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Showing results for tags 'The LEGO Movie'.
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Good morning Eurobricks! I usually live in the brickfilm side of the forums (so forgive any lapses in etiquette) but I wanted to share my recreation of Emmet's apartment buidling from The LEGO Movie. What started out as a set for a brickfilm grew to become a full recreation of Emmet's apartment building. Emmet's Apartment Building by Seaotter71, on Flickr Screengrabs of The LEGO movie got me going, but it wasn't until my son got the video game that I could really reverse engineer it. The top floor, true to the movie, borrowed heavily from the City Hall modular. Edgeofpanic, who had independetnly submitted this to LEGO Ideas had an LDD file that helped with the roof. The signs are a custom print job by Promotec and ties the whole thing together. This thing is a beast. I thought it was going to be comparable to the height of the other modulars and then realized I had missed a floor. Back to bricklink I went. Enjoy. I have started the inside and will be fleshing it out over the next few weeks. Spoiler: The inside doesn't really fit inside the building.
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I'm a big fan of police cars, and the Lego Movie uses one that I intially thought was custom made for the movie. This is the four wide police car that is used mostly in background scenes, though it does show up en masse after the escape from Bricksburg. After spending some time reverse engineering it from the various scenes, I realized that the model is actually a slightly modified civilian car that was released in 2012 as 4435 Car and Caravan (the trailer hitch is the giveaway) with influences from 4436 Patrol Car. The car appears to be Black and Light Grey in the movie, which I changed to white because some of the main parts don't exist in light grey, such as the wheel arches. I also added red and blue lights behind the main headlights, though these were my personal preference. Interestingly enough, the roof piece in black does not yet exist and won't until the release of 60097 City Corner later this year. When that set is released, I'll be building several of these to put in my own town. EDIT: Turns out Mark2 has an error in the lights. Instead of using two 99780 Inverted brackets and one 1x2 plate, it should have been one Bracket 1x2 - 1x4 and two 1x4 plates stacked on top of each other. Mark5 has this corrected. LDD File: Lego Movie Police Car - Mark5.lxf Lego Movie Police Car - Mark2.lxf
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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.
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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.
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Looks like LEGO's answer to Skylanders with real LEGO toys. Will be another TT Games LEGO video game about a villain tearing rifts between the various LEGO worlds and kidnapping certain characters. Uses many licenses and themes, including The LEGO Movie (which makes some of the other licenses redundant), Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, Back to the Future, Ninjago and surprisingly, The Wizard of Oz.
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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! -
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!
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I haven't watched this awesome movie yet, but I am going to do so tomorrow. Here is my entry to the recent THE LEGO MOVIE competition in Hong Kong, organized by HKLUG, Warner Bros. HK, LEGO HK Ltd, HK The Grand Cinema Based on scenes from the trailer and with the Melting Room set, I created this 32X32 vignette as my entry. Emmet was arrested by Lord Business' police force and was sent to the melting chamber to destroy the Piece of Resistance. Wyldstyle came to rescue Emmet from the laser beam and the Robot SWAT. As one of the winners, I get the movie tickets and display at The Grand Cinema !!! Hope you like my MOC and enjoy the movie !
