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Here is my review on LEGO Friends 42620 Olly and Paisley's Family Houses: THE GOOD: Both houses look great with great colours. Two houses are separate, yes not connected but you can place next to it. Both houses has very nice exterior details. Paisley's house has the edge in terms of interior details and one of the most detailed dinning room. THE NOT SO GOOD: Paisley's dinner room despite being very details, it's very inaccessible due to the roof cannot be opened easily and very tight space. This is one of the 2 friends sets in this wave that caught my eyes when the wave was first announced. The modern mansion and this. With some luck, this set was on 25% discount so bought it without hesitation. And it's GOOD. It's looks very nice and even in LEGO city, you rarely get to see houses with such unique characters and looking great at the same time. I really love the colours on both. And don't let the product image deceive you, you actually get to build 2 separate houses. There are nothing to fix them side by side on default. Both houses looks great on the exterior but I like Paisley's one slightly more. Olly's one has some nice designs but overall lack the same level of both exterior and interior details of Paisley's. And the vanity in the toilet may be just a bit too high for any minifigures or minidolls. Paisley's house has much more details, I like the exterior texture of the chimney and Paisley's also has a very very detailed dinning room with stove, fridge and dinning table. Also featuring a LEGO child sit! Despite all the cool details, Paisley's house is very hard to access as the roof is not easily removable. So you pretty much left to place minifigures or minidolls from the opened back side. And there are no rooms to do this for the dinning room. I wonder why they even bother to make the fridge openable lol. It's also a welcome to have a new leaves element with very nice violet colour. With 6 minidolls, it a set pack with details and fun. I do wonder why Paisley's mother is missing. I'm also very tempted to buy another one to make a full enclosed house but have other priorities on my wish list. This is probably the 2nd best Friends set this year, given it's very hard to top the Andres's mansion. With a very accessible price and lovely looking houses that can easily fit into any LEGO city, it's definitely a set not to be missed out!
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Here is my review on LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog 76996 Knuckles' Guardian Mech: THE GOOD: The Knuckle minifigure. The play feature with Rogue's glider is a nice surprised. THE NOT SO GOOD: The mech lack articulation joints to allow better play. The mech also looks surprisingly thing and flat from some angles. Honestly, I bought this set purely for Knuckles given me played a good deal of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, it just feel incomplete without the Knuckles Minifigure. It's great LEGO releasing him in a set that does not break your bank. The minifigure is very well done, so does Rogue. The only things I wish it had happen is Knuckles's hands to be a new hand element rather than an accessory clipping onto the hands. The gloves are very well made though. Now, the mech build is your typical mech build and given the price of the set, it does not allow much details. Lacking articulation on the knees really take out most of the fun. The build itself is ok while it looks uncharacteristically thin and I'm also surprised to see no stickers, in fact I think the printed nexo knight shield piece would be very useful in other mechanical build. The other thing I was surprised with is the the gem stone play feature, you can used Rogue's glider and connects to the big gem and fly away with it. And that's pretty much sums up this set. It's a must have if you like Sonic the Hedgehog in some capacity, otherwise nothing much would stands out for LEGO fans which has no interests in this theme.
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Here is my review on LEGO DreamZzz 71477 The Sandman's Tower: THE GOOD: Great looking tower with the primary build. Great colour pallet. Surprised with the spinning hourglass action feature. Excellent minifgs. THE NOT SO GOOD: Interior is a bit empty overall. It's not easy to deconstruct this set, switching to the alternate build can be a stressful task. I really like this set in the end. When this was first revealed, I really like the gear on the exterior and the selection of minifigures. Once I built it, I really appreciate how it looks and the colour pallet combination. It's a tall set but not as tall as the fantastical tree house, while the product images may give you a very shallow facade feel but it actually have quite a bit of space inside. It does feel a little bit empty for the interior as there are only 3 interior decors through out the default build. Having said that, the exterior is stunning and to my surprised, the action feature of the spinning clock plus the hourglass works so well. and the hourglass build is absolutely brilliant. As expected, the minifigures are excellent. Love sandman and the new villain, Never Witch. Plus the new body piece for SNEAK is going to be so useful. As with most dreamzzz sets, you have to deconstruct the primary build to build the alternate build, but this one rather a cosmetic change , you are building something entirely different and they gives you some extra pieces for it. However, because of the action features, it will be require some effort to deconstruct before you can build the alternate build. I opted the default one since I think it looks better and didn't bother to even try. Despite this, the primary build is very nice and at RRP of $170 NZD, it's not a bank breaking set and it does provide the values. Given I bought this with 25% off, it made this set price significantly more reasonable. It's a set definitely worth recommending to everyone, if you are not sure about DREAMZZZ, this one would be good for you to give it a try.
