Back in April we shared that LEGO was planning to donate $50 million to support children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, they provided some followup on how those efforts were going. They highlighted four groups - People in Need, Les Apprentis d'Auteuil, DEIN MUNCHEN, and Fundacion Dibujando un Manana - in four countries that they have partnered with to provide aid and learning tools to those who need them. I'm glad we have received some insight into this work, and it's great to see kids all over the world get some much appreciated help.

While that title isn't technically accurate right now, I think it may not be unreasonable to imagine that it will be in the future. Recently, The Bakery by Bricky_Brick received its ten-thousandth vote of support on LEGO Ideas. If the username sounds familiar, it's because they're the builder behind Pirates of Barracuda Bay as well as the Brickwest Studios, History Museum, and The Train Station: Studgate projects, all of which have also achieved ten thousand votes on the platform. They also currently have six other active projects with over five thousand votes, so we'll probably hear about them again soon. Anyway, the creation is an 1890s city bakery with all the details and little stories we love in the official LEGO modular buildings. I love the time period and all the era-specific inclusions that really make this set pop. Best of luck to it in the review phase!

Rising from the depths of the earth, the presence of a power from the long past rises and makes itself known again. Yes, that's right, it's a set review by BZPower Reporter Xccj. Today's set is 80010 Demon Bull King from the new Monkey Kid theme. Is this set worth unleashing an ancient evil to get, or should it remained buried in its underground tomb? Read on to find out!  

I was perusing through the BZPower Flickr group recently and came across a creation with an immediately familiar silhouette. Despite my first reaction looking at the thumbnail, Mecha Sonic by Kevin H. is not their interpretation of Sonic the Hedgehog, but a boss from Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis. This works out perfectly, with the blockier LEGO shapes really lending themselves to the source material. The minifig-scale plate for the eyes is the obvious standout part, but I love the minifig helmets used as the shoulder and hip joints as well. Of course, from a constraction perspective the Toa Nuva shoulder armor works very well as the top of the head, allowing the ears to poke through just a little bit, and it's complimented by the newer CCBS shoulder pauldron as the bottom. Go check the build out for yourself!

Thankfully the tropical storm has made its way past my house and I don't have to worry about any more power outages tonight. Why is tonight so special? Because it's Tuesday and that means we get to play videogames over on the BZPower Twitch Channel! Join us at 7:30 PM Eastern when we dive back into LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues to wrap up the events of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (so I guess we can't blame you too much if you skip this week and wait until we get to the good movies next time). Bad writing aside, the game is still fun and offers its own unique mechanics that I continue to discover week after week. So stop on by to cheer us on as we discover the secret space aliens that started civilization, or whatever the movie was about.

As has become the pattern, two new interviews with 10k Club members have been posted today over on the LEGO Ideas blog. You can start by discovering more about Steven Wayne Howard's Mini-fig Scale Project Gemini, which is one that I definitely have my fingers crossed for. Afterwards, you can read as avilabrick Hits a Strike With The Retro Bowling Alley! which is a bit more terrestrial but still an awesome build. Go behind the scenes with the builders and their projects to learn how they got to be part of the ever-growing prestigious group on the Ideas platform.

Perhaps spurred on by the success of 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay, two new projects have recently achieved ten thousand votes of support on LEGO Ideas. Seagull Bay Lighthouse Imperial Fortress by Delusion Brick and The Fortress - Imperial Army by Piraten both tackle similar subject matter: the classic Imperial forces that always were trying to lock up the pirates. Both fortresses look great and have lots of awesome features and design elements. While on a high level they cover the same subject matter, the two builders both approached the concept in very different ways and it certainly shows. We'll have to see what happens when they get to the review phase, but I would love to see a set incorporating the best of both builds!

And so another month of pandemic begins with a new BZPower giveaway! Head over to the 2020 Member Raffle #8 and enter for a chance to win 75532 Scout Trooper & Speeder Bike, the largest Star Wars Buildable Figure set that was released during the theme's run. Any member of BZPower can enter, and it's free to join, so there's no reason not to enter! Also, congratulations, in no particular order, to Tahu_mistika20, JrMasterModelBuilder, GreshComando, Swert, Mesonak, Rooster Nui, Canama, ~Takava Nirhii~, Gzstg, and BULiK, the winners of all of our July raffles. Maybe that will be you in a month!

It seems that the LEGO YouTube channel has achieved quite an impressive milestone. As Justinas Baltrusaitis reports on Buyshares, they have recently reached over ten billion views, which is more than any other brand channel. In fact, it's nearly twice as many as the next two channels - Vat19 and IDJVideos.TV - have combined. Don't ask me what brands those two channels represent, but I guess we have to trust the experts here. I guess there's a lot of kids out there who like to watch videos about interlocking bricks (and probably one or two adults)!

