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Flying Dutchman Achieves 10,000 Supporters on LEGO Ideas

January 2, 2015 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

The Flying Dutchman becomes the latest project to achieve 10,000 supporters on LEGO Ideas. The project by Sebeus narrowly sneaks into the Third 2014 Review Stage with the deadline only three days away.

The Flying Dutchman is based on Davy Jones’ famous cursed ship which was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Some details inside the ship include the Captain’s quarters with an organ.

The project is part of the last two that have reached the Review Stage which have been holdovers from LEGO CUUSOO. It now joins the Avengers Helicarrier, the Labyrinth Marble Maze, the F7A, The Goonies 30th Anniversary Inferno, The Natural History Museum, Lord of the Rings Set: Minas Tirith, Jurassic Park, and Piano as part of the lineup that is qualified for the Third 2014 Review Stage.

LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide Contest Winner Announced

January 2, 2015 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 1 Comment

Back in December, we did a review of the LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide by DK and we also did a giveaway for a copy of the book. The contest is over and the winner chosen by the RaffleCopter app is:

Chris B.

I’ve already emailed Chris to notify him that was the winner and he has a few days to reply. If I don’t hear anything, I’ll choose another winner.

Thank you everyone who entered and stay tuned throughout the year as we’ll have more random contests.

The Brick Fan 2014 Recap

January 1, 2015 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 12 Comments

2014 flew by just like that and it’s our tradition to take a look at last year’s statistics as well as a recap of everything that’s happened on The Brick Fan. As you can see from the graph below, the site had a significant increase in traffic of an approximately 253% compared to last year where we had over 185%. As we continue to grow, we also had a very large number of first-time visitors with an 248% increase from 2013. What I’m more impressed with is the number of people who returned to the site which had an 318% increase.

We’ve also hit some traffic milestones last year. We passed the 5 million page view mark in the middle of July and had also 6 million total page views alone in 2014 which is mind-boggling to me. Barring any major disasters, I expect we’ll pass 10 million page views in the middle of March/April.

Over to our social media sites, our Facebook Page “Likes” went from 1,582 to 4,137. I remembered last year that I was looking for a gradual increase but it was actually a very sharp increase.

On Twitter, we gained over 1,000 followers throughout 2014 and it was a great way to interact with some of the readers almost in real-time.

Finally on our Google+ Page we’re over 500 people who added us in their circles. I didn’t have much expectations on G+ since it’s not as well adopted as Facebook or Twitter but I do appreciate the people who added … Continue

LEGO Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar (75056) Round Up

December 31, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

The LEGO Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar (75056) is been completed but not without its faults. Here’s a recap on what was good about the Advent Calendar as well as the bad.

Good

There are many miniature models as well as minifigures that were a pleasant surprise for this year. Luke’s Landspeeder on Day 12 is probably my favorite model for 2014. The design of it was spot on and it was very hard to top. The speeder on Day 19 was another build that I liked. Making it into a sleigh-type vehicle and incorporating Santa’s satchel was an interesting move on LEGO’s part.

Some of the minifigures that I liked were the Festive Astromech Droid on Day 22, the Rebel Pilot from Day 16, and General Rieekan on Day 18. Of couse we have Santa Darth Vader on the last day of the Advent Calendar.

Bad

Unfortunately, there are also bad things that went along with the LEGO Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar. One of these miscues was the reuse of the Y-Wing from Day 21. There are numerous vehicles in the Star Wars Universe but LEGO decides to reuse the same model from three years ago. Another thing that I wasn’t into was the Super Battle Droid from Day 2. Every year either they or the regular Battle Droids seem to make their way into the calendars. Some people may like them, but I’m not.

Results

Overall, the LEGO Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar (75056) was an above average … Continue

LEGO January 2015 Promotional Polybags Now Available on Shop@Home

December 31, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 2 Comments

If you still have some older sets to purchase from LEGO Shop@Home, you may want to know that the new 2015 promotional polybags are now available as of yesterday and they do stack.

You can get a FREE LEGO Star Wars At-DP (30274) with any LEGO Star Wars purchase during the month of January. For the FREE LEGO Creator Flower Cart (40140), you need a purchase of $75 or more in your shopping cart. Finally, for the LEGO Friends Mini Golf (30203) polybag, you just need to get any LEGO Friends item.

I tested it with a larger set that I know will cover the criteria to get both the AT-DP and Flower Cart polybags and threw in a random Friends set and sure enough, they all show up in the shopping cart.

If you don’t have anything left to purchase this year, I would hold off one more day when all the new 2015 sets will be available tomorrow. Thanks to Chris for the heads up yesterday.

LEGO Jurassic World Official Set Names Revealed

December 30, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 0 Comments

JurassicWorld.org has revealed the official set names list of the upcoming LEGO Jurassic World sets. The image above comes from a Toys R Us UK inventory system. I’ve worked with the TRU inventory system and can confirm that the image is legit as well. Before we get to the list, be warned of potential SPOILERS that might come out of the set list.

Pteranodon Capture (75915)
Dilophosaurus Ambush (75916)
Raptor Rampage (75917)
T-Rex Tracker (75918)
Ultra Dino (75919)
Raptor Escape (75920)

From what we can see from the list, we get a wide variety of dinosaurs that will be included in the LEGO Jurassic World sets including Pteranodon, Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, and T-Rex. The Ultra Dino set might include the Diabolus Rex (D-Rex) figure that we’ve seen leaked a few months ago. Now that you’ve seen the list, what do you think of the sets so far?

LEGO February 2015 Store Calendar Promos & Events

December 30, 2014 / Allen "Tormentalous" Tran / 3 Comments

January isn’t even here yet but the February 2015 LEGO Store Calendar is now available for viewing. We already reported on some of the promos and releases that LEGO will be having a few days ago but we’ll touch on them again for those who didn’t get a chance to read it. The list pretty much confirms what February 2015 has in store.

From February 1-20, you can get a FREE LEGO City Demolition Driller (30312) with purchases of $35 or more, while supplis last.

From February 1-28, you can get 25% off the LEGO Friends First Aid Jungle Bike with any $40 purchase. Offer is only valid on set 41032.

On February 3rd, the Monthly Mini Model Build will be a very cool Space Shuttle. It’ll go great with the Alien and Space Dog from January’s build.

Continuing from January until February 15, there is a LEGO Friends Racing Play event at the store.

From February 17-28, LEGO VIP members can get early access to the new LEGO Marvel Super Heroes UCS Avengers Helicarrier (76042) as confirmed by our list.

From February 16-22, there is a LEGO City Demolition Search and Find at the LEGO Store. Find hidden sets around the store and get a LEGO City Activity Book, while supplies last.

From February 16-March 15, there are a LEGO DUPLO Building Events to participate in.

On February 21 and 28, the LEGO Club Meeting will teach kids how to build the Space Shuttle Monthly Mini Model. This is another chance to get the set … Continue