With the new year nearly upon us, let’s look back on the most interesting LEGO news this month…

This month at Brick Architect:

• Review: #21323 Grand Piano – Absolutely stunning; nearly perfect.
• Review: #10278 Police Station – Great LEGO set, questionable timing.
• Review: #6374 Holiday Home (1983) – A trip down memory lane…

Looking forward to #80107 Spring Lantern Festival

The Lunar New Year sets are entering their third year, and this year’s #80107 Spring Lantern Festival is the most striking addition to the series yet. It should be no surprise that it’s great—it was designed by the talented Justin Ramsden!

#80107 Spring Lantern Festival

If you read anything about the new set, start with this Brickset interview, Justin offers a ton of insights into the making of this new set. For even more on the new set, watch the short designer video.)

…we are trying to design something so extra special, authentic and iconic that … appeals to a new and growing fan-base of future LEGO builders.

Early reviews

• New Elementary does what they do best—a detailed breakdown of the new and interesting parts in the set.
• Brickset describes the set as extravagant, and highlights the great value of this set. (1793 pieces for $110.)
• Rambling Brick Offers step-by-step images of the build process.
• Brothers Brick gave a very positive review and included lots of photos

You can buy from LEGO.com Asia on Jan 1, rest of world on Jan 10.

LEGO Podcasts

I’ve loved podcasts for a long time because they allow you to listen to well produced audio stories on your own schedule. I wanted to share a link to two (relatively) new LEGO Podcasts, as well as a few other long-time LEGO-adjacent favorites.

LEGO Bits N’ Bricks Podcast

The first podcast worth mentioning is Bits n’ Bricks, a podcast commisioned by The LEGO Group to celebrate the 25th anniversary of LEGO videogames. You can listen at LEGO.com or your favorite podcast app.

The second podcast that I wanted to highlight is For the Love of Brick, a fortnightly podcast (every two weeks) featuring a thoughtful interview with influential members of the LEGO Fan Community. Host Greg McDonald strikes a good balance of a friendly, casual tone and professional audio editing and mixing.

Other great podcasts:

• 99% Invisible explores the world of design and architecture with stunning audio storytelling. There’s a ton of variety, but every episode is excellent.
• In 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy host Tim Harford shares short stories about some large (and small) innovations that made our modern world possible.
• Malcom Gladwell’s excellent Revisionist History podcast revisits the past to see if we missed the point. (It breaks my normal rule of preferring tightly scripted storytelling, but gets away with it because he is a great storyteller.)
• Hidden Brain tells deeply human stories to teach us recent insights from the world of Psychology and Behavioral Economics.

Other Links worth sharing…

• More than just a preview of the new #10280 Flower Bouquet set, LEGO Set Designer Anderson Grubb offers insights into what it takes to be a LEGO Designer in this Designer Video.
• LEGO Set Designer Chris McVeigh shares insights into the design of the new #10278 Police Station in this enjoyable Designer Video.
  Don’t miss our recent review of #10278 Police Station.
• In this eye-opening article, the Women’s Brick Initiative highlights the biggest gains and missed opportunities for greater inclusivity by The LEGO Group in 2020.
  I learned that this year’s sets include a wheelchair-accessible amusement park ride, and a minfigure with hearing aids.
• BenBuildsLEGO shared his favorite parts for building microscale creations in this short article at Brickset.
  Only problem, I wish that all of these versatile parts were available in every color!
• The LEGO Ideas Grand Piano got an upgrade this month (via updates to the LEGO Powered UP app). This adds new features, 10 additional songs that it can play for you, and 4 more songs that you can play.
  Don’t miss our brand new review of #21323 Grand Piano.