Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'lego 2023'.
Found 12 results
-
REVIEW: 80049 Dragon of the East Palace
Pchan1983 posted a topic in LEGO Action and Adventure Themes
Here is my review on Monkie Kid 80049 Dragon of the East Palace: THE GOOD: Looks great with excellent building experience. The sliding mechanism to reveal inside of the palace is great. Lots of nice references to the source materials. Love the bed build as it looks so authentic. Excellent minifigures collection with more than half are exclusive to this set. THE NOT SO GOOD: The stickers on the pillar can be hard to apply due to the mould injection point. Another epic location build from Monkie Kid. I think the official product image does not do its justice. This set is actually pretty massive and lots of depths. I was slightly surprised when I was building it. I had a blast building this and the end result just look great. Great us to the blue colour and interesting use of pieces to create the exterior design. The interior is full of details too, the bed is just great and so accurate in terms of portraying Chinese bed in the past. One of the best part is the opening mechanism, it just work so well and reveal the main area of the palace which looks great and really love how the windows are built. In fact this so called Crystal Palace area is very authentic to a typical Chinese palace. On top of that you get a good selection of new parts (I love the new glittering fern piece and excellent minifigures! I really need to build an army of the shrimps and crabs. At $320, the price tag is a bit steep but I think this set worth every pennies. It's definitely a recommendation from me. Now you have a location build on each of this area, sky, surface and now underwater. One can only hope LEGO do something for the underworld now :P -
Here is my review on 75353 Endor™ Speeder Chase Diorama: THE GOOD: Looks great. Building experience is a lot more detailed than your typical 600 psc set. Absolutely loving the bushy terrain, very good use of the new fern pieces. Can easily remove the star wars printed parts and use it for other dioramas. Great minifigures. THE NOT SO GOOD: You have to display this in an angle, otherwise the tree trunk on the right will block your view on Leia's bike. putting the minifig in the bike and even placing the speeder bike to the diorama can be difficult without having parts falling off. Overall, the is a very good diorama set. It looks great, however you will have to look at it from an angle rather than just in front of you as one of the trunk would block the view of the 2nd speeder bike. Minifigures are great and can't complain on so much details packed in a 600 pscs set. The detail incorporated into the terrain build is excellent and great use of the new fern pieces. And you can easily have a jungle/forest themes dioramas if you take out the star wars themed printed pieces. I did feel it's worth my spending especially I bought this 30% off. I will definitely recommend this set to everyone. While it's still not cheap and it can be a pricey but still cheaper than the other ones and I believe the use of greens in this set do worth the price. Also I think, for people have unlimited funds, buying lots of them would make an epic dioramas lol
-
Here is my review on 60363 Ice-Cream Shop: THE GOOD: Great looking modern ice cream shop with a very nice sign with melting effect. Also comes with a full roof. Lovely polar bear mascot minifigure. THE NOT SO GOOD: High price without discount. Could have a bit more interior details. Another great LEGO City set from latest wave. I'm surprised how complete this set is. It looks great and with a full roof not like the Grocery Store with a full open roof. Plenty of space inside the shop but of course one could be asking if it's possible to have more interior details. The ice cream shop sign is brilliantly done with the melting effects. The polar bear costume/mascot part also did not disappoint. This is the main reason I bought this set and it's really good. One of the other minifigures also come with a new face but surely this face will be coming with future set. I enjoyed the building experience, nothing too complex and nothing too boring either. The only down side of this set is the high recommended retail price. I bought with 25% discount which made it more reasonable but without discount I probably will have to skip and wait for bricklink for the parts I want. However I'm glad I bought this as the overall result is good. Will recommend this set to everyone as it's better to have a ice-cream shop than keep having ice-cream vans. Now I'm really tempted to buy another one to make a fully enclosed shop, bring on the end of year clearance sale XD
-
REVIEW: 71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer
Pchan1983 posted a topic in LEGO Action and Adventure Themes
