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Dunjohn

Review: 3849 Orient Bazaar

  

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  1. 1. How do you rate this set?

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Probably the most interesting Wave 3 Game from a parts perspective, I've wanted to get this one since I first saw it for the huge number of exotic bits and bobs in it.

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"Take a magic carpet ride to find Far East fortunes in the LEGO Games Orient Bazaar. Discover exotic treasures in the colorful nooks of the bustling market! Spend your gold wisely and battle for fortune by collecting priceless matching items to sell! A great family trading game for 2 - 4 players."

INFORMATION:

Set Name: Orient Bazaar

Set Number: 3849

Theme: Lego Games

Year Released: 2010

Number of Pieces: 198

Microfigs: 5

Price: €21.99 on release

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

box_front.jpg

The cover illustration does the job, but the colour scheme is oddly washed-out and the box doesn't stand out too much on the shelf. It kinda gets lost in among the other, more vibrant Game boxes. The guy on the right is busy contemplating his next move. It's difficult enough without your opponent constantly trying to bounce the die off your forehead.

box_back.jpg

The back shows off the huge number of interesting elements, plus a few mechanical closeups. Very little of the set is actually built; the game's high piece count is almost half made up of individual moving game parts.

box_side.jpg

The box side, in case you're in one of those little shops with no room to display boxes from the front. This layout is pretty standard for all Lego Games.

bags.jpg

Inside are four bags and the die. It was tough work resisting the urge to split the bags immediately - Look at them! Look how awesome the contents are! For some reason, the red and orange crystal formations are in a different bag from the yellow and blue ones.

parts_square.jpg

Normally I show the manuals after the bags but TO HELL WITH THEM! The Parts Square is where the action is. Unfortunately, it's an oddly fuzzy Parts Square this time, sorry about that. As you can see, the colour scheme runs the extremes of boring whites and tans, and madly psychadelic warm hues and blues.

cool.jpg

The cooler parts. I could probably have just copy/pasted the last image, because the cool/mundane ratio is exceptionally high, but I'll be nice. In the golden department, you gots the full 4-part Prince of Persia dome plus a smaller dome to cap it, two goblets, and a whopping 60 2x2 round tiles to serve as coins. In the trans section you gots eight crystal formations across four colours, and eight jewels across four colours. There's a single printed element, which is probably completely useless for anything outside of the game. And lastly, you gots the four sprues, each containing the new perfume bottle accessories that look rather swell indeed.

perfume.jpg

As my lovely assistant demonstrates, the square bottle is the only one that a minifig can grip by the neck. The others must be held from below. Unfortunately, to offset that, the square bottle doesn't have a proper round stud slot on the base, and is largely hollow with only two buttresses to grip a stud. It's completely inadequate and slips off easily. I do like how the square bottle looks kind-of like a bottle of bourbon, in case anyone has any hobo MOCs planned.

microfigs.jpg

Here are the five microfigs, with another assistant for scale. Hmm, wait a second, these guys look awfully familiar...

small_microfigs.jpg

Hah! They're the same explorers from Ramses Pyramid! Except this time, they're wearing trousers. They must have struck it very rich inside that pyramid. I think this is the first time that microfigs have been repeated in another game. Why they all decided to go into the perfume business is beyond me. Maybe they just can't stop themselves from competing with each other.

manuals.jpg

And finally, here are the manuals. For some reason, the instruction booklet was folded in half and the rulebook wasn't. It's a pain, but whaddyagonnado?

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The interiors aren't anything amazing. There's very little building in the set so the instructions are brief. I took this photo before starting to build so it's quite serendipitous that I opened it to this random page. Note the big gap in the Bazaar's floor, that will be relevant during gameplay. The rulebook is clear and concise. The usual three pages per language, two for basic rules and one for variants. There are ads at the end but they're the usual ones.

Moving on....

THE BUILD:

finished.jpg

Like I said, there's very little building work involved, so I didn't take any photos during the build. Just four identical stalls and the central bazaar. Most of the parts remain separate and transferable.

spares.jpg

Here are the spare parts. Not too bad a haul, but nothing too valuable either.

green.jpg

Then there's this green tile. It's pictured in the "Completed" illustration, up beside the coins, and listed in the parts inventory, but the rule book doesn't mention it. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it.

Moving On....