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Can anyone provide me with a complete list of all of the Master Builders in The LEGO Movie? Thanks in advance! EDIT: Here's a WIP list... -
I was rather interested in this polybag. Polybag availability can be iffy anywhere so I wasn't sure if I could get it. When I found it in my box I was quite excited to have it! Set Information: Name: Super Secret Police Enforcer Set Number: 30282 Pieces: 40 Price: $4.99 Ages: 6-12 Minifigs: 1 Theme: The LEGO Movie Year of Release: 2014 Bricklink Brickset Flickr Set Baggy: There's not much on the front of this bag, nice and neat. The speeder, for lack of a better word, is placed on a rather neutral background, I think it's a construction site. The back has the usual translations and warnings. Contents: Five extra parts. I wonder why LEGO chose the trans-black visor... Manual: The manual is a very nice blue and yellow setup, it reminds me of the construction sets. There are six steps on this page, and you've mostly finished the build. Four more steps on this page, along with two sub-assemblies. There's also a large ad for several other The LEGO Movie sets. Minifigure: While I really like the uni-eyed robot, this guy is growing on me. His helmet only comes in one other set, and this is a much cheaper way to get it. The torso is nicely detailed with a great badge that matches his helmet logo, and his knee-pads and pockets on his legs are great. On his back he has a radio with a wire going to his helmet. I guess what I don't like about this guy is that his head is a "v" shape, just not my style. This gun is great! I thought the stock would be longer, and I'm not sure if I like the clip on the top, but I think I can ignore it. Finished Model: No build pictures with this model as I showed you the manual. This is a very compact, fun little craft. The lines are great, and the angles flow well. Good work LEGO. While simple, this speeder is quite spectacular. The simple lines, flowing curves, and over all great shape lend this to be a great model. I noticed on the bag that LEGO intends for there to be three thrusters on this model, though only two have trans pieces to represent that. The back is not really for viewing, plus you won't see it when you're swooshing it. Conclusion: This is one of my favorite polybags that I've gotten in a long time. It's very, very fun to swoosh around the house. Like I said, the minifigure has grown on me as I've written this review, he looks better with his helmet on for sure. While the build is simple, and there are no great parts, it all goes together to make a great, fun little set. Good work LEGO. (Now to find out who designed it.) Ratings: Playability: 8/10 There's not a lot beyond swooshing it around. Yes I do love swooshing stuff that much. Design: 8/10 I think LEGO probably could have squeezed in a flick missile, but I like where the set is now. Price: 9/10 Not the best PPP ratio, but the design for such a small number of parts is great. Minifigures: 8/10 He's got a rather rare helmet. Parts: 6/10 Nothing new or spectacular in this set. Total: 39/50 How he drives in a straight line with only one hand on steering is beyond me. Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy!
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When I first heard of this set, I wasn't at all interested. Small polybag, with Emmet and a rock? Not really interesting. I was planning on getting the Cloud Cuckoo set, so Emmet wasn't a draw for me. This set was in my package of sets including The LEGO Movie Press Kit. So I can't argue with that! Let's see how the set is. Set Information: Name: The Piece Of Resistance Set Number: 30280 Pieces: 33 Price: S@H Promotion Ages: 6-12 Minifigs: 1 Theme: The LEGO Movie Year of Release: 2014 Bricklink Brickset Flickr Set Baggy: I really like the layout of The LEGO Movie set art. We have The LEGO Movie logo in the upper right corner as well as some movie frames showing numbers. This is the European bag, and it doesn't have any age or part counts on the front. The back is full of the usual stuff, warnings in every language, and The LEGO Movie translated too. Contents: Here are the extra pieces. Rather boring, but not bad for a polybag. Manual: The manual has five, six if you want to count the instructions for Emmet, steps on this page. The blue and yellow printing seems fitting since this set is based in a construction site. On the back are four more steps, as well as a warning not to launch the rock bit at anyone head, though how you would do that I don't know. The other half of the manual is taken up by an ad for three of The LEGO Movie sets. Minifigure: Emmet is the same as each other Emmet made. While it is a generic construction worker design, after having seen the movie, it's much more special to me. I love his badge with his name on it, as well as his rather classic exp<b></b>ression. From the back you can really see the new hair mold well, the Piece of Resistance blocks up a lot of the printing on his back too. His alternate expression is nice, I love having new faces, as it gives me more choices in scared heads. The back print on Emmet is some reflective silver bits. Finished Model: The completed set. It's really simple and took me less than five minutes to build. Though I do like the combination of colors and slopes which make for an interesting look overall. It's really just a rock, though the 1x1 plates in trans-yellow do break up the monotony. LEGO has done a rather good job with their sloping in making an interesting shape. And the other side, this little bit is all functionally. Functions: The main feature of this set is "finding" the Piece of Resistance. By pushing this piece here. The rock piece goes flying. It actually launches fairly far, this is how far it went. I didn't push that hard, if you push harder it would probably go farther. Conclusion: This neat little polybag isn't terrible. Sure it just includes Emmet and a rock bit, but I could see some young boys wanting a cheap set with Emmet and the Piece of Resistance. I believe that this set is all about the functionally of "finding" the Piece. Which is a good idea, since this is a big moment in the film and not at all represented in the film. Overall I like, it. Not the best polybag I own, but not bad either. Ratings: Playability: 5/10 This set is all about the function of "finding" the Piece of Resistance. It's not a terrible function, but this throwing design has been done before. Design: 7/10 I like the color combination and the angles that the slopes make. Price: 7/10 I can see this set retailing for about $4, which isn't a bad price. I can see kids buying this just so they have Emmet. Minifigures: 6/10 It's just Emmet. He's generic but designed well, and I rather like him after see the movie. Parts: 8/10 Nothing to interesting, I do like the slopes that were included. More slopes are always nice, especially when I'm doing rock work. Total: 33/50 It works quite nicely as a Emmet flinger too. See my review of The LEGO Movie Press Kit here, as well as links to my reviews of the other LEGO Movie polybags! Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy!
