Clone OPatra

Nope. When it was used in Town, like as a motorcycle helmet, the visor was "imaginary" just like in Space.

That would be "Low" by Flo Rida. As to apple-bottom jeans… I'll leave the info about that to Google!

I can't say I agree with your original statement about the LEGO Movie sets. They do give us the bowl cut in dark brown and the newer mail hairpiece (used on Robin, new Obi-Wan, etc.) in dark brown, both new colors for those. There's the 'skater' hair in black again, which up until now has only appeared in black on the skater, and the Agent Trace hair in black, which has only appeared on a single CMF. Elsa Schneider's hair in that neugat-y color, and the new ponytail in that color are also quite rare so far. What's not to like with all of these? Honestly I think your post illustrates how many hair pieces really are being used currently. Sure, the Mutt Williams hair is used pretty frequently, perhaps to the point of being 'overused,' but now other mail hairpieces are coming in. Seems like there are quite a lot to choose from.

That's the metal beard! I should've taken a picture of it (I may add it at some point). It's basically a 2x2 plate (though only with 1x2 stud space) with the beard sticking off, and a stud atop/in the beard to attach a head.

That's absolutely hilarious about the pig! Now I appreciate it even more. Thanks for the explanation, both of you! I've added it to the review.

It's like a big ol' slap in the face! Aanchir is right that there isn't a problem with these per se, and they couldn't really have been avoided, but that will still be tedious as all hell work if you care to apply them. That'd be even more tedious than building a big Architecture set with all its little bits (which is the other most tedious LEGO thing I can think of). Yes, it can be done, but it's still quite annoying. If there was ever a sticker sheet to truly deserve the monicker 'dreaded,' it'd be this one.

I really don't think so, at least not without heavy modification, judging on what I remember of them all. I am going to do a 'Theme Overview" topic when I get a chance, so I'll see if I can come up with anything with them.Thanks for your kind comment on my reviews as a whole as well!

I totally agree with you… but then I think about the X-Men's villains, I can't come up with many that have cool costumes, especially that anybody would know. I'm not big enough into comics to know them, and all I can think of is the Sentinals, who would take up a whole set themselves. I suppose the likes of Toad, Mastermind, Emma Frost, Sabretooth and some others could make cool figures, but if LEGO needed to throw in a figure to attack a plane without its own vehicle - Magneto makes sense. At least we get a different costume (hopefully, things like that have reverted sometimes in the past).

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.

Is there anything that isn't readily apparent in the photos of the built set? I think you named everything besides the periscope, pistol, and flags. If there's anything that leaves you wondering I can try to take a picture at some point, but with the nature of this set and all the cool bits being on the exterior, I think they're visible throughout these pictures.

Erm… no. It's a regular minifigure. The title pic has a bit of a shadow on her from the Micromanager's hand. That would be supremely weird for LEGO to create a new potbelly torso mould, and for a female figure with shapely printing to boot! I actually kind of liked both of the models in this one - it's one of the better flying modes for sure, and the castle wall looks nice (I don't notice anything truly negative in my writing, but maybe lukewarm at times). I didn't care for the latest Castle theme, but I still think these castle minifigures are excellent and some of the best LEGO has made yet. I was just saying that to people that already have the castle theme, these figures won't be so exciting since they aren't anything new or exclusive. Just more of the same, but that's a nice 'same.'At the same time, I don't mean this response to seem like I'm 'defending myself' in any way. I did rather dislike some of these sets (though not this one in particular), and I have no problem saying so. I'm 100% biased in my reviews, and sometimes my opinion does get negative. I try to look at positives and negatives, but there will still be an over-riding opinion. Not every LEGO set is a winner, but I try to show off a set from enough angles that you can make your own decision, which can certainly differ greatly from mine. Hopefully I'm doing that job well enough!

Compared to most of the other sets in this line, this one seems pretty gloomy just because it's all grey, black and trans-red. It seems pretty industrial to me. I think the designer definitely did as best he or she could on this one, and it's ok in real life, but not magnificent. Like I mentioned, designing a piece of a room that's actually in a bigger room must always be a challenge and ends up kind of strange no matter what. Even with the Lair you can feel that it's not the 'whole thing,' but that set looks great nonetheless since it has the scale to pull things off.

