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Hi everyone. Ever since Lego started producing the Unikitty tail in more colors, it has been a small project of mine to come up with a way to use them for custom Unikitties. My first Unikitty MOC was Robokitty. This tail is from the Disney Castle which I built over the past weekend and seemed like a perfect fit for the steampunk theme. The result: Steampunk Kitty! Steampunk Kitty by Okay Yaramanoglu, on Flickr

Not much else to say but, simply asking whether The LEGO Movie's Target-released "Special Special Editon" Blu-ray is region locked to Region A or also playable on Region B and C. DVD Compare lists it as just Region A: http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=27989

Like what Rick did about two years ago: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94461 I modified the 70804 ice cream truck as I was also thinking it was too tall. However I didn't use only parts from that set. Here is a first try: One of the main difference compared to Rick's version is that I wanted to keep the meta-part used for the rear of the vehicle. I had to lengthen it by 1 stud for that. Maybe later I'll do another try, with deeper changes (not using the dark grey vehicle base), as I still find the front of the vehicle a little too massive. Note for moderators: I wasn't sure if it was better to post in the old thread or create a new one, threads can be merged if you think it is better.

I’ve bought The LEGO Movie video game on the Wii U maybe a 6 months ago for cheap with the plan of playing it when I get some time. Now that I did, I wish that I discover it before. I’ve just finish but all the main missions, I’m not even near 100% yet, but I will try too. I must say as a huge fan of the movie, I really think this game add lots to the story of the movie. The game has lots of cinematic from the movie, but the mission we play is basically everything between every scene of the movie. It’s like adding twice content & story to the movie. I’m not a huge gamer, I consider myself a casual gamer, but I really got into this game. The other previous LEGO Game I’ve played is LEGO City Undercover (I’m about at 70% of the main mission, I should really finish it. Really like the open world). Other then that I’ve recently got into LEGO Dimensions, which is also neat, but I’m not far in the game yet. I’m curious of what other think of that game, not only by itself, but in addition to the movie.

Hi all together, some might remember me for building The Batwing last year and providing the PDF instructions Build your own Batwing! by Brickmasta Since nothing new from TLG is in sight for their precious TLM franchise, which is really disappointing for me since there is still so much stuff from TLM they could do, I decided to take matters in my own hands and continue on delivering some of the coolest movie creations. Next on my list: The Batmobile Lets get back to work then... by Brickmasta I learned quite a lot during reverse engineering The Batwing and fortunately I also required a lot of pieces I can now use for recreating The Batmobile. My goal for this build is to make it as professional as possible, sturdy but still with play features to make it attractive for children to drive it around without breaking apart. I started with the base structure and inside of it and already discovered a few changes I need to do to make it a reliable construction. WIP #1 - Lego Movie Batmobile by Brickmasta At the same time I am in progress of creating the digital PDF instruction manual, which enables me to experiment, build ahead and take a look what could work out and what not. WIP #2 - Lego Movie Batmobile Instruction by Brickmasta With all of this set I will hopefully be finished quicker than I was with The Batwing, with also being able to provide you the instruction PDF at the same time on my Brickmasta blog. Hope you enjoy it, next updates coming pretty soonish

Hello fellow LEGO gaming fans. I am here today to post a review of the new and exciting LEGO Dimensions! As I am still so last gen, this will be for the Xbox 360 version of the game, but gameplay isn't different across platforms when it comes to the exciting bits. I will readily admit, the only games I really play are the LEGO games and Disney Infinity, so Dimensions has given me the best of both worlds. I hope this is an informative review that will assist you in choosing to purchase this game for yourself as an AFOL or for your children as a parent. From the LEGO Shop website we have the usual excitement building blurb: The price list is pretty much what you would expect for a video game with added peripheral items. UK £89.99 US $99.99 Europe €99,99 It is hard to really tell you if it is worth the cost. A price-pre-piece judgement isn't going to cut it when you're buying an Xbox 360 game, three of the chipped figure stands and the base that reads them. It is really not the best way to get the particular figures either. By all the usual AFOL standards, it is a bit of an enigma. So on to the reviews proper: A nice big game box, that you may see on the shelf in store. All the usual information one expects of a box for a game that is a little more than just the disc. The back is a bit more exciting, just look at all the logos of popular franchises and themes that are involved! Though the build picture does not capture the truth. The repetitive truth... The box top has that all important list of items to collect and enhance the game with. Ready to tell the kids all the other goodies they need to get and for you completists to check against. Inside the box there is everything you need to play the game. Reader, Dimension Gate Building Set, Game Disc, a little booklet that directs you to help and FAQ's and a larger sheet that is a double sided tick list of everything there is to collect currently. It is actually quite similar to a sheet included in Disney Infinity 2.0. That has all the collectable power discs pictured, so you know exactly what else you need to purchase The base, quite pleasingly, is not only compatible to LEGO from the two sets of four studs that are part of the structure. It measures 24 studs on the longest side and 18 on the shorter. As it matches with stud measures there is opportunity to construct all kinds of exciting surrounds Here is a picture. Portal The box is printed with more of the same artwork and another tick-box picture list of the exciting other sets to collect. Exciting, action packed artwork and a photo of the built model. As you can see, this is only for sale with the base game and not designed for re-sale. Yup. That is what you can collect and what's coming soon. It fills space and reminds you what to buy. Here we have the contents of the box. All the parts you need to build a portal and a teeny tiny Batmobile. The portal/gate set box has three numbered bags, the special modified plate that fits over the game-base, an instruction booklet and the DDS. Though it is only a tiny one and has survived intact here. Batman is not quite the same figure as his other appearances. While he has the 2015 minifig batsuit torso, the headgear is still the old version of the cowl with the chin bar. The capes for Gandalf and Batman are not the 2015 cape fabric either, but the old stuff we're used to. Wyldstyle is the same figure that appears in the Bad Cop Car Chase set. This time she also has the relic detector, a printed tile. Gandalf is the same figure from the Lord of the Rings LEGO sets, though bricklink cites the cape as a new part and therefore making a new figure. What sets these apart are the attractively printed game piece figure stands, or tags. They are thicker than a plate as they have to contain the chip that the game base reads. The printing is unique for each character, so you can easily take the figures away and still play or amuse yourself endlessly by putting the wrong figure on the base but the game still playing the correct character. Once more we also have an orange new-style brick tool. This looks like it will get a lot of use for the fiddly mini-build vehicles, save your fingernails! Bag 2 And now on to the gateway itself. Bag two has all the parts you need to build the gate. This has some wonderful printed shields with enigmatic symbols upon them. Plenty of azure, dark blue and transparent light blue. As you can probably tell from the many multiples of parts there is a lot of repeated building. A lot. The Build: It is a reasonable build process, a few neat techniques for a SNOT result. However it is very, very same-y. With the steps obviously created with children in mind there are a few pages taken in placing the "A" plates into a circle and a few of the steps are just placing 14 of the same part onto the build. Of course, a symmetrical repetitive design was going to need that sort of parts placement, so it isn't a fault really. Just monotonous and a little boring. The result is a pleasing gate design, however. As you can see, the dimension stones (The printed shields) are not in place on the portal. They hook onto the back! (I took the base away for this shot, no point in having all that cable in the way!) Mysteriously, the book ends with the advice that further building instructions will arrive in-game... This also explains why the shields are placed at the back of the portal to begin with, which seemed a little wasteful on first glance until my brother suggested that it was probably a game objective to collect and place the symbols on the gate. On to interesting parts! Lots and lots of lovely azure. The "A" plates are particularly great. By no means is this set an economical way to get the colour though. However, for now there are parts that are only in Dimensions: The afore mentioned printed relic detector tile. I'm a sucker for printed tiles, loved them since I was a child, and this is a rather clever one. This plate might have a lot of uses for a clever MOCist. While the design clearly intends it to sit over the central "stud" of the reader, there are at least four ideas I have for uses in at least as many different themes. Printed shields! Who can dislike printed shields? This time in transparent purple. Surely these mystery symbols will mean something? The game will explain all. I can see fans of SciFi, Techno-castle and EB's own Heroica the RPG desiring these lovely parts. There are a handful of basic parts appearing in new colours in this set too. Nothing super exciting or rare though, I can see them repeating in a myriad others if that isn't already the case. Build - 4/10. Placing 14 of the same part, three times, was frustrating for me and would certainly bore any children. Parts - 10/10. The shields and azure bumped the score high. Batmobile This was the contents of bag 3. I had to wait for the game to start building it. A lot of little parts to build a little model and a spare Batarang too. After completing some tasks in-game you require a vehicle. An instruction manual pops up on screen and off you build. Again, I would say they are simplified instructions and this time without the ability to quickly flick through a booklet. It is a cute little model though, a lot like a mini-kit you would collect in the Batman games. A clever use of small parts for big details. The new part used here is so far only in sets that are part of the Dimensions theme. A most wonderful new element for fans of vehicles. It is something I know that I have wanted for quite a while. All in all, I'd rate this little one a 9/10. Clever parts usage, a nice model to finish off with and a new part too. I would recommend that you have a tray or a nice surface to work with while playing though, the little parts for the little model are easier to corral when building. The Bat Blaster This is an upgrade you unlock and then purchase using studs and gold bricks. It will overwrite the toy tag information to make this an option when playing. Like in the other LEGO games when a character has multiple abilities, there is an option to change which Batmobile power/version you are using. Building only uses the exact same parts as the batmobile, so you needn't worry about the spare parts that came in Bag 3. It is a neat little build, taking about the expected number of steps on-screen. The design is... interesting. It looks like any one of the unusual Bat-vehicles out there that may have appeared in the gadget heavy 60s comics or the hundreds of random action figure tie-in toys that turn up (Neon talking street luge anyone?). It was well done considering it could only use the same parts that also form the Batmobile. The Sonic Batray When I heard the name I wasn't impressed. But this is pretty darn cool as far as random Bat-vehicles go, design wise anyway. The build is once again an on-screen booklet that takes far too long to page through (I'm impatient...). But the result is a Bat Ray that if it was in shades of black and really really dark grey, wouldn't look out of place in the Nolan-Verse Batman's motor pool. I would rate the builds an 8/10. The designers had a tough job turning one Batmobile into two other useful things that still looked "bat" enough. Th end result came out well. Parts 10/10 purely for how well everything is used and how the vehicle is depicted in such a small scale. Gameplay Much like any other LEGO game, you are a minifigure character in a world made of a mixture of LEGO built items you can break and regular graphics that you can't. I'm not going to share plot spoilers or cutscene information because they are half the fun of a game after all! I have been having a lot of fun playing through it though and always have a willing player two in the queue. You start off, of course, with the three included characters and the events that lead them to team up. An interesting (and slightly confusing) new dynamic is the use of the base. Unlike other games that use a reader like this, there is a lot more than just placing the figure you want and playing. The base lights up in a number of colours and this is used initially as a puzzle to start the game. There are also instances where you have to move the figure around the base to activate powers, warp around puzzles or escape traps. The sections light up in different colours to clue you in on where to go, but it makes for a lot of moving around! I'd advise that this can easily be a three player game if you've got a lot of extra hands hanging around to watch! Two player like any other LEGO game and an extra set of hands to move the figures around for you. As my brother theorised, part of the game is collecting the printed shields in game, to stick to the gate as you progress. This involves a modification of the Master Builder feature of past games. This time an instruction manual appears on screen and you use this to build the physical model. Another thing to mention are the vehicle tags. The batmobile did not have a printed tag. Instead, once you complete the building steps during gameplay there is an option to save the model to the tag. So, while you can take the figures away and play elsewhere, I'd advise leaving the vehicles on the stands or it will get confusing fast. Try and have a tray or some other surface with edges so you can fiddle about building the vehicle /taking it apart/ building the new vehicle. It stops parts getting lost. Though, the tag and game won't know if you haven't rebuilt the physical model, so you could just keep your favourite one together Characters: The characters included in the game are not new to the world of LEGO Gaming. All three have appeared in other games. As I can't capture my own gaming, here are the character videos from the official LEGO Dimensions youtube channel. Gandalf Batman Wyldstyle Gameplay Comments On Characters. Just like every game, you switch characters to complete certain tasks or work as a team when playing two player mode. All three can drive the batmobile when it is used in the game. There are regular witty comments from the three as you play and sound effects when they interact with the game environment. Just as in other games, there are places and spaces you can only access with certain character abilities. Unlike the other LEGO games, this means actually purchasing some extras for real, or "Hiring" a hero using collected studs. The Hiring feature allows the player to borrow a character ability for thirty seconds, long enough to use it to unlock and access a hidden area or space. So you can complete it all without spending your money. A thoughtful inclusion. Final Comments LEGO Dimensions is fun to play. It took a little bit of getting used to with all the new things to take into account. However the new gameplay features meshed well with the old and familiar once you knew what was expected. There is a little more moving around than I'd like when videogaming but AFOLs and kids alike could easily corral a minion to assist. The storyline is entertaining and the humour that we have come to expect is present in the plot and the dialogue sound-bites while playing. It genuinely meshes the different universes well in the plot and gives gamers a chance to play LEGO versions of media franchises that would otherwise have not existed. The building is interactive with the game, which really is new and it will be interesting to see how it pans out in the long run. I wonder how many gamers will take to the idea. While yes, we are getting a lot more of the same when it comes to the game itself, that is always entertaining and the new dynamic just edges it over the more recent LEGO games simply for the novelty. Finally I'd like to thank EB and TLG for this fantastic opportunity. I love LEGO and I love both figure based gameplay and the LEGO Games, reviewing Dimensions has been a real treat.

