Welcome back to the Hidden Side! For our second review of the current wave of sets, we are looking at the largest of the five, 70437 Hidden Side: Mystery Castle! This set contains 1035 pieces and retails for US $99.99 | CAN $139.99 | UK £89.99. It is available now in Europe, and will be released later this summer in the US and Canada, likely on Aug. 1. The box and contents The box features the Hidden Side “half and half” style artwork that seems to have confused a lot of LEGO fans. As I mentioned in my review of J.B.’s Submarine, LEGO seems to have listened to the fan feedback and made the box art a bit more understandable. An illustration of the full set is visible and we can see one of our main character, Parker, viewing the castle through her ghost-viewing phone. It contains seven numbered bags, one...

Due to the tragic murders of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and far too many other African-Americans, racial injustices that Black people experience every day have come to the forefront of white consciousness once again. We’ve been examining how this very real-world issue affects the hobby we participate in, not just for a moment in time but on an ongoing basis. Earlier this week, we sat down with Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, whose LEGO work we’ve featured several times, including his stunning Flower Girl sculpture and wonderful Beasts from Bricks book. Our conversation with Ekow covered his experience growing up playing with LEGO, interactions with the LEGO hobbyist community, the Afrocentric and Afrofuturist themes of his artwork, and how LEGO communities such as The Brothers Brick can operate more inclusively. We ask you to watch the full video before reacting with comments. While the reaction from some quarters...

“Welcome to Jurassic Park”. I’ve loved Jurassic Park since devouring Michael Crichton’s original novel in 8 hours of straight reading, months before the movie adaptation had even been announced. Then there were the years of waiting, wondering if Spielberg could possibly deliver on Crichton’s vision, before we finally experienced the jaw-dropping impact of seeing “real” dinosaurs on the big screen. In a world where CGI effects are the norm, cinema audiences have become rather blasé about regularly seeing the impossible made real — back in 1993, this was something special. The effect this movie had on me was considerable, and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of recreating elements of the film in bricks. I figured I’d never be able to build a LEGO version of the whole park to the scale I wanted if I used minifigures, so instead I decided to give it a go in microscale… I was keen...

Don’t ask how I know this but when dealing with a gelada it is best to not make eye contact, don’t bare your teeth and for the love of God, don’t ever look at his butt. Nevermind the series of unfortunate events that may or may not have occurred to make me privy to this information, just heed my warning and don’t ask questions. With that said, I’d like you to take an indirect glance at this awesome LEGO gelada built by Andrew Steele. With some clever parts usage, this model possesses the correct stance and facial gestures of a real gelada about to attack. (Not that I would know.) This build is so clever you may want to smile, but I would advise against it. In fact, you ought to just move on and check out the other toothy beasts Andrew has built. Safer still, you might like to peruse...

I don’t know what I find more surprising about this space station by builder CheesyStudios, the vibrant color pallet or the fact that it was built, photographed and edited in under 24 hours, impressive. Original linkOriginal author: Tommy