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Hello everyone, What is this mysterious LEGO Architecture package? Read on to find out! Revealing the latest 21021 Marina Bay Sands Architecture Set I am really very pleased to bring this exclusive new review to our Eurobricks Community. Special thanks to The LEGO Group (TLG) and Eurobricks Staff/LEGO Ambassador, CopMike for facilitating and giving me this exclusive opportunity to review this superb new LEGO Architecture set! Before I was given this chance to review, I was determined to buy this set as soon as it is available locally, so I can also do a review of this new iconic architecture that is the first international feature of my country, Singapore. Without further ado, let's bring you a tour of this newly acclaimed building structure. Before I begin in proper, some of you is wondering why the first two opening images look particularly unique as compared with the mainstream release. It is because this is a special edition for very special release for publicity purpose and it will not be available at retail front. The content is the same but the packaging is very different. Other than that, the main focus is the LEGO set itself. Name: 21021 Marina Bay Sands (Republic of Singapore) Theme: LEGO Model Making / Architecture Year: 2014 Pieces: 602 Minifigs: 0 minifigure Price: USD N.A, GBP N.A, EURO N.A, SGD $89.90 Resources: Brickset, BrickLink An original box image of the 21021 Marina Bay Sands (Republic of Singapore) Back view of the original box image of the 21021 Marina Bay Sands (Republic of Singapore) By seeing the front and back of this box image, has certainly impressed me very much. The packaging for the LEGO Architecture products is very remarkable and is of the usual high standard that we have seen earlier. There are lots of details that can be found in the front and back. At one easy glance, you could have realised that this building, Marina Bay Sands is designed by the famous architect, Moshe Safdie. The box even reflect his signature. This iconic building landmark is designed by the LEGO Architectural Artist, Rok Zagalin Kobe. His name can be found at the front of the box, located at the bottom left hand corner. In this image, you will be able to view a very brief description touching on the Marina Bay Sands. Different side view of the original box image of the 21021, Image 1 Different side view of the original box image of the 21021, Image 2 Different side view of the original box image of the 21021, Image 3 Different side view of the original box image of the 21021, Image 4 The very first Singapore Landmark which is being featured by The LEGO Architecture Product Line The Marina Bay Sands is a state of the art modern day marvel, even with its bricks built design. Through the LEGO Architecture Series, TLG has officially iconise the first ever Singapore building landmark into the world of LEGO, which I am very proud to associate with. As you may have recall that there was a poll even though the poll link seem to be in non-existence, conducted by TLG, one of the choices was the Marina Bay Sands and I was very pleased that the choice that I have voted for, has actualised into a formal product offering in this series later this year. I was thrilled and elated by the results in early February 2013, when news that the Marina Bay Sands won the poll. The Marina Bay Sands is a model of a Singapore recent new landmark. The building is a hotel by itself, and is an integral part of the beautiful Singapore's city skyline which is mesmerising at day and night. The LEGO building model focuses on the signature hotel complex that showcases the three tall towers and the rooftop Sands Skypark. The building dimensions for the LEGO building model is measured at 224mm length and 136mm height. The official information for the Marina Bay Sands is as followed, first opened in 2010, the Marina Bay Sands is the leading business, leisure and entertainment destination in Asia. It features large and flexible convention and exhibition facilities, 2560 hotel rooms and suites, casino (one of its two in Singapore), the rooftop Sands Skypark, shopping mall, celebrity chief restaurants and an outdoor event plaza. Its two theatres showcase a range of leading entertainment performances including world-renowned Broadway shows. Completing the line-up of attractions is ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands which play hosts to permanent and marquee exhibitions. You may visit the official website for more information. This 21021 Marina Bay Sands is marketed as Limited Edition. From my understanding, there is only 10,000 sets produced and is rumoured only to be exclusive for sales in Singapore. As of now, I can tell you that all of the local toy retailers and even the Marina Bay Sands gift shop is currently out of stock. Apparently, the first shipment had been wipe cleaned off the shelves and I am glad to manage to be able to grab a few before it is totally out of stock. I do believe that there will be a second shipment but I am not sure how or when it will ever appear again. Because I don't believe that all 10,000 sets had been wiped clean in Singapore 'for good' in this single shipment within less than two weeks of retail sales. I really hope there will be more stock appearing, because it will be a huge disappointment for many LEGO Architecture fans especially to our international friends. I also heard that the set is available in Hong Kong, and perhaps in other parts of Asia as well. I sure look forward to see more of these sets appearing in other places, than Singapore. Enjoy your building experience There is lots of hype and anticipation when I opened this! It look as if the packaging is communicating with me and it is definitely effective, when it convey such a simple message across to my mind. I will certainly enjoy this building experience that I have been waiting for. The content of the sealed box Within the sealed box, it comes with five packages and a beautiful instruction manual to build up the set. It also come with a single promotional leaflet which feature the recent LEGO Architecture highlights and a survey request by TLG. I will encourage you to do your part and send your feedback to this survey if you happen to buy the LEGO Architecture series. I am sure the LEGO Architecture design team is keen to find out your thoughts on your latest purchase. The construction materials As you can see from above, it is a good assortment of white and transparent blue bricks that form the main building structure, while the dark and light grey form the building foundation. Let's see how this building transform itself in LEGO bricks. I like the part, that the Marina Bay Sands is feature as a printed tile which is shown in the next image. The beginning of the construction of Marina Bay Sands Laying the building foundation The various dark grey flat tiles, mainly 2x4 size, are placed in a systematic manner that laid the foundation of this building structure. Front view of a single tower This building component form the main structure of a single tower. We will be repeating these steps for the other two towers as well and combined them shortly. As of now, it only show the half-completed tower of the front building. As you rotate to the back, you will see many of these white grids. These are the illustration of the hotel rooms balconies. The bottom of the walkway of the building show the connection of the base from one end to another. Back view of a single tower All of the three towers together ready to be constructed This is the back view of the building structure which depict the hotel rooms There are individual supporting layers within each towers We also need to create these three individual supporting layers that are meant to be placed within each towers to represent the different floors from within the towers. This is the design of the glass front of the building structure Now you add in the main design of the glass front onto the individual towers with numerous levels of transparent blue to show the glass levels accordingly. From the actual building design, I personally felt that this design is lacking of, is the gradual curves of the three towers. It is not as perfect as I hope it will be, but at one glance, people can still instantly recognise it as the Marina Bay Sands. Placing the glass windows onto the building front Building the top level of the building structure After completing the three towers, we will turn our attention to the top level that will be featuring the Sands Skypark and within the attraction, you will probably noticed the Infinity Swimming Pool from the top aerial view. It is amazing to swim in such a spectacular scenery which is 57 stories above ground floor and enjoying the Singapore's city skyline. Front view of the Marina Bay Sands Back view of the Marina Bay Sands Top view of the Marina Bay Sands This is the side entrance of the building It appears to be an exit shelter Black and White feature The base and the building structure can be removed as two distinct pieces Lining up the Marina Bay Sands building structure Some of the nice pictures of the real Marina Bay Sands The completed building can be kept safely into the original box At the end of the day by separating the two distinct pieces away, I will be able to keep this whole set nicely in the original nice packaging for storage. I wasn't feeling so well lately and I failed to take a good picture of the actual LEGO set with the scenery behind. I am planning to take a picture within the next few weeks! The weather was not very good lately due to the rainy season. Still, I will love to get an actual shot from my camera together with the completed built. I will keep all of you posted later on. To conclude, I am very pleased with this LEGO Architecture of the Marina Bay Sands. This deserved a very special place in my own collection, especially since this is my second LEGO Architecture set that I own, after the 21006 White House. I like how the designer capture the essence of this whole building design and present it in our favourite LEGO bricks. Even though the gradual curves are not captured perfectly for the three towers, but the overall appeal is very nicely done up and it made as a fine masterpiece to placed in a display cabinet. Not to mention, that I am proud to see a Singapore building landmark being made into my favourite toy hobby, LEGO and to showcase this icon to the global scene. I really wish to see more of other Singapore landmarks being able to capture in the LEGO Architecture series. Summary review Playability: 7/10 (LEGO Architecture sets can't played well with regular LEGO System sets because of the lack of the minifigures.) Design: 8.5/10 (The design is done up very nicely and it is almost perfect, minus the imperfection of the gradual curves for the towers.) Price: 7.5/10 (The set is a little pricey and furthermore with the 10,000 sets released worldwide, will expect the price to rose further in the secondary market.) Overall: 7.7/10 (Complete your LEGO Architecture series and don't give this set a miss, for Singapore fans, you ought to grab this iconic landmark by showing your support for it.) I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours? I hope every one of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Criticisms are strongly welcomed. Pictures can be found in My Flickr and My Brickshelf (When moderated)

I've recently come out of my dark ages and back into collecting my favorite childhood toy, Legos. My favorites as a child were always castle, pirate, and city. Now as I get older I find my interest is primarily in castle and pirate and creating large scenes and landscapes related to those. Anyway that's my short into, now to the good stuff in this post, my review of the lego store in Troy, MI (I live in Grand Rapids, MI so Troy is the closest one). Went today (9/6). I will rate the store 1-10 on 3 categories: staff, pick a brick wall, build a mini fig kiosk. Staff: 9 - pleasant, helpful, one even went in back to see if they had any mini fig weapons as the kiosk was out. Patient and nice despite being busy on a Saturday. Pick a brick wall: 7.5 - nice selection of bricks if you are interested in building landscapes or a fort or castle, light blue grey, dark blue grey, light tan, red brown, green bricks and plates. I bought up all the 1x1x4 light blue grey bricks (wish they had more). Would have liked to see more tiles selections. Mini fig kiosk: 2 - terrible selection, almost all figs were construction workers or women, I bought all the pirate soldier torsos I could which was 5. No muskets, bought 1 cutlas, no additional hats, epaulettes, backpacks, or medieval weapons or armor or helmets. A few kingdoms lion knights torsos but no matching legs. In comparison to the mini fig kiosk in northbrook mall (n chicago) this paled in comparison. I will post a review of northbrook soon. Overall I give the Troy location a 6.33. This could be improved however if they improve the mini fig kiosk. I will email lego my to make them aware of this.

For several years now, CREATOR has carried the flag for LEGO housing; CITY dwellers are presumably meant to sleep in their caravans or fire engines unless they are lucky enough to have a Modular Building for a domicile, or only sleep in buildings that have snow on them. I suspect this is a deliberate move by The LEGO Group; the CREATOR 3-in-1 mantra provides versatility in design, and might perhaps provoke multiple purchases to enable a bit of variety in one's Town layout, or at least an affordable source of house parts. The last bona fide CITY residence was 8403 City House in 2010; this year's CREATOR range will boast no less than three minifigure-scaled dwellings, if you include the rather offbeat 31010 Treehouse; let's take a look at the first to be released, the modestly-named Small Cottage. Review: 31009 Small Cottage Set Information Name: Small Cottage Number: 31009 Theme: CREATOR Release: 2013 Parts: 271 Figures: 1 Price: GB £19.99 | US $24.99 | EUR 24.99 - 27.99 | AU $39.99 | CA $29.99 | DKK 299.95 Links ... Shop@Home ... Brickset ... Bricklink ... Peeron (not yet listed) The Box Click for a larger full-frontal image The CREATOR logo shamelessly obscures part of the model on this square box; the set itself is captured from its best angle. The usual blue CREATOR background is enhanced by faint bushes and trees, framing the cottage and setting the 'countryside' scene indicated by the official set description; it wouldn't otherwise be obvious. Two insets in the CREATOR yellow don't even try to frame the two alternative models. The box 'feels' like good value; it is larger than similarly-priced sets from many other themes, and weightier, though the latter may be due to the instruction manuals. More bushes flank the alternatives, which are showcased with their features on the box rear: Click for a larger image The box artist has done well to show all three distinctly without overlap; the space has been used very well. You'll notice that Thumbs are required to open this box. I used a knife; but, to be fair, this still required thumbs. Despite the inclusion of a minifigure, it's a three-part lantern that decides the scale on the box top: The troublesome gradient behind the inventory persists: why do they put the light-coloured parts in the light corner, and the dark ones in the dark corner? Of the other sides, the left-hand is the most interesting: The two lesser models feature here, with a multi-lingual explanation of '3 in 1' if it weren't already clear. Unusually, the 'Small Parts' warning features on the right-hand side rather than the bottom. Out of the box fall four polybags, three instruction manuals ... and a 16x16 full-thickness plate in Bright Green. It's shown here because I forgot to include it in the Parts section. The Instructions Three smart manuals each have shiny, quality covers; no indication is given as to build difficulty or order, either on the covers or inside. The only information inside the front cover is the new 'sort your bricks!' cartoon. I've assumed that the model order is the primary build, the Small Cottage on the cover; then the Windmill; then the other house, which is called a 'Skater's House' in the official blurb which also uses this order. There's no other indication that this is the 'correct' order; in fact the box art might suggest the smaller models should be reversed; but for clarity and consistency I will refer to the models and their respective manuals as 1, 2, and 3 in this order. The other two manuals are similar: Click the thumbs for larger images More monochrome bushes feature on the covers; different in each case reflecting the change in perspective. The steps are clear and simple. Piece call-outs ask for an average of three to four parts per step: I only encountered one point where the placement of a brick wasn't clear, which will be indicated later; it was of no consequence in any case. Advertisements for other CREATOR sets feature prominently; book one promotes the excellent 7346 Seaside House and 31004 Eagle on their own pages, akong with a composite of several sets on the back cover; I was a little surprised at the choice of 31008 Thunder Wings for the full-page treatment at the back of book three, considering it has what I would consider a rather different market than the houses might attract. Manual one also contains the inventory; see page 1 and page 2. The Parts Hope you weren't expecting Technic. Actually, there are two Technic plates, but otherwise the inclusion is mostly basic bricks and plates. There is great selection of dark blue roof slopes: not quite as good as 5891 Apple Tree House (which, incredibly, is still available, in the UK at least) but still most welcome. Door and window parts are always useful. The bright green 6x6 plate hasn't been seen since early noughties Belville. The smaller part collection is dominated by basic red bricks. We used most of ours building a Toadstool, so I'm not complaining. I got very excited by the inverted bracket when I reviewed the new UCS X-Wing, not knowing I had one in this set which I've owned, unopened, for at least two months. Otherwise, the tiles will always be useful, and I appreciate the inclusion of earth blue cheese slopes. The Minifigure CREATOR houses have included figures since Log Cabin in 2011; they are rarely anything to write home about, and this one is no exception: I'd sooner have had a classic smiley, but I expect TLG have done their market research and presumably kids want more expression. Rather surprisingly, the face isn't that common: appearing only in a couple of basic brick sets, a seasonal CREATOR, and the Winter Village Cottage, along with a few promotional minifigure collections. The entire figure, replete with skateboard, is found the Watford UK store opening set. I'm going to call him Chet. He has an American Preppy look. Not sure if Chet is an appropriate name for a skateboarding, sausage-sucking, drink-spilling preppy, but Chet it is. Model 1 - Small Cottage The primary build is quite a beauty! A surprising amount of detail has been crammed into this cute little cottage. The colour scheme is pretty, with stripes of white and light bluish-grey adding texture and the appearance of height to the red walls; the dark blue roof is smart and features an attractive gable. The yellow door provides a further splash of colour, and is set off nicely by the dark blue cheesy awning. A SNOT-mounted lantern, tiled step and flowerpot - the last typically formed from colourful 1x1 rounds in CREATOR style - add a welcoming aura to the entrance. Note the dark tan plate with rail forming a neat sill under the gable window. I'd like to have seen the roof apex 'finished' with double-slopes - like on the venerable Apple Tree House - but the studded top does help to round it off in a more 'cottagey' style, I suppose. Another window sill sits under the double-height window on the right-hand side; this wall is otherwise featureless ... ... except for the plate-hinges which suggest an opening section for access to the inside. Click the picture for a straight view. The opposite face is far more interesting. Big full-length French windows are the main source of light into the modest internal space, and one slides open - in one of the rare instances of the 1x8 plates with wide rail being used for their intended purpose. We'll see the barbecue in more detail later, but this is a good moment to point out the chimney. Dark bluish-grey and tan are used to add texture to the stone, and slopes gradually angle the flue; the stack sits just off the centre of the roof, but the slopes imply that the chimney is continuous. It's rather pretty; sure, it doesn't use headlight bricks and tiles to add depth like we see on the Winter Village sets, but for a little CREATOR set, I think it's been done quite tastefully. The back of the chimney is squared off nicely, and forms the boundary to the opening rear wall: The dark grey plate with vertical pole forms a little handle, which allows the whole - and otherwise plain - wall to open. You can also see that there's another gable window - replete with sill - on this side. The wall swings back, allowing Chet to sit in his swivelly chair ... ... and preventing adult hands from having to squeeze through the narrow space afforded by the sliding window. In the opening corner is a little table - rather optimistically called 'drawers' in the promotional text - with a lamp of unusual design. It's basic, but at least there's furniture! Though I hope the chair is comfortable, as Chet doesn't appear to have a bed. If the opening wall isn't enough, the whole roof comes off easily: This is great for play access to the interior, even if there isn't that much to do in there. I'd quite like to have seen a bunk bed, or something. Sadly, there is too little space in the roof structure to add any features up there; this is partly because larger bricks have been used than is strictly necessary, in order to allow for the alternative builds. Maybe Chet sleeps in the garden; certainly the little pond obviates the need for a bathroom. The pond is incredibly simple, but still rather effective; the slopes and green plates are somewhat successful in providing an illusion that the pond surface is lower than that of the lawn. I do like the fence. Barbecues seem to be an essential feature of CREATOR houses: Seaside House, Hillside House, Log Cabin, Beach House, and Lighthouse Island have all featured outdoor cookery in various guises. The tradition continues: Chet enjoys his sausage with a cup of something. I'd have appreciated a little clip to attach sausage or 'fork'; you can clip the fork to the plate with bar under the grille, but then there's nowhere to put the sausage. I guess Chet can just hold it while he goes 'boarding. Cottage Verdict: This is a remarkably pretty little cottage, designed to look very smart despite a limited part selection. The opening door, window, and wall section; swivel chair, barbecue and skateboard provide minor play features, but it is in the creation of a beautiful house and garden scene from very simple parts and techniques that this model excels. Model 2 - Diminutive Windmill Hats off to the designer's imagination for including a windmill among the alternatives, even if the execution is a little too simplistic. To be fair, this isn't its best angle; the mismatched colours of the opening side look a little jarring here. I do like the design of the chimney flue, though. Not so on the opposite side with the door; the double white stripe continues above the door here. I'm not so keen on the use of red 1x1 round plates in the central stripe, but at least they are used symmetrically; I'd rather see normal 1x1 plates even is it would result in square flowers in the other builds! The big windows aren't used in this build; instead, four small windows let in some light. A 1x2 brick with frictionless pin - not used in the other builds - allows the windmill to spin ... ... which it manages to do for less than the eight second exposure of this shot. It might have helped a little if I'd built it correctly - the white tiles and red plates should have rotational symmetry. Of course, an effecive windmill would have sails that capture the wind; these barely extend beyond the face of the mill. I do like the minor landscaping detail which, coupled with regularly spaced tiles, makes an attractive path up to the door ... ... beyond which we see a hint of some inside detail. From the front, note again the dark bluish-grey brick which looks a little out of place, and the rather-too-short sails: The back is more interesting than you might imagine: here, the dark tan rail-plates make a little ladder - spaced a brick apart using a technique which might be instructive to less experienced builders - even if it doesn't really lead anywhere. Again a red round plate looks a little incongruous, but not nearly so as the trans-orange one at the bottom of the ladder. Again, the back opens, revealing the inside detail and a eyebrow-raising blue floor: If you don't like the floor, there's a bright green plate you can use instead; maybe blue is better. The white cones are, I presume, bags of flour, although you'd be forgiven for thinking they are milk bottles. It isn't clear from the instructions how exactly to place the SNOT 2x2 round brick onto the wall; I've chosen to use its centre anti-stud as it is a better connection, even though it's now off-centre to the other 2x2 round brick. Like the primary build, the windmill's roof is detachable: The roof section is a very uncomplicated stack of bricks. I'd have thought the black plate with bar at the top of the opening wall section would have been better facing out, at the top of the ladder. Windmill Verdict: A novel idea, though a little disappointing in the flesh. This is by far the weakest of the builds, though its spinning sails might appeal to younger builders. Model 3 - Modest House The final build is another cottage, but this one is long and thin, and there's a good reason for this: it folds! TLG calls this a 'skater's house' - that well-known phenomenon. We'll see why it's call that in due course (and not just because of the skateboard. ) With the house folded out like this, the chimney forms an attractive buttress adding to the 'cottagey' feel. In this and the first view, you can see that the large windows form the end walls; they are topped by the 1x4 arches, which I guess form an architectural feature, but it isn't entirely successful. I'm not sure why the arches were included in the set; apart from introducing a little variety to the red bricks, they don't really add anything to the designs at any point. From the front, you can see how again the wall-mounted lantern welcomes you, and this time there is a little garden tap, though it's a little close to the ground. I'm not sure why the doorknob is a dark blue cheese slope; there are plenty of black 1x1 rounds to do the job a little better, but maybe this is due to show that other parts can be used for this in your MOCs in the unlikely event you've run out of rounds plates. Now for the money shot: Closing the house brings the two large windows together; they look great, but this emphasises the oddity of the arches. I wonder if the blue 'pond' plate might have been better placed in front of the further window. The plain wall formed by closing the model again suffers from an incongruous round plate in its construction. The light bley bottom layer is nicely continuous; the chimney bley intrudes a little far into the wall, but I can live with this: it looks suitably rustic. Chet retains his swivel chair to warm his feet by the lounge fire, but he still doesn't have a bed. This time he does have somewhere to keep his fork (if that's what it is there), but it's all for nothing, because he doesn't have anything to cook. Not a sausage. And that's because his sausage has been employed elsewhere: Nice part usage!! the sausage forms the stem of an angled desk lamp. Super! Shame it's a red light. What do you get up to in the evenings, Skater Boi? Anyhoo, in daylight, he likes to practice his skateboarding tricks, and the house has a means to help him: The plate with rail is a ledge for him to do that thing that I've seen skateboarders do on MTV. Apparently, according to TLG, this is called 'grinding'. Who knew? Skater's House Verdict: There's something refreshing about this little house, which achieves far more than just the folding mechanism would imply. It's cute, it's quaint; it's ... somehow familiar, reminding me quite strongly of some old classics: Here we have the Skater House next to veteran sets 6370 Weekend Home, from 1985, and 376 Town House, from as early as 1978. They're really not too different. Stick a moulded tree and some flowers onto 31009, and you've got a Classic Town set in all but name. Conclusion You know, I really like this cute little set. It's simple, unpretentious; it looks great, with a pretty colour scheme, and there's a bundle of useful house parts for creating your own little town buildings, from homes for your myriad CITY workers to trackside structures for Train fans (I can see an opportunity for a signal box, though you might not want a blue roof). There may not be much in the way of technicality in the build, and play functions are little lacking; the skateboard probably appeals to the kids in this respect, but I'd rather have had a bicycle. As a standalone, it might not compete so well with the slightly cheaper 'action' CREATOR sets; however, it fills a niche that's been lacking now for years: an affordable home that will fit into any Town layout. Design & Build 8 A pretty though simple set, it lacks a little in the build compared to other CREATOR sets, but it's great to look at. Not so much the windmill, perhaps. I'm impressed with the effect of the simple landscaping to create garden features and gradients, and the smart use of colours in the two house builds. Parts 9 Dark blue roof pieces, including corner slopes; large and small windows; and a variety of basic bricks and plates in useful colours make this a great parts pack. I'd consider buying mutliples of this to make a big house. Figures 6 Chet isn't the most exciting dude to be included in a LEGO set. He has a rare-ish face, but I doubt you'd be buying this set for the figure alone! Playability 7 There are a number of good play features; I suspect this set might appeal more to girls than boys, unless they are all entranced by Friends; the somewhat anathematic skateboard might have been included to swing this appeal the other way. Couple the set with some CITY and the playability multiples. Value 10 Part for penny, the CREATOR range is always good value; at £20 for 271 useful pieces, this is a bargain. Couple it with two attractive houses, and ooooh so much potential, and it's a no-brainer. Overall 80% My Score 9/10 Classic Town lives on, in a modern CREATOR-fied form. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the review. Please take the time to comment! Rufus My flickr Set Other CREATOR House Reviews 4954 Town House by Siegfried 4956 House by alex54 4996 Beach House by def 6754 Family Home by Matn 5891 Apple Tree House by def 5766 Log Cabin by The Brickster 5770 Lighthouse Islandby Pandora 5771 Hillside House by Rufus 7346 Seaside House by Pandora I you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:

Hello, and welcome to my review of the brand new Architecture Studio set, 21050 Create Your Own Architecture. First of all, I would like to thank The LEGO Group and all of those who are involved on Eurobricks who've made this review possible. This is a very exclusive set that has just been released in the United States (and is rumored to appear worldwide soon), and I'm sure many are curious to know the details. Well look no further, because this review will investigate this new set in-depth. Read on! Set: 21050 Create Your Own Architecture Theme: Architecture (Studio) Pieces: 1210 Minifigures: 0 Price: $149.99 USD Brickset Bricklink Catalog The Box The first thing to notice about this set is that the box is HUGE. Unlike most boxes, this one has square sides, which make it larger depth-wise. It is also sizable length- and height-wise. A few other things to note are the relatively large piece count and the age. 16+ years is the oldest recommended age I've seen on a set box, so that might hint at the nature of the set. However, the contents prove to be a mystery; I wasn't sure what to expect when the set first arrived. This may also be the case for the casual customer who would only glance at the box on the shelf in the store. The back of the box is much more helpful in determining what this set is all about, and provides a description as well as pictures. The lack of focus on the actual pieces or builds of the set may be of some interest here. Aha, so this is no traditional LEGO set. In reality, it's more of a beginners guide to Architecture and LEGO, which I will touch on more later in this review. This set can be compared to LEGO parts buckets, in that no real set design is given, but creativity and building your own creations with the parts given is encouraged. Here's a shot of the box from an angle, showing the proportions. Have I mentioned that it's huge? The top and bottom of the box depict inspirational models and production information. I'd like to highlight the note on the bottom of the set for a moment. The inspiration is all well and good, and encourages builders to combine these parts with the rest of their collection, but I find it a bit of a letdown to not be able to build these models with the pieces given. This occurs several other times in the process of exploring this set. The sides of the box show the parts listing (which is fairly uncommon in my experience) as well as all of the contents spilled out and sorted. Opening the box was a bit of a challenge since there were no punch-holes or flaps. The only way to open it would be to rip the cardboard partially, which is what I had to do. I imagine the reason for this design would be to prevent theft, but the box would have been nice for storage because of its shape and volume. The Contents: Moving on to the actual contents of this set, the first thing to slide out is a pair of clear sorting trays, which will be used to hold some of the parts. I'm not sure if these are new, but they sure are neat, and would be helpful for sorting parts of any collection. The plastic tray is also an "official" LEGO part, so I challenge MOCers to incorporate it somehow into their creations. Next up is a small double-sided slip of paper advertising a survey that allows entry for a raffle for the Fransworth House set. Both sides are the same except for the language. These things were used to protect the contents from getting damaged in the box, but they can also be used for holding pieces. Innovative! Next come the bags of parts, and there are a lot of them. I'll go into more detail later on. And finally, the true focus of the set: the booklet. It comes in a protective cardboard case that, like the other cardboard trays, doubles as a place to put parts. The Pieces: Before we head into the booklet, I would like to show the pieces included with the set. As I'm sure you've noticed, the pieces are mostly all white - only a few trans-clear parts mix it up. This has its pros and cons. On one hand, the monochromatic parts selection is simple and easy to use. Since the focus of this set is to serve as an introduction to architectural techniques used with LEGO parts, this allows builders to explore the techniques discussed in the book and design things with ease and without much distraction. This set also makes for a good source of white parts in bulk. On the other hand, having all white pieces is very bland and is extremely limiting for some tasks. Here's the first half of the pieces organized by type into the provided trays. Larger 2xX bricks are left loose since there was no room to put them; another tray might have been nice, but the set box itself can also hold pieces if needed. As you can see from this picture, there are healthy portions of all types of pieces, even if the selection is monochromatic. And here are the cardboard trays filled with 1xX bricks, slopes, and plates. Again, there is a wide variety of pieces, and each piece type comes in a large quantity which is extremely helpful for building. There aren't any rare or unusual parts, but plenty of basic and universally "useful" ones. It seems this set leans more towards basic building where a lack of parts rarely becomes an issue. I think that's a plus if this set is considered to be a beginner's guide to architecture and LEGO. Click here for a complete parts listing. Let's move on to the main focus of the set, the book. The Book: For those who were expecting a simple instruction booklet (myself included) are in for a pleasant surprise. The focal point of 21050 is in fact this hefty 272-page book with tons of information held inside. So, what's inside, exactly? Basically, the book features many techniques, tips, and tricks for using LEGO as a medium to design architecture. Real buildings and other examples of architecture are featured, and renowned architects share their wisdom on some of the knowledge involved in the profession itself. Moreover, the focus is using LEGO as the medium (versus drawing, rendering, or some other method of sharing ideas on architecture). The set as a whole can viewed as a bridge for young builds and Fans of LEGO who have an interest in pursuing architecture as a career. We already know that our favorite interlocking bricks can spark an interest in such things even from a very young age, and with the new Architecture Studio line that idea will be reinforced and encouraged by TLG. Or at least, that seems to be the goal of this first Studios set. Back to the book itself, the spine reveals the impressive thickness of the book. There's no deception involved, either: the book is chock full of information and images. Let's take a look. The two-page index gives an overview of what will be featured. There's a variety of different areas explored as well, from techniques to real-world architectural workshops and projects. The actual method in which architects design, propose, and follow through with their ideas is also explained, as are aspects of building to consider (such as space, mass, density, visual appeal, etc.). There are even a few pages in the back for taking notes and drawing sketches. Now, let's look at some pages. As you can see from this snapshot, there is a good balance of visuals and text for the most effective appeal to readers. Also seen on this page, there are constant connections between LEGO and actual architecture. The official Fallingwater set is featured here. This page shows some brainstorming techniques used by architects, and how that process can be transformed with LEGO. As mentioned previously, there are sections in this book that will require pieces not included in the set. This particular page focuses on the use of color to distinguish separate parts of a building. However, this technique cannot be practiced with this set as there are only white pieces included. While the typical FOL should have the parts necessary to something as simple as this, it is still slightly annoying to not be able to do the techniques with the set they were intended for. Some of the wordier pages are broken up by stunning visuals such as on these pages. The model featured can actually be built with the parts included in the set, and the illustration is indeed very inspirational. Creativity and "thinking outside the box" are really hit home within this book. Remember when just a few bricks could represent a car to a child? The same imaginative qualities are encouraged here. Throughout the book, architectural techniques and strategies are demonstrated through the use of LEGO bricks, and most of the time the demonstrations are able to be copied by the builder with the provided parts. The directions given for shown models aren't so much instructions (as seen in traditional LEGO set booklets), but rather guidelines to instigate deeper thought into designing with LEGO parts and to spark creativity. In other words, the models shown in the book aren't meant to be followed to the T and recreated perfectly by the builder; they're meant to exemplify architectural strategies translated into LEGO. Conclusion: As a beginner's guide to using LEGO as a medium for communicating architectural design, this set is excellent for those interested in such things. The set's focus seems to be on teen-aged builders with an interest in pursuing architecture as a career, but AFOLs may be interested as well. Younger builders will probably pass this one up in favor of themed, traditional sets. 21050 also makes for a good parts pack, but buying the set solely for that reason might be unwise financially since all of the parts are common and can probably be bought cheaper from Bricklink. As mentioned earlier in the review, the book is chock full of information and is presented well. All of the tips and tricks are interesting and cohesive, and the concepts discussed are easy to grasp even for beginners of architecture. I'd recommend this set to anyone with even the slightest interest in architecture, which I imagine includes many AFOLs and TFOLs because of the ties between the study and the hobby of building with LEGO. This set is the embodiment of those similarities that teaches at a basic level, and promotes creativity. 21050 may not necessarily make you want to study architecture as a profession (although it can certainly reinforce the desire, especially in TFOLs), but at the very least it offers plenty of useful parts as well as tips that can even improve your MOCing skills. Here are the ratings and rundown of the set. Build/Design: N/A (There are no official builds for this set; instead the builder's own creativity using the tips from the book guide is encouraged.) Playability: 9/10 (The book offers hours of reading of strategies and techniques used by real architects, and translates them for use with LEGO pieces. The parts provided can perform most of the examples, and can otherwise demonstrate the techniques in hundreds of ways. By no means traditional, this set acts as more of a guide for beginning builders and/or architects.) Minifugres: N/A Parts: 8/10 (Plenty of basic, useful parts in bulk are provided. The only downside is that the selection is limited to mostly white pieces with a few trans-clear ones to mix it up. This flaw becomes especially apparent when the book calls for pieces not included in the set to demonstrate an architectural technique.) Price: 10/10 (Considering the main focus of this set is the 272-page beginner's guide, the value of the 1210 basic pieces is pretty balanced with the price. Not to mention the very useful sorting trays included. The set isn't for everyone, but for those are interested in all it has to offer, it's a pretty nice deal.) Final Score: 27/30. It was hard to quantify the ratings for such an nontraditional set, but I would say it earns top marks. There doesn't seem to be anything majorly lacking in any area. My main gripe with the set has to do with the limits placed on color selection, but I suppose including more colors while keeping the large quantities of parts would only increase the price. As it is, 21050 makes for an excellent beginner's guide to architecture and LEGO. --- ...And that about wraps this review up, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below discussing this set. If you're interested in making professional-looking reviews, please consider signing up for the Reviewers Academy.

No line is complete these days without a mech set, right? Superheroes, Ninjago, Chima, Galaxy Squad… the list goes on. Here's one of two The LEGO Movie January mech battle sets: Set Title: MetalBeard's Duel Set #: 70807 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 412 Minifigures: 3 and one third Year of Release: 2014 Price at release: USD 35 Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Mechs aren't really my thing, but LEGO definitely knows how to make them look exciting. The little Ninjago Fire Mech made me want to buy it just for the mech, and it looks fantastic. But bigger mechs don't usually do much for me. I only ever got a few small Exo-Force sets, but nothing bigger. MetalBeard is interesting of course because he is a mech, but he's still a bigger-size mech and didn't interest me. Let's see if building him changed my mind. BOX A couple mechs battling and minifigures running around fill the box. Or, rather, it's more like MetalBeard is holding the Micromanager at arm's length and toying with it. Not much of a duel if you ask me. Somehow MetalBeard always knows where the Robo Skellie is, since he's discharging a cannon straight up as the Skellie jumps at him. The back also highlights things like the sausage and bone MetalBeard keeps in his chest (which I think I actually forgot to photograph… oops). Sorry, Robo Skellie is actually Skeletron - another '80s space theme that never was along with Executron. The other figures aren't the most exciting necessarily; you'd have to want the mech to want the set, I'd say. INSTRUCTIONS Since the box is square, and the instructions are also square, they have almost the exact same art. The instructions show just a little bit more, I suppose. Since I haven't mentioned it before in any of these reviews - see the little blue arrow symbol showing you to flip the thing around in step 8? There are SO MANY OF THOSE in these sets. Maybe it's just because I've never built 13 sets so close together before, but these sets have you flip things over and around like crazy in the builds. Maybe this is necessary, but sometimes I felt it was extranneous and I could've figured out what to add without flipping the assembly around. MINIFIGURES These minifigures are actually pretty cool. This is the first ever bley skeleton, so that should definitely come in handy to people. As I've been saying, the Robo SWAT are always excellent, and this one gives you another printed helmet (though the printed cap in the Melting Room is cooler). MetalBeard has a nice piratey face, with a lovely new pirate hat print that's very nice and LEGO-y. Finally, Frank the Foreman might not be so exciting, but he's got nice new multi-purpose torso and leg prints, and a nice new face to boot (he looks like he could be Garbage Man Grant's twin to me). The two regular figures have good back printing. Here's a more complete look at MetalBeard's face as well - a nice addition to eye-patch pirates if you ask me. COOL BITS and EXTRA PARTS I should've included the sausage in this, since sausages are cool, but I frogot. Anyways, this set has the new shark mould that is very similar to the old one. The only differences are the gils on the side and the fact that it more universally attaches to studs on the bottom; the old one has an awkward 1x2 space to attach, whereas this one can be stuck down in the middle of a big plate if you like. The binoculars are new (I believe) in gold, and the wind-up thing is rare to see in sets. You get two of these cool bits as extras too! No extra shark sadly… surprise! Other nice extras are the pistol, skellie parts, and printed key-hole tile. (Did I mention there are no stickers in this set? Well there aren't any stickers!) SET - MICROMANAGER This is one of two bigger Micromanagers. It definitely has a different type of appeal - the others are cutesy, whereas this one looks silly because of its tal spindly legs. It's kind of like an AT-ST with a box as its head. The sides are pretty ugly unfortunately since they have fold-down flick-fires and also have to be designed for the top to fold open. This leaves them looking messy. The back has another mysterious attachment point to attach to nothing. Maybe eventually LEGO will tell us these have some use? As I mentioned, flick-fires fold down for your enjoyment. These are actually usable since they're out in the open, giving you plenty of room to manuver your flicking-finger of choice behind them. I tend to use my left pinky. #jokes This is the only Micromanager with room inside for a pilot, which seems to me like LEGO's desicion to give a Tank Droid, Droid Gunship, or Vulture Droid a pilot. Aren't these things robots themselves with their own robot brains? Maybe this is just a passenger seat for when the Robo SWAT gets tired, or something. This thing isn't super-duper pose-able, but it can pose well enough. The hand design, also used on a few other Micromanagers, works superbly for holding minifigures since the horn pieces are made out of a bendy material (and have been for a while, though they originally were regular hard LEGO). SET - METALBEARD Here he is, the name of the set, MetalBeard! I think opinions will be split over this guy. Some people will love the crazy look, but I'm more in an 'ugly mess' camp. The concept is cool, but in real life his colors are muted overall and it just looks ugly to me. He's also a lot smaller than I expected. He's bulky, but pretty short and doesn't feel 'big' overall. Even though I don't dig the overall look, there are some good parts in there nonetheless, like the new 1x2 slop in dark brown, the dark orange pieces, 2x2 jumper plates in dark red, more gold, just to name a few. There's actually a single dark orange cheese grater piece on one leg (which you can see a bit in this picture), which I believe is exclusive to this set (but will probably pop up in others since I can't see why LEGO would cast it in that color just for this set. MetalBeard can carry his big sword attached to his back, and has a swinging ancor on one leg (it swings freely do to friction-less pins). Besides that, not much detail on the back. Keen-eyed observers might have noticed a black clip under the gold flag on MetalBeard's flagpole. That's an extra piece and not supposed to be there, but the pole and flag don't have enough friction to keep the flag up by itself. At least on mine, the flag falls down the pole without that clip there. That's what I'd call an NNPU - not nice parts usage. The ice cream for smoke (because MetalBeard has an engine?) is an NPU though, and it's nice to see this NPU in a set since I've been seeing it in MOCs for quite a while. It brings it out to more people, like kids, who might not have thought of that before. The hand doesn't have an attachment point for the sword, but MetalBeard can still hold it fairly well. Sadly, and this is why I don't love mechs, MetalBeard can't pose all that well. What's the point of a mech if you can't actually pose it? Is it fun for kids to just hold a mech in each hand and smash them against each other? Ok maybe, but still I'd rather be able to pose my mechs as an AFOL. This is the 'most interesting' thing I could come up with without him toppling over. MetalBeard can nicely turn 360 degrees at his torso, but the peg leg seriously impedes leg posing. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION I can't say I like this set much. I tried to keep an open mind despite not loving bigger mechs, but MetalBeard feels dull and ugly and this is probably the worst Micromanagers due to messy-looking sides. I actually like MetalBeard a lot more in these pictures than I like him in real life - under nice lighting his colors kind of pop, but in real life under every-day kind of light he's pretty drab. Dark orange and dark red are nice colors, but when mixed with mostly dark colors like dark grey, dark brown, and black they kind of fall flat (I liked dark orange far more back in the Orient Expedition Scorpion Palace, which used a lot of white, for example). Parts-wise, I suppose this set is pretty good. Plenty of interesting parts, and plenty of parts in general for the price. The minifigures are also pretty good and useful. If you're somebody who likes to part out sets and can use the minifigures, this is a decent buy, but I'd say for everybody else it's underwhelming unless you personally really like the look of MetalBeard. I, on the other hand, would recommend any of the five (slightly cheaper) USD 30 sets over this in a heartbeat. Only one more review left: Rescue Reinforcements. Also a mech set, but (review spoiler alert) that one actually had me pleasantly surprised. Coming soon!

This year is not only the 6th anniversary of the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy, but also Batman's 75th Anniversary! Therefore, it only makes sense that TLG chose to give out a version of Batman from the Dark Knight's long and rich history as one of their exclusives at the San Diego Comic Con this year, and I was lucky enough to get one. But is it a good minifig? Is it worth buying for ridiculous prices on the aftermarket? And what the heck is Zur-En-Arrh? Let's find out! To the Bat-review! Set Number: SDCC036 (on Brickset) Name: Batman of Zur-En-Arrh Theme: DC Comics Super Heroes Subtheme: Batman Pieces: 6 Year of Release: 2014 Availability: Given away at SDCC 2014 on Saturday, July 26 at 12:30 pm. The Package The package is the same clear plastic clam shell with a bubble for the minifig as all the other exclusive minifigs from this and last year. It features a nice stylized picture of the minifig in the background and the "San Diego Comic Con International 2014 Exclusive" logo in the lower left corner. The back features the address of the Super Heroes product page on Lego.com and the usual small print. Like last year, the card board insert is folded and includes a picture on the inside. However, this year the picture is not a backdrop to display the minifig on, but instead it's a mini-poster of the minifig. While it may not be as useful, the stylized illustration of Batman of Zur-En-Arrh does look pretty cool. I just wish it would have depicted him in a more interesting pose than just angrily standing in the rain. The fact that it looks like he's wearing purple diapers doesn't really help. The Minifigure And here is the minifig itself. He is quite a friendly-looking fellow, isn't he? His costume is bright and colorful. Why? . It's great to get Batman's cowl in a new color, and this is the only Batman aside from the Electro Suit one to receive leg printing. I still don't understand why TLG is being so stingy with those. It's disappointing, though, that they changed the cape from a purple Batman cape (as seen in the official image above) to a regular one. What you may not know is that there are actually two different versions of Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. The first one appeared in a comic in 1958 titled "Batman - The Superman of Planet X!" in which Earth's Batman is transported to a planet called Zur-En-Arrh where he gets Superman-like powers. Yup, that happened. This sort of what-if story was actually quite common for comics in the '50s. This story was later adapted into an episode of Batman: The Brave And The Bold. Anyhoo, once Batman arrives on Zur-En-Arrh, he meets that planet's version of Batman, a scientist named Tlano, which is who this minifig is based on. Image courtesy of the DC Comics Database The second version appeared in Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." storyline in 2008, after the DC Multiverse got rebooted. This was a much more gritty take on Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. I didn't read the comic myself, so all my knowledge of it is based on what I read about it on wikis and reviews of it, so don't quote me on this, but basically, this is a version of Batman who has gone off the deep end. He got druged and brainwashed by an evil organization so that his mind shuts down when he hears the trigger phrase "Zur-En-Arrh". In order to protect himself from this, he creates an alter ego called the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh by removing the Bruce Wayne part of his mind, leaving only a crazed Batman who runs around the city violently hunting down the criminals that tried to destroy him. So yeah, perfect material to base a Lego figure on. Image courtesy of DCU Comic Book Reviews In order to represent both versions, TLG was generous enough to give this minifig a double-sided head, one side with the Tlano face, and the other with the crazy Bruce Wayne face. Also, this is the first SDCC exclusive minifig to get an accessory, not counting Bard the Bowman since he's not really exclusive. The Bat comes with, well, a bat ironically, which is one of the weapons that he used to torture and defeat the villains with. The fig also has some nice back printing. You can clearly see that in one of the pockets in his utility belt, Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is carrying the Bat-Radia, which is a nice touch. The Bat-Radia is a device that can issue electronic molecules that cause controlled disturbances in the atmosphere - or just an old radio that can override Arkham's security system - depending on which version you're talking about. Here is a look at the head without the cowl. Tlano's face is pretty much the usual Batman head, except with a big happy smile, which fits the campy tone of the comic that he is from. Bruce Wayne's face on the other hand is very different. This one features a stubble and a maniacal snarling mouth. What I especially like is that his headband is tattered, which fits the grittier look of this version of Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and is a nice touch. Final Thoughts: I think this is a perfect Comic Con exclusive. It's a fairly obscure variation of a popular character that only true comic fans will know. And it's a character that we have gotten more than plenty of in normal sets, so unless you really want this particular version of Batman, there are many other ways you can get the Dark Knight. Plus it's a great way to celebrate the Caped Crusader's 75th anniversary. It is a very nice and detailed fig, and the fact that you can switch between two versions of the character with the flick of a wrist makes it especially awesome. My only gripe is that they used the wrong kind of cape, but it doesn't detract from the fig too much and the fact that they included an accessory kinda makes up for that. The packaging is nice too, although the mini-poster is kind of pointless. The only ones who would actually use that poster are little kids, and only about 1% of these sets will probably land in the hands of kids unfortunately. Still, it's better than nothing I suppose. This was a great souvenir to take home from SDCC, but if you didn't get it at the convention, I would only recommend buying it if you are a hardcore completist or a huge fan of Batman who actually knows what Zur-En-Arrh is. And no, you can't have mine, sorry. That's all there is to say about it. To conclude this review, since bashing in bad guy heads is too violent for Lego's usual standard, here is a more kid-friendly scenario to play out with Batman and his Bat-bat: Batterman by Oky - Space Ranger, on Flickr I hope you enjoyed this special review, and tune in for my next review - same Oky-time, same Oky-channel!

I was excited to hear about a polybag with the Laketown Guard in it as I had Laketown but only one guard, and had to have at least two. At $5 this was a half decent deal, not the Elf polybag mind you, but still pretty good. Enjoy this pecial Reviewers Academy Anniversary edition review! Set Information: Name: Laketown Guard Set Number: 30216 Pieces: 31 Price: $4.99 Ages: 6-12 Minifigs: 1 Theme: The Hobbit Year of Release: 2013 Brickset Bricklink Flickr Set Baggy: The front of the bag is graced with some beautiful artwork showing Laketown in the winter. The banner at the top of the bag is also quite lovely, the muted colors and the company trekking across a ridge look great. Nothing much on the back of the bag as usual. Just "The Hobbit" in various languages as well as a wall-of-text warnings. Contents: As this is a small set, here's all of the parts included. Nothing super extraordinary since this is a poly bag and the main draw is the minifigure. These are the only two extra parts, really excited to see some extra dark green cheese! Manual: Here is our manual. The light grey background for this is a good choice; it really plays on the snow aspect. The back of the manual is split between a half page ad for the rest of Laketown and the final instructions for the set. Minifigure: This figure is just so cool! All of the curves in the figure flow so well; not to mention the colors. The purple, dark red, and brown flow together quite well. Laketown has some great colors. There's quite a bit of detail on this guy too, you can see the chain mail skirt sticking out from under his robes. Less to see on the back. His belt continues around and his shirt has some nice printing. Now the Master of Laketown has has two guards; as he should! The Laketown figures are so wonderfully designed and have great color schemes. Finished Model: There's really not a whole lot to this set; it's a polybag after all. But one gets a nice little armory and a decent catapult. It's a pretty standard armory design that we've seen repeated for years now with only slight changes. The catapult is pretty good though. Here's the armory compared to the one that came in the Laketown Chase set, the one here is actually more impressive. Our original guard has a more enjoyable time with a friend now. Conclusion: This isn't a terrible set at all if one is army building with the figure. Otherwise there's really not a reason to be getting more than one. (I'm a bit of a completionist myself. ) The figure is really quite pretty though. Ratings: Playability: 4/10 Okay you get the catapult, but who's he supposed to fire it at?? Design: 5/10 It's a pretty standard set model wise; we've seen similar stuff quite often. Price: 8/10 I can't complain about the price to much. Minifigures: 9/10 I absolutely love this figure! So detailed and wonderfully colored. Parts: 6/10 Nothing spectacular at all in this set. Total: 32/50 "Mine's bigger!" Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy!