Due for general release in June, Benny's Spaceship is possibly the most eagerly anticipated set of the year so far, and certainly that of the LEGO Movie range. Sporting the approximate livery of the early 'Blue Era' Classic Space sets, and the ringed planet CS logo, the ship might be considered a spiritual successor to the exalted 497/928 Galaxy Explorer: regarded by many as one of the finest LEGO sets of all time. I was lucky to win this set as a prize in a speed-building competition at the Eurobricks Event 2014 - though they were selling the set at the LEGOLAND Park. Let's see if the model lives up to expectations. Review: 70816 Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! Set Information Name: Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! Number: 70816 Theme: The LEGO Movie Release: June 2014 Parts: 939 Figures: 5 (including Astro Kitty) Price: GB £<unknown> | US $99.99 | EUR <unknown> | AU $<unknown> | CA $<unknown> | DKK 899 (as I recall) Links ... Shop@Home ... Brickset ... Bricklink ... Peeron The Box Click for a larger frontal image The ship just about squeezes on to the front of the glossy box; not helped by the enormity of the LEGO Movie logo which obscures part of the model. Behind is a faux-CITY backdrop, picked out in contrasting orange to highlight the mostly-blue set; there's a lovely use of parallel lines from the film-strip motifs flanking the long ship to give the illusion of speed, spoiled only slightly by the reverse perspective of the film strip in the top left corner. The five figures occupy the bottom right corner; they are shown again in 1:1 scale on the box top. The design of the rear of the box is rather clever. The film-strip decorations here diverge in a pattern resembling a movie clapperboard; the space between is bisected by the LEGO-ish fencing, and the resulting halves filled by the ship and its various accessories respectively. Click for a larger image Various play-features are demonstrated in the insets along the bottom - we'll see them in action later - and the final inset reminds us that the set is from the LEGO Movie - if the gigantic logo on the front was too subtle. I am pleased to see that the box opens with side flaps, requiring no tearing to get inside. The Instructions The two manuals come in a cardboard-backed bag, so mine were pristine. Both are of similar thickness; their glossy covers have acres of space making the ship look a little lost. You will be delighted to find that the Win! page at the rear of book one has had a long-awaited makeover. Inside, the building steps sit against a CREATOR-style blue background with yellow edging. This and the blue and grey hues of the model itself combine to make the instructions rather dark, as best seen on the introduction page; however, I didn't encounter any colour confusion during the build. The instruction steps are nicely paced, and throughout there's the feeling that you're making progress; though some steps have you adding only one part, it's usually an important part. The rear of manual two contains the usual set inventory; click the links for pages one, two, and three. Stickers Well, we knew there would be some. The decal sheet is printed on clear plastic; the large number of white decals necessitated the use of a black background for the photo. I was disappointed to find that the Classic Space logos on the large blue tails are stickered; however, that of the 2x4 slopes is printed. Still, at least this means you could potentially use the stickers elsewhere. The rows of computer screens on the left are shout-outs to these pieces which sadly are no longer produced; centre-top is a temperature-gauge panel featuring the characters LL20791. If you need me to explain the significance of 'LL929' then go and read this! The Parts Seven polybags (officially 'pre-packs', I learned in Billund ) each build a separate module; see them all here. It is possible to build each separately, and assemble them together at the end, but there will be a few pieces left loose until you put them all together. Bag One builds the smaller ships, Emmet, Wyldstyle and the Robot Pilot: Highlights of this selection for me are the four black inverted bows, new to me but in several sets since last year; the gun with clip, which features in several Movie sets; and the Piece of Resistance, new here in (I think) pearl dark grey Flat Silver. New in blue and in a separate bag at the bottom right is Wyldstyle's hoodie piece, which we'll see later. Classic Space is represented by the 1985 droid body, the 1978 plate with handles, and the space seat bracket which first appeared in 1984. None are especially rare nowadays. The remaining modules all build the ship; I've partnered two together for speed. More space seats appear in modules two and three, which begin to show off the colour scheme of blue, greys light and dark, black and yellow. The incongruous red brick will be buried deep inside the model, you may be relieved to know. It's a fairly unremarkable selection here, but you will be pleased to see that the Classic Space logo is indeed printed on the 2x4 slope. This part never featured a logo in the original Classic Space sets; it wasn't released until 1999. Whether TLG have deliberately avoided using 2x3 slopes (which did appear with the CS logo) to prevent flooding the classic market is anyone's guess. I've also shown a close-up of the space seat pieces, and this inverted 2x8x2 double-curve which appears only in two other sets since last year. Benny and Astro Kitty first appear in bag five, shown here with bag four. The big cockpit canopy from the latest UCS X-Wing, here in trans-yellow, is hard to miss. Note that the jumper plates (centre-bottom) are the newer mold design with a lip and central stud-grip; to the right of these are four 12L flexible hoses which appear in several Movie sets. Highlights of these two modules are the trans-yellow 1x4 wall elements, found previously only in 2010's Lunar Limo; the three 1x1 plates, new in pearl gold (one is spare); and the new 2x2 corner tiles, found only in the Friends Sunshine Ranch and the Simpsons House. The printed 1x4 tile is worthy of mention. In the instructions and set inventory, the printing is shown as 'MA-XXXXXXXX', so I assume the characters are chosen at random at the time of printing, effectively making each set unique. I'll be interested to see which codes others get. There's more Classic Space appeal in bags six and seven, and I'm not talking just about the two more CS logo slopes. Two jet engines, first appearing in 1981 and last seen in 2010's Luke's Landspeeder, accompany the obligatory loudspeakers/manoeuvring thrusters which no Classic Spaceship should be without. There are more droid body parts, here used for their original purpose, and accompanied by the original droid arms, which are still in regular use today. There are even a couple of the original 2x2-2x2 brackets, here in black. The big Technic shooters are new with a yellow tip, but I don't suppose you care. The Figures From left to right: Robot Pilot, Astro Kitty, Space Wyldstyle, Benny, and Robo Emmet. I'm not sure how many of these (or at least their costumes) were in the Movie; certainly Emmet did the robot head thing later in the film, and Benny is Benny. I've only seen it the once. We'll start with the boring characters. Robot Pilot wears an 'evil-Octan' flight suit over - interestingly - a suit and tie . His head wouldn't look out of place in the Star Wars universe, though there is no alternative 'face' on the rear. Neither is there for Robo Emmet, but at least his aluminium foil head continues round the rear. Apart from the head, Emmet is very similar to his Collectable Minifigure equivalent, except with light bluish grey hands ... ... and silver printing on the feet, which continues onto the side of the legs. I can't recall whether this featured in the film. Next up, the girls (assuming Kitty is a girl; you never know!). Kitty has the pearl gold 1x1 plates as her feet; the rest of her costume resembles a blue space-suit, with its own CS logo printed - albeit badly, in my case - on the 1x3 arch. Her head is designed to look like you're seeing her face through a blue helmet, and it's reasonably successful. Space Wyldstyle is - in my opinion - the highlight of the figures. She's got a curvaceous torso, similar to her regular black outfit2, but with a Classic Space-esque motif which continues onto the legs, and round the back; best of all, she's got a spiffing hoodie which is a separate piece, and I hope we'll see more of that outside the Movie range. Note that, unlike her black outfit as it appears in the Super Cycle Chase2, she does not have a printed arm, and there is a black mark on the torso neck, suggesting she's Made in Denmark. I expect Benny will be sought-after, at least because he only appears in this and the Sea Cow - the two most expensive sets in the range. Here he is with a classic blue spaceman (Benny is at positions 1, 2, and 4 if it's not immediately obvious ): I like the way that Benny looks like an aged classic figure without being too similar - CS logos lose their gold by fading far more easily than they get scratched, and the helmet is of course a new mold. His classic smiley is slightly different to the older ones, and he has his crazy manic look on the reverse. Benny's helmet has a much thicker chinstrap than the original, itself of the 'thick chinstrap' variant; the alternative 'thin chinstrap' type was notoriously prone to cracking: hence the joke with Benny's. I seem to have both thin and thick types in my CS collection. Benny has been designed to be distinct from the generic Space figures - mostly likely to make him a unique character, rather than to prevent upsetting the market for those who stockpile classic space figures. The Build To cut down on the length of the review, I've chosen to show the build process via a series of thumbnail images, with a few larger pictures to highlight interesting techniques. Module One builds the smaller ships; you'll get to see them later, but see here and here for their unstickered versions. The instructions direct you to assemble the ship as you go, but modules one and two are built separately until the end of bag 2; I've build each module individually. I wouldn't recommend this, as it makes attaching some of the later sections a little tricky. Click each thumbnail for a larger image: The rear section forms a cross of Technic rectangles, with tiling suggesting function to come. Onto this is bolted the forward cockpit and centre section, mostly built onto aircraft fuselage bottom parts. Next come the wings and middle/bottom engine ... ... which slot into the rear cross section to produce the following mechanism: Pushing the engine in slides the wings out. Simple yet clever; we'll see what effect this produces later. Note the three pronged plates at the inboard edge of each wing - these are used to attach the big Technic guns. Now some bitty sections are added: some as sub-builds, others built directly onto the emerging ship. In the first image, you can see how the engine intakes are created as SNOT-mounted castle windows; the octagonal section at the lower right contains an intriguing trench whose walls a formed of 2x4 SNOT brackets: it too me a moment or two to work out what this was for. Image two shows the big rear engine mounts, with some SNOT panelling disguising Technic beams, and a plate with some minor greebling and two droids. Finally some smaller sub-builds complete the ship. The Classic Space logo'd flaps contain a couple of nice tecnhiques: Firstly, the prongs of the trap door piece are 'converted' to Technic size with the use of stud-pins, creating a perfect fit to the 1x4 Technic bricks. Kudos to the part designers here for their forethought! I was delighted to see how the radar dishes are attached to the 2x2-2x2 brackets using an aircraft wheel hub, which effectively acts as a stud reverser here. A brilliant use of an otherwise unremarkable part. Note also the 2x2 round tile with centre hole, here holding an inverted stud. This is also used to attach the jet engines to the blue tails in the final module; it forms a very strong attachment. There are several of this very useful part in the set. The Finished Model Spaceship, We'll start with the little ships, which are rather cute: Two identical blue/grey flyers bear a distinct Classic Space resemblance with the 3W cones attached to space seat pieces. The trans-yellow canopies are stickered to produce what I suppose is a Head-Up Display; note that the 82/28 printed display tile is mounted upside down in the '28' position, for no particular reason that I can fathom. Underneath this are blue male clicky-hinges, one on each side, which are the attachment points for these ships onto the wing pieces of the main ship. Spaceship, Next up is the diminutive enemy craft: a dinky one-man ship stickered with the space-Octan logo: I really like this. The upsloping flag panels give it a vampiric look, helped by the purposeful-looking weaponry and powerful engines. The livery is to my eye somewhere between Blacktron and Space Police, though I confess I'm not too familiar with either of those lines. The inside is roomy, and the Robot Pilot sits comfortably in what is essentially a flying cockpit with wings. SNOT brackets hold the wings in place firmly, and a special mention goes to the SNOT-mounted 1x4 bows, attached cleverly via a headlight brick and a 1x1 brick with side stud. The three ships make a nice little playset on their own: All are swooshable, making for a nice aerial battle if you have three hands. I guess the blue ships are meant for atmospheric flight, as they aren't exactly airtight (though that doesn't seem to have been a problem for TLG in the past3 ). SPACESHIP! Click for an alternative image Similar to promotional pictures and the box art, this view will be familiar to many. The frontal oblique angle tends to emphasise the sleek low-profile design, and disguise the true size of the ship, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. I do like the gentle tapering of the front, both laterally and in profile; I can live without the flick-fire missiles, but the shape would probably look a little odd without the forward outriggers they are mounted to. The nose-cone is rather reminiscent of 1981's 6929 Star Fleet Voyager4. The low-profile design is even more apparent when viewed from the front; I could imagine the ship would be very streamlined if that mattered in any way in space. Admittedly, the overall design with its sleek nose, wings, and lovely but superfluous engine air intakes looks rather more befitting an aircraft than a spacecraft: a role at which it excels in the film, as I recall. Click each thumbnail for a larger image Round the back, the three large engines have exhaust flames formed by 1x1 round tiles on stud pins; there are only four on the bottom/middle engine, as two of the stud holes are used for 3L friction pins; these can be replaced if you like to keep things consistent, with only minimal risk of the central axle sliding out. See an oblique view of the engines here. I love the way the oblique-mounted tails sit almost parallel on each side. This side view isn't especially dynamic (click the picture for a more 'action'-esque shot), but it demonstrates some important points. Firstly, the wedge-shaped profile is most apparent from this angle: the rise from the skinny nose to the bulky tail is quite dramatic, and the angle perfectly extends the rake of the cockpit canopy. Click for an alternative image Secondly, the underside sits flat on whatever surface it is placed: there is no landing gear; and not even any inverted domes to reduce scratching when it is inevitably slid along the antique dining room table. I'm disappointed by this, but not particularly surprised: this is very much an action set; however, since the model will undoubtedly appeal to casual adult fans even beyond the usual AFOL demographic, it would be nice to have some way to display it. A UCS-style stand would work, but if given a choice I'd plump for retractable landing gear, which would help to disguise those ugly Technic blocks which are all-too visible under the wings. There is, after all, plenty of room for landing gear underneath the wings, though you'd have to modify the front end somehow to make a tripod. This is the best view to appreciate the ship's overall shape: the sides slope gently at the front, with the angle becoming steeper around the centre section, until it sweeps outward around the wings, and tapering again at the rear. Does it remind you of anything?5 On the whole, the colours work well here, though some of the black is a little incongrous, particularly the flick-fire mounts at the front. I'm not so keen on the blue plate on the base of the middle engine; this is blue to ensure all the 2x8 plates in the set are the same colour. The shape is admittedly less easy to discern from the top, but you do get to see how each section of the ship bulks out progressively front to rear. Click for an alternative image This is an excellent time to comment on the stickers, which are present I think more for the Classic Space reference than because they add to the model; you can compare to the set without stickers here or here. Certainly, the 'LL929' decals are part of the set's charm, and the white stripe along the sides of the cockpit looks smart, even if it isn't completely essential. The CS logo stickers on the rear tails are a must; they look great and are easy to apply, unlike some of the others as we shall see later. You can easily swap out stickered pieces for spares as none are placed across multiple pieces. As we move toward the rear, the bulk of the rearward hull becomes apparent, and you start to get a better idea of the size of this thing: Click for an alternative image Note the manoeuvring thrusters - a prerequisite of any Classic Space vessel; though here they have the 'green-for-starboard, red-for-port' lights configuration of aircraft, real or LEGO (these days, at least). The shapely contours of the rear engine casings can be seen at the back. The gaps between the body and the wing flanges are a little unsightly - exposing the Technic bricks as they do - and not altogether necessary, since the flanges do not need to lift beyond horizontal and indeed will flap around if the ship is inverted. You can see this gap clearly in this three-quarter view, which is otherwise a lovely angle. Click for an alternative image Note the Technic clutch pieces forming what I suppose are exhausts from outrigger engines, in homage to the great 497/928, though they are diminutive next to the three enormous main thrusters. Under these are the firing triggers for the big Technic guns. Some blue slopes make for neat C-shaped contouring of the rearmost hull. Features Now we've had a good look round the outside, it's time to see what the ship can do. First up, a closer look at the nose section: Note the modern take on the Classic Space 3x6 slope. The huge, detailed logo is lacking, but the dark grey stripes and the contouring of the corner wedges do help to smarten and modernise the look. I like the way the latters' angle is continued forward, tapering to the blue nose cone. Again, the black flick-fire mounts look a little out of place; I think dark or light bluish grey would have been a better choice. Note how the cockpit canopy sits flush with the 1x3 slopes at its rear, just like in the UCS X-Wing. The big cockpit canopy can open to ninety degrees, revealing a spacious interior with seating for three, even allowing for hoodies, airtanks or pieces of resistance. There's even space for coffee cups or radios, though Benny's radio will rattle around with nowhere to clip it. Two modern printed control panels sit under red and green lights: presumably Benny has trouble remembering left from right. One of the Classic Space computer stickered panels is partly visible; this one is nicely applied, the other is wonky despite my best efforts. Here are the three humanoid protagonists in situ: Wyldstyle's seat is raised a little higher to allow for the join between aircraft fuselage bases; I think she'd choose this seat. Although Emmet can sit comfortably even wearing his Piece, his helmet prevents closing the cockpit lid fully in this position. Removing the Piece allows him to lean back slightly, solving the problem. You can see this view of the cockpit without the figures here. Behind the cockpit, we find the 2x4 SNOT bracket-lined trench which is where, of course, Astro Kitty sits, as I'm sure you've figured. I hope her costume is indeed a spacesuit, as she's open to vacuum here. She has another control panel, this time in '82' configuration, but no way to use it unless her whiskers are more than just sensory. She doesn't actually attach to the yellow round brick, so the droid body behind acts as a kind of latch to stop her falling out. Pulling the black bush-pins behind ... ... allows the octagonal section to separate entirely, creating a little flying saucer for Kitty. It isn't clear whether this is a deliberate feature, and the black pins aren't easy to pull out, but it's kinda cool to have a section that separates. Kitty's flying saucer is heavily armed with those spring lasers. I'm sure kids think they're awesome, but I hate them, and their placement on this model - in the place you find most natural to put your thumb if picking the ship up with one hand - will ensure they soon disappear behind the furniture. No wonder the set comes with a spare. It is certainly intended for the saucer to hinge - lifting it reveals another compartment: Here Emmet and Wyldstyle can sit and do important things, not excluding drinking coffee, though the computer panels suggest these things should include work. It isn't quite possible to close the lid with them sitting there, unless you remove hoodies and Pieces and whatnot. See the section without figures here. Note the 'LATCH' stickers flanking the saucer. The irony? It doesn't latch. I would guess this area is the engineering bay, as the forward area contains tools, and at the rear is a stickered window looking at a dalek brick (1x1 with studs on all sides) with a yellow gem in each face. I presume this is meant to be a power source, dilithium crystal or whatever. It's a nice touch which would be a whole lot easier to see were it not for the damn sticker. It's a nice decal, but it decided it would immediately attach itself at a kooky angle, and removing it to reposition left half of the adhesive behind. And this is why I HATE STICKERS. A note on the black and yellow parts visible in this and the previous shot. There's a lot of black and yellow in the set, referring to the bumblebee stripes of the original Blue Era CS sets, but it is used more as filler rather than decoration. Perhaps that's a good thing, but I for one wouldn't be averse to a little more black and yellow striping on the ship. Progressing towards the stern, we encounter the radar dish which till now I've left in the 'down' position. It lifts in a manner reminiscent of the rear radar of the great 6980 Galaxy Commander4, except this one rotates too. Underneath are two little droids very much in the style of the 1980s robots which first appeared around 1985: I presume these are repair droids, judging by how they are stowed away, but I guess they could be multi-purpose. Another thoughtful and unexpected touch. Now we come to the flagship feature of the set: the extending wings. Pushing the centre/bottom engine in extends both wings outward in a single, smooth, easy movement: Click for a larger image This pushes the big Technic guns into their 'ready to fire' position. It sounds a little lame, but it's really rather effective, and fun; also, it greatly increases the wingspan, particularly if ... ... you attach the little blue/grey ships to the wingtips: Note how one wing folds to allow the little craft to dock; if the other wing remains extended, it perfectly continues the taper of the wing. A beautiful feature. As I was saying, with the smaller craft attached and the wings extended, the wingspan is very impressive: As, indeed, is this ship as a whole. ... But is it Classic Space? Well of course it isn't, you silly, it's a LEGO Movie set. Still, you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise, even allowing for the clash of old and new and grey, and even though the ideal comparator - the iconic 928 itself - isn't shown here. (My restored Classic Space sets are packed away, and you can't dismantle and rebuild these old sets willy-nilly without cracking a few parts on the way). Benny's spaceship is a homage to the original: it is rather more a modern take on the old classics; perhaps what TLG would have produced today had the Blue Era line miraculously continued to the present. Call it Neo-Classic Space; with the LEGO Ideas (formerly CUUSOO) Exo-Suit coming later this year I do hope for a bit of a Classic Space revival. Conclusion Even without the nostalgia, this is a cool ship. It is sleek, streamlined, yet sturdy; there is just the right balance between functionality and greebling; it is fun for play and great for display. Add in the Classic Space charm and the set hits another dimension of awesome. There are things the designer might have done differently: the ship could have been built with an opening rear, like 497/928, or with separating sections, like 6980; however, I think they were wise to keep the set different enough to prevent it being branded a re-hash of an old classic. I would like to have seen landing gear, or other ground-based activity, which was one of the charms of the old range; this is very much a model for swooshing. But it's still pretty awesome. Of course, I'm writing from the perspective of an AFOL who fondly remembers the originals, and my definition of cool might not match that of the set's target demographic, or even younger AFOLs to whom Spyrius was perhaps the epitome of awesome. Because, let's face it, the model wasn't included in the Movie, and subsequently made into a set, just for us die-hard AFOLs; it is there to appeal to that other mysterious - and much larger - group of people: those who had LEGO as a kid, but no longer routinely collect or build LEGO, but who just happen to be the right age to be taking their kids to the cinema. Design & Build 9 She's a beautiful and cleverly-designed ship, and an engaging and enjoyable build; a point is lost only for the lack of landing gear. Parts 7 There are a heap of big parts with limited uses, so you'd be unlikely to buy the set as a parts pack unless you're building Neo-Classic Space. Figures 9 Four of the figures are exclusive to this set, and Benny is only available otherwise in the pricier Sea Cow; you've got to love Wyldstyle's outfit. I'm not sure quite how collectable the figures are, though. Playability 9 Opening hatches, detachable ships, a rather one-sided battle with a dinky black ship, shooty things and extendable wings - the set is a load of fun. If I have one concern it's that the ship might be a little too large for small hands to handle easily, but I'm sure TLG have tested for this! Value 8 It's a little hard for me to judge as I don't yet know the UK price, but based on US $100 the value doesn't look so great part for cent. However, you do get and awesome ship and a bunch of exclusive figures. Overall 84% My Score 9/10 For me, this set is the highlight of the LEGO Movie range. If you're a TLM aficionado, or a Space fan, or you like anything that flies, or you just want a cheaper Benny, then this set is a must. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the review. Please leave a comment! Rufus References & Acknowledgements More pictures on my flick r album Photo credits: [1] Rocket Brick at Marutan.net with some great Classic Space resources [2] Picture and Link to Clone O'Patra's 70808 Super Cycle Chase Review [3] Greg Hyland's comics at FBTB [4] Star Fleet Voyager and Galaxy Commander pictures from 1000steine via Brickset [5] Classic Space Logo slope by drdavewatford at Gimme Lego Thanks to KimT for the prize, CopMike and Bonaparte for the Event organisation See other The LEGO Movie reviews here

