31 replies to this topic

[Pandora]

Number – 9349
Name – Fairytale and Historic Minifigure Set
Theme – Minifigures
Year – 2011
Minifigs – 20 (plus 2 Skeletons)
Pieces – 227
Price – GB £39.99/ EURO 47.99/ US $49.99

Links :  LEGO Shop@Home, BrickLink, Brickset, Peeron

Information from LEGO Shop@Home:

Build a fairytale!
This set features a variety of minifigures that enable children to create and act out beloved fairytales and popular themes. A great addition to any LEGO® brick set.

• Includes 22 minifigures: pirates, a witch and wizard, a king and queen, mine workers, a mermaid and merman and many more
  
• Features a variety of accessories
  
• Explore the differences of real life, make-believe and historic roles!
  
• Provides endless hours of creative play!
  
• Teaches storytelling through characters and their functions!
  
• Promotes the development of fantasy, imagination and imitative skills!

Given the success of the Collectable Minifigures, it’s fair to assume that Minifigs are somewhat sought after by many.  This set promised a full complement of minifigs for various occasions, arbitrarily ascribed to the theme of Fairytale and Historic, and with accessories to boot!  So the question is, is it worth it?

The box doesn’t actually state “Fairytale and Historic” anywhere, but the large print is reserved for “education”, which didn’t make much sense to me, as I thought that was what LEGO was all about. However investigating further reveals a whole new world of LEGO I didn't know existed - the education line.

From the education website:

Are you LEGO® smart?
LEGO Education offers unique solutions to day care professionals and teachers who want to bring more innovation and creativity to their classroom practice.
Using our tools and hands-on teaching methods your children will be better able to learn by experiences, collaborate with their classmates and think creatively to come up with unique solutions.
That’s LEGO smart.

Exploring this site further reveals many desirable sets, my favourites being 9337 Harbour, 9311 City Buildings and I know someone who'd just love 9333 Vehicles!

The specific information about this set states:
Age Mark: 4+
Key Learning Values:

• Exploring differences to real life, make-believe and historic characters
  
• Storytelling through characters and things they do
  
• Developing fantasy, imagination and imitative skills
  
• Brick Type: LEGO® System bricks
  
• Related Products: 9384, 9279, 9386, 9286
  
• Piece Count: 227

Featuring a variety of minifigures that enable children to create and act out their favourite fairytales and stories. A great addition to any LEGO® brick set. Includes pirates, witch and wizard, king and queen, mermaid and merman and many more characters. 22 figures and great accessories too.

9349 - The Set

So lets have a look at the box.  It has a pleasant minimalist feel, yet still manages to show all the minifigs, some of whom are in scenes with an attractive background.  The blue colour is very pleasing to the eye and there is a more mature design to the box, as it is intended to be bought by adults to use to teach children.


The back of the box shows pretty much everything that’s in it, and for some reason LEGO chose the shortest pair of minifigs to put in the “actual size”  picture.


The base of the box is bland and uninteresting, but continues with the attractive blue colour.


The box top is similarly blue, but has a fine print warning that “colours of and decorative designs on elements may vary”, so in theory you could open the box to find everything is trans-nougat or something.


The left side shows where all the parts are made.


And the right side shows a very small warning in English: “Warning! Choking hazard. Contains small ball”.  Because the only thing you can choke on in this set is a small ball?  Really? ( Although I must admit, I haven’t personally tested that theory.)


There are no instructions inside the box.  There are five poly-bags of assorted items each – in this, the largest, you can see torsos, legs, hair and bricks.


The second largest contains an equally disorganised mix of minifig parts and accessories, and plates.


The three smallest poly-bags contain the remaining small parts, with the only organisation being to keep the male and female heads in separate bags.


Decanting the poly-bags and removing the items for the minifigs themselves leaves an assortment of bricks and plates and remaining accessories:


Plus a few bits of greenery:


A few containers:


And an assortment of critters:


For the minifigures, I have tried to pose them similarly to the scenes on the box.  As there are no instructions, one has to rely on the box to ensure the correct torso is paired with the correct legs, assuming that that concerns you.
The first pair are the shorter of the bunch, are they children playing dress-up as a knight and a princess, or are they actually a knight and a princess who happen to be short?  I guess it’s up to you.


