Today, Friday August 25, you will be able to meet Robert Bontenbal aka RobenAnne, the designer of the project that became the official set LEGO Ideas 21310 Old Fishing Store.

As part of his European tour of the LEGO Stores, he is indeed stopping today at the LEGO Store des Halles in Paris (13:00 p.m. - 16:00 p.m.) to meet those who wish to ask him a few questions or simply congratulate him. and have him sign the box that they will have the opportunity to acquire in preview (159.99 €). For the others, it will be necessary to wait until September 1st to obtain it on the LEGO Shop ou hope to be drawn...

For the occasion, LEGO offered me (as on other sites) to ask Robert Bontenbal a few questions and I give you his answers below. Nothing very complicated, but I especially wanted to have an explanation on the source of inspiration of this set by its creator.

Hoth Bricks: Hello Robert, congratulations on validating your project and converting it into a real LEGO set. In the project description, you mention that you were inspired by the sets from the Winter Village range. When I discovered this Old Fishing Store, I had the impression that it could fit into a coastal village in Maine (USA). What were your other sources of inspiration for this project, if any?

Robert Bontenbal: I really like the sets from the Winter Village range and, on the occasion of the holiday season, I actually started to design my own buildings with the help of my children. After having imagined the design and made the sketch, I created the Old Fishing Store under LEGO Digital Designer [official LEGO digital creation software] by combining my passion for fishing and the architecture of wooden houses in Saba (West Indies Dutch), where my family is from. 

Hoth Bricks: When the project was selected and validated, did you have the opportunity to work closely with the LEGO designer Adam Grabowski during the phase of adapting the set to the constraints and construction rules defined by LEGO?

Robert Bontenbal: When the project reached 10.000 supporters, I actually got in touch with Adam Grabowski and the entire LEGO Ideas team via Skype. It was the start of this incredible adventure.

Hoth Bricks: Are you happy with the end result? Do you consider that the spirit of your creation has been kept by the LEGO designer?

Robert Bontenbal: Yes, I am satisfied. The final product is very close to the original design. Technical changes were made to make the whole thing stronger and Adam Grabowski added some really cool props but overall I think the end product is really very close to my project.

Hoth Bricks: A lot has happened since your initial project submission to the LEGO Ideas platform. How do you feel now that your creation is finally available on the shelves in the LEGO Stores and that LEGO fans can acquire it?

Robert Bontenbal: It was indeed a long process. There were a lot of intermediate steps to validate. But the result is truly exceptional and seeing your creation featured on the internet, in the media and in stores is truly satisfying. I really enjoy reading comments on all of the forums and sites that deal with news about LEGO products. I think every designer should appreciate this stuff.

I see you have developed any a range of assorted modular buildings to this one. Many fans know this and are already supporting your other projects on the LEGO Ideas platform. Many of them would no doubt appreciate having an entire line of official products based on your designs. Do you plan to offer / sell the instructions for assembling these other models?

Robert Bontenbal: I have effectively created a range of buildings that form a seaside village. I'm not sure yet if I will offer / sell the instructions for putting them together, but I can assure you that the seaside village will continue to grow. develop !

The German version of LEGO site dedicated to the Architecture range has been updated and we discover the sheet of the set 21037 LEGO House. It is therefore the occasion to obtain some visuals which allow to discover a little more about this representation of the sanctuary dedicated to plastic bricks located in the heart of Billund which will open its doors to the public on September 28th.

It appears that this set is only sold in the LEGO Store at the LEGO House. I inquired on my side and it should be possible to acquire it online as a second step. Nothing really official yet, but I'm confident ...
In the meantime, don't worry, many stores on Bricklink or eBay will load quickly, for a comfortable margin on the sale price, to save you the trip to Billund.

Today we are talking about a set that smells of fog and the coastal villages of Maine dear to Stephen King with its facades with cladding eaten away by sea salt and its roof repeatedly repaired by a gruff old retired captain who must have some amazing stories to tell those few passing customers. This fishing tackle store or 21310 Old Fishing Store gets you in the mood as soon as you open the box.

This is one of the strengths of this set. It is a completely new product for adult fans, both in its look and in what it gives off. Your imagination will do the rest. Mine worked a lot during the assembly phase and it's refreshing.

The creator of the project had opted for a finish without visible tenons, even for the base of the set. LEGO preferred to leave a few studs visible on the 32x32 base plate which serves as the perimeter of the set. Probably so that the whole is identifiable as a LEGO product despite the model aspect imposed by the massive use of Tiles on facades and floors. Maybe it was a little too smooth.

On the construction side, everything has been thought out so that weariness does not outweigh the pleasure. The instruction booklet alternates between repetitive phases of masonry and laying of the cladding on the facades and the installation of the various interior elements and accessories. It's well dosed, we don't have time to be bored. The cladding planks that you can shift (or not) as you wish obviously contribute to the somewhat ramshackle aesthetic of this seaside boutique.

LEGO delivers here a product with obvious exhibition potential, even if the interior of this fishing tackle store, which is ultimately not visible through the small windows, is full of furniture and accessories.

