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REVIEW - 42083 - BUGATTI CHIRON INTRODUCTION First of all, my apologies for bringing you this review so late. There were some logistical and communication issues, which caused a delay in the delivery of the set. The set was due to arrive before the LEGO Fan Media Days, but mine arrived after the event. Throw some personal obligations in the mix and you have a belated review. Also, this review won't be as elaborate as the one I did for the Porsche GT3 RS. Sorry about that too. Nevertheless, I hope will enjoy the pics and some of my insights. I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to join the unveiling of the Bugatti Chiron on the 1st of June (2018), which totally rocked. For those of you who are interested, here's a link to the Bugatti page on the LEGO website and a link to the LEGO page on the Bugatti website. If you see this icon, you can click the image on the left or right side of the image, to cycle through alternative images. PICTURES Pictures can be clicked to view hi-res versions. More pictures can be found in my Flickr album. DISCLAIMER This set has been provided by the CEE Team of TLG. It's not my goal to promote this set. It's my goal to give you an honest opinion about it. Therefor, the opinion in this review is my own and is in no way linked to TLG. SET INFORMATION Number: 42083 Title: Bugatti Chiron Theme: Technic Released: 2018 Part Count: 3.599 Box Weight: 5,9 kg (approx) Box Dimensions: 57 cm x 37,5 cm x 15 cm Set Price (MSRP): £ 329.99 / $ 349.99 / € 369,99 Price per Part: £ 0.092 / $ 0.097 / € 0,103 Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX As you have come to expect, the box is more luxurious than the regular LEGO Technic sets. The blue on blue effect of the vehicle and background is working for me. And I like the reflection underneath the car. The upper right corner of the box shows that this set is also built in a 1:8 scale, like the Porsche. Some people state that the box is a waste of money and they prefer a regular box. Since this will probably only slice a couple of euros of the price, I prefer having a luxurious box for the "UCS" models. Since you are paying top dollar already, you might as well get a nice box with your model. I throw away every other Technic box, but I wouldn't think of throwing this one away. The back of the box shows some key elements of the car. And it shows the sexy behind of the car. More praise for that later. Nope, these are not my left-over parts from the build. This the content of a bag I received at the unveiling event. The USB sticks contain media kit for both Bugatti and LEGO (click here to download the LEGO Media Kit and Bugatti Media Kit). And when I run a flat, I can at least change it CONTENTS OF THE BOX The side of the box shows the profile view of the car. Click on the images to show the inside of the box. There are six boxes, one for each step of the build. The box contains two books, instead of one. And since the Bugatti is built in two parts (before the marriage) this allows you to start the build together with someone else. The second book. And the sticker sheet. I would be nice to get a second sticker sheet with a set like this. My Flickr album has pictures of the numbered bags, used in the different stages. HIGHLIGHTED PARTS I skipped this section in my Porsche review, but I agree it's worth having the Highlighted Parts section. RIMS Let's start with the most unique and prominent part of them all...the rims. Specially designed for the Chiron. And man, this design is magnificent. Absolutely spot on. Since they are dark blue it might be difficult to use them in MOCs, but given the number of dark blue panels in this set, we will most likely see more dark blue MOCs in the future. A thing worth noting is that the pins are attached to the rims. Unlike other rims, which have holes (female), these rims have pins (male). This makes them harder to use with some of the previously used setups. On the other hand, this set comes with very cool brake discs and calipers, which can be used in MOCs as well. As you can see in the image below, all of the common rims come with holes, instead of pins. BLUE PANELS At first, I wasn't happy with the idea of this set being blue on blue, but then I found out TLG used my two favorite shades of blue. It's a public secret I am a big fan of dark azure and that's no different for dark blue, used in the 41999 - 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition and later in the 42064 - Ocean Explorer. I have compiled a list of modern panels in dark azure and dark blue. I think this list is complete, but feel free to check for accuracy DARK AZURE 2 x Panel Car Mudguard Arched 15 x 2 x 5 2 x Panel Curved 11 x 3 with 2 Pin Holes through Panel Surface (new in Bugatti) 0 x Panel Curved 11 x 3 with 10 Pin Holes through Panel Surface 0 x Panel Curved 3 x 6 x 3 (non-existent) 0 x Panel Curved 3 x 13 2 x Panel Fairing # 1 Small Smooth Short, Side A 2 x Panel Fairing # 2 Small Smooth Short, Side B 0 x Panel Fairing # 3 Small Smooth Long, Side A 0 x Panel Fairing # 4 Small Smooth Long, Side B 2 x Panel Fairing # 5 Long Smooth, Side A 2 x Panel Fairing # 6 Long Smooth, Side B 2 x Panel Fairing #13 Large Short Smooth, Side A 2 x Panel Fairing #14 Large Short Smooth, Side B 1 x Panel Fairing #17 Large Smooth, Side A (new in Bugatti) 1 x Panel Fairing #18 Large Smooth, Side B (new in Bugatti) 1 x Panel Fairing #21 Very Small Smooth, Side B (new in Bugatti) 1 x Panel Fairing #22 Very Small Smooth, Side A (new in Bugatti) 0 x Panel Plate 3 x 11 x 1 0 x Panel Plate 5 x 11 x 1 DARK BLUE 2 x Panel Car Mudguard Arched 15 x 2 x 5 (new in Bugatti) 0 x Panel Curved 11 x 3 with 2 Pin Holes through Panel Surface (non-existent) 0 x Panel Curved 11 x 3 with 10 Pin Holes through Panel Surface 2 x Panel Curved 3 x 6 x 3 6 x Panel Curved 3 x 13 1 x Panel Fairing # 1 Small Smooth Short, Side A 1 x Panel Fairing # 2 Small Smooth Short, Side B 0 x Panel Fairing # 3 Small Smooth Long, Side A (non-existent) 0 x Panel Fairing # 4 Small Smooth Long, Side B (non-existent) 2 x Panel Fairing # 5 Long Smooth, Side A 2 x Panel Fairing # 6 Long Smooth, Side B 2 x Panel Fairing #13 Large Short Smooth, Side A (new in Bugatti) 2 x Panel Fairing #14 Large Short Smooth, Side B (new in Bugatti) 1 x Panel Fairing #17 Large Smooth, Side A (new in Bugatti) 1 x Panel Fairing #18 Large Smooth, Side B (new in Bugatti) 6 x Panel Fairing #21 Very Small Smooth, Side B 6 x Panel Fairing #22 Very Small Smooth, Side A 4 x Panel Plate 3 x 11 x 1 0 x Panel Plate 5 x 11 x 1 (still unique to 41999) There are lots of new dark azure and dark blue parts in this sets, like liftarms and soft hoses. For a full list, I recommend checking the Bricklink Inventory or looking at the inventory pics in the next section. DISC BRAKES On Bricklink these are called Steering Wheel Hubs 3 Pin Holes Round, but I will simply call them disc brakes. I love how these turned out. 1L PIN CONNECTOR Both were already available in these colors in 2017, but it's worth noting that this part is getting more and more common in different colors. I do like this part a lot. CONNECTORS New in the regular blue color. Makes you wonder why TLG introduced the connector with hole in blue, since neither of the three sets which have them in blue are depending on this color. TLG tends to use new colors in multiple sets, but we might see the real reason for producing it in one of the future sets. The same goes for the perpendicular split connector btw. ROTARY CHANGEOVER CATCH This cool new part is specifically designed for the gearbox on the Chiron. It can engage gears by using a rotary movement, instead of sideways/lateral motion. I'm sure we will see cool new applications for this part in future sets. I heard something about it being used in one of the 2H sets already. DRIVING RING EXTENSION This new driving ring extension has 8 teeth inside, which results in less slack. 20T DOUBLE BEVEL GEAR WITH CLUTCH This gear is basicallyh the same as the regular 20T bevel gear, but it has a pin hole, instead of axle hole. And it has clutches on both sides. 3L AXLE PIN Most likely, following the "we need more colors" pattern we have seen lately, this part is introduced in red this year. We used to have dark bluish grey for this part, but now we have red too. I wonder if dark bluish grey will be phased out. 5 x 7 FRAME If you need 5 x 7 frames in black, this is the set for you. Besides buying them separately, this is your best choice to get lots (16) of 'em. PART LIST THE BUILD It looks like the build starts with a Monocoque, but that's not the case. This simply is the rear of the chassis. Lots has been written and said about the suspension in the Chiron. In the following video you can see that even without the springs attached, the liftarms don't move easily. However, with the springs attached, the suspension looks strong enough for the weight of the car. Later we will verify if that is indeed the case. The wheel hubs are connected to the new Steering Wheel Hub (a.k.a. disc brakes). I'm sure we will see these discs in future sets, as brakes or maybe as something totally different. Here's the front view of the rear suspension. The bottom view shows the new 20T bevel gear with clutch connected to the differential. No, this is not the marriage. And I don't think you can call it an engagement either. The first kiss, maybe. Part of the chassis is connected to the rear suspension. The gearbox uses a new type of axle connector, already used in some earlier sets. Where the white connector has lots of friction, the driving ring can move freely over the grey connector. The video below demonstrates the two axle connectors. And after the first kiss comes....okay, I won't go any further with this analogy. Anyway, the gearbox is connected to the rear of the chassis. Again from a different angle. W16 ENGINE Here's the top and bottom view of the W16 engine. The engine doesn't use a single crankshaft, but a construction with three axles and three 24T gears. Admittedly, I would have loved to see a custom built engine with other parts than the standard pistons and cylinders, like the MACK truck. However, I don't think this is a bad solution. The engine operates smoothly and it's fun the see all the pistons moving. It does feel like a beast of an engine. Let's mount the engine by attaching it to the chassis. Again from a different angle. FRONT CHASSIS The rear of the chassis is finished, gearbox is in place and the motor has been built. It's time to move on to the front of the car. The front suspension also uses two springs on each side. Again from a different angle. This is what the front chassis looks like when the front suspension has been attached. There is a single clutch gear in this model. It's in the center of the vehicle, near the mechanism for the gear shifter (Forward/Reverse). Since the Chiron doesn't have a center diff, this model doesn't have one either. In the real car, there's full control over the power sent to the front and rear axle. This is done electronically. Obviously, the LEGO model doesn't have this kind of advanced mechanisms. Therefore, a clutch gear is used to avoid straing on the drivetrain. One thing I noticed is that the clutch gear is not attached with a 5L axle with stop, but with a regular 5L axle. I wonder why?! Next is the mechanism for the flappy paddles. It's a rather odd but ingenious system. This pictures clearly shows the white 1L connectors, which makes this mechanism possible. The video below demonstrates the gear shifter. It's not so stable yet, because it's not enforced by the chassis. The paddles in the Porsche were attached to the steering wheel. However, the elastic bands were placed in a position where they limited the operability of the paddles. The Chiron uses a different mechanism, where the paddles are positioned in front of the driver's seat, under the steering wheel. The front of the chassis right before the marriage. You can already see some of the tan interior and the dark blue exterior. Here's a video demonstrating the gear shifter and steering. THE MARRIAGE It's time for the marriage of the rear and front of the chassis. This is the result of the marriage. It's actually starting to look like a proper supercar. At this point I tested the gear shifting sequence. Rumor has it that there once was a supercar with incorrect gear shifting sequence, so I was pleased that I could clearly see (and feel) that the sequence was correct This car has a proper 8 + R gearbox, which means that it has 8 forward gears and just a single reverse. Some of us expected the have 8 reverse gears as well, but TLG did a proper job getting the gearbox right. One minor gripe is that the real Chiron only has 7 forward gears, but that's something I can live with. From this point it's mostly exterior work on the body. The spoiler neatly aligns with the rest of the bodywork. The rear of the car is so f.... sexy. I absolutely love how this is designed. And actually, I really like the bright red, instead of a trans-clear variant. This color makes it really stand out. Allegedly, the reason for not doing it in trans-clear, is that the material of the flex axles (and panels) is not suitable for trans-clear colors. The tan upholstery is partially made up of system bricks. I like the way the chairs worked out, but I probably would have added some more system bricks to avoid the gap in the seats. Here you can clearly see the gap I am referring to. After the interior we continue with the duo-tone exterior. When I first heard that the car would be blue-on-blue I was a bit disappointed. I was actually hoping for black-and-blue. I figured TLG would use regular blue, but I didn't think of dark blue. Admittedly, I was immediately convinced when I saw the dark azure and dark blue combination. And let's face it, duo tone blue is a trademark of Bugatti, so it makes a lot of sense to use these colors. The doors are added to the vehicle. They do feel a bit flimsy and there's no door lock. They look nice, but using the stickers on the tiles instead of flex axles and the flimsyness leaves room for improvement. Bit of a cop out if you ask me. When the first picture was leaked, it only showed the front of the car. It immediately generated lots of negative comments. Since I had already seen the back (and the rest) of the car, I was convinced that it wasn't so bad as many claimed. And when I look at the picture below, I still think the front worked out nicely. What I especially like are the angles in the bodywork. We have seen some Chiron MOCs, but they are mostly square cars with flex axles. This car has lots of exotic angles, replicating its real world counterpart. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I absolutely like how it worked out. And I don't mind the gaps in the bodywork. After all, it's not a Creator Expert car, but Technic. And last but definitely not least....the rims! If the car isn't good looking already, these rims take the cake. Absolutely stunning! Of course we need some rubber to transfer the power to the road! All in all I really enjoyed the build. I liked it better than the Porsche. Partially due to non-rushed building, but also because the gearbox, engine and other key elements are more fun to build. COMPLETED MODEL Low and behold, a LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron! Looking at the real car, you can see that the lighter blue resembles regular Technic blue more than dark azure. However, I am very happy that TLG still chose to go with dark azure. It results in a higher contrast between the two colors, it's better for dark azure part availability and it's just a better color blue The spoiler isn't fully extended in this picture. It's halfway between neutral (folded) and extended. On the left you can see the lead designer of the Bugatti. Oh wait, that's not entirely correct :wink: For those of you not familiar with the history of Eurobricks; this is Kim Thomsen (@KimT), former (technically he is still a member) Eurobricks member and he is member of the Community Engagement team at TLG. He is our contact for most of the activities. The right picture shows the actual designers, from left to right: Jachin Schwalbe - Bugatti Head of Chassis and Tire Development Achim Anscheidt - Bugatti Design Director Aurelien Rouffiange - TLG Designer Andrew Woodman - TLG Senior Design Manager Here you can clearly see the different angles, which definitely must have been challenging for Aurelien. Almost as good looking as the LEGO version hehe. As I said before, the rear of the car looks absolutely stunning. I can't get enough of this view. Usually the front of the car gives it its distinct look, and the rear...is just the rear. This car has a very distinct rear as well. I like how the W16 worked out. The engine has been partially covered with system bricks to give it the "big engine look", but you can still see most of the cylinders, in contrast to the Porsche. In this image you can see that the door isn't entire closed. This could have easily been avoided by adding door locks. Other than that, the car looks magnificent. Another great view of the back. Looking at this image, I start to wonder how this car will look like when the bodywork is entirely made in dark blue, and possibly losing the grey rigid hoses. The profile view is also very beautiful, but two odd thing stand out. First is the flex axle and rigid hose combo comprising the front grill. I somehow feel this could have looked better using a single axle or hose. The other thing is that the flex axles continue as stickers. This just doesn't feel entirely right. Especially since we have seen some simple, but very good looking, MODs, using rigid hoses. Some of the negative or odd things aside, I absolutely love the looks of this car. The duo-tone blue is stunning and the rims are out of this world. If you look closely at the rims, you will notice that the tires are not mounted "correctly". The rims slightly protrude the tires. Apparently Bugatti designers found the rims to be too small when mounted correctly. This was a very simple solution to make them look a bit bigger. At first I wasn't convinced by this solution, but upon seeing the solution in real life, I was convinced that it indeed looked better. And look at those disc brakes ... fantastic! The real ones don't look too shabby either There are a lot of odd angles, which are implemented very well. It's obviously a matter of personal taste, but I do like the looks of this car better than the Porsche's. Maybe it's the sophisticated color scheme. Combine dark azure with the classy dark blue and you have an instant winner. But of course, it's not only about colors, it's about shapes as well. The bottom of the chassis looks really clean. The tan interior looks great, especially with the stickers on the dashboard and on the inside of the doors. The Frunk (front trunk) opens to reveal the Bugatti bag. Like the Frunk, the space in the bag will be limited too. Where we are going, we don't need trunk or bag space These are the left-over parts after the build and the brick-built key you can use to raise the spoiler. The real car has key which can activate ludicrous speed (Spaceballs anyone?!). Although I like the gimmick of the LEGO key, I would have rather seen a spoiler which was raised with a lever next to the seat, or a similar solution. Without the key inserted. SUMMARY Being a model of a supecar, there's only so much functionality one can expect. However, with a hefty price tag, one can expect the functions to work properly. STEERING Basic functionality is steering, which doesn't work that well. The weight of the car, combined with the lack of HoG (Hand of God) steering, makes this car virtually unsteerable. When you manage to steer at a maximum angle, the turning radius is even bigger than Yo Mama. SUSPENSION After the gearbox issues in the Porsche two years ago, the suspension developed to be the flaw of this set. When you push the bodywork down, it doesn't come up again. This goes for the front AND the back. Maybe TLG don't see this as a flaw, but I do think this should work better. I have seen a solution where some of the friction pins were replace with frictionless pins and the suspension worked better. Maybe TLG (and Bugatti) considered the suspension to be too wobbly with frictionless pins, but this being a LEGO model, I feel the model should return to normal state after pushing the suspension down. For me, it's not a deal breaker, but I wonder how much thought went into this. DOORS The doors are very wobbly when opening. Besides that, there's no door locking mechanism. We have seen some pretty simple MODs, which would have solved this problem instantly. I don't get why simple details like these are so often omited in Technic models. GEARBOX For me, the gearbox lives up to the expectation. TLG went all out and designed some cool new elements to make sure this supercar has a properly working gearbox. Of course, there are always people who can make a better version, but after gearbox-gate two years ago, I'm very pleased with this one. W16 ENGINE Also, subject to many debates...the W16 engine. For the connaisseurs, this isn't really a W16 engine. It's more like a stacked V8 or a V8 with two extra 4-cylinder blocks. I would have loved for TLG to design some new engine elements as well, but I reckon they will leave that for future supercars. I can also imagine that the Bugatti is unique with a 16 cylinder engine, so designing special elements might be unneccesarily expensive. And to be honest; I do think the current setup is a proper solution for the W16. The engine works like a charm. DRIVETRAIN Something which does slightly bother me is the slack in the entire drivetrain. I have tested the gearbox sequence, which is flawless. But when you look at the pistons in the completed model, they sometimes only start turning after 50cm of driving. So many gears need to be engaged, that slack is building up. So, after the closed engine compartment of the Porsche, we now get a semi-open engine compartment, but the pistons aren't very responsive. SPOILER Raising the spoiler with the key is a nice gimmick, but I'd rather have a lever in the interior. Or maybe, have it linked to a fake brake pedal. Or, as a middle ground, be able to insert the key somewhere else in the chassis/bodywork, instead of fiddling in the wheel arch. CONCLUSION Some people claim (or rather, shout on every social media they can find) that this model is overpriced. At a price of € 369,99 for 3.599 parts, I don't think it's overpriced. Is it cheap? Definitely not. But in terms of part count you get what you can expect of a Technic set. It's not that this set is filled with System parts, as was expected before the unveiling. Do I think this set is worth this kind of money?! I find this question difficult to answer. It all depends on your needs, financial situation etc. If you like to buy Technic for the functions and to build other stuff with, then this set is probably not for you. But if you are into cool looking supercars, then this set is definitely worth the money. Like the Porsche, I will probably pick up an extra copy, just to have a collection of MISB supercars. As with most things in life, it's all about expectations. When the Porsche was released, we didn't really know what to expect. Therefore, some of the AFOLs were disappointed. Admittedly, I was a bit let down too, in some aspects. Now that we know the concept behind the "UCS" Technic models, we know better what to expect. So, does this model live up to my expectations? Yes, it does! The new gearbox surpasses my expectations, while I am somewhat disappointed with some of the other features. Overall, I do like this model better than the Porsche. The build is slightly more fun, the gearbox works better and I do love the duo-tone color scheme. Oh, and did I mention the gorgeous looking rear of the car?! All things considered I do love this set. If you are into the Porsche, you will definitely love this set. If you think the Porsche is just an expensive display model, you can easily skip this set as well. On the other hand; this line of supercars is probably the best chance, for most of us, of getting a collection of supercars SCORE From now on I will omit the scoring section. Not all sets have the same criteria and not all people are looking for the same things in a set. What can be a good parts pack for one builder, can be a lousy one for the other etc. A set like this, is not built for playability, so it's useless to rate the playability. Therefore, I think it's better to have a written summary with my feelings and let you decide the score yourself. I will end with a "which one do I like best" list, which I will use for future reference, when reviewing supercars. This list reflects my current preference: Bugatti Chiron Porsche GT3 RS FINAL WORDS Thanks you for reading this review. All pictures can be found here. Since the poll is still broken, I haven't included it, but I still like to hear what you think of this set?