The second pair are a couple of soldiers defending the world’s smallest fort.  They have matching helmets, and brandishing their fearsome weapons, they are ready to fight!


The third scene shows a Jester-girl who is also a juggler.  And a weightlifter? Huh?  


The next scene has a couple of mer-people, with a few elements for an underwater scene.  The crab and the clam-shell are not often seen, and the merman has a nice pearlised gold trident, but it would have been nice if his torso had had a little definition, like the surfer from the collectable minigfigs.


Next up we have a royal pair.  The queen looks rather casual, and the king has a rather odd sceptre with ingenious use of a Technic pin.  To my eyes red and trans-blue don’t go together well.


We also have a pair of standard scary-but-cheery skeletons, evidently cursed souls from a lost shipwreck given their piratey hats and cutlasses.


The set provides a green-themed wizard, complete with a bottle of something magical.  I really like how the bottle has been constructed and this is one of the most interesting items in the set.  The wizard’s outfit is a little plain, and grey seems an odd choice for his torso, especially when the Kingdoms line has had dark green wizard torsos and legs complete with printing.  He’s also given a matching snake and a stick to hit it with (I know - it’s a wand!)


To go with our wizard, we have a witch, who is accompanied by numerous creepy-crawlies and a toadstool and cauldron.  She has her broomstick poised and ready for her to fly off with her fab red cape flying out behind her, which will make up for the plain torso she’s been given.


The snake-charmer is another of the few who have structures to build.  The simple Eastern arch is topped off with a nice pearl gold slope and helps to set the scene.  The snake-charmer does have a printed torso, but for some reason our turban-wearing friend appears to be either the Kingdoms’ Prince or Lion King in disguise.  


Next up are a couple of pirates, well evidently a pirate captain, complete with telescope and a pearl gold hook, and his first mate with a sextant.  The telescope and sextant may be useful, given that they seem to have lost their ship...


Now this is one of the oddest scenes (and that’s saying something).  From BrickLink, this female torso is listed as “Bride” (although it also appears as the Admiral’s daughter in the Pirates’ Chess Set), and the male outfit is a Town suit.  She has a bunch of flowers, so far so good, but he has... a morning star ready to stove her head in and a ladder to make good his escape?  Or is he a chimney sweep, with brush and ladder, but if so, why on this earth is he wearing a suit and a top hat.  Answers on a postcard, please. Aside from the oddity, they are a nice pair of figs, and it’s always nice to get a top-hat.


Back to something more recognisable, a male and female pair of Imperial soldiers, the male a drummer with his drum, and female with cutlass.  They also have a chest full of butter.  It might be gold, but given that the contents are a few yellow studs, I’m going with butter.


Our last minifigs scene has the most going on.  There are a couple gold prospectors, and they have actually managed to find real gold, after blasting the mineshaft behind them.  The scene comes with a nicely designed cactus, and also has..something on the ground.  I really hope that’s dirt, but maybe there’s  a good reason why he’s wearing a bandanna?  He has a nice tan fedora, that’s common enough, and she has an almost ubiquitous Pirates/Kingdoms torso.  Not hugely exciting overall, but nice enough.


Included in the set are also a number of minifigs accessories, including some pith helmets and a shotgun.


After all the scenes are built, there are naturally a couple of bits left over, including a spare red cape!  


So have you spotted it?
Yup, all the female minifigs faces are the same.  But not only that!  All the male minifigs faces are the same!  Grrr.
The female minifig’s face, which lets be honest isn’t one of the best, is at least double sided.  The male fig’s head has just one placid, passive expression.  Here are comparison shots of the two Imperial soldiers to illustrate:


Here are all the girlies together, there are only 8 of them out of the 22 minifigures.  You can see the same old face across the picture, maybe they’re all related?


