LEGO Atlantis: The Movie – Trailers, sort of, plus a 3D component?

As you are well aware by now, we’ve been beating the drum this week about LEGO Atlantis: The Movie, airing tomorrow night on the Cartoon Network here in the US. Why? because it seems like nobody else is, least of all LEGO or the Cartoon Network. No, we are not being paid to or being given any incentives, this is all our own doing – we are fans of the Atlantis theme and it’s driving us bonkers that the cartoon/movie is being downplayed or not given much support.

As we mentioned last week, LEGO has updated their Atlantis Movie Site with what look to be teaser trailers, including mention of 3D, as well as wallpapers and the like from what looks to be the movie, and if you’ve been to LEGO.com this week, you may have even seen a brief animation, but there is no indication that it’s from a 30-minute movie/cartoon airing tomorrow night. Update: There is a release that popped up, but still not much on www.LEGO.com.

If you do a search on CartoonNetwork.com for “Atlantis”, nothing comes up. You can find the show times tomorrow by browsing to the listings, but even just a search of “Lego” only turns up Ben 10 related information.

The first time we mentioned this was at the end of December when we came across a LEGO Store calendar in-store for the month of January. We then posted some more information about the Atlantis movie including showtimes, the movie clips, wallpapers, and our speculation.

We mention all of this because it’s almost like it’s supposed to be top secret. We were given permission by LEGO to post some advertising material from LEGO discussing how big Atlantis is to LEGO:

Atlantis is a great new theme based in the story of underwater adventurers battling the deep sea creature guardians of the lost city of Atlantis through use of versatile and intricate underwater vehicles. Each set comes with a collectible key that within the story lines helps the underwater adventures unlock the gate to the lost city. LEGO has taken many cues from the extremely strong Power Miner’s marketing effort and applied them to this line. Most importantly, is the largest ever LEGO.com base of supporting interactive content with a large 3-D tie in.

I don’t know why it’s being treated as something that’s secret. The Atlantis campaign appears to tightly scripted and well run, and as the bit from above mentions, they modeled it on the successful Power Miners campaign. This information was widely available a few weeks ago to the public, and by last week, it was showing up on TVGuide.com as well as many other schedule providers. I was able to program it through my DVR over a week ago.

This isn’t some super secret set information that was leaked early, this movie/cartoon is a part of an expensive campaign done on the part of The LEGO Group to promote Atlantis!

It’s incredibly odd.

And now for some screenshots from the trailers – we held off until tonight to post these to maybe help generate interest and help people remember that the movie/cartoon is tomorrow night. I’m deliberately not posting anything related to the plot, just some screenshots of the some of the sets we’ve already seen:

Neptune Carrier – it’s huge.
(Neptune Carrier review)
LEGO Atlantis: The Movie

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LEGO Brickmaster Atlantis Book – August

Coming soon…well not too soon, but coming this August (August 16), there will be a new hardcover book from DK Publishing covering the Atlantis theme, according to Amazon.com. Details: * Name: LEGO Brickmaster Atlantis * Price: $29.99 (pre-order) * Hardcover: 48 pages * Publisher: DK CHILDREN (August 16, 2010) * … Read more

Review: LEGO Atlantis 8057 Wreck Raider

This review is for the 8057 Atlantis Wreck Raider which is, of course, set in the LEGO Atlantis theme. It’s kind of an in-between vehicle set in the Atlantis theme – it’s well above the impulse price and part count, but at $9.99 it’s two-thirds the cost of the 8059 Seabed Scavenger. It’s a very efficient use of parts, fits well in the theme, and thanks to the human diver and Shark Warrior, it’s a good value.

2010 LEGO Atlantis 8057 Wreck Raider

Given the low price, and that I liked the selection of parts, and kind of as a challenge to myself, I picked up another 8057 and decided to see what I could create with just two of them. I will be posting that tomorrow (Friday, January 15, 2009). It was an exercise in frustration, but still interesting.

Speaking of tomorrow, don’t forget – LEGO Atlantis: The Movie on Cartoon Network, 6pm Central, 7pm Eastern. Now onto the review.