INTRODUCTION There's always room for you If you wanna be my friend We are, we are on the cruise! We are! It's been around since 1997 but this year is the first time Lego has delved into the world of One Piece. Beginning as a serialized manga before production began on the anime, Netflix picked up the long-running show in 2023 to produce a live action version. Season 2 of the live action adaptation airs next year in 2026. That made 2025 the perfect time for Lego to team up and create the first wave of One Piece sets. This is my 5th and final review of this theme. You can read my review of the Going Merry, the Windmill Village Hut, Buggy's Circus Tent and Battle at Arlong Park respectively. Chronologically, this set covers the 5th an 6th episodes of the 8 episode season 1. But what would One Piece be without a crazy amount of back-story episodes! So let's go back in time before the battle at Arlong Park and see what makes the Baratie so special. SET INFORMATION Number: 75640 Title: The Baratie Floating Restaurant Theme: One Piece Released: 2025 Part Count: 3402 Box Dimensions: 52 x 47.5 x 12 cm Weight: 4680g Set Price (RRP): £269.99/$329.99/€299.99 Price per Part: 7.9p/9.7c/8.8c Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX AND WHAT'S INSIDE The box is massive as benefits a set of this size. Meant to be more of an Icons style display piece, the box forgoes the colorful background and opts for a classy black instead. Inside the box no space there is no empty space. It is jam packed with bricks. We get 2 packages for the instruction books and stickers. And we get 2 sticker sheets. The stickers are used sparingly, but for a set this size I wish we had gotten prints instead. THE BUILD Unfortunately, first impressions on this build are not the best. The build starts with the fish's mouth at the front of the ship. And just a couple bags in the unsightly injection points are plentiful. But perhaps even more jarring is the color variance of the 1x4 modified plates. Most have the standard hue, but a few are more peachy. Can you spot the 3 off-colored pieces here? The unsightly injection mold points continue all through the set. It's barely noticeable on some pieces, but on colors like reddish brown it's an awful eyesore. Those flaws aside, the build was fantastic from start to finish. The front of the mouth is built up with a wide variety of pieces to give it both a rounded shape and secure connection points. Shaping for the fish head is achieved by using newer curved pieces. Other curves are made using a new, shorter version of a classic curved brick. The tan is what's in the set, the grey is what existed before. The end result is a very close replica of the front of the Baratie. Moving on to the rest of the floating restaurant we build the grand staircase allowing guests to descend to the dinning area. This is done by stacking 1x5 technic plates, 1x4 rounded plates, and tiles and wedge plates. The result looks excellent. Put together, the sections start to take on the shape of the Baratie. To get the shape of the ship, large panels are built for the right and left sides and then attached using clips. This is a common technique in sets these days, but the way the Baratie uses the curved bricks to get a perfectly flush connection is impressive. The left panel is connected using this unique method. And the right panel is connected using clips. Only half-way through the bags but already the set is too big for my light-box! Next I have to show an oddity I've never noticed in Lego pieces before. As I was finishing the right panel I noticed an odd gap between these brown L-tiles. So I did some testing. The top row are the tiles included in the Baratie set. The bottom four rows are pieces from my collection. You can see that the black and gray have no noticeable gap. However, even my older browns have a little more of a gap. Rotate the pieces and the gap disappears from the newer brown L-tiles. So I put the tiles back, rotated this time and you can see that a new gap is there. And here's back at the original state. These are very odd variances in piece sizes. Has anyone else had this problem? Rounding off my list of complaints, here are some more injection mold marks extra noticeable on the pearl gold pieces. And here are 2 of the stickers used to make a lantern. My fingerprints mar the overall affect and I question if it was really necessary to use stickers at all for this part. The lanterns hang belong the railing and above the main door. The back of the model is doll-house style with lots of space to place figures. The curved seats allow 3 minifigures to be seated comfortably. The orange seats are built on turn tables and can therefore move though they aren't intended to. The kitchen is well furnished with food and equipment, though it's very tight and hard to place minifigures. Getting Luffy into his Chore-Boy position at the sink took many tries! Leading out of the kitchen is a back door. If you're a starving pirate this is where you enter so that Sanji can feed you. Zeff's office has a transponder snail and some other pirate paraphernalia. Inside the cabinet is a pearly pink jar. If this is a reference to something I don't know what! The upper levels house treasure. This has nothing to do with the show, live action or anime. But it's a nice way to fill the space. The top part can come off to allow access underneath, but it's not really needed. In front of the main door is a weathered platform to recreate Mihawk and Zoro's fight. I like the weathered look, but having those gaps filled with plates would have been better. It's hard to pose more than a couple figures on the platform since the gaps in the tiles don't allow the figures to pivot at all. The splat gear turns to two round jumper plates allowing to figures to sword fight each other. This is a brilliant idea. However, with the sword in Zoro's mouth and the size of Mihawk's blade, Yoru, it means if you fight with them their blades are always knocking against the mermaid statues. The platform should have been at least 1 stud longer. Speaking of swords. Mihawk's blade is an amazing new element. It has a stud on one side of the handle to allow it to stick to the neck bracket on Mihawk for easy carrying. And Zoro's third blade, which he holds with his moth is also a new element. It can be held by a hand, but the plastic is soft and mine got damaged by putting in a hand. I really wish they would have made a neck-bracket with a clip to hold any sword. But I guess the sword wouldn't have been as close to Zoro's mouth then. Much like the Going Merry, the Baratie tries to use forced perspective to get both a display model and a playset in one. However, where the Going Merry does it well, the Baratie fails in many aspects. The front of the Going Merry is mostly minifigure scale and moving back it becomes more and more micro. The Baratie jumps between two scales more sporadically. The micro door between the fish's mouth and the main door is micro scale, but it's a jarring contrast between the two minifigure scale parts. The outside balcony in front of the ship's sign are minifigure scale, but the sign itself is micro scale. It's tricky to balance the scales like that and the Baratie doesn't quite make it. Put the Going Merry up next to the Baratie and the scale doesn't work either. The Baratie should be much bigger in size comparison. The sections that are minifigure scale are great, it's the micro scale that doesn't seem to fit. THE MINIFIGURES There are a total of 10 charaters included in this set. First off we have the main crew of the Straw-Hat Pirates. Zoro, Nami, Luffy, Usopp and Sanji. They all have alternate faces and pieces created specifically for One Piece. They other five are Zeff, the owner of the Baratie; Garp, a navy Vice Admiral and Luff's grandpa; Helmeppo and Kody, Navy cadets; and Mihawk, one of the 7 warlords. All fit the context of the Baratie episodes well. I'm glad we got some Navy members. Though I wish they would have left off the Cadet badge from the two cadets. We can't re-create some of Luffy's battles against the navy yet! Missing from the line up is Patisserie Patty. His inclusion would have made the line-up perfect. Zeff uses a new beard piece and in a new color. It's called Ochre on Bricklink. Here you can see how it compares to some other Lego yellow hair colors. Some have been unhappy with the choice of a cowboy hat for Mihawk. So I tried switch it out for the musketeer one. The feather looks really good, but the hat isn't quite right. It also doesn't allow for his sword to attach behind as the brim rests too low. What Mihawk needs is a cowboy hat with a feather hole, but that would have been a new mold. Of the two, I think the cowboy hat is a good choice. I also changed Garp's hair as the spiked hair didn't seem to represent him well. If Lego made the piece I used in light gray it would have been perfect. Here's the modified Mihawk in his coffin shaped boat. Holding his sword he looks impressive, but a little too much like Barabossa for my taste. OVERALL As far as being the largest set in this wave I think the Baratie could have done a little better with the Straw Hat crew. Across all 5 sets we get 5 different versions of Luffy. The Baratie version is on the right. He's only technically exclusive due to the specific match up of hat and face print. But if you've bought the other sets you already have this Luffy. I like that they gave him his classic red vest, but an option would have been to have a different outfit for the Baratie or at least a unique face print. Zoro gets a total of 3 versions. The Baratie version on the right again is exactly the same as the Buggy set. Another missed opportunity to include something special. Nami gets 4 versions. The only unique version is from the Arlong Park set. Again, I love that they focused on her classic outfit. But the Baratie was a chance to include something new. Usopp gets 3 versions with the Baratie version the same as the Going Merry, just without the slingshot. Sanji gets the short end of the stick with only 2 versions. And here, the Baratie gives us a unique outfit that's totally in character and a great addition. I would have loved a face print with hearts for eyes though. The chase gimmick for the One Piece sets are the Wanted Posters. The Baratie comes with 5 random 2x3 tiles. I got 2 Gold Rogers, 2 Kuros, and 1 Don Krieg. Across all 5 sets I got 2 Kuros, 4 Buggys, 2 Don Kriegs, 2 Alvidas, 2 Arlongs, and 2 Gold Rogers. That means I'm still missing Luffy and Mihawk. Almost 600 euros worth of sets and I still don't have a full set. I appreciate the idea of chasing after the posters. But I think Lego needs to do a better job. Either ensure each set has 0 duplicates giving someone better odds at getting a full set or they need to include all 8 in the Baratie. SCORE How do I rate this set? DESIGN 8 This is a decent display piece and playset. Though it succeeds better as a playset. It tries to balance scales and doesn't quite reach the mark. BUILDING EXPERIENCE 10 This was thoroughly fun to build. There are many great techniques and it never felt repetitive. FEATURES 9 There are so many places to put figures, there are a great number of treasures scattered around the ship, and a huge selection of food and food prep pieces. That gives you a lot of ways to display the set. There is also the great fighting feature though the platform needs to be just a little bigger. If there was better space to place minifgures and a larger platform this would be a 10. PLAYABILITY 10 The Baratie really shines when it comes to play. Storytelling is easy. And sword fights are fun if you use shorter swords. PARTS 9 There is a great variety of pieces in this set. The color choice is okay, but the constant switching from red to brown doesn't quite do it for me. I don't know what they could have changed, but I feel like some of the colors should have been different. VALUE FOR MONEY 9 You get a great number of parts for the price. However, I feel like we needed at least one member of the Baratie's staff to help Sanji and Zeff. Even if you had to trade out Helmeppo to get him. Also, the distribution of the Wanted Posters needed to be better. FINAL SCORE: 9 As the flagship set of the first One Piece wave the Baratie had a lot to live up to. And it gets close. It's a great model with fantastic techniques. The figure selection, while not unique enough for this set, is decent. If you're a fan of One Piece I would say this set is worth getting. It's already been on sale on Amazon so you might get lucky and find a good deal for Christmas. However, if you're looking for the best bang-for-your-buck the Going Merry is a far better choice. Both sets have the full Straw Hat crew. And the extra figures in the Baratie are nice, but little things like the wrong hair for Garp and the "Cadet" printed on Helmeppo and Koby's uniforms lower the overall appeal. And now, to wrap up our story. Luffy and his crew discovered an island and now face it's lone inhabitant... Hey, you're interrupting our meal! I am the spirit of Gol D. Roger! Who disturbs my rest? You're not Roger, just who are you? Alright, you got me. I just like my privacy and that usually scares people off. Geez, don't scare us like that! Yeah, it's not very nice of you. Trust me, you don't want to mess with our captain. And why's that? I'm going to become King of the Pirates! Har har har! I wish you luck boy. May you have better luck finding Gol D. Roger's treasure than I have of looking like him! And so Luffy and his crew sailed off to find the One Piece!

