning the bit light around and casting a glow on a particular area of the set. The Colosseum was in a way the perfect use case for this idea as the entire structure has been evenly lit with our spotlight technique.
The final reason this kit was delayed - custom components! Sometimes a unique kit requires a unique, never seen before part. When this is the case, the time in design and production escalates considerably and of course this is exactly what occurred in the design process of the Colosseum! Our designers began by lighting the inner ridge of the structures oval with our standard strip lights, only after several successful applications of our sticky friends begged the obvious question… why not create a single GIANT RGB strip light.
And that’s exactly what was done, not just a slightly bigger strip light - an enormous RGB strip light. 28 individual LEDs all up, measuring a grand 45cm and adding an even and healthy colourful glow to the inside of the structure. Some may ask, ‘why RGB?’ Well our designers took major inspiration for how the monument is lit present day! As we mentioned above, tourists can visit and experience the real Colosseum at night and see it lit up and a range of colours, so our RGB system was the perfect final touch for our designers work. Lighting fit for an emperor!
We want to thank all of the LMB fans who reached out with excited anticipation of this kit, for your patience and for your enthusiasm! We know the wait was a little longer on this one, but we promise it was worth it!
]]>For over 20 years LEGO has been releasing hugely popular Star Wars themed sets and it's no wonder that today as of this writing, the theme is one of LEGO's most successful!
image courtesy of The Brick Zone
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... aka the year 1999, LEGO produced the 7140 X-Wing - the first Star Wars set ever released and the one that started it all! It was quickly followed by more sets from the original trilogy later that year. They included the 7150 Tie Advanced & Y-wing, 7180 B-wing Fighter, 7110 Landspeeder, 7130 Snowspeeder and 7128 Speeder Bikes.
Ever since the end of the millennium, LEGO has continued to consistently release amazing set after amazing set and while there are far too many to mention, the Light My Bricks team certainly have a few favourites among them.
While today there are over 20 unique light kits for different LEGO Star Wars sets, the very first one created, that started our journey into the Star Wars universe was the Millennium Falcon 75105. While it's no longer available as a kit due to more popular Falcon builds taking it's place, this kit holds a special place in our hearts, as well as many old school LMB fans who were there to pick one up!
a piece of Light My Bricks history, the discontinued Millennium Falcon 75105
It makes sense that two of the biggest Light My Bricks kits are infact two of the biggest LEGO sets, the UCS Millenium Falcon and the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer! The Ultimate Collectors Series has it's name for a reason - these sets are out of this galaxy system! Enourmous size, scale and detail levels make them some of the most enjoyable sets for our design team to light... and the most complex!
Coinciding with May 4th this year we were pleased when LEGO announced a brand new range of iconic Star Wars Helmets! This wasn't our first dabble with a LEGO helmet however, LMB Marvel fans may have seen us experiment with the popular Iron Man helmet! And while we never actually released an official kit for the set, rather we took the opportunity to educate our fans on how to utilize the DIY section of our store to create a simple lighting solution on their own!
Initially this was the direction we were going to take with the Star Wars helmets, but quite quickly we realised there was an opportunity to include our new Spotlight elements - making these a little more involved than a simple 2 bit light DIY adventure!
Hard to choose a favourite out of these three iconic characters. We love Boba because he's full of so much character... on the other hand the all black Tie Fighter pilot looks so menacing! The Stormtrooper looks classic, however we heard he doesn't have great aim.
We're super excited to see LEGO officially announcing a brand new R2D2 set! The world's most loyal droid has received a few upgrades and the result is something all Star Wars LEGO fans will be pleased about. Our design team are very familiar with the R2 Unit of course, as the Light My Bricks 10225 light kit was another from the early days. The team love the opportunity to build upon and improve existing kits whenever LEGO rerelease a set.
We're always keeping an eye on the blogs for rumours of new sets and possible products coming out of Denmark and the internet is heating right up with chatter about the biggest UCS set ever... the potential Death Star 2.0! We've only just gotten our heads around the current taker of the biggest LEGO set ever title, the Colosseum which required a modest lighting design. Can you imagine what a fully functional Death Star created our of 10k+ LEGO pieces would look like?! Not to mention the lighting opportunities involved! If this is true, then it will almost certainly mean the biggest Light My Bricks light kit designed EVER. We'll be waiting with bated breath.
Patience. Learn we must!
]]>An awesome looking TECHNIC set, the GTE appears to contain the same level of amazing detail as a Supercar, such as Lamborghini Sian or the Porsche 911 GT3 - just at a smaller scale, which helps with build time... and with the wallet!
At a reasonable piece count of 1677 our team had the GTE built in around 5 hours total, though a chunk of that was taken up applying two whole sheets of stickers! The final model measuring 13cm high, 48cm long and 21cm wide. Perfect for displaying in an office (our office!) or games room.
Once the build was complete (and all those stickers were very carefully applied!) it was time for our designers to put their thinking hats on. Viewing images online of the real endurance racer pointed out two things, there was a ‘daytime’ or regular auto electric lighting and a ‘night mode’ which saw the GTE lit up with a lot of intense neons for an interesting new way for race goers to view the car at night!
Ferrari 488 GT3 during the 24 hours of Le Mans
That left us with a couple of decisions to make, should we opt for the classic daytime race mode? Or head in a different direction with these crazy neons? Ultimately here at Light My Bricks, we’re all about authenticity and subtlety. While the night race mode certainly presented us with an alternative option to try out, it was just a little too intense for us! Especially for a traditional brand like Ferrari.
With our designers all on the same page with the direction of the kit, things then got off the starting line really quick. First order of business was the most important - the headlights. As mentioned above it was important to us to make sure the headlights were tinted as accurately as possible, after a series of trial and error we landed on quite a unique combination of three yellow bit lights and two large cool white bit lights make up what you see powering the GTE’s startling headlights.
During the design process of our last auto kit, the awesome Lamborghini Sian, our team tried to implement an NC Push Board to control the vehicle’s interior light. Unfortunately due to the LEGO car’s construction, size and unique door functionality there was just no where practical to place it! This time around however, the Ferrari was the perfect fit for the push board!
Finally, a really slick feature of the grand tourer’s overall design, is the exposed engine bay at the rear of the vehicle. Our designers couldn’t resist highlighting the LEGO V8 turbocharged horsepower. Ferrari fanatics can imagine the real car overtaking in a race and showing off those cylinders as it’s passes by!
And that’s it, the checkered flag has been waved! We really hope LEGO releases more of these mid-sized Technic auto projects, they’re the perfect lighting project for the model car fan in all of us, while being a lot more accessible than the next step up Supercar range! Which car would you like to see LEGO build next? Let us know via social media and tag us in your Ferrari 488 GTE posts!
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