Review: 21538 Minifigure Vending Machine from LEGO® Ideas

A little under four years ago, Rob Vangansewinkel submitted his Minifigure Prize Machine to LEGO® Ideas. The wonderful concept took a little while to reach the 10K votes required to be considered, but was announced as a future product in June 2023.

In late May 2024 fans were unexpectedly asked to vote on a colour for a new Classic Space astronaut and a Castle faction, to be included in the Vending Machine. So it has felt like quite the wait since the hype started – not only to discover what minifigures would actually be included but also how closely this product would resemble the submitted project. From the publicity images alone, here is a set that looks like it has been worth the wait – so let's delve deeper.

Review: 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr. from LEGO® Ideas

1986 was a historic year.  The world was rocked by some tragedies; the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch and the Chernobyl disaster remains the worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power generation. On a lighter note, the disposable camera was invented by Fujifilm, and the animated short film Luxo Jr. was produced and released by Pixar Animation Studios.

The next LEGO® Ideas set to be released is 21357 Disney Pixar Luxo Jr., a LEGO version of the baby lamp and ball featured in the short film, which remains a icon of the company today.

Review: 21356 River Steamboat from LEGO® Ideas

Cast off! The steam engines are under fire! 

If you bought a ticket at the booth you may board the Amelia, LEGO® Ideas latest and biggest set. But now you’ll hopefully enjoy your ride on the “Ghost ship of the Mississippi” – we’ll get to that naming later. 

Review: 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth GwP from LEGO® Ideas

The biggest LEGO® Ideas set to date, 21356 River Steamboat, is now available to LEGO® Insiders and will be available to all from midnight Thursday 10 April 2025. In addition, until 13 April or while stocks last, those who buy it from LEGO Stores or LEGO.com will receive the Gift with Purchase (GwP) 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth. Let's see what this 152-piece model has to offer!

Designer interview: LEGO® Ideas 21356 River Steamboat

At LEGO® Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024, I was lucky enough to meet some of the design team behind the biggest LEGO® Ideas set to date.

Design Lead Jordan David Scott and Product Designer Marina Stampoli talked me through the absolutely massive LEGO Ideas set 21356 River Steamboat, which comes in at 16" (40cm) x 28" (69cm), contains over 4000 pieces and weighs 3 kilograms. "I did some exercise," says Marina as she lifts the model.

Review: 21354 Twilight The Cullen House from LEGO® Ideas

Stephenie Meyer started her writing career by breaking the mould, not realizing publishers expect shorter teenage novels than the author's debut manuscript. That didn't stop the voracious hordes of 2000s teen readers; once they had a taste of blood they wanted more of Twilight's supernatural love triangle. Five books, five movies, and twenty years later, the fandom lives on like some kind of immortal vampire, prompting fans around the world to support the LEGO® Ideas 21354 Twilight The Cullen House into production.

Review: 21355 The Evolution of STEM from LEGO® Ideas

It's time to hit the books with LEGO® Ideas newest set, 21355 The Evolution of STEM, based on an Ideas submission from fan designer Daniel Bradley who kindly lent us some insight into the set.

 

The Evolution of STEM celebrates science, math and history with a collection of mini models bursting from the pages of a brick-built encyclopaedia. Without further ado let's book it to the new elements!

Designer reveal: 21354 Twilight – The Cullen House from LEGO® Ideas

LEGO® Ideas set 21354 Twilight – The Cullen House has just been revealed! Designed by California-based LEGO fan Nick Micheels, and developed into a product by the LEGO Ideas team with designer Laura Perron, it is available to pre-order today and will be released on 4 February 2025.

At Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024 we were treated to a reveal of the LEGO Twilight house by Laura Perron – so who better to reveal it to you than her?  

Review: 21350 Jaws from LEGO® Ideas

Growing up near many of the Massachusetts shooting locations for 1975's Jaws, my interest was understandably piqued when The LEGO Group announced development of a set based on the film. Now, just a year-and-a-half after that announcement, I'm excited to examine the final set and the parts it contains. Fortunately, almost all of these elements are now available for purchase via the LEGO® Pick a Brick service, if desired in quantity.