Here is my review on the latest LEGO Chinese New Year set 80118 Fortune Firecracker THE GOOD: A fun building experience. New variant of the God of Fortune minifig. Some very nice details. THE NOT SO GOOD: Wall mounted only display. Not enough appeal for general audience. It's been a LONG WHILE since my last review but with the new CNY sets, I decided to return with a new post. First, I have to say, LEGO is getting "smarter" with its strategy. To be honest, if without the miinfigures I would have skipped this. But because of the minifigs, I've decided to give it a try as I usually don't buy decor only sets. I was very skeptical and worried about the repetition of the building experience. Surprisingly, this build has been fun. No stickers is a plus, if you needed to put stickers on the crackers then it would be a nightmare. There are some interesting techniques in building the box too. The dragon design on the door is great and generally a great idea if you want to make a huge castle. It's also cool they put a few studs inside the cracker to allow the rattling noise. Making it like a cupboard and having the ability to switch scenes is great. Now, the packaging is a big misleading as it kinda indicate pressing the button will switch over but in reality it just pushes the scene out and you need replace it manually. The minifigures are great as expected. An updated variate of the God of Fortune or the Fortune Master. I like the face of the previous one but always good to get new variant. Unfortunately the hat is still brick built instead of a new mould. The biggest issue I have with the set is its being a wall mounted only set. The reality is, even in a chinese household you would not hang this all year round. If you don't hang it, there is not good way to say display this apart from laying it down. And the crackers are hanged under with a fixed technic bar which makes it very inflexible. I also don't like the use of the bright blue bricks on the front design. Overall, I didn't find the set compelling enough compared to past CNY sets. While the building experience is great and have some nice details, it didn't change my opinion that I probably will not buy this set if there were no exclusive minifigs included in this.

Review: 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Name: BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Number: 42063 Theme: Technic Year: 2017 Pieces: 603 Price: Euro 49.99€, AUD $89.99 Brickset: Extra Info Technic Early 2017 Review Series Welcome to the fifth in my batch of 2017 Technic reviews! I was offered all the small sets early 2017 for review late last year... but I ended up getting them all! Thus I have a lot to review. I've been doing them in parallel and changing my process as I go so hopefully the latter ones will end up being the best. On that angle I'll probably retcon some of the earlier reviews if I improve my process. Due to this remember that I'm happy to take extra photos or provide extra info on request, and anything especially good will be added to the main body of the review. Do note though that sometimes the model may no longer exist if I have have made an alternate. On the subject of alternates, I will be making the alt model, if I have the instructions, think the model is worth making, and I have the time. Also I'll show mid stage construction only if I think it's relevant. Thus don't ask for construction photos or alt models if they aren't part of the review.... I am prepared to extract parts for detail photos though. Photos will all be hosted on Flickr so larger versions are available, and relevant videos will be on YouTube and linked to from here. I don't edit photos much; very rarely I'll crop one and almost never will "correct" them so the photos should be as natural as possible. I will try to not be repetitive; thus it's worth reading my other reviews. For example I'm not going to complain too much about the digital instructions; I'll try to complain about new things, or maybe not complain at all! Here's all the other reviews of H1 2017 Technic... 42057 Ultralight Helicopter 42058 Stunt Bike 42059 Stunt Truck (and 45058/42059 Combiner) 42060 Roadwork Crew 42061 Telehandler 42062 Container Yard 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure 42064 Ocean Explorer 42065 Tracked Racer Mucho multi thanks to the EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for allowing me to review these sets for Eurobricks. So onto the review! Packaging Front.... ...back.... ...top. The combiner is interesting in this one so I did make it. Unboxing Standard punch box. Instructions and wheels were loose. Instructions are provided for both models, and the quality is excellent with thick bound covers. The build is not sectioned. Aside from the anniversary piece there isn't anything new here, but the panels used for the side and the windscreen are new colours, and more importantly the wheels are in black at last. Parts list. Random instruction page. Build This is the lower frame with the engine and driveshaft joined. This is the bottom of the bike; the anniversary piece and the central gear are viewable in the finished model. It's done! Spare parts. This 600 part set, vs the 250 part 42007 (orange bike), but obviously it's not that much bigger. ('cos it's got the same wheels.) All those parts are just to make the bike better! (Black bike is a MOC. Not being reviewed.) Ahhhgh! Someone dropped my bike! While it's down you can see the frame shown earlier. The gear is there partially so you can spin the drivetrain, although it is functional as well. (Be careful to pick it up with your legs not your arms; these things weigh around 250kg.) Unflattering cam. Even with the extra parts it still suffers the curse of most Technic bikes; near transparency. Doesn't bother me, but it's a common complaint. What does however bother me is the exhaust; it's on the rear swingarm and is thus suspended. This was probably a compromise due to the already complicated rear, but it's just weird. (And incorrect.) The front suspension is mostly correct; telelever or something close anyway. What am I on about? OK.... ..look here. Most motorcycles have a shock either side of the front wheel, but many (not all) BMW ones have what they call Telelever, which put simply is a variant of double wishbone suspension. It has many advantages on paper but this discussion is beyond the scope of this review. Now look here! I'm no expert (not modesty!) but it's in the ballpark. The first time in an official set I believe. OK, let's put the stickers on now... on a side note I find it funny how the designers needed to widen the cylinder head to give it the correct BMW look that causes so many debates about leanability... but I digress again. Each box gets branded, but the model doesn't use the stickers for shape or even panel blending. You can also see here how relatively compact the shaft drive is. (First time in a set also?) Lack of rear brakes is disappointing though. No controls this time. The Technic front fairing is simple but it works well IMHO; these kind of fairings are rather hard to do well. (I cheated and used system on my own MOC.) Going nowhere fast it seems. The boxes come off without too much damage... which highlights that the rear suspension needs better pre-load adjustment (haw, haw, haw) as it's really not strong enough for this model unless it's going luggage free. (I think it's OK in the front.) Maybe it's time LEGO made a really hard spring... To my surprise they open too, which took some creative pin usage. Functional video. Future Bike Concept (B Model) Well for a start, it gets full points for building something very different in a licensed model! To be honest I didn't want to make this, but.... ...I then saw how nice the presentation of it was in the instructions. So I ended up making this first. It uses most of the parts... ...and even gets it's own sticker! (The un-used one.) I didn't realise this until I finished the A model. On a related but negative note, it assumes you have not used the stickers yet, but I don't think it would look bad if you had already applied them The functions are a rotating and angling rear thruster, steering vanes and folding wings. It's best to watch a video. While I do think it's a cool model with decent functionality... I just don't get it. Internal combustion engine in a flying bike? That kinda negates the possibility of Star Trek style tech so how does it take off? The thruster is too far back.... Nor does it lift enough to be an effective force in forward flight. Looking at the art and the front I suspect they wanted to work in the second wheel, but ran out of parts. The steering vanes are pretty cool though. The landing function is good however. The stand makes heavy usage of the pannier parts, which leaves me wondering if the panniers were added to make the B Model better! (I'm out of stuff to say about the B model, but there's plenty more photos on Flickr.) Ratings Function: BMW bikes are a good choice for LEGO as they are very different and give a chance to make a different model. (I hope though that they'll do other licenses.) As bikes go this is an excellent set, adding panniers and an interesting B model pushes this set to top gear. 10/10 Parts: A good blend of parts, although the panniers are not terrible exciting. 9/10 Price: Yeah, it's more expensive than I'd like, but it's licensed and would have taken a lot of work. 8/10 Accuracy: Ignoring the B model, the only flaw is the exhaust placement. 9/10 Fudge: Motorbikes + Technic? What a winning combination. 10/10 Overall: Ride out and get one! 9/10

Since it hasn't dropped in all markets yet, some might still want to see this. Quick review of set 75175 featuring Lando.