I had really hoped to get a hold of the Doctor Who level pack today as my local shop had told me they would get the second wave today. Unfortunately they got all but the Doctor Who level pack. I did get the Unikitty fun pack, and for the fun of it i will make it my first review ever of a LEGO set. Also offcourse my first review here on EuroBricks. Year of release: 2015 Theme: LEGO Dimensions Set name: Unikitty fun pack Set Number: 71231 Pieces: 60 So another member just entered my LEGO Dimensions collection. The front of the box: Shows Unikitty on her chip and the first variation of the Cloud Cuckoo Car. I really feel the build for the Cloud Cuckoo car looks promising. The back of the box: Shows the three variatoins of the Cloud Cuckoo Car, also their is the X-Stream Soaker and the Rainbow Cannon. The content: The content of the box reveals two bags, and the building instructions. Note as always, only building instructions for the mini figure or in this case Unikitty is available in the instruction booklet. The remaining build must be build from ingame instructions, or is available on www.LEGO.com. Funny that they show two variations of Unikittys head, even though only one side is printed. However at the time of my review, no instructions was available yet online. Instructions: Step 1-3 lets you build Unikitty quite easily. You will have to open both bags to get Unikitty build. Unikitty meets up with some fellow companions of hers. As far as i know this is a new variation of the Unikitty 1x3 headpiece. Time to put Unikitty on the Toypad for some disco and load her ingame to get the instructions to build the Cloud Cuckoo car. A random instruction, in this case step 4 for the Cloud Cuckoo Car ingame. I dont know how to take screenshots from a PS3, if its even capable of it, so i had to just use my camera. Did turn out quite good afterall. The Cloud Cuckoo car done. It delivered on fun when building, offcourse their wasnt much to it, but a lot of different pieces in all sorts of colours go into the build. And the finished result is just as satisfying. Back view of the Cloud Cuckoo Car, quite nice as well. Unikitty riding her Car. Definately does make a fine and usable build if your into the whole LEGO Movie universe. I surely love it and it will make a nice display model on my Dimensions build for the toypad for sure. Spareparts: All the rainbows colours. Quite a nice collection of spares i must say. Last but not least an ingame picture of Unikitty in berserk mode. This is to say the least hilarious she goes totally nuts when in this mode and i just had to mention it even though, again i had to take a picture with my camera from the screen so its not that good. I havent been playing a whole lot yet with these builds, since i was more interested in trying to make a review. I will let you decide on your rating of it. For me its a nice package, the price tag is what it is considering it has both technonlogy and LEGO in it. But i feel its definately worth it if you enjoy playing LEGO Dimensions. Hope you enjoyed and please do comment. KlodsBrik.

