REVIEW: 75583 Minions and Gru's Family Mansion

[Pchan1983]

Here is my review on LEGO Despicable Me 4 75583 Minions and Gru's Family Mansion:

THE GOOD:

• Manison exterior captures the look of the house in film fairly well.
• Includes the whole Gru's family.
• The MEGA minions are surprisingly cool.
• The tree house is actually a good small set if released separately.

THE NOT SO GOOD:

• Gru still doesn't look like Gru.
• The mansion has no side walls.

Luckily our local toy stores dropped this early with 15% off, as someone who loved the sets from Minions few years ago, this is a no brainer purchase.  When this set was announced, I was very skeptical on the build and turns out I was right.  The mansion does capture the look of Gru's house in the film but this is a complete facade type build focused in play features given the target audience.  In that aspect, it succeed.  For those who wishes something like the Disney Up house, then you will be disappointed on the mansion it self as it doesn't even have side walls.  Having said that, some of the play features inside the house are pretty stunning.  Some highlights are the rotatable pillars with toilet and different equipment, Gru's throne, and the kid's bed.  Although the bed looks authentic but it's way too big interms of the scale of the house.  With the current set up, it will be a great challenge for those who wants to build a complete Gru's mansion.  Now the tree house, I actually find this a way more interesting build and more satisfied in the end product compared to the mansion.  It has a working zip line and I was impressed on how well the decoration on the tree trunk is attached.  Even it's enhanced for playability, it feels more complete as a set compare to the mansion.  But hey, to be honest, most of us would be buying this for the minions.  This set doesn't include normal minions but only includes MEGA minions.  Will have to wait until I've seen the film before I know the story but the MEGA minions are great, so obvious they played homage to the fantastic 4.  In terms of other minifigures, it's great this set pretty much included the whole Gru's clan.  I wish the dog Kyle is also included but I guess LEGO ran out of budget for an extra new mould.  Gru still has issue without his iconic nose but give he is an middle age man in this settings, makes more sense to use adult legs compared to the Minions's Gru who was a kid and still use adult torso.  Lucy is the highlight from the rest of the minifigure with an excellent secondary face print, the girls are great too but I wish they have use the mid legs for Mayo instead.  If you are into minions, this is definitely a set for you but otherwise it's ok to skip if you don't care about this IP.