Here we have Lego's Deep Freeze Defender from 1993's Ice Planet 2002, a sub-theme of the long-lasting Space theme. While not the most expensive set in the Ice Planet line, the Deep Freeze Defender has the highest part count at 420 pieces. It retailed for $45 when first introduced. It's impossible not to fall in love with the Ice Planet color scheme. White, blue, black, and trans-orange all work deliciously well together. This mighty vessel is instantly identifiable as a craft made to explore dangerously cold environments. I especially love the array of tall, trans-orange "window" elements at the rear of the ship. This frontal shot prominently displays the distinctive tandem cockpit set-up. The Deep Freeze Defender was not the first or last set to utilize this design feature, but in my opinion it remains the most iconic of those that do. The large print of the Ice Planet emblem in the center of the craft is stunning. The printed arrow tiles hint at the first of many gimmicks of this set. Both cockpit sections are connected to the main hull via a 2x2 brick with a technic-style pin. With a bit of force, each module can easily be detached from the rest of the ship. Even by themselves, the "command craft" are delightful little builds. Identical to each other, each craft features a pair of skis, a chainsaw, and a black blaster/flashlight/whatever element for the pilot to use. Of note, the white skis are elevated just slightly above the ground. The bottom of the craft is raised by four smooth inverted dish pieces, allowing it to glide along a flat surface with ease. Here the connector piece that allows the command craft to attach and detach from the bulk of the ship is clearly visible. Other elements on the main hull sandwich around the rearmost bricks of the craft, ensuring that the command craft remain aligned with the rest of the ship at all times. With the canopy open, the cockpit interior is visible. The printed 2x2 slope piece is lovely, and the pilot fits snugly and securely inside. A look at what the set looks like with a single command craft docked to the main hull. The satellite which was once in the center has been moved off to the right of the ship. A look at the set with both command craft removed. Perhaps this could be operated by the pilot of the scout craft in the rear of the ship, who we'll see more of soon. Once more, the printed arrows hint at another of the set's gimmicks. This time the main hull itself will be splitting apart into two smaller craft. To undock these two halves, simply lift two arrow-printed hinges and pull the two sections of the ship apart. Aside from the stud connections of the two hinges, the halves are joined by two blocks with technic pins, similar to the command craft. The rear section of the vessel begins at the large trans-orange "corner" pieces. The two halves of the main hull separated. Each has a unique gimmick which will soon be revealed. With both sections of the main hull separated, the two command craft can dock with the individual components, forming two unique, complimentary craft from a single large vessel. A truly wonderful gimmick and easily my favorite part of this set. In my opinion each configuration of this set looks equally impressive. While one could interpret the rocket housed within the forward hull section as a weapon, it's really intended as a launch platform for a data-gathering satellite. The rocket is loosely, yet securely mounted on a short technic axle. Lifting the bay hatch pulls the rocket with it, allowing the rocket to stand upright for blast-off. The rocket is ready for blast-off, and the satellite has been mounted and secured. In cases where the rocket can't take off directly from the ship however, the magnet hints at an alternate launch method. Visible through the slots in the rear windows is a hard-working Ice Planet astronaut. While the two pilots in front are busy maneuvering and navigating the ship, perhaps this intrepid fellow is pouring over research data. Of course, he has other duties to perform as well, when needed... Another iconic facet of this set is the launch bay, comprised of alternating white and trans-orange garage door elements. Here, the bay is securely locked. The track for the bay door is unlocked by flipping open the two hatches, made easy by the large black thruster elements. Sliding the bay door open reveals the interior, and the Ice Planet astronaut within. But with the bay door fully retracted... ...The hidden scout craft is ready to take off! Sliding the bay door back all the way presses against an arm that angles the tiny ship into launch position and locks it into place. The craft easily slides off the arm to take flight. A look at the bay with the scout craft removed. The launch arm is clearly visible. When the scout craft returns, the arm's protrusion simply slots into an empty space on the rear of the tiny ship. Sliding the bay door closed relieves pressure on the arm and lowers the scout flat inside the bay itself. A look at the scout craft by itself. A very simple build. Like the larger command craft, it features a pair of skis for its pilot, but no other accessories. As for the magnet on the left side... ...This allows the scout craft to fly off with the rocket! Perhaps the pilot has found a more suitable place to launch the satellite into orbit. The rocket has launched, and its payload has been inserted into the icy planet's orbit. When deployed, the arms of the satellite unfold as shown. Assembled here are the three minifigures included with the Deep Freeze Defender. Two can pilot the ship, while the remaining member can pilot the scout craft. The figure in the center has a unique torso print, denoting his status as leader. With their trans-orange visors flipped up, the identities of each minifigure are properly revealed! Commander Cold (known as Commander Bear in the U.K. and Japan) stands proudly in the center, flanked by unnamed male and female astronauts. Ice Planet 2002 was one of the first Space themes to include specially printed minifigure faces (narrowly beaten by Space Police II). Additionally, the female of this set is the first female minifigure in the entire Space line. Equipped with their accessories, the Ice Planet astronauts are ready for anything! Commander Cold sports a combined tool made from his black "blaster" element and chainsaw, while the female astronaut wields them separately. The male astronaut treks on only with a pair of skis. The broad, flat surfaces of the skis allow for some (carefully set) walking poses unaided by plates or other pieces. In conclusion, the Deep Freeze Defender is an absolutely phenomenal set. It's durable, stylish, fun, and loaded with interesting and well-implemented gimmicks. It is by far the best of the Ice Planet 2002 sets, and one of the best large starship builds in all of Lego history. Very highly recommended for all Lego Space fans.

SET REVIEW: 10255 ASSEMBLY SQUARE Introduction To start the new year off, it is my pleasure to present to the EB community a review of the 10255 Assembly Square, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Lego modular building series. This is the 12th and largest set in the series and it is packed full of interesting details both in the structures and the decorative elements, many of which reference past modular building sets. This set to me shows just how far set design has advanced within the space of 10 years, from the original 10182 Cafe Corner which was one of the first sets targeted at adult builders and was a stunning development at the time, to the present day where we are seeing more and more of these large expert sets. I hope you enjoy this review and I look forward to reading your comments. All images link to flickr where larger resolutions can be viewed if desired. My thanks to EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for the opportunity to review this set for the EB community. Set information Name: Assembly Square Number: 10255 Theme: LEGO Creator Expert / Modular Building Theme Year: 2017 Release Date: 1 January 2017 Pieces: 4,002 Price: USD $279.99, GBP £179.99, EURO €239.99, CAD $339.99, NZD $449.99 Resources: Brickset Packaging I'll begin with some images of the packaging for this set. The box is quite large (580x480x168mm) and features lots of detail shots on the back, many of which were in the press release. Unfortunately the box was a bit battered in transit but the details are all still clear. One side of the box features all of the minifigures in the set while the back also has a layer-by-layer separation of the buildings to show the floor plan. I have included a size comparison with the box for the previous set in the series, 10251 Brick Bank, to demonstrate how much bigger this one is. Box Front Box Rear Box Sides Box Contents Despite the size of the box it is packed pretty full. There is one very thick instruction manual, a white internal box which has the numbered bags for sections 1 through 3, and then the numbered bags for sections 4 through 6 are loose in the main box. The box also contains two green baseplates (32x32 and 32x16) and a single 8x16 light grey plate. There are a lot of bags in this set for each section: Section 1: 3 numbered bags, a 32x32 green baseplate and a 16x32 green baseplate Section 2: 7 numbered bags Section 3: 5 numbered bags Section 4: 4 numbered bags Section 5: 7 numbered bags Section 6: 7 numbered bags and a 16x8 light grey plate Contents Overall Internal Box and Contents Instruction Booklet The instruction booklet is a single thick volume. Unfortunately, it does not come sealed in any sort of plastic like many other expert sized sets, so when I pulled mine out it was a little bent and had a tear on the front cover, which is unfortunate. Otherwise, it is a sturdy booklet with lots of helpful features such as the breakdown of which bags build which sections of the set and an extensive parts list at the back. As well as boxes for the parts used in each step, the parts are also outlined in yellow as they are added to the build. Booklet Cover Inside Sample Pages Minifigures This set comes with a wide variety of minifigures, 8 in total plus one of the relatively new baby minifigures. There are 4 male and 4 female minifigures filling a variety of roles themed to the types of stores and rooms within the set: a baker, florist, barista, dentist, photographer, music shop manager, ballerina and AFOL with her baby. All have the classic smiley face except for the baby, who also has white dots in his or her eyes. All of the minifigure torsos are printed on both sides with interesting designs and are complimented by an assortment of hairpieces and hats, including a beret and moustache for the photographer. The barista's apron is also printed down onto her legs. Barista, Florist, Baker, Music Shop Owner and Dentist - Front Barista, Florist, Baker, Music Shop Owner and Dentist - Back Photographer, Ballerina, AFOL and Baby - Front Photographer, Ballerina, AFOL and Baby - Back The Build Part 1: Floor Plan Now it is time to get building, and we're in for quite a lengthy one with 6 bagged sections to complete. This first section is pretty much all tiles; lots and lots of tiles. These take a while to lay out (and longer if you're a bit pedantic like me and want all of the dots left behind by the sprues to be pointing the same way). Speaking of those dots, I was a bit sad to see these on the sides of many of the 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 and even 1x6 tiles now, where they used to be on the underside either in the centre of at one end. I say most; really every tile in this set has the sprue dots on an edge, except for 4 of the 1x2 dark grey tiles in this section. Mostly these can be hidden, but not always, it was definitely better when they were on the underside. The footprint for the building is 48x32, as shown below. In reality, it is really 2 separate buildings, one taking up a 32x16 space on the left and the other occupying the standard 32x32 modular building size on the right. The right building is designed to look like 2 buildings but is built as one (as we shall see later). Baseplate Footprint We begin by laying out the tiles for the footpath and the building on the right, which will be a bakery. This is followed by the fountain in the centre and the tiles for the florist shop at the back (part of the right building), and we complete part 1 with the tiles for the coffee shop in the left building. There are lots of interesting tile colours and shapes, particularly around the fountain, including cut corners and the shield pieces. Tiles As the tiles are laid down, the size of the buildings becomes clear, including spaces left in the floor for furnishing later. In comparison to the original Cafe Corner set which had no interior at all, this is quite a different start! Footpath and Bakery The fountain base is a neat build so I have included a couple of construction shots to show how it comes together. The actual fountain won't be added until the second to last step of part 6 of the build, so we have the be patient for that, but we do get the base now. Fountain construction Note the turntable in the entry to the building on the left; this will be used to create a doorway similar to the Cafe Corner entry, a nice throwback to that set. There are lots of features of this build that reference all 11 of the past sets; I won't mention all of them so see how many you can spot! Fountain Base and Left Building Entry With part 1 of the build finished, we can see how large each building is eventually going to be, although not much other than the floor tiles have been laid down. Coffee Shop Floor Florist Floor Bakery Floor Part 1 also includes the baby's pram, which improves on the pram design that featured in the 10185 Green Grocer set. The baby is in part 6 of the build along with the street lights and fountain, so we don't get to see the baby in the pram just yet! Baby's Pram There are only a few spare parts left over at the end of this section, shown below. Spare Parts The Build Part 2: Bakery and Florist In part 2 of the build, we construct the bakery and (most of) the florist that occupy the right building. The florist is in the central section behind the fountain and connects to the bakery on the right. The florist shop isn't actually finished in this part; the last couple of layers are added in part 3. Before building this section, there are some interesting parts to point out, including the blue/yellow bird (which is a new take on the old parrot mould with slight differences such as in the shape of the beak). There is a variety of printed treats on 1x1 round tiles and some other interesting parts and colours, shown below. Interesting Parts We start by building the bakery and florist interiors and back walls. Immediately I am finding all sorts of exciting furnishings to make the building a little more interesting than just building up the walls. In the bakery, we have a built-in oven in the back which includes a large black door with a cast-iron look to it and a play feature for getting the pastries out, demonstrated below. In the florists shop, we have the counter with a till, money and plant inside a jar, a stand for the parrot and a display of flowers. The flower display has a nice variety of colours for the flower pieces and includes a six-pronged flower stem, which when placed next to the brown brick makes for quite a snug fit (almost too snug, but I got it to stay there). Bakery and Florist Interiors Florist Furniture Florist Interior The bakery oven features a technic pin at the back to push the tarts out; it's quite powerful so be wary, those tarts can go flying! Bakery Oven Next we build up the front of the florist, with pillars around the door and each window decorated with a SNOT technique. The arches above the door will be added in part 3, so for now we just build the white frames. Florist Door Frame Pillars Florist Door Frames To finish part 2 of the build, we complete the bakery. First there are a few furnishings to build, which include a large display cabinet built into the wall with lots of different cakes and pastries, a smaller glass cabinet in the counter, a table with pastries and a large wedding cake. Bakery Counter Bakery Wall Cabinet The wedding cake is a neat design, with angled tiles to make the tabletop and a miniature bride and groom on top. Bakery Furniture Bakery Interior with Furniture Next comes the front of the bakery, which has two large windows made with garage door pieces. The doorway uses an angled door-frame piece. We also add the canopies above the windows on the florist at this point. Bakery Entrance Bakery Windows The windows are topped with dark blue sloping roof tiles and above the doorway is an upside down dome, which is attached with 1x1 circular tiles with pins on them, which connect to the open holes in the bricks below. A staircase is added at the back for access to the next level and a few more details such as a clock, and then the bakery is complete! Bakery Window Lintels Bakery Staircase Bakery Doorway And there are our first two rooms complete, the bakery and florist. I'll conclude with a final picture of the front and back of part 2. Part 2 Front Part 2 Back There are a few more spare parts with this section, including spares of the three 1x1 round printed tiles. Spare Parts

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Hi! I’ve translated my review of 8880 set (B-model). I need your feedback – is it interesting for you? It's not too complex model and video is quite short that's why I've chosen it for my experiment. I have a lot of cool old sets (reviewed and not reviewed) and I can translate some of them. Thanks for watching!