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Surprise! You didn't think EB was going to release a review for the newest CMF 25 series did you? Well, I'm no WhiteFang. But I recently moved from the United States to France and haven't found any good stores to buy CMFs from. So I went looking around online and found a great shop here in Europe selling a whole case of them. (And it's on sale till Jan 29th!) And since they shipped them so fast I had time to do a quick review. I've got to say, until Lego starts giving me the option to either 1) buy a full set of figures or 2) buy a whole case this is going to be my new way to buy CMFs. Inside my shipping box was this half-box from Lego. Not sure if Brickshop gets two cases per box or what, but this is how they shipped it to me. For those interested, this is the order I had for my figs. I've had people on Instagram tell me they had a different order for their figs. So use it at your own risk. But surely they use the same layout order within the same factory. First up are my favorite figs out of the bunch, the medieval ones. I was happy the Goatherd didn't have yellow hiding under the hood so I can use it with fleshies if I want. Biggest complaint from this bunch is that the injection mold spots are really obvious on the Bat helmet and the purple Harpy hair. I also wish the Barbarian's hair wasn't red but was a more muted color. I hope they re-use it in tan, blonde, or another more natural hair color shade. Up second are the city dwellers. I like the molded hearing aid on the Dog Groomer's hair. Though it does limit it's versatility a bit. My leas favorite part is the poor print job on the Workout Girl's abs. Yellow printed on Coral didn't work. We pay a premium Lego, get the details right! I also hope we see the para-olympic's legs with grey or black shorts in the future. I'd love to use those as Star Wars greebling! And last but not least are the costumes. I'm going to be using the Noir Detective's outfit as an Imperial uniform. And the inclusion of a honest-to-goodness Red Herring is amazing. The Dino's arms and legs are also getting repurposed as Trandosian parts. And the Mushroom hat will find a way into one of my castle MOCs at some point. My least favorite part is the mis-match of color on the train costume. I love that we got the wheels in dark-red. But the middle wheel (which is part of the molded costume piece where as the front and back and trolley wheels clipped on) should match them, not be normal red. Here's a closer look at the color inconsistencies. Verdict? SCORE DESIGN 7 I thought this was a good grouping of figures. The designs range from "good" to "amazing!" with nothing feeling overly sub-par. PARTS 8 We're all really here for the goat, I know. But even outside of that we get a really good selection of parts. And a good variety for City, Castle, and other kinds of builders. VALUE FOR MONEY 8 If you can get a whole case or manage to use an orthoscope, scale or other method to find the figs you want these are decent value for money. FINAL SCORE: 8 One of, if not the top favorite CMF series of all time. I think Lego really knocked it out of the park this time.
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Here is my review on LEGO Friends 42639 Andrea's Modern Mansion: THE GOOD: It looks absolutely beautiful, the exterior design is just so good. The use of colours is great and well balanced. The swimming pool, the jacuzzi, the waterfall are all great! Lots of nice furniture builds and the piano might be the best music instruments build in this scale! THE NOT SO GOOD: none to be honest, most of the points I'm going to raise are nip picking. Expensive and LEGO stores exclusives, so unlikely to get discount. The sports car suspension is too low, the front bumper touching the ground when getting out from the garage lol I can confidently say, this may be the best looking LEGO friends set ever! or to some extent the best looking house across all themes. Been impressed since the image was leaked and it really did not disappoint. The exterior just looks stunning. It's a big set but not really massive and just the right size of any shelf display. Great use of colours across the mansion and I love how it stands out with different architectural design compared to a lot of other sets. This makes the building experience refreshing. Whether is the user of colourful garage door tiles for the colourful shades or use of curves for the central pillar, it's great. The cool thing with the shades is that it also look great if you look out from the inside from one of the windows. The central pillar have curved windows to show you the elevator, which I first experience the same technique to build a working elevator from the Monkie Megapolis City. This took it to another level with the elevator going down to the pool with a curved blue transparent piece. With the roof garden, a great swimming pool, an outdoor jacuzzi and a very very lovely looking water fall, the exterior is a 10/10. Now this set also have very spacious and detailed interiors full of full and detailed furnitures build. For example, different types of bed, very cool looking lamp and probably one of the best piano build in this scale ever! With a recording studio at the ground level hidden with a double bed underneath the pool. Plus a garage let you push the car out. One thing to note is I really like the flooring desing on the corridor of the 3rd floor with a new (i believe so since I haven't exp it before) element to create a really nice pattern. Regarding the sports car, it's actually build more like the 6 studs wide speed champion car than your typical lego cars. With 10 minidolls included, it doesn't just look great but also very lively. It's hard for me to find something not good about this, except probably the high entry price for this and the exclusivity which makes it hard to find a large discount. Other than that, I could point out the car suspension being too low & may be the elevator doesn't have doors and with considerable gap which could be deadly if it's a FINAL DESTINATION situation XD. Definitely a set to recommend and can't wait to see the next Friends set =)
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Here is my review on LEGO Scooby-Doo 75902 The Mystery Machine: THE GOOD: Looks great and captures what you would've seen in the show. Excellent minifigures and a great scooby-doo. THE NOT SO GOOD: Stickers are a bit of a hassle to apply. I'm glad I bought this when it was first released, back then I thought it was a bit expensive but well, looking at the after market price now, it wasn't that bad. The build itself is simple and also enjoyable except a few stickers that were a pain to apply, may be it was just me. Being a small set, it did a very good job to depict details within the van relative to the depicted mission. I found it interesting the while cover does not rotated, while the van can be pushed along, it also creates an illusion of the wheels not moving. Excellent minifigures and Scooby-Doo is extremely well done. Including an alternate head for Zombie would be even better but well, the back printing on the zombie head does it for me. It is a cool small set and highly recommended but it will be extremely pricey to buy this now.
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Hi Eurobricks, I just released a review of 7725 Electric Passenger Train! This 12V starter set was released in 1981 as a supplement to the existing lineup, and is pretty common today. I was able to get a copy from Denmark in very good condition complete with a Scandinavian box variant, which I'm super excited about, as Scandinavian boxes are rare and this is my first one. Check out the full review below!
