This month, we reviewed three sets and highlighted a bunch of great articles from around the web. I also prepared a short summary of what’s happening with LEGO Masters USA. I hope you enjoy!

LEGO Masters USA is back!

I enjoy watching LEGO Masters because it is amazing to see what talented LEGO fans can build using a seemingly limitless number of LEGO bricks. While 10-12 hours to complete a model seems like a long time, I’m well aware of how time consuming it can be to design, build, and refine a LEGO model — and I don’t build massive models like they typically feature on the show!

Season 4 of LEGO Masters USA premiered on September 28th and will likely conclude in December. I was lucky enough to meet many of the contestants at BrickCon 2023, which took place only a few days after the cast of the new season was announced. It was easy to get many of the contestants to attend the event, since five of the contestants are from Washington state. Attendees of the four day AFOL convention had plenty of chances to meet them, but I also stood in line during the Public Expo to get them to autograph a LEGO Masters poster for me — like a real fan of the show!

Many of the Season 4 cast attended BrickCon 2023 in Bellevue, Washington (a Seattle suburb).

Articles about Season 4

• ‘Lego Masters: Season 4’ is stacked with Seattle-area talent
  This is a great article about the five contestants from Washington State. One of the reasons often cited for such a strong LEGO community in Seattle is the strength of the tech industry, which is explained in another recent article: Seattle tops major cities for share of workers in tech which shows that Seattle has one of the highest percentage of the population working in tech.
  —Seattle Times
• Brickmasters Amy and Jamie Share LEGO Masters Secrets, Tease Season 4’s Big Drama (and Kitten-Filled Mayhem!)
  The title pretty much says it all about this interview with Brickmasters Amy and Jamie.
  —TV Line

Jordan Perry is just one of the Season 4 contestants who hosted watch parties for the season premiere.

To celebrate the first episode, many of the LEGO Masters contestants hosted watch parties for friends and family. I had the pleasure of watching with season 4 contestant Jordan Perry at a small event space in a quiet Seattle suburb. It was a great time with old and new friends, and Jordan took a few minutes to answer some questions about what it was like to be on the show.

He answered my question about Brickmaster Amy’s outfit – confirming that it really was as bright as the new 368Vibrant YellowNeon Yellow LEGO color that made its debut last year. He also explained that each team had to navigate their creations around the edge of the lake, but this was not explained in the final cut. Lastly, he confirmed that they did select the top two teams during filming even though we only saw the winning team in the episode. I’m so glad that I got to enjoy the first episode in this unique way.

Other LEGO Masters news this month:

• The show was also renewed for a fifth season. They are already casting for the show which will be filmed in October/November 2023.
  Learn more at legomasters.tv
• We also learned that LEGO Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular will be back this year, with four teams containing one celebrity and one former LEGO Masters contestant.
  Special guests NeNe Leakes, Marshawn Lynch, Kelly Osbourne and Rob Riggle who will pair up with former contestants David Guedes (Season 3), Caleb Schilling (Season 2), Krystle Starr (Season 1), and Randall Wilson (Season 2).
• They are also casting kids ages 9 to 17 for a new “Lego Masters Junior” show. It will be filming for approximately two weeks from October 30, 2023, to November 22, 2023.
  Learn more at legomastersjr.castingcrane.com

New at Brick Architect

This month, we reviewed two sets with widespread appeal: the latest Winter Village, and a LEGO Ideas set revisiting the Vikings theme but with a modern twist. Just in time for the spooky month of October, we finished our review of the Hocus Pocus set which is based on the cult classic film of the same name. Happy Building!

• Review: #10325 Alpine Lodge (Winter Village)
  After 15 years of the LEGO Winter Village series, those sneaky elves keep finding creative new ways to celebrate. Let’s find out if the latest installment lives up to the holiday spirit!
• Review: #21343 Viking Village (LEGO Ideas)
  From persistent LEGO ideas submission to release. 21343 Viking Village has been highly anticipated, especially for fans of the 2005 Vikings line. Let’s delve into whether this set lives up to the hype and if it’s a must-have day one purchase!
• Review: #21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage (LEGO Ideas)
  “I put a spell on you! And now, you’re mine!” While packed with details from the classic film, let’s find out if this set is spellbinding enough to be yours too.

#21343 Viking Village is the best set we reviewed this month.

Exciting new sets for AFOLs

Brick Architect had the pleasure of reviewing two of the three most appealing sets to Adult fans: the Viking Village, and the Alpine Lodge (both of which are excellent). Star Wars fans will no doubt be curious about the massive new UCS Venator (which carries a similarly massive $650 price tag). I’ve also highlighted a couple smaller sets worth considering below…

• #21343 Viking Village (LEGO Ideas)
  Between the overall good looking model, tons of printed elements, nice minifigures, and incredible value — this is a winner, earning our top 5/5 star rating
  2103 pieces, 4 minifigures, ages 18+, $130, available now at LEGO.com
• #10325 Alpine Lodge
  Another great set debuting in October is the latest addition to the venerable Winter Village series. The lodge is built using some excellent building techniques, especially how the log cabin is built using SNOT techniques.
  1517 pieces, ages 18+, $100. Available now at LEGO.com
• #75367 UCS Venator-class Republic Attack Cruiser (Star Wars)
  Fans of the prequel trilogy and Clone Wars are clamouring for this giant set, while others have lamented the unnecessary use of stickers and the repetitive build process. Either way, the Venator is a formidable ship, and you are going to need a lot of space to display the brick-built version as well.
  5374 pieces, 2 minifigures, ages 18+, $650. available now at LEGO.com

Cozy up next to the fireplace with #10325 Alpine Lodge.