Beware the Batman was the latest animated TV show featuring the Dark Knight and the first one to be completely CG-animated. Set during Bruce Wayne's early years as Batman, it replaced Robin with Katana as Batman's sidekick and focused on his lesser known villains, completely leaving out A-listers such as the Joker. It seemed like an interesting premise at first, but ultimately turned out to be the series' downfall as it was so unpopular that it got cancelled before it even got halfway through the first season. Clearly The Lego Group did not know how short-lived it would be when they decided to (very loosely) base a set on it. So, is the set any good despite being based on something so unpopular? Or does it crash and burn like the cartoon that it drew inspiration from? Let's solve this riddle in this special review celebrating both the 6th anniversary of the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy as well as the 75th anniversary of Batman! Set Number: 76012 Name: Batman: The Riddler Chase Theme: DC Comics Super Heroes Subtheme: Batman Year of Release: 2014 Pieces: 304 Minifigs: 3 Price: £29.99 / US$29.99 / €34.99 S@H description: S@H Bricklink Brickset The Box The box features the the new design with blue comic strips in the background and for some reason they changed the "DC Universe" logo to a rather generic-looking "DC Comic" logo. It also has the new type of minifigure lineup box that has a green background and only shows the minifigs from the waist up in a three-quarter view. I don't like it very much since I liked it better when you could clearly see if the minifigs have leg printing or not. The back features the usual silly comic book sound effects and pictures showcasing the play features of the set. The green background goes well with the Riddler theme. The Contents Inside the box you will find two instruction booklets, a comic, a small sticker sheet, and three numbered bags. As usual, the comic is nothing more than an advertisement for the current wave of Super Heroes sets, so I wont get much more into it here. The instructions also have the new light green background which gives a nice contrast to the build, especially the dark Batmobile. There is usually only one building step per page, which works for the parts where it shows the full vehicle, but when it is showing only a small part of the build such as the spoiler as shown below, it feels like there is a lot of wasted space on the page. Also, the shade of green of the background is a bit inconsistent as some pages have a lighter shade than others. Things like the part call-outs are pretty clear, though, so the build is easy to follow. As is tradition, some of the odd-numbered pages have a ghostly image of three minifigs in the top right corner. In these instructions, the minifigs are Batman, the Flash, and... Man-Bat for some reason. How TLG's decides which minifigures to depict in instructions still remains a riddle to me. There are some rare pieces in this set. One of them is a pearl-gold crowbar which stands in for the Riddler's question mark cane and appears for the first time in this color. I'm sure most people would have preferred a new mold, but it's close enough I guess. At least it's better than the red crowbar that he had in the Funhouse set. There is also a few of the curved 2x1 slope pieces which were introduced this year and only appear in four other sets in green. That radar/snowplow piece appears in dark bluish gray for the fourth time as well, and the 10x6x2 curved windscreen makes its first appearance in trans-orange since the Mars Mission sets in 2007. The Minifigures There are three minifigures in this set, but only one of them is a new character and probably the main reason for most people to buy this set: the Flash. He is one of the main Justice League members and was kind of overdue. As I've already joked about in a previous review it's odd how we got Aquaman before Flash, considering how much more popular the Scarlet Speedster is. But better late than never, and I think the wait paid off. He looks great overall, especially his head. I was not a big fan of that bucket-like helpet that he had in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and I don't think giving him no headgear at all like Captain America would have quite worked either, so I'm very happy that they found a good middle-ground between headgear and no-headgear by giving him a mask that only covers half of his head like they did with the Swamp Creature from Monster Fighters. This allows him to have his signature lightning bolts on the side of his head without making his head look too bulky. The Batman minifig in this set comes with a new suit based on the one he wears in Beware the Batman which comes as a welcome deviation from the other two variants that we keep getting in most of the DC Universe Comics sets. However, aside from the torso printing and the dark gray hands, it's pretty much the same as the TDKR Batman, so it doesn't feel all that new. The third minifig in the lineup is the Riddler in a racing suit. Apparently he has given up riddles and complicated schemes and is just cruising around Gotham robbing banks now. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? It's so out of character and he doesn't even appear in Beware the Batman, so this just seems like a wasted opportunity to get one of Batman's lesser known villains or any new villain for that matter. How cool would it have been to get Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad in their oldtimer instead? On the bright side, we finally get his bowler hat in green and he comes with a new gleeful expression. The Flash is based on his New 52 costume and is pretty accurate for the most part. The only thing that's a bit off on this fig is the lack of yellow boots which are a prominent part of the Flash's costume, but since hardly any Super Heroes figs ever get leg printing for some reason, it's hard to get mad at it. Still, why TLG is being so skimpy with leg prints in this particular theme remains a riddle to me. Batman also looks pretty close to his design in Beware the Batman, except his suit is (very, very) dark gray instead of all-black. Maybe they thought it would look too boring in black or maybe they based it on that misleading teaser image where Batman's suit did look more gray than black. Since the Riddler never wore a racing suit, I don't have a suitable reference image for his minifig, so here is an illustration of his most recent depiction in the Arkham games instead. At least the bowler hat is accurate... All three minifigs have back prints. I like how they gave Flash different shoulder blades than Batman. Riddler isn't exactly the muscular type, so instead of a defined body, he gets a scarf. I guess if you're going to drive a dragster through the city, you might as well look fabulous while doing it. Another advantage of Flash having a molded mask is that it allows him to have a double-sided head. His second face has an angry expression. Batman also has an alternate face, but it's the same stupid grin as always which I'm really starting to get tired of. He's getting a new face in one of the upcoming Lego Movie sets, so hopefully we'll see more variety in the Super Heroes theme soon as well. The Build The first bag contains the Riddler and the parts for his dragster as well as the Flash. Flash's mask is inside its own little baggie. Even though the entire first instruction booklet is dedicated to the dragster, there is really not much to it, so it's a fairly quick build. And no, I have no idea what that red 2x2 round plate underneath the front is for either. The second bag contains Batman and the chassis and driver's cabin of the Batmobile. At the end of this bag, this is what the Batmobile looks like. It looks a lot like a Batman version of the vehicle from Blade Runner, doesn't it? To the Bat-Spinner!! Bag number three has all the parts for finishing the rest of the Batmobile. When finished, the Batmobile looks quite good. It has a lot more of a racecar look than previous Batmobiles. It's not a perfect recreation of the vehicle from the cartoon. The windshield is far too big, the wheel covers at the front are missing, and some parts are too blocky, but the general shape is there. This is the third Batmobile Lego has released (not counting the Tumbler and UCS version) and I think it's my favorite. It just looks like a realistic, fast and powerful car whereas the previous two looked a bit silly with those oversized bat wings in the back. It has a very sleek, aerodynamic shape, especially when you look at it from the side, and the golden wheels and trans-orange windscreen compliment the black well. It looks quite intimidating from the front. If you're a criminal, you wouldn't want to see this coming at you. On the back, it has two trans-red radar dishes to represent the rocket engines as well as some pearl-gold cones and a gray Technic piece. We will see what these are for in a moment. Complete Set & Play Features With both vehicles finished we're ready for the big chase! Who will win? My bet is that if Flash can't catch up to Riddler's dragster, the Batmobile certainly can. The dragster doesn't look that great on its own and it looks even more pathetic next to the beefy Batmobile. It really makes no sense for the Riddler to be driving a dragster anyway, not just because it's out of character, but also because it's completely impractical to drive a vehicle that can't turn inside of a city, even in the inexplicably deserted streets of the Gotham City depicted in Beware the Batman. Any other vehicle would have made more sense. Heck, even that weird jetpack that he had in the Bat-Tank set from 2007 makes more sense than this. But enough ranting, let's get to the fun part of the set, the play features. Aside from zooming the vehicles around the room, there are a couple of other things you can do with them. The Batmobile has some hidden flick-fire missiles which you can reveal by pushing down the pearl-gold cones in the back and launch by pressing the gray Technic piece. Hidden flick-missiles are my favorite kind of flick-missiles, and the mechanism works reasonably well. In order to seat Batman inside, you have to take the windshield off completely. I would have preferred if they would have built it on a hinge or made it somehow so that it would slide open like in the cartoon, but it's not a huge flaw. The dragster also has some weapons. There is a little black ball with a trans-orange stud that is meant to represent a lit cartoon bomb attached to the back of the dragster. It pops off when you push down the spoiler and make the dragster rear up. This is a neat idea, but it ultimately fails because the spoiler is attached so loosely to the vehicle that it tends to just get bent down. In fact, it's impossible to move the dragster at all without the spoiler spinning around, getting crooked, or even fall off completely since it is built onto two hinges and stuck on pole on which it can freely rotate. It's the worst spoiler design I've ever seen. There are also studs for attaching the bags of money and the set includes a banana for the Riddler to throw in the Flash's path to make him slip. Between this and the cartoon bomb, I think the Riddler has been watching too many cartoons. Then again, a bomb can be a very effective weapon because some days you just can't get rid of a bomb. Ratings Design: 3/5 - The design of this set leaves a lot to be desired. The dragster looks weak, despite the ridiculously large engine, and the loose spoiler is terrible. The Batmobile on the other hand is quite decent. While it could be more accurate to the source material, it looks cool and more realistic than previous Batmobiles. Build: 4/5 - Nothing too challenging, but there is enough SNOT and Technic going on that it keeps the build interesting. Minifigs: 3/5 - The Flash was a highly anticipated minifig and he looks very good, except for the lack of boots. Batman is basically just another Batman, but the new torso print is appreciated. As for the Riddler, if you can get passed the fact that he's wearing a racing suit, he looks pretty good, and it's nice to finally get his hat in the right color. However, this outfit doesn't make him very versatile and I would have much preferred to get him in his iconic suit. Playability: 3/5 - The Batmobile is very swooshable, the dragster not so much. Each vehicle has one weapon play feature, which makes for a decent amount of playability. Parts: 4/5 - Nothing too out of the ordinary, but there are some rarities among them, and they're all very reusable, so overall pretty good. Price: 4/5 - At 11.510 cents per piece, this is has a fairly good value. Overall: 3/5 - I really wanted to like this set, but the designs of the vehicles and minifigs were just too lackluster to rate it any higher than average. I'm glad we finally got the Flash and I'm sure that if TLG wouldn't have been so clever to throw him into the set, not many would have bought it. The Batmobile has a cool new design, but it's not the most iconic nor the most accurate Batmobile. And the dragster is just awful and makes no sense in the context of the set, although I guess if you don't mind the racing suit, this gives you a cheaper way to get the Riddler. So unless you're a completist, my recommendation is don't buy it and wait for better versions of these minifigs to come out. There are rumors of a 2015 set with the Flash, Gorilla Grodd, and a Bat-Mech, which already sounds way better than this set, so you might not have to wait very long. I hope you enjoyed this anniversary review. If you would like to learn how to make high-quality reviews like this, you can join the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy here. To end this review, here is a visualization of what the Batman from Beware the Batman would probably say if he was actually pitted against an A-List villain: Beware the Hipster Batman by Oky - Space Ranger, on Flickr

Ah, Unikitty. She's one of the most popular (if not the most popular) character from The Lego Movie. How can you not love her? She's the embodiment of everything that makes you happy and go "d'aw". And with cat videos and My Little Pony memes dominating the internet right now, it's obvious why a character like her is so popular. Therefore, it makes sense that TLG chose her as one of the SDCC exclusives for this year, even though The Lego Movie has nothing to do with comics (but let's face it, Comic Con doesn't have much to do with comics anymore at this point). I was lucky enough to win one of them while I was at Comic Con (after waiting in line for over 2 hours!), so I thought I'd do a little review of it. Was it worth the wait for me? Should you spend hundreds of dollars on eBay to get it? Read on to find out! WARNING: This review contains extreme cuteness and may cause large amounts of jealousy. Set Number: SDCC040 (on Brickset) Name: Unikitty Theme: The Lego Movie Pieces: 16 Year of Release: 2014 Availability: Given away at SDCC 2014 on Sunday, July 27 at 12:30 pm. The Package When I heard that Unikitty would be one of the exclusive minifigs to be given away at SDCC, I wondered what kind of package she would come in, considering her odd shape. Turns out that she comes in the same clear plastic clam shell as the other exclusive figs from this and last year. However, I was surprised to find that the sides are reversed on this one so that the figure is on the back. The front of the card features some very colorful artwork depicting Cheerykitty frolicking through an orange world of clouds, stars, and rainbows. On the bottom, in tthe left corner it has the "SDCC Exclusive" logo, and in the right corner it tells you that this set includes both the Cutesykitty and Cheerykitty expressions. When you look on the back of the package, you can see why they chose to have the figure on the back. Unikitty's parts are stuffed inside a polybag and crammed into the little bubble that usually houses a minifig. It looks very unaesthetic and almost makes you feel bad for Unikitty. Once you free it from the crammed bubble, this is what the bag with all the parts looks like. You can already tell that there are two heads included rather than just one double-sided one as the official press release for this set suggested. This is good news in my opinion as it would have looked strange if Unikitty had faces on both sides of her head. The inside of the folded cardboard insert does not feature a picture of the included figure like it does in the other three exclusive giveaways this year. Instead, it has the instructions for how to build Unikitty. The build is no different from that in all the other Lego Movie sets, except you have to build an extra face. There are no part call-outs, but in such a small build, they are hardly needed. One thing that I found odd, however, is that the stud used for Unikitty's neck looks like it is supposed to be transparent in the instructions. It's just a minor mistake, but curious nonetheless. The Completed Set After just a few seconds of building, the build is already done. Yay! The first thing that comes to mind is: Wow, this must be the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Regular Unikitty was already pretty cute, but those big anime eyes take it a whole step further. The d'aw-levels are off the charts! This is easily my favorite version of her, although the Cheerykitty face is great too. In order to change her from Cutesykitty to Cheerykitty you have to switch out the face brick and eyebrow plate. But be careful, there are no spare parts, so if you loose one, you're out of luck, although it is understandable that they didn't include any, considering how little space there was inside the package. When you compare the Unikitty from the Cloud Cuckoo Palace set (left) to these two versions, you will see that these are much more detailed. They have eyebrows printed on the top plate and wrinkles around the nose and eyes which make them so much more expressive. If the upcoming Unikitty figures that were revealed at SDCC are any indication, the Unikitties in future sets will have the same amount of detailed face printing and perhaps even alternate expressions as well. Ratings Design: 5/5 - The new faces for Unikitty are great! They are so detailed and cute, it's impossible not to love them. It was very generous of them to include not one, but two new faces. It definitely makes up for the fact that, aside from the face prints, the fig is exactly the same as the regular version. Build: 3/5 - There really was not much to build, but that was to be expected. There are no surprises; it's just like building any other Unikitty. Parts: 5/5 - Unikitty is always a great source of parts. Lots of pieces in rare colors, plus that unique tail. Packaging: 3/5 - The clam shell package was not designed for brick-built characters, and it shows. The way the parts bag was crammed inside the bubble and how they reversed the front and back is really odd. I think it would have been better if they would have made a new type of package for this fig, but I guess I must commend them for making this one work. Overall: 5/5 - This is a great fig! Both Cutesykitty and Cheerykitty are better than any previous version of the Princess of Cloud Cuckoo Land and I am glad that I got it. However, I definitely wouldn't pay the ridiculous aftermarket prices for it. I feel sorry for the people who stood in line for hours and didn't get it, but since you can already get a similar version of her in an affordable set, it wont be much of a loss for most people. That's it for this review. I guess there is only one question left to answer: And no, she's not for sale/trade! She's all mine!

I've had this set for quite a while now. I don't quite remember when exactly I got it. I got it originally to have a complete collection, and for the minifigures, but after building the set I was pleasantly surprised by it. This set has been a glaring gap in our LotR review database so with the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy Anniversary, I thought it was time the gap was filled! Set Information: Name: Orc Forge Set Number: 9476 Pieces: 363 Price: $39.99 Ages: 8-14 Minifigs: 4 Theme: Lord of the Rings Year of Release: 2012 Bricklink Brickset Flickr Set Box: Here's the front of the box. The top bar shows Sauron's finger with the ring. The set has been dropped on a very wonderfully detailed scene. I would like to know why the "The Lord of the Rings" text is on top of the set though. The front of the box is an action scene. The back has more detailed images. I love how they've formatted the back too, the parchment with the nails really adds a great medieval look. There's also a small add for LEGO Lord of the Rings. The 1:1 image on the box is of Lurtz, boy he does look good. The parchment note is continued here again. Contents: I normally don't include minifigure parts in my new/interesting parts image; however these were just too cool not to include. Until Orthanc came out, the armor pieces with the hand print were exclusive to this set. The cheese and 1x1 round are new colors I believe: and no stickers in this set, the tile is printed! The brick separator isn't an extra part really, but I'm not sure where else to put it. That olive cheese is definitely the best score in this set. Manual: Now for the manual. The front shows the same art as the front of the box, minus all of the cluttering set information. The first page shows a bunch of warnings and instructional information on how to use the light brick. On the next two pages are what bags build what and not to build out in the yard. It's printed on a nice tan back map back ground. I had no color misprints. And a close up of the map. I find it rather funny that it shows Erebor here. A full page, fun ad for the LEGO Lord of the Rings website. Finally a checklist so one can keep track of what minifigures they own. Minifigures: Now for the best part; the minifigures! There may be only four in this set, but they are packed with detail. The Uruk is pretty generic, but he's special because of the inclusion of the helmet with the hand of Sarumon on it. Lurtz is a brown color as opposed to the dark red of the Uruks, and he has a nicely muscled printed torso. The two Orcs are exactly the same, but one gets a hair piece. I love the inclusion of the rings on the Orcs. Most of the back printing on these guys is covered up by their various hair pieces or armor. However they all have nice detailing on the back. With the hair pieces and armor removed it's easy to see that the backs are just as nicely detailed as their fronts. The Uruk and Lurtz have alternate expressions as well. I'm really glad that LEGO put printing on the back of the Orc's heads, even if it could be covered up by hair. Look at all of the accessories/weapons included for these guys. Sadly, Lurtz can't have his hair piece on when he's wearing the armor. That's about the only thing I do not like about the minifigures. Otherwise they're all some of the most nicely detailed minifigures I've gotten in a LONG time. The Build: Bag one builds the whole of the left side. The second bag starts on the right section and builds part of the forge. Bag three finishes the right section. The completed set, it does look pretty good. Finished Model: The set looks a lot better when populated with minifigures. The color blocking is done quite well too. Check out all of that olive cheese! These are the two most lackluster items in the set. While they were in the movie, I think they're some of the hardest items to recreate into usable items with LEGO. I prefer everything to be absolutely symmetrical. I think that's the math in me coming out. But this actually looks really good. Side shot of the crane to give you an idea of how far it sticks out. All of the structural elements are easily visible from the back. I must admit I'm not used to seeing it from this side! The set actually looks pretty long from this angle. The crane will actually hold the bucket up, I haven't put much weight in it though... I think the smelting area looks pretty good, I also love that LEGO used the raised base for two completely different functions. The rock detailing is rather repetitive, but there is just enough variation for it to look great when the set is finished. Functions: First you load up the ore. Then crane it up. By turning this the bucket goes up or down. Then pour it down a chute to a cauldron. And finally smelt the iron. You push this to make the light brick turn on. One can dig Lurtz out from his pit. By pulling this away Lurtz can come out. There's a hole in the back to push Lurtz through with. One can also hammer the weapons out with the anvil. Conclusion: This set really has grown on me since I bought it. Like I said, I had originally gotten it for the minifigures, not expecting much. When this was released it was the set with the most olive parts in it. Not to mention the sheer number of play features! I do not do much playing, but I could definitely see someone else having hours of fun with this set. The amount of details on the minifigures still astounds me. Ratings: Playability: 9/10 There are a TON of functions in this set, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they work too. Design: 6/10 LEGO did a pretty good job of turning that huge underground maze into a $40 set. Price: 10/10 I have zero complaints about the price at all, there's so much great stuff in this set it's well worth it. Minifigures: 8/10 The only thing that could have made this set better would have been the inclusion of armor that works with Lurtz's hair and a bow for him. Parts: 7/10 There are a fair number of new and interesting items to make this set good. Total: 40/50 Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy!

