At least four new books around the LEGO theme are announced by publisher Dorling Kindersley (DK) in 2021: Minifigure Mission, How to Build LEGO Cars, How to Build LEGO Houses et Mighty LEGO Mechs.

Minifigure Mission is a 128-page book that takes on a Toy Story-style adventure with a minifigure that must reach its shelf via an obstacle course to be built in different rooms of the house. The editor does not provide the parts necessary for the realization of the various ideas proposed but the main character is included with some accessories.

How to Build LEGO Cars et How to Build LEGO Houses are 96-page, more didactic books with around thirty examples and ideas for learning how to build cars and houses. An interesting detail for those who have followed the LEGO Masters UK show: Nathan Dias, one of the members of the winning pair of the show's first season, is the co-author of these two books. No bricks with these two books, it will be necessary to call on your personal inventory to reproduce the proposed examples.

Mighty LEGO Mechs is a 96-page book about which not much is known yet. Judging by the cover featuring two mechs from the LEGO Ninjago sets 71720 Fire Stone Mech (2020) et 71738 Zane's Titan Mech Battle (2021), it should be a simple collection of what LEGO has been able to offer so far in terms of robots and mechs, without instructions or new creations.

You will find a few pages above from two of these forthcoming books, the texts are in English but the visuals seem explicit enough to me that a young fan lacking inspiration will find some interesting leads.

We do not know for the moment whether these different books will one day be translated into French by the publisher who usually takes care of the localization of most of the books offered by Dorling Kindersley.

These four books are currently on pre-order from Amazon with availability announced for October 2021:

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Today we discover the official visuals of the Batman mask to be built very soon in the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes set. 76182 Batman Cowl with an inventory of 410 pieces which makes it possible to obtain an exhibition model 22 cm high. This is the sign Barnes and Nobles who uploaded the product to this address with an advertised price of $ 59.99.

Once again, opinions will certainly be very divided about this interpretation in LEGO sauce of the mask of the vigilante of Gotham City, a construction which notably uses transparent parts at the level of the base of the base and of the hole at the level of the jaw. . The official description states: "... includes transparent pieces to represent the face ...". It is in my opinion moderately successful.

It is finally possible to speak freely about the LEGO Marvel Shang-Chi set 76177 Battle at the Ancient Village, without risking to suffer the wrath of LEGO or Marvel, the product having been purchased in a shop called "The Brick" in Israel by a fan who then posted the photo of the box on Reddit.

If we hide the pretty graphic staging on the packaging of this product of 400 pieces, there will not be much left in this set except a slightly starved version of the dragon and five minifigs: Shang-Chi, Morris (a Dijiang), Xialing, Wenwu (The Mandarin) and Death Dealer. A little frugal for a set whose title pretentiously evokes a battle in a village.

Two products derived from the film Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings, which is in principle expected in theaters this summer, are according to the latest rumors to date announced at LEGO: this reference which is now confirmed and the set 76176 Escape From The Ten Rings (321) which we know will feature a chase between a few vehicles and five characters: Shang-Chi, Morris, Wenwu (The Mandarin), Katy and Razor Fist. I know the other set is also visible on the usual channels, but without a source of availability identified, I cannot post a visual here.

We now know the participation in the competition "Out of this World Space Builds" organized on the LEGO Ideas platform which will have the chance to be converted into a promotional product offered one day on the official online store: it is the creation of 'Ivan Guerrero, fan designer of the set 21324 123 Sesame Street, titled "The Adventures of the USS Cardboard"which won with 2869 votes in front of the fourteen other participations in the running.

The winning creation will now go through the LEGO mill and the manufacturer does not communicate a deadline for the effective availability of this product which will one day be offered under the condition of purchase.

We can see in the choice of LEGO the desire to ensure continuity with another promotional product also resulting from a competition organized on the LEGO Ideas platform and then offered on condition of purchase in 2019, the set 40335 Space Rocket Ride, proposed by Mark Smiley, which featured a young boy on his merry-go-round shaped like a space shuttle.

The complete classification of the competition with the number of votes collected by each of the participations can be found at this address.

It's hard to escape the mini-buzz of the moment: on March 24, the official LEGO account on Twitter published a short message accompanied by the #NFT and the video sequence below that many have interpreted as the upcoming arrival of the manufacturer on a very controversial market, that of NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens. The tweet was taken down very quickly after a flurry of backlash.

April Fools' Day published too early by mistake or attempting to ride a trend that is not new but which is currently regaining popularity? Difficult to say even if I lean more for the joke published too early than for a late arrival of LEGO in this market which many consider as a digital scam that only really benefits those who have the keys such as for example the platforms of certification and the resale marketplaces of these virtual tokens.

For those who don't know what NFTs are, they are non-fungible digital assets that can be used to identify, authenticate, and make digital or physical content unique. These digital tokens do not constitute a cryptocurrency but they rely on the blockchain, this space used to document and store the list of transactions carried out between the different holders of cryptocurrency units. The NFT can be considered as an unfalsifiable digital title to a virtual or possibly material content that is valid as long as the content itself remains available in its initial form, an important detail since the token and the product it represents are not physically not related to each other.

The arrival of LEGO in the NFTs business would be a surprise for all and a questionable approach for some, in particular because of environmental considerations linked to the large amount of energy consumed by the creation and management of these digital assets and the deviation of the principle by many opportunistic sellers. The NFTs market has indeed become a real catch-all which ultimately only benefits the organizations responsible for validating the assets in question and a few sellers who are surfing this trend and who find clients with a sufficiently well-stocked portfolio to collect drawings of virtual cats.

Anyone can try to sell an NFT of their cat's photo, a neighbor's cat photo, or a drawing of a cat seen on the street, as long as they have someone to pay for it, the system will work. The turkey of the farce will therefore be the one who will have invested his money in the thing last and who will no longer find anyone to redeem him.