• #40658 Millennium Falcon Holiday Diorama (Star Wars)
  This cheeky little model looks more like a gift-with-purchase than an actual set we can just go out and buy. I’m not complaining though, and will probably ask for this playful and well-priced set under the christmas tree — it’s just too cute to miss!
  282 pieces, 3 minifigures, 1 droid, 1 porg, ages 8+, $30, available now at LEGO.com
• #43224 King Magnifico’s Castle (Wish movie)
  I can’t tell whether this set is overpriced or not. Sets aimed at younger builders sometime contain a lot of large elements to make it easier for younger builders to assemble. Either way, this small castle has some interesting parts, including the flexible transpucent plastic used for the roof.
  613 pieces, 3 minidolls, ages 7+, $100, available now at LEGO.com.
• #76232 The Hoopty (The Marvels)
  This hideously overpriced set is the only way to celebrate the November theatrical release of ‘The Marvels’.
  420 pieces, 3 minifigures (and 3 cats), ages 8+, $90, available now at LEGO.com.

Let’s pause to recognize the embarrasingly high price tag for the upcoming #76232 The Hoopty set – nearly 100$ for 420 pieces is a mind-bogglingly bad value. (Brickset also pointed this out in their review of the set.) To make matters worse, it is the only set based on the upcoming female-led superhero film: The Marvels. Some of my friends in SortLUG wasted no time in labeling this as yet another example of the “Pink Tax” — where companies charge more for comparable products designed to appeal to women and girls. This is an embarrasing move for a company that claims they want to increase the diversity of their fanbase.

To see all of the other new sets this month, visit the lego.com store. (Making a purchase using our referral link helps support this website.)

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Best articles from around the web

It is always a pleasure to highlight some of the best LEGO articles every month. I hope you enjoy this month’s best content from around the web, including the first three articles which are all about different stresses when making LEGO bricks.

• Lego ditches oil-free brick in sustainability setback
  The LEGO Group is in the middle of a decades-long quest to reduce carbon emissions. One of their biggest initiatives was an effort to replace ABS plastic material used in most rigid LEGO elements with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which can be produced using recycled plastic sources. Unfortunately, they have discovered that the recycled material is more carbon intensive to produce, and has decided to continue investing in ways to reduce impact of ABS manufacturing instead..
  —Financial Times
• Illegal SNOT: Stressful Techniques For Sideways Building
  Oscar Cederwall‘s Latest look at SNOT techniques focuses on some so-called “illegal” techniques which cause stress on the LEGO elements being used.
  —BrickNerd
• Stressful Legalities? Wedging elements between studs
  I was just showing my wife and son that you can attach tiles and plates between two studs, and the very next day I found this amazing article where Richard Jones showcases the real-word differences in stress when connecting a Plate versus a Tile in this way.
  —Jay’s Brick Blog

Richard shows how plates cause more stress when attached in this way than tiles.

• Guide to LEGO® Wild Cats
  This article by Tom K offers a complete gallery of LEGO wild cats such as Lions, Tigers, Cheetas and even Sabre-tooth Cats — all with great photos and clever use of the World Map LEGO set to show their natural habitat. There’s even a 5-minute ‘mockumentary’ at the end of the article!
  —True North Bricks
• Building Character: The Brick-Built Adventurers of Dungeons and Dragons
  Dan Ko shows us how it’s done, in this gallery of cute but tiny brick-built figures for many different D&D classes.
  —BrickNerd
• The Atom Brick Fallingwater Product Launch Event
  On October 14, you can trek to rural Pennsylvania for a meet and greet with The Atom Brick creator Adam Reed Tucker, who has designed a new brick-built model of Fallingwater, albeit using smaller bricks that are not compatible with LEGO. I do contiue to feature his work at Brick Architect because he is a talented builder who created the LEGO Architecture series before parting ways with The LEGO Group.
  —Fallingwater

Adam’s latest interpretation of Fallingwater contains 4383 pieces, but they are smaller than real LEGO bricks.

• What will LEGO’s 2024 Modular building set be?
  While there are no definitive answers in this article, Jay Ong offers lots of postulating about next year’s Modular, but the best part is how he broke down all the previous sets into categories..
  —Jay’s Brick Blog
• Celebrating the Past, Present and Future of Modulex
  By friend Karyn Murphy is a bona-fide Modulex nerd, and I mean this in the most endearing way possible. This article offers a closer look at the company that has grown apart from The LEGO Group where it started.
  —BrickNerd
• Builders’ Guide for LEGO Braille Bricks
  There were several articles this month about the recent decision to sell LEGO BRaille Bricks to the general public, but I think this overview by Braille user William was the most informative.
  —The Brick Blogger