LEGO® BrickHeadz™ Sonic review: sets 40627 & 40628, and part 4304

Sonic is on a roll. After an appearance in LEGO® Dimensions and LEGO® Ideas, the franchise has gotten its own theme. We will give you a full report on all the new elements in this theme soon, but first we take a look at another incarnation of the blue hedgehog and the double-tailed fox, in the form of two LEGO® BrickHeadz™ sets. 

 

At first glance, they appear to be just another addition in the long lineup of Brickheadz sets, but inside both characters, element fans find an interesting surprise.

LEGO® Brickheadz review: 40420 Gru & 40421 Belle Bottom

TobyMac (@efraimaspie) examines 2 new LEGO® BrickHeadz sets which are available from today: 40420 Gru & 40421 Belle Bottom. Buying these Minions sets? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

Minions… annoying little yellow figures that speak some weird language. I can’t say I’m a fan of them popping up everywhere. But, they do give us some neat LEGO® sets with new, interesting elements. Last year, 5 sets were announced, with only 2 released because the movie Minions: Rise of Gru is delayed. Tim Johnson has already taken a look at 75551 Brick Built Minions and Their Lair & 75549 Unstoppable Bike Chase, looking at both the new moulds and the figures and recolours. The other 3 sets are supposed to be released in June this year. But before we can get our hands on those, LEGO is going to release 2 other Minions-related sets, in the form of 40420 Gru & 40421 Belle Bottom BrickHeadz, and today we’ll be taking a look at them.

LEGO® Brickheadz review: 40442 Goldfish and 40443 Budgie

We have more LEGO® BrickHeadz for you today as TobyMac (on Rebrickable) examines the upcoming 40442 Goldfish and 40443 Budgie which will be released on 1 March 2021. Buying BrickHeadz? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

LEGO has introduced a new subtheme for BrickHeadz this year: BrickHeadz Pets. In January we saw 40440 German Shepherd and 40441 Shorthair Cats, which Victor Pruvost recently reviewed. The sets each have a grown-up and a baby version of the animal sitting on a joined display. We've seen similar displays before, for instance with seasonal BrickHeadz, but not for 2 figures together yet.

Today, I'll be looking at the upcoming 2 additions, 40442 Goldfish and 40443 Budgie, both priced 14,99€/ £13.49/ US$14.99.

LEGO® BrickHeadz Pets & Chinese New Year review: 40440, 40441 & 40466

Victor Pruvost (leewanlego) reviews 3 LEGO® BrickHeadz sets for you today: 40440 German Shepherd, 40441 Shorthair Cats and 40466 Chinese New Year Pandas. Buying your BrickHeadz from LEGO.com? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.

The BrickHeadz theme enters its fifth year in 2021 with three sets of brick-built animals released this January: 40440 German Shepherd and 40441 Shorthair Cats (both priced 14,99€/ £13.49/ US$14.99) as well as 40466 Chinese New Year Pandas (19,99€/ £17.99/ US$19.99). Past BrickHeadz sets have usually been good parts packs for builders, with parts in unique or rare colours and exclusive prints. Is this still the case in 2021? Let’s find out!

LEGO® BrickHeadz review: Lucky Cat, Wedding Groom and Bride

Jonas Kramm is here to tell you about some cute new additions to the LEGO® BrickHeadz line for 2020, and whether their inventories might be of interest to builders.

Today we will take a look at three new BrickHeadz, now available: the Wedding Bride and Groom, and just in time for Chinese New Year: the Lucky Cat.

LEGO® BrickHeadz: Fall 2018 Retrospective

Aside from being super-popular collectibles, LEGO® BrickHeadz and notable for their excellent printed pieces and new recolours of parts that don't always seem to appear in other sets. We asked Chris McVeigh (powerpig) to scour the whole range released in the second half of 2018 to just highlight all these great parts for you, in case you need them in your MOCs! Chris looked at 41624 Mickey Mouse, 41625 Minnie Mouse, 41626 Groot & Rocket, 41627 Luke Skywalker & Yoda, 41628 Princess Leia and 41629 Boba Fett as well as having a quick look at what's new in 41630 Jack Skellington & Sally, 41631 Newt Scamander & Gellert Grindelwald and 41632 Homer Simpson & Krusty the Clown.

BrickHeadz are well-regarded among parts enthusiasts for introducing new elements, including rarer elements in good quantities, and offering a wealth of printed parts (and all at a great price). So how do the new sets released in fall 2018 stack up? We’ll take a close look at each one, starting with August’s Mickey Mouse.

2018 Parts Fest #1: Tim Goddard's BrickHeadz (and spaceships)

We sent a varied selection of new LEGO® parts from 2018 to some fan builders to build at home, and Tim Goddard (co-author of LEGO Space: Building the Future, plug plug) not only built at home but also down the boozer. Following on from his main builds that we posted two months ago, here are some fun extras.

On the second Monday of every month, London AFOLs hold a gathering in a pub near Euston station. Prosaically, the meeting after I was given this parts selection, London AFOLs had a meetup and that month it was a BrickHeadz-themed evening.

I went prepared, taking this sub-build which uses the interesting hooped minifigure accessory (Element ID 6207840|Design ID 35485) which is only found in LEGO Super Heroes 76100 Royal Talon Fighter Attack and 76103 Corvus Glaive Thresher Attack.

Using the healthy stock of parts provided at the pub I ended the evening with this post-apocalyptic version of myself...