What time is it? LEGO Ideas and Cartoon Network have joined together to create a totally Algebraic new set. 21308 Adventure Time! The official product description reads: Also, as we all know, LEGO Ideas sets have come from the clever and creative brain-spaces of LEGO fans. From the LEGO Ideas blog I present aBetterMonkey (aka Ludovic Piraud) The set stats for all you number hungry heroes: Parts: 495 Pieces Prices: $49.99 (I can only find the dollar price right now...) Here's the box, the usual sturdier fold out flap package that the more "presentation" oriented sets are sold in. It is very attractive and colourful, with the graphics styled like the cartoon and the characters posed in a way reminiscent to the cartoon too. Showing us just what we get with all the important branding logos too! The back of the box is a cute comic strip arrangement comparing the build-able figures and the characters in the show. Honestly, this is making me hope that there might be an all LEGO styled episode in the series. The Ideas blurb on the boxout informs you about the set. The sides have a continuation of the Land of Ooo styled landscape. Here is a nice little bit printed under the flap. Sage advice too. Inside there are three numbered bags and the full colour instruction manual. The Manual itself has the full instructions and a little character biography for the featured characters. Also, popping up on a few pages are the brick-built characters themselves with little quotes to enjoy as you build. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, building in a logical way to create each figure. Bag 1 Finn, Jake, BMO and a brick separator. Very useful tool, but I have nearly 12 now. Included as these Ideas sets are often aimed more at the fan of the theme than the LEGO fan, so it will be useful for them. There are printed tiles and bricks to create our favourite characters and the colours required too. Certainly it is mostly basic parts, but the result are some very charming figures. Here's the boys (and BMO). Two controllers for video gaming, a cute little BMO with NPU(Nice Parts Use) hotdog arms! BMO is just as adorable as in the series. Jake is all the right colours with the usual cheery grin. The construction of his face means you can build plenty of his morphed forms. I'm looking forward to having a go at building a Jake Suit. Now our hero himself, Finn the Human Boy. The clean lines of a brick-built figure suit the character, two round tiles as the bear hat ears are a great little detail. Pose-ability is minimal, but the mixel ball joints allow some sword swinging detail. The simplicity of the sword design also means it is easy to create many more of Finn's favourite things to take into battle. Overall, these three are well designed, fun to build and cute to boot. Spares aren't actually very remarkable, but spare parts do add to a collection. Bag 2 Here we have the parts for building Marceline the Vampire Queen, Ice King and Gunter the penguin. Printed eyes and two printed 1x3 bricks for the faces. The snowflakes are always lovely to see and these trans-lite-blue ones are great. The pyramid in trans-pink is also very pretty. Here we have the rockin' Marceline, Gunter the possibly evil penguin and Simon Ice King. I just love Marceline's design, getting the hair just right but still LEGO like is excellently accomplished here. Mixel joint arms again let there be some poses, but it is a little hard to get the axe-bass into a good place. Gunter the penguin is a cute little thing, his wings are two shield tiles that leave minimal possibility, Though, how much do penguins need to do? Ice King has an impressive beard, the nose we all know and the magic crown. The snowflakes are a nice touch and the ball joint arms are perfect for Ice King, you don't see many more movements from him than flying and waving his arms around. These three were fun to build and again capture the look of the cartoon characters very well. Spares, minimal again, but an extra pyramid in trans-pink is great. Bag 3 Bag three contents, everything we need for Lady Rainicorn and Princess Bubblegum. Eyes and a printed face, interesting parts include a tan coloured flag and many parts in shades of pink. There are four Unikitty tails in tan also, useful for sculptures and architectural detail. The finished build. Off scale of course, as PB does fly around on Lady. (Lady and Peebs is an excellent example of an episode). Princess Bubblegum looks lovely. Again, the character designs really do suit LEGO. Her crown is well done, the tile is a nice touch too. A few more expressions would have been good, PB has a wide range after all. A better look at Lady, made pose-able from clips and bars, using the new rounded 1x1 plates with bar, you can arrange the legs a little too. The all important rainbow stripes are well done. All in all, she's a great little build. Spares, just little parts again. Bonus Round! "We're Fighting a Dragon!!!" (Creator 31032 Red Creatures not included in the Ideas set) Conclusion Overall, this is an excellent set. It was great fun to play with. After I had built them, there was lots of playing to be done. The characters are fun to pose and display. Great to play with and the simplistic design means there are many additions one can make to accessories the characters. I give it a 10 out of 10, top marks A+ (and others of that like.) This set was completely Algebraic! If you are an Adventure Time fan or have a fan in your life this set is a great buy. Thanks to TLG and Eurobricks for this chance to get my hands on this great Ideas Set. .

Hi everyone, here is my review of the Lego Adventure Time Ideas set. It is scheduled for release early 2017, I was lucky enough to get it early. I've had it for about a week or so, finally uploaded the review now. Set number 21308, ages 9+, 496pcs, Let me know what you guys think of the set. Overall if you are into Adventure Time, I think you will like it. It displays very nicely. The downside would be the price - it is a licensed theme, as well as an "Ideas" set, which definitely brings the price up. Enjoy!

Review stop motion (presentation) 75154 TIE Striker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUeybnGKusc Year: 2016 Nombre de pieces: 543 Nombre de minifigures: 4 Price: £59.99 / $69.99 / 69.99€ Brickset

Minecraft. Doing a past Minecraft review here, I was shocked at how little interest there was in the theme. I'm 40, so no, I don't care about it the way I do Star Wars or Superheroes themes. I was also surprised at how retro the series felt, using brick-built everything, rather than use loads of specialised pieces. Overall, it was a pleasant surprise. I had a chance to review the star set of theme, will it compare favourably? Thanks to the LEGO Group for providing the set. Set#: 21128 Name: The Village Theme: Minecraft Year: 2016 Pieces: 1600 Minifigs: Steve, Alex, Villager x 2, Zombie, Zombie Villager, Iron Golem, Enderman, Pig, Baby Pig, Creeper MSP: U.S.$199.99, £169.99 , 199.99€ Brickset Bricklink The box: So, my kid loves Minecraft. She won't stop talking about it, going on a year now. Often we try to take photos, and she does the most horrible, fake smile, but when she gets a massive Minecraft box? She can't stop smiling. The box is about as big as any LEGO box that has passed through my hands. The cover is what it is, a showcase of the different parts of the Village. The size of this set pushed the limits of my 'studio,' so you're going to see some not perfectly white backgrounds. Note how fat this box is. It's probably 50% bigger than regular boxes. The back showcases both the set and the insides of the set's buildings. The booklets There is one large square-bound book for the main build, and a thinner, traditional stapled one for the alternate build. The Pieces The set has eleven medium size bags, plus some of the plates that have become the norm in contemporary LEGO. The Build BAG ONE I'm going to show the pieces, but there aren't any stand outs. As I wrote in the intro, the series is retro in feel, and uses very few modern elements, beyond the colours. There are a few translucent green 2x2 bricks. The mini-figs are spaced out through the bags, the first having a villager. From what I know of Minecraft, the villagers are kind of useless, and likewise, this mini-fig has no moving arms or legs! Try playing with that, kids! I suppose this is a store? This is not a triumph of design, though I like the leaves dangling off of the tree. The first bag also builds these mystery blocks. What are they for? We'll have to wait till later to find out. This part of the build contains two of the very few printed blocks in the set, and as apple, which is a decidedly modern element. BAG TWO The bags are, on the whole, underwhelming. I think the target age for Minecraft is about 12. For my seven-year old daughter, this was actually a really comfortable build, as an adult, I felt it was somewhat slight. The bag builds have a building, my daughter informs me it's a crafting room, where you can upgrade weapons and stuff. There is a nice Technic technique here which will be utilised in the next bag. But note it now to see how it works. Down. Up. BAG THREE Here is the star of Minecraft, Steve. Now, LEGO has made a totally accurate representation of this totally bland leading character. I suppose to my daughter, Steve is as exotic a name as Luke or Han was to me. Anyway, that's a Minecraft thing, not a LEGO thing. I like the pixelated effect on the sword! This is a very fun part. So, I thought this was neat. A wall is made, and settled on the SNOT section. From there, a roof is added, and thanks to that Technic hinge... An opening building! This is a great little technique to use on small scale buildings. After the unexciting first build, this is a lot more interesting. BAG FOUR This is another half-build. It makes the base of a house, which opens with a side-hinge. The brick-built door is fantastic. This is precisely the sort of detail which receives high praise in MOCs, but I don't think is appreciated in these sets because of the AFOL bias against Minecraft. The inside is is sparsely decorated. Here is another of the printed bricks; a crate. While the furniture is nice enough, it isn't really functional with the Minecraft mini-figs. BAG FIVE Now this is a weird piece. I would be curious to see if LEGO finds any other purpose for a piece like this. The piece is the base of the poorly-balancing Enderman. Considering the aesthetic of Minecraft, this is actually kind of creepy looking! The bag builds the roof with some beautiful tan blocks. I don't know what the wheel is for, but the bookshelf is a nice touch. The SNOT on the roof is nice as well. It's not a fantastic building, but it's nice enough. BAG SIX This was a slight build among slight builds! It has a kind of rocky greeble to it. The translucent blue water is always welcome. BAG SEVEN This is probably the star of the set, a brick built monster by the name of Iron Golem. The mossy, pixelated printed tiles are sweet! It's as thin as it can be while still being posable. The bag builds a tower to place on the previous build. Now, this seems to be a half-measure. It's a very small castle element that is dropped into a village. Note the base of this is different than the grass of the previous builds, so this feels like it doesn't belong in the set. I'm guessing it's a necessary environment to justify the Golem. BAG EIGHT This bag comes with a second villager, with a different torso. Not all that much to say that the picture doesn't say itself. This build is a small garden, and animal pen and a pond of sorts. A few other sets have this sort of detail. The first set I got was a farm, so this is familiar to me. Remember those mystery blocks from the first bag? Now they come into play. Those blocks are added to put this thing together. The set is really modular. The garden is simple, but well-designed. This also contains the pig, a nice brick built animal. BAG NINE Three more figs, Alex, the female protagonist; Creeper, the mascot monster; and a baby pig. Creeper and Alex are pretty much as they were in my last review, while the pig is just a slightly smaller version of what we've seen. Again, I like the pixelated quality of her weapon. The build is a desert scene, a well and a cactus. Like the Iron Golem build, this is quite disconnected to the main grassy village. BAG TEN This is the first half of the final building. Much like the first house, it opens on a hinge. The structure is different, with double doors. BAG ELEVEN Contained are the final two figures, the zombie and zombie villager. I like the villager one slightly more, just because the face is amusing. Overall, they're not special, even if they are accurate to the property. The finished house is, from the outside, very similar to the previous one, which is again, accurate to Minecraft. The inside is sparser than the first house, and less exciting. I do like the pumpkin faces though. The whole set is then assembled using the remaining blocks to attach them. Again, the finished set is bigger than my makeshift studio can handle, sorry. In the photo, perhaps it appears smaller, but it is an impressive effect overall. Some LEGO sets seem so big, but then the finished product isn't that grand, and I think this suffers the reverse. It takes up a lot of space. You can see the way the two houses fit. For some reason, the pig goes in a tree. Steve goes shopping. Alex is going to do some mining. Underman apparently carries blocks around. And a recently zombified villager sneaks around. Alternate Build One of the big features of the set is the alternative build. Pieces are broken off and remixed. The first build takes the swamp and second house. The top of the instructions show which parts not to break apart, and the other pieces to be used. The build is a fairly nice gate, with double doors. There's a nice depth to it, it's more than just a wall. I like this more than the second house (mainly for how it attaches to the main build). The back of the gate is somewhat bland. Yeah, it looks better from the front. The shape fits up perfectly against the main build: slide it in and... snap! it's fastened with the same blocks as before. The second build removes the desert and shop. And again tells you what to keep as is. The new build is what looks like a dungeon entrance. I like parts of this, but I don't know why the treasure is out in the open. It would have looked nicer in that entrance. The other side looks a little better. I enjoy the Minecraft foliage. And it snaps in perfectly as well. I understand why they put the second house in the main build, it makes the village look more like a village. That said, I like the alternative build better. on the original build, the shop and desert were the weakest designs, so it's not heartbreaking to take them apart. It's a busy village. The Final Verdict Design: 6/10 I'm going to place a lot of the weaknesses here on the basic design of the Minecraft game itself. I think the game is well designed, but there are a limited number of elements in it. So, the torches are cool, but they're the same as in the other sets. Same as the pillars. Same as the gardens. It feels like the designers are cannibalising their own design. Is there a way to innovate with a property that needs a blocky, simple aesthetic? Build: 7/10 The best build is the house, but then it's mostly repeated. The gate would be the next best. Other than a few places noted (the crafting room, the doors), most of it is similar to the other two sets I've done. It gains some points for the alternate build, but to be honest. for a set this price, like any of the modular houses, it is a big letdown. Playability: 10/10 That's the big one on here. It's modular, so you can shift it around, it can join other Minecraft sets easily, and there is a narrative built in. My daughter was acting out battles the moment I released this to her. Even my intro photo shows some of the action available. Minifigures: 8/10 The number of them is great, the variety of them is great, but these are mostly repeats from other sets. Possibly they all are. As with the design, LEGO is limited to what is in Minecraft. I'm surprised LEGO doesn't make ones using the large amount of skins in the game. Price: 3/10 Can I give it zero? 12.5 cents per piece is fair, but there are a lot of 2x4 plates and 1x1 pieces. There aren't loads of new moulds or figures in this. I really feel like you're paying for a license and the LEGO group's robust sense of inflation. There is zero chance I would buy this at the suggested price. Overall: 6/10 I wish I could give it a higher score, but I just can't. I like the brick built style, and the figures are good. But the repetition of this series is setting in. Because it's a collection of small builds assembled together, I feel like I could have bought two or three smaller sets and had a similar building experience. Half the builds were underwhelming, and even the good builds weren't great. After my many years of buying and reviewing LEGO sets, I'm of the mind that there are no bad LEGO sets, but there are ones that are a bad value. I think this is only for the true LEGO Minecraft fans... like my daughter. She'd give this a 10/10, but then again, she's not the one who pays for this stuff.