Update: Wreck Raider Quad – a MOC made up of two 8057 sets plus a small number of other pieces.

By the Numbers:
Set: LEGO 8057 Atlantis Wreck Raider
Year of Release: 2010 (technically available at end of 2009)
Type: Mini Vehicle from the Atlantis theme
# of Pieces: 64
# of Extra pieces: 2
# of Minifigs and what kind: 2 – Human diver (Captain Ace Speedman), Shark Man
Stickers? 8
Ages: 6-12
Time to Complete: Less than half an hour (I spent more time taking and editing photos and writing this review than it took to put together!)
MSRP/Price: $9.99 US from LEGO Shop at Home , also available at Amazon.com, Target, Wal-Mart, TRU, etc. (price may vary from MSRP elsewhere)

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Review: LEGO 8075 Atlantis Neptune Carrier

The Atlantis Neptune Carrier is by far my favorite set in LEGO’s newest series. This set has it all: four figures, a manta ray (which you build out of bricks), and three vehicles in one. This set is very reminiscent of the 7645 Mars Mission MT-61 Crystal Reaper set from a few years ago (Brickset link). Like the MT-61, the Neptune Carrier lives up to its carrier classification by housing a small exploration rover in its forward cargo area. A red ramp lowers out of the front; allowing the rover to roll out to embark on its search for Atlantean artifacts. The carrier’s second vehicle is located at the stern. This vehicle is a small, propeller-driven sea doo type which accommodates a single figure (as does the rover).

2010 LEGO Atlantis 8075 Neptune Carrier

By the Numbers:
Set: LEGO 8075 Atlantis Neptune Carrier (from the Atlantis theme)
Type: Submarine with Mini vehicles
# of Pieces: 475
# of Minifigs and what kind: 1 Professor Diver (Dr Jeff Fisher), 1 Eyepatch Diver, 1 Regular Diver, and 1 Manta Warrior figure.
Stickers? Yes
Price: $59.99 at the official online LEGO Shop, Also at Amazon.com (price may vary) (other places charge up to $69.99, so be a smart shopper)

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More LEGO Atlantis MOCs

It seems that more and more Atlantis-themed MOCs are making their way onto the various photo and LEGO-related sites. The first one we mentioned was the Atlantis Finder from gipmetro which would make a great set – it’s actually from the journal of Dr. Artimus Rhodes and depicts Dr. Rhodes’ submarine.

In no particular order, here are some more custom creations that are not as “historically accurate” as gipmetro’s, but still very cool and/or fit in well with the Atlantis theme.

First up: Atlantis.LEGO.com – Gallery from the LEGO FUNZONE – there are too many to list, and lurking amongst them are many a rainbow warrior, but plenty are interesting to look at.

Next: Bricknave’s flickr gallery has a Dual-Cockpit Trident Speeder 2, which is a very unique MOC since it was built entirely from the pieces of the Neptune Brickmaster Mini-Sub promo:

Dual-Cockpit Trident Speeder 2

A Minifig sized MOC built entirely from the Neptune Mini-Sub Brickmaster special (Minifig not included).

It was quite a challenge to build, because I only had one turbine to work with. :/

This just goes to show that even the tiniest of vehicle sets without Minifigs could be turned into something for a Minifig to ride. In this case, two. This is exactly why LEGO is the ultimate toy.

The Dual-Cockpit Trident Speeder is a small two-person craft used mainly for battling hazardous deep-sea creatures and scouting missions. Although hindered by having only one turbine, the mini-sub makes up for it by having dual micro-floodlights and an electrically-charged trident weapon on the front. PILOT WARNING: Do not step in front of the HyperCharge GL-675 model turbine, doing so may cause you to be sucked into it and well …….. You get the idea.

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Three New Promo Set Instructions for Atlantis

Over at Eurobricks, whung noticed three new promotional instructions/sets from the LEGO Atlantis theme available from LEGO.com They are: 30040 Octopus with treasure ring (Instructions at LEGO.com – PDF) 30041 Piranha (Instructions at LEGO.com – PDF) 30042 Mini-Sub (Instructions at LEGO.com – PDF) I’m not sure if those are the … Read more