Lego, but not as you know it: Toymaker reveals kits that help you create pop-culture wall art


Razmig Bedirian
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Ever wanted to try your hand at creating a Pop Art piece? Or have your favourite Star Wars or Marvel characters displayed in your living room with the loud and bold colours the movement is known for?

Maybe Warhol’s method of photographic silkscreen printing is above your skill grade, but there is another way.

The Lego group has launched four new Lego Art sets to give adults a different way to transform their passion for the tiny bricks into art. The new sets come with a black canvas (or in this case, small interlinking base plates) that can be fitted with Lego tiles.

The sets – which contain around 3,000 pieces each – then allow you to build a 2D pop-culture poster on said base.

One of the sets is a Lego version of Andy Warhol’s famous Marilyn Monroe portrait. Lego builders can recreate the 1967 bright pink screen print using the Danish toy maker’s bricks. And it doesn’t even have to be in bright pink; you can build the piece in three different colours using the Lego tiles or completely reimagine the piece to suit your artistic temperament.

The set comes with a soundtrack that shares some stories and insights about the US artist from those who knew him best.

The Beatles also get a Pop Art makeover, with fans able to pick one of the unique sets or collect all four. The sets come with an accompanying soundtrack with stories about the Fab Four.

A three-in-one Iron Man set lets builders decide whether to power their hero with either the Mark III, the Hulkbuster Mark 1, or the Mark LXXXV, with an accompanying soundtrack that has details about the set as well as stories from Marvel experts.

A Star Wars set, meanwhile, dubbed The Sith, celebrates the villains from a galaxy far, far away.

The three-in-one set lets builders choose between portraits that pay tribute to Darth Vader, Darth Maul or Kylo Ren. You could also take the artwork to the next level by combining three sets into an ultimate Darth Vader wall piece.

This one comes with a soundtrack as well, which lets you listen to music from the films or hear some fun stories from the Star Wars creators.

How tumultuous protests grew
  • A fuel tax protest by French drivers appealed to wider anti-government sentiment
  • Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved 
  • Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
  • At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
  • Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars 
  • Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
  • An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital 
Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.