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INTRO Hi folks, novaeb here! As this is my first review here on Eurobricks, to give a brief explanation of why you're seeing a review of a 13 year old set- I was the perfect age demographic for LEGO's space and action-adventure themes in 2011-2012, and I've made an attempt to pick up some classic sets from my childhood now that I'm an adult with (somewhat) disposable income. And when I was younger, I read a lot of text reviews on Eurobricks- video reviews aren't my thing. So, I've decided to start reviewing myself! And to begin with... Today we'll be taking a look at one of the smaller sets from the ill-fated Alien Conquest line of 2011, 7050 Alien Defender! 1 by Nova EB, on Flickr MINIFIGURES 2 by Nova EB, on Flickr 7 by Nova EB, on Flickr This set comes with two minifigures, an ADU (Alien Defense Force) soldier and an alien soldier. The ADU soldier- who I'll be calling Shades- is exclusive to this set. He's completely decked out in that beautiful medium azure bodysuit (my favorite LEGO color), and is rocking some dark blue body gear with little pouches on it everywhere. I love these figures- I think they are totally cheesy, ala 50's B-movies. But they also remind me of Halo in a way, like if they dipped a Marine in cotton candy. He features a silly double-sided face, which can be repurposed for generic uses, it doesn't scream "sci-fi" that much. It's a useful head though! I do wish he came with his own blaster- while his vehicle features a couple, it would be nice for him to have one. The alien soldier, however, is the opposite. He features an amazing custom mold for a head with brains peaking out, big bulbous eyes and little protruding teeth, which is one of many beautiful alien heads that Alien Conquest introduced. This figure is reused throughout the line, and features a black and magenta bodysuit littered with tech pieces. I think this works wonders for a generic alien for any MOC. He also comes with a small ray gun with a stud attached, which works as a small alien sidearm. BUILDS 3 by Nova EB, on Flickr The first build you'll be assembling is this tiny hovercraft for the alien soldier. It's only about 13 pieces, and works about as well as it can- it's a simple build, with two little blasters and a joystick for the alien. While it's real basic, I'm glad it's included to give the Defender something to fight against. 4 by Nova EB, on Flickr The main build of the set is the actual Alien Defender, which is described by the set's description as a scout vehicle. I can definitely see that- it reminds me heavily of a cross between Halo's Mongoose and Warthog, with that giant cannon on the back. It was a very basic build, but it came together quite quick and was enjoyable enough. It makes heavy use of those angled plate-bricks, which I think work well for the front canopy as well as the main blaster on the back. My favorite detail in the set is up here- revolvers to suggest suspension! However, my second complaint with the set is here too- I wish the cockpit's sides were a little more bulky- replace the 1x1 light-bluish grey stud with a 1x4 plate in the same color, and put the stickered plates on those. It's a simple mod you can do at home with common parts, but out of the box it makes the pilot look very exposed. 6 by Nova EB, on Flickr The main play features are all located in the rear- two flick-fire missiles and a rotating and angled cannon, making use of two of the blasters Alien Conquest features clipped on. There's also a small license plate here reading P-A7-7ON- I guess referencing American general George Patton? I really don't know, that's my best guess. 5 by Nova EB, on Flickr The set features a lot of stickers in the front to give detail- unfortunately the copy I purchased from Bricklink has them a little misaligned, but whatever. They're cute stickers, adding an ADU logo and some controls and a targetting computer for the driver. I don't mind them being stickers- it's a small impulse-type set- I just wish I could have aligned them better myself! FINAL THOUGHTS I think this is a great impulse-set for a line that deserved its planned second wave. The set comes with everything one would need to stage out a small alien fight: two great minifigures, a little alien speeder, and an awesome scouting vehicle. It isn't perfect- a blaster for the pilot and some bulk in the vehicle's side would have made it perfect- but for what it is, it's close enough. I got this for 7$ USD out of box, and it retailed for 10$ in-box in 2011. I think that was a perfectly fair deal, and I'm happy to give this set a 9/10. I'd really recommend picking it up if you enjoy the Alien Conquest line, or you just need some weapon platforms for your next BrikWars game!
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Here is my review on 2024 LEGO Chinese New Year set 80112 Auspicious Dragon: THE GOOD: Absolutely look stunning! Captures everything you need from an Eastern Dragon. Great printing for the dragon scales. THE NOT SO GOOD: none, if I want to be harsh, it's probably the back of each foot expose a bit of the technic pins. This is an excellent display piece and may probably be one of the best brick built dragon ever. A refreshing building experience and managed to avoid the feeling to repetitive steps given you need to build both sides of the dragon. No stickers means only printed pieces and the qualify of the print does not disappoint. The dragon itself looks lively thanks to the great use of effect parts around the build and all the little details added to the dragon itself, for example, the spikes at the back of the dragon are great. The neck and mid torso of the dragon also looking great. This is a pure display piece, hence it does lack movement. The articulation points limited to the tail, head and jaw. Plus the right hand holding the blue crystal. These allows you to pose the dragon slightly differently, at the same time makes this a very sturdy build and you can even pick this set up by just picking up the mid area of the dragon body. The price ain't bad too and I totally recommend to everyone especially if you like brick built creatures. Now I wonder if LEGO will release the remaining zodiac sigh as a displayable brick built creature, not sure if it makes sense to have it though given the remaining signs are, Chicken, Horse, Snake, Sheep, Dog and monkey. anyway, really satisfied with the outcome of this set.
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Here is my review on the latest LEGO Chinese New Year set 80113 Family Reunion Celebration: THE GOOD: Looks stunning! It has more depth and height than you see in the pictures! Really capture the typical chinese restaurant look. I love the dim sum cart! Exciting ways to build the exterior. Very lively store front. Excellent selection of minifigures as usual. THE NOT SO GOOD: For a fully enclosed MOC, it will cost you some money =P A few decorated tiles could have been printed. The small stem for the pink flower doesn't connect well so the flower pops out easily when you about to put the flower stands in the corner. This probably be in the top 5 of my ranking on Chinese New Year set. I'm pretty sure this set has been designed as a full modular in mind. You can see how a fully enclosed would look while building it. The exterior looks absolutely stunning with various interesting new ways to create the oriental look. It also stand quite high and have much depth that you won't notice in the product images. In fact, this kinda like the Diagon Alley, even great to display without the other half. The store front is very lively. The interior also great, it really captures most of the essentials in a Chinese restaurant. From the counter, gold fish tank to the kitchen with a huge cutting board. Although the roast chicken is kinda big in scale =P. The dinning table is a nice call back to the first ever CNY set, and I believe it's the same family. Having a working lazy susan in smaller table is also great. With a unique stair case and somewhat clean but uncomfortable toilet seat, it;s nearly perfect. The minifigures are excellent too. I love the staff member with very realistic design of their torso. of course the dragon costume guy is good but I did wish he wears a red based outfit rather than a gold one. It will look awkard when you have all 12 lined up with some in red, and a few odd ones stand out. There aren't much to dislike about this set to be honest, the only slight improvement I can think of is probably some of the tiles could have been printed instead of sticker. One more thing though, the pink flower can be a bit lose and easily pops out when trying to put the flower shop into the corner of the store. While building a full modular MOC is tempting, this can be super expensive given buying 2 sets will leave you short in the green ingots unless you just want to mirror the same set up at the back. Having said that, this set already selling with 30% from KMART in New Zealand, tempted but I have other priorities. Anyway, this is definitely a set I would recommend. And now we have half of the zodiac signs, only 6 more to go but clearly LEGO is running out of ideas as the actual event celebrating CNY has been rehashed in this just a different settings. So I'm actually very curious on what may come out in the next 6 years on the sets in minifigure scale!