Here is my review on 71792 Sora's Transforming Mech Bike Racer: THE GOOD: Excellent minifigures plus a new baby dragon all in one set. Cool colour schemes on the main build. Transformation works smoother than expected. THE NOT SO GOOD: High price. In bike form, some times it can be a bit wobbly due to the transformation feature. I like it to be honest, this caught my eyes with its minifigures and colour and it did not disappoint. The 3 minifigures are excellent with great printed details. My favourite is definitely Sora, she reminds me of Samurai Pizza Cat so much. The other two minifigures are very well done too, and Rapton's sword blew me away as I was expecting to be 2 separate pieces but in fact it's a one duel moulded piece. Can't wait to get extra when it eventually available from PAB or Bricklink. The bike/mech itself has cool colour matching Sora's outfit. The building experience isn't something unique but interesting enough to keep you engaged. Both the bike and mech by itself looks good, however when in bike form because of the transformation play feature, it can be wobbly (can't stand on its own) depending on how well you close some of the limbs in mech form. The transformation though works surprisingly smooth! The real down side of this set is really its high RRP, without discount it's hard to justify the price even with the excellent minifigures. However, it's not hard to get discount on this. Based on that while still priced on the higher end, it doesn't feel as ridiculous with a 20% off discount. I would still recommend this set to Ninjago fans or people who likes to collect detailed minifigures! -
Here is my review on LEGO Friends 41748 Heartlake City Community Center: THE GOOD: Looks great and it is actually very tall. While the building experience is not difficult but lots of small details with refreshing take. Some of the interior furnitures are great! (e.g. red couch, big gaming TV, sewing machine ... etc) Extra points for the big graffiti/artwork being printed. THE NOT SO GOOD: Without discount, this set is very expensive even the overall quality is above and beyond. Another excellent set from latest Friends wave. I had a blast building this. While the building experience is not difficult but there are lots of small details with some interesting ways to create the exterior design and lots of small furnitures. I'm also surprised the number of stickers is very low. So happy that big graffiti/artwork is printed. Each floor with distinctive colours and themes, I particularly like some of the interior furnitures. There are so many great chair builds in this, some of them won't fit normal minifigures but the look and overall building design are so good. I also like the big gaming TV. Due to its mordular designs, you don't necessarily need to have it set up with current arrangement. The minidolls are good even though I'm not a minidolls collectors but all of them come with great hair pieces which are minifigures compatible. The only down side of this set is its price. To be honest, if not because I managed to buy this 75% off (pricing glitch from a local shop and they honoured the price) I probably end up not buying this due to priorities and end up missing an excellent set. And this set is compatible with the community kitchen set released at the same time which would put the price up even further. But, inthe end, I still recommend this set as it is really great as long as you can afford this. I also regret that I didn't order more than 1 when the price was 75% off since I really want another one to build a full modular on this. May be need 3 or 4 XD
-
Here is my review on LEGO Friends 41757 Botanical Garden: THE GOOD: Looks stunning, great shelf display. Despite being open back it has lots of depths and never a facade. All those plant mini builds are stunning and open your eyes on what elements can be used. lots of new cool parts (e.g. lime green saxophones, brown ducks ... etc) Very engaging building experience. Competitive pricing. Getting the new hair style from the BTS set without the need to buy the BTS set =P THE NOT SO GOOD: None to be honest. What A Set!? I can't believe how good this is. Looks beautiful, great depths considering it's an open back design, and a very rewarding building experience. Plus you get couple of great new parts. Major reviewers have been praising this already and it's the real deal. The exterior is really something else, but that's not the only thing. There are plenty of species of plants mini builds which works surprisingly well. I do question the idea of placing the corpse flower indoor, poor LEGO minifigure visiting this garden. It's also pretty big, taking up the area of 2/3 of a typical modular base plate. As a bonus, you get that new hairstyle previously introduced from the BTS set. What also make this set special is the pricing, it is actually a very good deal even without discount. Luckily for me, our local stores doing buy one get on half price, so I bought two. Really keen to make a more complete version but initial analysis show I might need a few extra parts of buy another one to make that happen. It's definitely a recommendation from me to any one, even for those who never into Friends theme, this is something you should check out.