Ice cream "machine," or ice cream truck? That's your choice in… Set Title: Ice Cream Machine Set #: 70804 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 344 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 30 Just browse the pics? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Who doesn't like ice cream? And who doesn't like pink? Tell me, who doesn't like giant LEGO ice cream cones? The answer to all of those questions is, of course, only crazy people. I consider myself at least partially sane, so I indeed was thrilled with the prospect of a LEGO set involving ice cream, pink and a giant ice cream cone. Let's check it out! BOX As the 2-in-1 boxes go, this one if fairly fun. The colors really pop, and the model looks ok. The ice cream truck in the corner looks better, though. The back shows you a bigger picture of the very lovely ice cream truck, and also wants to make you think that flick-fires actually work and are fun. This box is actually a little fatter than the other 2-in-1s, for some reason. Our cast is Ice Cream Mike, Ice Cream Jo, and Cardio Carrie. I wonder if she's the same as blood-soked Carrie. All look fun. CONTENTS Mmmmm, plenty of pink. I like. Like all these 2-in-1s, three booklets: micromanager, flying machine, and truck. In all of these booklets, there are warnings about not shooting things in your eye. The ridiculous thing is that they usually show them twice for one missile, often in a row, like here! I think people actually deserve medals if you manage to shoot a flick fire all the way into your eye. There are a bunch of stickers, but they add character to the set. It seems like Octan runs absolutely everything in this film. MINIFIGURES These minifigures are all a lot of fun. We've gotten workout outfits in the collectible series, but this one is still nice. The ice cream outfits are great too, but sadly the white printing was too thin so the white on the torso doesn't match up with the legs. Sad. Carrie has a reverse face with a mouth shape pretty similar to Sharon Shoehorn. Nice though. Mike's face is great too. Everybody has simple back printing. Carrie has serious lats. Since it didn't show up well on the previous photos, I snapped a close-up of Carrie's face to show the little sweat drops. They're a lovely little detail. SET - MICROMANAGER No legs no love. This might be my least favorite of all of these, but it's still kind of cute. This one actually has more of a play feature, which makes it sacrifice more of the cute feature. So here it is: a mini version of a play feature that has shown up in a number of sets dating back to Vikings. Usually there's an actual launching mechanism, but this time you're just supposed to rapidly flick the missiles yourself. I tried it and… it actually works, using your thumb to pop them out. So I guess flick fires can work. SET - ICE CREAM MACHINE The flying machine leaves a number of useful pieces leftover. The big tubes are actually just general extras, and never used. It's actually a pretty fun plane. The pink pops, the ice cream details are nice, and the big cone is a great "weapon." It also looks enough like a truck that was randomly converted into a plane, which I like. It looks very cheerful. The color coordinated green and blue ice-cream shooters are cool. There's plenty to make me want to go pew-pew-pew as I swoosh it around. Got to have some tail lights on the back. I hope Mike is holding onto something tight, because otherwise he's going to zoom right out of the open back! He does have a nice big pole to hold onto. The minifigures even look like they're having a good time. SET - ICE CREAM TRUCK The truck model leaves even more leftovers. Basically, if you buy the set for the truck, you'll get some nice extra plates in great colors to add to your Friends collection. That's a fantastic looking truck right there. Nice and tall, and long, with a fantastic color scheme. We've never gotten a truck like this in City, and it's great! The giant ice cream cone on top using the drill piece is ingenious. Both sides are open for plenty of ice cream serving all around. The back has a window that just shows the ice cream vats inside, and has a bunch of lime studs for decoration. The tail lights are quite small and hidden down below. As you can see, the set comes with plenty of the new ice cream cone piece, though a lot of them are used for decoration. You could pull them down and serve them to people if you want, though. The inside has a little SNOTted freezer for popsicles, plus the soft serve vats and plenty of room for the figures. Great details. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION This is certainly my favorite of the 2-in-1s. The truck is superb, and nothing like what we get in City. The only issue is that the printing on the ice cream torsos is too thin, but it's not a deal-breaker. This is a fun one right here. Only the garbage truck to go to finish up the 2-in-1 sets!

The ice cream truck in the 70804 The LEGO Movie set was way too tall for my liking, so I decided to modify it to better (better, it's still pretty big for an ice cream van) fit the typical LEGO City scale. I kept all the original design elements, but got rid of the dark grey car base. Using only pieces from the set itself, I came up with this alternative model: LDD file is attached (I didn't bother with the big cone on the roof ). 70804 Ice Cream Van.lxf

It possibly would come as no surprise that my childhood favourite LEGO theme was Adventurers. Some of my fondest playtime memories are of sprawling bedroom wide Adventurer Expeditions that ranged from the archeologically accurate dig site to a cartoon caper of chasing down the baddies while being chased by the Mummy or jungle tribesmen. The focal figures (literally!) were always Johnny Thunder and Pippin Reed. Johnny Thunder was part of the Theme Logo, he has appeared in eight LEGO video games. This chap was cornerstone enough to feature in The LEGO Movie and have a re-issue in the Super Secret Dropship set. So why don’t we get to know about our be-hatted hero. A Man of Many Names Back in the long ago days of the 90s there were not quite so many linked multi-media goodies for LEGO themes as there are these days. There were some small features in the LEGO Club magazine, the advert-comics that featured in kids magazines and sometimes the odd TV advertisement were all we really had. These might give you a few titbits to broaden the world presented on any bonus pages in the instruction manual or the little sheet that presented the other avaliable sets. Of course, many times you only learned the character names by purchasing the set they came in. With each language and market location there could be differences between the promotional material because no one had any communication or a single platform to access. This led to curiosities like multiple identities for the same character. Johnny also went by Sam Grant or Joe Freeman in other parts of the world. I was introduced to Sam Grant from the back of a cereal box promoting their giveaway (only six tokens and the p&p!) that included our intrepid hero and his desert car the Scorpion Tracker. Despite alll the names he still had his moustache, sideburns and the dimpled chin of a hero! Many Adventures Johnny Thunder and the Adventurers theme appeared in 1998 to 2000 with a revival in 2003. In this time the Adventurers, heroes and villains, travelled to many lands. The tomb filled deserts of Egypt where an undead Pharaoh lurched. Up the Amazon river with jewel thieves and lost tribes guarded gold. To a mystery island that time forgot with dinosaurs to protect from poachers and finally the Orient on the trail of Marco Polo's treasures. Johnny Thunder also gained his first acting credits in LEGO Studios, tumbling through a booby-trapped tomb and being chased by less friendly dinosaurs. Well Stocked Wardrobe As Johnny Thunder had plenty of adventures in a number of places quite sensibly he had a well stocked wardrobe to go with his trademark hat. While the well known tan shirt served well in the desert, the jungle and tracking dinosaurs there were varients for each of the locales of the Orient he ventured to. Classic, India and Tibet outfits. The tan shirt followed the same outfit archetype of the serial-film heroes Indiana Jones was drawn from and the later variations fitted in to the different locations visited in Orient Expidition. The reissue figure for The LEGO Movie follows the classic look with sharper printing, details on the back and the new colours LEGO brought in after Adventurers were no longer in production. This figure is a really nice inclusion on the part of both the Movie team and TLG, a little 'classic' nod to all of us AFOLs and something for my peer group to notice even if they aren't super LEGO fans. Media Man Just like any other superstar, Johnny Thunder appeared in many media ventures, from a simple 'easter egg' to a feature character in games and of course The LEGO Movie. A number of LEGO video games were released during the Adventurer's heyday and plenty of them featured the characters and theme locations to play through. The LEGOLAND game had Adventure Land attractions and features to unlock as you progressed with cutscenes too. http://youtu.be/diHcA6wtyC4 The next game to feature Johnny was LEGO Racers as an opponent to race with a number of circuits based on the Adventurers theme. In LEGO Island 2 Johnny and co help Pepper Roni in his mission to collect Constructopedia pages on Adventure Island. In Racers 2 Johnny was once again an opponent in races and also an NPC interaction for mini-games and returned again as an NPC racer in LEGO Stunt Rally. In LEGO Soccer you had to face off against an Adventurer Expidition team made up of characters from the theme and once defeated Johnny became an optional player for your own soccer team. This was a time in LEGO history where a lot of video games were made so of course Johnny would feature often. He was a major LEGO character at the time after all! Once Adventurers ended and slowly left recent and target market memory and game development moved out-of-house to developers like Travellers Tales, Johnny Thunder and co didn't feature. However with the launch of LEGO Universe he was back as a member of the Venture League. While the character was intended to be the same Johnny Thunder from the Adventurer theme, he underwent many design tweaks, even appearing in a rather different guise during Beta Testing. Fan feedback (of which I was most certainly a part!) managed to return him to a more classic look as seen above, the only minor changes in accessories and 'printing'. In LEGO Universe the player had to complete missions for Johnny in order to receive Venture League approval and open that faction as a choice to join. Master Builder Of course, now we come to his latest major role. A Master Builder in The LEGO Movie! First spotted early on in a call-back to Indiana Jones, he rescues his hat just before slipping through the perimeter walls to escape the forces of Lord Business. He is present for Emmet's, ah, stirring speech and is seen fleeing the golf ball once again reminscent of Indy. Later, as the citizens of Bricksburg fight the micromanagers Johnny is noticeable riding a horse that is riding a bigger horse. Thus we can conclude that I really am a bit weird and look out for a minor character when watching the movie! I'd love to post some clips but there aren't any to be found online that feature Johnny but if you missed him before we all know that no one needs an excuse to watch the film again! So, Johnny Thunder was and is a pretty cool character and while his moment in the sun might be over and Adventurers was continued in a new guise we can surely look forward to his next heir in whatever form he or she takes.

| | Metalbeard in all his glory, now with 100% more Bionicle pieces. (accessories and animals included)

Greetings! As 2015 approaches, I've been very excited to see that the local Target has started to stock up with an early wave of Spring Releases. I feel this is going to be an 'Awesome' year for LEGO to showcase their ingenuity, as well as up and coming talents. The LEGO Movie [TLM] has, no doubt, helped sales for the company, but how has the creativity from a movie that's almost a year old continued to capture our attention? In June of 2014, I was given the honor of participating in the final week of The LEGO Inside Tour. As part of the tour we get to talk with set designers, and Chris [Designer for The LEGO Movie] shed some light on some of the process and concepts. From my own design experience, it was nice to see the organized chaos that was intentional within the TLM realm. From a business perspective, there have been some fine tuned calculations that make future purchases exciting, but also relevant. Here's how: Set: 70818 Double-Decker Couch Theme: The LEGO Movie Piece Count: 197 +ballast Population: 5 Season: Winter 2015 Wallet Request: USD $14.99 From the front of the box, there's a party waiting to happen. While the characters are evident from the set-up, the lower right corner also dedicates a space to clearly showcase, however redundant, the included minifigs. I'm not sure, however, the context of the image. Perhaps the characters are waiting off-set for filming to resume on TLM 2, or they are in a warehouse party. Either way, the proposed components would seem to be better suited for Emmet's Perfect Morning/Battle Pack. LEGO Ink, Flickr The rear of the box incorporates play features. I like the way that subtle features, such as a strip of film, make their way into presentation. Simple, and effective. LEGO Ink, Flickr An open box reveals four element bags, and an instruction booklet. None of them is numbered, and the only loose item is the instruction booklet...no sticker sheet. I'm not opposed to applying sticker sheets, depending on the model, and I've never had the horrifically marred version that earned the DSS title, but a printed element is always preferred. LEGO Ink, Flickr With that, this little guy will obviously come in handy. LEGO Ink, Flickr While Uni-Kitty has neat elemental personalities, there's only two other parts that really stand out from this set as far as 'new and somewhat rare.' Both belong to Vitruvius. V's lower half is actually a Brick 1x2x2 to accommodate the ghost covering, opposed to the standard slope. It has a print on it, but his upper torso is blank. No complaints, however, as he's constantly covered. LEGO Ink, Flickr The ghost covering is also really neat because of it's design. I can't say, for certain, how long LEGO has used the process, but this particular element has been created using a two stage [at least] mould. One of the most prominent examples of this process was the dual textured Six Sided Game Die, but may also be found with this modified 1x2 w/ Angular Extension. Vitruvius' obligatory headband is the initial element, which also forms the connection to his head. The glow-in-the-dark portion is the second stage, which is cleanly moulded above and below the headband, leaving an uninterrupted band. LEGO Ink, Flickr The usual suspects have slight variations to their faces, but nothing substantial to their bodies, minus V's previously stated brick. One feature I keep coming back to, is the gloriously happy face we see presented on President Business. A first for this particular figure. His uni-brow rainbow makes me smile every time! LEGO Ink, Flickr Turning to the back will reveal alternate versions for all printed faces. One thing that you might find useful: Uni-Kitty is provided with an extra face, but no additional facial components. While the suggested swap isn't completely unrealistic, it takes time. As you will see in the additional elements, I'm given an ear, Uni-holder, and Horn. I just find it strange that an additional 1x3 plate [white] and 1x1 slope didn't find their way into the ballast. All of the faces hold a certain amount of concern, except for Benny. He's gone from content, to overjoyed! LEGO Ink, Flickr As an additional component, we get Emmet's car. It's neat, and I believe the first offered, though it's not overtly complex. It's practical, and simple. The perfect reflection of our yet-to-be-discovered hero. The vehicle features the previously stated Radio, two doors, removable roof, and appropriately proportioned boot for Emmet's hardhat. LEGO Ink, Flickr LEGO Ink, Flickr Here's the couch, pre-built. Upon further inspection, it will be built to the exact specifications as the couch from MetalBeard's Sea Cow. Now, this may bother some folks, but it's not so much an issue for me. I probably won't be able to obtain the Sea Cow soon, so this set has, again, retained its value as a nearly perfect battle pack. LEGO Ink, Flickr LEGO Ink, Flickr LEGO Ink, Flickr ::Too many mugs of milk later:: 'Why don’t vikings send e-mails? They prefer to use Norse code!' LEGO Ink, Flickr And the ballast. It's not a bad selection overall, it just seems...different. Again, we're given 3/5 of the elements necessary to avoid a complete swap for Uni-Kitty's head, but that's not an issue to be considered 'unbuyable'. LEGO Ink, Flickr Closing statements: This set brings an interesting mix of thoughts. On the positive side, it's got characters. Five of them. When you're paying $9.99 for a 3-pack of DIY figs from the LEGO Store, $14.99 for 5 specialized characters isn't so bad! Plus you get all the additional pieces, whether you build with them or not. As stated earlier, I'm looking at my budget through the eyes of...well...my current budget. Getting the whole series isn't an option, but this set has made it possible to recreate lots of fun moments from TLM that other sets haven't been able to accomplish. If I'd already purchased Metalbeard's Sea Cow, I may be a little saddened by the repeat Couch build, but probably not. The car, again, isn't extraordinary...but it works really well. No, there weren't enough Uni-parts to make it an ideal trade, but I've got what I need to make something work. There just isn't enough improbability to even consider this as a bad buy. Cost - 5/5 - Even if you just want the figs, you have 150 +/- elements to do something else with. @ the ideal $0.10 price point, you're still in the lead. Playability - 4/5 - There aren't play 'features' in the action sense, but there's movement and potential. 4 new, interchangeable expressions is a big one for me. Freshness - 4/5 - The couch is recycled, and that's a majority of the parts. There are also characters only specific, currently, to this set. Take the very small plunge, and get yours today!