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Here is my review on LEGO DreamZzz 71461 Fantastical Tree House: THE GOOD: Great colour and looks good from the front. Excellent minifigures. Very interesting ways in building a sign. The over is pretty cool. THE NOT SO GOOD: If you have built similar sets, while still fun, it lacks some surprises. In theory the room should be just clip on but there isn't much area for you to pivot that allows you to clip on more easily. Bought this set for the Night Hunter minifig and turns out this is a pretty cool set. The minifigures are excellent. The tree house itself is pretty tall, wide too if you take the leaves/foliages into account. The build itself is fun but if you have been building a lot, it does lack surprises on 'new way' to build things,. Having said that, it does have plenty of small builds that are pretty cool. For example, the oven and the arrow signs. The mail box robot is also pretty cool and it reminds me of a Japanese robot in the 70s-80s era (sorry I don't know the name of it in English). The piranha plant is also surprisingly fun. Each of the detachable rooms is a clip on to the side of trunk and have very nice colouring, although the clip-on does not work as easy as it should because of the trunk wall is pretty thin and does not allow much pivot for you to apply some pressure. I opted with the default configuration as it's more display friendly I would say, the alternate builds are much more aggressive and battle ready with shooters point toward the front. As with other Dreamzzz sets, the 2 in 1 can be a bit disappointing and require you to take it apart and build it again. Despite some of these, it is still a pretty cool set and I did end up liking it. The price without discount though is a bit on the higher end but given Dreamzzz have been heavily discounted, you can probably expect at least a 20% off. I bought this 25% off which makes the pricing very good. Definitely a set to recommend =)
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Here is my review on 2023 LEGO Super Mario 71426 Piranha Plant: THE GOOD: Looks great and really captured the look of the Piranha Plant. Perfect size for desktop and shelf display. Printed Mario coin is a plus. THE NOT SO GOOD: The head is quite heavy so depending of the angle you trying to pose, the holding strong may not be strong enough at times. It's a great set and perfect shelf display for a Mario fan. It's actually very fun to build too. The Pot (Pipe entry) has a very smooth service and looks great even without the Piranha Plant. The plant itself also fun to build and really capture the looks of the character. Having the action feature to open and close the mouth is expected but including 2x printed mario coins and allowing you to put the coins into the pot is a nice surprised. It's the perfect size to a nice desktop display or on a shelf. However, because the size of the head and only use one big ball joint to connect to the stem, it basically not strong enough to hold the head in right position depending on the pose you want to display. Otherwise, it's a cool little set at decent price. Definitely recommend this to everyone even you are not a fan of Super Mario :)
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[REVIEW] 75364 New Republic E-Wing vs Shin Hati's Starfighter
MKJoshA posted a topic in LEGO Star Wars
INTRODUCTION Star Wars is known for being home to many grayscale ships. So when you see this set next to all the other gray Star Wars sets it really pops. But is color enough to sell a set? Yes. Yes it is. But we get so much more than that with this two-for-one ship kit. I'm going to preface this review by saying I'm a huge fan of the EU. And while I enjoyed the Ahsoka show it wasn't my favorite. But when I saw the Ahsoka trailers showing off the E-Wing (an EU staple) and dark Jedi who weren't Sith (another EU staple) I was pretty excited to see them in Lego form. Since the show ended awhile ago I'm also going to have spoilers for the show in the review. SET INFORMATION Number: 75364 Title: New Republic E-Wing vs Shin Hati's Starfighter Theme: Star Wars Released: 2023 Part Count: 1056 Box Dimensions: 54 x 28.2 x 5.9 cm Weight: 1426g Set Price (RRP): £94.99/$109.99/€104.99 Price per Part: 9.0p/10.4c/9.9c Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX On the front we get a dynamic battle scene between the two ships, a battle which never happened in the show. This bugs some people but not me. The ships were in the show. Lego put them both in one set. It just works for me. I know some have compared this to the Fang Fighter vs Interceptor set we got for Mando season 3. But that set had two grayscale ships. And most people just wanted the Interceptor to build a fleet. This set doesn't suffer from either of those issues. It's likely the E-Wing is more mass-able, but Shin's fighter is also great for generic pirate fleets and has useful colors for building other Star Wars MOCs. The back shows another scene that never took place in the show. But it does a good job of showing off play features. CONTENTS OF THE BOX Inside are 10 bags, the instructions and a small sticker sheet. I'm really glad the canopies are both printed. But I wish some of the other parts were printed too. Stickers just don't last long enough. THE BUILD I'll start with the E-Wing. Having built an E-Wing MOC years ago I was interested to know how Lego would handle the shaping and dimensions. Because of the way the wings hang so low the nose sits pretty high off the ground. So it's hard to get it to look natural. But Lego did a great job! The angles all match up so nicely. Here's a behind the scenes view. And the underside shows the Technic used to get the wings and landing gear just right. And the pilot's seat comes out revealing a good sized storage area. But what about Shin's ship? Fantastic colors, fantastic shaping, and a style that screams "P51 Mustang" make this ship really stand out. With no landing gear it doesn't sit as high as the E-Wing so you'll need to build a custom stand if you want to display these together. But since the ships never meet in the show maybe that won't be an issue for you. This ships also has a lot of storage including a hidden compartment not even shown on the box! And if you really wanted you could smuggle a person inside the first compartment. The rounded nose section is built using tri-technic pieces. It works with great effect. Though there are some gaps between the nose and the wings that can be a little unsightly at certain angles. But most of the time you hardly notice the gaps. There are a few notable parts included in the set including a brand new slope piece I had never seen before. I'm no New Elementary contributor, but I thought I'd show some of the similarities and differences with this piece. At 6 studs long it's got a lower profile than the new wedge slope introduced for Speed Champions as well as the standard 1x4 slope. But turns out it's the same length as the large 6x8 roof piece. But what about the figures? In my opinion these looks great. The astromech is a loud yellow and blue which is just fun. All figures have new and exclusive prints and parts. Morgan Elsbeth could have had printing on her skirt. But I don't think it's necessary. It only stands out because everyone else is so detailed with their leg prints. The backsides continue the printing wins... except for the astromech! Seriously Lego, we know you can print on the backside now that you've done it with R2. Stop making us wait for it to become the standard for all future astromechs! And one more shot for good measure. Could the figures have been better? Maybe slightly. Giving Ray (I mean Baylan) shoulder pads would have helped give him just a tiny bit more height. And