There's only a little over a day left to enter the five giveaways and raffles we have going on right now to help celebrate our nineteenth anniversary. The 71311 Kopaka and Melum - Unity Set and the promo discs are free and open to everyone. We've got a Michael Dorn as Mata Nui VO disc for Premier Members. Then there's two style guides: the 2007 Classic one with proceeds supporting BZPower and the 2009 guide with proceeds supporting Black Lives Matter - which you've already raised over $250 for! And speaking of good causes, don't forget the Kraahkan 5-hole Misprint Kanohi we're auctioning off to support the SladeChild Foundation! It ends Saturday night, so get your bids in!

Three projects on LEGO Ideas have recently achieved ten thousand votes of support! Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night by legotruman recreates the iconic painting in three dimensions using bricks to capture brushstrokes and includes the painter with a printed version of the artwork. Gold Rush Mine Train Roller Coaster by Footonabrick looks like it would be right at home in a Frontierland at a Disney theme park with an awesome roller coaster and carnival games for added fun. Schitt's Creek: The Rosebud Motel by seemarkgeek captures the setting of the popular sitcom, which seems to be a popular LEGO Ideas subject. Best of luck to all three in the review phase!

Recently LEGO has shared two designer videos on their YouTube channel looking into the inspiration and processes that went into creating some recent sets. You can go learn about the LEGO Ideas Grand Piano and Marvel Studios Iron Man from LEGO ART to see what it took to create these adult-oriented sets. Set designers Woon Tze Chee and Chris Stamp, respectively, spent a lot of time with their teams to create the sets and make them something worth writing home about. There's clearly a lot of passion, and it's great to see it on display as they talk about their sets!

When I saw a topic in Bionicle Discussion by MizMiz titled, Found this rare Bionicle box that you probably haven't seen. I thought, "I've been around for a while, I've probably seen it," but I was wrong! It turns out that a company called Voita in Lithuania released the McToran in exclusive boxes instead of the polybags we've seen elsewhere around the world. While they only have Huki, in theory all six of the villagers are out there somewhere. If you're interested in adding this unique set to your collection, it's currently up on eBay for your bidding pleasure. I never expected to find something new from 2001 to turn up all these years later!

Hey, is it Tuesday again already? That's cool, it means we get to play videogames tonight! Come by the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 7:30 PM Eastern as we head back into LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. Last week we started playing through the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which so far is still pretty ridiculous, but eventually we'll get to replaying the old films with new levels made for this game. So come by to chat and watch us hunt down aliens and swing through jungles with monkeys!

Two more LEGO Ideas contributors have been interviewed for their sets reaching 10,000 votes, and rightly so looking at their works. First is BenBuildsLEGO with an homage to the Indiana Jones Trilogy. A beloved theme with ties to LEGO sets already, what's not to love? Next is Bricked1980 with his Bricks & Blooms modular building, always a crowd-pleasing cohesiveness among collectors. Read on to see what inspired them in life, LEGO, and Ideas. Best of luck to all the entries approaching their review board.

The final round of Bio-Cup 2020 is done, where three Bionicle builders were tasked to create fusions based off previous entries from both the main contest and the redemption rounds. Our finalists are Red, Sergei Rahkmaninoff, and [VB], and they've made some great MOCs to end this contest with. Read on to see them all, and let us know which your favorites are!  

Our first anniversary raffle, BZPower 19th Anniversary Promo Disc Giveaway ends in just a few hours. But don't worry, we're giving away more promotional discs in BZPower 19th Anniversary Promo Disc Giveaway #2, which like the first one is free to enter for all members of BZPower. Don't forget to check out the other raffles going on, including copies of a couple of Bionicle style guides, one supporting BZPower and the other Black Lives Matter. Check them all out, participate where you can, and good luck to everyone!

We shared some information about the BrickFair SladeChild charity auction earlier this week, but there have been some new additions. Of the most interest to Bionicle fans is this rare misprint 5-hole Kanohi Kraahkan generously donated by Debbie, a friend of the staff. You've got a week to bid on the mask, with the auction ending on August 1st. All of the proceeds from the auction support the SladeChild Foundation, and we're even covering the shipping. So make sure you check it out as well as all of the other great LEGO lots for bid and help support a great cause!

Our next live build will be tomorrow, July 26th, at 1 PM Eastern. We'll be building the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series 75095 TIE Fighter, which I can't believe came out five years ago already and has been sitting in my closet for nearly that long. I do feel like the UCS sets I've built have leaned a little more to the light side, so this will help balance things out. Come by the BZPower Twitch channel to watch, chat, and win prizes!

Today LEGO Ideas is announcing a new fan vote for an awesome new project. LEGO Publishing is partnering with AMEET, crowdfunding publisher Unbound, and US editor of Blocks magazine Daniel Konstanski to create a book about our favorite bricks targeted directly at AFOLs, and we get to pick the direction! The three options are LEGO History in 100 Bricks, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks, and The LEGO Brick Museum, with each going behind the scenes to reveal new, never-before-seen information about the company and its products. Voting kicks off today and runs until August 9th, so read on to check out the full press release and then cast your vote!