The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Hola mis amigos!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day weekend. If you’re a fan of gigantic toy trade shows then you probably had a pretty good one.

This past weekend was the New York Toy Fair, an annual toy industry trade show. Although it is not open to the public (because it is for toy makers and toy sellers only), the rest of us get to enjoy the pictures, videos, and announcements of new products that are shared by those lucky enough to attend.

Technically BrickWarriors does have the ability to attend Toy Fair since we are a toy maker and in fact, we have attended in the past. While most of what you hear about toy fairs has to do with big companies like LEGO revealing their new products, it’s really a bigger deal for up and coming toy makers, like BrickWarriors was and still kind of is.

Toy Fair is where you try to impress big companies like Toys "R" Us so they will sell your product in their stores. In fact we connected with Toys "R" Us buyers a couple times at Toy Fair and after giving us the run around for over a year, they finally decided to place an order last summer.

We decided not to attend Toy Fair this year because it wasn’t worth all the time, money, and effort considering what we’ve already accomplished in that arena. Mostly the money thing though. You have to pay to have a booth and at said booth you are looking to attract toy sellers who are walking around the place looking for new products to sell.

I've never had to attend Toy Fair on behalf of BrickWarriors, thank goodness! I am not a salesperson. I can’t schmooze to save my life. If you’re looking for extremely awkward conversation though, I’m your girl!

Fortunately, even though most people can't go, there were LEGO fans that did attend Toy Fair and they had lots to share:

First up, from The Brick Show, here is a playlist of videos they took of all the new LEGO sets on display. There are 46 sets featured in this playlist. There's no commentary, just video. Not all the minifigures for the sets were ready for display, but you can see which figures will be featured from looking at the box. 

If you’re looking for video with commentary, Family Gamer TV has some, including this video of the new LEGO City sets:

The Brick Fest Live Facebook page also has some video from Toy Fair that you should check out.

If you’re looking for more detailed thoughts on the new sets, The Brothers Brick has a ton of great coverage, including their post on the new Star Wars sets here.

They even provide us with all the set numbers, prices, and release months:

March
75125 Resistance X-wing Fighter (87 pcs, $9.99)
75127 The Ghost (104 pcs, $9.99)
75128 TIE Advanced Prototype (93 pcs, $9.99)
75129 Wookiee Gunship (84 pcs, $9.99)
75130 AT-DP (76 pcs, $9.99)
75134 Galactic Empire Battle Pack (109 pcs, $12.99)
75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack (101 pcs, $12.99)
75135 Obi-Wan’s Jedi Interceptor (215 pcs, $24.99)
75136 Droid Escape Pod (197 pcs, $24.99)
75137 Carbon-Freezing Chamber (231 pcs, $24.99)
75138 Hoth Attack (233 pcs, $24.99)

June
75145 Eclipse Fighter (363 pcs, $29.99)
75147 Star Scavenger (558 pcs, $49.99)
75148 Encounter on Jakku (530 pcs, $59.99)
75149 Resistance X-wing Fighter (740 pcs, $79.99)
75150 Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced and A-wing Fighter (702 pcs, $89.99)
75151 Clone Turbo Tank (903 pcs, $109.99)
75157 Captain Rex’s AT-TE Walker (972 pcs, $119.99)

September
75146 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2016 (282 pcs, $39.99)

Finally, for even more thoughts on all the new sets and tons of pictures, check out From Bricks to Bothans. All their Toy Fair posts can be found here. It’s really excellent coverage.

Now, if you’ve been reading this blog the last couple months, you can probably figure out that I am most excited about the new Star Wars sets. From what I can tell, the only two new ones that are based on The Force Awakens are the Resistance X-wing Fighter and Encounter on Jakku. Both come with a BB-8 minifigure, which is awesome!

The rest of the Star Wars sets are based on the original trilogy or the Star Wars Rebels series. I have never seen Rebels, but I’ve heard great things and will hopefully make the time to watch it someday.

Non-Star Wars sets I’m curious about are Ghostbusters and DC Universe Super Heroes. The Ghostbusters sets are for the new film featuring an all-female Ghostbusting team. Girl power!

And the DC Universe theme has a set with a sweet Batman motorcycle. I would LOVE to play with this set!

So what are you getting excited for this year when it comes to LEGO?

Also, how do all these LEGO bloggers get into Toy Fair...and can I go too???

Okay, you probably can’t answer that, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

No unnecessarily long blog post from me today. Definitely take the time to check out all the Toy Fair coverage though.

Until next time…vroooom vroooom!! (That's me pretending to play with batman's motorcycle)

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*