A little teasing never hurts, LEGO today unveils some of the characters that will accompany Donkey Kong in the sets planned to reinforce the already very prolific LEGO Super Mario range.

The latest rumors suggest a good half-dozen boxes (references 71420 to 71427) planned for summer 2023 in the LEGO Super Mario range and the teaser posted online today by LEGO confirms that Cranky Kong, Diddy Kong, Funky Kong and Dixie Kong will also be featured alongside Donkey Kong in several of these boxes, all in the form of buildable figures. I doubt that the five figures all come in the same set because of the mention "each set sold separately" present at the end of the teaser, but you never know...

Today we need a quick tour of the content of the LEGO Star Wars set 75355 Ultimate Collector Series X-wing Starfighter, a box of 1949 pieces which will be available as a VIP preview from May 1, 2023 at the public price of €239.99 before global availability announced for May 4.

In the bags, enough to assemble a new exhibition version of the X-wing which will finally take over from that of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter (1558 pieces) marketed between 2013 and 2015 at the retail price of €219.99.

If the X-wing regularly makes the heyday of the LEGO Star Wars range via many products intended for the youngest, this emblematic ship of the Star Wars universe is now what we could call a chestnut tree in the section. Ultimate Collector Series with three different interpretations on the counter.

This new version of 55 cm long by 44 cm wide is indeed the third in 23 years since the launch of the set 7191 X-wing Fighter (1304 pieces) in 2000 and if the version of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter only took over after 13 years from a first interpretation which had aged badly, it still delights many fans and collectors today. The 2023 version of this ship should therefore in principle take advantage of all the evolution of the LEGO inventory and associated techniques to try to renew the genre and bring its share of notable improvements.

I won't give you the details of the whole process of building the product, the photos available below speak for themselves and I hope you will keep all the pleasure of discovering the different techniques at work here. Just know that the mechanism for deploying the wings is for this time of a rather surprising simplicity with an easily accessible wheel placed on the cabin of the ship and two rubber bands.

I'm still a little distressed to see that LEGO persists in using these consumables on high-end models sold at full price knowing that the manufacturer does not even make the effort to slip a set of two replacement rubber bands into the box. The manipulation of the cam mechanism requires a little force and some creaks are heard but it is a pure exhibition product and the functionality will remain anecdotal once you have chosen the configuration that suits you. The junction between the two pairs of wings is not perfect in flight mode and you will have to help the mechanism a little by pressing on the two pairs with your hands to put them horizontally, you will have to be satisfied with that. No landing gear.

The cabin is made up of a few sub-assemblies to be fixed on side clips and there are clearly visible spaces all along the hull. It was probably the price to pay to obtain angles conforming to the reference ship and a shape of the front section a little more realistic than that of the previous model. More embarrassing for me, the duckbill effect of the nose of the ship at the end a little too flat reinforced by the space visible on both sides at the junction between the two sections which meet at the end. The set seems to me visually a little too clumsy and I preferred the previous solution which I found much more elegant.

The wings of the X-wing, which may seem a little short to some and which are in my opinion a little too "disconnected" from the fuselage frankly letting the integrated mechanism appear, have benefited from a very appreciable care with sufficient thickness and a skin on the inside that makes them less stark when deployed. The balance between visible tenons and smooth surfaces on the entire model seems convincing to me, you can see at first glance that it is indeed a LEGO product but the whole retains a certain elegance.

The presence of correctly sized air inlets for the engines is good news even if the three interior fins are simply wedged between a few tenons, the fact that the canopy is pad-printed is appreciable when one remembers the complex sticker supplied with the model of 2013, the inside of the wings benefits from a slightly more accomplished finish with a fixing on the body of the ship which is a little more discreet and the passage to pad printing for the exposure plate which includes some facts is obviously an interesting development.

The pad printing of the plate which presents some information about the vessel is well done but it reveals the large injection point placed in the middle of the element concerned. It will be difficult for LEGO to find a solution to this technical detail, the injection of this type of large part must allow a uniform distribution of the material in the mold and the positioning of the injection point is strategic. The solution proposed here is nevertheless still more interesting than the large sticker, difficult to position correctly supplied so far and which ages very badly under the effect of light and heat.

The display that allows you to stage this X-wing is well designed, it is rather discreet, the whole remains unfailingly stable and you can even place the ship in a diving position if your shelf is high. , just to admire the underside of the construction with its very basic finish. R2-D2 will remain in its housing, there is no space for the astromech droid on the display which can only accommodate the minifig of Luke Skywalker.

The product does not escape a small sheet of stickers, but the number of these stickers remains contained and those which take place in the cockpit are graphically very well executed. Too bad that these parts which will be exposed to the light are not pad printed, this high-end model intended for an adult public and sold for 240 € nevertheless deserved this effort.

The last visual of the second gallery above brings together the three versions of the X-Wing of the moment, I added that of the polybag 30654 X-wing Starfighter (87 pieces) which will be offered from May 1 to 7, 2023 from 40 € of purchase in products from the LEGO Star Wars range as well as that of 57 pieces from the bag supplied with April 2023 issue from the Official LEGO Star Wars Magazine. You currently have the choice according to your desires, your financial means and the space you have on your shelves.