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Autobots vs Decepticons! Obama declares war on Clone Brands! George Clooney head explodes! Bane breaks Batmans back. Aquaman tackles a shark. All of this is just.. Awesome! A LEGO music video of the Everything is Awesome song from The LEGO Movie. Just a quick little test on some new features in preparation of the next Justice League movie. [media] [/media]
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The LEGO Movie Press Kit. Those words send collectors running. When I heard that I was getting one I was ecstatic, I was also hoping Benny was in it. I also wasn't sure what to expect, this set wasn't well documented, but I knew it would be something good. A HUGE thank you to LEGO for sending me this set. (And 30280, 30281, and 30282) I am very privileged to have gotten to review these sets. Set Information: Name: The LEGO Movie Press Kit Set Number: N/A Pieces: 168 Price: N/A Ages: N/A Minifigures: 9 Theme: The LEGO Movie Year of Release: 2014 Brickset Flickr Set Box: I was sent The LEGO Movie Press Kit, I wasn't sure what was going to be in it, but this is what was in it! Read the other reviews: 30280, 30281, and 30282. While box is technically correct, it is really a tin. Which is unusual as I do not believe that LEGO has packaged a set in a tin before. Surprisingly, this set has some information on it, part count, name, and age suggestion. The image is The LEGO Movie's main poster, which seems fitting. The back is covered in warnings, as well as the first poster we got for The LEGO Movie, showing Emmet. One of the sides of the sleeve shows Batman, Benny, Good/Bad Cop, Metal Beard, and Unikitty. As well as their names and the actors names that voice them. The other side is the same, however it lists, Emmet, Wyld Style, Vitruvius, and President Business. The lid of the tin has a sticker on it, with the LEGO logo and The LEGO Movie logo. Contents: Inside there is the bag of parts, the instruction manual, and the piece of cardboard for the background. The front shows The LEGO Movie logo on a stage screen with the curtain pulled back. This side shows the curtain closed if you want to display it that way. The pile of parts! The bag was quite full. Manual: The front of the manual has a very roughly rendered image of the set. If you notice Wyld Style doesn't have her hair print, but Wonder Woman has her decoration... The instructions for the set are presented on a blue brick background, which is quite pleasing and simple. Someone would ask for this eventually, so here is the part page! The back just has the blue brick background and the LEGO logo. Minifigures: Since there are nine minifigures in this set, we shall go though them by the row they are sitting in. First up we have, Wyld Style, Emmet, and Batman. My bag was open and my Wyld Style hood was missing. (Kim if you're reading this, could I get another?) But it almost works better this way, she can sit in her chair better. I am still fond of Wyld Style's hoodie, it just looks good. All three figures have back print, which is a bit unusual for minifigures. You notice Emmet's alternate expression here. With their headgear removed, you can see their alternate expressions. Emmet is really freaking out. Next is Good/Bad Cop, President Business, and Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is exactly the same as her LEGO set self. Bad Cop's badge has the same logo as the bots from the movie. President Business is a fun minifigure, I quite like his very blocky hair. Wonder Woman and Bad Cop have back print. Bad cop is a rather rare figure, and his helmet is a new mold. President Business has his robot head for his alternate expression. Vitruvius, Ice Cream Jo, and the Gallant Guard. I was very excited to get Vitruvius, he's a very pivotal character in the movie. The others I wasn't super interested in but would come to like. Ice Cream Jo, and the Gallant Guard have fitting back print. Vitruvius' hair is very complex. Only Vitruvius has an alternate expression, a rather sad one too. His tye-dye t-shirt is neat too. The Build: Four steps in and you've only just started on building the base. A few steps later the first row is taking shape. Midway through, the theater is taking shape. More of the layers for the chairs are added. Each minifigure had it's own instruction page, then you added them. Finished Model: I think this model is meant to be viewed with all of the minifigures on it. