As promised by LEGO, the LEGO Ideas set 21326 Winnie the Pooh is now available as a VIP preview on the official store.

Since the official announcement of the product, everyone has had plenty of time to get a very precise idea of ​​the value of adding to their collection this box of 1265 pieces sold at the public price of 109.99 €, depending on their affinities with the universe concerned or the desire to collect everything that comes out under the LEGO Ideas label regardless of the subject covered.

To take advantage of this VIP preview, do not forget to identify yourself on the Shop so that you can add the set to your basket and place an order. As a bonus, LEGO offers some drawings to collect in exchange for VIP points via the rewards center. You have to "spend" 750 points per drawing, five different models are available.

The possibility of accumulating the two gifts of the moment falls apart with this launch offset by one hour compared to the usual times but you can still get the set 40449 Easter Bunny's Carrot House currently offered and until next April 5 from 60 € of purchase.

LEGO IDEAS 21326 WINNIE THE POOH ON THE LEGO SHOP >>

(The link to the shop redirects to the version of the official shop for your country of connection)

On the way to the draft program of some of the projects that had in the past reached 10.000 backers on the LEGO Ideas platform and which were subsequently rejected during the review phase: LEGO is launching today the 2021 edition of the Bricklink Designer Program and 27 of the creators of initially rejected projects were "invited" for a total of 31 creations in the running. No licensed project was selected.

At this stage, the creators of unlucky projects during the different review phases are working on adapting their proposals to make them compatible with the imposed rules: They must reproduce their creation in Bricklink Studio 2.0 using an inventory of parts and a limited color palette and their mission is also to offer a final version made up of at least 400 bricks and whose inventory does not exceed 4000 elements.
Each creator therefore has his hand over the final version of his project, a bit like an official designer who works by taking into account many parameters to arrive at the final version that will be marketed.

This first so-called "pre-production" phase, which includes test sequences for the various products modified by their creators, will end on May 31, 2021. Only products which comply with the specifications imposed will be eligible for the following phase of crowdfunding. which will begin on June 1, 2021.

It will then be for fans interested in one or more of the projects in the running to pre-order them and then wait for the results of this funding phase. Only the 13 projects pre-ordered with at least 3000 copies will go into production in September 2021 and will become Bricklink Designer Program Sets 5000 copies printed. If you have pre-ordered a set that does not pass the crowdfunding phase, you will be refunded.

Please note, there will be no instruction booklets in paper format, it will be necessary to be satisfied with digital versions. The assembly instructions for all other proposals not selected will be marketed. LEGO does not communicate for the moment on a precise date of reception of the pre-ordered sets and is satisfied to announce November 2021 for the first shipments.

The designers of the 13 projects marketed will receive a 10% commission on the sales, those whose projects were not selected for the production phase will receive a 75% commission on the sale of the instruction files.

LEGO is not communicating for the moment on the packaging of the different sets that will be marketed and it is not known if this new wave of almost official products will be flanked by the manufacturer's logo and / or any reference to the LEGO Ideas platform. We do know, however, that the sets will be made in Europe.

You can find the 31 projects competing for this first phase of the program at this address on Bricklink.

Today we are quickly interested in the content of the LEGO set 80021 Monkie Kid's Lion Guardian, a box in the soft underbelly of the Monkie Kid 2021 range with an inventory of 774 pieces, five minifigs and a retail price set at 74.99 €.

On the menu, a rather imposing mech, a mini modular arcade room and a mechanical spider that serves as a battle station for the big villain of this second season, the set tries to create a little context and opposition around the mechanical guardian lion who is in principle the star of the product.

The idea of ​​the guardian lion converted here into a robot does not come out of nowhere: in Chinese culture, Fo lions are statues that guard the entrance to buildings and other important places in the city thanks to the protective powers that the popular belief attributes to them. The lion is also celebrated on the occasion of the Chinese New Year holidays through a traditional costume dance that would attract good luck. The set therefore draws frankly from these Chinese traditions and adapts them to the context developed by LEGO in the Monkie Kid universe. The stone lion and the colorful lion of the parades become an over-equipped robot who helps the young hero take on the Spider Queen.

The mech is not uninteresting even if it is in my opinion a bit messy in its realization. This mechanical lion gets lost a bit in the mix of colors and the many decorative touches that struggle to hide the lack of finish of certain parts of the animal. From some angles the robot looks great, from others it feels a bit like the designer has taken a few creative shortcuts to move on faster. The machine is perfectly matched to the mech of the set 80012 Monkey King Warrior Mech (2020) from which he borrows the assortment of colors and some decorations, once again I salute the visual consistency of the range.

Special mention for the head of the animal which is really very detailed with a movable jaw and eyes embodied by a Technic bullet with an unprecedented pad printing. The skin of the side drums is also pad printed with a pretty, very successful pattern that gives allure to the whole. These two drums hung on the sides of the mech conceal Spring-Shooters and you have to push on the black rim placed at the back to fold down the two white discs and release these projectile launchers.