Well this sure has been a fun few days, taking pictures, buying brick, cranking out reviews of smaller sets. I tell ya, this was not my New Year's 'Resolution', but I wouldn't trade it. Well...maybe for even more LEGO, but wouldn't we all? As a formality: Greetings! I go by LEGO_Ink (or various variations that may or may not include the '_'). While I'm not NEW new, I have only recently found a soft spot for trying to get ahead of the game on reviews. Any custom sets I design can be found here, but you can also jump in queue at any point by clicking the link by the imbedded images. The thing that really motivated me to start sharing my opinion for LEGO sets were the highly functional features that were starting to become more prominent from the LEGO Designers. There are such slight details and modifications, that I feel they really get overlooked in the grand scheme of completing a set but, should they be designed any other way, you'd have a completely different play experience.*** Moving forward, I'd like to_ I'M BATMAN!!!! LEGO Ink, Flickr Well, uh...hi, Batman. What's up? WHAT'S UP? YOU MEAN, BESIDES MY SWEET NEW GRAPPLING HOOK, AN OVER-SUPPRESSED KITTEN, AND MY MASCARA UPGRADE? Yeah, so...haven't gotten there yet. ... MMMMM. SOOOOO...? On it. Set: 70817 Batman(TRADEMARK!) & Super Angry Kitty Attack Theme: The LEGO Movie Piece Count: 115 +ballast Population: We're going to go with 4. Season: Winter 2015 Wallet Request: USD $9.99 Before I get rambling, or interrupted, I have been looking forward to this set as well. If you haven't read my previous review for Double-Decker Couch, we're in for some great characters. Between the two sets we're only missing Wyldstyle, as a primary, and she had enough incarnates from waves 1 & 2 that we all probably have something that will suffice. As for the here and now, the front of the box. What I am now seeing as 'standard' art for the boxes. We appear to be in the same TLM-2 off-stage area as D-D Couch, except tensions have arisen since the last call. If memory from the film serves correctly, we will be down a cast member, or two, by the time things get rolling again. LEGO Ink, Flickr The same little triangle can be found in the lower corner, and my first query comes here, which may be something that is up for debate among fans. Should Micro-Managers be considered as figs? They are not Mini- and thus do not fit that description. However, as some of you are probably going to pull the 'It's Brick-built!' card, I'll see you, and raise you a Uni-Kitty. Any of them. I'm not overtly concerned one way or the other, but I feel that they [M-M's] should count, especially this little one. Thus, my stated Population: 4. The box-art is direct, and what happened in the movie is, probably, most closely translated for this particular set. Carnage, Smirks, and Clumsy Robots. DON'T FORGET SWEET GRAPPLING HOOKS!! Yup, still on it... The back of the box. Even more action, and perfect explanations of details. One such detail, I actually overlooked in my eagerness to make sure I bought the set before it flew off the shelf, is the exploding feature of the Micro-Manager. (Further Down) We also have flick-fire missiles, which apparently work when you push the back of something. Who knew!? LEGO Ink, Flickr Box contents include three small [unnumbered] baggies, one instruction booklet, and one cape. I'd assume it's as near to random decision, as makes no difference, but Vitruvius' cape was included in the bags for D-D Couch, yet Batman's was excluded. It's power 'cannot be contained, in any container!!' TLM_SuperAngry_003 by LEGO Ink, on Flickr As stated in the other reviews, there is a lack of sticker sheet. And while the booklet has a prominent crease in the middle for folding, it's crisper than a minted green. Another stated element is the LEGO Survey. Prominent to me because the characters on the back seem to be reflective of whichever theme the booklet has been assigned. LEGO Ink, Flickr For new and rare elements, There's not a lot aside from the characters, which will be addressed later. What there is, however, sticks out. Element #85861, Plate, Round 1x1 w/ Open Stud. I absolutely love these, and for this set you won't be disappointed, either. We get 2 in Dark Red, only previously seen from the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and Emmet's Construct-o-Mech. We also get 3 in Black, which marks its debut with this set. [EDIT 1/2/15 - Black also get some serious recognition in 10246 | Detective's Office. Seventeen of them, with potential to swap a dozen out for spares, according to New Elementary.] LEGO Ink, Flickr BUT, GOSH, MAN, WHY ARE THEY HERE? ...Yes, we're at the grappling gun. FINALLY!!! LEGO Ink, Flickr Either I'm out of the loop, or this really is one of the cleanest, most well executed, additions to a previously moulded weapon. Not only does it redefine a purposeful weapon [of the two 'barrels', the top is visually re-purposed into a sighting system while the bottom retains the conceptual propulsion system], but it's appropriately bulky, without being superficial. As a neatly printed element, I thought this could be handy for future use. Knowing more, now, about LEGO and printing processes, parts like this make my engineering self all giddy. There's so much decorative potential! LEGO Ink, Flickr *** Onto the only actual building that needs to take place for this set, we come across the obligatory Micro-Manager. As for the previously overlooked function, this one has flick-fire missiles, as well as an exploding function...all within a 3-Stud span of each other. Not to shabby. The section that really tied my laces, was the way that the function would be locked in. LEGO Ink, Flickr On any other M-M, we would see a fourth 'Inverted 1x2-2x2 Bracket'. Here, however you cap the back side with a standard '1x2-2x2 Bracket'. The Technic underlying brick will function as the pivot point, and once you get all four brackets into place... LEGO Ink, Flickr ...you then place a 4x4 plate over both sides and very surely Lock the mechanism together. LEGO Ink, Flickr One would have to, extensively, surpass the vertical forces required for play to disrupt this function. The addition of the standard bracket is two-fold. After locking the whole thing together, the remaining top studs will act as a minimal connection point for the roof of the M-M. Because of the design, these are now connection points that won't shift during play, leaving a constant surface for reattachment. LEGO Ink, Flickr The Man Upstairs, having a go at the features. LEGO Ink, Flickr And here we have a finished product! Again, the size constraints amaze me for this particular build. The arms/tentacles, for example, have 3 (Three!!) points of articulation for each arm. This includes the rotating 'shoulder' at the base of the M-M, but doesn't include the four pose-able claws. Then, there's the levitation systems that are based on the two rocker panels at the rear. Or the two exploding roof panels. Oh, and the two flick-fire missiles which are intentionally differing sizes, that tuck cleanly above the 'shoulders', and below the exploding roof. While the M-M's have all had differing features, is this the first one that actually blows up? ON TO THE DUDES!!!! But, Uni-Kitty's name begins with 'Princess'. ::SIGHHHHHHHHHH:: YOU, ARE THE WORST. Onto the...the... Onto the Characters. THE BEST! Another Robo Skeleton. A SUPER Angry-Kitty. A Batman(TRADEMARK!) with a black headband. A Batman(SHUSH!), with a black headband? Why yes, I will tell you more. LEGO Ink, Flickr Here, we have a side-by-side of how his expression plays out. The elevated band offers the same principle as previous Bat-figs, it's no-so-secretly his eyes. However, for this rendition we have a black band with two white slits, per side, for eyes. As much as I wonder why this wasn't put into production for the previous TLM Bat-figs, I'm glad they decided to do it. With the cowl, he now looks how Bat-fig has meant to look for quite some time. With that, I do understand that Batman was illustrated with white-outs for his eyes for quite some time. He's also had mascara. Now both families win. The benefit to this new color scheme is that he doesn't look like he just came off the basketball court, or was mis-printed. To me, he actually kind of looks like he's got eyebrows to match his facial expression. The best part is that the unintentional 'eyebrows' don't clash with the respective faces. Instead, they make a slightly altered version to the same head we were just looking at. Exact same head, exact same side, but you add the cowl and he becomes that much goofier/angrier. LEGO Ink, Flickr LEGO Ink, Flickr As far as the ballast goes, I'm always up for goodies. The jewels of this batch include a red Kitty-Horn, and two Open Studs [both of the rarer variety]. LEGO Ink, Flickr HEY, GUY. IT'S GETTIN' LATE. Yes, my closing thoughts. This has been a long schpeel, for such a small set. Hopefully, you didn't tune out too long ago. 4/5 Cost effectiveness - Pretty alright, I'd say. At cost ratios, it's on point. You have to realize it's not substantial, as far as taking up space or bulk parts. You do get four characters, three of which are unique to this set. I, personally, don't mind the Robo Skeleton. He's something I'd eventually want extras of for any diorama invasion, so since he's my first I think I'll take him. 5/5 Play - Yes, the only thing that plays is the M-M. The Grappling Gun doesn't fire, Uni-Kitty doesn't have changing heads, and the Robo Skeleton isn't as agile. The Micro-Manager takes it up a notch, and has more play features in it's body than some $7 sets have in all their entirety. I'm glad I got it, and I'm not even a completest. I, sincerely, hope you all have had a Happy Christmas, and wonderful New Year!