When the LEGO Minecraft series was announced, I, like many AFOLs, was baffled. I’d heard of it, but never even considered playing since it was aimed at kids, and the graphics were already blocky. But that time has passed, my daughter, now seven, talks about Minecraft daily, to the point of me coming home sounds like this: Me: I’m home! Her: Daddy, how about Minecraft? Me: STOP TALKING ABOUT MINECRAFT, AT THE VERY LEAST GREET ME WHEN I COME HOME: Her: Maybe Minecraft later? (English is her second language, so her sentences are a little broken.) So, I know Minecraft now. And last Christmas, more than LEGO, more than Inside Out toys, Minecraft was the present that made her head spin. Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review. Set #: 21125 Name: The Jungle Tree House Theme: Minecraft Year: 2016 Pieces: 706 Minifigs: 4: Steve, Alex, Skeleton, Creeper MSP: U.S.$69.99, £74.99, 89.99 euros Peeron Brickset Bricklink So, I called her in the room, to say I had a surprise. “Daddy, it says LEGO!” “Minecraft, I love it, we’re gonna make together?” Impatient building assistance from my daughter. The box It’s a fairly large box showing the main features. The back shows the action features as well as the additional build feature. The booklets The set uses three books. The first two are for the main build, the third for the alternate build. The Pieces The set has four bags of bricks, and three plates. At this point, Lego prices fluctuate so much between the changing dollar rates and licensing fees, I have no idea if this is a good deal for the price. There appears to be slightly more to it than a similarly priced Star Wars set. The Build Bag One Bag one has the smaller pieces of the set, as well as the minifigs. Alex and Steve are the protagonists of basic Minecraft, and Steve comes with a helmet. I’m guessing Alex has a diamond pick axe. Diamond weapons and armour are a thing in Minecraft The back printing on Alex is interesting in how subtle it is. I wonder if it was worth it, relative to cost, but I’m happier with it there. The set also has Creeper and Skeleton, bad guys in Minecraft world (apologies, the Creeper is missing a piece, it was the kid who built it). The sheep I’ve seen in a Minecraft set I got the kid for Christmas, but the Ocelot is new. Not a particularly exciting build on it though. I quite like the sheep, especially the legs. Imagine that Creeper has a 3*1 green studless piece on the side. The creeper is one of the more interesting in game designs of Minecraft, with its freaky little legs. The bag has an assortment of vegetation. It also has decorations and equipment for the set: torches, a bed, a bucket, and some stuff I don’t clearly know. The bed is a fundamental item in Minecraft, that you can place pretty much anywhere in the game. Bag Two Bag two starts the base of the set. From bag one, so vegetation and a fire are placed in. One of the notable things about the Minecraft LEGO series is the use of 2*2 plates with a single stud in the center. This is used to make parts easily removable, but also as a place to put single stud objects while maintain the blocky world of Minecraft. The flowers occupy a 2*2 space, as almost everything in the set does. At this point, my daughter was getting uncontrollable. Me: Give me that! I have to take a picture! Her: But I wanna play! Me: Wait! It’s almost cruel to make a kid sit through an EB review before she can play with it. Bag Three Bag three continues the build. The set has translucent green and blue pieces. These were driving my daughter crazy, “It’s so beautiful!” She insisted on putting those on herself. The atmosphere is quite clear here, the first tree placed on the set. Bag Four Bag four finishes off the set, with some odds and ends pieces left over. It’s a nice sized structure, with almost no Technic building. The Finished Product In the tree house, we can see the bed. A waterfall has a platform that locks into place at the top, and can be used like an elevator. In front of the bed is a trap door triggered by sliding the vegetation. At the foot of the stairs is a button that causes them to collapse. Another feature is to move the top of the bedroom over the sheep’s pen. It’s a small change, but gives the set versatility. Overall, it’s a lush, detailed set. Alternate Build The third book has instructions for a separate build. To start, you need to clear out the waterfall, and everything over the upper platforms. After, you are can build this. One feature is a cactus, which is important in Minecraft. Or it was important to my daughter at least. If I recall correctly, you can get water from them, and inside this, there are translucent water blocks. As well, a wall is made with Creeper’s face, slightly hidden behind vegetation. This made my daughter happy. The Final Verdict Design: 7/10 It’s hard to rate the design of Minecraft LEGO against other modern series. Overall, the whole of it feels retro, with its simplified build. Almost no modern pieces are needed. You could have made this in 1980, minus some colours and the minifigs. That said, though there are no “wow” techniques like in the modular buildings, there is something endearing about this dense, brick-built set. Build:7/10 It’s a fun build, not too repetitious. At the same time, nothing to learn from the techniques here, except the value of mapping a build out in advance. Playability: 10/10 There is a lot of play value. Good guys and bad guys, animals, action features. My daughter was thrilled to get her hands on it. Minifigures: 10/10 I like the figures here, and Creeper is its own unique part. Four figures (plus the animals) is enough to populate a set this size. Price: 8/10 (America) 6/10 (world) While I think the American price is reasonable, the international price is not for me. You would have to be a Minecraft fan to justify it. Overall: 8/10 This is a really good set. I wish LEGO would make more sets like this in their regular lines so we didn’t have to pay a licensing fee for brick based sets. A lot of sets these days have a hollowness to them which is a turn-off. It’s economical to produce and sell, but less exciting to build and play with. Another thing I really liked, this set has more abstraction in its design; a torch? Let’s use an orange and yellow translucent instead of a fire piece. Leaves on a tree? Let’s use plates blocks instead of a custom piece. There’s a hypocrisy here, since these custom pieces were super exciting and fresh when they were new, but they aren’t as exciting and fresh now. If anything, they can easily get lost in the mountain of LEGO that so many of us EB users have. Making stuff from bricks feels fresh. This set (and the Minecraft set I gave at Christmas) really taps into what I enjoyed about LEGO to begin with as a kid. The bricks have a lot more room for reinvention than a lot of other series. LEGO sets go through trends, depending on the staff at a moment, I guess. This Minecraft style is a good thing. I would love to see some of the brick principles of these sets filter through to other series. I love the minifigs of the Superheroes lines, but am pretty burnt out on the vehicles that are omnipresent there. A bricky, Minecraft style room or street would be amazing in that series. I recommend any AFOLs out there who had no interest in the series due to the license to check this, or any Minecraft set, out. It is very pleasant. Not an overwhelming recommendation, but a solid one.

Stop motion review(presentation) of 6285 Black Sea's Barracuda Year: 1989 Pieces: 909 Minifigs: 8 Brickset Bricklink

While cleaning an old hard drive, I found this review I never posted. Sure, the pictures are crude, I even forgot to take a shot of the entire set, but it reminded me of why I liked writing reviews so I wanted to share. Bandit's Secret Hideout (6761) - Wild West •Original Retail Price: $40.00 US •Figures Included: 1 Cavalry Soldier, 1 Calvalry Lieutenant, 3 Bandits, 3 Horses (black, white, brown), 2 grey Birds, 1 Skeleton head •Mini-fig Accessories: Playing Cards tile, 4 Golden Coins, Dynamite Tile, Golden Trumpet, Yellow Chair, Cavalry Flagpole, 2 Saber Swords, 8 Rifles, 4 Pistols, Pick-Axe, Cannon w/Cradle, 2 Saddles (brown, black), 1 extra brown Cowboy Hat for the Sketeton Head Helpful Links: Peeron / Brickset BUILD Due to the subdued color-scheme, this set looks like an unimpressive pile of bricks right out of the baggies. There aren't any flashy colors, like there are when working with neon Aquashark or Ice Planet pieces, but with some imagination, the end-result is still enjoyable. This Hideout is a mid-sized set, building it won't tax your skills, but it's still entertaining because of the neat features. It's fun to invent booby-traps, just ask Wile E. Coyote! You can test the traps as you make them, fine-tuning the way that barrel bonks the guy standing under it. Even though they're simple to use, the traps are effective, and consistent too. Most notably, the falling barrel from the roof lands in the same spot every time, so you can actually aim it. The rails, the tipping water-barrel, and the interesting way the rifles on the roof are connected give us a look at some of the more unorthodox ways of building useful tools and features. The black sloped roof is another place to grab ideas from as it shows us how we can make buildings with roofs that flip open. DESIGN It looks like the bandits found a crumbled granite hill and built around it with bits of wood and stone. A shabby, dirty, lonely place is what I picture a secret hideout in the wild west to be like, this set captures that drab essence. Isn't it funny that these bandits have a big GOLD MINE sign on the hideout but there isn't a mine anywhere in sight? Well, maybe it's not that funny, it's kind of disappointing actually! I'd love to have seen a real mine released with these Wild West sets (maybe there was one made for the Rock Raiders line?), but this set is exactly what the description on the box says it is, a bandit's hideout! There are a few areas where the minifigs can hang-out and play cards, along with a small storage area where the cannonballs are kept. I think it's about time to update the "cannonballs", they don't look like cannonballs at all. Unfortunately I can't suggest any practical designs for them. If they're little balls then there won't be any way to add a little indent so they can plug onto normal studs, because they would have to be much smaller to fit inside the cannons. The storage-room has a small ledge against the rock-wall where the bandits can put the rifle-box if they manage to steal it from the soldiers. They can't reach up there, so they'll have to bring-in the ladder from the big rock outside. There's plenty of room below for the safe and any other equipment they manage to get. I think this storage area could have been made to look like the opening to a deep mine-shaft. All it might require is a small black tile to simulate a dark hole in the floor, some fence-pieces, maybe a DANGER sign? The stairs lead to a narrow ledge behind the window where a bandit can sit and be a look-out. The fire lighting the door is dangerous though, I mean, look at it! It's just bursting out of the wall! It would definitely look more realistic with a clear yellow cone, to simulate a lantern, but I have to admit, the fire makes the whole hideout seem more wild and rugged. I'm not sure why the chair behind the window is bright yellow, it's obvious that it's in there when the window is open. Maybe subconsciously the bandits want to get caught. There's room on the roof for a bandit to sit comfortably, where he can either take a nap or talk to the birds. FUN Something I don't understand about these thieves is, that even though they're smart enough to create useful and hidden traps, they're not smart enough to make people STAY AWAY from their secret hideout. They have a big sign up top that says they're in a Gold Mine, that's a good way to ATTRACT a lot of attention! I think the skull on the "Keep Out" sign and big cannon on wheels is a step in the right direction for these bandits, but that sign on the roof needs to be changed, or taken down completely. Any suggestions? I think at some point every Lego fan covers a car or building in guns and swords and stabby bits. The 3-rifle contraption on the roof of the hideout is a goofy weapon because it looks so hard to use. How can the bandit even aim that thing? Or more importantly, how can he reach the triggers without falling off the building? It's going to take some major creativity to make it work! Is there anything more effective at stopping your enemies than collapsing stairs? They stop soldiers, wolves, salesmen, dragons, anything! The cannon rolls-out when the ramp is lowered after the trip-cord is pulled, but it doesn't fly-out like the drawings in the instruction-booklet show, it simply glides out smoothly because of how well all the pieces fit together. Legos are precision-made, and most of the time that's a good thing, but in this case the Lego pieces are limited by their own awesomeness! How many other toys can you honestly say that about? I see this set as a place for the bandits to drop-off their stolen goodies, like a big closet, and then run off to steal more stuff. It would have been nice to see a little cooking-fire included, some pots and pans, maybe even a chicken leg, to make the bandits more comfortable, but you can always buy the smaller Western sets for that. Can't say I'd pay the $40 retail price for this set, luckily it seems inexpensive nowadays. And not to toot my own horn too much, but I like the alternate model I built a lot more, it shows the kind of fun features you can create just by playing-around with the bricks a little. I also like the Cavalry Fort shown on the back of the box, it looks like a strong, solid model. ALTERNATE BUILDS The Hideout has a nice enough design, but building on a more detailed baseplate, like this desert-version, helps us think of things we normally wouldn't. For example, if you want to use the whole base, then you'll have to find a way to work around the road running through it. How about building a toll-booth? Maybe a bridge? That's all for now, folks! Something I'll try to include with every review is an alternate model that can be built using only the set's pieces, like this neat little box I made for the Golden Trumpet. Feel free to post links to the cool stuff you've made using this set! Notes: -The Skull I used for the sign-post is a modern one, the one this set is supposed to include is the "friendlier-looking" version. -The brown Horse's ear and the black Top-Hat were chewed-on by a Budgie that will remain unnamed. Thanks to my neighbor for letting me borrow this set to review.