Gameplay

players.jpg

Okay, let's begin! Caveman, Cheerleader, Dummy and Diver have agreed to help me demonstrate how this works. It's a trading game, obviously, and a fairly simple one at that. Starting with three coins each, the objective is to be the first to make 15 gold. You do this by buying individual items, then selling them back as sets for a profit. The shapes of the items don't matter, all that matters is quantity. Each side of the die has two tiles, and the player chooses which ability to use.

move_1.jpg

Caveman rolls the die, partially demolishing one of the stalls in the process. The result lets him buy an item from either the red or yellow stalls.

move_2.jpg

The Caveman decides to apologise by buying some red beard perfume. Alternatively, instead of buying anything, he could have sold any number of items of one colour, but it's a bit hard to do that on turn one.

move_3.jpg

Cheerleader's up next, and she rolls green/black. Green lets her trade an item with another player, but she doesn't have any left. Black it is, then.

move_4.jpg

Black lets the Cheerleader close down one of the stalls, preventing anyone from buying from it. To do this, she physically picks the bazaar up and places it over the stall, which is a tad extreme I thought, but if she's got that kind of arm strength, who's going to say she can't? She picks red to slow Caveman down a little.

move_5.jpg

She also gets to buy one of the bazaar's golden goblets. These act as wild cards and can be sold as part of any set. Overall, black is definitely the colour to roll.

three_turns.jpg

Skipping forward a few turns, and everybody's had three turns. They're all out of coins so they've no choice but to start selling.

sell.jpg

On his turn, Caveman heads to the bazaar with his two red items and smelling like a garden of roses. Hoping the dealer won't notice that the bottles now contain only water, he trades them in for a tidy sum of three coins. The wheeling and dealing can resume!

winner.jpg

Umpteen turns later and a winner is finally declared! Diver hits the 15 mark first and goes off to buy himself a solid gold camel.

Moving on....

IN CONCLUSION

Forgive the exuberance, but this ROCKS! The parts selection is well above par, and 198 is a high figure for a game of this price and box size. The game is also a lot of fun; it's a very simplified version of other trading games but it retains much of the decision-making, forward planning and Machiavellian market sabotage of other, more serious boardgames. The only problems I had were tiny: the issue with the square bottle, and the somewhat unsatisfying building process, but they're completely overshadowed.

Design: 9/10 The structures are extremely simple due to the high proportion of non-building elements. The bazaar doesn't slide on and off stalls too easily and tends to pick them up when you try to lift it off, but that's not much to cry about. The game rules are excellent; simple enough for younger players (but probably not really young) and deep enough for everyone else.

Parts: 10/10 The selection is fantastic, with the huge number of gold disks and perfume bottles and some basic, eternally useful building elements too. The updated Ramses Pyramid microfigs was a very nice surprise that I hadn't known about until I examined them up close.

Build: 7/10 I barely noticed this stage, it was so quick and simple. This is a Game that's very much focused on playing over building. The buildings are very functional while at the same time good to look at.

Playability: 10/10 Max marks again. The expected play time is ten to twenty minutes but games could easily go on for much longer than that. Good fun with very simple rules.

Price: 9/10 Most games of this box size are €2 less, but this set has a lot more parts and many of them are very rare or unique, so this feels very fair.

Total: 95% Probably my favourite game out of all the ones I own so far. It does pretty much everything right.

Thanks for reading!

He's In The Money

in_the_money.jpg

- Dunjohn

Edited by WhiteFang
Indexed

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Wow! This is the game I wanted for the accessories ever since I saw the first pictures taken at some show or other. Thanks for the delectable review Dunjohn, I can't wait to find this in a store in my area! I'm surprised at the use of accessory sprues, isn't it unusual for such large pieces? Kinda reminds me of clone brand accessory sprues. Nevertheless, the bottles, flasks and vials are a great addition to any accessory collection. Now, what to do with all those golden round tiles? :oh:

Of note, it's obviously a Prince of Persia inspired game, without the licensed name. I'm glad it's not a licensed game as it would likely have been more expensive, but alas some of the PoP staple elements that could have been included are missing (eg. the persian half-arches and other medium nougat goodies). It would have made the game even more appealing as a part pack, although I'm really happy with it as it is.

Oh, and nice woodwork! :wink:

spares.jpg

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Thanks for the review 'Dunjohn' - cute set and it looks it's worth the money - cool play pieces - handy bottles - mmm, drinks.....yes please ! :laugh:

Might get this one when it comes out......I'm a conformist! everyone ! :sweet:

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Great review! This set is great, especially because of its pieces! :oh:

If you have a bunch of 1x1 tan bricks, you could make the stalls taller and have a Middle Eastern Bazaar! :thumbup:

BTW, I think you forgot how this fits into the box :grin:

Edited by prateek

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Wow, this set has a plethora of useful and interesting parts! I especially like the perfume sprues - according to BrickLink, the last set to have them was the 2007 edition of Hogwarts Castle, and, before that, a 2002 Belville set! :oh: The printed 2 x 4 tile with the item amount to profit amount is also a cool addition that TLG could have just decided to print on the rule book instead of making it a real physical piece. :sweet:

The gameplay for this set sounds fun! The idea of buying items from vendors and selling the items back to the same vendors to make a profit is something I'd like to see in real life. :grin:

This is definitely going near the top of my list of sets to buy, all thanks to your review, Dunjohn!