If you can't make it to Paris, let Paris come to you. One of the 2014 models of LEGO Architecture's Landmarks series is the Paris' hallmark, the Eiffel Tower. If you want to know whether or not the LEGO model makes up to it, you can continue reading this review. Although, I must admit, I had a trip to Paris planned twice, and still haven't made it there, so I might not be the right person to compare the real tower and LEGO model. Nevertheless, here's my thoughts about the LEGO model of the famous Eiffel Tower. Basic info of the set Set no.: 21019 Name: The Eiffel Tower Theme: Architecture (Subtheme Landmark series) Year: 2014 Pieces: 321 Minifigs: 0 Age group: 12+ Price: £ 29.99 / US$ 34.99 / EUR 35.99 Price per part: 9.343p / 10.900c / 10.900c Links: Brickset, Bricklink, LEGO S@H The box The front of the box is unexpectedly dark and shady for a LEGO set, yet the Eiffel Tower still stands out. It's standing on white sheets of paper, presumably the architectural plans for the model. The grayish structure of the model is nicely visible, and gives a suitable impression of the slightly curved and cone-like shape of the model. The back of the box features a picture and a short description of the Eiffel Tower, an iconic symbol of Paris. In addition, the LEGO model is presented schematically with its dimensions (height 31.7 cm and width 11.2 cm) and announcement that the Instruction booklet includes more details on design and history of the Eiffel Tower. A nice detail is the text description in 6 world languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hungarian). A lovely feature on the side of the box is a picture of the model with its name in 6 world languages. The narrow and tall model fits very nicely on the side, which makes it nice to display the box on the shelf and save some space. In my opinion, the best feature of the box (this is true for the whole Landmark series or at least the sets I own from this series) is that it opens up to reveal the box contents. This is not a new detail, as it was a standard in the 90's (I believe), but nowadays it's rather rare. I like this feature of the box, as it allows easier access to the contents. In addition, the box is made of a sturdier cardboard which makes it more convenient for storage. Both features of the box are the reasons why I decided to keep it, as I generally throw set boxes away almost immediately after building the set. The booklet The booklet design is similar to the box's front side. It's made from a thicker paper and has even thicker cover and back pages. This is definitely a plus, as instruction booklets are made of thinner paper which is more prone to accidental tears. Another feature of the booklet that stands out is the dorsal binding. In a way, this is not so handy while building, as the pages keep turning on their own, but it adds to the quality and long life of the booklet. This can be compensated by slightly rubbing the turned pages in the booklet, although it leaves a mark on the booklet. The booklet includes a detailed description of the Eiffel Tower's design and construction, and some basic information about its designer, a French engineer Gustave Eiffel. Many interesting facts can be found in the booklet, including the fact that he was specialized in building different metal structures, was the designer of the Statue of Liberty, and was involved in building the locks for the Panama Canal. Another lovely feature of the booklet are wonderful photos of the real Eiffel Tower. For someone, who hasn't made it to Paris yet, just looking the photos is very tempting to start planning the trip there. In addition, basic facts about the Eiffel Tower are included. Did you know there's 18038 iron parts included in the tower? In addition, the booklet is bilingual. All the information is written in English and French. A random page from the booklet shows that it's not that hard to follow up different steps of the design considering the mostly greyish structure. The parts needed are highlighted in clouds with white borders. The corners on the booklet pages seem to be reserved for some kind of ''Did you know?'' information. This page states that the position of each of the 2500000 rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm. In my opinion, this seems very precise, especially considering the model was designed more than 100 years ago. The pieces Parts to build the Eiffel Tower are packed in 4 polybags. There's not much variability in colour. Parts are in 6 different colours (black, light and dark bluish gray, flat silver, dark green and red), however the majority of parts is in both shades of gray. These are the largest parts found in the box, mostly plates and tiles. Of interest, there are two black printed tiles with French and English name of the tower. This is a nice detail, as you can choose how to name your tower. I chose the English name, as I'm more familiar with it. However, French is original, and including only a French tile would not be a problem. Smaller parts are again mostly plates and modified plates. Special parts here are the SNOT plates, that are very abundant in this set. Majority of the parts is included in larger numbers, as they are used as building blocks of each of four sides of the tower. Parts wise, there's not much special bricks that would make it worth buying this set for parts only. However, the interesting parts in this set are the before mentioned printed tiles, 4x4 round plate with 2x2 hole inside in light bluish gray, 2x2 dark green tiles, dark bluish gray plate with grill, flat silver hoses and flat silver modified plate with octagonal frame. The build The building of the model of the Eiffel Tower starts with now almost classic Architecture set's platform with distinguished black edge with printed name of the model on the tile. I chose English name, however, you can ''personalize'' your model of the Eiffel Tower, and use a tile with French name. The platform is tiled with dark green tiles representing the grass around the tower, and light bluish gray tiles representing the paved surface below the tower. Positioned on the turn tables in each corner are the bases for each ''leg'' of the tower. Another specialty of this model is SNOT building. In addition, to classical SNOT techniques with SNOT bricks, throughout the build you can find different 1x1 modified plates positioned at 45° angle in respect to other bricks. Here, at the first level of the tower, you can see gray clips at the edges of the level. The grill plate is used as a base for the first level, and again here you can see 1x1 clips positioned at an ''odd'' angle. The grill plate looks nicely as it is similar to the iron structure of the real tower. In one of the later steps, you attach the middle part of tower's legs to the angled clips. These middle parts of the ''legs'' attach to the higher smaller platform with the same technique. An interesting detail at this step is that you actually have built the middle part of the tower, but you cannot attach it to the base platform, as the bottom part of the ''legs'' are not built yet. The bottom part of the tower's ''legs'' is added later during the building. They're built similarly to the middle part from previous picture. The only difference are the additional clips on the sides of the ''legs''. These clips will hold the flexible hoses, but are added a bit later. Also, at this point, the model is up-side down. The finished bottom half of the model looks great attached to the base platform. The flexible hoses are a great detail, although the flat silver colour is not so evident in this colour scheme. Aditionally, slightly more reflexion and mimicking of metal colour is provided by the two rows of flat silver grill plates around the edges of the lower two platforms of the tower. The upper part of the tower differs in size and shape from the bottom part. At some point it looks very odd with sides of the upper inverted pyramid sticking out in the empty space. Although, different in shape, the same SNOT techniques are used as in the lower part. In the bottom of this upper part of the tower, you can again see the clips positioned at 45° angle. The finishing touch of the tower is the octagonal ring in flat silver at the top and flag pole at the top of the tower. The only thing I'm missing at this point is a printed tile with French flag design to hang on the pole. This would be the icing on the cake. The finished product After some repetitive small builds, here's finally the finished model of the Eiffel Tower. The model is instantly recognizable. Although LEGO bricks are generally considered as ''blocky'', there's almost no sign of blocky appearance in the Eiffel Tower. Specifically when viewed from an angle, the cone like shape of the tower is even more evident, and small details in flat silver and slightly differently angled ''sides'' of the tower really stand out. How well the designer(s) of the set managed to replicate the cone like structure of the tower, is nicely seen also from the birds' perspective. What I missed is the designer(s) behind the model. As I remember for some models of the Architecture series, the name of the designer was included on the box. However, for this set I couldn't find any reference as to who is the person(s) responsible for this lovely model of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks to EB member Steve309 who provided the missing information of the set designer (as seen in the book entitled Lego Architecture: The Visual Guide), I can add the name of the designer behind this set. This is Rok Zgalin Kobe, a Slovenian architect and designer of the Trevi Fountain, Imperial Hotel, Big Ben and other Architecture sets. The Final Verdict Design: 9/10 The overall design is well executed. The Eiffel Tower is instantly recognizable, and the colour scheme is reminiscent of metallic iron structure. The shape of the tower is spot on thanks to some simple, yet effective SNOT building techniques. The only thing I missed is a small French flag at the top of the pole. Parts: 7/10 Selection of parts is just a pile of mostly light bluish and dark bluish gray plates and modified plates. It's definitely not a set worth buying for parts only, as there are not that many special or rare bricks included. However, it might be useful to get a hand on some SNOT parts in light bluish gray. Build: 8/10 The build itself is not that simple build as some of the bricks are positioned at a 45° angle, however there are some repetitive elements included which takes away a bit of fun. Nevertheless, the build is impressive and enjoyable enough as it's starts somewhere in the middle of the tower, and is not straight from the bottom up. Playability: 9/10 The set is definitely not meant to be played with, yet it's still sturdy enough to be handled even by younger hands. As for the target population, it's a great model to display (and this is one aspect of ''play'' for the AFOLs, isn't it?). Price: 7/10 The price is a bit on the expensive side with more than 0.1 EUR per brick while it doesn't offer any special or rare parts. However, in my opinion it's still a better value than some other smaller sets from the Architecture Landmark series. Overall: 40/50 (80 %) From the overall score the greatness of the model is not that obvious. From specific aspects, such as parts, price and build the model doesn't appear to be sticking out of the average. However, the design is well done, and it's a recognisable model of one of the most famous Paris' buildings.

I was in NYC visiting with Flare, we spent way to long in the LEGO store in Rockefeller center. I walked out with this. I did like the look of the set, though I was mostly in it just for Batman, I wasn't at all sure about the rubber ducky boat thingy. Set Information: Name: Batman: The Penguin Face Off Set Number: 76010 Pieces: 136 Price: $12.99 Ages: 5-12 Minifigs: 2 Theme: DC Superheroes Year of Release: 2014 Bricklink Brickset S@H Flickr Set Box: The first thing I notice about this box is that there is a TON of information crammed into this very small box. That choking hazard warning really bugs me. LEGO has, as usual, crafted a very nice action shot of the set. The new Batman design in the upper right corner is great too. A lot less going on in the back though. Apparently flick fires say "zoom" now. And the 1:1 is Batman! I'm rather surprised not to see Penguin here as he's a short figure. Contents: Inside the box there are three rather small bags, and the manual. That bag in the upper left corner was very full. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Batman logo was printed onto the sloped piece, as it wasn't printed in the Bat-cave. And I really like these eyes. Only thing that stands out to me is the wonderful 1x1 round eye tile. Manual: The art on the manual front is pretty similar to the box, but much wider image. That dang warning image is still here too. Inside the manual is a lovely soft green color and has a slight computer looking overlay. In some corners we have Batman, Man-bat, and Flash. Minifigures: On to my favorite part: the minifigures! I absolutely LOVE Batman. Penguin surprised me, he's a great figure too. Penguin has a wonderful fur coat, along with a monocle. I'm used to a fat Penguin, so the lack of print trying to represent fat is a little disappointing. It looks like Batman has some type of heating or breathing gizmo going on with his suit. Both figures have back printing, though Batman's is covered by the scuba tank. Penguin's fur coat continues around on the back. More of the light blue highlights are continued here on Batman's back. I cannot wait to use this head on a figure. It looks basically like a printed scuba mask to me. Batman also has a second face, just the usual exp<b></b>ression. He looks a lot like one of the new clones the way he head is printed. Quick comparison with one of my other Batman figures. The Batman from this set has a Nolan style cowl. Both figures also have some accessories. Penguin has a hard time standing with his iconic umbrella. The Build: Since this is a small set, I'm not going to go into detail about the build, it was pretty straight forward. Finished Model: The set doesn't look too bad without nice photo editing. The Penguin bombs seem a little odd. These are the Penguin bombs. Really the design isn't bad, I just don't like them. The antenna ruin them for me. They fit rather nicely into the little iceberg, that, for some reason, is holding a diamond. Now for the wonderful rubber ducky! This guy is pretty cute and resembles a duck quite well. At first glance it looks a little fat, but trust me, it grows on you. Here you can see Penguin's steering wheel. Now do note that this is powered by a propeller and some orange thruster thingys. Seems like overkill to me, though they might be for steering. Penguin fits nicely into the back of the duck. This is the funny little Bat-vehicle included in the set. Not sure what it's supposed to be. I do like that LEGO tried to vary from the duck with this, but I think a propeller would have been fitting on this. Batman just barely fits into the vehicle with his flippers. And I love that there's a spot to put his gun. Functions: This missile, while front heavy, you can actually fire. You can't fire this one unless you're holding it. There's no way it could be fired while it's on the ground. Conclusion: Yes this set is actually better than I thought it'd be. The Bat-vehicle thingy, is sub par, as his vehicles usually are. The rubber duck is absolutely wonderful. Both minifigures are definitely up there on my list of best DC figures I own. I do wish there were some better functions, flick fires don't cut it any more. Ratings: Playability: 4/10 There is just about nothing in the way of play features in this set at all. Design: 7/10 That rubber duck is wonderfully designed, the Bat-vehicle though... Price: 8/10 The price is pretty standard these days, I can't argue with it too much. Minifigures: 10/10 They are absolutely fantastic. I can't think of anything they could be better for these figures. Parts: 7/10 There's nothing super exciting in here, but those eyes do push this set up a few points. Total: 36/50 "WHERE IS IT?!" Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy!

The fact that the evil Megabluck got their grubby paws on the Spongebob license brings a true solitary tear to my eye. Just as LEGO started making actually good Spongebob sets too! Darn. Anyways, let's look not that far back at… Set Name: Bikini Bottom Undersea Party Set #:3818 Theme: Spongebob Squarepants Pieces: 471 Minifigures: 4 (ish) Year of Release: 2012 Price at Release: USD 50, GBP 50 Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION The now sadly defunct Spongebob theme was probably one of the oddest LEGO ever made. It lasted for six years but only ever had fourteen sets, with no wave consisting of more than 3 (and one of the first wave sets was the weird big buildable Spongebob thing). I can't say I ever greatly cared for Spongebob the show or Spongebob the LEGO line. I got the original Krusty Krab, but I can't say why, other than just to get a LEGO Spongebob minifig most likely. For years, none of the Spongebob sets trickling out appealed to me, since they seemed to be pretty basic and uninteresting designs. That is, until 2011, when the sets finally started being cool. Somebody actually had the bright idea to bring the line up to modern design standards, with cool new variants of the minifigs to boot (not just another slightly different Spongebob face). I only picked up this set of the lot, though I wish I'd nabbed a few others on sale as well (as I did with this one). It's the third time LEGO released the good old iconic pineapple under the sea, so let's see how LEGO did with it on the third go-round. INSTRUCTIONS No box, sorry. Suffice it to say, it was yellow, largeish, looked fun. Yeah. Here's the same image as the front of the box, though with elements moved around to fit the square space (the box was rectangular). I honestly have no idea if there was an episode where somebody threw a party at Spongebob and Squidward's houses with giant leis, but I wouldn't put it past LEGO to have made the whole thing up. Sure looks like fun though. The inside has an appropriate under-the-sea blue color with bubble pattern. Color differentiation in clearly quite good. Why oh why did I not buy the Flying Dutchman set. I thought about it so many times, and it wasn't even expensive. Oh well, one lives with regret. MINIFIGURES My favorite thing already, woohoo! Actually the parts in this set are amazing too. But here are our funky fresh minifigs. Like every version of Spongebob's house, the set contains Patrick, Spongebob, and Squidward (and buildable Gary). This time they are decked out in exclusive lei prints, with Patrick having an insanely awesome face print as well. I don't know how you could look at that and not smile. This was only the second set to contain the lovely Squidward head mold, and not the horrid 'Squidwards general face smashed on to a minifig head' design. I guess LEGO figured it was high time to squeeze a little more use out of the Mrs. Puff mold they'd made back in 2007, though it doesn't make much sense why she'd be here. Pearl Krabs would've been amazing!! But oh well, these are already cool. Even in the age of backprints, none of these figures have one. They're not really too necessary, though. One interesting and unsettling thing that I discovered is that you can fit Gary inside of Mrs. Puff. I left her open to illustrate her, but she does fully close with Gary inside. Play scenario kids! Mrs. Puff gets hungry and eats Gary! While I'm here in the minifig section anyway, I thought I'd weigh in on the Megabloks take. I've watched the Brickshow's reviews, and honestly, the Megabloks characters look excellent. Excellent mini action figures, that is. The charm to me of minifigs is that they never deviate too much from one, simple design. Sure, all of the minifigs in this set have special heads (and Mrs. Puff isn't compatible with anything), but they're all still unmistakably minifigures. The charm of when LEGO does a license, in my mind, is that they modify characters to work as standard minifigs, not make new figures to represent characters. The Megabloks figures look great and have a ton of awesome detail, but they're just completely a different item from minifigs. The Spongebob characters seem about as far as LEGO can stretch with minifigs and be successful to me. Toy Story had to go even further outside of minifig zone to have characters like Ham and Rex, and it just didn't really work because it lost its LEGO-ness. Don't get me wrong, I have Ham and Rex and they're both super-cute, but like Mrs. Puff it's really hard to see them as a LEGO product (Ham has a whopping zero points of connectivity). Ok, just had to weigh in on that. Back to the regular program. PARTS This set, unquestionably, undeniably, makes one heck of an amazing parts-pack. So many of the parts in these colors are super-rare. I tried to pick out some of the rarest and most interesting, but I missed a few. For anybody who just builds in natural colors, this set might not be for you, but for people looking to brighten up their life there's just so much on offer here. I love bright colors personally. Somehow I never noticed until rebuilding this set for the review that LEGO changed the pillar mould to have a solid stud. Looking at Bricklink, it seems LEGO made the switch in 2012. Cool, though now you can't put rods in the top of pillars to make cool guns on mechs or stuff like that. Note also - excessive amounts of light blue cheese. SET Interestingly, the instructions don't have you build things in an order that make sense. You'd think the playground equipment and DJ equipment would be grouped together respectively, but no, they go back and forth. Obviously it doesn't matter at all. Just thought it was interesting to note. I'll show the stuff in the order I want. Food Stand I guess one of the characters rented this from somewhere, since it's not usually chilling on their lawns. It's a nice little island-themed build. The colors work together quite nicely. The brickbuilt cake is also fun, as are the balloons. Nothing unexpected from the back, besides for the fact that it's decorated with four cheese! Woo! Playground Equipment Somebody also must have brought in some playground equipment. What party would be complete without a playground? Umm… idk. This stuff seems a bit random and feels like it was thrown in just to fill out the set to the $50 price point, but it supplies great parts in great colors so who can truly argue with that. There's really no reason these things need more than one picture now collectively. They go quite well together, and the merry-go-round goes round merrily. DJ Equipment More logical for a party is sound equipment. These I will show separately to note a few things. The LPs for scratching are stickers, but they're great stickers so why not sacrifice two black round 2x2s to make funky LPs. They're even put on turntables to you can literally turn them. The speakers have a truly ingenious design, using the bottom part of treasure chests. Along with the fire in sticks in the ground, these truly have an island or tiki vibe. Altogether these components look fantastic, and would make a nice little display just like this. Such a cute little setup. Squidward's House (Note that I did not apply exterior stickers to either house. While those huge lei stickers are nice, I wanted to keep the models clean for making standard Bikini Bottom scenes, not specific party ones.) Squidward's house was one Spongebob element never done justice before this set. It was excluded entirely from the second Pineapple set, but it might as well have been left out from the original Pineapple set as well since it was mainly composed of this horrid 4+ Pirates abomination of a piece and had no interior, being completely devoted to having a stupid target feature in its eyes. Anyways, though Patrick's rock didn't make the cut for a redesign to something other than two LURPs as it was in its only appearance in the whole line, Squidward's Easter Island head house thankfully did. This version fully uses contemporary building techniques with plenty of bricks and even some SNOT. Comparing it to pictures of the show, it's actually not great; the show version is rounded and tapers back and upward, as well as being far darker. The shape of the 'real' house really can't be duplicable in LEGO at this scale by my estimation, so though this model is way too light, skinny, flat, and blocky, it's still pretty much undeniably Squidward's house, especially when put next to the Pineapple. It's also worlds better than that 2005 piece of crap model. I don't mind the mixture of greys, since LEGO does not abide by monochrome models, and the effect here doesn't look sloppy. The model is extremely flat though, with just enough depth to not completely be a facade. The upper half does not even go all the way back, which is a bit weird, but make for more room to play on the 'interior.' Overall the shaping and look of this house is not super-fantastic, but it does the job and it's nice to have Squidward's crib. PLAY FEATURE ALERT!!!!!! ……… The door opens. Why can't LEGO make the hinge pieces light grey, though. Seriously. From the back this set sort of reminds me of the most recent Hogwarts Castle sets and their towers, which had next to no space but had details crammed in them anyway. Particularly reminiscent is the top floor, which just has a little build representing a present and no space for minifigs. The ground floor contains a little potted plant, and a music stand and clarinet for Squidward to use. The clarinet is a nice detail from the show, since it actually factors into a number of episodes. The sticker is again, like the LPs, a nice simple, versatile one. The second floor simply contains a little table and chair for Squidward to sit at in solitude, being mopey. More nice stickers here. Usually I'm not a fan of stickers having a back color that does not match the color of part to which they are applied, but here the white on brown actually works for to create a 'framed picture' effect. Spongebob's House Though I don't own them, I've looked at pictures and reviews of the first two Pineapples and found that they were very largely the same from the exterior, which just a few minor differences. This set gave the house a complete revamp, with a couple of the most noticeable differences being the front section shortened to just six studs wide instead of eight, and the addition of some SNOT orange rooftop pieces to give it some pineapple-y bumpiness. Like Squidward's house, the model can't really get the shape right, but again I think that would be impossible. It's still unmistakably Spongebob's house. It's got quite a visually appealing design LEGO-wise as well. It seems somebody decided on the first version that it should have some red stripes, which hasn't been done away with here. It looks nice even if the 'real' thing doesn't have such stripes. Note that the windows are printed, and appeared in all three pineapples as well as the Bikini Bottom Express. The other side features some good asymmetry, with the window being placed on the upper part rather than the lower (and of course the absence of the chimney). There's not too much going on on the inside. This version contains no more detail than the previous one, and actually a little less since that one had a separate armchair that could be put inside. However, the few details are pleasing. I especially like Patrick's portrait over the door. True friends have pictures of their true friends in their houses. Let's go through the features/details. Of course the door opens, as expected. I just love opening doors (and then taking pictures of it). This side of the interior is fairly simple, with just a bowl for Gary and a picture to let you know that its his section. I have no idea what that other sticker in the background represents. Some giant harpoon? The other side contains Spongebob's all-important bed. This must be a go-to component of the house, since all three have feature a different version of it. It makes sense, given that it's featured in the opening sequence of the show and it's an easy play feature to pull off. Again, nice sticker on the wall. The original bed had an elaborate rubber-band mechanism, but the next to have been simple lever-style. Push down, wake up already-smiling Spongebob. Just in case you were wondering, the set looks like this when folded out castle-wall style. Why you'd want to do this, I don't know, but YOU CAN. And here's the inside that way. You could make pineapple fortifications for a fruit castle or something. The interior would be a big apple. I don't know I'm just brainstorming. WHOLE SET and CONCLUSION I forgot previously to show this picture of just the disconnected bits, so I thought I'd do that here. This almost makes some strange, small Winter Village Market style scene. Now here's really everything. This set is a lot of fun, and if the theme had to end, this isn't a horrid way to do it. From a Spongebob fan perspective, we finally got an updated Squidward house and redesign of Spongebob's house as well. The whole set might be yet another rehash, but it's a rehash of the best kind. The original versions were just ugly. The minifigs in this set are really not a huge draw, besides Patrick, who is awesome. I'm happy to get the nicely molded Squidward, but if you're not at all a Spongebob person you probably wouldn't care much for him. His sand-green skin tone on the torso wouldn't look too great with a yellow head, either. Parts-wise, this set really shines. There are so many parts in rare colors here, it's amazing. Few sets have such a nice, rare selection. I got the set on sale for USD 35, which was a truly great price that convinced me to buy it. I'd already been eyeing it at $50 though, and if I was a Spongebob fan I probably would have done it for full price. For USD 50 it certainly wasn't bad at all. This set was a good send-off for the theme, but it also shows how good things could have been if the theme had been continued. The last four sets were all pretty great (though the superhero boat was a bit weird), and if the theme could have stuck around in its minor way I'm sure we would've seen a nice, updated Krusty Krab. I guess it's good to go out on a high note, though, and in that last wave LEGO provided once again almost everything you really need for acting out most Spongebob scenes. Heck, if Lord of the Rings has really gone to the dogs, this is a way better conclusion for a Licensed theme. We didn't even get Faramir.