of course having orange instead of red sabers is a must. But for me, part of the fun of Lego is getting to make those changes myself. My son doesn't care that Baylan has a red lightsaber. He just wants to play with them. And the orange blades are easy to obtain from Bricklink right now. OVERALL This may be the best Lego set I've built since the Lion Knight's Castle. It's a great build experience, has fun and new techniques, good figures, and a color scheme that really pops! I have a few tiny quibbles, but I would recommend this set to any Star Wars fan in a heart beat. SCORE How do I rate this set? DESIGN 10 Great techniques used to build the ships and a fantastic color scheme. BUILDING EXPERIENCE 10 I had to fight my son to be able to build this. We both enjoyed it so much. FEATURES 10 These ships have been swooshed a lot in my house. PLAYABILITY 10 Totally playable. But also very versatile if you want it for parts. PARTS 10 New parts, new colors, and new figures; what more could you ask for? VALUE FOR MONEY 10 Coming in just over $100 you want to make sure you're getting a good value for your money when you buy it, and indeed you are! FINAL SCORE: 10 Almost perfection in a Lego set. I can't recommend this highly enough. Plus, I've seen it on sale at both Costco and on Amazon. What are you waiting for? Go buy it already! -
REVIEW: 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters' Cottage
Pchan1983 posted a topic in LEGO Licensed
Here is my review on LEGO Ideas 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters' Cottage: THE GOOD: Looks Great, not too big and not too small. Exterior details are lovely. Interesting way to install the roof. Very nice action feature having the smoke in chimney working with the rotation of the water wheel. Excellent minifigures! THE NOT SO GOOD: There are parts of the interior very hard to access with big adult hands XD It is a great set. Looks great, refreshing and fun build. I really like it. The highlight for me though is the details on the exteriors, this set looks really good whether it's on a shelf on its own or integrated in your own LEGO layout. The way to install the roofs is also very refreshing. There are tons of interior details packed in side, unfortunately, while one side of the roof can be opened and one side of the wall opens like a door, there are parts of the interior becomes very inaccessible once you completed. This pretty much the only thing I would complain about XD. Because I haven't watched any other reviews nor designer video, I didn't know about the action feature integrated with the chimney and water wheel, it's very cool and the moment I noticed it, it kinda blown me away. On top of an excellent build, the minifigures are top notch! There are so many exclusive hair and torso pieces in this set and they are great. Given it's a licensed set, I doubt we could get extra easily. At the end of the day though, this is an excellent set not to be missed by anyone. -
INTRODUCTION Maybe you spent part of your Thanksgiving holiday watching Avatar: The Way of Water. Or maybe you went to see it in IMAX. Or maybe you just like water based Lego sets. Whatever audience you fall into, is this Avatar set right for you? SET INFORMATION Number: 75575 Title: Ilu Discovery Theme: Avatar Released: 2023 Part Count: 179 Box Dimensions: 26.2 x 14.1 x 4.8 cm Weight: 219g Set Price (RRP): £19.99/$24.99/€24.99 Price per Part: 11.2p/14.0c/14.0c Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX The front shows the creature, the Ilu, which the set is named after, gliding through the water. The back shows what the set is like when on display in-real-life. CONTENTS OF THE BOX Inside are 3 bags, a punch sheet for the fins of the Ilu, and the instructions. THE BUILD This isn't a complicated build, but the end result is striking. The first bag contains the pieces to create the small sections of coral. The instructions include photos from the movie that depict some of the coral the set designers used as reference points. Though I can say the photos don't do the movie scenes justice. The Ilu itself is brick-built but uses plastic punch-sheet elements for the wing-like fins. These are held on by Technic pins and are very effective. The white Technic pieces could be obtrusive, but the set designer has done a really good job of integrating them in a way that doesn't make them standout in a bad way. Pretty much any way you choose to display the Ilu in the provided coral looks great! The fins have limited articulation, but it doesn't detract from the pose-ability. The underside is nicely finished. It's not the way you'd want to display the Ilu, but I appreciate all the work the designer went to to make sure the beast looks finished from all angles. Without an Avatar figure on it's back the Ilu looks quite regal swimming through the water. And on it's display stand it continues to shine. The mouth uses the same jaw piece from Fantastic Beats and Jurassic World. It opens and closes nicely. The figures, representing Na'vi children, don't use the long, Woody legs that their adult counterparts do. Though they use the same tail piece, first introduced in the Looney Toons CMF. Their hair pieces have been specifically molded to fit around the ears. And can be switched between any of the Na'vi heads and still fit. Using one of these hair pieces on a regular minifigure can be done with varying degrees of success. The hair piece for Tuk (male and shorter) looks like dreadlocks from the front. But from the side, the space for the ears really stands out awkwardly. The hairpiece for Tsireya (female and longer) looks good from the front. And from the back the space for the ears is hardly noticeable. The tails match the color of their Na'vi and match up nicely with the torsos. OVERALL First, I'm sorry I didn't turn this into a mech. I like how it looks on my desk too much to break it down right now! Overall this is a nice set. Though I do have a few complaints. As has been shown in countless MOCs it's possible to create good looking coral from just about any Lego element. The set designers did a good job with this coral, but the end result feels a little small. The connection Technic piece being black also isn't good. I understand creating this piece in trans-clear was outside the realm of possibility for a set this size. But using a shade of blue to simulate water would have been a better choice. This set is a great display piece, has fun colors, fun pieces, and good minifigures. But it's overpriced. This would be a fantastic $15 set. However, on the shelves it's a $25 set. There aren't any giant molds, so I'm guessing the price is due to the licensing fee. If you can find it on sale I would recommend buying it. SCORE How do I rate this set? DESIGN 9 The colors really pop. The build is solid. And potential pitfalls like exposed Technic elements have been mitigated. BUILDING EXPERIENCE 8 Nothing feels repetitive and each part is a good little build. FEATURES 8 The Ilu is very pose-able which I feel is the main feature of this set. The coral could be a little more robust. But overall it's a good set in terms of features. PLAYABILITY 10 It can swoosh! The Ilu is very solid. And since the wings are plastic there's little fear of damaging them during flight... I mean swim. PARTS 8 It's a good selection of parts for this kind of set. The coral provides fun colors for pieces which would work well in other MOCs. VALUE FOR MONEY 2 I'd pay $20 for this if I was a fan of Avatar. $18 if I was a fan of the parts. $15 if I was a member of the general public looking to round out my Amazon order with enough items for free shipping. It's not worth $25. FINAL SCORE: 7 It's a great display piece, has fun colors, fun pieces, and good minifigures. But it's overpriced.