I appreciate that you read through the review and picked up the reference! I never know if the little references that pop out of my head do anything for anybody else, but it makes reviewing more enjoyable for me so I'd keep on doing it anyway.

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

The Cloud Cuckoo one only comes in this set. The one in Melting Room also comes in Getaway Glider, Bad Cop's Pursuit, Super Cycle Chase, and Lord Business' Evil Lair. You're right that the CMF has a completely different set of faces as well. Yep, it's a new part. Should be useful for that purpose indeed

It's a colorful explosion, the likes of which are rarely seen in a LEGO set. I'm talking about… Set Title: Cloud Cuckoo Palace Set #: 70803 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 197 Minifigures: 3 + two creatures Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 20 Just browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION This set always looked like a must-buy. Crazy bright colors, crazy cute colors, and the main characters (with Wyldstyle's hair, unlike the Melting Room) in a cheap set? I'm sold. So how does it stack up in person? Let's find out! BOX Not even Friends sets have this many colors. This box is a burst of bright, cheerfulness. It might hurt some people's eyes, but it makes mine very happy. The back of the box doesn't show much of anything different from the front. You either want the pretty colors or you don't. If you couldn't tell, the set comes with Unikitty, Emmet, Wyldstyle, and a suave-looking robot named Executron. His name sounds like an old Space theme. CONTENTS Oh my, the colors! Already this looks like a lot of fun. The front of the instructions show more of the beautiful bright art for this set. My instructions had a printing error in them - bunch of parts on top of the pink arch disappear for a while, and then come back. Not a huge issue, but it doesn't happen that often that instructions have errors so it's always interesting to note. MINIFIGURES To some the minifigures in this set might not seem all that exciting, since it's just Emmet and Wyldstyle again and they come in other sets. This is the cheapest set in which to get Wyldstyle's hair (not counting the collectible series), so that's cool, and Emmet has an exclusive head that I'll discuss more below. The Executron looks pretty cool and snappy too. This Emmet has his own scared expression, and Wyldstyle has her reverse angry face. I really wish Wyldstyle had also gotten a different pair of expressions in at least one set, but oh well. Hers are good as they are anyway. In this set Emmet has some type of tracking device on his leg symbolized by a red stud. Wyldstyle's hood is nice as always. Exectron sadly has no back printing, but he's in a simple suit and doesn't really need any. Here's this Emmet on the left compared with the Emmet that comes in all the other sets. The happy expression in this set is so much better. I really don't like the eyebrows on the other happy face, and this one just seems so much more pleasant. I much prefer the scared Cloud Cuckoo variant as well. The more common one is silly and all, but the Cloud Cuckoo one feels much less annoying and seems reasonable. I could see using it in a variety of MOCs, whereas the regular one will almost always make a MOC funny. Unikitty and the snail are excellent, cute creatures. Unikitty gives off very whacky vibes, and the snail is just plain cute. Unikitty is basically a 2D creature so she looks the same from the other side just without a face. The snail gets some green stripes on his back, making his look more interesting. EXTRA PARTS The extra parts are great in this set, since there are a bunch of small bits in unusual colors, and having more of those never hurts! You even get an extra printed eye-piece. SET First up is this little catapult to launch pretty transluscent flowers. It makes use of a yellow life preserve (actually with the same construction as the "scope" on the Flying Flusher plane), and fires pretty well. Here's the palace! Sure it's really just a wall, but what a wonderful wall it is. It kind of looks like if LEGO made a CandyLand theme, this would be a set from it. The "cloud" base looks convincing as clouds, and even though there are a lot of different colors mashed together, it seems to work. Often I might critisize a set for using too many little bits, but I love the use of 1x1 round tiles here. The plethora of colors makes it look like beautifully colored stone-work. The big sun looks nice too, as do the printed dishes and flowers. Really, everything is quite on-point to create a beautiful model. The one "play feature" is that you can turn the gears to make two things spin at once. How much fun is that? Not really all that much I'd say, but it doesn't intrude on the look of the model so why not have it. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION The Cloud Cuckoo Palace is an unusual and striking set. The model is really quite lovely, and the parts selection is tremendous for anybody that likes fun colors. The minifigures included are nice too, especially the Emmet with better Emmet face and complete Wyldstyle with hair and hoodie neck-piece in a cheap set. I'd recommend you pick this one up. It's worth it!

