You probably already know Brickplumber and its huge dioramas on Hoth or Endor ... The goal here is not to talk to you about these dioramas again, even if they deserve to be considered as exceptional creations, but rather to talk to you of the transport of these immense scenes.

Indeed, Brickplumber travels with his works and exhibits them for various events. Sure his flickr gallery, he shows us the different containers that were specially designed to transport his Endor diorama exhibited during the 2012 Star Wars Weekend which took place in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

We thus discover how it packs soil and vegetation, trees, the generator or even the tree-village of the Ewoks... Each container has been carefully designed and thought for its content. Those who often exhibit their creations know how important it is to organize your packaging properly, otherwise you have to urgently repair your work before the opening of the exhibition concerned ... 

Go take a walk on brickplumber's flickr gallery, you may find some ideas there to protect your MOCs during transport, and you will discover or rediscover his Endor diorama ...

Christoph Bartneck, the author of the book The Unofficial Lego Minifigure Catalog has just announced the publication of three new books:

The Star Wars Lego Minifigure Catalog : This 116-page book brings together the set of LEGO Star Wars minifigs different releases between 1999 and 2011. The Bricklink identifier of each minifig is indicated, the number of pieces, the price new and used, the reference of the head and the reference of the set (s) that contain these minifigs.  Available at a price of 22.10 € on amazon.fr.

The Harry Potter Lego Minifigure Catalog : This 48-page book brings together all the LEGO Harry Potter minifigs released between 2001 and 2011. The Bricklink identifier of each minifig is indicated, the number of pieces, the price new and used, the reference of the head and the reference of the set (s) that contain these minifigs. Available at a price of 11.43 € on amazon.fr.

The 2011 LEGO Minifigure Catalog : This book brings together in 140 pages more than 400 minifigs different released in 2011, including the minifigs of the collectible series. The Bricklink identifier of each minifigure is indicated, the number of pieces, the price new and used, the reference of the head and the reference of the set. Available at a price of 26.66 € on amazon.fr.

As far as I am concerned, you will not be angry with me for staying on my position: These very nice books are rather simplistic and have no real interest: In the age of the Internet and with sites like brick set ou Bricklink, I don't necessarily need this type of paper catalog to find the minifigs I'm looking for and I don't find myself having a good reason to leaf through this kind of directory in my spare time ...

Well, it's official, on May 4 and 5, 2012 for $ 75 of purchases on the LEGO Shop or in an official LEGO store, Americans will be offered a limited edition TC-14 minifig in Chrome Silver.

And U.S ? Hopefully this promotion is global and we can get this already collector minifigure before it's even officially released.

A word of advice, however: To avoid being offered a keychain as a consolation prize if this minifigure breaks, be on time to validate your order ....

So it wasn't a joke, and from May 16 to 31, 2012, for any purchase of at least $ 50 on the LEGO Shop or in an official LEGO store, Americans will be offered an exclusive Hulk minifig.

As for the TC-14 in Chrome Silver, hope that we French will not be excluded from this promotional offer for which we will have to be reactive.

Let's also hope that LEGO will have learned from its mistakes (Shadow ARF Trooper in 2011) and that the available stock will be sufficient to meet all demands ...

This is the excellent thebrickblogger.com which reports the info, and the article is dated March 31, 2012, so a priori it would not be yet another April Fool's Day (I'm a little jaded by these bad jokes which abound every year and which no longer make me really laugh ...).

It all started with a meeting with Chris Bonven Johansen, LEGO Minifigure Designer by trade and specialist in LEGO Star Wars minifigs, during the Lego world 2012. This one would have confirmed that a new version of the minifigure of the set 9490 Droid Escape with visible cables would be offered during the summer of 2012 in a still unspecified promotional form. 

Chris Bonven Johansen does not give any details on the distribution mode of this new Chrome Gold minifigure: We do not yet know if it will be inserted randomly in certain sets or if it will be distributed during an upcoming event ...

Information to be taken obviously with enormous tweezers because of the period conducive to false announcements ....