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of generic parts. The fun thing with this model is that there was a promotional stand where you could put your face in a hole and be "in" the scene. Wonder Woman doesn't fit in her chair quite right. The simple way LEGO built the background in, is quite good. I would like to see more of this and less stickered parts. Vitruvius' hair fits nicely over the chair so he can sit! Conclusion: This set is an interesting conundrum. It wasn't available to the public so I think it is a must like set for me. That said, it isn't all that bad as a minifigure pack. I really like that LEGO didn't use a sticker for the background. As a promotional item, it does its job well. A bunch of minifigures from the movie, and the logo prominently displayed. Ratings: Playability: 0/10 No play value at all in this. Unless you just like minifigures. Design: 8/10 I'm giving this a rather high rating as I really like the use of the cardboard piece. Price: 0/10 Price isn't applicable here. Minifigures: 10/10 The sheer number of figures that are in this set is great, several of them are rather rare too. Parts: 5/10 Nothing super special in this set. Total: 23/50 30 Again big thanks to LEGO for making this review possible! You can read the other reviews: 30280, 30281, and 30282 Like this review? Want to learn how to make good reviews? Then join the Reviewers Academy! ,
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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. -
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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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Airplane, or plumbing van? It's up to you in… Set Title: The Flying Flusher Set #: 70811 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 351 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 30 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION This was another "neither here nor there" set for me. Besides for the Doctor figure, which looked cool, I didn't have many thoughts one way or another about it. Let's see what kind of thoughts building the thing will give me. BOX The art is pretty unremarkable. It's an airplane that I guess shoots plungers and vaguely looks like it was made out of a truck, but not even that much. The alternate model in the corner looks much more interesting. The back shows both models, including the hilarious exploding porta potty. The plane seems to pale in comparison. Some nice-looking minifigures in our lineup - nice overalls and a new doctor print. I look forward to these. CONTENTS Again, no numbered bags in these 2-in-1 sets. I spy some nice white and blue here. All of the 2-in-1s have three booklets: one for the micromanager, a "number 2" for the flying a machine, and a third for the alternate build. This set has got a small, inoffensive sticker sheet. Same dully-colored, easy-to-follow instructions as the rest. MINIFIGURES Nice guys here: Plumber Joe, his apprentice Alfie, and Dr. McScrubs. Great prints all around; I believe Joe's face is new, and McScrubs' definitely is. Great to get the hair on the Dr. now in dark brown. McScrubs has a hilarious alternate scared face, and Joe has some nice bushy eyebrows. Everybody has some good back printing too. SET - MICROMANAGER Like the micromanager in the Castle Cavalry, this guy can fold up. But it looks kind of helpless this way. Time to fold out his legs! Isn't it just adorable? These things are very endearing. This one seems to have a nerdy, braniac personality to me. Something about the little legs and big head - very thoughtful. This one doesn't need tail lights since it walks. SET - FLYING FLUSHER Building the plane leaves a fair number of parts leftover. Nothing all the exciting, besides the door perhaps, but here they are: I'll be up-front, I really don't care for this model. It's dull, it's too boxy for a plane, and it doesn't even look that much like a truck converted into a plane, which I think is the point of these. The targeting chair on the back is a nice assembly. It's about the only thing that really looks good on this model. The sides open, but there's nothing in there besides some poles. I guess in this picture it looks kind of chubby and cute, but it'd be a lot nicer if it was flatter and more sleek. The color scheme is fine, but doesn't particularly pop. The front has a Joe's Plumbing logo on the very thick wheel assembly. The other logo is behind the pilot. Not much in the cockpit - just enough room for the pilot. SET - TRUCK The truck also leaves a few leftovers, including one of the new inverted dome pieces! Yum. First to build is the porta potty. It looks great! It uses some nice new parts too, like the big wedge piece newly redesigned with complete stud compatability on the sides, and a bunch of the 1x2 slope piece. The back has a nice little detail of vents to get the smells out. The inside is great too. The toilet is a nice design, and the designer included a