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Here is my review on LEGO Ideas 40595 Tribute to Galileo Galilei: THE GOOD: A good small desktop or shelf display. Love the solar system action feature. Some nice furniture builds. Reasonably lower threshold GWP compared to some released this year. THE NOT SO GOOD: The top of the wall can be a bit more polished. With double insiders points running earlier in October & a low threshold, managed to get his with my PAB order. I have low expectation on this but it contains some nice surprises. Firstly, I enjoyed building the base and it has a lot more area than I expected. With some very detailed furnitures build, it was fun! Despite Galileo minifigure does not really strike you as Galileo, the action feature of the solar system made up for it. It works so well, I'm now very interested in building one with all 9 planets! One side of the wall also has a nice exterior look, however the top of the wall can be a bit bland, and I believe would make this even a better desktop display if it is more polished. Anyway, considering the threshold of this, this set is pretty good. If you still able to get your hands onto one, I would definitely recommend this.
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INTRODUCTION When I was growing up Lego animals used to be pretty basic and there were only a few kinds (horse, dog, cat, and fish for example). But Lego seems to have gotten the hint that we love new animal molds! The otter mold first showed up in the Harry Potter theme as a patronus. But this is the first time we've gotten an otter that's not translucent. So how does this set do at introducing otters to the Lego universe? SET INFORMATION Number: 60394 Title: ATV and Otter Habitat Theme: City Released: 2023 Part Count: 90 Box Dimensions: 15.7 x 14.1 x 4.5 cm Weight: 0.14 Kg Set Price (RRP): £8.99/$9.99/€9.99 Price per Part: 10.0p/11.1c/11.1c Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX The front shows off the titular ATV racing through a forest with the otters enjoying what nature has to offer them. The back shows much of the same. CONTENTS OF THE BOX Inside are 2 bags and 2 loose plates. THE BUILD The build is basic and what you would expect for a $10 set. The piece of forest is meant to represent a waterfall flowing down a small section of rock. It's not very convincing as a waterfall. But it makes a nice slide for the otters if you can look past the design inconsistencies. The completed build allows the explorer to photograph the otters at play, or eat a fish, or drive up a "waterfall" with her ATV. Overall it's a nice compact build that allows a cheap way to get otters and display them. The parts aren't overly unique, but for $10 it feels like you get enough. I do like that the tires are still using the same white wheel-wells from when I was a kid. It's nice to see that even as Lego gets more specialized pieces every year, the old standards still hold up today. CAN IT BE A MECH? And just for fun, I used the parts to create a Mech for the otter. I incorporated as many of the parts from the set as possible but used other pieces from my collection to craft this simple mech. OVERALL This is a decent $10 set. I like that you get 2 otters, not just 1. And while the build isn't fantastic, it's decent for the price. SCORE How do I rate this set? DESIGN 6 The ATV is a decent, compact vehicle. The piece of forest is ok, but the supposed waterfall is lackluster. BUILDING EXPERIENCE 7 Nothing overly exciting, but nothing repetitive either. FEATURES 6 Lets be honest, the main feature is the otters. It succeeds there but doesn't do much else. PLAYABILITY 10 I have 4 kids. They love sets like this. There's enough pieces they can use to build other things they want (like a mech) and cute animals as a plus. This kind of set is Lego succeeding at reaching their target audience. PARTS 6 Again, nothing overly exciting beyond the otters. But also an okay collection of parts. VALUE FOR MONEY 10 The finished build feels like it's worth $10. FINAL SCORE: 7.5 If you want a cheap gift or just want to expand your animal collection this set is a good purchase. Though, the otters themselves are available on Pick-a-Brick for under $2 each (ID 6425514).