LEGO® BrickHeadz: Marcos Bessa interview part 2

In the first part of this interview with LEGO® BrickHeadz design lead Marcos Bessa, Are J. Heiseldal asked him about the advantages and the complexities of working with multiple intellectual properties (IPs), and the inherent limitations of the BrickHeadz concept itself. Today he asks about the new and recoloured parts as well as the production process... and which character is Marcos' favourite!

At New Elementary, we love new parts so the two new types of glasses that we got in the Go Brick Me set are particularly interesting for us. What can you tell us about the development process of those?
Marcos: The brief for the BrickHeadz line actually came with a request to do something like this. The idea for the Go Brick Me set came very early, in early 2017, so the brand was just about to come out officially on the market. We were already planning what to do for 2018 and so the importance of customisation, allowing people to represent their features was of key importance for this. So we immediately started looking into what that would mean in terms of new elements –  how to make glasses, do we need something new? I started exploring and came up with a whole lot of variations of new elements that we could make, trying to come up with something that would work and fulfil the brief for this purpose, but become a versatile enough element that it could become interesting for other uses. And I think we ended up finding something that is pretty cool for what we do in the set, but also offers a lot of other opportunities, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.

LEGO® BrickHeadz: Marcos Bessa interview part 1

LEGO® BrickHeadz first popped onto the scene as four exclusive sets, each containing two figures, for the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2016 but 22 more sets were added in 2017. Now, more than 70 different figures have been released and by the end of the year the number will be rapidly approaching 100, featuring figures from more external intellectual properties (IPs) than in any other LEGO product line. Are J. Heiseldal sat down with BrickHeadz design lead Marcos Bessa in Denmark to talk about the apparent smash hit.

BrickHeadz differ from a lot of other current LEGO lines in that it’s actually a new, in-house, brick-built concept, and you still deal with a lot of external IPs. What’s it like to be covering new ground like that?
Marcos: On a personal level, for me, it’s been a great challenge, because it’s a very different approach from any other product line that I’ve worked on. It has the similarity of dealing with IPs, which I have been doing for a while, but it’s in a whole different medium, with a whole different set of restrictions and challenges, and also with a whole different purpose. And my role in this product line as a creative lead has also allowed me to be much more involved in the strategy behind the line, the IPs that we bring on board, the character selection, the price point discussion, and so on. So it’s no longer just on the field, working as a designer and creating a model, I’m also more involved in other levels of discussion on the product line, which has been greatly appreciated from my side, as a growing professional. On the product line, in terms of challenges, it has been great to deal with all these different IPs, very challenging at times, there have been days and weeks when things seem to all be going south and wrong and then suddenly things get picked back up and go back on track. So it’s a fun journey. It doesn’t get boring.

(CW:HP) LEGO® BrickHeadz: Harry Potter, Frozen and Star Wars

The LEGO® BrickHeadz theme continues its domination of all known and imagined universes by bringing us collectable characters from some of today's most popular franchises. Sven Franic sees how this latest batch get along, including its introduction of a new template for smaller BrickHeadz characters. Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.





I had the chance to review the first batch of BrickHeadz more than a year ago. I never would have guessed at the time that Marcos Bessa’s standard for chibi characters would gain so much popularity. There is a high standard of quality behind the sets, considering the price range. Despite their blocky outer appearance, it takes a lot of tiny slopes and tiles to capture the spirit of a character. All decorations are printed and applied generously, and the sets tend to come with a lot of freshly re-coloured pieces.



Brickheadz 41597 Go Brick Me

The LEGO® Brickheadz theme seems to have been a huge success for The LEGO Group. We sent a copy of 41597 Go Brick Me to Chris McVeigh and asked him to... er... go brick himself.

41597 Go Brick Me asks you to build yourself as a BrickHeadz. It’s the best kind of LEGO set; one that provides structure through a branching building guide, but ultimately nudges you outside the lines. The template for your BrickHeadz is you, and that means the end result is always unique.

Brickheadz: Super Heroes & Disney

The LEGO® BrickHeadz are available today on VIP Early Access! They are on general release from March 1 priced £9.99/ US$9.99/ 9.99€. Sven Franic returns to examine the remaining sets.

As I said last time, there are certain pointers which tell me this theme could be a great success. Apart from its collectible perspective, the theme is jam-packed with pieces in new colours and exclusive printed elements, and I would assume this kind of budgetary flexibility isn't given to every LEGO design team.

Previously I built (and destroyed) the characters from The LEGO Batman Movie for your delectation; today it is the turn of the MARVEL LEGO Super Heroes and the characters from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Brickheadz: LEGO® Batman Movie

This week we are doing early reviews of LEGO® BrickHeadz, a fun range of brick-built, heavily stylised pop-culture figures. They are released on March 1 priced £9.99/ US$9.99/ 9.99€ but VIP Early Access started on February 15. To get inside their headz and see what makes them up, we welcome back Sven Franic.

BrickHeadz are a novelty in the LEGO collectors’ world, and if other collectable series are anything to judge by, the first series is usually the one that ends up being most sought after, whether this was the intent or not. Series 1 of BrickHeadz so far consists of 10 buildable figures: four characters from The LEGO Batman Movie, four MARVEL Super Heroes and two Disney characters.

 Today, we will look at what comes inside the four LEGO Batman Movie figures: Batman, Batgirl, Robin and the Joker.