Rich 'n' juicy

Although there are so many new summer releases from The LEGO® Group (TLG) to talk about at the moment, I didn't want to let this Friends set from last winter pass by. 41035 Heartlake Juice Bar has 277 pieces and retails for US$29.99 / GB£24.99 / €32.99, joining Heartlake City's four other retail establishments that fall into the US$25-35 price range: the bakery, pet salon, cafe and beauty shop.

Speedorz reborn

I'm examining one of the brand new Speedorz sets today, which you may think strange since I usually tend towards discussing parts that are more universal in their applications. But I couldn't resist because a) these new Speedorz have a lot of new parts for such tiny sets and b) some of the parts are really useful, or could prove really cool in the right hands.

Trevi review

It's been known about for some time now, but the newest set in the 2014 LEGO® Architecture line has been officially announced today; 21020 Trevi Fountain. More accurately, the set is the Trevi Fountain plus the façade of the Palazzo Poli, the palace that sits behind it. The Community and Events Engagement Team kindly organised an advance review copy for New Elementary. Its price is £39.99; same as 21006 The White House.

LEGO® House competition winners

We received 30 exciting entries from 21 people in our competition to design your own vision of a museum for The LEGO® Group, and loved examining all of them. But sadly we only have two prizes so now let's cut to the chase. Hearty congratulations, Spencer_R, you are the winner!

First place

The final competition entries

New Elementary's contest to design your own vision of LEGO® House closed on Thursday and judging is now well underway! The two winners will be announced on Friday.

I'm glad to say we had 30 entries, from 21 people, and they've all given us judges something to think about! I'd like to thank every one of you for taking the time to build - I wish I could post everyone a prize - but most of all, I hope you had fun building.

An entrant pointed out to me that Stupid Flickr doesn't display all the entries on our Group page if you are not logged into Flickr with an account. So I thought I would put them all here for everyone's enjoyment - click any pic to see the alternate shots on Flickr, plus some contestants write interesting comments about their designs.

Benny's Neo Classic Space Ship

Is 2014 just the best year of LEGO® sets ever?? Of course not... that was 1979. But this summer's wave of new sets contains some absolutely thrilling sets. If it weren't for the upcoming LEGO Ideas Exo-Suit, I'd say that my most anticipated set of 2014 was 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!

Of course, I'm biased because this set represents the ultimate in nostalgia for me, but that also brought a huge weight of expectation to this build. Could a modern set really evoke the kind of love I felt for my Space sets as a kid? I was really worried it wouldn't capture the intangible magic of Classic Space and just leave me feeling like it was any other modern-day Space set but in blue/grey/trans-yellow. I'm happy to report that this was not the case at all.

Bustin' makes me feel good

So the LEGO® CUUSOO platform is out of beta and now lives under The LEGO Group's (TLG) umbrella as LEGO Ideas. The first set with the new branding is 21108 Ghostbusters, featuring their ambulance-turned-ghostfighting vehicle, the ECTO-1.

House of bricks

Today I cracked open 4000010 LEGO® House and figured I'd review it - given that the set is not readily available, has a rather interesting inclusion, and of course to shoehorn in a reminder that New Elementary's LEGO House competition closes in 9 days! Fret not - I didn't open the copy sent by the Community and Events Engagement Team which remains safely mint in sealed box for the winner. It's another copy I bought on a recent trip to Billund, which is the only town on Planet Earth where the set has been made available for sale. This limited release is a gesture from The LEGO Group (TLG) to local businesses, in light of the disruption being exacted in the centre of town to construct the real LEGO House which will be a museum, or rather an "interactive experience centre" in modern-day parlance. When I was there, the last of the existing buildings on the site were being torn down.

LEGO® House & UN HQ up for grabs

New Elementary's building competition is underway and our first entry has been posted! There are still three weeks left for you to build a small model of your interpretation of what a museum for The LEGO® Group could look like - if you were the architect! Sorry - this is open to 18+ only. You can read how to enter and terms and conditions here but today I'm proud to be announcing the lineup of good folk who will be judging the competition.

You're lucky, he's lucky, I'm lucky, we're all lucky!

The largest set in Friends' winter 2014 range with over 700 pieces, 41039 Sunshine Ranch has some exciting basic new parts, plus some useful new elements (by which I mean existing parts in new colours). I settled down this Easter to build it and play with the new parts.