70161_000 by LuxorV, on Flickr Being a fan of the old Agents theme, I could not pass getting at least an assay of this year's Ultra Agents sets. I started with the second smallest one, which I chose for its design, as well as the figs and parts. In fact, though the idea of a big fisted track vehicle is far from new in the cartoon-ish representation of technological villains of all times, the actual LEGO bricks version did convey the feeling nicely, and I was interested in seeing what building solutions where used to make the set. Let's see if building it and having it in my hands made it live up to the expectations. Theme: Ultra Agents Set name: Tremor Track Infiltration Set Number: 70161 Price: 19.99 $, 17.99 £, 19.99 Euro Pieces: 241 (+ 9 extras) Minifigures: 2 Year of release: 2014 Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset The Box Front 70161_001 by LuxorV, on Flickr The box is rectangular and sports the new Ultra Agents futuristic/techno style, with a mix of greys and an overall light blue-ish aura. I particularly like the rulers on the right hand side, which suggest the idea we're seeing this through a pair of high tech binoculars or a survey camera of sorts. LEGO and Ultra Agents logos dominate the upper part of the front, along with the Ultra Agents (in this case Agent Fury) vs Tremor cartoon pic. The middle of the front has a shot of the set in action, with Tremor Track smashing through a wall (not my idea of stealthy 'infiltration', actually) and Agent Fury ramdomly shooting his gun, while the precious chip flies to what will probably be its destruction against the opposite wall. The age range and set number info complete this portion for the European version; I expect the North America version to have more writings as usual. In the lower left corner, an eye catching icon plus text informs us you can play an Ultra Agents game via a free app on your tablet. More on this later on. Back 70161_002 by LuxorV, on Flickr The back shows the set's play features: shooting missiles, smashing mechanism, rolling treads, randomly shooting Agents Fury's gun (honestly, did he attend shooting range training with the Storm Troopers?) and extracting the chip from its case. The rest of the back is very interesting as well: the lower right corner sports a detail fro the new 'almost spring loaded, but based on simple tension' guns, while the top shows an impossible-to-miss advertise for the Ultra Agents free interactive story app. Sides 70161_003 by LuxorV, on Flickr 70161_004 by LuxorV, on Flickr The upper side of the box shows Agent Fury and Tremor, while the usual mug-shot depicts the new gun at 1:1 size. The omnipresent app advertise is here, too. A lateral side bears the usual LEGO and theme logos, another app advert and a bracketed image of the mission goal, in this case the chip. Contents Inside 70161_011 by LuxorV, on Flickr Upon opening the box, we find an instructions booklet, a sticker sheet, two rubber tracks and a bag of parts. As you can see, there is quite a number of Dark Tan parts to compliment the Grey and Black under-structure of the set. New pieces 70161_014 by LuxorV, on Flickr New parts included in this small set are: Minifig, Weapon Trigger for Gun, Blaster Mini, Technic, Axle 5 with Stop, Tile 1 x 1 with Dark Bluish Gray Square with Black Center and Lines Pattern (Ultra Chip), Minifig, Weapon Gun, Blaster Mini in White and most of the minifig parts (more on those later on). Re-coloured parts 70161_013 by LuxorV, on Flickr Re-coloured parts in this set include: Black Vehicle, Spoiler 2 x 4 with Handle, Dark Tan Plate 2 x 10, and Dark Tan Slope 33 3 x 2. Rare parts 70161_012 by LuxorV, on Flickr Parts collectors and MOCers will be interested in the following rare parts also: Flat Silver Light Cover with Internal Bar / Bionicle Barraki Eye (occurs in five sets), Light Bluish Gray Brick, Round 2 x 2 Truncated Cone (occurs only in four non-Star Wars sets), Dark Bluish Gray Technic, Steering Wheel Pilot's Yoke (first time in a non-Technic set), Dark Tan Dish 2 x 2 Inverted (Radar), Dark Tan Plate 1 x 6 (getting more common this year), Dark Tan Slope 30 1 x 2 x 2/3 (Usually in bigger or Collection sets), and Dark Tan Wedge, Plate 2 x 4. Spare parts 70161_016 by LuxorV, on Flickr The usual mix of spare parts includes a long antenna, a second chip tile, some techinc pins and a half pin, a few round 1x1 studs, and a second lever for the new gun. Minifigures 70161_017 by LuxorV, on Flickr Both minifigures are new in all parts except Agent Fury's headgear. The new design for the Agent suit is just great and, together with Tremor's armour, is what made me want this set most of all. I love the detail in the torso and legs. Tremor's armour is equally well designed and quite menacing with its dark red accents. 70161_018 by LuxorV, on Flickr The two minifigs sport back printing of the torso and heads. While Tremor gets angrier, Agent Fury grins, probably to taunt him. 70161_019 by LuxorV, on Flickr Here we can see the two warriors all geared up and almost ready for battle. Notice the new armour piece on Tremor. While it's one piece (I would have preferred a removable helmet), it surely is more protective than most other armours and has very good aesthetics. Furthermore, it blend nicely with the fist pieces to give this villain an even more menacing look. Finally, notice the two half-sphere bulges near Tremor's mouth: those seem to be microphones for some communication device built in the armour. What I find strange is the choice of the shield for Agent Fury: I suppose it would have to be made of Vibranium or similar materials to withstand Tremor's (or worse, Tremor's Track) punches! Instructions 70161_005 by LuxorV, on Flickr The instructions booklet is nicely thick, and fortunately not divided into part 1 and part 2 like other small sets these days. The cover shows the exact same composition of the front of the box, except for the age range and 'free app' text. 70161_006 by LuxorV, on Flickr The background uses a blue-ish shade that does not distract the eye nor prevents colour or parts' recognition. As you can see, the rulers' theme is reproduced here, too. 70161_007 by LuxorV, on Flickr 70161_008 by LuxorV, on Flickr 70161_009 by LuxorV, on Flickr The last pages sport the usual plethora of adds, both for the Ultra Agents theme and App. . 70161_010 by LuxorV, on Flickr The parts count covers two pages. Again, you can notice the dominance of Black and Grey-s as well as some Dark Tan, with sparse brighter colours' accents. Building Start 70161_026 by LuxorV, on Flickr We start off by building the secure case for the chip. The design is not totally new, since the other similar structures have been used in a variety of themes over the years. Nonetheless, it's a nice little addition to the set and can help increase the playability. 70161_027 by LuxorV, on Flickr The case opens by pivoting the front part and reveals the chip for Tremor to steal. Now for the main model 70161_022 by LuxorV, on Flickr Tremor's Track itself starts with a bunch of technic beams and pins connected to few bricks and plates to provide a building surface for the upper part of the model. Notice the big steering wheel in the back: it is proportioned for the huge iron fist things on Tremor's hands, and it boosts the cartoon-ish feel of this set. 70161_023 by LuxorV, on Flickr Here you can see the start of the fisting mechanism in place. All revolves around the tan technic axle serving as a 'trigger' for the (yet to be built) big arms. 70161_024 by LuxorV, on Flickr Only the truncated cone part in the back controls the mechanism: the one in front is there for aesthetics only. 70161_025 by LuxorV, on Flickr The tracks complete this model. I like the use of the radar dome pieces as hub caps, and the whole set is very well proportioned, I'd say. Finished set 70161_028 by LuxorV, on Flickr The shot of the complete set helps us have a better idea of the relative proportions: if Tremor were to use the vehicle fists on either Agent Fury or the chip's case, I doubt he'll have more then a few shards to collect! Bird-eye 70161_030 by LuxorV, on Flickr The big vehicle looks pretty compact and well designed, without useless details and full of interesting solutions in the use of space. What I found odd at first was the presence of the antenna. Then again, I reflected and came to the decision that the antenna must be connected with Tremor's armour (remember the communication devices?) and allows him to control the track even when he's not operating it directly (something similar to the Goblin's control over his glider). Back 70161_031 by LuxorV, on Flickr I'm always intrigued by the way LEGO designers put peculiar details in their models. Take this Tremor Track, for example: Tremor is a know villain, riding a tank-like vehicle with giant fists, which will never pass un-noticed in the streets, nonetheless, LEGO designers put a full set of braking lights on this track, so that Tremor won't be bothered by the Police for not complying with the traffic laws. Ready, aim, punch! 70161_032 by LuxorV, on Flickr A side shot to show the reach of the mechanical fists. They would indeed make a big hole in any LEGO City structure unfortunate enough to be on Tremor's way! Final comments Overall, this is a nice set for its value. The figs are great and the part selection includes some interesting bits. Design & Colour scheme – 9/10 (TLG designers did their best and made a great job in creating the colour scheme for this set; what I dislike, though it is a minor annoyance and probably could not be done differently, is the extensive use of Technic beams in the central part of the vehicle.) Minifig – 10/10 (As with most of these year figs the Ultra Agents figs have a design and a level of detail that are just great.) Parts – 8/10 (A lot of common parts, but some interesting bits are in the mix nonetheless.) Playability – 9/10 (The chip safe case, the track and the weapons grant for hours of play by children.) Build – 8/10 (Nothing too complex, but some efficient solutions are used.) Price – 10/10 (20 Euros for 241 pieces plus spare parts is good, especially if you throw in two splendid minifigures.) Overall: 9/10 Very good As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome! If you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:

Back when LEGO still made really weird decisions about things on the regular came this supremely odd, almost confusingly cool set. It's… Set Title: Graveyard Duel Set #: 4766 Theme: Harry Potter Subtheme: Goblet of Fire Pieces: 548 Minifigures: 8 (including skeletons) Year of Release: 2005 Price at Release: USD 30, GBP 30 Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Back in the rocky mid-'00s, LEGO did some dumb things. Maybe they will already over their very lowest point by the time this set rolled around in 2005, but they clearly still didn't have it all together. Just as things were getting cooler and cooler in Harry Potter, LEGO started stepping it up with even more Harry Potter sets than ever, covering everything you could ever want in the films. Right? WRONG. Four measly sets for Goblet of Fire, just another single Hogwarts for Order of the Phoenix, and big fat ZERO for Half-Blood Prince. WHY LEGO WHY WHY WHY. At least they righted some of their wrongs with the amazing 2010 sets. (Check out reviews of most of those on my profile.) But back to this set. I've already reviewed the other Goblet of Fire set I have, the underwater one, which has some awesome minifigs, cool parts, and is still a really weird set. This one is weirder. Way weirder. Come with me and find out why. PACKAGING I don't have the box anymore, but I can tell you that it was weird. Harry and Peter Pettigrew both had the wrong heads on the box. Yes. On the box. Packaging does not reflect contents. Weird. The other thing that you would've noticed if you were in the part of the world where piece count is on the box: 548 pieces. MSRP 30 bucks. What? How? Why? 548 pieces for 30 bucks? Is that wrong? In this case, packaging does reflect contents. It's too good to be true. INSTRUCTIONS Here's that front of box picture, where you will see that Harry still has his fleshie years 1-3 face, and Peter Pettigrew aka Wormtail has his Prison of Azkaban face. It also clearly shows Wormtail with one grey hand and one flesh hand, though in my copy of the set he had two grey hands (which I quickly remedied). The set also just looks weird - it's like somebody had a leftover Halloween set, though 'Hey there's a graveyard in the new Harry Potter movie!' and just threw in some HP figs to make it an HP set. Harry still has the wrong face on the minifigs page, though Wormtail is now correct. LEGO also apparently had the worst possible computer technology at this point in time. Luckily color differentiation was just fine, as you can see the vast difference between black and dark grey. The instructions also have a pleasing, Harry Potter-y parchment background. I don't want to bore you with five thousand pictures of instructions, but check out this alternate model. It's so cool OMG WOW! As an aside, I recall that Barnes & Noble's website showed this image (on a white background) as the main set image. Wormtail once again has the wrong face in this image that is clearly of physical LEGO. The back actually has the right head on Harry! A LEGO catalog that came at that time also featured the right head, so I guess by the time LEGO did promotional materials, they had the actual finished product. Also don't you remember that scene where the Hungarian Horntail attacks the Durmstrang Ship? If Peter Jackson had directed the movie, that scene probably would have existed. MINIFIGURES Let's move on to the actually interesting stuff. Minifigures! The minifig selection in this set honestly could be better. There's not that many of them, and they're not that great. A couple more Death Eaters would have been nice, and of course - where's Cedric? Remember, that random character nobody really cared about? Honestly, just more Death Eaters would've been fine with me. Here's what we DO get, though. Harry looks great, with a fitting torso, and my favorite smiling Harry face of all. Why he's simply smiling without an alternate face - now that's a good question. LEGO did alternate faces for Ron, Hermione, Lucius (in this set), and underwater Harry in this wave, so they could've stepped up here. It's just silly. Voldemort is awful. It's basically the same print that was on the Quirrel figure, but now glowing in the dark. Massive facepalm. Lucius Malfoy has a boss Death Eater mask that can luckily be used to made generic Death Eaters, so that's great. And Wormtail. The hair is all wrong and the torso is a bit simple, but I guess the face works. Something feels a little off with it, though. Valiant effort, but not mah fave. Harry has a fitting back print, while Lucius Malfoy has a torso that's nearly identical to his original version, just not with shininess. His face is similar to the original, but it's printed with just one color (black) so he has flesh-colored pupils that just look bad. Thankfully, the 2010 version of Mr. Malfoy's head was decent, so if you have this head you can just use the other side for a generic Death Eater and forget it's Malfoy. In sum, Harry emerges as the only actually-good figure of these four (minus his lack of serious face), with Lucius coming out as ok due to his mask, Wormtail being tolerable, and Voldemort being crap. LEGO thankfully made an A+ 100% amazing Voldemort in the 2010 line, but back in 2005 you would've been better off… I don't know, not even having Voldemort? Not really, but this sucked. Remember all of the skeletons in the graveyard scene in the movie? No? Too bad, you get them anyway! LEGO even went out of it's way to make an exclusive all-black skeleton for all of your medieval burned-at-the-stake MOCing needs. They also decided to throw in sand green skelly parts already in existence from the Dementors, but didn't make any more sand green parts than they'd already done, so you're left with a 1/3 rotting-infest and 2/3 burned skelly. Fantastic. I personally always hated this 'new' skelly face since it's just more freaky than it needs to be. It still gives me shivers. (Note the exclusive black Hippogryph wings, though - awesome!) ACCESSORIES I already showed the wands with the wands and knife with the minifigs, so there are those. In addition, you get a black shovel, full light bley trash can with lid, and broom. The black shovel has been in a fair number of sets, but it's still comparatively rare so cool to get. The trash bin in light bley has only been in five sets, so it's even more rare. This photo proves that one can, with care, pose skellies. But it's very annoying. ANIMALS It wouldn't be a Harry Potter set without copious and unnecessary amounts of animals. Both the green snake and dark bley frog appeared in those colors here for the first time. It also appears Norbert cloned herself and and took a bath in tar. Also new and still exclusive to this day in black. The designer using his or her parts budget well - amiright? (Based on the fact that there are 548 parts in this set anyway, I'll assume the designing budget was set at 'whatever.') SET The set, such as it is, is just a combination of a bunch of different little things. I wish I could take you through it in build order, but I don't have the instructions in front of me anymore and I don't completely recall it. It doesn't matter that much anyway. Let's get into it! Cauldron Here's something that actually makes sense given the scene, which did in fact feature a cauldron. Now that I'm looking at the instructions front picture, it seems the cauldron isn't even there, but it is indeed in the set. You're instructed to put a bunch of studs and a knife inside. Red for blood of an enemy, knife for flesh of a servant, white for baby Voldemort ghost, and yellow for pee of a goat perhaps? IDK. Gate Here's example number 1 of LEGO being totally excessive with this big gate section that wasn't even in the film. Recolored Norbert as already mentioned, tons of fence pieces - just tons of pieces. Let me be clear - I'm not complaining about this stuff, it's just totally weird. The effect looks very nice. If you wish, you can even close the whole gate thing. Magic! This would actually work for a privately enclosed grave in a larger graveyard. Cart Thingy Since Harry Potter is set before the time of cars and more specifically hearses, this wooden-looking olden-day coffin cart is included. I'm not sure how the designer even came up with this, but once again, it's designed very nicely. It makes use of parts that were still relatively new and rare at the time, like the 1x2 brown plate with bar at the back and the cheese slopes. The reddish brown plate with bar is still really rare, actually, appearing in just three sets. Cheese slopes of course are now so common that LEGO would probably ship you a box of five thousand free of charge. The coffin easily separates and looks quite good on its own, though it's kind of weird because it doesn't reflect the size of minifigures. Still looks great though. Very very creepily, the instructions instruct you to put some black skelly parts in there. So yeah. Somebody was burned at the stake and then chopped up. That's what LEGO is telling the children receiving this set. It's also NOT OK. I know the movie was kind of scary already, but you didn't have to go and make it worse in a freaking toy. Creepy cut-off burnt limbs aside, your child can have plenty of fun with this cart acting out what happened in the graveyard after Harry grabbed the portkey and returned to Hogwarts. Little Graves Bouncing back into 'kind of makes sense' territory, we get two little graves. Like (almost) all of the builds in this set, they're designed quite well. Plus, they work for the scene since there actually were graves around in the movie! They were even large enough for Harry to hide behind. The funky design on the Fabuland piece on the left one is a sticker, fyi. That piece only appeared in light bley in this set, so cool. But wait, there's a play feature! Both graves open up to reveal ground above the ground, and a pair of very neat buried-skelly prints. Yes, prints! Together the printed buried-skelly looks quite cool. Just another example of the awesome parts in this set. Also note the big skeleton piece found elsewhere in white in those horrid 4+ Pirates sets. Abominable line, but some cool parts. Bigger Grave Still rooted in the 'makes enough sense' category is this larger grave or tomb-like thing. The frog is used nicely as a decorative touch on top. The design on the panel is once again a sticker, but a nice one. Excellent design and parts all around. Due to the SNOT for the panel for the front, the back looks a little yucky, but not horrid. You wouldn't really display this from the back anyway. You might have noticed that awkward black stick running through the grave. Play feature alert guys!!! Twist the stick in your fingers, and… Skelly surprise! Hey, this thought just dawned on me, but maybe it's an inferi! Reference to later Harry Potter lore for the hardcore fans, right? So clever on LEGO's part! Actually it makes no sense and plays into my theory that this set was originally a Halloween set that got scrapped. But PLAY FEATUREZZ!!1!11 Tom Riddle's Grave This big grave is obviously supposed to resemble the one in the film, but didn't quite work out. We could cut LEGO some slack and say that the designer only saw concept art and kind of mucked it up. The thing has some of the features of the movie one, like a robed skeleton with wings, though it's placed wrong. Another aside - but who the hell makes a grave with a big grim reaper statue anyway? That makes absolutely no sense in the movie. Though it sadly doesn't get the movie grave right, this thing does look neat and has great parts. So many 1x4 tan tiles, those big dark bley tile pieces, rounded parts in black, dark bley slopes, black chains - good stuff. It all comes together quite well. Again note that the designs on tiles you see here are stickers. The back has the same affliction as the previous grave shown due to the SNOT piece spacing. But see that handle? We've got another play feature on our hands! You can open up the grave to reveal… snakes?? Shouldn't Tom Riddle actually be in there, given that they get a bone from him? Or at least one of the skeletons? Ok whatever, I give up. Logic was thrown out the window long ago. Tree There actually were trees in the background in this scene, so this could make sense. But take a look at the extravagant nature of this tree. For one - it's huge. Literally so many pieces here. Second - so many animals. Did we need bats on every single branch? No, but we got them. The reddish brown 1x4 plate with arm down only appeared in this and the rereleased King Leo's Castle of 2006, by the way. More cool parts. Then we're back in maximum creepy zone with the guy who was NAILED TO THE TREE AND LEFT TO ROT. More grotesque stuff for no reason. Little House (on the prairie) Thing We shall conclude this look at the disparate parts with perhaps the most perplexing thing of all - this little building. Once again, the overall look of it is bang-on fantastic. Great color blocking, great shape. Not actually a perfect design, as we'll see, but just as a thing it looks great. So many good parts too - I'll let you look at the picture to spot them for yourself. Not much to see from the back, but it's just a nice little build all around. The key word is 'little,' though. A minifigure can just barely stand in there, and the windows aren't at the right level. So this is actually like a mini build. Forced perspective in a LEGO set? Maybe? A revolutionary idea never to be found in a set again because children couldn't handle it? We'll never know. There's more to it, though. First, the roof comes off (more delicious tiles allowing for easy removal). I wish that was it, but it's not. The floor comes out too (though you kind of have to remove the whole stair build to get the floor out). The floor is great because of tiles, but yep - more creepy skeletons missing limbs. And you're supposed to put some of their missing limbs in the trash can. I can't make this stuff up; it's in the instructions. Gross. WHOLE SET and CONCLUSION Quite a lot, altogether. It makes a very nice, spooky graveyard scene, though some bits are a bit too spooky and wrong like the random skeleton bits. This set is a real headscratcher. In a way, it's great - so many parts, including in rare and exclusive colors, and really great designs all around. From a design perspective, this set could be released now and fit right in with today's builds. It couldn't be released today, though, at least as it was. Or, if you got this exact set, it would cost USD 60 minimum. It's completely insane that this was actually supposed to cost USD 30. As an HP set, it's really not great. There was a graveyard in the movie, and a duel, so, yes, you can sort of re-enact that stuff with this set. It doesn't come with that many minifigures, though, and the ones you do get are not all stellar. Particularly Voldemort - or Crappyglowinthedarkmort. Harry really screams for a more concerned exp<b></b>ression. I get that the climax of the movie should be a set, but LEGO still made very odd decisions with this one. It looks like this set goes for a ton of money on Bricklink today, and honestly, it's not one anyone would need to go back and pick up. LEGO really did Harry Potter right in 2010/2011, and this set can't even have the nostalgia factor of the ones from 2001 because it's so bizarre. It's well designed, it's fun, and it's packed with goodies in the parts department, so if you lucked into it at the time, you made a great decision. At this point, I wouldn't say it's a must have for anybody.

(Since this is my first review on this site, please excuse any shortcomings, omission of valuable information and inclusion of superfluous information - comments and feedback are welcome). 7471 Mars Exploration Rover Review - Technic in all but its name Model Number: 7471 Name: Mars Exploration Rover Theme: Discovery Year: 2003 Number of pieces: 870 Full sized photos available at https://www.flickr.c...57645937216192/ There didn't seem to be any review of this set on this site, so I decided to add my own. Overall, this was an enjoyable build and I would recommend it highly to any Technic collector who is looking for something beyond the usual. It is important to note that this set is not a Technic set, but was part of the "Discovery" theme in 2003. This theme was quite short lived and featured 6 sets of varying sizes and complexity. The mars rover is the only one in the series that is a Technic style build. In fact, this is the most "Technicy" non-Technic set I have yet encountered. Among the Discovery theme, this set is also has the highest parts count (870). Since the set is quite old, it may be difficult to obtain or may command a high price depending on where you live. However, it seems to be the least rare one out of the Discovery series. Functions: There are two knobs on the top of the set - one for rotating the antenna, and another for steering. The steering mechanism is quite interesting in that the outer four wheels are steered using a combination of push-rods and the "flex" system. The design of the steering system is quite impressive. On the back, there are two knobs - one for rotating the camera, and one for extending the robotic arm. Additionally, the camera can be extended and retracted using a dampened spring (the same ones used for the doors on the 8448 super car). The solar panels can be folded up and released with another dampened spring (see pictures). For some reason, the folded up configuration didn't seem to be very stable (any minor perturbation caused them to extend), however, that could be due to the way I built it. Pictures: Instruction booklet: In addition to the instructions, there is also an informational booklet with various facts about the real rover: Various parts: Partial progress: About half-way: Fully constructed, but before solar panels: With solar panels: Panels folded up: Things I liked: Novelty: It was very refreshing to build a Technic set that does not fall into a typical category (car, truck, construction vehicle, plane/helicopter). It would be great if Lego would produce more sets like this, rather than producing n-th iterations of the usual vehicles. I suspect that most people on this forum would also appreciate this. Another novel aspect of this set was the color palette. Again, it was nice to build something that was not yellow or red. The set consisted mainly of light grey, dark grey and tan pieces. However, this choice (namely lots of grey) also has some disadvantages which will be discussed later. Complexity: For a non-Technic set, I was really impressed with the functionality of this set. It is evident that the designers put a lot of effort into making it. It isn't revolutionary, but given its part count I think they pack a lot in. Things I didn't like: Although I liked the non-traditional color choices, at times it was difficult to distinguish between the different shades of grey in the instructions (mixing up white and light grey, light grey and dark grey, dark grey and black). Occasionally I would have to go back a step since I realized that I used the wrong color. Summary: If you are looking for a medium-large Technic set off the beaten track, check it out. Among the Discovery sets, this one seems to be the one that is most readily available. I really hope that in the future Lego will introduce more Technic sets like this (non-traditional vehicles/machines and in non-traditional colors). This is a fantastic example of what the possibilities are when they step outside the realm of the zillionth car / truck / construction machine. Out of curiosity, if anyone knows other "Technic-style" sets that are not part of the Technic theme (like this one), please share.

SWAT vests. A beastly cop car. Another Emmet. Next up… Set Title: Super Cycle Chase Set #: 70808 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 514 Minifigures: 5 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 50 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Thanks to LEGO for sending me these sets to review. This was the first LEGO Movie set revealed way back when, and I think it left a lot of people scratching their heads. Of course the new minifigure accessories were awesome, but otherwise, this could've been a doosy. I didn't have much feeling for it going in. Could be great, could be dumb. Let's see… BOX The box gives you a nice view of the models, though the background is a bit drab. It's funny to see that stray flick-fire without showing you where it came from at all. On the back it seems all of the minifigures have ditched their rides and prefer a chase on foot? Since that makes sense. The back also shows you that there aren't very many true features, but honestly when things roll, that's feature enough for me most of the time. The top shows us our cast: Emmet, Wyldstyle, and three delicious Robo SWATs. CONTENTS Inside are a few numbered bags with a surprisingly low amount of orange. The cycle looks pretty orange from the picture, but there's not much of it. The designer made a little orange go a long way. Instead there's a lot of grey and black. There are two booklets and a pretty hefty sticker sheet. Sticker-haters will not at all be pleased, but I applied them all to stay true to the set. I don't seem to have taken pictures of inside the instructions, but they're the boring blue color scheme and whatever. You get it. MINIFIGURES If you had asked CloneyO which set in this wave had the best minifigures, he definitely would not have said this one. In fact, none of these minifigures are even exclusive, besides for one exclusive part: the special eye-piece attachment on one Robo SWAT. But in actuality, these are a lot cooler than they seem. There are certain minifigures that, when they appear in a lot of sets, you roll your eyes (like Battle Droids). But these Robo SWAT guys are awesome and I would totally want to army build them (I already have a mini-army since there are a bunch of them across the wave). These ones especially look totally cool in the new vest piece. Their torsos and legs are super-useful, and the heads are great too. Somehow I never realized before building the sets that Wyldstyle has a printed arm, which means her torso comes from… elsewhere and has the telltale markings on the hands and no printing on the neck. Oh, and Emmet is Emmet. The backs of the vests are printed with the hilarious "Super Secret Police," which perhaps make them slightly less useful, but oh well. Wyldstyle's hood piece is neat. The Robo SWAT get two of the neat new gun piece with different attachments, and a pair of handcuffs. Not bad. BUILD In the build I came across a couple of interesting pieces that I haven't seen much before. There are also some of the new 1x2 slope pieces, which you can note on the finished things. There are some nice leftovers. One can always use more cheese. SET - ROADBLOCK Let's start with perhaps the least interesting thing and go from there (this is also the build order). That would be this little roadblock device. LEGO has added chains to sets before to stop crooks (like in the Chase McCain set from CITY), but this time it's more of a play feature! Here it's all coiled up. But (theoretically) flip the thing on the back, it uncoils! I say theoretically because if you coil it in a sloppy manner, as I did, it doesn't really work. If you manage to get it coiled tightly, it does work well. This is a fun one, when it works. SET - SUPER CYCLE This thing actually looks awesome. Not a lot of orange pieces, but a lot of orange pop! There's something about it that makes it look really rough and fun. You don't want to mess with this bike. Wyldstyle looks menacing on it from the front. Somehow it looks cohesive against all odds. Each side has different stickers that look like cutoffs of something else. It adds to the feel that Wyldstyle assembled it out of other things, but unlike the saloon plane in Creative Ambush, this bike is subtle about it, so it doesn't turn out looking messy. The big back wheel is an awesome construction. I haven't seen track used for this before. Something about the big back wheel reminded me of the Shredder Dragon Bike, or made me think of what the Dragon Bike could've been if it was a better set. This bike right here is how to do a weird motorcycle - the Dragon Bike, not so much. SET - SUPER SWAT VEHICLE This thing is a BEAST - and I love it. This car seems to growl at you, it's so tough-looking. It looks like it could smash through a building. It's a terrific car. You don't want to see this car coming at you, because I think it'd run you down. Looks like I didn't press the top of the car down very well in this one, but apart from that, the side view looks nice. It's not too stubby of a vehicle, nor too long. It seems just right. No doors sadly, but I suppose Robo SWAT can just climb through the ceiling. I'm sure a big car like this is pretty terrible for the environment. Just look at all of those exhaust pipes! I love the ribbed pattern on the back. The back opens up to reveal a very small compartment where you can stash some dynamite, or whatever you like. The cab has plenty of room for more than one figure, and could easily be mod-ed to easily fit a few. The only "play feature" is that the side foot stands lift up to reveal everybody's favorite-flick fires. Everybody especially loves flick-fires that are nearly innaccessible for flicking. The car looks kind of interesting with the "wings" up, but really it's just better to forget about those flicky thingies. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION Well, I'm sold. These vehicles are awesome, the Robo SWAT are great figures that you really can't get enough of, and Wyldstyle and Emmet are cool enough too (even in multiple). Parts-wise, there's a bunch to like, some new parts and the orange bits, which are more rare. Lots of nice slopes in the SWAT car too. I still can't quite wrap my head around what costs $50 recently. The vehicles are kind of compact, even though they have a lot of parts, so it doesn't exactly feel like $50 when it's built. But it's a great set anyway, and I guess it adds up. If you like vehicles and/or police stuff, I'd definitely pick this up. I imagine more people might want the cool bike after seeing the movie as well. Next up: the 2-in-1's in some order!