Another mech battle, and one of two big sets in the LEGO Movie January wave. That's right, I'm finally up to… Set Title: Rescue Reinforcements Set #: 70813 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 859 Minifigures: 5 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 70 Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION I already did my little discussion of how I'm not a huge mech fan in my MetalBeard's Duel review. To repeat it again here would be extraneous. Besides for certain ones of the minifigures, which looked super-cool, this set wasn't particularly ringing my excitement bells. It seemed far outstripped by the Lair in the same price range (a set which I really love now, having built it). So how does this set stack up in the LEGO? Let us delve one last time into LEGO Movie review land and find out! BOX The box is large though not excessively so, as to be expected. It's the same size as the Lair's box. It makes you think that it's another 2-in-1 set, but it's not. Only the four USD 30 sets have two sets of instructions. In Creative Ambush and this one, building the alt models will be left up to you if you care to do so. There aren't a ton of play features in this set, and the box doesn't even show them all (since I think twisting the know to make the water gun go round would count as a play feature). The box shows how this set comes with a secret code (that I've blurred out of all my pictures) that will get you something in the video game, just like the code in the High Speed Chase City set got you something in Grand Theft LEGO. I doubt you will be quite as excited as Emmet when you use this code, though. To me, the minifigures alone certainly make this set enticing. Blacktron and Fabuland Fan torsos? How ridiculously wonderful! Hank Haystack looks cool too. CONTENTS This one's got seven numbered bags (all of which may or may not be present in this picture…), two loose fire hose strings, a DSS and three instruction booklets. Plenty of non-grey here, hooray! Sorry I'm not sorry that's always how I judge sets when I spill them out (although Arkham Asylum is wonderful, ok… grey can be fine). The DSS here is not so bad - I imagine the barn stickers could actually be pretty useful, even though splitting up "tresspassin'" in the middle might be hard to incorporate somewhere. The fire stickers are fairly standard affairs, though the warning sign stickers are nice. Why did I include the fire hoses in this shot? No idea… Three instruction booklets, the second of which is a smaller size. It's particularly nice with a big set with numbered bags that there are different instruction manuals for the three different builds (1 is the Fire Mech, 2 is the Micromanager, 3 is the flying barn). You could easily get three family members building at once for some lovely family bonding time, although the different builds may take different amounts of time. As a singular builder, I was surprised that the fire mech was the first thing to build. The Micromanager was first in all the other sets, and I always expect the biggest build to come last. It makes no difference whatsoever, but it breaks a pattern in build order that I thought I had noticed. Lots of sub-assemblies in the fire mech for lots of articulation! MINIFIGURES As expected, the Blacktron and Fabuland fans are terrific! Better yet, they have adolescent faces with too much excitement, braces, and freckles (or acne?)! Hank is a nice farmer figure too, and this is one of just two sets to have the new tactical vest. Plus another Robo SWAT for your Robo SWAT force. The only slightly less exciting figure is the firefighter. It's a great set of prints, but nothing special since it comes in a whole bunch of fire sets. Everybody has backprinting, and the kids have funny scared faces. Somebody commented on the Flying Flusher review that the plumbers could of used some butt printing for a plumber's crack, and well… Hank has got some butt printing! I actually did not notice that until I looked at this picture again. That's hilarious! (I guess we've learned minifigures' behinds are quite high up.) ANIMALS This set includes two lovely animals that are also quite rare. This is the third set to include the white printed chicken (the others being the Kingdoms Mill Village Raid and a new Friends stables set), and just the second to have the dirty-print pig! Even the clean pig only comes in four sets so far, so pigs are a rare commodity. I guess minifigures don't eat a lot of bacon, although I suppose even if they did it would come printed on a tile and they wouldn't needed pigs. EXTRA BITS Lots of nice extras here taken at an unhelpful angle that makes them hard to see! Plenty of extra cheese in different colors, plus an extra carrot-top and an entire extra fire hose, in case you wanted one. SET - FIRE MECH It feels strange to start with the mech, but I usually go in build-order for whatever reason, so here it is! I honestly did not expect to like this thing, but in actuality I do! The colors are on point and work together, the details are nice without being overdone or messy, and just overall it feels like it should be a Transformer and pulls off that look well. The mech is pretty squat and chunky, since the cockpit keeps the proportions of the cab of a LEGO fire truck for the most part. I like that the designer went for symmetry on the model - it makes the design look really put together. The designer easily could've gone an 'everything stuck any place' route, but the symmetry keeps it focused and pleasant. I also absolutely love the yellow cheese 'toes.' Maybe these were done practically for balance, but they're quite funny and cute! Only a few details differ on each side, since the 'hand' parts necessarily have to be different builds anyway. Here are looks from both sides. The back oddly has a rollcage door on the cab which is then covered by the ladder, so it can't open. I guess it's there just because LEGO usually uses that piece on fire trucks? It's a nice part and detail anyway. The back of the feet are kind of strange, but I like getting all of those parts in those particular colors, so I can't complain. One odd design feature is that there are hoses connected from the legs to the cab, a feature which will come into play in a moment. The cab is roomy, and has what you expect… a steering wheel. It would be even cooler with room for two firefighters (Pacific Rim style?), but you could MOD it that way. One seat in the middle is in keeping with LEGO's typical City designs. The one let down of the mech is the pose-ability. The legs don't have much range of movement, and even though the cab is on swivel parts, since there are those tubes connected it to the legs that I mentioned, it can barely turn! Of course you could just take those off, but it's a pretty big design flaw in my opinion. The arms can pose pretty well, though, so that's a plus. Overall this guy kind of reminds me of a sumo wrestler - squat and bulky. I like it, even though the legs and cab movement are impeded. SET - MICROMANGER This is the second tall chicken leg Micromanager, and it's very similar to the one in MetalBeard's Duel. The legs are identical besides for one parts detail difference. This one looks better than the MetalBeard one, though, since the sides get properly covered and don't look messy. This one also has a third arm with a gun. Even though it's the over-used AQ gun, at least it hasn't come in black much yet (only in the CMF line and some 2014 Chima sets), so I'll accept it. And it actually works in this situation. With two grabby arms and a gun, this Micromanager looks like it's ready to run around and do some proper damage. This might be the only Micromanager with a plain, single-unadorned-plate back! Not a problem, though. The function on this one is that the sides flip up to reveal some flick-fires. Extra flick ammo is included inside, which honestly seems like more of a detail than something useful, since I don't know how many people will be pulling out the flick-refill after discharging the first one. Even kids. Unlike the flying small Micromanager with flip-up wings, where the flipped-up mode looked cool, this one looks rather silly. I prefer it with the sides down (I'm not going to be flick-firing anything any time soon anyhow). SET - FLYING BARN I'm pretty partial to this flying barn as well. Unlike Creative Reinforcements, where I thought the plane looked too messy, this barn-copter has a well-balanced color scheme and general look that I can get behind. Perhaps it's because it still quite resembles a barn, just with some helicopter attachments, whereas the bi-plane was a bi-plane and not much of a saloon (which makes good sense, I just didn't like it). One aspect/detail I totally love here is the pilot controls. It's nothing so interesting, I guess, but the simpe combination looks wonderful as helicopter controls. They also make use of the new clip with rod-input piece, so that's nice since it's a great piece. The chicken lookout is also hilarious. The telescope piece is fairly rare in light bley, so that's nice to get. I'm not sure why there would be a pig on the tail, but who cares!? You get a pig! I also can't explain the reason to have a carrot strung up. EDIT: I've been informed in comments below that the pig is on a treadmill to power the tail rotors, and the carrot is what makes it keep walking! Hilarious! END EDIT Of course, two tail rotors is once again a head-scratcher when one considers real-world copters, but since this is a crazy contraption already I don't care much. It was worse in the Wolverine Chopper Showdown where the heli was somewhat 'realistic.' The wind-mill top rotor is quite nice too. I've never put down so many vertical clip pieces all at once (16 in one step). There are a couple of play features included (besides flick-fires and spinning rotors). First is this barrel attached on chains carrying apples. You can manually tip it over to drop some apple bombs (which sounds too much like "apple-bottom jeans" to me, and then reminds me of a certain song that involves those and boots with fur. Now it's stuck in my head ). The play feature works well though! On the other side are doors which open up to reveal a sliding thing with a hole in it for carrots. Pull it out far enough, and the carrots wil drop as carrot bombs! This is plenty of fun too. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION I like when this happens - I go into a set thinking I won't like it, and then it turns out to be great! This set has a lot going for it - good-looking models, some unique minifigures with terrific prints, some good parts, and plenty of fun to be had. That said, would I personally buy this? As a person with a tight budget, I can't say I would. The Evil Lair set is unquestionably more enticing since it comes with some key characters for the film and is the only way to get them, and I'm a bigger fan of location-sets than mech sets. There are also so many smaller sets in this line that would come first in buy-order, like the Super Cycle Chase (which already is not a cheap set), some of the USD 30 sets, the Cloud Cuckoo Palace, and the Getaway Glider. Honestly I'll say that if I hadn't received this set to review, I don't think it ever would've ended up in my collection. However, if I had a bigger LEGO budget, I would pick this one up now that I've built it (and not just brickling the Fabuland and Blacktron fan figures). I never would've known I'd want it just looking at the pictures, but having it in front of me, there's a lot ot like. It's a fun big mech and a nice barn with great figures, and when all is said and done it does feel like it's worth the money. Well, that wraps up my LEGO Movie reviews! I hope they've been enlightening when they needed to be, and I hope you've enjoyed them! I've certainly enjoyed bringing them to you. Coming up, look out for a wave overview with pictures of all the sets and group pictures like all of the Robo SWAT, all of the Micromanagers, etc. Coming… sometime! CloneyO out, for now.

For those curious about the back... Benny finally gets to build the spaceship after everybody agrees to his idea! AC

Still working on it... AC

Flying shawarma. Saloon plane. Kabobs. It's time for… Set Name: Creative Ambush Set #: 70812 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 473 Minifigures: 4 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 40 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Once again, thanks to LEGO for sending me these sets to review. What's with the name of this set? It really sounds rather plain and could mean absolutely anything. Who is even getting ambushed? The robot? I guess. However, I will not judge a set by its crappy ambiguous name. I was quite excited about this set: it looked funky and cool. Will it look funky and cool in real life? Let's find out! BOX It's still looking funky and cool on the box, which is very square and not all that big. It's the same dimensions as the MetalBeard Duel box, only deeper, which may or may not mean nothing to you right now. Overall: funky. And cool. The back gives you a better, or perhaps worse, view of the plane. Actually in the picture, the plane still looks pretty cohesive, even though you can see more of it. LEGO ran out of play features it seems, since one of the inserts is just Bob standing on his flying cart. CONTENTS Inside we find a few numbered bags, two instruction manuals, and a sticker sheet. Looks like some nice white parts, and plenty of brown. Definitely a lot better than grey! The instruction manuals of course have the same funky and cool picture as the front of the box. These are some neat stickers, especially the Kabob Cart menu ones. Even if you don't like to apply stickers to sets, you might want to keep these around for a MOC of your own. The instructions use the drab blue and orange color scheme I already whined about in my Lair review. MINIFIGURES Yay, the goodies! They're spread out over the build, as LEGO likes to do now, but here they all are for you: From left to right: Kabob Bob, Executive Ellen, Rootbeer Belle, and Sudds Backwash. Out of these, most parts are new and looking good. I thought Ellen's head was the one from Alien Conquest, but it's actually slightly different, so props to LEGO for that! Also great are the three re-colored hair/hat pieces, all new in these colors. Only Sudds' torso is overly simple, a syndrome that afflicts a bunch of figures across this line. It does look pretty retro. Everybody gets backprinting this time, even Sudds with very simply back printing. All are lovely. Ellen has a reverse scared face which looks identical to the Alien Conquest figure minus a beauty mark. I also give you a better view of Sudds' whole face, which has some light markings to show how serious he is. Somehow I didn't take a picture of all the accessories, but you get a bunch of stuff like dynamite, guns of the old type (hooray no more Lone Ranger guns!), and a knife to shave shawarma. All of that gets attached to the vehicles, which might be why I forgot about it. BUILD Like the Lair, there are plenty of different things to build here, so it doesn't get too boring. It goes robot, cart, plane, which in a way goes from best to worst in this set. But that's to be talked about in the next sections. There are some nice pieces here, like a bunch of the new round plate with hole, the ice cream cone, clippy bits, and plenty of SNOT bricks. All of these robots have plenty of SNOT, and in different colors for whatever reason. Not too many extras of note, but studs are always handy nonetheless. SET - MICRO MANAGER Full disclosure, I thought these black square robot things were extremely bad-looking from the pictures. They just looked dumb. To my surprise, in real life they're actually pretty adorable. This one's got cute little arms and legs that are more pose-able than most. You have to have it yourself for it to win you over. On the back it has a mysterious clip that nothing clips onto. What should clip onto the Micro Manager? YOU Decide! Isn't it so cute? I can imagine it running after me pinching its cute little claws. Of course flick-fires are worthless but let's not shed too many tears about those. SET - KABOB CART Next, the Kabob cart. The instructions have you leave the wheels/thrusters flat, which just looks weird. Overall, I loved the idea behind this, but the result is kind of underwhelming. It's pretty plain. The details are nice, like the little bottles, and the thing that emits heat on the shawarma. Speaking of which, I do love the shawarma - that's ingenious and hilarious. But do you see those gears under the shawarma? They do nothing. I was really hoping for a play feature, but no, they just turn. This angle shows another view of the gears that do nothing. You can also see where to flick the flick-fires! Hooray! This cart would really be so much better if it had a more interesting play function. You can actually position the thrusters more like the box and have it stand up. With them like this, it definitely looks better, but it still feels a bit ho-hum to me when I hold it in my hand. I can't exactly put my finger on why. It may be that there aren't enough guns, so that when I swoosh it around, I don't feel like I can go pew-pew-pew because there's nothing to go pew-pew-pew on the model. SET - SALOON PLANE Finally, we get to the biggest chunk of the set - the plan. This thing looked pretty cool in the boxart, but I've got to say that in real life, it's a bit of a hot mess. Like the cart, it's a terrific idea, but it turns out looks pretty ugly. Brown with dark grey, some gold, dark tan, and little green, light grey, and black gets to be too much. The barrel thursters on the back are cool (thrusters on a bi-plane?), but again the thing overall is a bit unsightly. Perhaps if some of the grey was replaced with one of the other colors, it would look better. It least it is swooshable and makes me want to go pew-pew-pew as I swoosh it around. It really looks best from the front, where you can't see too much of it. LEGO sure knows how to pick the best angle for the boxart! Even though the plane as a whole is kind of ugly, some of the detailing is fantastic. I love the use of the spigot piece in gold as controls. And this piano may be my favorite part of the set! So cute! The plane does have tolerable play features as well. Of course the firing canons are always good, but there are also treasure-chest bombs - just open the chest and dump out some dynamite. Kind of a clunky feature, but not bad. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION So there you have it. The poorly titled and disappointing Creative Ambush. This was actually the first set of the wave that I built, and it wasn't a great start, but there are a lot of better sets to be had, thankfully. Still, there are some good elements here. The minifigures are all useful and offer existing parts in new colors, plus good prints all around. The Micro Manager is fun, and some of the little detail builds are superb, like the shawarma and piano. Parts-wise, there's a lot to like I think. Some new pieces like the round tile with hole, and lots of good brown things in the plan, as well as some tan. With 473 it's a great value (at least in the US), and may be worth it if you're into parts. I hope you enjoyed my second LEGO Movie review. I'm curious to hear what other people think of this one, since (as I've explained) it doesn't do much for me when all is said and done. Better things to come!

okay, im taking on the project of building the full, movie size construction mech from the end of the lego movie, but have run into a big problem. theres a fairly complex looking technic build working as the midsection of the torso and the joint that supports the entire upper body, and i cant figure out how to build it. i dont have a great knowlage of technic, so i was wondering if i could get help from you guys here in the technic forum id'ing the parts and how they are used. im sorry, i know these arent the best shots of it, but this is about all i could find showing the darn thing.