I'm not sure how I feel about dirt on Clone Troopers. It's great for detail and 'realism,' but that means all your 212th troopers are going to have identical dirty prints, and always be dirty. Pristine white clones just make more sense for building armies. That Phase II helmet is still looking a bit wonky, though better with the EpIII printing here than with the Clone Wars printing. The reason these have the non-CW heads is because they're based on EpIII and not Clone Wars. The base torso print (below the specified 212th printing) is different between CW and EpIII as well. The Coruscant Police Gunship and Cannon sets in this wave are based on CW, so they have CW torso prints and CW clone heads. The battlepacks are EpIII.

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.

Actual set, or just Western parts pack? We're looking at… Set Title: Getaway Glider Set #: 70800 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 104 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 13 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION This set always looked enticing. Not because the glider was great, but because the western minifigures looked terrific, it comes with a horse, and there are some neat rare parts like the cow horns and chicken in metallic. So is this anything more than a minifigure and parts pack? Let's see! BOX The box is small and boxy, with a nice western background. It's a small set, so what you see is what you get. And what you see looks enticing. On the back it seems that the glider is true to its name; it helped Emmet get away. But for some reason the robots ditched their weapons. The top gives us our character names - it seems the sheriff is trying to fool people about his mechanical identity, while the deputy doesn't care much. INSTRUCTIONS The instruction manual is small and comes folded over to fit in the box, both of which you'd probably expect. Plain color scheme, easy to follow, yada yada. Apparently I didn't take a picture of the sticker sheet, but you'll be able to see the four stickers on the finished model. MINIFIGURES As it often happens in small sets, the minifigures are a real highlight. The two western figures are terrific - the sheriff has an awesome new hat mould with extra-folded sides, and a wonderful new gigantic mustache piece that goes around his neck, like most beards. His torso and legs are also wonderful. The deputy also has terrific western printing without any grey skin showing, so it can easily be used for human minifigures. He features the Lone Ranger-style hat, exclusively in brown. Both robots also feature exclusive faces, which help diversify the evil bots across this line. I found it interesting that LEGO reverted to the old pistol mould (as opposed to the megabloks-ish Lone Ranger one), but it's great, since the old mould is really much better. The deputy has the new robot gun that appears in this line, a nice new addition to the LEGO weapons arsenal. Everybody has some appropriate back printing as well. EXTRA PARTS The extra parts are actually worth noting in this set because you get an extra cow horn (and this is only its second and appearance), and an EXTRA MUSTACHE! That's right, an EXTRA MUSTACHE! I was truly thrilled to see this. SET - HORSE & CACTUS In my opinion, one can never have too many horses. The more people you can mount on rides for a MOC, the better. So it's great to get horses in small sets, as that makes them easier to build up in great number. As usual, this one comes with bricks to "make it nude" and a saddle for the sheriff. The cactus is a cute little build, and green is always a desirable color, so I like it. SET - GLIDER Now for the "meat" of the set: the glider. Honestly, it's kind of cool looking, but I think most AFOLs would agree that the parts are more interesting than their sum. I mean, we're talking about five of the new 1x2 slope in dark brown, two of the new clip with hole for rod pieces in grey, two cattle horns, a dark brown barrel, and a metallic chicken. That's some great stuff for a small set. Even the four stickers are useful for western builders. I can't help feeling that this set was actually made for AFOLs craving some western stuff to help build western MOCs. I'm sure it wasn't actually, but it kind of feels like that with all the great parts that are worked in. Not much to see from the back. Plain and simple backside. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION Terrific minifigures and a terrific small parts selection for a low price. Need I say more? If you like western at all, go buy this set! It's that simple.

I know of at least one other, in this City set from 2006. The toilet construction is remarkably similar.

