In this period poor in rumors or confirmed information, we do with what we have ... It would seem according to various converging sources that the next UCS set (Ultimate Collector Seriess) or assimilated from the LEGO Star Wars range is the Slave I whose marketing could begin in May 2014. The people at the origin of this information which is not really one until it is officially confirmed are usually well informed.

Since the launch of the LEGO Star Wars range, the manufacturer has already awarded us many versions of this ship piloted by Boba Fett in Episode V then by Jango Fett in Episode II: 4 in the format System with sets 7144 (2000), 7153 (2002), 6209 (2006) and 8097 (2010) and this ship also appears in a set Mini (4487 - 2003) a polybag (6964 - 2004), a Brickmaster set (20019 - 2011) and even in one of the Collector's cans sold during Celebration VI in 2012.

A UCS from Slave I? Why not after all. This set will reward the most patient who still wanted to believe in it, and will have the merit of being unique in this format. It's always better than any reissue ...

If you were planning to buy on eBay ou bricklink the polybag 30116 Robin and Redbird Cycle, wait two more weeks: Its price should logically drop a little following the event organized by Toys R Us in the USA on October 19: This polybag, so far untraceable since distributed only in Canada, will be offered to the TRU customer for any purchase of at least $ 20 from the LEGO Super Heroes Batman range.

For information, the Robin minifig delivered in this bag is identical to that of the sets 6857 The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape et 6860 The Batcave. The bag features a Robin with a red belt buckle, but this is a mistake, so the one provided is not exclusive.

The event will also allow you to build on site and take away a Joker Mini Mech Bot for free. Here it is not the pieces that will interest collectors, but the LEGO instruction sheet that will be given to customers as was the case for the JEK-14 mini Stealth Starfighter last May.

Many of you have already supported the project LEGORAMART initiated by Muttpop on ulule.com and I encourage anyone who has not yet made up their mind to do so quickly at this address, the financing of the project to be completed before the deadline of October 17, 2013.

This beautiful 144-page book, delivered for 40 € with a collector's box and a giant cover poster, brings together a selection of the most beautiful creations of seven LEGO artists (Cole Blaq, Jason Freeny, Nathan Sawaya, Mike Stimpson, Kristina Alexanderson , Dean West and Angus McLane) interviewed by Laurent Bramardi, founder of the publishing house dedicated to photography: Work is Progress.

But if the artists mentioned above are known to many of you, Laurent Bramardi is not a character who gravitates in "our universe": Work is Progress publishes books of photographs and documents combining politics, reportage, and artistic approach.

To offer us some ideas on his character, he kindly agreed to lend himself to the exercise of the interview, in the same format as those you will be able to discover in the book.

I therefore propose below a brief meeting in seven questions / answers with one of the men at the origin of LEGORAMART :

Your first LEGO memory?

Laurent Bramardi: I didn't play too much with LEGO when I was a kid, but I remember an '80s commercial for a LEGO space station. I found it on YoutTube, it has aged rather badly: in fact, CGIs are not bad, after all.

The toy of your childhood?

LB: Star Wars figures. I spent hours imagining that the shrubs in the garden were giant trees, I would have liked to get lost in them.

Damien Hirst (British contemporary artist editor's note) or Georges Lucas?

LB: Georges Lucas until I was 18, after Hirst was not yet known but I would have chosen him without too much hesitation. In any case they are real businessmen, each in their category, and this is not necessarily the kind of dreamer that I like the most today.

The photo you will never forget?

LB: A photo of Antoine d'Agata, a very dark view of a rough sea, in Japan I believe - one of his images that escapes his usual themes, at first at least. The grain is very marked, clouds of carbonaceous, dense points, which transform the landscape into an almost abstract view. We recognize the waves, the foam, the wind, the leaden sky, but all this tells about something else, an atmosphere. It's an image that comes to mind very often.

Your movie and bedside book?

LB: It's a really difficult question, there are so many things… A film by Malick or the Quay Brothers, if you really had to choose, something quite contemplative anyway. There are few other mediums to stretch time as well as cinema. For the books I will take two, La Nausée by Sartre and Tristes Tropiques by Levi-Strauss. They are old comrades who have followed me for a long time and whom I always reread: they tell me as much about their respective subjects as about the evolution of my way of seeing things ...

The thing you wouldn't dare say with a LEGO?

LB: That the class struggle is over.

Is there a LEGO art?

LB: We will see in a few years whether it is chosen, in any case there is indeed in my opinion a new form of dissemination of creation, which will perhaps be the new vector of art to come. In fact, I don't know if we can speak of "art", try to define it, other than in the past, if we can think of it other than as an established fact.

Maxi Toys makes the powder speak first by releasing (already) its end-of-year 2013 catalog.

On the program, -20% (discount made during checkout) on a selection of sets from the LEGO Star Wars range until October 13 and -15% on the entire store (except game consoles) on the 28, 29 and October 30, 2013.

I have compiled the LEGO pages of the catalog for you in pdf format, it will save you from downloading the 150 MB of the complete catalog. You can download these pages by clicking on the image above.

If you don't have a Maxi Toys store near you, you can order online here, there are still some interestingly priced references in stock (Many are already sold out ...).

(Thank you to everyone who alerted me by email)

Few months ago, I was talking to you on this blog of an incredible diorama of the Battle of Helm's Deep (or Helm's Deep).

A true artistic and (inevitably) financial performance, this crazy diorama has traveled according to conventions and has undergone some changes over time.

Richard aka GOEL KIM, sent me an email to let me know that her baby was "finally" finished: The fortress was dressed in rock and the number of minifigs in situation increased from 1700 to 2000.

What to say ? that I really admire the work done, that the reconstitution of the scene is epic, that the level of detail is exceptional for a diorama of this scope and that the modularity of the whole, intended to facilitate transport and assembly / disassembly is unparalleled ingenuity.

I stop the superlatives there, and I invite you to go and view the latest photos in Richard's MOCpages space.