Review - Snowmobile 'Ello all Recently purchased the snowmobile, and wish to try my hand at this reviewing lark. It costs £14.99, and for non teadrinkers, USD $19.99 and EUR €14.99. This set appeals to me greatly, due to the plethora of interesting peices, and great angular design. Not to forget, those tracked peices too, especially as these are the first in my collection. Nonetheless, does it provide a nice set of skids for your quids? Let's find out! The box Here's the box, quite small, with a nice image of the set. Well presented so far - Shows suspension function in the corner Ashens fans will be relatively amused, 0-3 sad onions here! (Not the rare 0-8 we seldom see) Contents Out of the box came three polybags, one for tracks, one for small nitbits, and other for main elements - exciting bits can be seen already! Comes with instructions for A and B model, which is always great - to TLG for that. Upon opening the bags, we see some great pieces, new suspension arms that are compatible with this new small steering knob, and the larger one, making it great for all scales of vehicle. There's also a connector with the two cross axle holes coming out of it, as depicted as Hrafn's forum avatar - very useful piece. additionally, the dog bone I frame, another useful piece. But, most importantly for me, 6 of the thin 4x2 plates in black - I've always wanted a pair of those! The steering link here comes with no stoppers, which is always useful - especially after building Kuipers' pony car, which uses both sides. Not to forget the 3l pin with cross axle, which this set has 2 of! The Build Instructions are well laid out, had no issue distinguishing colours, although some steps were very simplified. We begin making the suspension assembly, with a clever use of the I frame. Turning radius is a little short, however. Another instruction shot, however I've highlighted the frictionless pin there, as I've perused the instructions with great effort, and haven't found anything that connects to it. If anyone does fathom its purpose, let me know Cool technique is used here, hat goes off ! Leftovers . Completed Model The finished model stands proudly on the desk, after about half an hour of building, helped along by some 80's rock, and a good cup of tea, it's looking great. Especially love the colour scheme of the black on green, and those angles are truly astounding. Note the pin on the L beam that stops the track from tipping up when being held, and the white gives it that sporty look. Great model! Stickers do compliment the model, but I found it looked great without too. They won't be staying on for long, however, as I have plans to use the panels! Front looks very 'gnarly' , and the suspension is plush, and fun to compress - also note that the chassis does not hit the ground when the spring bottoms out! The skids themselves feel a bit wobbly, but they do not come apart easily - those red pins were a bugger to get in, and I don't look forward to getting them out Track rolls freely, and satisfyingly, as well as being nigh on impossible to derail. steering lacks a bit on a hard surface like my desk, however, it's a lot better on the carpet. I doubt next year will bring any snow to test this on either, us Essex folk never have any luck with that The Verdict The functions of the set work perfectly for the price you pay, which isn't big! IT looks great, feels great in the hand, has great pieces that can be used for MOCs. So hats off to designer Mike Jeppeson! PROS Suspension Steering Great aesthetics Good colour scheme No STAMP CONS Could have had a few more functions Playability is limited on hard surfaces Skids are a tad flimsy Design 8.5/10 Looks absolutely stunning Build process 7.5/10 Nothing interesting, but not much repetition Functions 8/10 Functions work well, however there is a lot of empty space in the model Playability 7/10 Works wonders on carpet, but hard surfaces not so much, which could be a drawback for some Parts 9.5/10 Spectacular part selection Value for money 8.5/10 You get a good set of skids for your quids Total: 8/10 Cheers for reading, and apologies for not including a poll - I haven't got the ability to do so (if any staff could add one on, I'd be extremely thankful) This is my first review, so tips are greatly welcome! Also, if anyone found the reason for that frictionless pin, do share with us! Cheers again, Enderman

REVIEW: 60013 - Coast Guard Helicopter Coast guard review index: 60011 - Surfer Rescue 60012 - 4x4 & Diving Boat 60013 - Coast Guard Helicopter 60014 - Coast Guard Patrol 60015 - Coast Guard Plane In the summer wave of 2013 LEGO has release a number of sets related to the coast guard. The last time Lego used this theme was in 2008, which was when I was still in the dark ages so for me, someone who loves the sea and boats, this was quite an exciting announcement. As soon as the sets hit the stores, I bought them, and build them, and boy did they deliver. Next up is the third set of the lot, containing a helicopter and a catamaran. Let's see how this set fares. 60013 - Coast Guard Helicopter Set Nr: 60013 Theme: City Year released: 2013 Nr of parts: 230 Minifigs: 4 Price: US$39.99 / €24.99 / £24.99 The Box On the front of the box we see the diver heroically dangling from the helicopter, trying to rescue the sailor from a broken sail, a great white shark, and certain death. The waves carrying the boat seem to gravitate to the rocks in the background, adding another peril for the poor sailor. In the bottom left corner is an illustration showing the wind-up motor which can reel in the hook and any body it might carry with just a push of the button. Also in tiny text is a notification that the boat does, in fact, not float. On the back of the box the diver tries to get our attention, but let's just ignore him for now and look at all the pretty photo's. First on the left there's an illustration showing the phased build with mltiple bags hovering over the same image as the front of the box. Moving on to the right is the sailor having fun on his catamaran, the sail breaking to show the play feature, the sailor being rescued, and finally the diver in the water with the great white shark, which to me seems one of the least smart ideas I've seen on the back of a LEGO box in..well..forever. . On the side of the box we have all 4 minifigs standing in a row on a pier, whist the shark comes in from the left, looking quite hungry. All the way to the right is the pilot for the second time, this time with a 1:1 annotation. The instructions The front of the booklet is the same as the image on the front of the box. Inisde the booklet we find out how the parts for the models are separated into bags. In my opinion, if they´re gonna split the parts in numbered bags, why not just put the catamaran in a seperate bag aswell? As it stands the first bag is absolutely packed with parts, and the second bag is quite puny in comparison. Now we get to the main part, the instructions. Like all sets in this series so far the background is a pleasing soft pastel watery pattern which in no way shape or form interferes with the building process. The color differentiation between the different parts is good, at no time did I have any doubt what color piece I was supposed to be looking for. In the back of the booklet we have the usual advertisements and promotional material. ...Including the damn screaming kid..again..ugh.. The parts Rattling around loose in the box is this sail, and a sticker sheet, which I already used at the time of writing this review, and thus have no pictures of. I have separated the parts from the first bag in a few separate piles, as to keep the images a bit less cluttered. This first lot of parts, together with the sail, make the catamaran. Looking at it I almost can't believe such a small number of parts make such a convincing little boat. Ah, the wonders of LEGO. This mess of not very neatly ordered parts make the first half of the helicopter. A few of the dark grey parts are actually from the second bag, but accidentally got mixed in with this lot. The contents are mostly white, with some blue parts and a few big orange pieces. The white control panel in the center is printed, all other parts are stickered. Lastly in the first bag, are the parts for all 4 minifigs, of which we will get into more detail in a moment. The second bag contains some color, which is mostly used on the bottom of the helicopter, and of lot of black and grays, which are mostly for the engine build-up This assemblage is a combination of parts from both bags, but as I don't feel like taking the whole thing apart for this review, I'll just photograph it separately. The minifigs The sailor comes with the same great wetsuit as the surfer from the water scooter set. He has a short dark brown haircut and comes equipped with a life jacket. Safety first! The pilot is wearing an orange uniform with lots of safety gear on it. Looking at the photo, i suddenly notice how great the grey parts of the legs connects with the torso printing, completing the geared up look. He comes with a white helmet to cover up his unnervingly smirking face. Man, he looks like he REALLY REALLY likes flying and rescuing people! The diver has the same outfit as the pilot, but comes with the basic diving gear we've all come to know and expect from LEGO. His face is a bit more heroic looking. In fact, I totaly take back my comment about him swimming with the shark from the back of the box. He totally looks like someone who would wrestle a shark..and win. The last member of the coast guard is what looks like a communications officer. It's also the only female coast guard so far. Her uniform is the same as coast guards from the cheaper sets, with non of the usual female curves added. The comes with a life jacket, a walkie talkie, and a hat with headphones. The headphones are a separate piece which connect to the hat via a hole on the top. Finaly there's the great white shark. It's basicly the same as the shark from the water scooter set, but in a nice white color. The only downside is that, while the shark on the box is a new mold with gills, somehow mine has a gill-less body. Though the new shark with gills is being produced, somehow the early sets have the older shark bodies, so if you want the newer body, wait a while before buying the coastguard sets. (extra info added thank to LEGO Guy Bri and Aanchir) The build The first thing to be build is the catamaran, which, for it's simplicity, simply looks great. The red/white color scheme really looks great, just too bad the sail is in a different color scheme. Would it have been too much trouble to print a red/white sail, i wonder? The sail is connected quite ingeniously with clamps, with the top one holding it in place, and the bottom one allowing rotation to simulate sail failure.... ...Like this. When the sail is "broken" it is still quite firmly attached to the boat. Next up we start with the helicopter. We begin by building the base upon which the rest can be build. Then the "hoisting" system is put into place. Which, as you can see, is actually quite simple. In the next few steps the cockpit is build up and added to the base of the model. And finally the "top" is put on the whole thing, finally making it look somewhat like a helicopter. Time to move on to the second bag of parts! Firstly a few small parts are added on the top of the helicopter before... ...Turning it over and adding the bottom and wheel assembly. I really like that front wheel piece. No I don't care that it's been around since 2008, it's new to me! The helicopter is put back onto it's wheels and the hook assembly is finished. A start is made on the very detailed engine. Here we have the engine, mostly done except for a few finishing plates on the back. I really REALLY love the amount of detailing they have managed to put into this engine. It's easily my favorite parts of the model. After the engine is done, the tail is added, along with those last finishing pieces for the engine, which also hold the tail in place. And finally the model is finished off with a huge set of rotors. Looking at the model, it's a lot larger than I has initially expected it to be when looking at the box. It is quite amazing to look at. A great model with lots of detailing. The rappelling function works just as advertised and adds a lot of play value to this already great set. One downside to the model is that, when you turn both the top and the tail rotor, while you hold the helicopter at certain angles with the tail pointed downwards, they can collide with each other, it's not a really big deal, but worth mentioning nonetheless. (info added thanks to paul_delahaye) Conclusions (Disclaimer: I don't believe in giving numerical scores. It is up to the reader to decide what they think of any given model, and I believe mandatory scores detract from this notion.) minifigs: Not only do the figures look great, you get four of them with this set! As an added bonus, you also get a great white shark.. Build/design: The catamaran looks very cool for the small amount of pieces used, and I'm simply in love with the engine on the helicopter! (Not that the rest of the helicopter isn't worth mentioning, that's great looking as well.) Playability: With the 4 minifigs, the shark, the rappelling feature and the catamaran the can break, this set has a lot of search and rescue potential. Overall I quite like this set, especialy for the pricepoint at which I bought it (25 euros). For the noted (by brickset) price of 40 US dollars, it might be a it on the expensive side though.

Let you know that I am not going to like this promo set at all, now we got that over and done I am going to make the review of the 2006 Good Guy that was a Swedish Disney Promotion and it didn't appear in the Bionicle Storyline. Set name: Good Guy Set Number: 6934 Pieces: 16 Year Released: 2006 Here is the Bag and there is nothing new just like all other bags but there is one thing, you see that weapon he have... keep a eye on that weapon. Instruction: The instruction is nothing new just a normal instructions that have the island of Voya-Nui in the background and the build is just like all other but the weapon Is Not The Same As What It's Shows In The Front Of The Bag And On the Upper Right Picture Of The Instruction. I mean did someone find this to bug them because it do bug me, if they what to use the Fire Bladed Piece then make a new picture not the one that used the the piece from the Staff of Disintegration. Anyway the Back of the Instruction just have the Toa Inika and that just about it, the instruction is useless so you can just use the back and put it on your wall or something. Parts: Here are the Parts, to me they are mostly useless but there are 3 black Axle 2 Notched and a Metru Head with it's Trans-Neon Green Brain, so those are really good parts to use for MOCs and you also get 2 extra pieces. If you what to see what the Parts are go to Brain Line to see what they are called. The Set: A: The set is just nothing good, it's bad and mainly only good for parts. The front and back is just flat and boring, you can hardly make a awesome and good poses then just make it look like he needs to go to bathroom Really Badly (know what I should have made a Picture of that, Good Guy going to the bathroom). B: The size make it up to Tahu Mata Leg and it's just a small normal lazy build promo set. Riaso: KILL IT BE IT'S TOO LATE overall this is just a lazy build promo set and just only good for parts but to me most of the parts are useless and I don't know why they made something like this because we have seen some good Promo sets before. So I am going to give this set a 4/10 so I don't recommenced this set unless for parts because they is mainly what it's good for.

NOTE: I've just noticed that the title states the number of Cragger's Fire Striker and not Sir Fangar's Saber Tooth Walker, can someone change it to 70143 please? Hello, and welcome to another of my pictorial reviews! For this review, I decided to pick set 70143 Sir Fangar's Saber Tooth Walker (or Sabre-Tooth, whatever your preference ) (Brickset entry | BrickLink entry). The set retails for £34.99 (UK) or $39.99 (US), and contains 415 pieces. But is this set cool or does it send chills down your spine? Read on and make up your own mind Would you prefer to just let the pictures do the talking? Brickshelf gallery First up, the box. It has the same fire-themed banner as all the other Chima Ice/Fire sets, contrasting with Sir Fangar's icy mugshot in the corner and the generally cool colours of the background. Gorzan breaks out of an icy prison while Stealthor rides a cool chopper. The star of the set however just stands there while Sir Fangar (I'll refer to him as just Fangar for the rest of the review) fires flick missiles at Gorzan from the walker's enormous flanks. The back fo the box shows the various functions of the set, as well as a nice action shot of a trapped Gorzan while Fangar and Stealthor get away with the CHI. Funnily enough, they show the moving jaw as a feature but not the more obvious moving legs. Other features include the chopper trike storage and deployment and the obligatory flick missiles. Three Minifigures accompany this mid-sized set: Gorzan in his new fiery garb, Stealthor and Sir Fangar. None of them are exclusive to this set, Stealthor also appears in the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple, and Gorzan and Fangar both appear in the limited retail set Sir Fangar's Ice Fortress, but this is the cheapest way to obtain all three minifigures, including Fangar with his full bad guy garb (a version of Fangar without the cape or armour also appears in the Speedorz set Fire vs Ice). Fangar: This is likely the reason that many would pick up this set, so you can obtain a fully equipped (armour, cape) Fangar, leader of the Sabertooth Tiger tribe. This is an extremely detailed figure, with Fangar boasting copper and grey body armour printing, including a beautiful sabertooth tiger head pattern with the Chi orb mount in it's mouth. Unfortunattely it seems like my torso and legs don't match up exactly with each other, but I can just about live with that. Unlike many of his cronies, Fangar doesn't show a great deal of decay printing, most of it is on his head. His head features a lot of scarring and it looks like the Sabertooths discovered how to use copper plates to patch themselves up. The copper patch isn't reprinted on the headgear so it does make his right eye look a little odd, but I personally like that. The trans-light blue armour lets you enjoy the printing while still bulking out the minifigure. Fangar wields an enormous fang blade of sorts, which uses a white lightsaber hilt, a relatively rare part. The cape is the same as 2013 Cragger's, but cut from white fabric, a new colour for this cape. Stealthor: I've already talked in extensive detail about this Minifigure, so rather than repeat myself I refer you to my description on my Flying Phoenix Fire Temple review. Stealthor gets a new weapon here, a sort of CHI-powered ice gun which utilises a brand new paw piece. Gorzan: The protagonist of the set gets an update from his previous Outlands version, sporting not only some new clothes but also a new headgear expression, which no doubt adds some variety. His headgear gets a more neutral expression this time around compared to the traditional open mouth headgear, with a more concentrated / determined expression. The torso and legs receive some gold and dark red armour plating pattern, with the torso getting some Phoenix patterns presumably to show the Gorilla's alliance with the Phoenixes. It's a beautiful but generic print, I just wish that Gorzan got some gorilla motif kneepads (like how Cragger and Laval got their tribe motif kneepads on their fire suit versions), this would have helped Gorzan get some more individuality and connection to his tribe.Gorzan has a very elaborate fire hammer which makes use of the new fire piece. This does make the hammer much taller than Gorzan himself though, but I suppose more leverage means more damage, right? New parts and recolours: Plenty of wonderful new parts and recolours are present in the set, presumably to try and justify the price tag in part I guess! New parts include 16768, 15090, 15091 and 16770, as well as a multitude of unique recolours. Trans-Light Blue recolours include 32348 and 48169, and Dark Orange recolours include 98585, 13547, 93606, 47456, 43723, 43722 and 2450. Brickset's inventory obtained from LEGO.com lists all the parts present. Instructions: Clear and easy to follow, and follow a similar format to all recent sets. Dark Brown is diffrentiated from Black by white borders around Black parts. Here's the obligatory random instruction image: The build is decent, with Technic mixed in with system to keep it interesting, although the legs and armour flanks are fairly repetitive. A competent builder can have this built in about half an hour to 45 minutes. There are 4 bags and also a DSS with a few difficult to apply stickers, they are mostly either small stickers going on large parts or stickers that apply to awkward edges such as the angled, sloped edge of the 6x2 wedge shell, so be aware of that. Bag 1 builds the Minifigures, a small patch of land with the lovely icecage piece and the Sabertooth chopper trike. Stealthor's weapon can also attach onto the front of the trike, which you'll see a bit later. So here's the contents of Bag 1 (all pictures exclude spares): Bag 2 builds the body of the Sabertooth Walker. The gears are part of the chopper trike launcher mechanism. Looking promising so far: Bag 3 adds the legs. This is the most repetitive part of the build. The trans-light blue liftarms look really nice here Bag 4 builds the head and shoulder armour where the flick fire missiles are mounted. And it's finished! The finished model: The piece of land. This literally uses just 3 parts, yet it does what it's supposed to. Gorzan models his icy prison for us: The icecage piece is open at the back. Probably not it's best view to be honest... The Chopper Trike. Here I've attached Stealthor's weapon to the front. The Trike is simple but I really like it, I think it's cool (I promise I'll stop the ice puns! ) Stealthor: "Hey, check out my cool ride!" The Sabertooth Walker. From the front, it's an imposing beast of a machine and by far it's best angle. It really does look menacing. Side view: Not really it's prettiest side to be honest. The front looks brilliantly executed, but as soon as you reach the rear section, it kind of looks lazily designed. You can see where the chopper trike mounts on the walker here, but to be honest, it's far too sparse around the belly area. It tries to emulate the curvy hips that big cats usually have, but since there's only Technic bricks here, it just looks half finished. Back view: Marginally a better view than the side view, but still looks a bit unfinished here too: The Walker exhibits some asymmetry, with cogs on one side and this Technic liftarm I'm pointing to on the other side. Pulling this liftarm down releases the trike. Unfortunately this function does not always go smoothly, you are supposed to pull the lever down and the trike will slide out of the bottom of the Walker and roll along the floor, but more often than not the trike will get wedged on the Walker upon exit, or not roll off the platform smoothly so that the trike sticks after the front wheel touches the ground. I did take a picture of it, but my camera decided not to save it unfortunately. Here are a couple of shots of the Saber Tooth Walker without the trike on the back. Without it, the sparseness seems to be exaggerated even more and the Walker's back goes very flat. The Walker's legs are very flexible and sturdy and allow for some quite cool and threatening poses. But this leaves me wishing that the head had some movement as well, as the huge, static head limits the posing possibility. Fangar has to stand to pilot the Walker. His ice leg better be of good quality And finally, a shot of the contents of the entire set: So, in summary: I wanted to fall in love with this set, I love saber tooth tigers, but somehow this set just left me feeling a little cold. The Minifigures are amazing and the design of the front is beautiful, but all of that is let down by the sparse rear end and flawed trike launching mechanism. The platform the trike stands on also tends to droop under the trike's small weight despite the gears trying desperately to provide enough friction to make the platform stay, and this results in unintentional trike launches without you doing anything at all. It has lots of exclusive and rare recolours in decent quantity, so it's great for the parts aficionados. Now for the ratings: Set design / asethetics: 6/10 - I might have even been a bit generous here, but a beautifully designed front end coupled with a lazily designed rear end and flawed mechanism does not make for a top-notch model. Even an attempt to hide the gears or Technic frame would have been welcomed. Parts: 8/10 - Trans-light blue liftarms and a whole host of new parts to add to the Dark orange library? Plus 11 of the trans-light blue Hero Factory claws? Yes please. Minifigs: 9.5/10 - Almost can't be faulted. Gorzan's lack of individuality on his fire suit is my only niggle. Playability: 5/10 - It's fun to pose the limbs, but lack of moving head may be frustrating. The flawed mechanism may also frustrate. I would have also liked a little vehicle for Gorzan, the odds seem to be stacked heavily against him Value for money - 6.5/10: It's a sizeable model despite it being quite spartan at the back. The minifigs and exclusive recolours help soften the blow a little. Overall: 35/50 - I would avoid this set at full price - wait for a sale. If you want a caped Fangar and fire suit Gorzan, you may want to consider the Ice Fortress instead of this. Not completely recommended at full price, but if you value minifigs and parts well over asethetics and playability, go for it Thanks for reading my review. I wouldn't mind a mod adding a poll for me, but for now, may you share your thoughts on the set in writing EDIT: Changed location of pictures from Flickr to Brickshelf.