As for the figurines provided, the new Luke Skywalker minifig benefits from all the technical refinements currently available at LEGO with legs injected in two colors and nice pad printing on the arms. the R2-D2 figurine with pad printing on both sides is not new, it is the one already seen in the LEGO Star Wars Diorama Collection set 75339 Death Star Trash Compactor marketed since last year.

It is also too small to convince when placed in the housing provided behind the cockpit, the dome of the version of the astromech droid seen in 2017 in the polybag 30611 R2-D2 could possibly have done the trick but it would then have been necessary to resolve to obtain only this element without the rest of the robot.

To tell you the truth, I'm a little torn after assembling this new X-wing: the model is generally in line with the reference ship when viewed from a certain distance, but there are still some finishing details that seem questionable to me. closer. LEGO strives to renew its aesthetic and technical choices with each new interpretation and this one combines good ideas with some approximations which in my opinion still do not make it the expected final version.

So much the worse for those who wanted to believe it, so much the better for those who collect all these boxes even if the subject treated is the same, there remains a certain margin of progression and evolution for the next version.

As an inveterate collector of the LEGO Star Wars range, I will be in line from May 1st to acquire this new version and take advantage of the various promotional offers announced. The version of the set 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter However, it will remain my favorite this time around.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 6th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

LEGO today officially unveils a new reference in the LEGO Star Wars range: the set 75348 Mandalorian Fang Fighter vs. TIE Interceptor.

This box of 957 pieces, which will be available from May 1 at the public price of 99.99, is based on the series The Mandalorian, the third season of which has just ended.

Three.minifigs are provided: Din Djarin with the late Darksaber, pilot of Tie Interceptor, a Mandalorian pilot who can be considered as Ax Woes if you want and an astromech droid R2-E6.

It will be especially the occasion to obtain a very suitable Tie Interceptor.

75348 MANDALORIAN FANG FIGHTER VS TIE INTERCEPTOR ON THE LEGO SHOP >>

Today we take a quick look at the contents of the LEGO Star Wars set 40591 Death Star II, a small box of 287 pieces that will be offered on the official online store and in LEGO Stores from May 1 to 7, 2023 from 150 € of purchase in products from the LEGO Star Wars range. The inventory of the product allows, as indicated by the title of the set, to assemble a reproduction of the Death Star II about fifteen centimeters high to be displayed on the corner of a shelf.

No minifigs in this box, but we still get the pretty brick celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film Return of the Jedi. It's still taken even if this pad-printed brick is also delivered in several other sets marketed from May 1, 2023: the references  75356 Executor Super Star Destroyer, 75352 Emperor's Throne Room Diorama et 75353 Endor Speeder Chase Diorama.

For the rest, the assembly of the object will logically only take a few minutes with many identical sub-assemblies to be clipped around the central structure of the construction. LEGO promised us in the official product description the presence of a miniature replica of the throne room, it is there even if it remains very symbolic with Palpatine overlooking Darth Vader on one side and Luke Skywalker on the other. It takes a little imagination to see the characters in question in these little heaps of two pieces, but the wink is appreciable.

The Death Star II rests on a simple black base but of sufficient sobriety not to detract from the development of the construction while grayscale, the ray is embodied by a plant and a few very well chosen pieces and the greebs (details based on small parts) of surface are very convincing on the unfinished part of the ball. It was probably difficult to do better in terms of adjusting the different subsets to this scale, so we will forgive the few empty spaces here and there.

In my opinion, we get here a nice little display product that will not invade the living room or the room dedicated to LEGO activities and the presence of the anniversary brick really gives character to this micro-model. You will have to spend at least €150 on products from the LEGO Star Wars range to get this pretty box, which is always a little too big for what it contains, but we all know here that this minimum amount will be reached very quickly with prizes. relatively high audiences for some of the new releases expected to hit shelves on May 1, 2023.

I'll make the effort because this set is in my opinion a nice, neat and creative spin-off that I think is an acceptable reward. This is the product that manages this year to convince me to buy one or two sets at full price to get it, the rest will wait for more contained prices at Amazon, the doubling of VIP points offered elsewhere at LEGO not being not really likely to compete with the reduction percentages regularly practiced elsewhere.

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 5th May 2023 next at 23:59 p.m. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. 

Update : The winner was drawn and notified by email, his nickname is indicated below.

We never get tired, or so little, of discovering the new VIP rewards imagined by LEGO to extract our precious points. After the reversible bob at €19 (2850 points), here is the other essential holiday accessory for LEGO fans: the LEGO frisbee identified under the official reference 5007608 Summer Flying Disc on the official online store and valued at 19.99 €. The flying disc of summer.

With a diameter of 18cm, this durable silicone frisbee "is ideal for family fun" according to LEGO. Or with his dog in my opinion. it will cost you 2000 points or about 13 € in counter value to obtain the unique promotional code to be used during a future order. A case. The code obtained is valid for 60 days from the date of issue. Only one code for a physical promotional product usable per order. Don't push, we tell you.

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