LEGO 71006 The Simpsons House Officially Announced

Okay, so I’m a little late on this one but here goes. LEGO and 20th Century Fox have officially announced a partnership to produce LEGO The Simpsons sets and minifigures. In addition, Fox will air a special LEGO episode of The Simpsons in May 2014 that will feature the cast of characters from the iconic TV series in LEGO form. A separate line of 16 Simpsons-themed minifigures will also be released in all major toy stores in May 2014.

At the same time as announcing the deal to produce LEGO Simpsons products, LEGO also announced the first set of the theme (71006 The Simpsons House), which will be released on 1 February 2014 in LEGO Brand Stores and at the LEGO.com Shop. The set contains a whopping 2523 pieces, 6 minifigures (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and neighbour Ned Flanders) and will retail for US$199.

The house model itself is hinged on one side so that you can open it up and recreate scenes from the long-running Simpsons TV show. It contains eight rooms (living room, kitchen, den, Homer and Marge’s room, Bart’s room, Lisa’s room, Maggie’s room and a hallway).

Read the official press release and watch the designer video from LEGO about 71006 The Simpsons House below:

LEGO The Simpsons 71006 The Simpsons™ House

Ages 12+ 2,523 pieces

US $199.99 – CA $229.99 – DE 199.99€ – UK £179.99 – DK 1,699.00 DKK

*Euro pricing varies by country. Please visit shop.LEGO.com for regional pricing.

D’oh! The Simpsons™ House has been turned into LEGO® bricks!

Build The Simpsons™ House with detachable roof, modular design, car with dent, the famous family couch, 6 minifigures and so much more.

Recreate hilarious scenes from the classic animated TV series with The Simpsons™ House. Taken right out of Springfield, this amazing model is crammed with tons of LEGO® brick detail. Lift off the roof and open up the house to discover Homer and Marge’s big family bedroom including bed and Maggie’s crib, Bart’s room with his skateboard and Krusty the Clown poster, Lisa’s room with her favorite books, jazz poster and more, and bathroom with shower, toilet, sink and mirror.

Lift off the top floor to reveal the fully-fitted kitchen with dining table, chairs, yellow and light-blue tiled floor and lots of pots, pans and other accessories. Then it’s into the living room with couch and TV playing Itchy and Scratchy, purple piano and more. Next to the house is the detachable garage, complete with workbench, tool rack, vacuum cleaner, broom, toolbox, tools and the family car, complete with dent (because only in a LEGO world are dents a plus!), opening trunk and ‘radioactive’ bar from the nuclear power plant.

Step outside onto the terrace and you’ll find loads of cool items, including a grill, wheelbarrow and air conditioning unit with ‘Property of Ned Flanders’ decoration, sausages, 2 garden loungers, flowerpots, a shovel, 2 fruit cocktail glasses, Lisa’s camera, Bart’s skateboard ramp with ‘El Barto’ graffiti and an antenna on the roof. The Simpsons™ House is the perfect collector’s item for fans of all ages. Includes 6 minifigures: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Ned Flanders.

• Includes 6 minifigures: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and Ned Flanders
• First floor includes yellow and light-blue tiled floor, sink, oven and stove, drawers, cups, pot, pan, bowl, mixer, plates, cake tins, cutlery, dining table and 4 chairs
• Living room features TV playing Itchy and Scratchy, couch, boat painting, telephone, carpet, purple piano and staircase to the second floor with family photos
• Bart’s room features a bed, night lamp, desk with pin board, chair, Krusty the Clown poster, skateboard, shelves with books, radio and a cap
• Marge and Homer’s bedroom features a bed, 2 side tables, Maggie’s crib and Marge’s bag
• Lisa’s room features a vanity mirror with hairbrush, stool, bed, table with lamp and cup, shelves with books, magnifying glass, backpack and a jazz poster on the wall
• Bathroom features a shower, toilet, sink and a mirror
• Detachable garage features the family car, tools, workbench, tool rack, vacuum cleaner, toolbox and a broom
• Family car with space for 4 minifigures features a dent in the front and an opening trunk to store Homer’s suitcase and a ‘radioactive’ bar from the nuclear power plant
• Outside area includes a grill, wheelbarrow and air conditioning unit with ‘Property of Ned Flanders’ decoration, sausages, 2 garden loungers, flowerpots, a shovel, 2 fruit cocktail glasses, Lisa’s camera, Bart’s skateboard ramp with ‘El Barto’ graffiti and an antenna on the roof
• Can you spot all the items Homer has “borrowed” from Ned Flanders?
• Remove the roof and top floor to access the different rooms inside
• House is hinged in the middle for easy access
• The perfect set for fans of LEGO® brick building and The Simpsons™!
• The Simpsons™ House measures over 9” (23cm) high, 16” (42cm) wide and 9” (24cm) deep

I’m not really that much of a Simpsons fan (to be honest, I haven’t really even watched much of the episodes) and, when it was first rumoured that there would be a LEGO Simpsons theme way back in August last year, I wasn’t that excited to see what the sets and minifigures would look like.