From the back, you can see a few of the ladies have printing on the reverse of their torsos, and it's a bit of a shame the Imperial soldier girl's double sided face is visible.  A French Legionnaire type helmet, with a flap of material at the back would cover her annoyed and annoying face.


There are 12 male figures in total (I've excluded counting the skeletons) and so I've split them into two groups for a closer look.  Once again, the same bland expression listlessly gazes out.


The reverse of these figures shows most of this group have some printing, but the wizard and merman remain disappointingly plain.  I still don't understand why the wizard's torso is grey, not dark green.  


The second group of male figures are slightly more interesting to me (identical facial expressions notwithstanding).  Here you can see the snake-charmers' Kingdoms torso more clearly, and the lovely gold printing on the pirate captain's torso.


From the reverse, again most torsos are printed, but as with all the others, none of them are new.  I'm not convinced the snake-charmers torso fits with the rest of his outfit.


To show the set off as a whole, here's everyone together, with all their bits and pieces.

---

Conclusion

Design 7/10 – the small structures that go with some of the scenes are nicely designed, especially the arch that goes with the snake-charmer, and the curious magic bottle that the wizard has.  Otherwise, the set is mostly minifigs.

Parts 7/10 – there are a couple of nice pieces, the gold that comes with the prospectors is always welcome, as is the dynamite.  The use of the red technic pin as a sceptre was unusual, and there’s a good selection of creepy crawlies including a nice bright light orange crab, but there’s nothing here that hasn’t been seen before.

Build 5/10 – mostly consists of putting minifigs together, really, but there are the occasional structure to piece together, none of which are tricky.

Minifigs 7/10 – given that this set is all about the minifigures, they are actually quite disappointing on the whole.  I’ve highlighted my thoughts along the way, but overall there could be a lot more printed parts, or even substitution for other, more appropriate parts already in production.

Playability 6/10 – the idea behind this set is that the minifigs and scenes provide a starting point for the creation of stories of a fantasy or historical nature, but really you could do the same with a couple of small Kingdoms or Pirates sets.

Price 6/10 – really this seems like an awful lot of money for not very much, and certainly nothing exclusive.  It’s tempting to want a large amount of minifigs, but for the same price you could get 20 Collectable Minifigs and, although you might get a few duplicates and wouldn’t be guaranteed female figs, the overall variety would be better.

Overall 63.3% – this is a somewhat disappointing collection (as it’s not really a set) that seems an expensive way to gain minifigs.  Even the yearly advent calendars have more interesting bits and pieces, and they are are good deal cheaper.  Given that even small impulse sets have a minifig or two usually, and will have more actual LEGO with which to build a scene, so I tend to think you’d probably be better off sticking to those.

Comments welcome.
For high-res images here's a link to my flickr.

Edited by Rufus, 22 July 2011 - 09:13 PM.
Indexed

[Sandy]

I whole-heartedly agree with your review of this set, Pandy.

For the potential of what it could've been, this set is highly disappointing. Most of the minifigs look like they're made up by a kid at the Build-A-Fig section of a Lego Store. Not only there are no unique and only a handful of rare pieces, the designs of the minifigs look cheap and lazy. The worst offender is the use of the older woman's face, which couldn't be called generic in any sense of the word, but is still used like it was.

I already have every single minifig piece from this set in my collection, so there is really zero incentive for me to buy this. It's really a shame, too, because if the designers had at least tried, this could've been a true moneymaker.

[Rick]

I really like the idea of the set, but it turned out too generic to get AFOLs excited. The use of only two different heads is really the worst offense. But you have to keep in mind this is designed by the Education division for use in schools. But yeah, it wouldn't have hurt the concept to make it both educational and increase the piece variety a little.

Pandora, on 02 June 2011 - 09:54 AM, said:

Now this is one of the oddest scenes (and that’s saying something).  From BrickLink, this female torso is listed as “Bride” (although it also appears as the Admiral’s daughter in the Pirates’ Chess Set), and the male outfit is a Town suit.  She has a bunch of flowers, so far so good, but he has... a morning star ready to stove her head in and a ladder to make good his escape?  Or is he a chimney sweep, with brush and ladder, but if so, why on this earth is he wearing a suit and a top hat.  Answers on a postcard, please. Aside from the oddity, they are a nice pair of figs, and it’s always nice to get a top-hat.