flushing button and toilet paper roll. A lot of detail packed into a small space. You can add the water flames to put it out of commission if you wish. The trucks is very chubby and cute. This color scheme looks nice on a truck (almost police-like, isn't it), and it does look like the type of van that would be used for a plumber. The big logo is lovely, as is the assymetry of the stuff on the roof. It's got two doors, which keep it from looking bland all around. It's a pleasant truck from all angles. The back door provides access to te ginormous plungers, needed for ginormous potty explosions! The side door provides access to… this thing. I have no idea what this is. It doesn't go anywhere - it's stuck down to the truck. Can anybody shed light on it? The entire interior is open, which actually fits for a van like this. There's plenty of room for both plumbers in there, as demonstrated. Alfie just has to be a bit uncomfortable, but he's an apprentice, so it comes with the territory. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION Overall, a very pleasant set when it comes to the truck and porta potty model. The plane is complete bleh, but as a truck this set is pretty nice. Especially for City builders, this is an unusual subject for a truck, and the minifigures are very nice and handy. Are a truck, porta potty, and robot really worth $30? I don't know, but it's a very nice truck and porta potty, and a cute robot, with plenty of parts. So I guess so. Two more 2-in-1s to go!
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Podracer-like flying machine, or wall? You get to decide in… Set Title: Castle Cavalry Set #: 70806 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 424 Minifgures: 3 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 30 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION First of all, holy whoa, 424 pieces for $30? Can that be right? That's crazy! Second of all, nobody thought much of this set when pictures surfaced. And for good reason. The minifigures and colors are the same as the current Castle line, so what's really to like here? There are better castle sets in the Castle line. Is there something special that everybody missed? Let's see… BOX All of the 2-in-1 boxes picture the more, erm, "creative" model as the main model. That's not to say that the other one is secondary exactly, but the whacky and kind of unappealing one is all front and center. The back shows both models more equally. It seems to highlight those awful mini-catapults and not the flick-fires. Which is better? Maybe the catapults. Names make figures seem special, right? Well, there's nothing exclusive about our knights, but Sharon Shoehorn is exclusive. CONTENTS There are no numbered bags in these sets because once you build one model, you couldn't have numbered bags when building the second one anyway. With a lot of parts, that actually makes the build kind of lengthy. Here are all the parts for the Castle wall/flying thing, for your interest. Not a bad castle parts pack really, but nothing revolutionary. There are three booklets: two numbered ones and one that builds the wall model. The first slim numbered one builds the robot, while the second builds the flying thing. I didn't take a picture of the inside; it's fairly standard. The sticker sheet is not too bad here. MINIFIGURES As I said, most of these will be nothing new to anybody into Castle. None of the latest castle line interested me, so these are my first of these guys, and they're pretty nice for what they are. Still, compared to the more interesting city figures in other sets, I understand why these aren't much to write home about. Sharon Shoehorn's torso actually looks like it comes from the '80s besides for the modern "shapely" printing. I do love Sharon's second exp<b></b>ression, and the knight's is a good one, if not new. Everybody has a bit of nice backprinting. SET - MICROMANAGER This particular Micromanager isn't my favorite; they're cuter with legs. This is the only one with wheels, but it doesn't roll all that well. The hand is super big, and can grab minifigures very well. You sometimes need to balance it on the big hand for it to not fall over. Since it rolls, it's got to have some tail lights in case it's caught in traffic. The wheels do fold up into it, but then I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with it. SET - FLYING THING The flying model actually uses all of the remaining parts, just leaving extra bits that you'd expect to see as extras anyway. Not all of the 2-in-1s use all the parts. Here are the leftovers from this model: And here is our flying machine. This one is pretty ok. It's reminiscent of a podracer, which makes it decently fun to