New LEGO books and exclusive minifigs

UPDATE on 10 March: Via Brickset, here’s the PDF version of a Dorling Kindersley catalogue that has revealed several other LEGO book releases including jacket designs and some inside pages.  New books include the revised The LEGO Book, a Friends Brickmaster (with exclusive Chloe minifig).  

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Hey, a couple of new books and some surprises, for me at least.   I mean, I really didn’t expect the LEGO Batman: The Visual Dictionary and LEGO Ninjago Character Encyclopedia.  There aren’t that many Batman sets anyway, right?   They should be accompanied by ‘exclusive’ minifigs like the other books in the series I guess…

These below are on DK’s Winter 2012 Catalog, and mostly listed on Amazon so no surprises.  Another ‘exclusive’ minifig is always nice, tho I could do with another Harry Potter character rather than Harry (again! wonder which costume tho).  There is also Cool Castles by Sean Kenney, but to be honest given the regularity at which I see fantastic castle MOCs it’ll take quite a bit for me to be impressed.

Lego: The Calendar 2013

$12.99 / August 15, 2012

9780761166962, 0761166963

LEGO: The Calendar is a lively celebration of the classic toy: London’s Tower Bridge. A forest rangers’ mountain outpost. A medieval castle, host to the jousting match of the century. The astonishingly detailed creations will make you smile with their sheer ingenuity. The photos are accompanied by text filled with historical lore and real-life stories of spectacular constructions from around the world.

LEGO® Minifigures Series 1-7 Ultimate Sticker Collection

$12.99 / May 21, 2012

9780756692513, 0756692512

96 pages

What do a punk rocker, a mummy, and the Statue of Liberty have in common? They are all part of the amazing collection of minifigures that make up LEGO® Minifigures!  As kids and collectors know, each sealed mystery bag contains a random minifigure. Each series has sixteen possible minifigures—and all of them are now available in sticker form!  Kids of all ages can use their imagination to create cool and wacky scenes with more than 1,000 reusable full-color stickers featuring LEGO minifigures inspired by movies, sports, history, or even just everyday life in DK’s LEGO Minifigures Series 1–7 Ultimate Sticker Collection.

LEGO® Harry Potter: The Characters of the Magical World  (with EXCLUSIVE MINIFIG!)

$18.99 / Hardback / June 18, 2012

9780756692575, 0756692571

Meet the magical minifigures of the LEGO® Harry Potter™ world in DK’s latest addition to our new series,LEGO® Harry Potter™: Characters of the Magical World!  From the multiple variations of Harry and Ron to the unique characteristics of Snape and Voldemort, readers can learn about each minifigure and the magical sets they star in while learning fun and interesting LEGO Harry Potter facts! In-depth profiles alongside dynamic photography will help you to increase your LEGO Harry Potter knowledge and perhaps encourage young readers to conjure up a few spells of their own!

Second edition of the LEGO Collector’s Guide

Is finally confirmed for release on 1 July 2011 according to an email I got from Fantasia Verlag.

Some news round up

I guess most of my fellow AFOLs in Singapore have been busy hunting minifig series 4.  I actually haven’t had time to get any, so that’s a to-do this weekend…

Anyway, taking a break to share some LEGO news that I found interesting.

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1. Picture of latest architecture set Farnsworth House

Toys N Bricks shares a pic of 21009 Farnsworth House taken from the LEGO website.  You can read more from: http://toysnbricks.com/home/21009-official-picture/

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2. Groupon deal: $15 worth of eBay purchase for $7

Toys N Bricks also shared this great deal from Groupon for eBay.  Only valid till end of the month so don’t wait if you want to get some stuff from eBay k?  Before you run off to try and get a few dozen Groupons, take note that it’s limited to 1 per person and 1 per order.  Click here to buy this groupon.

Via: http://toysnbricks.com/home/usa-15-worth-of-ebay-purchases-for-only-7/

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3. Update on charity auction organised by TBB

The Brothers Brick showcases some great donations.  Personally I found these 2 to be the most interesting.  There are many other great creations you can see from here.  Note that shipping is free.

Btw, the ship is 3 metres long!  Do read more from TBB here: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2011/03/28/bricks-helping-japan-update/

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4. LEGO City ideas book

Killyrbf shares info on Sean Kenney’s Cool City.  Looks to have some nice city pics but at only 32 pages, I wonder if it’s worth getting?  Think I’ll hold out till Oct and see if anyone does a book review.  You can read more about the book from Killyrbf’s blog: http://killyrbf.blogspot.com/2011/03/build-me-city.html

The japanese idea book I mentioned previously is great btw.  Thanks to Jonathan who helped to get from Japan. 🙂

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5.  LEGO 3 in 1 Go Glow Light

ToyNews reports on yet another new LEGO licensed product.  Worlds Apart has tied up with TLG to create a 3 in 1 Go Glow Light that consists of a rechargeable night light, torch with colour change disk and an interchangeable Lego Minifigure.  