Revealed: 21353 The Botanical Garden from LEGO® Ideas

On 1 November 2024, LEGO is releasing the next fan-inspired LEGO® Ideas set: The Botanical Garden! This set is based on a fan design by Valentina Bima (Goannas89), which reached the required 10,000 supporter milestone back on 9 January 2023, and was announced as a future set in the results of the First 2023 Review last December. 

21353 The Botanical Garden will undoubtedly appeal to a lot of builders not only for its stately display presence and detailed construction, but also for its outstanding variety of useful plant-building elements. Without further ado, let’s put on our gardening gloves and dig in!

21351 The Nightmare Before Christmas from LEGO® Ideas

A The Nightmare Before Christmas LEGO® set has been desired by fans of the 1993 film for a long time, but their nightmare turns to joy very soon.

The LEGO® Ideas submission by Simon Scott becomes set 21351 Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas with a release in September 2024!  We've taken a look at the official images just revealed, and spotted a few interesting new things to tell you about.

LEGO® Mimic Dice Box gift with purchase available again

The LEGO® DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Mimic Dice Box was an immensely popular gift with purchase back in April 2024, and it's back again! If LEGO Insiders buy set 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale between Monday 22 and Sunday 28 July, they will receive a Mimic Dice Box as a gift with purchase (GwP) while stocks last. Here's our mini-review!

Revealed: set 21350 Jaws from LEGO® Ideas

Fans of Jaws, fans of LEGO®, fans of boats, fans of sharks... they're all going to love this upcoming set! Fans of new elements are going to be happy too...

LEGO® Ideas set 21350 Jaws is coming on 3 August 2024 for LEGO Insiders so if you have not already registered, sign up as a LEGO Insider (for free) – otherwise you'll have to wait until 6 August. Let's take a look at what's included in this display model, and the new parts we've spotted.

Bug Fest: MOCs from kekenoji, Ikuse Ryouji, and Takamichi Irie

The last instalment of our Bug Fest crescendos with three more MOCs from three more inspirational builders. Kekenoji, Ikuse Ryouji, and Irie Takamichi, all have wildly different building styles and each approached this challenge in a different way.

Bug Fest: Tary's MOCs

Our latest Parts Festival, Bug Fest – where we've sent LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection to five amazing builders and asked them to create original models – continues today! 

Tary (@nobu_tary on Twitter and Instagram) is famed for his LEGO food and robot builds, and his Bug Fest builds do not disappoint! Let's see what he has to offer.

Bug Fest: Moko's MOCs

For our latest Parts Festival we've added the bricks from LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection to the collections of five amazing builders, and asked them to create original models. Welcome to Bug Fest!

Kicking the fest off today is Moko, a master of nice parts usage (NPU). Indeed, one of his Bug Fest MOCs really puts the 'P' into NPU...

Bug Fest using LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection: Introducing the elements

It's December and New Elementary is getting in the festive mood with a Parts Fest! 

We invited five incredibly talented builders, @kekenoji, @moko_bricks, @legomichiiiiii, @r194.lego, and @nobu_tary to inspire us with their LEGO creations using elements from LEGO® Ideas 21342 The Insect Collection. With an inventory that ticked all the boxes for colourful and interesting elements, it seemed like the perfect set for a Parts Fest, or maybe this time it's a Bug Fest...

LEGO® Ideas review: 21343 Viking Village

Skål! Today’s set takes us back in time, in terms of both world history and LEGO® history. So raise your horn of mead and toast to the return of the Vikings.

LEGO® Ideas review: 21339 BTS Dynamite

Today we’re taking a look at LEGO® Ideas 21339 BTS Dynamite, a set that uniquely has been based on a music video. More specifically, the music video for Dynamite by BTS. For the uninitiated, BTS is a mega popular Korean K-Pop band with a massive worldwide following.

21339 Dynamite gathered the required 10,000 supporters to enter the LEGO Ideas review process before being approved in February 2022 to become an actual LEGO set.

LEGO® Ideas review: 21337 Table Football

In February and March 2021, the LEGO® Ideas website ran a “We Love Sports'' contest. Table Football, designed by fan designer Donát Fehévári, was selected as winner, and will be released an official set on 1 November 2022. For those of you aware of the original submission, there is one massive change. The original was 11-a-side, and this is only 5-a-side! Why didn’t LEGO deliver on this? The short answer is, if they had to stick to 11-a-side, the set would not have been released at all.