After another week, it's time to get back to our build of 71043 Hogwarts Castle from the LEGO Harry Potter theme. Join us on Thursday, November 15th at 8 PM Eastern over on the BZPower YouTube channel to see what's next in this massive set. In between, we'll be giving away Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast minifigures, which is all the more incentive to join in. We'll see you all there tonight!

The folks over at BRICKSET are getting into the Bionicle spirit with their latest Character Building Competition. They're looking for people to construct their own fantasy characters, built using system or CCBS or a combination thereof, and then submit a short biography describing the character. Another interesting feature of this contest is that they're allowing virtual entries as well as physical entries. The entries will be evaluated by a panel of judges, and five winners will receive copies of "The Art of LEGO BIONICLE." You have until December 31st, 2018 to create and submit your entries, and you can read more details about the contest here. Now, go forth and bring your own custom characters to life!

Earlier this week The Toy Association released the nominees for the 2019 Toy of the Year Awards, and LEGO made an appearance in a big way. Here's what they're up for:

• Collectible of the Year - LEGO Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts Minifigure Series
• Construction Toy of the Year - Kessel Run Millennium Falcon & Harry Potter Great Hall
• License of the Year - Jurassic World
• Playset of the Year - Creator Expert Roller Coaster & Jurassic World Indoraptor Rampage at Lockwood Estate
• Preschool Toy of the Year - DUPLO STEAM Train
• Specialty Toy of the Year - Betrayal at Cloud City & Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle
• Vehicle of the Year - Technic Bugatti Chiron

What's more, voting is even open to the public. So if you're interested, cast your votes for what you think is worthy of each award!

Building on the success from last year, we are once again doing a BZPower Fanfic Exchange for 2018. If you like writing and reading stories then this is for you - just let us know what you'd like to write about and what you'd like to read about, and Tufi Piyufi will coordinate matching assignments for all. The best part? We're using this as a way to share some of the constraction sets that LEGO has sent us, so everyone who participates will get a set too! Signups end on November 30th; stop what you're doing and go enter!

It's Tuesday! We're streaming tonight on the BZPower Twitch channel! Tell us what you want to see us play! The fun begins at 7:30 PM Eastern and we'll play for around an hour or so. See you all there!

When I first saw Wandering Slizer: Hiker Mike by optimus-convoy, I thought the design looked a little haphazard with an interesting color scheme. Then I saw that the MOC was based on a winner from a LEGO contest from 1999 and gained additional appreciation for the build. The builder has taken a nearly-twenty-year-old design and updated it for the present with modern techniques. It's certainly a testament to how much the community has advanced and the sheer number of new ways to combine LEGO bricks they've come up with. Go give it a look and let optimus-convoy know what you think!

If you frequent the BBC forum here on BZPower chances are you've come across a creation by Ballom. Outside of the site, he runs a Flickr group called 'Bionicle Without The Bionicle,' focusing on using Bionicle, CCBS, and Technic parts to build things that you would never find on the island of Mata Nui. He recently kicked off a contest on both Flickr and Instagram to build a non-humanoid MOC. You have until December 28th to enter on either platform to be considered for the awesome prizes (that BZPower has donated from our stash of sets). I love the concept and encourage all you builders out there to go out of your normal comfort zone and enter!

After months of delays and no official reports for this US promo, Barnes and Noble has announced that the set of four exclusive Harry Potter minifigs (originally "Bricktober" at Toys R Us) will be available Saturday, November 17. The set is a "gift with purchase" when making a LEGO purchase of $75 or more, and will not be sold on its own. As the link shows, this coincides with all stores' Harry Potter events that afternoon, but the set will be available at the start of business. Stock is limited, so be sure to get shopping early to snag this rare promotion.

As I was looking for some news to share today I rediscovered a link I had saved to report on but never did. The last time we mentioned Ninjago creator Tommy Andreasen's fanfic Way of the Departed was back in April when Chapter 19 was posted. Four months later, in August, Chapter 20 was tweeted. I'm taking some solace in the fact that at least no other chapters have been released since, so it's still technically the latest news on that front. Anyway, go give it a read and let Tommy know that you're ready for more!

From today until November 21st (or while supplies last) LEGO is offering a free exclusive micro-scale Diagon Alley set with any purchase over $99. Conveniently, the Winter Village Fire Station is $99.99, and will also give you double VIP points! The giant Hogwarts Castle is providing double VIP point too if you want to keep your purchase Harry Potter related. The set looks really cool and will hopefully be a great addition to the collections of witches and wizards everywhere!

