New Harry Potter Set: 10217 – Diagon Alley

Update:  Video reviews at BrickCon by Nannan Z for Diagon Alley 10217 here (part 1) & here (2).  The stickers are slightly disturbing. 😦

Update: Was trying to figure out out to show all the minifigs together, so took a while. But it’s finally done. And more pics that shows the owls, shop signs and hat stand as well 🙂

 Update: Out on Lego.com, phew! Was just reading on Brickset & EB that the set should not have been announced, but then since Lego.com already has it… (link)

I’ll embed the video when the youtube link works, but in the meantime do click here to see:

• Video <– from the designer of MMV!  No wonder DA looks fantastic!
• To zoom in on the set
• 360 spinning view

What a long wait tho, 1 Jan 2011??? Why not before Christmas? It’ll make such a lovely Christmas present.  😦

Anyway updated the description again to align to Lego.com’s and more pics will follow. Just had to share the video ASAP!

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Update: Love it! As one of the S0937 member ‘Legofan’ correctly guessed, I do intend to get a  few sets of 10217 to expand to modular size. 

Have cleaned up the formatting. Was using my iPhone to blog earlier so wasn’t able to do much.

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Will update more tonight. Looks amazing huh?

10217 – Diagon Alley
Ages 14+. 2,025 pieces.
US $149.99 CA $199.99 UK £132.75 DE 149.99

Expand your very own wizarding world of Harry Potter™!

No need to pass through the Leaky Cauldron. Now even Muggles can shop in Diagon Alley by building this fantastically magical set that includes 3 extensively detailed buildings and 11 minifigures! Join Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as they shop for their Hogwarts™ school supplies. Visit Ollivander’s, Borgin and Burke’s, and Gringott’s Bank. Each Diagon Alley building is realistically detailed. Ollivander’s offers an extensive selection of wands, storage shelves and a step ladder that allows Ollivander to gather wands from the top floor. The front desk has an “exploding” function for those inconvenient times when a spell goes awry. Borgin and Burke’s includes a scary skeleton, “glow-in-the-dark” elements, a fireplace attached to the Floo Network and a Vanishing Cabinet that Dark wizards might use to sneak into Hogwarts. Gringott’s Bank is an impressive two-story building with large double doors, and can be opened completely into one large building or closed to create one smaller building. The bank’s interior features a removable vault, along with the Philosopher’s Stone, a clerk’s desk, a chandelier and ‘wonky’ support pillars. Includes 11 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, each with magic wand; Rubeus Hagrid, equipped with his pink umbrella; Fred and George Weasley; 2 Gringott’s goblins; Mr. Ollivander; Lucius Malfoy (with Death Eater disguise); Fenrir Greyback; and 4 new, decorated owls.

• Ollivander’s measures 8″ (20 cm) high and 5″ (13 cm) wide!
• Borgin and Burke’s measures 8″ (20 cm) high and 7″ (18 cm) wide!
• Gringott’s Bank measures 8″ (21 cm) high and 4″ (10 cm) wide when closed, 8″ high and 9″ (23 cm) wide when opened wide!
• Completed model (depending on how much space is allocated between individual parts) measures 24″ (60 cm) long and 12″ (30 cm) deep and 8″ (21 cm) high   

Diagon Alley –  Completed model (depending on how much space is allocated between individual parts) measures 24″ (60 cm) long and 12″ (30 cm) deep and 8″ (21 cm) high   

Box Art

Ollivander’s – Ollivander’s offers an extensive selection of wands, storage shelves and a step ladder that allows Ollivander to gather wands from the top floor. The front desk has an “exploding” function for those inconvenient times when a spell goes awry.  Measures 8″ (20 cm) high and 5″ (13 cm) wide

Borgin and Burke’s – Borgin and Burke’s includes a scary skeleton, “glow-in-the-dark” elements, a fireplace attached to the Floo Network and a Vanishing Cabinet that Dark wizards might use to sneak into Hogwarts. Measures 8″ (20 cm) high and 7″ (18 cm) wide

Gringott’s Bank – Gringott’s Bank is an impressive two-story building with large double doors, and can be opened completely into one large building or closed to create one smaller building. The bank’s interior features a removable vault, along with the Philosopher’s Stone, a clerk’s desk, a chandelier and ‘wonky’ support pillars. Measures 8″ (21 cm) high and 4″ (10 cm) wide when closed, 8″ high and 9″ (23 cm) wide when opened wide

Minifigs – Includes 11 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, each with magic wand; Rubeus Hagrid, equipped with his pink umbrella; Fred and George Weasley; 2 Gringott’s goblins; Mr. Ollivander; Lucius Malfoy (with Death Eater disguise); Fenrir Greyback; and 4 new, decorated owls. 