To be Bad Cop, or not to be Bad Cop? That's a question you could roleplay with… Set Title: Bad Cop's Pursuit Set #: 70802 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 314 Minifigures: 2 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 30 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Ask me which LEGO Movie sets I was least interested in, and this would've been at the top of my list. Only one unique minifigure, some random tower construction thing, and a car - not exactly that exciting. It seemed to compete with all of the other sets at this price point, the 2-in-1s, all of which seemed to be a lot better than this. But was my initial reaction correct? Let's find out! BOX Lots of action on the box, but again, not that much excitement. The cop car looks ok, but the other thing just looks like an excuse to have more parts in the set. The back doesn't exactly do much to help. The highlight seems to be the cop figure. Just two minifigures in this set - Bad Cop, and another Emmet that you'll probably get in a different set. Admittedly, this is the only way to get Bad Cop/Good Cop in a set, but he alone wouldn't be enough reason to buy this. INSTRUCTIONS Just one booklet for this set, and one small sticker sheet. Not too bad. Same dull color scheme inside as all the other sets, but oh well. It does the job. MINIFIGURES Emmet, as always, is useful if a bit dull, but Bad Cop is truly cool. I love the over-the-top angry face with the cool shades, and the helmet is a great new mould. The torso is nice standard cop affair. Both have alternate faces: the extremely silly Good Cop face, and Emmet's annoying scared face. The Good Cop face is terrific. Both hair/hat pieces are nice all around. Bad/Good Cop has some nice back printing too. A word about the new gun (making its only appearance so far out of Star Wars) - it works magnificently. I saw some reviews of Star Wars sets that say that it works sometimes and not others, but I'm not sure what those people did wrong, since it works every time for me. I get that it's no replacement for accurate guns in SW, but it's a really nice weapon that works very well. I can imagine kids (and myself) having a lot of fun shooting minifigures with this. ANIMALS We get two nice dark green cop gators; standard gator affair, but they're not in that many sets so it's nice to see them pop up again every once in a while. SET - RAILWAY Here's the thing that I took to be a bit of a throwaway, but it's actually an excellent construction. The build on the broken-down rails is great, and overall this thing looks lovely in real life. There's some nice little stone detailing with a frog down in the water, but what really makes this great is the play feature. You can push the red part to make the hanging track lock upright. Emmet thinks he's safe standing up on the rails (even if he's freaking out). And then you can pull out the red part again, and down he goes! It works very well, and I love that you can both lock it up and let it down with the same technic part. SET - COP CAR So the rail part looked surprisingly good, but the cop flying car is really amazing. The shaping is great, giving it a really sleek and fast look that just screams to swooshed around. I'm not sure these pictures show it well enough, but this car looks really really great. The designer did an outstanding job. The back has a great thrusters construction that makes it look like quite a fast flying machine. The inside is quite roomy. Plenty of space for Bad Cop to get comfortable and enjoy pursuing people. The sides lift up to reveal guns that are packed away. This feature is really unobtrusive when folded up. I always love some trans-yellow, even if it's just boat tiles. The guns fold out and back to become cop-colored weapons for to pew-pew away Bad Cop's enemies. The car looks a little strange with the wings up, and I wish they could fold back down somehow once the guns were out, but it's still plenty swooshable and doesn't ruin the look. Overall, just a terrific flying car. I haven't experienced a model I liked this much in a while (although the SWAT truck in the Cycle Chase set is pretty amazing too). EXTRAS Not too many extra pieces of note. You get a second one of the piece that shoots the studs in the new gun, but I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with that. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION To my great surprise, I've come away thinking that this set is a bit of a must-buy. The builds are great, especially the car car, which is simply outstanding. There is an excellent amount of pieces for the price, and though the minifigures might not sell this set, Bad Cop is great. I imagine a lot of people will want to get him after seeing the movie, since he seems to play a sizable role. Even though this is one of five sets at this price range for the line, I'd definitely consider getting this one. You won't be disappointed.

Hmmm. I like the Orient Expedition version much more.

What's updated about JT besides sparkles in his eyes (which the Orient Expedition version already had)? I've got one in front of me and he looks just about exactly like that picture. Maybe the brown lines on the torso are slightly thicker. I think his face is actually a step backwards from the Orient Expedition one, which was really a terrific update on the original (which I always thought looked kind of weirdly flat).

It's actually used with permission. It says so on the box!

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!