Hot on the heels of their court win in China, LEGO has made some major announcements at the China International Import Expo. As stated in the press release on the LEGO newsroom, LEGO Education and East China Normal University Press are developing STEAM courses to be taught in elementary school classrooms. Additionally, starting January 1st 2019, at least two sets designed around the Chinese New Year will be available exclusively in the country. It makes sense for LEGO to be investing heavily in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, and I'm sure this isn't the last announcement of this type we'll see. The only downside I can think of is that people who celebrate the Lunar New Year outside of China (and dedicated collectors) won't easily be able to get their hands on these sets too.

LEGO made a big announcement yesterday in terms of the problem with counterfeits in China. In the press release in the LEGO newsroom, they stated that the Guangzhou Yuexiu District Court ruled in favor of The LEGO Group and that four companies associated with Lepin products must stop producing, selling, and advertising 18 sets that infringe on TLG's intellectual property. This is a fantastic milestone in the continuing fight against LEGO knockoffs, and will hopefully not be the last. Sound off in the Talkback to let us know your thoughts on this judgment!

LEGO Island is one of those games that many of us remember very fondly, even though the graphics and controls don't quite stand up to the test of time. That collective nostalgia has resulted in the creation of Project Island: A Fan Made LEGO Island Game, which BZPower member Legorza is a part of and has shared in the Fan Created Media forum. It seems like it's still very early on in development, but I'm excited to see where they go. They're looking for help, so if you have some interest in videogame development you should definitely check it out!

We would play a lot more LEGO videogames! But we'll just have to settle for once week over on the BZPower Twitch channel, tonight at 7:30 PM Eastern. I suspect we'll be diving back into LEGO DC Super Villains, but the choice is up to you - head over to the Twitch Tuesday discussion topic to vote for what you'd like to see us play. We hope it will be fun for everyone and that the puzzles don't baffle my brain too much!

It looks The LEGO Group's plan to switch to an environmentally-friendly plastic by 2030 isn't fast enough for some. In a story over on ToyNews, it seems the Dutch company BioBuddi feels that the big three need to get their act together or else they will find themselves playing catch up. I don't necessarily agree with everything in the article, but it's certainly an interesting read. BioBuddi seems to think consumers will put environmentally-friendliness above other considerations such as price and quality, but from what I've seen many AFOLs want their bricks to behave the same as they have since the late 50s. Let us know how you feel in the Talkback!

The LEGO Ideas team seems like they don't rest sometimes - they've just started up another contest for everyone to enter. Go check out Magical Builds of the Wizarding World to see how you can win all of the new LEGO Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts sets, including the giant Hogwarts Castle! You have until November 29th to build either a creature from the Wizarding World or an item from Hogwarts. That's a pretty wide net they've cast, and I can't wait to see all of the Nifflers and Nimbuses that people create. Best of luck to all who enter!

After another unfortunate hiatus, we are returning to build 71043 Hogwarts Castle from the LEGO Harry Potter theme. Join us on Sunday, November 4th at 7 PM Eastern over on the BZPower YouTube channel to watch construction on the castle resume. There's still a lot to go through and a lot more collectible minifigures to give away, so it should be a fun time. We may even find some other sets to build during the stream just to keep things interesting. See you all there!

BlizzCon has kicked off at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, and as I'm posting this a LEGO Overwatch panel is getting underway there. Set designer Woon Tze Chee is revealing six new models and likely talking about the design process used to bring them to life. Additionally, the sets should also be available for preorder starting right now before they release officially on January 1, 2019. Fortunately for all of us who can't be at BlizzCon, LEGO has shared set images and details with BZPower! Read on to check them out and start deciding which (if any) are going on your LEGO wishlist!  

Yesterday LEGO revealed one of its latest giant builds to kick off BlizzCon, which officially started today. Coming from the Overwatch theme, this massive statue of D.Va and her mech is over nine feet tall and looks to be a giant version of what the actual set will look like. To see a behind the scenes look at how the model was built and more information about it, read on! We'll have more information about the LEGO Overwatch sets coming soon!  

While you're all recovering from any Halloween festivities of last night, take a moment to remember that it's November! That means it's time for a new raffle. Go ahead and enter 2018 Member Raffle #11 for a chance at winning 71315 Quake Beast, one of the last Bionicle sets to be released in Gen 2. All members of BZPower are eligible to enter, so take a couple of minutes to take a couple of clicks - it could be the easiest LEGO set you ever won!