Lego 5005358 Minifigure Factory As part of the 40th Anniversary celebration by Lego, they're giving this set as a freebie with $75 purchases in April 2018. I got mine for buying some sets I wanted and figured I'd share this cool free set. Name: Minifigure Factory Set Number: 5005358 Pieces: 86 Price: $Free (with $75 purchase) Minifigs: 1 (plus 5 microfigs) Theme: n/a Year of Release: 2018 Links: Bricklink Brickset The Box An unusual box, since all the normal print is a paper wrapper around the actual box. The Back of the Box That is a massive number of warning languages. The Wrapper and Box The wrapper slides off, revealing a printed box underneath. The box itself is not sealed at all - it just has a tab in a slot on the top. The Contents Inside are the manual, a printed interior, a grey plate that's glue into place in the box, a printed card, and the bag of parts. Interestingly, the bag is not the normal type of plastic that Lego uses. This plastic is softer and not crinkly. The Minifigs The Lego worker is a GREAT figure. The choice of yellow for the shirt is awkward though. I know it's the standard employee shirt (such as in Lego stores), but on the yellow-skinned fig it's weird. Is it a long sleeve shirt? If it was short-sleeved would we even know? Or is it sleeveless? But enough about him. Check out those microfigs! I think the white "hat" on the policeman is weird since it's not an actual hat, but I can overlook that. The Minifigs' Backs There's no second face on the figure, and limited printing on the microfigs, but I can't complain. The Build, 1 Not shown, you first build a little red cart. The main part of the build is shown like this - building on the grey plate - but the actual plate is glued into place in the box. Makes things a little more difficult for the big-handed among us, but nothing too hard. The Build, 2 The Build, 3 The assembly line itself. 2 of the 3 printed parts are shown here. The set includes 1x2 printed tiles in the yellow/black stripe pattern (4 of them), a 1x4 tile in the same pattern, and a 1x2 tile with a segmented arrow that's from the Boost and Ninjago City sets. But why green paint on the brush? They made a new paintbrush with medium azure paint on it for the Easter set - why not make that set and this one share a brush in a more common color, like red or blue? I'm thinking there must be another use for the medium azure brush coming, but that's just me thinking Lego wouldn't have made a custom printed brush for that one freebie set. Then again, they did custom print the egg for it.... The Build, 4 The assembly line sits onto the base and then pins are inserted from the back.... I sense a play feature coming! The card goes onto the pins and is held in place by Technic half bushes. Unfortunately, the card covers up the 2 printed photos on the back of the box (or at least one a time, depending on how the line is positioned). I love the detail Lego put into these - it wouldn't be a Lego set without a coffee cup, and they tied the green paintbrush in with the left picture. The Build, 5 This is why that card was added. As you slide the line back and forth, the picture in the window changes to match the microfig below. Simple but so cool of a feature to add. And nice representation of the minifigure patent hanging on the wall. The Build, 6 And we have the figure in his spot, working hard inspecting the microfigures. Not shown is one big flaw that I can't believe made it to production. You cannot slide the line far enough to the right to have the Pixal image fully in the window. It needs to go another stud over, but it can't. There's a stop on the underside of the line, plus it's hitting the side of the box. The End of the Manual The end of the manual has a 2 page spread of the history of the minifigure. The End of the Manual, 2 This page covers some more recent minifigure advances. Short legs, baby figs, but why is Mr. Gold on here? He was part of Series 10, so not the start of the collectible lines, and he's a figure that many fans are bitter about since he was so hard to find. The Conclusion I love this freebie. The microfigs are great representations of classic figures (well, most of them - I'm not sure that Pixal is worthy of inclusion) and it's a clever set. It closes back up nicely for storage, but this is one that will be sitting out on a lot of shelves I'm sure. The Ratings Value: 10/10 - It was free with purchase. And you get a custom box, custom printed microfigs, a cool minifig, and nice play features. Design: 8/10 - The box is great, but the line can't slide quite far enough to the right. Minifigs: 10/10 - IMHO, Pixal should have been something else. A castle fig would have been better, but I suspect Pixal was chosen both to represent Ninjago AND because the purple stands out. Playability: 8/10 - Small and simple, but clever design. Parts: 9/10 - I always love having the printed hazard stripe tiles, but these will be staying in this set. Otherwise nothing special, but nothing more was really needed. Overall: 9.5/10 - It's hard to complain about a freebie, but I do wish the line slid over further and they'd picked a different last microfig.

INTRODUCTION The smallest of the 2018 sets, is the Hook Loader. A hook lift truck is a heavy duty truck that is fitted with a hydraulic hook lift hoist system. The hydraulic hook lift hoist system allows haulers to quickly change various types of roll off containers, generally designed for the transportation of materials in the waste, recycling, scrap and demolition industries. Probably due to intricate loading mechanism, we have seen many instances of hook lift trucks being built as Lego models, both officially from Lego, in a form of LEGO Technic Container Truck (8052) ... and lots of nice models from mocers. My personal favorite, is a Hook Lift truck model, made by Jennifer Clark. Note: Most images can be clicked for hi-res versions. SET INFORMATION Number: 42084 Title: Hook Loader Theme: Technic Released: 2018 Part Count: 176 Box Weight: 265 gr Box Dimensions: 15,5 cm x 13,9 cm x 6,8 cm Set Price (MSRP): € 12,95 Price per Part: € 0,073 Links: Brickset, Bricklink THE BOX Being a small set, it obviously comes in a small box. The box measures 15,5 cm x 13,9 cm x 6,8 cm which is obviously not very big. The weight of the box is approximately 265 grams. FRONTSIDE The front of the box shows our Hook Loader unloading its container, standing on rough dirt surface, with some blurred buildings in the background. The box also states that this model is for the age of 7 till 14. More importantly, the 2-models in-1 logo is clearly visible, which means this set can be used to build two different models. BACKSIDE The backside shows a picture of the alternate model, which is the Airport Fire Truck. The conversion arrow and the 2-in-1 are printed to clarify that the main model can be converted into a secondary model. One of the sides shows a picture of the main model, and one of the wheels in actual size. CONTENT OF THE BOX The box contains: 2 Instructions Booklet 2 Technic Panels 3 Bags INSTRUCTION BOOKLETS The instruction booklet for the main model: (both booklets came folded in the box) The instruction booklet for the alternate model: EXAMPLE OF RANDOM INSTRUCTION STEP PANELS Dark Bluish Gray Technic Panels haven't been sealed in plastic bags. BAGS Three bags containing the rest of the parts. HIGHLIGHTED PARTS This section describes the new and/or otherwise interesting parts. Axle Pin 3L with Friction Ridges Lengthwise and 1L Axle in RED This 3L Axle Pin has never been released in red before for general public and easily obtainable. This year, it was released in 8 sets in this color, and it was also released in one set in 2017, The Nutcracker (Lego 2017 Employee Exclusive). Technic Panel Curved 3x11 in DARK BLUISH GRAY This Technic Panel 3x11 has never been released in Dark Bluish Gray before. This year, it was released in 3 sets in this color: Hook Loader, Mack Anthem and Rally Car. TIRES These 30.4 x 14 Tires aren't very rare. They appear in 79 other sets. We got four tires in this set. PART LIST This set contains 176 parts, shown below. THE BUILD The build is not very fun, and is pretty straightforward. FINISHED MODEL Here is the finished Hook Loader! Since it's a small model, i was on the fence about its look and functions. Seeing it's functions in real life takes every doubt away, they work flawlessly. More on functions later. On the other side, look is not on par with functions. Given the fact that the model has small number of parts compared to average Technic set, visual aspect of the model had to be affected. Overall, look is satisfactory if you keep in mind how basic the set is. It does look like a truck, and even has some amount of detailing like black parts to simulate windshield or grill. I don't like low ground clearance in the front, due to the steering mechanism, and back tires could be placed a bit toward the front, it would look more balanced. The model does not have stickers, and as a simple truck/construction machine, it is probably better this way. The chassis is pretty basic, with steering system and hook lift mechanism occupying central part of the chassis. LEFTOVER PARTS A few common leftover parts. FUNCTIONS Here's a short presentation showing the model's two functions. STEERING Steering is done via the 12 Tooth Double Bevel gear at the back of the cabin, it does not have steering wheel. The gear is easily accessible. The turning radius is quite big, which slightly reduces playability. HOOK LIFT Hook Lift mechanism is operated by black 12T Double Bevel gear, marked on the animation. It turns three 8t gears, which in turn moves the hook and container. Operation is smooth, it has some friction, but that helps the hook to stop in any position. Container has "rollers" at its end, so it can glide on flat surfaces. It also has a nice trick to keep the container from sliding left-right when loaded onto the truck. Namely it has 2L liftarm at the back, which is secured on one point. When the container is loaded on the truck, the liftarm slides/drops between the chassis' main frame and keep the container stable. Being the main function of the model, the hook lift part is done very well. SUMMARY I think this is one clever small set. Its target audience, kids, will love this set. It does look like a truck, and even better, it looks like a truck that is drawn and imagined by a kid, in a good way. I have a luck that i have my young relative with me, and he is very excited about this set. His favorite part about it...the hook lift mechanism, ofc. He enjoyed filling the container with bricks and plates, and move them to other location, watching it unload etc... Be careful, though, 1x1 parts can slip through container's floor. Side plus: I enjoyed being asked to explain many things on real life trucks to him...this set clearly boosted his curiosity. SCORE 6 DESIGN Simple colors works nice. Looks like a truck, but very basic. Overall good given the amount of parts. 6 BUILDING EXPERIENCE Nothing out of the ordinary. 9 FEATURES For its size, it has two great functions. 9 PLAYABILITY Kids love it! 7 PARTS Common parts and colors, two parts in new colors. 8 VALUE FOR MONEY I would buy this set for my young relative in no time. 7,5 Hook on! Thank you for reading. Hope you will find it useful.

