I did find time at the end of the month to catch up on the LEGO news that I missed… you will find links to my favorite articles below. I hope you enjoy this unusually short update — and please come back soon for a ton of great content that we’re excited to share in early November!

Coming Soon-ish?

I also wanted to highlight a few sets that were announced this month but are not being released right away; many are not coming out until next year! This is a bit unusual — The LEGO Group rarely annouces sets well in advance of their release. This is due to the very real concern that unscrupulous 3rd party companies will release copycat products before the official product is released.

Five LEGO Sets based on the Animal Crossing game will be released in March 2024.

This is most evident in the announcement of five sets based on the popular Animal Crossing game by Nintendo. In the Extra Pieces Podcast, Richard Jones (Rambling Brick) described the cute new minifigure heads as reminiscent of Fabuland and I have to agree with him – they are very cute! The sets won’t be released until March 1, 2024.

#10327 Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter comes out in February 2024.

Another distant release that was announced this month is #10327 Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter, which will be release February 1, 2024 for $164.99. The early announcement is a bit of a surprise here as well, but the release date makes sense since the second installment of the movie is coming out in March.

#21344 The Orient Express is coming soon…

We also got a preview of a gorgeous looking train that is coming soon thanks to the LEGO Ideas program. #21344 The Orient Express looks great thanks to a nice dark blue color, that it is scaled to go on standard tracks, and has space for minifigures inside. This does look like it could be a fitting replacement for the long-retired Emerald Night after all.. We unfortunately don’t know when it will be available.

Now that it has been annouced, I am excited to share that my review of the latest installment of the LEGO Modular Building series is coming soon. #10326 Natural History Museum is quite different that in recent years, with a wider 48-stud base and just one building occupying the entire space.

#10326 Natural History Museum is the largest Modular building yet!

It’s the highest part count we have ever seen in the Modular Building series, with 48 more pieces than #10255 Assembly Square — the only other set that is 48-studs wide. Matching the price of Assembly Square, you can pre-order #10326 Natural History Museum for $299.99 now, or wait to pick it up when it is released on December 1.

Smooth pots and spiky cacti in #10329 Tiny Plants.

Rounding out the recent annoucements is a small but cute offering that’s also coming out in December — 10329 Tiny Plants. The early reviews highlight the amazing building techniques to create a selection of tiny pots, although the plants are well designed too. 758 pieces for $50 is a good value, and you can also pre-order it now.

Exciting new sets for AFOLs

November is shaping up to be a very quiet month for new LEGO sets, with just one retail set and one gift-with-purchase (GWP) aimed at the 18+ crowd. Thankfully, I’ve already highlighted some December release for us to look forward to!

• #71426 Piranha Plant (Super Mario)
  This iconic agricultural villain offers a very different building experience for fans of the Super Mario franchise. It’s not a great value, but may appeal to some readers.
  540 pieces, ages 18+, $60, available November 6 at LEGO.com
• #40595 Tribute to Galileo Galilei
  Re-create this small diorama featuring the famous astronomer, although folks have already pointed out that the minifigure is lackluster. (It feels comparable to a similar set based on Gustauve Eiffel that I also didn’t love.)
  307 pieces, ages 18+, $25 value, available November 1-16 with a $130 or greater purchase at LEGO.com

To see other recent releases, visit the lego.com store. (Making a purchase using our referral link helps support this website.)

Best articles from around the web

Thankfully, the LEGO community continues to provide great content every month. Here’s some of the best content you might have missed…

• LEGO Shows Kuwait 2023: The Grand Middle Eastern Fan Event
  This officially-sanctioned LEGO event looks like a mashup of shows and activities borrowed from LEGOLAND, some larger LEGO sculptures from LEGO HQ, plus space for AFOL community to shoiw off what they are building. While it is clearly geared for kids, this article and photos by Aiden Rexroad suggest that this was a really fun event.
  —BrickNerd
• Are More Republic Gunships Coming? | LEGO Star Wars Designer Panel (1:08:27)
  Solid Brix Studios shared this lengthy interview with the LEGO Star Wars team touches on a lot of the challenges in building sets based on established IP, and in building very large, structurally sound sets.
  —Solid Brix Studios
• LEGO changes its employee minifigure business card policy
  I only own a couple of these rare “employee” business cards, but it sounds like they just got even rarer. Going forward, only members of the family owning the company and the Executive Leadership Team will have minifigure business cards.
  —Jay’s Brick Blog

I’m honored to include retired LEGO Employee Tormod Askildsen in my small collection of employee ‘business card’ minifigs.

• Sorting Series: A New Way To Sort Your Brick
  Geneva continues to explore LEGO Sorting in this article. I find it interesting to see how their sorting approach continues to evolve closer to the categories which I use for the LEGO Brick Labels collection. I also sort some parts by color (or rather by part and color), and others remain sorted just by part.
  —BrickNerd
• LEGO in College: Avoiding the Dark Ages
  Caleb Huet explores the practical issues in building LEGO during college, most notably the tiny dorm rooms. I also think it is important to remember that College is only a couple years — LEGO will be there for you after you graduate… hopefully into a larger apartment and a decent salary!
  —BrickNerd
• LEGO Mickey Mouse retrospective and LEGO House prototype display
  Jay Ong shared this amazing collection of images highlighting early Disney minifigures, and the mould design process for current wave of Disney CMF’s. We rarely get this kind of behind-the-scenes look at how parts are designed.
  —Jay’s Brick Blog

This article shows rare behind-the-scenes photos of the design process for new LEGO elements. (Photo: Jay’s Brick Blog)

• Elements exclusive to LEGO® Pick-a-Brick in October 2023
  Tobymac highlights new elements every month, but this month he noticed minifig heads in a dozen colors that have never appeared in actual LEGO sets. This seems like an intentional offering to folks trying to build monofigs without having to remove printing from printed parts. I see this as an acknowledgement of the needs of the fan community, which is a good thing…
  —New Elementary
• Go Figure! Exploring LEGO Figure Building
  I was just discussing the quirkiness of the LEGO Miniland figures while visiting LEGOLAND, and here comes a short article by Michael J about building your own minilanders.
  —BrickNerd
• Modulex Library
  Modulex is the often-forgotten younger sibling of LEGO Bricks. They are smaller in size and eschewed the quirky 5:6 ratio for cubic proportions. Initially imagined for architects and designers, the product and company that it spawned has created a wide range of products over the years, many which you can find in this extensive Modulex Library.
  —RyanHowerter.net

Brick Architect in the News

• The Story of SortLUG: Friends Don’t Let Friends Sort Alone
  It is no secret that I frequently participate in SortLUG, a weekly Zoom call where LEGO fans from around the world chat about LEGO while (ostensibly) sorting our growing LEGO collections. As quoted in the article, I often use conversations on SortLUG to discuss topics which eventually become articles here at Brick Architect.
  —BrickNerd