Having received this set at long last this Christmas, I decided to do a review and give my perspective. When LEGO Star Wars sets first came out back in 1999, the sets advertised most prominently were those depicting the ships that flew in the legendary Battle of Yavin: 7140 X-Wing, and 7150 TIE Fighter & Y-Wing. Both sets were instantly on my wishlist, and I am very glad to have been able to check this set off at long last. Where I Bought: Recieved as a Christmas present; my mother purchased it off of eBay. What I paid: Well, what she paid, which was $30 plus almost $19 in shipping (It was used-but-complete). Funnily enough, this lines up with the original manufacturer-suggested retail price of $49.99. Now on to the real bread and butter of the review: Here's the box, still in great condition despite its age. It's from before the SYSTEM logo was retired, and unlike far too many more recent sets there are those wonderful pictures of the alternate models as well as of the set mid-build on the back. The front presents the two ships in the set well, showing them racing down the Death Star's equatorial trench, laser blasts flashing all around. Now, inside the box are not only the pieces of the set, but also the various "feelies" (pamphlets and such). We have: A LEGO Direct catalog, which advertised sets that could be ordered from that service, some of which could not at the time be found in bricks-and-mortar stores. A more general mini-catalog showing highlight and pocket sets from the year's themes, and featuring the TIE Advanced from this set chasing Luke's X-Wing from set 7140. And an offer for a free 2-Year membership in the LEGO Club, including a subscription to LEGO's now-defunct magazine. Such a membership was very enjoyable, the last time I was in. If the club is still around, I have noticed that there is no expiration date whatsoever printed on this offer card... And with those taken care of.... Here we go. The original polybags are of course long gone, but the seller very thoughtfully sealed the pieces of the two ships into two separate sandwich bags. Every last piece is accounted for, save any extras that may have come with the set. The three mini-figures who come with the set. From (your) left to (your) right: Darth Vader, in his original LEGO form. The helmet and head are not, as one might expect given the design of figures like Chewbacca, all one piece that mounts on the neck. The helmet and mask are a separate piece that fits over the actual head. The head is cast in old grey, and printed on it is the ashen, pale, light-deprived face of the man who was once Anakin Skywalker. Since this was made before anyone knew such details as his hair getting singed off and the edits made to be in continuity with that, the face shows eyebrows as did old versions of Return of the Jedi. He is armed with a red-bladed, chrome-hilted (they were never otherwise in this era) lightsaber. Jon "Hutch" Vander, better known simply as Gold Leader. His face is a stock one with a com microphone and untidy red bangs, but it does the job alright. He is identifiable as Gold Leader by the unique print on his helmet. And finally, an astromech droid with a white body and red access panels, who is apparently named R4-D5. This would likely make him an R4 unit whose original purchaser shelled out the extra credits for an R2-series head (which has better astrogation equipment). A good assortment, and certainly enough to accurately man the ships included. Of course, to build those ships, we'll need a manual. Luckily enough, a very nice one is included. On the cover is a shrunken and cropped version of the box-front photo, fairly standard but once again made cool by the contents. The first inside page, which immediately demonstrates what I mean about it being a nice manual. The coloring is exactly right; there's no confusion between black and dark grey to be found here! The only fault is that Vader's face is shown as being yellow; it's actually grey. After the directions, the manual contains (As many manuals for sets, especially larger sets, once did) a rather hilarious comic showing off the alternate models seen on the back of the box. And it's time to get building. We'll start with the TIE Fighter included, which is Darth Vader's TIE x1 Advanced. Darth Vader inspects the construction of his personal fighter. The people assigned to the task appear to have ditched it or gone off on an extra-long break. This probably won't end well for them. Still no sign of the slackers who were supposed to be doing the build, yet now the cockpit's complete. What's going on? Ah, it looks like Lord Vader may find it in himself to forgive them, for their absence has allowed him to indulge a hobby that carried over from his former self. With his expert hands at work, the fighter is soon finished. This is a very lovely model; the fuselage is a tad on the short side but it does match up correctly with the length of the wings. It and the frames of the wings are here depicted with both grey (light and dark) parts and blue parts. The blue has caused many snit-fits, but I don't mind it. The fact of the matter is that TIE fighters were originally supposed to have blue frames and fuselages. That is how they were colored in the drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. They wound up as grey instead due to the blue Chroma Key screens used for filming. However, Empire Strikes Back and to a greater extent Return of the Jedi (TIE frames and bodies are blue, TIE Interceptor frames and bodies are dark blue) used post-shoot tinting to correct this, so it's surprising to have NOT seen the TIEs in A New Hope changed to match. The cockpit viewport piece is new, created for the LEGO Star Wars line specifically as a piece for showing TIE cockpits, and it is printed accordingly. Transparent red 1x1 round plates, AKA studs, are attached to the appropriate spots to create the lasing emitters of the ship's guns. Like in the movies, these are red despite firing green shots. The ship is built in sections connected by bricks with Technic pins, but the connections are all horizontal so they hold fairly well. The wings' angular shape is achieved via ratchet hinge bricks.The biggest flaw is the absence of a secret compartment on this ship, which means Vader's lightsaber must be stored in the Y-Wing's secret compartment instead! Regardless, Vader now has his fighter built and ready to intercept bold Rebel fighters whom the turbolasers track too slowly to target (they are, after all, designed to shoot at larger ships, hence their firepower). Make sure you take off his cape and put it in separately, though, it can get warped otherwise. Meanwhile, Gold Leader rebuilds his Y-Wing from scratch after it was dismantled for a total overhaul. Starting to get the cockpit and basic spaceframe back together... The main body of the ship now complete, R4-D5 runs a systems check. Everything checks out, so he and Gold Leader can now reconnect the engine nacelles. And with that, the Y-Wing is completed and ready to take to the skies for battle! The nose is painted white with a splash of yellow - it and the round caps of the engines are holdovers from the original BTL-B Y-Wings from the Clone Wars. LEGO's piece selection here is a fairly good angularized representation of the smooth nose from the movies. I don't mind angularizing like this in LEGO, and the rounded pieces didn't exist at the time. The ion cannon looks a bit big, yet at the same time just the right length. It's okay, and definitely functional. You'll have to grip it when swooshing the ship around if you don't want it spinning around loose, though; It's on a 2x2 turntable so it can turn, and the only ways to make that happen otherwise would have been a regular 2x2 plate atop a 1x1 round plate mounted between studs or use of 1x2 plates with central stud, which wouldn't have been as sturdy. The cockpit canopy is another made-for-LEGO Star Wars piece, created for 7140 X-Wing. It's not so accutate here, but it does the job alright, but there ought to be a side-opening Y-wing cockpit piece made one of these days. The cockpit looks okay, but it's a bit cramped; a 4x4 hollow inverted slope piece underside to deepen the seat would have come in handy. Maybe with two there could even have been space made for a gunner, but the absence of such room is less annoying than the crampedness for the pilot. On the plus side, it's an overall great-looking ship. There's some built greebling, as well as printed greebling on a pair of 2x2 tiles and on the mailbox in the "neck" of the fighter. Underside is plain, but that's reasonably accurate. The fuselage has a secret compartment on the end for storing weapons, like Vader's lightsaber (I would have used a 1x2 plate-with-fence piece rather than a grille brick at the end oposite the hinge, make more room, but oh well). About the biggest visual flaw is that the bars on the nacelles are mounted at the wrong points, but fixing that with the parts around at the time would have made the overall construction much more fragile. The landing gear must be detached for flight, but at this scale there's just no way to really do vertically-retracting landing legs. Interestingly, the ship is designed such that it can sit flat without the landing legs. So here is the set, in its full and complete glory. 14 years later, and it's still a great set. IN CONCLUSION: This is a very well-designed set, and a good-sized one. In a single package, you get not only the dreaded Darth Vader and his personal TIE fighter, but a very nice and solid Y-Wing fighter (complete with astromech droid) piloted by Gold Leader as well. Darth Vader and astromech droids may have become more commonplace over the years, but they weren't back at the start (Vader was in fact exclusive to this set) and if you don't already have Darth Vader this set is a great way to get him. And the ships are good additions to your Alliance and Imperial fleets, still standing up even today. This set was $49.99 at retail, and considering the size and contents, quite good value for your money. If you can find it complete for close to (or even less than) that much, I would recommend buying it. It's just a pity it didn't come with a standard TIE pilot and a smiley-face head wearing a stock Rebel Pilot helmet to make it better for army-building (Vader's was not the only TIE Advanced, you know).

REVIEW - 42023 - CONSTRUCTION CREW FINALLY, THE TECHNIC FIGURES ARE RETURNING?! The title of this set made a lot of people wonder about the Return of the Figures. Unfortunately this was not the case. Nonetheless, this still is a special set, because recently we've started a Technic Triple Build contest and one of the competitors came from an unexpected quarter. It seems TLG was way ahead of us and already anticipated our contest. Let's see whether they have a chance of winning with their 42023 Construction Crew entry Before I start, I want to thank TLG and Bonaparte for giving me the opportunity to do a review on this set. It's my first official review and I appreciate it very much! Since I didn't have a DSLR at the time, I borrowed a Canon EOS 600D and started experimenting with it. So special thanks to my friend as well, for letting me use his camera Note: Every image can be clicked to show a high resolution version. SET INFORMATION Number: 42023 Title: Construction Crew Theme: Technic Released: 1H 2014 Part Count: 833 Set Price (MSRP): DE 59.99 EUR / UK 49.99 GBP / USA 69.99 USD Price per Part: DE 0.072 EUR / UK 0.060 GBP / USA 0.084 USD THE BOX The box measures 48cm x 28cm x 7cm. The size of the box seems about right for a set with around 800 parts. FRONT SIDE The front of the box shows a Dump Truck, an Excavator and a Front Loader collaborating in their construction activity. Looking at the image I wasn't filled with joy or excitement. Just three small vehicles, right? Noticeable are the new tires on the Front Loader. At this point I was anxious to see which other new parts are in this set. BACK SIDE The back side shows the build being divided in three models, each using two bags. It also shows some of the functionality per model. B-Model The lower left corner shows a laptop with what appears to be the B-model for the Front Loader, a Road Grader, no it isn't, it's a Scraper. Makes you wonder whether there are alternatives for both other models as well. The box says Find inspiration model on Lego.com/technic but doesn't mention building instructions. There's also no 2-in-1 logo, so it's not entirely clear whether this is an official B-model. Although it would be confusing to have a 6-in-3 or 4-in-3 or something CONTENTS OF THE BOX Opening the box reveals the six bags, numbered in pairs. Since every model has it's own color, it's immediately clear which bags will be used for which model. Every model has it's own instruction booklet and there's a single sticker sheet combining the stickers for each model. O my, what's happened to the Excavator booklet?! The downside of not having a card board back, like the bigger sets have, is pretty clear. The booklets and instructions are loose in the box and, therefor not protected and susceptible to damage. Luckily the sticker sheet was in mint condition. HIGHLIGHTED PARTS One of the most exciting things about new sets is new parts, or existing parts in new colors. Turns our that this set contains a ton of cool parts! 3x5 I-FRAME (BEAM I -FRAME 3X5 90 DEGR. HOLE Ø4.85) First of all there's the 3x5 I-Frame previously dubbed the Dog Bone Frame. Some people where pretty accurate in predicting the looks of this part. 3L LONG AXLE PIN (CON. BUSH 2M FR. + CROSS AXLE) You might have never missed it, but now it's available, it can be very useful in certain situations. 3L WORM GEAR (3M WORM GEAR) The new Worm Gear is an alternate solution for the Worm Gear Screw. The main difference is that it needs two axles, instead of one going through the gear. So the new gear doesn't slide freely over axles. 49.5 x 20 TIRE 2014 would be a year in which new tires would be released. Well, here they are. These tires are perfectly suited for smaller scale vehicles. They use the same rims as the Tire 43.2 x 22 ZR, but as you can see the diameter is 49.5mm instead of 43.2mm. This provides a more realistic proportion, especially suitable for trucks and construction vehicles. Basically they are small Unimog like tires. Big thumbs up for TLG! SMOOTH AXLE AND PIN CONNECTOR IN BLUE Since Blue is the new Black these, it's great to see TLG made this parts available in blue. THIN 3x5 L-SHAPE LIFTARM WITH QUARTER ELLIPSE IN WHITE Although not very rare and not in very high demand, this part has not been released since the Cool Movers (2004) PART LIST Here's the complete list for all 833 parts. THE BUILD The build consists of three vehicles. Each vehicles uses two bags. Excavator Dump Truck Front Loader EXCAVATOR Let's start with the first bags, the excavator. The base uses the new Long Axle Pins in collaboration with a Long Pin with Stop Bush. This is a combination we will probably see more often, since we end up with an uneven symmetrical construction, which is commonly used in studless models. This is the first time we see the new 3x5 I-Frame (a.k.a. Dog Bone Frame) in action. It is used to connect to the Small Turntable (Small Turntable Base and Small Turntable Top). A 6L axle is connected to a 8T Gear Type 2, which is used to turn the body of the excavator. An I-Frame on each side of the Small Turntable. At the rear you can see the axle used to operate the mini Linear Actuator, which is used to raise and lower the boom. The body of the excavator is starting to take shape. The mini LA is connected to the boom and one of the 11L Liftarms is connected to the I-Frame. FINISHED MODEL The excavator has three functions, rotating the body, raising/lowering the boom and operating the bucket, which can be done by using the Pole Reverser Handle on the boom. TLG hasn't made many small excavators. Besides the 8047 Compact Excavator, which actually is a different vehicle, there's the 8419 Excavator. This excavator looks way better and much more realistic than it's predecessor, if you can call it that. I think it's safe to say that this is the first proper small scale Excavator. EXCAVATOR MISCELLANEOUS BUILDING STEPS DUMP TRUCK The second model is a blue dump truck. Like lots of other vehicles, we start building the steering mechanism. In the image below you can see the new Long Axle Pin used to pivot the 7L Liftarm. At the same time it is used to connect a 3L Perpendicular Axle and Pin Connector. At this point the front of the truck is finished. A 12T Double Bevel Gear is used for HoG steering. I was surprised by the looks of the cab. It looks so realistic, even in this scale. This set is growing on me! After the cab it's time for the dumping bed. The bottom of the bed is attached to a mini Linear Actuator and the sides are made up of two grey panels. There's a hatch at the back, which will open automatically if you raise the bed, using the beforementioned mini LA. The stickers give the dumping bed a more realistic look. Especially the sides look way cooler with the stickers applied. FINISHED MODEL After attaching the dumping bed to the chassis, the build of the truck has finished. The 12T gear is used for HoG steering and the black axle connectors are used to operate the dumping bed. The turning cycle is pretty big, but that's expected for a small set like this. Raising and lowering the bed does work pretty good with the mini LA's. DUMP TRUCK MISCELLANEOUS BUILDIING STEPS FRONT LOADER Last but not least is the Front Loader. The new Worm Gear and new Tires are used in this model. The build start with the rear end, where the HoG steering mechanism is located. Two 8T gears are used to drive a 24T gear, which is connected to the front section. The new Worm Gear is used to drive a 24T gear, much like the current Worm Gear. The main difference is that the axles don't go all the way through the gear, so you'll need two axles or an axle and axle pin. The new gear is more compact than the other version, so it's easy to integrate into your model. This part won't entirely replace the other version, since that one can be used in different ways. But this new version will probably be used much more in future sets. It does make me wonder whether it would have been possible to lose the Bushings and just have a 1L Worm Gear. Here you can see the new Worm Gear driving the 24T gear, which is connected to the boom. Like the HoG steering the worm gear is connected to a 12T Double Bevel Gear, which is located on the back. FINISHED MODEL The finished model looks stunning. Obviously the new tires are the stars of this model. It would have been hard to make a small scale front loader without them. Like the excavator, the bucked is operated on the boom, without gears. FRONT LOADER MISCELLANEOUS BUILDING STEPS PARTS LEFT At first sight there's a lot of parts left. But having three models, means three small batches left. SUMMARY At first I wasn't very excited about this set. The fact that it matched our Triple Build Contest made me a bit more curious. After building the excavator I realized that it looks good, it has the functions you would expect and that it reflects the real deal pretty well. The truck was the least appealing model, but after the build I was also enthusiastic about this model. The front of the trucks just looks very nice and realistic. In my opinion the Front Loader is the best looking model of the set. The new tires are great! The build was fun, but not very challenging. The fact that you are building multiple models, does make up for this a little bit. Every model does have two or three functions, which makes for great playability. The downside is that the functions are fairly simple. Great thing about this set is, that it has loads of new exciting parts! PROS Loads of new parts. Lots of variation in parts (wheels, tracks, mini LA's, small turntable, etc). 3 models in one set. Lots of functions (8 main functions, divided over three models). All three models look very realistic. CONS The build is never really challenging. Functionality remains pretty basic for a set with around 800 parts. SCORE Design 8: All models in this set look very realistic. Build 7: Three fun builds, but it never gets very challenging. Functionality 7: Lots of (simple) functionality divided over three models. Playability 8: Especially for kids this set offers lots of playability. Parts 8: Loads of new cool parts. Value for Money 8: Having all these new parts makes this a set worth buying. 7,7 Surprisingly Cool Thanks for reading and please rate this set at the top of this topic! All review images can be found on my Flickr page

