While Jay is away in Japan attending Star Wars Celebration, the time has come to catch up with interviews we held on the convention floor at Brickvention 2025, here in Melbourne, Australia back in January. We had visitors from all over Australia and all round the world attending Australia’s Premier LEGO Fan Event. Here are conversations with a few of them.… We hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, please leave a 5-star review on your chosen podcast player: it helps get the word out. We love your feedback - you can send an email to extrapiecespod@gmail.com We look forward to catching up again soon.

And we are back. We’d like to thank you for your your ongoing support, but if you are a first time listener - Welcome. After a chat about Jay’s upcoming trip to Star Wars Celebration, we launch headlong into a discussion about 10354 The Lord of the Rings: The Shire. The latest LEGO® ICONs set to depict a location from The Lord of the Rings was released this week, and we both had the chance to put it together and gather some thoughts. Richard’s initial thought (as well as the tale of how he discovered The Lord of the Rings) can be read here: https://ramblingbrick.com/2025/03/26/a-long-awaited-party-10354-the-shire-revealed/ If you are on the fence about purchasing the set, you can listen to our thoughts about its strengths and weaknesses. We had the chance to catch up with Model designer Kenyon Brady and Graphic Designer Ashwin Visser, a small part of the overall team that designed this set, at the Fan Media days in Billund last year. It was great to hear their insights into the set, and understand some of the thinking that went into the final design of the set. You can read our reviews on our blogs at Jay’s Review: https://jaysbrickblog.com/reviews/review-lego-10354-the-shire-bag-end/ Richard’‘s Two part review: https://ramblingbrick.com/2025/03/28/10354-the-shire-minifigures/ https://ramblingbrick.com/2025/04/02/10354-the-shire-part-2-the-build/

Of Course, there is a gift with purchase: possibly the darkest scene depicted in a LEGO set - 40761 Sméagol and Déagol. You can read our reviews here: https://ramblingbrick.com/2025/04/03/40761-the-lord-of-the-rings-smeagol-and-deagol-hands-on-review/ https://jaysbrickblog.com/reviews/review-lego-40761-smeagol-and-deagol-gwp/

Thanks for joining us, and if you have enjoyed the show, please leave a 5 star review to help other fans find the show. You support means the world to us. Thanks to

Welcome back. We'd like to start by apologizing for the long time between episodes: Life gets in the way sometimes. Jay is really excited about the LEGO Group's announcement of their ongoing partnership with Pokémon Company International from next year. He's been collecting the cards and playing the games since the first generation was released in 1996. https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-pokemon-sets-officially-announced-coming-2026/

Richard is possibly a little too old to have cared when they first arrived, but his kids played Diamond/Pearl on their Nintendo DS despite his insistence in this episode that they played a different version.

Today, we discuss how Pokémon have evolved over the years, preexisting brick building sets, and their cross-generational appeal. We also speculate how the LEGO Group might put its unique spin on the world's largest franchise when they launch info the Pokemon 30th anniversary. https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/what-lego-pokemon-sets-could-we-see-in-2026-and-beyond/

Will Pokémon be the greatest thing to happen to LEGO® bricks, since the arrival of LEGO Star Wars?

We hope you enjoy the episode: if you do, be sure to leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform, and share it with your Pokémon loving friends. And we hope to see you soon.

We love your feedback. Please send us an email with your LEGO Pokemon Hopes and Dreams to extrapiecespod@gmail.com