But now I’m actually beginning to like the theme. LEGO 71006 The Simpsons House set is way better and has more playability than any LEGO Creator house ever could and I think LEGO thought right to make special moulds for the heads. Now I’m looking forward to the reveal of the series of minifigures and other Simpsons sets.

What do you think about LEGO’s deal with 20th Century Fox and the 71006 The Simpsons House set? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

LEGO Minifigures Online New Trailer and Press Release

As the year of 2013 wraps up, new information (including a new trailer and press release) has been revealed for the LEGO Minifigures Online MMO (Massively Multiplayer Game) video game, being developed by Funcom. First of all, IGN released a new trailer in an article titled “Making an Online LEGO Game Work”, in which they talk to Funcom’s Executive Producer, Lawrence Poe and ask how this game will different to that of the failed LEGO Universe.

You can watch the new trailer above and read what Lawrence Poe said to IGN below.

The focus is on the minifigures and their adventures through fantastical worlds. The key aspect of the game is finding minifigures, learning to use their abilities in the best possible way, training your minifigures to become more powerful, and going through these cool worlds completing quests, defeating cool dungeon bosses and really just exploring and having fun.

Building is also an important part of the game, and its primary function is to support the adventuring experience. You’ll come across piles of LEGO bricks that can be assembled into contraptions that can help you defeat a boss, a bridge that allows you to cross a river, a jump pad that allows you to reach a specific location and so on.

Accessibility is key for this game, so we’re trying to make it as easy as possible to get into the game and have fun. Obviously there will be a lot of younger players for this game so we are taking our time to ensure that we will provide the best experience for those young players and their parents both in terms of gameplay and the business model.

Each minifigure will have its own unique abilities that really define how they’re played. Each ability offers a different tactical approach to combat, and part of the fun is figuring out what minifigures and what abilities work best with certain types of enemies in different situations. If you’re in a dungeon, in a tight hallway, it definitely makes sense switching to the Galaxy Patrol, as his lasers will ricochet back and forth between walls.

One thing that I find interesting about what Lawrence said in the article is the fact that there will be a series of minifigures that will be released alongside the game. As we mentioned in a previous article about the game here at BrickExtra, players will be able to purchase physical minifigures and immediately begin to play them in the game with the use of codes that will be included with the minifigures.

Take a look at a new press release by Funcom about the game that was released just after the new trailer and IGN article below.

Take a Grand Tour of LEGO Minifigures Online

Funcom provides fans with massive amounts of information about the upcoming game through a brand new video and website

Oslo, Norway – December 18th, 2013 – What is ‘LEGO® Minifigures Online’ all about? Now is your chance to find out! Funcom announced today the launch of the ‘LEGO Minifigures Online’ website. With this launch, fans can learn more about the game without needing access to the beta testing. A new video [see top of article] has also launched in conjunction with the new site.

The new ‘This is LEGO Minifigures Online’ video offers a narrated tour of some of the exciting things fans will be able to do and places they can visit when the game launches next year. The video also showcases brand new, never-before-seen content such as the Pirate World, the Treasure Island dungeon and the terrifying Crikey the Kraken!

Visit http://www.playminifigures.com to explore the site and see the video!

“We have an amazing cast of characters and worlds in ‘LEGO Minifigures Online’, and the new video and website are a great opportunity for everyone to discover that,” says Executive Producer Lawrence Poe. “This is a game with tremendous amount of variety and there is just so much to see and experience here. Our goal is to combine accessibility with depth to make sure we make a LEGO Minifigures game that can appeal to kids of all ages.”

Visitors to the website can go even more in-depth and get a detailed look at the specific minifigures, and learn more about their abilities and their personalities. ‘LEGO Minifigures Online’ is set to release with almost one hundred different minifigures, and the website will reveal more details in the coming months!

‘LEGO Minifigures Online’ is based on the hugely popular LEGO Minifigures collection. The minifigures are the charming characters that inhabit LEGO creations , whether it’s on a childhood bedroom floor or inside a virtual world, and over 340 million of them were sold in 2012 alone. In Funcom’s upcoming online game, the player must collect these minifigures, discover their unique abilities and bring them out on grand adventures through wonderful worlds of bricks and pixels together with thousands of other players from all over the world.

Those interested in joining the Closed Beta for ‘LEGO Minifigures Online’ can register a user account on the official website. More testers will be invited to join throughout development.

LEGO Minifigures Online will become available to play in Summer 2014 in browser on PC and Mac and on iOS and Android. You can check out more about the game at it’s official website or the LEGO Video Games page.