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INTRODUCTION What's this?!? Two small city set reviews in one week? That's right! I've got my second animal battle pack... I mean city set with animals reviewed and compared. Here's the review for the otter set. So how do seals compare against otters? A warning before we begin, taking photos of white Lego pieces is very difficult. My white-balance varies depending on the picture. SET INFORMATION Number: 60376 Title: Arctic Explorer Snowmobile Theme: City Released: 2023 Part Count: 65 Box Dimensions: 15.7 x 14.1 x 4.5 cm Weight: 0.13 Kg Set Price (RRP): £8.99/$10.99/€9.99 Price per Part: 12.8p/15.7c/14.3c Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX The front shows a frigged snowscape perfect for snowmobiling and seal watching. And we also see meteors in the background? Seems an odd choice for the cover art. We get a fun warning in the bottom left that the set does not float. My son actually helped me test this and I can say the warning is unnecessary. The snowmobile doesn't float, but everything else does! Ironically, the back of the box shows the parts float in the water. CONTENTS OF THE BOX Inside are 2 bags and 2 loose plates. THE BUILD The set spends the most effort on the snowmobile. The snow/ice landscape is extremely basic. But then, it doesn't take much to depict snow if you're using plates so it works. The snowmobile uses technic pieces for treads very effectively. I find it disappointing that the seat/standing area is so basic. Seems like an extra panel or slope would help complete the seat. There are a few unique or rare pieces in the set. But of course what we're all really here for are the seals. The undersides show the available stud connections. The mommy (or daddy) seal's tail has a small arch to it. All in all they look amazing. HOW DOES IT COMPARE? Compared to the ATV and Otter set this one has fewer pieces, but feels more substantial. It's very interesting to me that both sets include the same woman's face. My guess is Lego chose this face for the wink/closed eye to show when she's looking through a camera at the animals. CAN IT BE A MECH? Continuing my idea I made another mech with the Seal set. I like how this one turned out better. So in a fight I think the seal would win. OVERALL This is another good $10 (or $11 depending on whether your store is following the inflation trend) set. SCORE How do I rate this set? DESIGN 7 The snowmobile works really well. The ice section is simple but also works effectively. BUILDING EXPERIENCE 7 Same as the ATV. Nothing overly exciting, but nothing repetitive either. FEATURES 7 Most people will be getting this set for the seals. And why not, they are cute! But I think they will be pleasantly surprised by the snowmobile too. PLAYABILITY 10 This has all the right features for a $10 set. New, good animal molds, a cool vehicle and a bit of scenery to round it out. PARTS 7 While not a ton of parts, what you get are used very effectively. VALUE FOR MONEY 10 The final set is solid and certainly worth $10. FINAL SCORE: 8 This is a good buy. It's a great addition to the Lego animal collection with a good selection of parts. If you want just the seals they are available on Pick-a-Brick ID 6434764 for the baby seal and ID 6434763 for the adult.
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Here is my review on LEGO DREAMZZZ 40657 Dream Village: THE GOOD: The build has been enjoyable & one of the stand out in terms of the 2in1 concept in Dreamzzz Interesting new ways in such small build and I especially like the door of the wizard's workshop Relatively cheap compared to other Dreamzzz set and you get multiple dreamlings. THE NOT SO GOOD: No QR codes as it a 40xxx set (to be honest, I'm surprised this is a 40xxx set) The LEGO store exclusive sets from Dreamzzz. I have to say, it kinda reminds me of The Smurfs. The small buildings scaled for the dreamlings are looking good. Despite its size, the build is very enjoyable and includes a few interesting new ways of building. I particularly like how the door of the wizard's workshop is designed. This is also a stand out in terms of the 2in1 concept in Dreamzzz. At least on the ones I have built, this one has a drastic difference between the default build and the alternate build rather than just cosmetic changes. This is also a relatively cheaper set which you get multiple dreamlings. Being a LEGO store exclusive, this can be hard to find if your region does not have LEGO Stores or Shop@home. Falling under 40xxx sets, this also means you don't get the QR for the extra 20 insiders points. Having said that, this is actually a pretty cool small set that I would recommend even you have not heard about Dreamzzz.
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Here is my review on 40658 Millennium Falcon Holiday Diorama: THE GOOD: Refreshing ideas to have a seasonal set other than just Advent Calendar. Surprisingly large surface area to place more minifigures than the ones included in this. The build is also enjoyable. THE NOT SO GOOD: No QR codes for extra 20 points being a seasonal set. I really like this set. I enjoyed the build and found some of the details really great. I think it's great to have a holiday themed set other than just Advent Calendar. It has a surprisingly large surface to place other minifigures and despite being a small set. Some nice Christmas themed decoration and once again, LEGO continues to find new ways to build Christmas Tree. There are only 2 exclusives minifigures in this and I think this is the first time we have Rey with her Yellow light saber. and it's always good to get licensed theme holiday jumper torsos. At $50 NZD, it's a very competitive pricing considering how sets are being more expensive these days. The only thing that I'm a bit disappointed is that this set is considered a seasonal set, so you don't get the QR code for the extra 20 VIP points. Otherwise, it's definitely a recommendation for everyone =)
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Here is my review on 76266 Endgame Final Battle: THE GOOD: Great selection of minifigures (a few re-use but if you don't own the earlier sets then it's really good). Interesting build through out building the ruins. I do think it's great design on how you can place the pegasus flying out the portal. Another lively diorama. THE NOT SO GOOD: For some, this might be boring given we had another endgame final battle few years back but that one was before the destruction. Valkyrie's outfit can be a bit more whiter I guess, it's a bit too grey. I enjoyed building this and like the end results. Without a doubt this set will always be compared with the Spider-Man one, but I will focus in this one. While it's a scene of ruins, it actually looks pretty good and very lively. It's also very tall. The way the design allow you to pose the Pegasus flying out the Portal is brilliant. There are quite a few MCU easter eggs/references incorporated into this set, opening it up will reveal a couple of them. Surprisingly, this set does not have many stickers, just a few essential ones for exterior details. The build of the tower is actually pretty fun and interesting. The design also gave it very good stability so it doesn't fall a part. the minifigures line up is great in my opinion, especially if you missed out some of the earlier set. For this set, you do get a new variant of Wanda, Valkyrie and Thanos. Although Valkyrie a bit too grey, a little bit more white or silver might have make her better. The other downside is that we has another endgame final battle set not so far back, although that one was a scene before the destruction. Well, if this is your first MCU set then it won't be a problem, it fact if you have not own much of the marvel sets before this turns out to be a very good set. At $180 NZD, it's a bit high but it's a reasonable price is my opinion considering the content and compare to some other recent sets. Plus it's not hard to get a discount on this one. I would definitely recommend this one if you like the MCU but if you don't like MCU then really nothing much would appeal to you in this one. One thing though, this has so much possibilities to recreate some of the most ridiculous parody of endgame by just adding other licensed minifigures to this. Now I just need to find more pieces to add more portals!