swoosh. There are no controls, but it's already ridiculous so… oh well. The color scheme is pleasant and castle-y. This one does easily convey taking a castle and turning it into a flying machine. From the side, it still looks alright. Silly of course, but alright. The "engines" have some firey exhaust coming out, which is a fun touch. The set features the only way to make flick-fires tolerable - by having something else push them out. They still don't work well, but they're better. There's plenty of ammo for the little catapults, if you care to use those. The way the fence piece is attached using skeleton arms is cool, and is actually the same in the secon model, as we'll see. Overall, this model has enough guns and the fun engines, so it's not too bad. SET - CASTLE WALL The wall model doesn't use everything, but there aren't so many leftovers either. Here they are: First up is actually the sub-builds. Here are two little light things. They look nice, but are also the type of thing that aren't so necessary. They seem to just be there to eat parts. Next is a little double-catapult cart. LEGO loves double-catapult carts. There have been so many of these over the years. This one is fine and unremarkable. The front has some fire and places for a minifigure to drag it along. And now… the castle. For a castle wall, it's pretty nice. Plenty of detailing, more than in the current castle line I'd say. It's a lot of parts packed into a not-huge model. This really has to be part of a wall, or between two mountains, or something. Otherwise the door is a bit useless. Still, with the right imagination this makes a nice little outpost. There's just enough space for the knights to chill out, both in the towers and up top. The door has a locking mechanism, just a brick with technic pieces that slot through to lock it. Still, nice. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION So there you have it. Is this set better than what I initially expected? I don't know. The one model I'd want to display is the wall, but no surprise there. It's a nicely detailed wall. You'll have to be the judge if this set is worth getting for you. It does have a lot of parts, most of which are castle-y, so if you're into castle this isn't a terrible parts pack. The minifigures certainly don't sell this one, so you'd have to like the wall model, be a completist on micromanagers, or want to parts to get this. More 2-in-1 reviews to come!
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SWAT vests. A beastly cop car. Another Emmet. Next up… Set Title: Super Cycle Chase Set #: 70808 Theme: The LEGO Movie Pieces: 514 Minifigures: 5 Year of Release: 2014 Price at Release: USD 50 Browse the pictures? Flickr set INTRODUCTION Thanks to LEGO for sending me these sets to review. This was the first LEGO Movie set revealed way back when, and I think it left a lot of people scratching their heads. Of course the new minifigure accessories were awesome, but otherwise, this could've been a doosy. I didn't have much feeling for it going in. Could be great, could be dumb. Let's see… BOX The box gives you a nice view of the models, though the background is a bit drab. It's funny to see that stray flick-fire without showing you where it came from at all. On the back it seems all of the minifigures have ditched their rides and prefer a chase on foot? Since that makes sense. The back also shows you that there aren't very many true features, but honestly when things roll, that's feature enough for me most of the time. The top shows us our cast: Emmet, Wyldstyle, and three delicious Robo SWATs. CONTENTS Inside are a few numbered bags with a surprisingly low amount of orange. The cycle looks pretty orange from the picture, but there's not much of it. The designer made a little orange go a long way. Instead there's a lot of grey and black. There are two booklets and a pretty hefty sticker sheet. Sticker-haters will not at all be pleased, but I applied them all to stay true to the set. I don't seem to have taken pictures of inside the instructions, but they're the boring blue color scheme and whatever. You get it. MINIFIGURES If you had asked CloneyO which set in this wave had the best minifigures, he definitely would not have said this one. In fact, none of these minifigures are even exclusive, besides for one exclusive part: the special eye-piece attachment on one Robo SWAT. But in actuality, these are a lot cooler than they seem. There are certain minifigures that, when they appear in a lot of sets, you roll your eyes (like Battle Droids). But these Robo SWAT guys are awesome and I would totally want to army build them (I already have a mini-army since there are a bunch of them across the wave). These ones especially