Darkdragon Posted October 30, 2021 Posted October 30, 2021 Even in our holiday decorations, be it lining our shelves or covering our Christmas trees, many fans of LEGO like to add some brightly color creations to join the classic decorations. This year LEGO has released two small sets that fill both of these decorating needs. I'll be taking a close look at each set right here before your very eyes! First up we have a set with two ornaments! A cute wrapped gift and an adorable polar bear in a scarf. Read on for more details! Basic info of the set Set no.: 71363Name: Polar Bear & Gift PackTheme: SeasonalSubtheme: ChristmasYear: 2021 Pieces: 142Minifigs: 0Age group: 7+Price: £8.99 / $9.99 / 9.99€Price per part: 6.3p / 7.0c / 7.0cLinks: Bricklink, Brickset, LEGO S@H The Box A relatively small box, as one might expect for the low price. The photos on the box are true to life and not embellished at all with a cute Christmas tree-like branch in the background. The set I have does have the standard age, set number, and parts count all on the front. The back has a reverse photo of the gift but not of the bear, the bear is still facing forward. Kinda strange but not horrible. The Booklet & Stickers It's your standard booklet for this size set. The image is the same one from the front of the box. Disappointingly to some, it does include a sticker sheet. I will note that the stickers are pretty nice and I decided not to use them in the review for a few reasons but mostly because I like using them for MOCs generally speaking (gold and green trimmed bedspread anyone?). The Parts There are three un-numbered bags of parts in this set. One of the bags has a secretive white box in it! Since the bags weren't in any sort of logical order, I just dumped them all out and sorted them as one group. There are a lot of parts of all types in here. You'll see some bricks and plates with Technic holes which is unusual as well as lots of white slopes and a whole grip of modified 2x2 tile-with-two-studs! For anyone building in red or white, this set has some great parts. Now let's open up that white box and see what's inside... Ah hah! They thought to include hanger strings for the ornaments. That means we don't have to dig out the little wires from last year's broken baubles. How thoughtful! The Build Being a 7+ set, you'd expect the builds to be pretty simple and they are. There are two builds of course, and both are SOLID. I mean wow, these things could fall off the tree and probably not break. Around the middle of each build we see what those Technic bricks, plates and pins are for - creating the holder for the string. This is a very solid way to hang the ornaments, much better than the connections I made on my ornament balls in the past. There were a few spare parts left at the end of building both ornaments. The usual suspects. The Finished Product After a short time you've got two cute ornaments to add to your tree, or wreath, or whatever you like! Even without the stickers, I find the gift really cute. If there is anything I would have loved to see done differently it's the red clips. They do a decent job making the ribbon flow around each side and into a sort of bow but the red clips really throw me off. Green clips here would have been Amazing! Oh my gosh, he's so cute! I kinda want to build his whole body but even as just a head this polar bear is adorable. I'm not 100% sold on the grey muzzle but that scarf is perfect. The Final Verdict Design: 9/10 These cute ornaments are wonderfully designed. They are solid and balanced, great size for hanging on a tree and even include the strings. Parts: 7/10 The parts are nice. There are some cool modern parts and lots of slopes. The score is a little lower just because of the lack of what many would consider "usable" colors, and by many I mean me. Build: 7/10 A simple set and a simple build. There was nothing groundbreaking here, but I wouldn't expect major NPU with a set like this anyway. Playability: 5/10 I know I know, it's a low score. There really is no playability with this set, it's not designed for it! You can decorate with it, I give it a 10/10 for decoratability! Price: 8/10 The price is pretty good for two tree ornaments. If there are any left for clearance sales in January this will be an excellent parts pack for anyone that builds with red or white. Overall: 36/50 Not a bad score at all. This would be a great GWP for December or a great stocking stuffer - except that it might be too late to hang ornaments on Christmas morning. Overall a cute set and a nice build. This could be really fun as a Christmas Eve or even Thanksgiving family time build! It's simply not winter without some snowy LEGO decorations on your shelf (or the china cabinet at my house). The Christmas Penguin set fills that seasonal void wonderfully. Basic info of the set Set no.: 40498Name: Christmas PenguinTheme: SeasonalSubtheme: ChristmasYear: 2021 Pieces: 244Minifigs: 0Age group: 8+Price: £13.49 / $14.99 / 14.99€Price per part: 5.5p / 6.1c / 6.1cLinks: Bricklink, Brickset, LEGO S@H The Box The front of the box is simple with an unaltered photo of the completed set. In the background are some little paper snowflakes which in hindsight are possible foreshadowing. What's really strange is that there is no parts count and almost no extra text at all on the front. The back of the box is interesting! There are three other similar size seasonal sets shown. After building this one and seeing the secret (more on that later), I want to get ahold of these other sets and see if they too have secrets! The back also explains the singular play feature of the set. The Booklet It's probably what you'd expect from a set like this. On the really good side NO STICKERS. There are also no printed parts though. The Parts Four bags, not numbered. There are nearly twice as many parts in this set as compared to the ornaments, so I have sorted each bag individually for the photos. So in this set I was not as impressed with types of parts but with COLORS. Oh boy, there are some beauts! The bright light yellow 2x4 tiles! The 1x2x2 with studs on three sides in bright orange! And to top it all off, sparkly shiny opal blue dots! The Build First you build the snowy icy base for the penguin to stand on. It's a really nice and simple yet complex piece. There is a secret inside, and I don't want to ruin it for you without you knowing I'm ruining it so I am putting the whole thing in a spoiler tag! OMG IT'S A HIDDEN SNOWFLAKE! Once the base is done we build the all mighty giant penguin. After that will be the gifts and tiny tree, or regular sized tree with giant gifts. What I'd like to know is do the designers have small set wars? Why would I even ask that? I'll tell you why, this is another insanely solid build, like you could chuck it across the room and maybe the eye feathers would fall off or a foot and that'd be it. There was something that made me sad while build it though. Do you remember how much I love all the colors? All the wonderful bright colors...they HID them all. ALL OF THEM. On the good side I can replace all these amazing parts with boring ones from my collection. Maybe that was another secret gift like the one in the spoiler above. The Finished Product There we have it all done and giving you a little wave. What do you think about this set? The Final Verdict Design: 9/10 I love this set's design! The ice and snow stand, the penguin himself, even the little tree. It's all a great decoration for your winter wonderland. Parts: 8/10 I may have mentioned this earlier, the COLORS. At first you look at the box and just see black and white but then you look at the bags and BAM you got colors. Unique colors! I love it. Build: 7/10 Pretty nice build overall. I like the way they did the wings to make them moveable but not detract from the rounded shape of the penguin's body. Playability: 7/10 There is some playability here! His wings move and he can swivel on the little turntable. It's not much but it gives a bit of posing ability to a nice little statue decoration. Price: 8/10 Did you see that price per part? Pretty sweet deal. I would not mind an army of these guys! Overall: 39/50 This too would be a great GWP (hint hint to you TLG). It would make a great small gift as well, could leave it up until spring on the shelf. Quote
AlexxInc Posted October 30, 2021 Posted October 30, 2021 Great review on these two sets! Over everything I really like the penguin because it resembles the Rock Hopper species. Happy Halloween Quote
Redhead1982 Posted October 31, 2021 Posted October 31, 2021 Great review. I was sold on the Polar Bear & Gift Pack ornaments and bought them when I first saw them in a store. I'm not a big fan of decorating for holidays, but I really like these ornaments, and plan to use them during the holidays. Quote
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