Edited by ILikePi

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Thanks for the enfrontpagening, WhiteFang! And for the title! I'd been planning to add "One Year Without a Title" to my sig if I didn't have one by September :tongue:

Wow, this set has a plethora of useful and interesting parts! I especially like the perfume sprues - according to BrickLink, the last set to have them was the 2007 edition of Hogwarts Castle, and, before that, a 2002 Belville set!

So they do already exist. I checked Bricklink before posting but I obviously didn't look in the right places. Thanks for the correction!

BTW, I think you forgot how this fits into the box :grin:

I hope I have everybody well-trained in that fact by now :wink: I also decided not to mention the word "dice" this time...

Edited by Dunjohn

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Oh yes!!!! I am totally going to buy this set when it comes out. Sixty 2x2 rounds in pearl gold? *huh* ! I can't wait to see the uses for them!

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Great review! :sweet: This is a pretty good set for twenty-two dollars. All those rare pieces and such. :classic: I can't wait to get this set.

spares.jpg

Here are the spare parts. Not too bad a haul, but nothing too valuable either.

Oh my, that is a lot of spare parts! :grin:

-

General Redwater

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A comprehensive and fun review - thanks! The assortment of bits and bobs in this game does look attractive. I'd certainly love to have all those plates! It sounds like a fun enough little game too, especially for kids or family.

As usual though my problem with Lego Games is that there are always Lego sets I would rather buy first. I guess more the intended market is people who would be buying a board game anyway - that they would buy a Lego one instead. Hope that's actually working out for Lego. As usual I find you can't really tell with Smyths whether something is selling well or not as they always seem to keep current Lego items fully stocked. Put it this way - if something runs out, you know it's been insanely popular or is pretty much leaving the current Lego line-up!

Anyway - it's good to see Smyths stocking these in amidst the other board games - they take up a nice section of shelf now.

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Looks like an awesome game! :D

I definitely want to get it, with all of the nice parts :D. Any practical uses for the gold circle tiles other than coins? I mean I prefer the coins from the pirate sets... :P But I guess these ones are bigger for people with bigger hands xP

I definitely want to get it :D

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Thanks Dunjohn for sharing this review with us. I actually looking forward to one of our members to review this, so I can find out more about this in terms of its parts assortment and gameplay. To be honest, I am impressed with the parts given and many useful items like those perfume bottles, printed tiles, and gold pearl looking tokens which is definitely useful for a Prince of Persia market bazaar. :thumbup:

If this ever comes to Singapore, this could be my very first LEGO Boardgames which is up for purchase.

Thanks for the enfrontpagening, WhiteFang! And for the title! I'd been planning to add "One Year Without a Title" to my sig if I didn't have one by September :tongue:

Oh well, at least you will have to make do without that quote to be added later in your signature upon your one year anniversary in Eurobricks. :wink:

Keep those boardgaming reviews coming. I am looking forward to see the index in the future.

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Thanks for the review, Dunjohn.

What a lovely parts pack. Gold 2x2 round tiles a plenty, and a gold dome? It's a DIY Dalek in the making (midi-scale maybe :laugh:)

For some reason I thought we got one of the accessories sprues in pearl gold too, so I was a bit disappointed to learn it's yellow. A small quibble, however. I only wish it was available here! As ever, it seems that the UK is testing ground for these new games before they get a wider release.

Thanks again for the review!

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You always get the good stuff first, don't you, Dunjohn. :tongue:

What a wonderful parts pack indeed! And OMG, invisible spare parts! *oh2* But I agree that the yellow parts should have been gold, or at least green (they use trans neon green gems after all). But that's OK. Thanks to not being licensed, this set with its rare parts is a steal at twenty bucks!

Can't wait for it to become available over here too!

Thanks for the great review!

Edited by Oky Wan Kenobi

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My best guess would be that the lime plate is there to allow you to customize the dice with more than one face having green on it.

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Interesting. This is one of my most wanted sets from the line. A great assortment of pieces, too.

Hmm, a hobo... Yes, very interesting. I didn't think of using the piece that way. It's a shame I don't own a caveman or a Hagrid...

Oh, and nice spares. :tongue:

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Excellent review and great help for deciding what to buy (this is going to be two boxes or more).

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Thanks, Dunjohn for this comprehensive review! :thumbup:

This was on my list before you opened this topic, but now I'm considering buying more than one copy.

I have 6 of the board games so far, all are played with (some more, some less of course), but this one I will get for the parts.

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*oh2* omg!!!!! im gonna buy like 50 of these sets for all of the spare parts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :laugh:

Hi legoboy007, and welcome to Eurobricks.

Please take note that bumping of old threads is generally frowned upon, unless you have something significant to add. Also please pay attention to your grammar and capitalisation, and take the time to read the site guidelines, a link to which can be found in my signature.

Thanks!

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