ResIpsaLoquitur Posted May 7, 2014 Posted May 7, 2014 (edited) It's that time again! The first Tuesday of the month means that the Lego Brick-and-Mortar Stores have put out their Monthly Mini Builds for the kids. The Stores do these once a month (at least) to get you into the store and spending money. However, you do walk out with some free bricks and a possibly functional model. I recently reviewed all of 2013's MMB's in this article. I also reviewed January's model here, February's here, March's here, and April's here. I plagiarize my opening paragraphs from my past articles, so no, you're not experiencing deja vu. Life is just easier that way . If you're sad because you don't have a Lego Store near you, that's ok, because Lego publishes the instructions for each month's builds on their website. If it's not up yet, it should be soon. This month, we're reviewing a small brick-built dragon. How does it compare to the dragons in old castle sets? I don't know, I never owned one with a dragon. But let's see how it is on its own! Set Title: Dragon Set #: 40098-1 Theme: Monthly Mini Build Pieces: 44 Minifigures: None Year of Release: 2014 Price at release: Free. To begin, you get a small card while waiting in line which is your ticket to get in. (Only 250 kids get into these builds!) The front of the card is a picture of the build with a spot to write your child's name. (My daughter did, so Sir Privacy-Monitor is protecting her name.) The back of the card has a parts inventory. When you get inside, you get the parts and a one-sheet of instructions. Sometimes you get the parts in a plain polybag, but of late, we've been getting them in a pick-a-brick container. I assume this is to keep the kids from spilling them all over the store. Here's the parts selection. Nothing too astonishing here, except for the new printed eyes we've been seeing in the Mixels sets. The spare parts included one black cheese slope and one printed eye (which I didn't include in this picture). Having a single eye is annoying, but fortunately I found another eye in the back of the store when I was filling a PAB cup, and they let me take it home. And here's the completed model. The build wasn't particularly complicated (for an adult, anyway), so I didn't see the need to photograph the various steps. He's cute. The MMB models typically have some level of functionality. In this case, the dragon can move his wings and tail up and down for different poses. I did think that this month's theme was a little odd, as the MMB models typically have some thematic connection to their month. January was a snowplow, because of course it snows in the winter. February was a Micro Manager for the Lego Movie. March was a tree for the coming of spring. I'm not sure what a dragon has to do with the month of May. Anybody? He's not completely useless, though. If you don't have a dragon but love Castle or other medieval themes, he makes a cute addition for your knights to fight. Or if you like City, he could be a little theme park model for the kids to climb on (but hopefully the flames are fake). Anyway, my daughter really likes him, so that's what matters in the end. CONCLUSION Design: 6/10. Not great, not bad. Personally, I'm not a fan of brick-built creatures, so this guy looks very "bricky" to me. He's nicely functional with the moving wings and tail, though. Parts: 8/10. Nothing astonishing in the parts here except the printed eyes. Build: 7/10. My daughter struggled with it some, possibly because this build was mostly one color--the directions threw her some Minifigs: N/A. Playability: 10/10. It's functional and will probably fit in your castle sets. Price: 10/10. It was free! Overall: 41/60. Not a great score, but we had fun and it's another pile of free bricks. Lego gives out lots of free bricks, and we love them for it. Coming up next month: we're back on themed builds with a jetski for summer vacation. Stay tuned! Thanks as always to the folks at the Westfield Annapolis Mall Lego Store for the free build. Edited May 7, 2014 by ResIpsaLoquitur Quote
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