It's my favorite duo in the whole set. And apparently (especially in the UK!) it's considered good luck if a bride encounters a chimney sweep on her wedding day.

And it is the stereotypical chimney sweep outfit, isn't it?

[Pandora]

Sandy, on 02 June 2011 - 11:39 AM, said:

I already have every single minifig piece from this set in my collection, so there is really zero incentive for me to buy this. It's really a shame, too, because if the designers had at least tried, this could've been a true moneymaker.

Thanks Sandy!  It really wouldn't have taken too much effort to make the whole set a bit more interesting and thus more saleable.

Rick, on 02 June 2011 - 12:58 PM, said:

But you have to keep in mind this is designed by the Education division for use in schools.

It's my favorite duo in the whole set. And apparently (especially in the UK!) it's considered good luck if a bride encounters a chimney sweep on her wedding day.

Curse you and your encyclopaedic (or Wikipaedic) knowledge!   You are indeed correct, but I liked my serial killer version better!
Thanks for your comments, Rick.  I agree that this set is part of the Education line and that is clearly marked on the box to be fair, however it was on display for sale in my local LEGO shop, like any other set, and therefore puts itself forward to be judged like any other set.  The implication (that I fell for) was that there were a number of interesting and diverse minifigs together all in one set.  I would like people to have a good look at the contents up close if they are tempted to buy such a set.  Outside of that, evidently there is much any of us can learn from the set ( ) and it works well for that purpose.

[Blondie-Wan]

I'd agree this set doesn't quite work as a "set" with the minifigures kept as they are on their own, but in fairness I do think it offers excellent potential when combined with other elements in one's collection. Though none of the parts here are unique, their abundance in other sets is arguable; many of these parts aren't being offered in any other current sets, and many people will naturally have missed getting the other recent sets in which these components can be found, so I think this is still a (potentially) really useful parts pack for minifigures and accessories, along with a tiny smattering of desirable semi-basic bricks. I think the set is particularly desirable for the pirate elements (or soon will be, anyway), as the 2009 Pirates line continues its fade away from retail availability. I also particularly like it for the dark tan turban (otherwise available in this color only in a single Prince of Persia set, and how long can we expect that to hang around?), the tan fedora (otherwise available only in the "Community" counterpart to this set and two discontinued farm sets), and the critters, some of which are plentiful elsewhere but a couple of which aren't, really.

And if you'll forgive one more eensy quibble with the quibbles, there are actually three different head / face designs in the set, not just two... though it's also true skulls are hardly rare or difficult to come by.

Edited by Blondie-Wan, 02 June 2011 - 01:46 PM.

[Nightshroud99]

I don't believe this is worth buying at all. Way too expensive for a bunch of common figures (mostly) with the same heads...
Also why is there a female soldier?? That's not very educational given that back then women were not allowed to fight

[Big Cam]

Wonderful review, you are clearly one of the up and comers in the review business.

This is an interesting set.  It seems like a great deal but then all the faces are the same, and it really is only fig's.  I didn't even know this line existed until your review, so my verdict is out.

[Blondie-Wan]

Nightshroud99, on 02 June 2011 - 02:53 PM, said:

I don't believe this is worth buying at all. Way too expensive for a bunch of common figures (mostly) with the same heads...

It is expensive, but it's also still a good way to get figures - or rather, figure parts - that aren't that common (and are becoming less so, given that some of them come from sets that have recently been discontinued. One or two of them aren't common at all, actually - in what other current or even recent set can one get a plain yellow or sand blue torso?

Nightshroud99, on 02 June 2011 - 02:53 PM, said:

Also why is there a female soldier?? That's not very educational given that back then women were not allowed to fight

No, but given that the head is clearly not really suited for that hat anyway (because the alternate face is clearly visible all the way up to the eyes at the back of the head, if such a hat is used), I think it's really better viewed as a few additional minifigure parts rather than a minifigure, per se, even if TLG does show it put together this way on the box.