-
Here is my review on Harry Potter 76420 Triwizard Tournament: The Black Lake: THE GOOD: Great minifigures selection. The design of Ron and Hermione suspended underwater is great. THE NOT SO GOOD: Nothing specific to be honest... I was originally drawn into this set with the variation of the minifigure parts, after seeing a 20% discount on Amazon AU, decided to go for it and I actually enjoyed the set more than I would expect. First there aren't any negatives I particularly want to point out as in my opinion there are none expect for the RRP. The overall building experience isn't complex at all but still offer some cool details and interesting ways of building. It's good the top part and the bottom are connected like modular buildings for easy removal. The highlight for is the way Ron and Hermione appear to be suspended underwater, this gives me a lot of ideas on how to utilise this techniques in other builds. There is also an action feature allowing Harry to dive into the lake. This set also comes with some very good minifigure variants. I especially like some of the secondary expressions. At RRP this set can somewhat feel expensive, but it's not hard to find a place discounting this. I will totally recommend this to all HP fans and casual lego fans.
-
Here is my review on 60361 Ultimate Stunt Riders Challenge: THE GOOD: It actually looks good by itself, and rarely from a stuntz set able to be display on its own. It's actually a 3 in 1 with each challenge separable. Awesome minifigures. Full loop in new colour. THE NOT SO GOOD: Price ... I wouldn't have bought this without discount. The main stunt is extremely difficult to pull off. I actually like this set, it's looks pretty cool once finished. Not a big set but actually quite tall. And because how the main stunt is designed, it also provide an interesting building experience other stuntz sets lack. One of the main reason I was drawn to this set is because of the blue colour loop and the minifigures. As with most Stuntz sets, the minifigures do not disappoint. Especially the 2 exclusive ones. The female rider torso and helmet really make me think I can make a Kang minifgure from it. Also the 3 challenges can be separated on their own which proves to be important because the full stunt is extremely difficult to pull off. You will have to have enough speed and the bike enters the loop at the right spot to knock the alien from its UFO. Really hoped I have a more successful rate in pulling this off. The other thing and the main thing put people off this is the price, at RRP 150 NZD, it hurts the wallet. Despite my wish to own this set, if I hadn't got my discount I wouldn't have bought it. Although in the end I did have a great time and like the set in the end, I will only recommend this set to people who show interests in stunt or have parts you want from this. OK now, I have acquired the blue loop, time to combine the other 2 loops from last year set to make a Triple Look Challenge!
-
Here is my review on 2023 LEGO Ideas 21338 A-Frame Cabin: THE GOOD: Looks amazing. Tons of interior details. Great building experience. Including new 2023 hair piece and lots of animals. THE NOT SO GOOD: There is a visible gap between the roofs but I believe this is depended on individual bricks quality. This is a great set. The look, the interiors, the building experience are all top notch. As many have pointed out before, the use of Thor's hammer just brilliant. Having different levels to put the tiles on to give it more textures is also great. It's not just about the exterior, the interior is packed with details too. I was so happy to see the Ideas Tree House in brick built miniature form. Yes, toilet is missing but hey, if you notice the toilet paper outside, then you know how the visitors going to take a dump =P. This sets also come with great parts, lots of animals, unique printed tiles and a new 2023 hair piece. There are opinions of the trees look a bit too empty, in my view, the balance just right. The actual thing looks better than in photos and having additional foliages could increase repetitiveness in the building experience. On top of that, you can freely rearrange the side builds as well. One thing to note though, my copy did have a visible gap between the roofs, but I think it is more to do with the individual quality than overall problem with the design. At $300NZD, it is in fact on the more affordable side considering most other D2C sets are so expensive. This is is excellent, I had a great time and a definitely recommended for everyone.