So there is something here to have a little fun trying to aim the Spider Squeen minifigure perched on his mechanical spider. Of the 24 stickers to stick in this box, 8 take place on the lion, at the level of the legs and the two hoops placed on the back.

The animal's tail is arguably the most fragile element of the model, it only fits on a simple clip and it is a bit difficult to stay in a raised position. It often bends under its own weight when it does not come loose during handling. Other elements such as the black rims clipped on the robot's neck are also likely to come off easily, you will have to be careful when gripping the model. This lion also has many articulations at the level of the legs which allow very diverse poses, it is always taken for those who would like to exhibit this mech in an advantageous position on their shelves.

In addition to the guardian lion, the set allows you to obtain a small modular arcade room whose walls unfold to allow you to enjoy the two attractions installed inside, with on one side a reproduction of the rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution and on the other a clamp machine (probably rigged) which allows you to try to win one of the two copies of the golden microfig. The machine is "functional" in the sense that it can be fed through the hole placed on the top of the attraction and the wheel placed at the back allows the clamp to tilt to try to eject a microfig.

The presence of this minimalist arcade in this box may seem a bit off topic but it should be enough to tip many fans who are reluctant to invest the 75 € requested by LEGO for this product. The construction concentrates the rest of the sticker sheet delivered in this set for a very 80s result and the whole should fit quite easily into a retro-futuristic diorama.

The third notable construction in the set is the mechanical spider that Spider Queen rides on. The accessory equipped with two Spring-Shooters will not replace the big spider in the set 80022 Spider Queen's Arachnoid Base I told you about a few days ago but it will at least allow young fans to wait until the opportunity to be offered another large box of the range presents itself. It's a detail, but I find very interesting the solution used which makes it possible to embody the eyes of the spider via the tips of the two ammunition integrated in the projectile launchers.

As always, without precise reference to the context of the events described here, it will be necessary to show imagination to integrate all the elements of the sets in a timeline which will lead to the confrontation between the Monkie Kid and the Spider Queen.

As for the minifigs provided, the endowment is balanced with on one side the Monkie Kid, Mei and Lu and on the other the Spider Queen and his henchman. As for the rest of the range, the pad prints are of a high standard and I just note a printing defect on the right leg of the Monkie Kid with a white mark which has nothing to do there at the level of the thigh. This task is not present on other copies of this minifigure that I have seen in various reviews of the set, so it is probably an isolated problem.

Note that Lu's pretty torso is not new, it's Poppy Star's in the LEGO CITY set 60271 Main Square (2020). The character's head also comes from the CITY range, it is available in the set 60262 Passenger Airplaine (2020). The elements that make up the minifigs of Mei, the Monkie Kid, the Spider Queen and her man tomorrow are also available in other sets, nothing exclusive here.

In the end, this set is arguably not the best of the second wave of products in the LEGO Monkie Kid range. It offers several varied constructions and it allows you to have fun without having to checkout again, which is already a notable advantage over other LEGO products. The design of the lion-robot is not the best barrel but the whole remains visually very consistent with the other mech marketed last year and collectors should find their account.

I regret a little that LEGO does not insist more on the presence of shops or homes in this range, just to create a more consistent environment to showcase all the robots and other devices provided in the different boxes. The small arcade would undoubtedly have deserved an additional floor and a real roof, just to make it a successful building and not to remain at the stage of a simple independent module which we do not really know what to do with.

Note: The set presented here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at March 29, 2021 next at 23pm. 

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.

It's no secret that M6 was very satisfied with the audiences generated by the first season of the LEGO Masters show: the show was one of the channel's best launches and audiences for this family entertainment were very solid with an average of 3.2 million viewers over the four episodes aired.

So there will be a second season and the production is currently looking for volunteers to lend themselves to the game. Those who would like to register now know what it is all about: it will be necessary to put up with the few touches of reality TV integrated into this televised competition which brings together eight pairs. Profiles and nicknames a little caricatured or final cut at the discretion of the production, the recipe should not change for this second season, it is the one that allowed the success of the first.

The participants in the "pilot" season of LEGO Masters in France have suffered the plasters, everything was not perfect in terms of casting, the proposed tests and the rules to be respected in order to hope to advance in the competition but there is a lot to bet that some adjustments will be made to correct the flaws of youth of the French version of this concept also present on the screen in many other countries.

If the adventure tempts you, you must write to the following address: castinglm@endemolshine.fr for a first contact. Remember that the number of volunteers is expected to be very large, many hesitant fans in 2020 having been uninhibited by what they have since seen on screen, and seats will be expensive. Also keep in mind that the "who are you"counts at least as much as the"what do you know how to do with legoFinally, plan a few weeks of availability for the shoot.

We know that Eric Antoine will once again be at the helm of this new season of LEGO Masters, but nothing has yet been confirmed about the two members of the jury who have full powers over the course of the competition. Those who will be selected to pass the casting in the production premises will then know whether Georg Schmitt and Paulina Aubey will be reappointed to their respective posts.