Set Title: MetalBeard's Sea Cow Set #: 70810 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 2741 Minifigures: 6 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 249,99/ EUR 249,99 /GBP 169,99 I had the joy of receiving this giant box yesterday and since noone seems to have done a review of it yet, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to do my part for this little community of ours ^^ So here goes. I admit, I shamelessly ripped off Clone O'Patra's structure to help me out in organising my thoughts. BOX this thing is massive. But I'm happy to say that it isn't needlessly so. The content actually takes most of the space inside. The art depicts a really nice dramatic night scene of the ship sailing the sea in the moonlight. Although the LEGO Movie takes a little too much space to my taste. And on the bottom right corner, we have the regular call out of all the minifigs included. Those figs are also better shown on the side of the box Then the back shows many of the features included in the set. CONTENTS obviously, 2700+ pieces count for something. They come in multiple bags numbered 1 to 9 (two or three per number) plus an extr aone containing the mast and sail pieces and the hull pieces were loose in the box The instruction book is a massive 287-page volume. this comes with the standard pieces call out before each step and was prety easy to follow. It even has the 1:1 image of some of the more confusing pieces when their length matters. Unfortunately, the set also comes with a sticker sheet. I was quite disappointed to sea the treasure maps on it too. BUILD The whole build took me around 7 hours to complete (since I'm a junkie, I did it all in one go) the first bag contains a first set of minifigs and a mini MetalBeard (which I counted among the minifigs but since he is brickbuild, I guess it's a matter of opinion ) A few pieces I'd never seen before : some miniature version of the ball joints and a different grapling hook Part two comes with the other figs, the micro managers and the famous double decker couch. And part 3 begins building the ship proper, starting with the hull and the gun deck Part 4 then adds more guns on the sides It also came with an interesting piece I'd never encountered : a 2x2 round tile with a hole in the middle Part 5 builds the round parts of the front and back of the hull, using the same technique as in the Imperial Flagship (another favourite set of mine) Then we build the rear cabin which contains the armory and some sort of engine. I assume it's for all the propellers at the back 7 adds the captain's cabin and one of the mast. This is where the sheer size of the ship starts making taking pictures a bit tricky. Also it was getting late and the light didn't really help... Bags 8 contains the rest of the masts and sails that are directly attached to the ship And finally, we build the middle deck and the steam engine. All in all, that was a very enjoyable build with quite a few nice surprises hidden here and there. MINIFIGS The set comes with Benny, Wyldstyle (are you Djing?), Emmet, Vitruvius, Queasy Kitty and MetalBeard (I'll get back to him in a minute) Since I don't have any other movie set, I assume they're the same (Emmet is from the promo polybag). Except for Queasy Kitty. She has a nice sick shade of green and her face is a printed piece. Also, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed in Benny's helmet. I realise they can't really break every model they make for the sake of accuracy but that mold still looks kind of weird. All the regular figs come with variant back printed head. Although I had to look really hard to spot the difference on Wyldstyle's (the bottom of her eye dots look like she's slightly squinting or something) Now Mini Metal Beard on the other hand, I really like. The ymanaged to capture his look in mini form pretty well. It even comes with an anchor on his peg leg and a shark on his right hand Although admittedly, the back is a little bland and he is rather hard to set in any sort of interesting action pose Then come the two micro managers The big one comes with hidden flick fire missiles on the sides an a radar dish that folds down from his back (the stand isn't included) And the smaller one is a cutesie that spits a net from its mouth SET And now for the actual set. Let's start with the really important part : the double decker couch, of course. This is where I must be more of an Emmet than a master builder, because I actually find the idea pretty nice (it doesn't come wit hidden compartments, though) And the ship That thing is huge. I called Benny to help me give a sense of scale The front view And the back. There should be a few stickers on there but I'm still on the fence on whether I should apply them or not... A few pieces of interest : the machine gun attached to the front mast. It looks really nice, although a little impractical since it cannot swivel left or right. The figure at the top of the highest mast reminds me of the head of one of those white parrots with yellow feathers on the back of their head. I don't know if that's what they were aiming for but I find it a nice touch none the less. The place where MetalBeard drives the ship looks like a giant armchair but I could'nt make him fit in there. As I said, his posability isn't too great although they did it on the box art, so it's obviously doable The shipcan be separated in three parts for easy access to the captain's cabin and the gun deck below The central piece even has some hidden gems tucked in the beams At the back of the top deck, there is a nice looking telescope, too And then just below is the captain's cabin. All those 4x4 tiles are supposed to be treasure maps and blueprints but I haven't applied the stickers. Tere shold also be a portrait on the 4x2 brown tile on he wall. Also, I have no idea what that thing along the window is supposed to be. It sort of looks like a morse machine or a stapler. It confuses me a little. But the other side has an inkpot and a ship in a bottle and some rhum on a shelve Finally, there is the armory/engine room with a nice candelbra hanging from the ceiling. It's accessible by the front or the sides that can be opened for easier access CONCLUSION I love it. It's big, full of nifty little details and the whole thing looks impressive while its proportions makes it a little cartoonish. Not an easy combination but they pulled it off anyway. It's definitely worth its value. I'm really glad LEGO started making those higher price ranges where the designers go crazy on the stuff they can include.

So, I was thinking about trying to recreate Wyldstyle's Flying Supercycle which is the vehicle the regular Supercycle converts into towards the end of the first Bad Cop chase scene. I started looking into this and it seems many of the same parts used with each vehicle except for two very important ones...the wings! The Flying super cycle appears to use a forward swept design and for the last several days I have been trying to identify these plates. I have had no luck thus far. Anyone else recognize these plates? I am at a loss. FlyingSuperCycle by mink66, on Flickr Flying Super Cycle by mink66, on Flickr Flying Super Cycle by mink66, on Flickr

Trash truck, or trash CHOMPER? You'll have to answer that one if you get… Set Title: Trash Chomper Set #: 70805 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 389 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 30 Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION This was probably the best-looking zany flying machine from the packaging. The mouth gave it a very fun, distinctive look that had more character than the flying machines in the other 2-in-1s. Plus, the "normal" model is something we already get in City, so not all that interesting to me. So is the flying machine actually the model to want in this set? Well, let's see… BOX The Trash Chomper actually looks great on the box. That's something funky I'd want to buy. The back shows more of the truck mode, this time from the back, and highlights the things that move. Yay for things that actually move on models! Like all the minifigures in this line, these need names! Gordon Zola is a nice funny play on gorgonzola, and somehow the names they gave to the garbage men seem very appropriate to me. They look like a Dan and a Grant. CONTENTS I'm vegetarian, so I guess I'm a sucker for vegetable color schemes. When I opened up the box I thought 'Mmmmm carrots!' Although the green to orange ratio isn't quite right to make carrots. Like all of these 2-in-1 sets, there are three booklets: micromanager, flying machine, and alternate model. Here's a step where you add gears just for decoration. There's something about adding gears that don't do anything that always disappoints me, and it happens in a few of these sets. Plenty of stickers, but I think you'd expect that for a garbage truck anyway. MINIFIGURES These aren't exactly the most exciting minifigures ever, but they are very well done. The garbage men have excellent get-ups that I can see being useful for a variety of things. Dan's head isn't new, but it's a newer one and I like it. He's got the new cap with a hole for attachments. Only Gordon's head is new, and not too exciting to me either. The garbage men have some nice dirty printing on their backs as well. Included are some accessories you'd expect for trash collectors, like a broom, shovel, trash cans, and of course trash! Gordon seems to have run out of his kitchen with a frying pan. SET - MICROMANAGER This time we've got another micromanager that's supposed to fly. Again not quite as cute as have stubbly legs, but trans-red dishes are always great, so I won't complain. Turn it around back and you'll see it's got some folding mechanism! And flick-fires… Ta-da! Wings pop out with the weapons arsenal. I like the use of that piece in the middle, but there's a little green visible that looks weird. It looks appropriately menacing from the front. SET - TRASH CHOMPER The flying mode uses all the pieces besides two plates. The trash chomper looks pretty silly and fun from the front, what with the big mouth. Vehicles with mouths are always whimsical. It looks scary too. I wouldn't want to mess with those teeth. But there's something about this model that feels a little off, and I think it's how tall and stubbly it is. It doesn't really seem like a flying machine at all - it's way too bulky for that. The mouth is nice, but the rest of it is really just a brick. The garbage cans are some sort of engines in the back, and Dan actually has a chair so he hopefully won't fly backwards when he takes off. So I'm not sure what to think. I love the mouth and trash-chomping idea, but the model as a whole feels to stubby. Speaking of the mouth, the chomping function works well and is great fun to play with. SET - GARBAGE TRUCK The truck uses everything up besides for a couple of technic parts. I may not care much for garbage trucks, but this is a very nice one. The color scheme is lovely, and the SNOT detailing on the side looks excellent. There's room for just one figure in the cab, and for some reason LEGO put the steering wheel high up in this one. That kind of makes sense for a big vehicle like this, which would have a big wheel. (My sticker-applying skills were clearly wearing out when I put on that license plate.) The side profile is nice indeed. The truck is pleasantly long, and feels well-proportioned all around. The back has its quite large cover, that can open up to reveal the place for the trash. Good stickers for detail back here. A little knob lets you control the back, which doesn't just go up and down but kind of slides up and then slides back down due to how the technic construction inside is made. But it actually doesn't go up all that high. I'm not sure how minifigures would really even be able to unload trash cans into there, but oh well. The gears are perhaps supposed to represent trash grinders. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION What I thought was going to be the best flying machine let me down some, though the mouth is still great. I guess as the flying machines go, the Ice Cream Machine wins out. However, this is a very nice trash truck. I'm not personally excited by trash trucks, since LEGO City has seen its fair share of those, but this one is still great. If you like good trash trucks, I'd think about picking this up. Parts-wise, green is a always a good color, and this set has plenty of it. Not too many new parts, but lots of nice green. The minifigures are basic, but useful nonetheless. The garbage-men torsos are pretty non-specific, making them useful for a lot of things. And their legs are great. That completes the 2-in-1s. Up next… everything else in some order!