As usual with LEGO, especially with Modulars, we fill the available space until the overdose so that the fan finds his account. The store is full of cool details that leave little room to move around. It's not a big deal, it's not a playset. It is a model whose general atmosphere is precisely created by each of these elements that will fuel the imagination of the LEGO fan.

LEGO has even integrated interior design elements that will not be really accessible afterwards, such as the half of the ladder that gives access to the observation tower. We know it's there since we built it, but that's all, we don't even see it.

Access to the interior of the building via the facade via two separate mobile elements has been retained by the designer LEGO even if on the original model access to the shop was impossible from this side. The lower section of the wall was only used to reveal what is happening under the store floor. On the LEGO version, the store floor becomes accessible.

To discover the store from above and place the various characters provided, just remove the roof, which borders on the overdose of details. This roof is just placed on the frame but it remains stable and does not slip.

Those who want to stage this building in their city based on Modulars will have to show imagination: not easy to integrate this type of architecture in a city context without creating from scratch everything that should go around. This is the whole point of this set, it opens the way to all kinds of matching creations which will have the same exterior finish.

Robert Bontenbal has already delved into the subject with a series of projects that make it possible to obtain a complete coastal village. Now it's up to everyone to be inspired by it to create their own village with this special atmosphere. This set is a starting point, the beginning of a concept that you will have to explore if you want to do anything more than exhibit it alone.

The inventory of this box is also an excellent starting point for other creations of the same type. Pad printed boards, bricks and Tiles in various colors will serve your creativity.

Lots of pad-printed pieces in this box: Boards, sign, pressure gauges, bill, coin, newspaper, post-its, hooks, tables, etc ... And even if this is a LEGO Ideas set, there are still some stickers as in the set 21302 The Big Bang Theory released in 2015, for those who would think this new set is the first in this range to come with stickers.

There are 11 in total, the set of which is great if you prefer to store them away from light and dust. The visual aspect will not really suffer and you can possibly use them to dress another building out of your imagination. Stickers are the absolute evil of LEGO products, but I try to be positive.

On the side of the minifigs, some will see in the fisherman with the cap a thinly veiled tribute to Robert Shaw aka Quint the shark hunter of the Sea teeth. It's up to you.

For the rest, the boss's sweater is gorgeous, and the customer's multi-pocket cardigan will pull a smile from anyone who has similar gear somewhere in their closet that allows them to take whatever they need (well). more) during their trips to the local lake.

I have no real criticism to make with this set without showing bad faith. If I had to make a point all the same, I think that a very simple boat with two oars would have made it possible to polish the thing up by contributing to the general atmosphere.

Oh yes, I forgot, once again we find the slight differences in color at the Tiles en Sand green : We will console ourselves by saying that it is in the theme, but LEGO should really work on a technical solution to ensure the uniformity of the color.

As you can see, I think LEGO is offering a set here that puts the brand's values ​​back at the heart of the project. The construction is a real pleasure, the end result is incredibly original and the atmosphere that emerges from this set will really be at the service of everyone's imagination (I already said?, Ah ...). When a LEGO product achieves its goal and goes beyond just stacking scraps of plastic, it's a winner.

The LEGO Ideas range has never lived up to its name as well as with this box. LEGO delivers an idea, perfectly executed. It's up to you to invent the sequel, provided you spend the 159.99 € requested by LEGO from next September 1 to purchase this box.

Note: We do as usual, you have until August 24, 2017 to manifest yourself in the comments.

Update : The winner was drawn and 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 is thanks to the posting by LEGO of new PDF files of instructions that the LEGO Architecture set 21037 LEGO House is revealed with the visual above.

It's unclear whether this box will be a LEGO Store exclusive to Billund's LEGO House or whether it will be available through the LEGO Shop and other LEGO Stores.

This is the second set featuring the LEGO Billund Sanctuary after the reference 4000010 LEGO House marketed since 2014 in a few shops located near the site. I brought back a copy bought in a store for my LEGO Inside Tour. For the record, we were told that LEGO had left the exclusivity of the set to these shops to compensate for the inconvenience related to the site.

The LEGO House 21037 and XNUMX Instruction Book PDF file is available download at this address. the booklet is plush and I think the set will eventually be available on a large scale, LEGO will not have gone out of its way for just a few hundred boxes ...

(seen on brick set)

Because even when you are on vacation, LEGO thinks of you, here is a series of new features that are available today.

There is something for all tastes, with, in addition to The slew of sets based on The LEGO Ninjago Movie and the set Lego boost, Justice League, Technic, City, Of Friends, an Architecture, Minecraft and Juniors set:

Note that the LEGO Creator Expert set 10258 London Bus (129.99 €) is now available to all customers of the official LEGO store even if they are not members of the VIP program (Are there still?).

The and 853702 The LEGO Ninjago Movie Maker is also now available at the public price of 19.99 €.

Finally, I cannot recommend you enough to compare before you buy. Most of these sets are also available from amazon and some are already sold for less than from LEGO.

For me, it will be the three sets Justice League and the Arc de Triomphe. And you ?