It is unfortunate there are so many of the same two heads - particularly the very specific, double-sided female head - but again, I still think it's overall a fairly valuable source of minifigure components, particularly for the fantastic / historic themes. I plan to get this.

[Nightshroud99]

Blondie-Wan, on 02 June 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

It is expensive, but it's also still a good way to get figures - or rather, figure parts - that aren't that common (and are becoming less so, given that some of them come from sets that have recently been discontinued. One or two of them aren't common at all, actually - in what other current or even recent set can one get a plain yellow or sand blue torso?

Yes, true but it really depends how much someone wants the torso's and figures, if only a few are needed, perhaps bricklink would be a better value  

[WhiteFang]

Brilliant review. Thank you Pandora.  

I will love to pick this Dacta set too as this is the very first time that we have got it in medieval style. Apart from the costly price, I think there is a certain value based on the parts assortment given. I really like the fact that there are 2 mermaids, and some wide range of medieval and pirates characters. Pretty interesting, if you ask me.

[Pandora]

Blondie-Wan, on 02 June 2011 - 01:42 PM, said:

And if you'll forgive one more eensy quibble with the quibbles, there are actually three different head / face designs in the set, not just two... though it's also true skulls are hardly rare or difficult to come by.

Blondie-Wan, on 02 June 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

It is expensive, but it's also still a good way to get figures - or rather, figure parts - that aren't that common (and are becoming less so, given that some of them come from sets that have recently been discontinued. I plan to get this.

Comments and questions (and quibbles!) are always welcome, and I agree that the skull is a different head, I just didn't view it as a minifig head.  It is a fair point, and I can see from your avatar you have a vested interest.
I'm glad that you view this set positively, and I'm also glad that my review has played a part in that, so thank you.

Nightshroud99, on 02 June 2011 - 02:53 PM, said:

I don't believe this is worth buying at all. Way too expensive for a bunch of common figures (mostly) with the same heads...

To be honest, that's pretty much the conclusion I reached, however I'm glad others have had the opportunity to see it up close and decide for themselves too.  I also agree with your later statement that BrickLink is good for a small number of parts, but I suppose it depends on what an individual is looking for.  Thank you for your comments.

Big Cam, on 02 June 2011 - 02:58 PM, said:

Wonderful review, you are clearly one of the up and comers in the review business.

This is an interesting set.  It seems like a great deal but then all the faces are the same, and it really is only fig's.  I didn't even know this line existed until your review, so my verdict is out.

Thanks Big Cam, you flatter me! I wonder if the sale of this set was just an anomaly to our local LEGO store, but it has given me an opportunity to find out more about the Education line, which does include some very sweet little sets.

[Gregorovich]

Thanks for the great review, Pandora!

Personally, this is a great set for me. There's a lot of parts I don't have but want (blonde braided hair, female head, mermaid parts, dresses, orange male hair, female pirate torso, jester hat, etc...), so it's good to get all those pieces in one set. However, I do agree with you all that the price is far too high for a set that doesn't have a single new/exclusive part. I also find it annoying that every fig has the same head depening on their gender (even if I don't have either of the heads, I still want some variety). And some of the part choices are very strange; a Kingdoms prince torso on a Snake Charmer, and a suit on a chimney sweep (thanks for lettin me know what he was meant to be, by the way!)?

All in all, I like the set a lot, but it's way overpriced.

Thanks again!

[Arigomi]

I'm guessing that the female juggler has a twirling baton rather than a barbell. If there was more than one of them, it could be argued that they were juggling sticks.

[KielDaMan]

When I first saw this minifigure set my initial reaction was "Wow, I need to have this as this is full of minifigs!" But after a closer look and seeing the male and female heads are almost the same, that was the deal-breaker for me. As much as I would want to get the various minifig torsos and accessories, I really wish there was more variety in the faces. Though I understand that this is an educational Dacta set intended for the kids and not for the demanding AFOL audience. Still, thanks for another wonderful review Pandora, it's always a pleasure reading your takes on sets and seeing those crispy-clear photos.