A super-tall suit. A high-ish price tag. Morgan Freeman! Yep, it's… Set Name: Lord Business' Evil Lair Set #: 70809 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 738 Minifgures: 6 + Kitty Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: 70 USD, Just browse the pics? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Special thanks to LEGO for sending me all of the January LEGO Movie sets to review. That's right, there will be reviews of all 13! This is just the first. I just figured I'd start with the big precious. This set looked cool from the outset. Nice design, nice minifigs, and nice pricetag. And Morgan Freeman! I was excited to crack this one open. Let's see if it lives up to the expectations… BOX Both this and Rescue Reinforcements have nice big boxy boxes of this size. Not that huge since LEGO went all environmental and/or economical with their box sizes, but a hefty enough size. We instantly see all the fun in this set - pretend-gluing of figures, a huge evil suit, ever-laughing Biznis Kitty. Goodies. The back shows basically the same thing but with Vitruvius running away, plus some inserts of the play features. My favorite play feature is… replacing hats with hair. Hours of funnnnnnnnnn! Meet our cast of characters for this set: another boring (but pleasant) Emmet, Vitruvius , Pa and Ma Cop, El Macho Wrestler (who I'm fairly certain was the villain in Despicable Me 2), Biznis Kitty, and Will Ferrell aka President Business. I wouldn't say the minifigures alone make the set worth it, but… this is the way to do a big set. Five cool and exclusive figures are awesome. CONTENTS Spill out the box and you get two instruction booklets, a lovely wonderful sticker sheet, the capes packed in a bag with a cardboard card to keep them nice and straight, two metallic-colored tubes, and five numbered bags. Lots of grey and black in there, but enough other colors to break it up. CloneyO doesn't love grey, but I'll deal with it here. INSTRUCTIONS Two sizable booklets get us through. The art makes it look like the LEGO lair is inside a much bigger lair. All of the LEGO Movie sets use just a plain blue and orange color scheme for the instructions pages. It reminded me of Creator sets. I understand why instructions would look boring for boring Creator sets that are just pieces and no minifigures besides for boring minifigures that nobody wants (#rant), but for these sets it's a bummer. I like those spooky low-opacity pictures in my instructions like the ones in most Licensed instructions! There are a lot of ads for the other sets in here. Also, there's the 2014 DC Lineup picture, for some reason. I'll just show that and link the other ads. These appear across all the instructions in all the sets. MINIFIGURES!!!! This will be a very long section, because in all honesty my favorite thing to photograph is minifigures. They're so ridiculously photogenic. Sometimes I sit at my desk and hear minifigures calling out to me to be photographed. Then I grab my camera and forget I have work to do for days on end. #fakestorytime Getting this many cool exclusive figures is just great. I do think that it would've been nicer of LEGO to include Vitruvius in a cheaper set as well, so that kids who couldn't get this one could still get him. That aside, these are amazing and they deserve some pictures in which they can shine. I'll cut right to Vitruvius. His cape is very soft - much softer than regular LEGO capes these days (which are kind of stiff). Perhaps that's so that it doesn't get all bent out of shape by his hair and beard. Speaking of his hair and beard, they're totally fantastic! I love these pieces. Back to his cape, I didn't previously notice that it's got sparkles on one side. It's not a print either - they're like glitter glued onto the cape. There's all Biznis Kitty looking nicely Biznisy from the front. Vitruvius also has a funky, worn-out look. I'm sure Emmet will do that to a person. This side of Kitty has a dollar sign and @ sign. Why? Because who knows. That's why. Vitruvius hair is so fantastic. It's a pretty thick hair - either he uses a lot of product or his hair is naturally luscious. It reminds me of Jasmine's hair in Aladdin; perhaps an upcoming Disney Princess set eh eh? Kitty sports the Euro and % signs on her other side. Her neck is very flexible if you couldn't tell. The torso and legs skirt line up well (hooray!) and have a lovely tie-die shirt pattern. It looks like the skirt is printed to simulate LEGO legs under the robe. Vitruvius is clearly tired out by the abundance of Kitty. Biznis' is exactly the same as regular Kitty but with the scribbles. Without the beard, Vitruvius' other face looks like wide-eyed shock. Or drugged-out. I forsee drug-infused Brickfilms coming. Enough Vitruvius. Next up: the Pres and Emmet. Business has a very simple suit print, fun face, and cool hair. The hair is ridiculous of course, but neat nonetheless. Emmet is Emmet. Not bad. Not revolutionary. Good for parts. Both have reverse heads. President Business' reverse face really goes with the helmet, but it's cool here anyway. Emmet gets annoying just to look at after a while, and he doesn't even move! Emmet has his simple back-printing, while Lord Business has none. I should've mentioned that Vitruvius doesn't have backprinting either, sadly. Business' back hair looks cool though. Ma and Pa cop are both pretty cool, mostly for their faces and hair. Their torsos, like many in this line, are extremely simple. Like, throw-back '90s and earlier simple. While torsos can get overly detailed these days, the Cops' torsos are so simple as to shock the system a little. El Macho Wrestler looks a bit more detailed, and is a lot of fun. Also cool to see the lilipad *ahem* Army Man stand piece return, this time in clear! Ma and Pa have lovely scared/angry reverse heads. There haven't been too many angry old-people faces yet, not to mention angry old ladies, so these are very welcome. El Macho has some back printing, while the cops don't. Lord Business' Super Suit Lord Business can also be outfitted with his super-insane big suit. I assume this guy is manically nuts. His suit certaily is. I love the tie-shaped cape, though. The hat does less for me. It's just too much. I recall people wondering how this thing wouldn't be wildly unstable, and what would keep the minifigure from snapping off all the time. Well, the pants are actually glued to newly-shaped black parts that go in to them. Oh the irony, glued parts in a set where glue is evil. These are interesting, and LEGO nicely gives you the second regular pair so you can make the regular non-suited President as well. I love the neck piece. It looks good without the whole suit too. BUILD This build is nice and varied, since you get a bunch of different things and some play features as well as nice details worked in. Overall, it's pretty enjoyable, without too much repetition. Aka my favorite type of build. Here are the extra pieces, which include three white studs with hole in them! Those are always great. BALCONY/GLUE SECTION Bear with my creative naming. I don't really know what to call the different parts of the lair, which do detach and also snap together, by the by. This side is adorned with lovely columns and a regal balcony. On the bottom are a couple imposing all-black doors, and up top is the big infinity window and Kragle, ready to glue things together! I'm not sure what exacly the battery is for, but it's neat. I always like to get some trans-blue panels as well. Nothing much to see from the back, but there's plenty of play in the front (as we're about to see), so that's no big deal. Here, El Macho goes up to the doors. He doesn't think they look so bad. Just doors. Without warning, the human pushes the gluer from the back, and the doors burst open! El Macho is about to get glued! This play feature is awesome and works well. Just push the thing from the back, and it opens the doors and comes through them. I love it. Biznis Kitty thinks she can chill in front of the infinity window, no problem. Suddenly, the human pulls out the front of the balcony, and her platform tips backwards! She's gone! This play feature is a nice idea, but harder to work. The problem is that you might bump the whole thing and knock whatever you have on the plate into the window without actually pulling the front of the blacony. Still, it's a good thought. I love on the Kragle that the designer has used two stickered parts to simulate a squeezed tube. I had not noticed that in the pictures of the set before I built it, and was pleasantly surprised. Great detail. BOARD ROOM/TV STUDIO SECTION This side has less going on (and no play features), but is still quite nice. The detailing on the torture device things up top is great, as is the meeting table and couch. Let's look at some close-ups. All of my Emmets demonstrate sitting at the table. The problem with the design is that once figures are in the chairs, they can really only be towards the table, looking to one end, or looking away. It's a shame they can't rotate more, but it's still a lovely table. The camera, lights, and especially the couch are all superb little builds. That couch I'll be appropriating that design some time. Some great Studs In All Directions building went into the torture chambers. I love seeing more advanced techniques like this in sets. How far LEGO has come. Again, not much from the back. It's all party in the front, nothing in the back. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION This set is a real stand-out of the wave. I don't love all the LEGO Movie sets, as you'll see once I review them all, but this one is truly great. The build is satisfying, the finished model has nice playability and generally looks great, the minifigures are wonderful, and the value is good too. Of course it falls into LEGO's trend of packed-in models as opposed to bigger models with more big pieces, but this one still feels worth $70 overall. If you like minifigures, good builds, and nice models, get this. It's a lot of fun. Look out for 12 more reviews! Until Next time (which will be quite soon)!

Bunch of grey stuff with the main characters, or worthwhile set? That's the question at hand in… Set Title: Melting Room Set #: 70801 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 122 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 13 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION When I saw the set pictures, this set said to me "main characters for cheap," and that's about it. You wouldn't get Wyldstyle's hair, but you could get that in the minifigure series if you wanted to, so this set was still about getting the main characters in the cheapest set possible. Well, does it turn out to be a more worthwhile set than just that? BOX The actual build in this set certainly doesn't seem all that exciting from the picture here. My eyes are mostly drawn to Wyldstyle's hood. The back again seems to emphasize the minfigures, although it does show a few configurations of the set. The top uses the cap piece for the 1:1, and gives us the character names we probably all know: Emmet, Wyldstyle, and a Robo SWAT. CONTENTS Just a couple small bags in there, along with the loose bigger piece and a folded up instruction booklet. The artwork on the set makes it look like this "room" is inside a much bigger room, just like the Lair art in fact. And this is what inside the booklet looks like, woohoo! MINIFIGURES The hoodpiece of Wyldstyle is cool if perhaps limited in use. Like I talked about in my Super Cycle Chase review, the Robo SWAT are excellent and make you want to have a whole force of them. This is the only set that includes the Super Secret Police logo cap, and it's the mould that was introduced in the collectible line, so that's extra cool. Emmet is Emmet. This is Wyldstyle's more cheerful face; she has a reverse slightly angrier one that I didn't photograph this time (but you can see it in my Cycle review, I believe). Everybody has nice back printing, and Wyldstyle has arm printing (which means her torso comes from "elsewhere" and she's got moulded numbers on her wrists and no neck printing). Wyldstyle is armed with an axe, and the Robo SWAT has the excellent new gun these Robo guys like to use. Since I haven't actually talked about it in any of my other reviews, here's Emmet's special brick (the piece of resistance?). It's like a two-tall brick with the back of a headlight brick in it. Will this be useful to builders? I dunno. Probably, since the AFOL community is quite creative with parts. EXTRA PARTS Nothing too exciting here, besides maybe the nozzle. The nozzle is nice. SET So here it is. Unlike my ho-hum thoughts about it from the pictures, it's actually kind of fun in real life. You can swivel the big melting gun and control panel around, and strap figures down to the torture bed, which also moves up and down. The color scheme doesn't pop, but there are good parts in here and it looks nice for what it is. I'm not sure what different angles really do to show this set - you can basically see everything from all angles. Good parts in here - the new a-frame piece, 1x2 slopes, the Cars bumper slopes in black, a trans-clear technic wheel. And no stickers! It's a lot more fun with the figures. I can easily see a kid having a bunch of fun with this set. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION All in all, Melting Room is a surprisingly good little set, surprising because I thought it didn't look so hot before I opened it up and built it. It doesn't scream buy as much as its sister set in this price range, Getaway Glider, but it's still worth picking up. The minifigures are good, especially the Robo SWAT. The model is pretty fun and looks good for what it is, but of course a little drab. The designer worked in some desirable parts, so for people looking for good parts, this has some. It's maybe not an instant buy, but since it's cheap, it'll probably call out to you from the store shelves after a while.

Awaiting destruction or rescue...or a destructive rescue. If you've ever had nightmares of being chained to the chair of a maniacal dentist, the Melting Room set may send you haywire. Put yourself in Emmet's place and it may inspire thoughts that are more chilling than sympathetic. "At least Emmet doesn't have to watch in horror," you reason. But the real scary part? The brick on his back is the most valuable thing in the room. Name: Melting Room Set Number: 70801 Theme: The LEGO Movie Year: 2014 Pieces: 122 Minifigs: 3 Price: $12.99 US / $15.99 CDN -- Packaging Front The front of the box has the set taking up a surprising amount of real estate for its actual size, to the point where the piece count should serve as a reminder of its true stature. In other words, images on the front of the box are larger than they appear. There's not a whole lot of variation that could be done with depicting this scene, but the 'rescue mission' aspect does translate with Wyldstyle trumping the SWAT unit, who would presumably go on to plead for mercy, all while Emmet freaks out over a charging laser. Back The artwork on the back showcases the main play feature on this set — the crank mechanism on the chair where Emmet sits. In this case, the main shot sees Emmet sitting upright, watching on as Wyldstyle takes out the SWAT robot. He's less fazed by the glowing ray about to slice him in half than he is in the first bumper below, where he's shown panicking as the chair swivels and rotates. (Which is it, Emmet?!) Rather than highlighting the folding aspect of the laser, the second bumper shows Wyldstyle about to grab the axe at the small storage station. If play value is what you seek, the artwork here isn't as convincing as it perhaps could be. Minifigures Emmet Standard Emmet getup (Piece of Resistance included) with a double-sided frightened/passive face. No doubt an expression of confidence in Wyldstyle's rescue abilities. Wyldstyle Wyldstyle gets a special, exclusive add-on for her minifigure in the form of a hood. Along the inside, you'll spot threads of purple and blue colouring to represent her hair underneath the hood — that is, what it would be if there was a separate hairpiece included. As per movie form, she also wields an axe in this scene for loosening Emmet's chains. Robo SWAT The third minifigure is a standard Robo SWAT unit from the Super Secret Police. Front torso and leg printing reflect a well-prepared and adequately stocked unit, while the back shows a receiver peeking out from what would be his back pocket for communicating with the rest of the team. He also comes with a black cap featuring the SSP insignia on the front, along with slight grooves and indentations for detail. Also included in this set specifically for this fellow is a small blaster, no doubt for guard duty. Build The "evil dentist chair" serves as the centerpiece for the set, fixed atop a small octagonal base. An A-shaped piece (with grey arch pieces on the ends for some stability, though not perfect) connects this area to a small platform meant for item storage (i.e., the blaster and a set of handcuffs), and here is where you'll also find one of two security barriers with two red lights — the second being situated adjacent to the chair. Strapped in tight. Some interesting techniques are involved in the construction of the chair itself and the rotating platform it sits on. The mechanism works nicely for a twofold interaction when coupled with the rotating function: a knob along the bottom of the chair allows for vertical adjustments where the chair can sit lying flat or standing at an angle at either extreme. Just a regular, non-threatening swivel chair...with chains. The reverse-facing, swiveling chair is designed in such a way that Emmet will be standing (securely placed) with his face looking outside the main area and chain studs on either side of the chair attached to his hands. Everything latches together nicely and the physical execution works well on the whole. If you couldn't tell...I'M FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW! On the opposite end of the main base is a terminal for the laser, with a folding piece that allows you to position the device dead-on or further out. The machine prompted curiousity during the build, and when it's complete, the neatest aspect to it is the vacuum machine-like coil that serves as a connector between the top and bottom of the device. Is this thing on? There is a gizmo to the side of the contraption with reading levels and transparent orange and yellow studs for lights. There is a question of whether or not it's a necessary detail, particularly because when the laser is away from the base, this small gizmo is out of reach for the minifigures. Even the box shows it detached and off to the side. So the integration could have been a bit better, but for the most part there will be some gratitude over this tiny extra. Set laser to 'Exterminate'! Being able to position the laser is a nice boon to the overall set, as it lends to some playability. After saving Emmet, why not fashion a new escape route...through the roof. Or maybe head underground, where your getaway vehicle awaits. Coupled with the rotating chair, it makes for a set with energy. Conclusion The Melting Room is an easy, time-friendly build and a good starter set for the rest of the theme, especially because there's potential for it to pair with Lord Business' Lair for a more complete experience. Failing that, it'll be seen as a quirky, compact display piece with some decent interaction to it. Compared to its closest counterpart (the Getaway Glider, for its identical price and similar piece count), the Melting Room, though still light, has more going for it in the way of play value and integration with other sets. On its own merits, it's a good depiction of the scene it's based on and there's just enough here for a mildly satisfying experience to be had. What's more, those into other sci-fi themes will want to pick this up for the main components — if an insane dentist isn't your thing, then mad scientist will do just as well. Hold it, sister! Design: 7 Good for what it is; interaction sells the set; decent integration of secondary components for one single unit; good construction on the chair; one or two interesting parts/elements such as the coil; minor flaws with stability and lonely gizmo. Playability: 6 Decent for a small set of this calibre; scene re-creation; increases when paired with other LEGO Movie sets; fold-out laser allows for different positions; works for display purposes. Value: 6 Average minifigure count; exclusive hood piece; chair is adaptable for other sets; PPP ratio is relatively on par; will get more out of it than Getaway Glider for the same price. Overall: 63% -- My, how the tables have turned!