Those who have kids may be familiar with this product.  I’ve actually handled/played with (?) a Go Glow Light cos my niece and nephew have one.  Think it’s not a bad idea – soft induction to the world of LEGO ‘poison’ for your young one perhaps? 

Drawback tho? Nothing for girls AGAIN.  Geez… I’m sure it doesn’t take a genius to do a pink version with a nice fairy minifig right? (Like the one from the keychain).  Who knows, if TLG provides unique minifigs to Worlds Apart, they’ll even get some cross-over sales from AFOLs who must get hold of those minifigs.  Then again, a wider range is expected next year so there is still hope.

Via: http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/33672/Worlds-Apart-links-with-Lego

Some news and frags

So better res pics of Collectible Minifig Series 5 are all over the web by now.  I found out via Ugly Duckling or you can visit the toy store where the pics originated from: Mikado Spieleland. 

Anyway for Singapore AFOLs, Series 4 will be in by early April.  Going by Series 3, there should be plenty of stocks tho I wouldn’t bet on getting the figs you want by ‘molesting’ the packs.  I actually heard of Singapore AFOLs who took leave just to ‘hunt’ for elves… scary… the standard 20% offer applies to most stores so just go ahead and get from whichever store you like.

One more from Ugly Duckling… the exclusive LEGO Harry Potter Dictionary Minifig is actually Harry in dress robe.  Remember him and Ron at the Yule ball?

Yeah, I do read Ugly Duckling quite often, which is why I’m going to add it to my RSS feeds and links right after this.  🙂

Exclusive keychain with new edition of LEGO Collector’s Guide

Got an email today all in German, but here’s the Google translated text, with the paragraph about the exclusive keychain bolded:

LEGO Collector – 2 Edition – with exclusive key ring – Pre-order now

We are delighted you to the upcoming second edition of the successful LEGO announce Collector’s Guide.

The new, improved and expanded catalog offers the new, have appeared since the previous edition, sets many new information. Content was discussed in more detail the early years of the LEGO story of how the stone of the LEGO was that now every child knows. With over 900 pages of the catalog holds information and images available to more than 9,000 Lego sets.

Each LEGO Collector’s Guide is an exclusive LEGO key chain, which is available only in this way. The sophisticated packaging of the key fob makes the product a real eye-catcher.

Here are the facts of the new catalog:

– LEGO ® Collector second Edition – Catalog of all LEGO ® kits – from the beginning till today
– Release date: end of April 2011
– Compact Edition A5 Soft Cover
– Approximately 9,000 objects collected on more than 900 pages;

With exclusive, strictly limited edition key chain in fine packaging.

Note: If you wish to purchase only this article, you order it directly and most delivery charges to free http://www.fantasiaverlag.de

ISBN: 978-3-935976-64-0

Expected to be available from 04.29.2011

Order now, delivery of complete order will be immediately upon publication of the article.

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UPDATE:  It took a while to load, but here is the link to the pre-order site:  http://www.fantasia-design.de/shop/index.php?cat=c32_Lego.html – since shipping to Singapore is a prohibitively expensive EUR36, I’ll wait for it to be available on Amazon or Book Depository.

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Since I liked the 1st edition, I will probably get this as well.  Plus I collect keychains anyway, and can always make room for a new exclusive keychain, though I have no idea what it’ll look like.

Here’s the German text:

More Page Scans of LEGO Ideas Book & Star Wars Character Encyclopedia

The revised DK Fall 2011 Catalogue has a few more page scans of the LEGO Ideas Book and Star Wars Character Encyclopedia. 

Unfortunately, the more I see of the Ideas book, the less enthused I am…

LEGO Ideas Book

Star Wars Character Encyclopedia 

Anyway, for previous scans and pricing info, do click here to refer to my earlier post about the books.

What the duck?

Erm… literally… if you’ll examine the lower left corner of this photo…

Yeah, see what I mean? 😛  Is that an actual set??

Anyway if you are curious where this is from, it’s Odaiba Venus Fort Japan, courtesy of LEGO-KEI.  You can also spot the top of the new LEGO book that I hope to get soon:

Enjoy build with Brick Toy
(Tsukutte asobu block gangu)

Price : 2,100 Yen (Tax Included)
127pages
Language : Japanese
An author : Yoshikazu Saito
Publisher : Socym

You can find out more about this book from Let’s LEGO, as Sachiko has included a translated table of contents for this book there.  

As for the minifig selection… good way to even out the sex ratio with some long haired beauties I think.