'If my calculations are correct, when this baby reaches 88 miles per hour ... you're gonna see some serious shit.' Dr Emmett Brown, Back to the Future So here it is! The long-awaited Back to the Future LEGO CUUSOO winner - and the first 'mainstream audience' model to pass the dreaded CUUSOO review stage. Few people can be unfamiliar with the iconic DeLorean Time Machine, and the lead characters of the BTTF movie franchise, Marty McFly and Doc Brown; despite having originated in the 1980s, with its fashion faux-pas and wildly inaccurate predictions of the Earth of the future, the trilogy is still surprisingly popular today, and is the sole reason why many have ever even heard of the unreliable stainless steel DeLorean car. It is hardly surprising then that the BTTF CUUSOO entry was able to garner the support required to enter the review stage, and the popular and family-friendly nature of the model and its parent movie lend it extremely well to conversion to a LEGO set. On paper, it should sell well; however, early leaked images have led to certain amount of disappointment, partly at the apparent lack of figures, and partly at the difference between the final version and its CUUSOO-winning original. Rest assured that Marty and Doc do indeed feature as figures in the set; as to the redesign: well, let's see .... Thank you once again to The LEGO Group for allowing us this early set review. Review: 21103 The DeLorean Time Machine Set Information Name: The DeLorean Time Machine Number: 21103 Theme: CUUSOO Back to the Future Release: 1 August 2013 (According to some members, it appears to be available already in some places) Parts: 401 Figures: 2 Price: GB £34.99 | US $34.99 | EUR 39.99 - 49.99 | AU $69.99 | CA $44.99 | DKK 449.00 Links ... Shop@Home ... Brickset ... Bricklink ... Peeron ... CUUSOO The Box Click for a larger full-frontal image As I pulled the set from the plain outer cardboard box it shipped in, I was momentarily disconcerted to think I had been sent an Architecture set by mistake, and I'm sure you can see the resemblance. However, here the usual Architecture austerity gives way to the colourful Back to the Future logo, and a blue-white clock and lightning motif that will be familiar to anyone who has seen the movies, and which continues onto the upper surface of the box. Any doubt about the inclusion of minifigures is quoshed with a little inset of Marty and Doc against a background which nicely matches the BTTF logo. The DeLorean itself is pictured in 'flying' mode, as seen at the end of the first and most of the second movie; as we shall see, I don't think this is her most flattering pose, but it isn't helped by the angle of the photograph - click the picture for a square-on view. The back of the box is rather busier, but demonstrates beautifully the full variety of the set: Click for a larger image The DeLorean versions of all three movies can be created from the set, though - as you might expect from the piece count - not at the same time. This is highlighted by the white-on-red text at the bottom right: itself rather amusingly resembling DYMO punch-labels that will be familiar to anyone who lived in the 80s. Small insets detail the wonderful printed parts which are included in the set, accompanied by explanatory text in English and French. This latter point - coupled with the inclusion of the piece count on the box front - makes me wonder whether this particular box is designed for the the North American market: the third language, visible on the right side, is Spanish. French will continue to feature prominently, starting on the left-hand side: In case you're not convinced that French is important in North America, the proof is on the box top, along with a wheel that provides the 1:1 scale here. The bottom reveals the licensing agreement with Universal Studios. The box is as wide as the Big Ben box is tall, but it's deeper and taller; in fact it's the exact same size as the similarly-priced Leaning Tower of Pisa. The contents are rather more colourful than a typical Architecture set, however: Sadly, we aren't encouraged to enjoy our building experience. Inside the box are five polybags, three loose plates, and a substantial instruction booklet that we'll look at presently. The Instructions The Architecture resemblance continues with this high-quality booklet, printed on sturdy paper with thick cardboard covers. The cover image is identical to the box front - minus the text - and affords us a clearer view of the car with its controversial front end. Inside the booklet, we are treated to a plethora of information related to the movie and the car, replete with pictures, and text in English and French (the latter on the facing page). Further 'DYMO' headers set the scene; the smart black background unfortunately shows up the dust. 'What - what the hell is a "jigowatt"???' I wondered at first whether 'jigowatts' is a mistake; according to Wikipedia, it's in the original movie script. I always thought the figure was 1.21 gigawatts, though with a soft leading 'g', in these times before the prefix 'giga' was rather common. My prized BBC Microcomputer from the same era ran games like Elite on as astonishing 32 kilobytes of memory; nowadays my 4 Gigabytes is still too little. Moving onward, we encouter further pictures from the movie with accompanying factoids, and occasional quotes. I'm not going to spoil all the contents of the booklet, but it is worth showing this wonderful rear-end shot of the 'real' DeLorean ... ... replete with its time-travel modifications listed as 'Highlights' (or 'Points Forts' if you're French, or Canadian). Architecture fans will be familiar with the black background of the instruction steps, and with the intermittent 'factoids' which accompany them: It can be a little tricky to make out the black parts against the background, but I didn't encounter any problems during construction. The build is nicely paced, with occasional sub-builds, as shown here in one of the later steps for the alternative movie versions: Here we build 'Mr. Fusion', with its complementary informative text. I can't wait to get my own Mr. Fusion in two years' time! The rear of the booklet contains the obligatory set inventory; page one in the inside front cover, and page two on the rear cover itself. Also towards the rear of the book are a page dedicated to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, and the following dedicated to the CUUSOO winning design team: It should be noted that 'Team BTTF' have decided to donate their share of the profits from the set to the Michael J Fox Foundation. If I were ever to have a set pass CUUSOO review into production, I'd be more than happy with just a page like this. The Parts The 401-strong part selection consists mainly of plates - there are only about twelve regular bricks in there. I've managed to fit them all into one picture: As expected, black and light bluish-grey dominates the colour palette. 'Useful' pieces - a highly subjective concept, I know - might include the black and bley headlight bricks in reasonable quantities, a sizeable selection of 1 x 'n' plates, jumpers and clippy-hinges; it's nice to see the older-style hinge-bricks with 1-wide top parts in both black and bley. Greebling fans will approve of the binoculars, and the metallic silver 1x1 round plates and grille tiles; plain tiles appear in reasonable quantities, and they haven't held back on cheese wedges. For me, the stand-out parts are the 8.5L hoses - the modern version of the Classic Space original is becoming more common, but no other set contains more than three. Incidentally, I had expected that the red wheel hubs would prove to be an example of an existing part in a new colour; I was mightily surprised to find that it has been included in two sets previously - and Brick Buckets of all things! Though they are from 2009, and not widely available today; certainly there aren't currently any such wheels available in red on Bricklink. Taking a closer look at the metallic silver grilles, I noticed a mold difference: Some have squarer, thicker edges. This is hardly a disaster, but the difference is particularly obvious in this shiny colour, and requires you to be careful where you place them if you're particular about symmetry. Finally, the pieces de resistance - the printed parts: The detail in the prints on these 1x2 tiles is astonishing - look at the 'OUTATIME' licence plate with its 'California' logo replete with setting sun. I was a little surprised to see the 'destination' date on the time console - I don't recall 28th January 1958 featuring in the movies - but it's all there in the manual: it's the date the first LEGO brick was patented. Maybe I should have known that. And here's the 2x1x2 panel bearing a print of the heart of the DeLorean Time Machine itself: the Flux Capacitor: It's a beautiful design, although in my case the print quality isn't perfect. Note the white-on-red text, true to the movie, that has clearly inspired the 'DYMO' headings in the instruction manual - a lovely touch. And by the way, LEGO, it's 'i' before 'e'. I wondered if the typo in 'SHEILD' was true to the movie, but it isn't: see here. To be fair, I didn't even notice the typo until CopMike pointed it out after member Kez noticed it from the high-res pics sent out by TLG. The Minifigures 'Hey, Biff! Get a load of this guy's life preserver. Dork things he's gonna drown!' Here are Doc and Marty! They are the characters of the original film's 1985: Doc in his radiation suit, and Marty in his jeans and 'life preserver'. (I am reliably informed that this garment is properly called a 'gilet'.) Marty has his trademark skateboard. It's funny to think that skateboarding was a bit of a fad in the mid-1980s, and I doubt the film-makers expected it to continue to be such a widespread phenomenon today (your mileage may vary). I was a little excited to see a purple skateboard - it's the first I've owned - but it's also available in the new Town Square and one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sets. Doc wears 'vampire' hair which is new in white for this set. I had half-expected a variant on this, but the style they've chosen is possibly the best existing mold for Doc's flyaway locks. He has a new, double-sided face print, in flesh for this licensed set; they've captured his expressionn pretty well for the 'surprise/shock' look, which Christopher Lloyd does a lot. Great Scott! The radiation suit torso has some nice detailing including a stopwatch; I love the big trefoil 'RADIATION' logo on the back. It's a shame, though, that we don't get Doc in more 'everyday' wear; but I bet you could improvise. Marty's multi-layered clothing is captured beautifully, though he looks strangely like Spiderman from the back: His new face-print is again double-sided, with a little smirk on one side and a good 'fear' look on the other. His hair is a reasonably choice; the dark brown is a little too dark for my tastes - in the films it looks almost fair in some shots, and I'd probably have gone with reddish-brown. It's also perhaps a little too neat and short; 'Anakin Skywalker' hair might have been better. His legs, like Doc's, aren't printed, but this part in Medium Blue is surprisingly rare. Here's what they should look like: Picture from Futurepedia I think TLG have captured the pair pretty well, all things considered - particularly Doc's 'surprised' face. I'm also pleased with the choice of torsos; Doc's radiation suit would probably be the most difficult to recreate from existing parts (though the 'future' garb would be a close second); and it does allow recreation of the scene where we first meet the DeLorean. Marty's outfit is a no-brainer, and if you want him in a rad-suit, all you need is a Hazmat Guy. The Build The DeLorean is essentially a big stack of plates, with some minor Technic reserved for the wheels; however, there are some interesting techniques thrown in here and there. The chassis is built around three long 2x16 plates sandwiching two black 4x8 plates; four identical Technic wheel apparati occupy the four corners: Note the red and blue round bricks sitting atop similarly-coloured 1x1 vertical-clip plates: these restrict the movement of the wheels around the car's longitudinal axis, and are vital for the conversion between 'driving' and 'flying' modes. The surprising use of red and blue has some logic; throughout, 'red' signifies the front of the car and 'blue' the rear, and it can be tricky to distinguish end from end without this visual clue. In the second panel, 1x8 plates have been added above the 3L Technic liftarms, allowing them the be built upon; there are gaps adjacent to the wheel mounts, front and rear ... ... into which are placed clippy-bricks. Black 1x2 cheese wedges form the appearance of seat-backs, and again note the use of red and blue for front and rear. In the inset, behold one of my favourite ever LEGO techniques: the foot of a headlight brick sits on the side-stud of another, allowing in this case the SNOT-mounting of a round plate and the inversion of a cheese wedge. Granted, it's not as impressive as Svelte's use (see it in situ here), but it's great to see this technique feature in an official LEGO set. Next, the dashboard is added onto hinge bricks, and some Technic pins will enable the SNOT-mounted front to sit at a half-stud offset, at the expense of a bit of wobble. Clippy-hinges at the rear allow the attachment of the rear vent-things, shown in the second panel to be constructed from slopes, hinge-bricks, black headlights and tiles. I'm surprised they didn't elect for the Nice Part Usage of black minifigure legs for this build; however, the lower set wouldn't fit into the slope, and I'm more than happy about the eight headlight bricks. The light bluish-grey jumpers here don't do anything, except add some hard-to-see greebing, perhaps. The yellow 1x1 round is where the Plutonium goes. Plutonium not included in set. The rear-end is almost complete, as we add the Flux Capacitor on its 1x2x2 panel piece, and some SNOT-mounted taps which represent some arcance tubing or whatever. You can see some similar blue things here. Meanwhile, controversial tiles have been sneaked onto the front whilst you were distracted, and the diminutive roof is added. Clippy-hinges will help to slope the sides; the silver grille tiles represent the strips around the sides which glow blue when the car time-jumps. Finally, the SNOT front panel is attached, and the 'gull-wing' doors are added ... ... followed by the SNOT rear, sloping hinged tiles for the windscreen, and wheels. The last touch is the tubing around the sides, which utilises the various clips and O-ring plates we've been adding, and is surprisingly trouble-free to attach. And we're done! The Complete DeLorean 'Time circuits on. Flux Capacitor ... fluxing. Engine running. All right.' (Engine cuts out) First things first: however you feel about the stepped, tiled front, I hope you agree that from this angle the car doesn't look nearly as bad as the rather unflattering views of the preview picture (or indeed the box front). In 'driving' mode, she has a sporty, low profile, and the slanting pillars forming the 'windscreen', coupled with the narrow roof, help to slope the sides in a manner very difficult to recreate in LEGO at this scale. I will deal specifically with the question of the redesigned front end later in the review, for now, let's look around the model carefully. The front end's seven stud-wide SNOT panel helps to taper the car's nose; from this angle, the tapering looks a little severe. Note that 1x2 trans-black tiles are used for the headlights instead of separate 1x1 tiles; these latter parts are somewhat rare. The model does reasonably well with the 1x2s, helped by the studs of the light bley plates behind; I was tempted to replace the light bley with dark bley to mimic the darker front panel of the real car, but that would spoil the effect of the headlights. From the front, the wheels protude a little uncomfortably far from the sides of the car. I noticed one or two complaints in response to the revealed catalogue picture about the use of 1x2 and 1x1 cheese wedges for the front panel; this does cause asymmetry, but helps to strengthen the panel, as the 1x2 cheese connects the 2x3 and 2x4 plates behind. You could easily replace it with two 1x1 cheese wedges with little loss of strength if you desire. The rear view is one of the best, helped in no small way by the 'OUTATIME' licence plate tile. It's by no means a perfect representation of the original, seen best in the instructions picture above, but it is probably as good as you could achieve at the scale whilst avoiding tricky and fragile techniques. The big vent constructions help here, though it's difficult to line them up perfectly. They should overhang the rear lights (and have four layers rather than two), but even the CUUSOO original doesn't do this. The sporty look is particularly in evidence from the side: The rake of the 'windscreen' is suitably shallow, if a trifle awkward at the base with the 1x1 clippy tiles looking unaccountably large. This version lacks the rear sloping stanchions of the 'real' car, but dark bley cheese graters compensate somewhat. You can see here how the tubing at the sides creates the illusion of wheel arches: one of the few features carried over from the CUUSOO original. They work surprisingly well, and compensate for the protruding wheels, in most views. This is a good place to admire the contour provided by the inverted cheese wedges at the rear - a lovely, if subtle, touch. Seen from above, the car has a chunky outline which reflects the feel of the model in your hand. For the most part, she's very sturdily built, and at 190 grammes (6.7 oz), surprisingly heavy. As I've already implied, the roof is perhaps a little too small; you have to imagine the side windows would fill some of the gap here; a six stud-wide roof might be better, but it would make the door opening mechanism look odd, and I don't think it's possible to create the gull-wing doors any other way at this scale. Underneath are the only visible remnants of the 'red and blue' scheme which assists in the build: these clippy plates are as essential part of the wheel mechanism. The long dark bley plates make a significant contribution to the strength of the model; some of the light bley plates aren't strictly necessary, but I'm not going to complain. This rear high view is one of my favourites: The bulky rear end features a number of small greebles packed into quite a tight space. The vents take up a lot of room, but they are the most important feature. The blue taps sit above two barely-visible red 1x1 round plates; an offset cheese wedge in the centre provides a little contouring. The 'Plutonium Chamber' sits between the vents; it probably ought to be mounted slightly more forward, but that would leave a big step behind the tap bit. Note the binoculars on the roof; I didn't recall from the movies what this is meant to represent, but you can see whatever it is in this picture, or here (thanks CopMike!). The Interior The doors, of course, open in the gull-wing style of the original DeLorean: The mechanism works well: it is smooth, and doesn't require you to remove any parts of the model. It isn't without its problems, though: as you can see, the 1x2 male clippy hinges connect to the door using only a single 1x1 black clippy tile, and that is a source of weakness. Be prepared for the doors to fall off at regular intervals. Indeed, the weight of the door itself tends to disconnect the parts here; also, the closed door sits slightly higher than the body, and as you close the door it is natural to put a little downward pressure on the door, making the problem occur more frequently: Also, the triangular gap behind the door is a little unsightly. This is caused by the use of a 1x1 clippy brick and cheese wedge rather than the single 1x2 slope that the CUUSOO original employs. The clippy brick is necessary here to keep the black tube in the correct position. I can forgive this gap; it's not too noticeable on the model as a whole. Let's take a close look at the passenger compartment. With the roof removed, we get to good view of the Flux Capacitor in its intended place. For such a vital feature, it's a little hard to see from the outside, but it looks great. Moving upwards, you can see the banked black 1x2 cheese wedges which I presume are meant to represent seat backs, not entirely effectively: Their positions, and the studded floor of the cabin, imply that the diver is meant to sit just left of centre, which would make it tricky to place both figures inside ... ... however, the steering wheel is mounted half a stud to the left of this position. Th dash is otherwise very pretty, with the time console and a dial sitting at an attractive angle thanks to the hinge bricks. There's another dial to the left of the steering wheel. Note the light bley cheese wedge on the floor, which makes sitting the driver a stud further to the left problematic, but not impossible. Here's Marty sitting in what is (I believe) the intended position: He has to lean back a lot in order to fit his head under the roof, but for a sports car that is probably a realistic seating angle. With Marty sitting here, you cannot (easily) fit a passenger in ... ... but if you move Marty a stud towards the door - which involves a bit of a struggle as his leg interferes with the bley cheese wedge - you can: In this position, you have to sit both figures a bit more upright, else their heads prevent the doors closing: look at Doc's head to see what I mean. However, the roof here no longer necessitates them leaning back so much. The sloping 'windscreen' stanchions obscure the view a little, which in Doc's case is exacerbated by the angle of the shot. Note that in either position, Marty isn't sitting directly behind the steering wheel. Ideally, there should be some jumper plates in there to allow them both to sit at a half-stud offset; modifying the model to achieve this shouldn't be too difficult, but it would involve removing the long 2x16 light bley plate which runs the length of the car (see here). I don't think that this would weaken the car too much. Flying DeLorean - Back to the Future II Actually, the Flying DeLorean first makes her appearance at the end of the first film, but she features most prominently throughout BTTF II, and is instrumental in Marty's getaway from Biff in 1985-A. To convert model one to model two, all you need to do is replace the 'OUTATIME' licence plate with the orange 2015 'barcode' one, add Mr. Fusion, and flip the wheels for flying mode. Note that I've left the yellow 1x1 round 'Plutonium Chamber' plate in place under Mr. Fusion; the instructions aren't particularly clear on this, but it might be better to remove it and have the white dome attached directly to the 2x2 round black plate. Flipping the wheels is simplicity itself. Here's the mechanism with a wheel removed: The red (or blue, at the rear) clippy plate keeps the wheel mount from over-extending in either position, and explains why 3L frictionless pins have been used. The set also comes with two trans-clear slopes and 1x2 plates to use as stands: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need ... roads. This view is similar to the promotional catalogue shot that caused such a lukewarm reaction when revealed. To be fair, firstly, there were no passengers inside, leading many to think that no figures were included; secondly, this really isn't the set's most flattering view. With the wheels folded, she loses a certain something. Partly, this is the width caused by the protruding wheels, but it doesn't help that the wheels don't pivot around their centre, as the original's do. Achieving such a result isn't impossible, but would require a vastly more intricate mechanism, with resulting fragility and probably a too-difficult build. I'm going to leave the car in 'driving' mode. 'Western' DeLorean - Back to the Future III This is the car that Doc accidentally took back to 1885, then hid so that Marty could rescue it in 1955, in order to take it back to 1885 again, and cause your head to explode thinking about it. It's meant to have '1950s' wheels - big red rims with whitewall tyres - as the originals had decayed over time, and the time circuits burned out during the lightning strike, necessitating 1950s Doc to build an alternative using valves as transistors hadn't been invented yet. Check your head. Still intact? Good. Conversion requires removing a 1x4 tile from in front of the 'windscreen', then adding the greebled orange plates that represent the 'valve technology' time circuits, then replacing the bley wheels with red. There's only one set of tyres included, so you have to switch these too; but if you're anything like me you'll have quite a few spares lying around. You should also leave Mr. Fusion on. This is probably the car's best looking guise - the front box disguises the stepped front, and the red wheels rather counter-intuitively add to the car's attractiveness, even if they don't recreate the over-sized 50s wheels perfectly. I'm not sure why orange was chosen for the 'box'; I'd have thought either dark orange or dark tan would be better choices; certainly the latter isn't hard to come by in 2x4 plates. The red wheels don't quite match up to the big 50s whitewall tyres of the original, but I don't know how they could be better represented at this scale. Here are all three versions of the 'real' DeLorean for comparison: Pictures from here, here, and here respectively. Comparison to the CUUSOO Original Model If you've seen the original CUUSOO entry, you might already have noticed that the final version is a vastly different kettle of frogs. The most obvious difference - noticed and commented on, mostly disapprovingly, as soon as the catalogue picture was revealed - is the shape of the front. The LEGO designer has chosen to create the front end from a stepped construction of tiles, rather than using the more obvious solution of a 6x8 sloped tile as the CUUSOO entrants chose. Why did they make this change? Part of the reason may be the difficulty in recreating the third movie DeLorean. Here's the CUUSOO version: There isn't an existing LEGO part that would allow the attachment of parts to its upper surface whilst retaining the shallow slope. The CUUSOO team must have used an adhesive substance here. I can forgive TLG for not wishing to create a unique, specialised mold just for this set, so an alternative solution would be necessary. Is this the sole reason? To answer that, I had to examine the original CUUSOO entry a little more closely ... so I built one, using the LDD instructions the CUUSOO team thoughtfully provided. I've had to substitute a few parts; my 7676 Republic Gunship is packed away, so I've used 1x2 smoke tiles rather than the four 1x1s the original uses, but you'll get the impression. Immediately you can see that the CUUSOO version is bigger, and taller; it isn't wider, but the straight-mounted 'windscreen' stanchions make the cabin more boxy. At the back, the rear bumper is the same ... but that's about it. The CUUSOO version has replicated the dark grey area around the rear lights, but the light configuration is no more accurate than LEGO's example, and looks a little fussy. The vents are similar, but LEGO's are individually tilted; the original has rear slanted stanchions, but, like those of the 'windscreen', they are square to the body. Mostly, the SNOT-mounted white tiles - which represent the blue-glowing time-travel whojimaflips of the original, and simulated in silver on the LEGO version - stand rather too proud of the model, and look uncomfortably square. They're also flimsy: attached only via a SNOT stud at the bottom and a 1x1 clip at the top. The choice of white for the time-travel thingumajigs explains the white front bumper. It's interesting that the white bumper has carried over to the LEGO version, even though its side whotsits are silver. I'd have preferred silver for the front bumper too, but the 1x2 bows don't exist in this colour. This is more apparent in the top view. LEGO's answer to the silvery stripes does result in discontinuity, but it's more subtle, and doesn't affect the lines of the car. As you can see, the CUUSOO version is far longer: a good four studs. This does allow more room for rear-end greebling, but at the expense of realism: the DeLoraean is a two-seater sports car, and it's dinky. CUUSOO's roomy cabin has lots of room for detail - there's even a keypad for entering destination dates, a gearstick, and the Time Circuit switch - the last two mounted centrally on jumper plates, and which interfere with each other. To be fair, this is a plot point in the original film. The seats are placed at positions 2 & 3 and 6 & 7 of the 8 stud-wide cabin, giving no ambiguity as to where the passengers sit, but they have to sit bolt upright in order to close the doors. Opening the doors requires you to lift the windscreen stanchions; the 1x1 clippy tiles I've used here are incredibly stiff, making this no mean feat. Marty and Doc have to keep their outboard arms raised in order for the doors to close, but they sit in there quite happily. The steering wheel is correctly mounted for the chairs. There is, of course, no Flux Capacitor print in this version. The CUUSOO version is much bigger, but at 214 grammes, only slightly heavier - its destiny density is less. This is the result of quite a flimsy structure: There's acres of space in there - I'd have strengthened it; perhaps the CUUSOO team decided not to in order to reduce the piece count. I strongly suspect that the model is originally conceived would not have passed TLG's stringent quality rules. It's also rather over-complicated; look at the wheel mechanism for an example. Note that I've substituted a few parts (eg. light bley clippy hinges for black; two 4x4 plates for one 4x8). Despite being lighter by 24 grammes, the LEGO version feels more heavy, and more sturdy. 'There's that word again: "heavy". Why is everything so heavy in the future? Is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational pull?' The LEGO version is a vastly different model to the CUUSOO original - there are very few features carried over. Having built both, I can fully appreciate the redesign, and the reasons behind it. What results is a far sportier, and far sturdier model; it better resembles the compact DeLorean, and even though the smooth slope of the front end is lost, the result is more gently tapered in both vertical and horizontal directions. If you are thinking of replacing the front with the 6x8 slope, it isn't as easy as it looks. The windscreen stanchions will have to be moved, and the slope will overhang in an ugly way at the front corners. Mostly, the slope is too steep: the DeLorean's front end is nearly flat, and using the slope will result in a much bulkier front end than is desirable. It is because of this - and the excessive size of the CUUSOO version - that to me makes LEGO's version look the part of a stylish sports car converted into a time machine; while, in comparison, the CUUSOO original - despite its extra features - looks more like a Volvo. I'm glad they redesigned it. Conclusion I've been looking at, handling, and playing with this model for some four weeks now, and I have to say that - despite initial misgivings about the stepped front, I really like it. Having also built the CUUSOO original, I feel LEGO's version is a far better representation of the DeLorean: more accurate to scale with the minifigures, and much more in keeping with the lines and style of the iconic 1980s sports car. It has its flaws: seating two figures inside, while possible, requires some manual dexterity, and the doors have a dispiriting tendency to fall off (a problem shared with the CUUSOO version); even when you inevitably come to accept the stepped front, the use of two 2x4 tiles in the middle section looks a little odd (easily rectified with a simple modification). However, the overall result is a delightfully compact, sturdy, and playable sporty roadster that you can push around the table, flip the wheels, then swoosh around the room. Just don't do that above 88 miles per hour... Marty and Doc are fine representations of the characters, and have unique torsos and head pieces (and hair, in Doc's case). Add to that the 'Architecture-style' box and manual, and the very reasonable asking price of £35, and you have an affordable playset and collector's piece in one. I heartily recommend it. Design & Build 8 Whatever your feelings about the stepped front, I think you have to agree that the designer has captured the sporty feel of the DeLorean well, and succeeded in upholding TLG's quality standards in the process. I think the car is attractive, and fun, and I would choose the sleek, low-profile design over the Volvo look any day. The build doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but it is pacey, and involves a few interesting techniques - the headlight-brick attachment; the use of clippy-hinges for the doors; and the combination of clippy- and brick hinges on the vents are the highlights here. Parts 8 I'm sure many of you would be able to build the car from your own collection, but you'd miss out on the gorgeous printed parts; and the black tubes aren't common in quantity. I don't think the parts selection would be a major factor in your decision to buy it, but I'm not complaining about the headlight bricks. Figures 9 Doc's and Marty's torsos and faces are unique, and Marty's wearing the iconic 1980s gear. You might question the choice of the Radiation Suit for Doc, but it makes some sense - it's the first thing we see him wearing in the films, and you could recreate most other costumes from existing parts (with the possible exception of the 'future suit'. I'm sure these figures will be sought-after. Play & Display 10 The opening doors, swiveling wheels and the ability to change the car to match each of the films give rise to plenty of play options; you can push it or swoosh it to your heart's content. Or, it looks great on the shelf. I'd also like to include 'collectability' in this section - something I will consider for future Architecture reviews: the attention that has gone into the box art and instruction manual easily rival that of the Architecture range, and truly make this set a collector's dream. Value 10 Even purely on a parts to pennies ratio, this is good value, even though the parts are mostly plates; add in the licence, the collectability, the figures, and the car's design, and I think the price looks very reasonable. Overall 90% My Score 9/10 I'm delighted with this set, and if you're a fan of the films, you will be too. I urge you to look beyond the stepped front end; if you can't, well, maybe you guys just aren't ready for this yet. But your kids are gonna love it. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the review. Please let me know what you think! Rufus Resources Back To The Future wiki: Futurepedia Buy a REAL DeLorean! DeLorean.com LEGO CUUSOO Winner: Back to the Future(BTTF) - DeLorean Time Machine My flickr set Endpiece (I should have used the Lone Ranger train for this. ) If you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:

Set Number: 70404 Name: King's Castle Theme: Castle Year of Release: 2013 Pieces: 996 Minifigures: 7 Price: $99.99 USD Links: Flickr image gallery Bricklink Brickset This is a review of the new King's Castle set of the 2013 Castle line. This set has the highest price, the most pieces, and the most minifigures of any set in this line. It will be the last reviewed in collaboration with my brother, who has contributed the photos and co-wrote this review. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Box: 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The box contains a DSS, a new style brick separator, and three booklets that cover the nine or so bags. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Minifigures: The Crownies have one longbow archer with the gorget and mail torso print, one crossbowman with the tunic print, one king with leg and torso prints unique to this set, and one knight with leg and breastplate prints like the knights in the other sets. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr All of them have nice back printing too. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The knight is like those in the smaller sets but has a unique head with mutton chops and an expression of aggression or frustration. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The Red Dragon figures are just like those in the smaller sets and have alternate expressions on the reverse sides of the heads as well as back printing on the torsos. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The vehicle: Here's an image of the siege engine with the provided sticker applied to its curved slope. The arm of the catapult flings forward when the the dragon head is briskly pushed back. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The fortress: The back or king's tower half of the castle consists of three segments which connect where you seen the side view of the light bley panels on the front side and where you see the the tall dark bley slopes on the back side. The room with the door oddly blocked from opening by the chest outfront is entirely empty inside (the room that is, the chest is filled with chrome gold parts highlighted below). 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The front or gatehouse half of the castle again consists of three segments; the two on each side are more or less identical to the two on either side of the king's tower (just without the jail doors and with a dark brown round table instead of a reddish brown barrel but the clip to attach the staircase is mirrored if switching its side is desired). Inside the gatehouse, the upper spindle draws the portcullis up and the lower spindle the drawbridge. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr These are various parts of interest including a 2x2 inverted tile! 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Here's how the new barding looks on the king's horse. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr The extra pieces. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Here's a size comparison with the gatehouse from the smaller Gatehouse Raid set. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Here it is with the King's Tower switched out for the gatehouse minus one of its smaller side segments. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Since they are the same length, the two said segments can also be included - one in each of the two side walls of the castle - in a closed, square castle without the larger center gatehouse segment. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Side to side all the sets look like this. 70404 King's Castle by drrca, on Flickr Ratings: Design: 4/5 - The set is designed decently, with a stronger structure than I anticipated. The color schemes work well, and the brown and dark tan give a subtle yet needed touch to the otherwise pastel castle. The design of the gatehouse is well done, as the drawbridge and portcullis function smoothly and without problems, yet the castle is hardly furnished (which is almost to be expected, considering the past castles in the LEGO Castle lines). Build: 3/5 - Building this set wasn't very interesting, as the two wall sections are nearly identical, as are the two corner towers, and it seems like half of this castle is made up of large &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt; wall pieces. This set doesn't compare to 10223 Kingdoms Joust, which was still repetitive, but has many more (and smaller) pieces than this castle, which is of a similar price to the joust. Paying twenty US dollars more for the joust set can get you 577 more pieces. That means that the joust set has over 1.5x the number of pieces at 1.2x the price. Playability: 4/5 - The castle has a good number of minifigures to play with, and has a treasure, jail, horse, and two catapults, as well as the complex gatehouse door and another door in the back. There's also the removable panel for an escape. Parts: 4/5 - There are a number of new parts introduced here. The pieces overall are decently useful to builders of castle-themed creations. New king minifigure prints are introduced here, as well as a new gold color for the king's crown piece. Price: 3/5 - Even though the large castle in every LEGO castle line is just around 100 US dollars and despite that this one has a higher piece count than previous $100 castles, this set somehow seems undeserving of that price. Other than the castle structure and figures, all you get is a small wheeled catapult. The 2007 fantasy castle (7094 King's Castle Siege) had a dragon, which I'd take over the catapult if given the option. Additionally, it had 10 figures rather than the seven of this castle. Granted, the 2010 Kingdoms 7946 King's Castle had no enemy vehicles or catapults and had even fewer parts. Although this new set ranks as the third largest castle set ever produced (with only the 2009 Medieval Market Village and the 2012 Joust having more pieces), the &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt; pieces seem so useless and ugly and the lack of a bigger enemy vehicle is very apparent. Overall: 4/5 - This is a good set for its playability and minifigures. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not building medieval creations, as the &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt; pieces are practically useless to non-castle builders. I wish that the Iron Builder Competition would make use of the 1x4x5 panel or the 3x3x6 corner panel just to prove me wrong and convince me that people aren't wasting their money in accumulating all of these pieces in this set. Previous reviews of this line: 70400 Forest Ambush 70401 Gold Getaway 70402 The Gatehouse Raid 70403 Dragon Mountain