look totally cool in the new vest piece. Their torsos and legs are super-useful, and the heads are great too. Somehow I never realized before building the sets that Wyldstyle has a printed arm, which means her torso comes from… elsewhere and has the telltale markings on the hands and no printing on the neck. Oh, and Emmet is Emmet. The backs of the vests are printed with the hilarious "Super Secret Police," which perhaps make them slightly less useful, but oh well. Wyldstyle's hood piece is neat. The Robo SWAT get two of the neat new gun piece with different attachments, and a pair of handcuffs. Not bad. BUILD In the build I came across a couple of interesting pieces that I haven't seen much before. There are also some of the new 1x2 slope pieces, which you can note on the finished things. There are some nice leftovers. One can always use more cheese. SET - ROADBLOCK Let's start with perhaps the least interesting thing and go from there (this is also the build order). That would be this little roadblock device. LEGO has added chains to sets before to stop crooks (like in the Chase McCain set from CITY), but this time it's more of a play feature! Here it's all coiled up. But (theoretically) flip the thing on the back, it uncoils! I say theoretically because if you coil it in a sloppy manner, as I did, it doesn't really work. If you manage to get it coiled tightly, it does work well. This is a fun one, when it works. SET - SUPER CYCLE This thing actually looks awesome. Not a lot of orange pieces, but a lot of orange pop! There's something about it that makes it look really rough and fun. You don't want to mess with this bike. Wyldstyle looks menacing on it from the front. Somehow it looks cohesive against all odds. Each side has different stickers that look like cutoffs of something else. It adds to the feel that Wyldstyle assembled it out of other things, but unlike the saloon plane in Creative Ambush, this bike is subtle about it, so it doesn't turn out looking messy. The big back wheel is an awesome construction. I haven't seen track used for this before. Something about the big back wheel reminded me of the Shredder Dragon Bike, or made me think of what the Dragon Bike could've been if it was a better set. This bike right here is how to do a weird motorcycle - the Dragon Bike, not so much. SET - SUPER SWAT VEHICLE This thing is a BEAST - and I love it. This car seems to growl at you, it's so tough-looking. It looks like it could smash through a building. It's a terrific car. You don't want to see this car coming at you, because I think it'd run you down. Looks like I didn't press the top of the car down very well in this one, but apart from that, the side view looks nice. It's not too stubby of a vehicle, nor too long. It seems just right. No doors sadly, but I suppose Robo SWAT can just climb through the ceiling. I'm sure a big car like this is pretty terrible for the environment. Just look at all of those exhaust pipes! I love the ribbed pattern on the back. The back opens up to reveal a very small compartment where you can stash some dynamite, or whatever you like. The cab has plenty of room for more than one figure, and could easily be mod-ed to easily fit a few. The only "play feature" is that the side foot stands lift up to reveal everybody's favorite-flick fires. Everybody especially loves flick-fires that are nearly innaccessible for flicking. The car looks kind of interesting with the "wings" up, but really it's just better to forget about those flicky thingies. COMPLETE SET and CONCLUSION Well, I'm sold. These vehicles are awesome, the Robo SWAT are great figures that you really can't get enough of, and Wyldstyle and Emmet are cool enough too (even in multiple). Parts-wise, there's a bunch to like, some new parts and the orange bits, which are more rare. Lots of nice slopes in the SWAT car too. I still can't quite wrap my head around what costs $50 recently. The vehicles are kind of compact, even though they have a lot of parts, so it doesn't exactly feel like $50 when it's built. But it's a great set anyway, and I guess it adds up. If you like vehicles and/or police stuff, I'd definitely pick this up. I imagine more people might want the cool bike after seeing the movie as well. Next up: the 2-in-1's in some order!
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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!
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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!
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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)!
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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!
