Since last year Lego started the Collectable Minifigures series. Each 3 months they bring out 16 unique minifigures in small bags for about 2 EURO each. It’s a fun but expensive hobby since you don’t know what you bought until the bag is open. Clever Lego collectors quickly figured out way the cheat. Each series, there have been 5 so far, contains a mix of city, historic and fantasy themed minifigs. For example in Series 1 there was an Indian and a forest man but also a nurse and a cheerleader in the historic and city themes. In later series figures obviously inspired by existing characters in Film/TV or other entertainment started appear. A female lifeguard looks a bit like CJ aka Pamela Anderson from Baywatch. A green witch resembles Elphaba from the Wicked musical. In the third series an Elf who could come strait from Lord of the Rings and the latest series a Britsh detective who could be the minifigu-red version of Sherlock Holmes reaches stores. At the moment its not 100% sure, the Lego company has a strict policy against leaked images specially on popular themes, but series 6 could contain a genie with magic lamp.

I collected a large part of the first and second series but stopped when it got to expansive for my taste, my collection sits behind glass with my PVC Aladdin figure collection.. Second hand Lego sites like Bricklink people list some of these figures at 5 times the price of a single bag.

Lego fan Matt Armstrong posted photo’s of the 7 Disney Princess in brick. The six classic girls plus pocahontas. Also check his Lego Magic Lamp build in yellow, red, blue and green transparent pieces.

Check out this excellent Lego MOC of Aladdin and Jasmine riding the magic carpet through the streets of Agrabah while being spied bij the evil wizard Jafar.

Yeah, finally something to write about. You can’t believe how hard it is to find something worth writing about these days. Let’s take a look at Adult Lego Fan c.q. AFOL tin7_creations. He updated his custom made Aladdin minfigs from 4 years ago. So I could be that I wrote about these back in 2006.

Now that Lego released a Prince of Persiatheme a whole buckets of new elements became available to make Persian/Ancient Arabian like themes in Lego. I’m taking animals like camels and ostriches, more ancient weapons like swords and daggers and elements to make buildings like cloths for market stalls or golden round roofs for towers.

It so happens that I have enough shelf space to make a street and I always wanted to recreate Agrabah in Lego so I’m planning out a small street for 3 or 4 buildings, a tower and market stalls like they appeared in the movie. I took some screenshots from the One Jump Ahead sequence and came across some hilarious cartoony moments of the palace guards chasing Aladdin and Abu around town. Moments in the movie that are easily missed watching the film on normal play. Note: images are in HD quality 1920 X 1080 pixels

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Over at Eurobricks, a Lego forum I’ll lurke. Member The Penguin made Lego minifig versions of Aladdin and Jafar. The figs are custom made. Some people make their own Lego pieces by clay or other methots in this case Aladdin’s hair, fez and sword are homemade. The Jafar minifig has cape, shoulderpads and snakestaff specially made. Their faces and printing on torso and legs are selfmade decals. So the only Lego Company parts are Aladdin’s legs, torso and head and Jafar’s legs, which is a slope normally used in roofs, torso and head.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Originally uploaded by Sir Nadroj

SirNadroj made this little Lego square from Istanbul. A square that could very well be in Agrabah. He used pieces from an old Adventure Indiana Jones like theme The Lego Company ran from ’98 to ’00.

Ok so not exactly Aladdin but this MOC is too beautiful and genius not to mention here. Besides I’ve a weak spot for Beauty and the Beast anyway. Look at the builder’s Brickshelf account for more pictures there’s even a movie showing that Belle and Beast dance on the music when turning a handle around.

Disney announced an agreement with Lego to release sets based on the Pixar films Toy Story, Cars and Prince of Persia. With the re-release of both TS films and Toy Story 3 in 2010 I’m sure those sets will be a hit. Four years ago Woody and Buzz where custom made by a LEGO builder so I am curious to see how the official cowboy and space ranger will compare to the fan made.
Cars, of course, has been popular with boys ever since it came out 2 Pixar’s films back so that’ll be a seller.

Being a avid Lego system builder myself I was excited to learn Disney and Lego teamed up again, years ago Lego made a FABULAND inspired theme of Mickey and co. Sadly the days Disney promoted their classics seems long gone, Pixar is the magic word these days, that’s why I’m not expecting to ever see sets inspired by Aladdin or any of the other classics. Though those Prince of Persia sets may produce useful parts I can use to build something Aladdin-ish myself.

A few summers back I tried to retell the movie in Lego but never could figure out how to make a Genie minifig. I’ve got pictures in my mocpages.com account. It was fun to do but I prefer building houses/shops/castles of the Lego Castle line.

Did a think a few months ago the closest thing to Agabah’s Palace was a MOC build for a feature film yesterday Lego confirmed that their designers recreated the Taj Mahal as a Lego sculpture. With 6000 pieces it’s the largest Lego set ever exceeding sculptures like the Eiffel tower and Statue of Liberty with 2500 pieces. The price tag is expected to be between the 200 and 300 US dollars. The set can be ordered online through Lego’s web shop and is will likely not be for sale at regular stores.

As you might know the final design of Sultan’s palace is inspired by the majestic building the will measure over 20” wide and 16” tall. Until this set I haven’t found these sculptures worth my money, if I had 300 bucks to spend on Lego it would be spend on Castle sets and minifigs because that’s where my heart lies. But with 6000 pieces and the close connection to Aladdin I am considering buying one to remodel to look like Sultan’s palace someday.

Now if I only had the space to build and display…..

Lego vignette displaying Aladdin and the magic lamp That genie looks creepy with his body made of Ice Cream Scoops.