[Legoist]

2 - Below Average

For me it has too many cons to be worth:
- mix of various themes, some of which are discontinued (could be a pros or a cons, depending on the buyer)
- no new parts or parts in previously unavailable colours, or new prints
- standard male heads
- double-faced female heads (hate them)
- useless spare bricks
- fairly high price per minifig (considering that they are nothing special)

None of the above is a terrible cons, but enough not to leave any reason to buy this set.

Overall it looks like a bigger advent calendar with a mixed theme, but from a GOOD advent calendar I expect either good micro constructions (see the 2010 City calendar) or good assortment of themed useful accessories (see the 2010 Castle calendar). This set has no micro constructions, the few it has are really a joke. On the other hand the minifigs accessories are fine... but since it's a mixed-theme set then part of the usefulness is wasted, unless you dabble in a lot of themes at once.

[Pandora]

Thank you all very much for your interesting replies, and once again I'm glad to have provided an opportunity for this set to be seen in more detail.  
It's clear that there is a divide of opinion on this set (and indeed some debate as to whether it is a "set" ) and it is fascinating to read your individual opinions, so thank you all again.  

[SilentMode]

Great review of this set (which was far more humorous than mine). It looks like you've had the same kinds of issues with the figures and accessories as I have, and you've even given the same kind of score.

I bought both this set and the Town-themed set, and I definitely think now that the Town set is better value for money, overlooking my preference for the Town theme - but they are both horrendously overpriced, which made it difficult and painful to purchase them.

[The Yellow Brick]

Thanks for this fantastic review Pandora I must admit I'm not that impressed with this set compared to the town version they released. there are some great pieces in this set like the mermaid tale which can come in very useful when making MOC's. anyway thanks for the review.

[Pandora]

I didn't realise you had already reviewed it Silent Mode, I do apologise for not linking to your review or mentioning it, but this was done as part of my studies in the Reviewers Academy.

It seems great minds think alike eh?  

I don't have the Town set, but I shall look carefully at it before purchasing, and it's good to hear it compares favourably.

Thanks guys.

[SilentMode]

Pandora, on 03 June 2011 - 01:27 PM, said:

I didn't realise you had already reviewed it Silent Mode, I do apologise for not linking to your review or mentioning it, but this was done as part of my studies in the Reviewers Academy.

No apology required!

[Darkdragon]

Great review  

When I first saw this set and the city/town version I wanted them both. However once the larger photos were out I realized that this set is pretty bad.  Yes some of those torsos were only available in limited sets (ie the prince from advent) or expensive sets (ie bride from grand emporium) - but it really falls down when you look and see that only one of the "princess" type torsos is including the matching dress slope. None of the legs are printed   and as you noted the heads are horrible. I don't mind the "new classic smiley" which is the basic head I am starting to see everywhere, but that female face with the wrinkles and beauty mark is something else - there better choices for "female smiley" out there already.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I did get the city version of the minifigs set and I like it. It has lots of cool accessories and I think you should definitely check it out if you haven't already (green bike, dark brown cat, and laptop are my favorites).  

[Pingles]

Interesting reactions to this set.

I bought this without reading the review and am very happy with it.

I suppose I am the target audience for this set.  I bought it to help with some play sessions with my young daughter.

This set was a great way for me to get many types of figures without buying hundreds of dollars of sets.

And we even got a treasure chest!  It will replace the one I built with random bricks and a hinge.  

It truly is a valuable addition for playing.

[22kane]

A very good and honest review. I saw this at the Lego store and was blown away by the price. It really comes down to about $2.50 per figure but they are not the best figures to begin with. If they were more detailed with a bit more personality like the collectible minifigs that would be another thing. Many of these figures are similar to the ones that were around when I left Lego the first time almost 20 years ago. It's just not worth the price.

[The Lego Wizard]

LOL! You didn`t put the cape on the king!

[Hinckley]

Everything I have to say about this review, I've blogged.