-
Here is my reivew on 2023 LEGO City Stuntz 60359 Dunk Stunt Ramp Challenge: THE GOOD: Great new Raptor Bike body! Exclusive minifig Useful parts in unique colours. THE NOT SO GOOD: So difficult to pull off the challenge, I wonder if it's impossible ... fun to see it fail the first few tries but sometimes you do want to succeed. Lack of appeal if you are not into the bike nor the parts. First, whoever named this set should get some recognition on how hard to say the set name! As with all stuntz sets, it comes with excellent minifigure and I really like the new raptor bike and it's exactly the reason I bought this. The challenge though, while it comes with some cool parts (I particularly love the purple orange flame) the stunt itself is so difficult to pull off. It's fun at the start to see different variations of failed attempts but I think it is important to get least have a 20% success rate, so far I have 0% success rate. Sadly while I liked the bike it's difficult for me to recommend this set to everyone. It's not that expensive but very hard to find a valid reason to buy this set unless you are into the parts given the stunt design while it's interesting it is just too difficult to pull off. On a side note, for some reason in NZ this is only available from lego.com or the certified store, not sure if it will widely available down here. So the chance of picking this set with 50~60% off is very unlikely.
-
Here is my review on 43212 Disney Celebration Train: THE GOOD: Great Minifigures Good to get new wings for Tinker bell Moana in minifigure form Exclusive printed parts and you get 2 x Disney mickey head shaped pieces Appreciate the action feature they incorporated into Woody's car THE NOT SO GOOD: Half of Moana's present sticking out CMF Peter Pan is a better minifig One word, this is a disney minifigures pack. Given it's a 4+ set, building experience is really at beginner level and nothing complex. I do give it some credits for the woody spinning stage at this size. As with all 4+ sets, you get exclusive printed elements and getting 2 mickey head shaped piece is definitely a plus. However, the present place of Moana's car is a bit odd with half of the box sticking out. The highlight of this set is definitely the minifigures selection. It's great to get 6 minifigures and 5 of them are exclusive to this set. Great update to Tinker Bell's wings and good to get a Moana in minifigure form. Although Peter Pan is slightly inferior if you compare this to the CMF version. While price still toward the higher end, I do think this is a pretty good deal considering at $70 NZD (most places selling at $60 NZD), you get 6 minifigures usually at $5NZD each, so you get $30NZD worth of minifigures and a pretty decent set at $30NZD. But of course if you are into the building experience then it will be expensive. Depending what your are into, if you are a minifigure fan, then I would definitely recommend this one to you.
-
Here is my review on 2023 Friends 41742 Cat Hotel: THE GOOD: Good looking build with interesting building experiences filled with interior details. Another variant of the chonky/chubby cat. Some very interesting exterior designs, for example the use of wheel arch for windows. Speechless on the cat litter build XD THE NOT SO GOOD: Being a retailer exclusive makes it both hard to find and hard to get big discount. Originally there was no plans to buy this but the product photos on the box caught my eyes. It's actually a very good looking small set and a really fitting cat hotel. While it is small, there are lots of small parts to create many surprising details. The exterior looks great with some interesting builds and design. The use of wheel arch pieces to create the windows arch is great, the sleep cat sign is also great. I do wish the cat eyes were printed instead of stickers but the end results still great. Then the interior and the court yard also have plenty of space and detailed builds as well. The cat litter tray build caught me off guard and never expected LEGO put such detail in. Although i doubt any cats would like to expose their poop and pee as that's the whole point of cat litter. Minidolls wise, both comes with new 2023 hair pieces which is going to useful for minifigs. Obviously being a cat hotel will include some cats and it's great you get another variant of the chonky/chubby cat in a smallish set. I really don't have any negative on this set apart from this being hard to find due to the retailer exclusive nature, at $60 NZD it's not the cheapest, being an retailer exclusive means it's also hard to get a big discount too, At the end, I did did enjoy this set and like it so I found it worth my money. And definitely a recommendation from me. Now really tempted to get an extra one or two to make a modular cat hotel