Source: Originally from Grogall via Toysnbricks, updated pics from FBTB 

Platinum Lego Wedding Ring

This is a platinum wedding ring btw, talk about bringing your Lego with you wherever you go… am not a fan of Lego jewellery tho, so no, I’ll stick with diamonds, thanks.  😛

From: Colormekatie via GadgetReview

Custom Lego Kylie Minogue

I thought this was really nice, so I voted 10 stars. If you like it too, do pop by this site and cast your vote.

This is  for a contest of photos, designs, drawings, montage or any other creative artwork (ha! Lego included) inspired by the album artwork for ‘Aphrodite’.  A selection of the most creative and most popular images will be sent to Kylie for judging – with the winner receiving a framed copy of their artwork, personally signed by Kylie.

Btw, Matthew is the “Creative Director at a certain Construction Toy Company”…

Minifig Sized Key Chains with LED Light

Update: Seen in Singapore on 1 Oct 2010. S$10.90 each. Refer to New LED Torches Seen

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I don’t actually like these City minifig keychains with LED lights very much, but I do hope more designs will be produced.  Like the fairy key chain or one of the Star Wars one… even better, how about the funny green alien from Toy Story 3?  😀

Source: Neatorama

LEGO City Minifig Keylights: Policeman, Fireman, Construction Worker – US$9.95 from the NeatoShop.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is an AFOL too!

Hironobu who? You may not have heard of him but surely you have heard of the Final Fantasy series of games? Yeah, Hironobu Sakaguchi is the creator of that series.  He is a major deal in the game industry…

Read the story from siliconera.com, but here is the full story:

Hironobu Sakaguchi Gives Us A Last Story Update

By Ishaan . September 27, 2010 . 9:28am

In a recent update on the Mistwalker blog, The Last Story director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, reveals that he’s still fine-tuning the game, having been allowed a lengthy period to do so. But there’s still a lot of work to be done, he reveals.

“There is also a lot of fine tuning, but when those pile up, it could be big. God is in the details. But I recently feel and have a sense to say; maybe I will become lonely when The Last Story is completed. It is the same pain such as my own child starting their journey,” Sakaguchi writes.

By “his own child,” — he mentions that he considers The Last Story to be his child, too — Sakaguchi’s referring to his daughter who’s almost 17 and will be moving out to attend college in two years. Sakaguchi, who is based in Hawaii, would like her to remain on the West coast, but feels this might be a little selfish of him. Ultimately, heading to the East coast would allow her more opportunities for travel.

While he waits for The Last Story builds to be downloaded to his PC, Sakaguchi often occupies himself with creating Lego models. His latest were a Lego Wii remote and Nunchuk.

“Since I use them repeatedly like tens of thousands of times, it’s so familiar to my hand that I can put these together very quickly. To reproduce C and Z button of nunchakus was difficult, (^_^;” Sakaguchi writes. He jokes that the hand-written “Wii” on the remote didn’t turn out so great though.

Sakaguchi also tweeted an amusing picture of him “playing” The Last Story with his Lego controllers:

If you’re curious, here’s what the “beta” remote looked like, before he decided to add the power button. Amusingly, Sakaguchi’s bio on Twitter reads “bearded old man.”

Harry Potter 2010 Set Reviews

Update on 8 Oct: Yay, the Hogwarts Express has finally been reviewed so that’s now added.

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Yay, the set I’ve been looking for has been reviewed. Yep, The Burrow.  It looks amazing… and the minifigs… *wub*  Here’s Ginny btw:

Below are the links to the set reviews on EB so far (thanks to all the reviewers!!), and to be nice I’ve re-posted the the Amazon HP poster download link again in case you just need something HP to fill that aching void while waiting for the sets to be available in your part of the world.  😉

• 4756 – Freeing Dobby (by Jammiedodger714): S$25.90 /US$9.99
• 4737 – Quidditch Match (by SuperChris): S$49.90 / US$19.99
• 4738 – Hagrid’s Hut (by KristofBD): S$99.90 / US$39.99
• 4840 – The Burrow (by Clone O’Patra): S$140.90 / US$59.99
• 4841 – Hogwart Express (by Whitefang) S$165.90 / US$79.99
• 4842 – Hogwarts Castle (by Ras 74): S$269.90 / US$119.99

LEGO Harry Potter mini-poster from Amazon USA: Get the Mini-Poster by clicking here  (You must have Adobe Reader 9 or later to be able to view this mini-poster)

 

 

Amazing Lego Euromap

Stumbled across this massive creation when I clicked on a strangely numbered micro-scale creation of Hagia Sophia on Flickr.

It turned out to be just one of the 44 micro-scale creations on the Lego Euromap created by Tobias Reichling and his friends.

Don’t let my use of “micro” creations fool you… the map is huge!  And some of the micro attractions are really nice too.

Number of bricks: ca. 53.500 (only relief)

Area: 480 studs x 480 studs (3,84 m x 3,84 m)

Number of studs: 230.400 studs in the base area plus 453.026 studs additional

Many more photos here:

http://www.t-reichling.de/en/mocs_euromap.shtml