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Here is my review on 76958 Dilophosaurus Ambush: THE GOOD: Printed Barbasol Can, plus the leaking effect is nicely done with a white frog. More accurate colour of the Dilophosaurus. The small location with the sign is very well done and able to recreate iconic scene easily. THE NOT SO GOOD: The soft cover of the jeep feel a bit too thick and tacky. Very steep pricing considered the size and contents of this without discount. This is an interesting set. Originally, bought it for the printed Barbasol can and I ended up liking the small location build. The use of white frog to create the leaking effect is great. The location is surprisingly fun to recreate the iconic scene. It's sad the sign isn't printed given they did the print of barbasol can. I also like the Dilophosaurus having a much more accurate colour. Dennis is also a great minifigure with great faces. The jeep build has some interesting way to build but it's very similar to the other jeep with 76960, in fact the one in 76960 is the superior one. It's good if you don't own 76960 but otherwise, it just not as good. Also because how the soft cover is designed and using ordinary bricks, it looks a bit thick and too tacky. May be using a fabric or foil sheet would yield a better results. The other issue with this set is the price, RRP $48 NZD without discount, given the size and content it's very steep. But luckily, these sets are not hard to get at least a 20% discount so it kinda cancel it out. It's hard to recommend this to everyone but you want a printed Barbasol can, a Dennis Nedry minifigure and a updated Dilophosaurus, this may be for you but alternatively you can always just buy the parts from bricklink.
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Here is my review on 76261 Spider-Man Final Battle: THE GOOD: 3 generations of Spider-Man in one set! Pretty much all key characters from the movie are all in this set. Surprisingly detailed with fulfilling building experience. The scaffoldings are another surprise build with very realistic end results. Very lively display piece. THE NOT SO GOOD: Missing Lizard and Sandman (minifigure form). This set is very impressive indeed. It also turns out to be a little bit bigger than I expected based from the box art which is a good thing. Rarely you get a set from the Marvel theme which are non-D2C that is fun to build and great to display. First, the completed model looks very lively, the new curvy clear part really makes a difference here. There are lots of small detailed packed in the set which provide a fulfilling building experience. I have to admit that the head of Status of Liberty build is very similar to Welcome to Apocalypseburg one, and this probably prevented be to have an even better building experience. I'm also surprised on the scaffoldings, the way these are designed give them a very realistic feel to it. More over, this set comes with 9 minifigures, including all 3 generation of Spider-Man. And it also includes all other key major characters in the movie which is very rare LEGO do this. A bit sad there isn't Lizard or Sandman. Well, strictly speaking sandman is in this set just not in minifigure form. At $180 NZD, this is pretty good value with what you actually get. This is one of the best Marvel MCU based set in recent time and definitely recommended to everyone. A Must Have for MCU and Spider-Man fans.
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Here is my review on LEGO City Arctic Explorer Truck and Mobile Lab: THE GOOD: Of course the Polar Bear Cubs. The so called Arctic Explorer Truck (a snow prowler) looks great, love the design on the side. The lab also good with surprisingly large space inside. Love the use of bucket as the camera lens. THE NOT SO GOOD: Can't find anything to criticise, the only thing would this being retailer exclusives, which means less discount! This set caught my eyes with the polar bear cubs, turns out it is actually pretty good. Since I never have any snow prowling vehicle builds before, it was very refreshing for me. The design looks great too and I particularly like the exterior texture on the side. I'm so surprised you can take off the main console like modular buildings. Which means you can easily replace the top to be a tank lol. The lab also looks great with the curved edges but I'm impressed with the look of the window. Interior wise also very spacious and this lab is way better than the lab from the Avatar set. The Polar bear and the subs are great, including 2 cubs is a surprise. The polar bears are accompanied by a small terrain build. The big rock actually hide a green crystal, and I wonder if that is Kryptonite XD. The minifigures have great variety of parts and I love they use of the bucket as camera lens. To be honest, I couldn't find anything I don't like about this set. Even the pricing is pretty reasonable. The only problem is this set can be hard to find as this is a retailer exclusive. I'm glad it was available on Amazon AU with free shipping to NZ which means I got a even lower price than RRP. Anyway, I would totally recommend this set to everyone =)
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REVIEW: 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures
Pchan1983 posted a topic in LEGO Action and Adventure Themes
Here is my review on LEGO Dreamzzz 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures: THE GOOD: Nice refreshing colour scheme for a stable and the stable itself looks good. Building experience wise, it's interesting enough while not being too complex. Would fit any LEGO City farm pretty well with minimum modification. Excellent selection of minifigures with unique/new parts. THE NOT SO GOOD: Could have included one extra Dream Creature than just the deer. (well 2 if you also count the cactus cat) While you can choose from 2 builds but it's limited to the deer, so not really adding much value to this gimmick. Couldn't resist the 25% discount and the stock photos look appealing. Turns out, this is actually a pretty good set. It's a fun stable to build and the colour scheme is really refreshing. The windmill is great both in terms of look and movements. It would fit well is any LEGO city farm you may have. This is also the 2nd set I bought this year featuring poop in the area depicted as the animal's room. It also comes with some very cool new minifigures. This is the first set I got Izzie and is really impressed with how her hair being transparent with a glittering effect. The deer build also represent a dreamy creature well. However, I do wish LEGO includes a few more creates but guess this would have push the price up. Surprisingly, the price ain't that bad for this set even at RRP if you ask me. Overall, I had fun with this set and I like how it looks. It's definitely a recommendation to anyone =)