Hi everyone. It had been a while anyone posted any written review anywhere in the internet. The trend goes to video reviews instead of written ones, but I'm going to continue the effort of making written reviews and hopefully I can get more support as 'You can't save the world alone' quoting Justice League. Like my previous post, I am doing this one as a two in one combo. Don't Freeze. I NEVER freeze. Introduction The Black Panther himself is T’challa, the king of Wakanda, a mythical African nation that also happens to be the world’s most advanced civilization. He first appeared in Captain America 3: Civil War avenging his father thinking Bucky is responsible for the bombing in the UN causing the death of his father King T'Chaka. In this movie we will know more about Wakanda. Let's indulge in these vibranium rich LEGO sets. Overview Name: 76099 Rhino Face-Off by the MineYear: 2018Pieces: 229Minifigures: 3Price: £19.99 / $19.99 / 24.99€ Name: 76100 Royal Talon Fighter Attack.Year: 2018Pieces: 358Minifigures: 4 Price: £29.99 / $29.99 / 34.99€ The Box I got my copies from my local TRU and they are packed nicely with the plastic wrap which is very neat. The Royal Talon Fighter is with Wakanda city background and the Rhino scene took place in the vibranium mine. I always love the blue glowy color that represents vibranium. At the side of the box, you can see the minifigures are fighting between the good and the bad. (I still reluctant in removing the plastic wrap, they are so nice!) The Content Here for 76099 you get one sticker sheet, two instruction booklets and three numbered bags. For 76100, you get a thicker book for the fighter, and three numbered bags. I'm very happy that I did not see any stickers here thinking that this set has all the printed parts. I was wrong. It was hidden at the last page of the book. The Build The very elegantly designed Royal Talon Fighter and it looks very Wakandan I would say. This is the result of building bag one, bag two and bag three in 76100. My favorite part of this build is the rear thruster where the base brick is purple in color. It really resembles the scene where it flew in Wakanda, charging through the misty forest as in the trailer. There are 12 side wings in this fighter but unfortunately they are fixed. Curves are quite rare in LEGO but the ship looks nicely rounded. At the bottom the trans clear round plate is nicely used as the bottom thruster. I like the combination of technic elements with bricks to have such amazing design of the ship. The cockpit is quite spacious and the center cockpit is designed for Killmonger but I don't remember he is inside the ship at all. After all the center cockpit is empty, so you can put anyone inside. Nakia is piloting the ship. Let's go to the mine and play with the Rhino. The mine cart is full of vibranium(three trans blue 2x2 plates). I love the trans blue vibranium transport cart so much! The wheels fits perfectly on the railway and the only disappointment is the railway is too short! This cart is built from bag one of 76099. This Rhino actually reminded me of LEGO Chima. I love the build especially the head. It is built by sandwiching the center bricks with left and right side of the face. Okoye can ride one it and there will still be plenty of space left for other minifigures. The tail is cute, and this is built from bag two and bag three. War of the beasts! The Rhino is much sturdier than Fenris the skinny wolf. Little tips I learnt from the Internet. If you are frustrated in applying stickers, fret no more! This technique allows you to apply the stickers accurately! First you take out the sticker from the sheet, put it at the corner of the sticker sheet, then you can hold the large sticker sheet and apply it at the correct angle. Thanks to a person whom I forgot where he posted this trick in the internet. This is how it looks like when you paste it at the corner. The Minifigures Let's look at the main attractions of these two sets with seven great exclusive minifigures! Here we have our Wakandan King T'Challa in the Black Panther suit. This suit is quite old fashioned and manually worn. The prints is very detailed and you can see the eyes showing through the helmet. The teeth necklace around the chest are silver printed and very iconic to the character. In the trailer, the suit is purple, but why is this blue? This suit is enhanced and it is more advanced compared to the first suit and more complex design of the torso and the back. I love the color here but does anyone here agree that purple is nicer? Killmonger the villain. He got hold of his black panther suit (I wonder where it came from. A spare?). This suit is very nice in gold but looks villainy. The head looks like an alien head if you look closely. They call it the Golden Jaguar suit. Where are the prints on the earpiece and the legs? But their head and torso prints are amazingly detailed. You can appreciate more of their head prints after removing their ears. Done with the panthers. Now let's look at Okoye, She is the general of the Dora Milaje and the head of Wakanda's armed forces and intel. She is wearing brownish outfit with a belt that has a panther buckle. She is wielding a spear but I would prefer the spear to be chrome in color instead of this old common spear. Don't you think so? Nakia. She is wearing the red uniform of Dora Milaje, wielding her Ring Blades. You get three rings here, Thanks LEGO! Her uniform is also with a panther buckled belt and she is permitted to keep her hair because she is a spy. Her hair is also unique here in LEGO. She has a smiling face as the alternate expression. Erik Killmonger in his mercenary outfit and his special mask. Some say the blue outfit look similar to one of the Dragon Ball character. He is holding a blaster, quite uniquely designed. He has only one facial expression despite his mask covering the back of the head. The mask is rubbery and not rigid. These minifigures are great! Oh wait, I forgot the other villain in the movie. Did you forget him too? Too much Killmonger? Ulysses Klaue was a black-market arms dealer gangster who wanted to expose Wakanda to the rest of the world, with Klaue stealing a stockpile of Vibranium as a result. During an encounter with Ultron, Klaue sold all of his Vibranium to Ultron before losing his arm during an argument. Here you can see his left arm is equipped with a special weapon which will surprise you in the movie. He has two facial expressions and the white and blue shirt is very accurate to the movie. This is a new part representing the arm weapon. The hand will hold on the bar like other LEGO weapons. Where is our beloved Everett Ross? Bag end? Andy Serkis is a great actor! Who is the richest of them all? Conclusion Both are very nice sets in terms of minifigures and the builds especially the fighter and the Rhino. These two are smaller compared to Thor Ragnarok sets but still a good buy for the exclusive minifigures especially the Black Panthers. Review Summary Playability: 6/10 - Both sets are packed with play feature but the pretty low score is due to the features are quite simple. Design / Building Experience: 9/10 - The design is very iconic to Wakanda. The fighter is amazing and I love the Rhino. Only the vibranium cart is too small but still very nice. Minifigures: 10/10 - Great minifigures! All the printings and the details are marvelous! Overall: 9/10 - Get these two sets and you are complete for Black Panther. Oh wait, where is the Civil War Black Panther? Hope you enjoy the review, do share your thoughts in the comments!

Hello, you might be asking yourself "what's a Star Wars Regulator doing a review of a Ninjago set for?" Well, I'll tell you. I've been a fan of Ninjago since season 2. When Ninjago first came out I thought, "what do I need a bright blue ninja for? Hiding behind bright blue curtains?" But as more sets came out and I started to watch the tv series, it began to grow on me. I'm still catching up on the episodes and haven't quite gotten to the Sons of Garmadon arc yet. So I can't tell you how they've handled the alternate Ninjago universe that is the Lego Ninjago Movie. But that also mean this review will be spoiler free, apart from some of the obvious spoilers that you can't avoid simply by looking at the box art. When the newest Ninjago line was released, the set that stood out to me the most was this one, Temple of Resurrection. Even if you aren't a fan of the Ninjago license, most of the sets are great parts packs and this one is no exception. So without further ado, here is my review. 70643 Temple of Resurrection Hopefully you can tell from the picture how thick this box is. I didn't get a tape measure out, but it seems to be about 50% thicker than your average $30-$60 set. And there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason for this. There are no large base plates or pre-fab pieces to accommodate. And the bags and instructions could have fit in a smaller box, or even a thinner one that was a little larger in surface area. Maybe Lego just wanted it to take more shelf depth. The back of the box illustrates all the play features. But it also shows off one of the main reasons I wanted this set. Each Ninjago line (as all "Adventure" themed Lego lines tend to) has a set of pieces/objects to collect. Most of the time you have to buy multiple sets to complete your collection. But recently Lego has been putting all the collectibles into one of the highest priced sets. For example, the Hands of Time sets allowed you to collect 4 Time Blades by buying 4 different sets. Or you just just buy the 2nd most expensive set and get all 4 that way. For Sons of Garmadon, you could buy 3 different sets to get all 3 Oni Masks, or you can just buy Temple of Resurrection to get all 3. Now, its time for a confession. The main reason I wanted all 3 Oni masks is because I'm a big Jackie Chan Adventures fan. One of the seasons dealt with Oni masks and seeing them re-created in Lego forum makes me geek out! Opening the box you can see that there are 6 bags and a sealed set of instructions/stickers. It's always nice to see the instructions and stickers protected and I wish Lego would do that in more sets, not just the large ones. My first reaction when I laid out the contents was "NO! The large windows are stickers not prints!" I have a love hate relationship with stickers, but it's mostly hate. If the piece I want to use in generic MOCs is stickered then I can just leave the sticker off to allow for more versatility. But if it's a piece I want to use for its intended purpose, like a decorative Asian wall panel, then I want it printed! I'll point this piece out again when we get to it in the building process. Sorry for the poor quality on this picture. I didn't go back and check my pictures before moving on to each building step, so I missed that this one didn't turn out well. It shows what things look like after Bag #1, as well as all the extra pieces. There are some unique pieces in Bag #1. We get some of the new flower molds with 5 petals, the white modified stud with shaft, and 2 printed pieces. The compass looking piece gets hidden in one of the boxes on the ground floor of the temple. I'm not sure what it's significance is, but a quick Bricklink search shows it's originally a Minecraft piece. That helps explain why it looks pixelated. Bag #2 finishes the extensions to the ground level. My guess is the red path is supposed to look like a tongue. You also get a bunch of spare parts, most of them extremely useful. You get an extra Mr. T. mohawk in red, one of each bandana style in black, a red katana (a new color for this piece), and a spare espresso lever. I find it odd that 1 set would have both styles of bandanas. The skeleton wears the new style introduced for the Ninjago line a few years back. And one of the Sons of Garmadon bad guys wears the Wild West version. Bag #3 builds the main floor of the 2nd story and achieves its stability with a lot of technic beams. The instructions have you build the entire floor before attaching it to the rest of the build. If you look at the base of the building that was built from bags 1 and 2, you can see that the connection points are on 4 different levels. The floor also had to fit around bricks already set along the edges. It was hard to line up and fit. And I assume that if I had trouble with it, the 8-14 year old this set was intended for will have even more. Something else interesting in Bag #3 was the varying shades of pearl gold. I know some colors are harder for Lego to keep consistent with every batch. But finding 2 different shades in the same bag seemed odd to me. I'd love to see the sorting process that brought this about. Was there really only 1 piece left from the previous batch that ended up in my set along with a bunch of the new batch? Or did one fall off a conveyor belt and a worker found it a week later, adding it to the batch of new ones? Who knows. Bag #3 ends very few extra pieces and now we are ready to build the 2nd floor and roof. Bag #4 has some great pieces in it. We get the oriental fence piece in pearl gold for the first time, the grooved dark red brick, some window and door pieces which are very useful for Asian style building, and an extra gold tassel. The gold tassel is in the Lego Ninjago Movie CMF, so it's not super rare any more. But it's nice to have more anyways. The lanterns are built using a Speed Champions' wheel in white which I thought was an ingenious use of that part. And Bag #4 wraps up with most of the walls being finished for the 2nd floor. There are also only 3 extra pieces in this bag. Bag #5 holds the pieces that almost made me cry when I first opened this set. Those two panels are stickers. Thankfully I was able to get them on straight enough to keep the perfectionist in me happy. But what if I had messed up? I seriously think Lego should start adding extra stickers sheets to all sets. Or at the very least, any set priced over $50. In this bag you also get some gold ingots which are used decoratively with the Oni masks and a dark pearl gray lightsaber handle. I'm not sure when Lego started doing this, but they now tell you at the beginning of a step whether you're going to need to build multiples of it or not. This saves a lot of time and frustration and I'm glad they started doing it! These revolving panels use one of the most interesting techniques in the set. By utilizing the anti-stud that is only in the middle of the window frame, the designer was able to offset two 1x2 plates. You later attached a small turntable to this spot which helps stabilize them as they turn. Bag #5 finishes off the structure of the 2nd floor and starts the roof. There are a few extra pieces shown at the bottom of the picture. Bag #6 has some great pieces! The black "L" tile has been around since 2016, but never in large quantities so every extra one is a nice addition to the collection. The red connector pin may not seem all that exciting, but this is the first year it's been produced in red. I was really hoping each Oni mask would have a matching colored helmet base. So I was very disappointed to see that all the helmet bases where black. You can't even see the black with the mask attached, but it means fewer cool helmet combos for other MOCs. With the finishing of Bag #6, the set is complete! There are some nice extra pieces like the dark bley horn and machete. Now to explore the play features! With a name like "Temple of Resurrection" it makes sense that the main play feature involves resurrecting Garmadon. You can see from the back that this is achieved with a lot of technic gears. By lifting the red arm, the gears move the roof. When it's lifted, the roof reverses direction and Garmadon is revealed. The side view shows that the build has a lot of openings. The bottom floor I understand as it allows you to position minifigures. But it would have been nice to get more windows with white panels to fill in the opening on the 2nd floor. This view is also the least flattering for the roof. It has to have gaps to be able to achieve the play feature, but this angle makes it look the most unsightly. Here's the temple with all the minifigures displayed. And in case you were wondering, minifigures can stay standing on the 2nd floor even when the roof transforms. The back shows that when the trap doors are activated the intruders are dropped into the armory. Probably not the best thought out plan. But it makes for a fun feature. And in case you were wondering, the Oni masks do not fit with the samurai helmet. Or course for many people the highlight will be the minifigures. As far as I can tell, the only minifigure you can find in another Sons of Garmadon set is Mr. E, the racer in black. Harumi, the female in green, and Hutchins, the man in green, and Garmadon are all exclusive to this set. Chopper Maroon, the man with the red mohawk, can be found in the S.O.G. Headquarters set with short legs and with the name of Nails. Cole seems to be exclusive, but he is very similar to the Ninjago movie version. Lloyd is listed as exclusive, but that's just because the other version excludes his katana holder. All minifigures have back printing. The baby does not have the new baby body mold. Instead it uses two pieces to achieve a swaddled look. I'd love to have another baby body mold, but this swaddled look works so well I can't complain. A couple more things to note about the minifigures. Harumi has some interesting printing on her lower legs. Does anyone know why those extra green belts are around her knees? Chopper Maroon has some detailed biker printing that gets covered by his bandana. And Garmadon, while looking very much like his Ninjago Movie version, is unique because of the purple "resurrection ooze." My overall thoughts? Go buy it! Or rather, find the best discount and then buy it. I got it 20% off at Target which seems to be the new normal price for this set. The minifigure selection is wonderful, the build process keeps you interested throughout, and even if you just want a parts pack, this set is a winner. So there you go. I hope you enjoyed the review as much as I enjoyed making it!

REVIEW - HISPABRICK MAGAZINE KIOSK INTRODUCTION Last year I was asked if I wanted to be the Eurobricks person to maintain contact with HispaBrick Magazine. I had never met Lluis or Jetro in person, but of course I was eager to maintain our good relationship with this great magazine. Due to some random events, I got to meet both Lluis and Jetro in Billund last year (2017) during the LEGO Fan Media Days. Turns out they are just as annoy...uhmmm.....friendly as they are online It's nice to meet people with the same, or even more, passion for the LEGO brick as myself or our own Eurobricks members. This month marks the 10th Anniversary of HispaBrick Magazine and they decided to design a commemorative set for this event. Being the contact sometimes pays off, because I was asked if I was interested in reviewing the set. Of course I was excited to see what the set was all about and do a little review. It isn't the most elaborate reviews of all time, but it's written with lots of respect for the team behind HispaBrick Magazine. Before you dive in the review, here's the link to the topic about HispaBrick Magazine 030. SET INFORMATION Set number: 1001 Set name: HispaBrick Magazine Kiosk Number of pieces: 249 THE BOX The box show that it's the 10th Anniversary Set and apparently I am one of the 50 proud owners of this unique set. Unless all the boxes show 38 of 50 The back tells us a bit about the history of the magazine in Spanish and English and it shows us the complete part list of the set. CONTENTS OF THE BOX The box contains: 1x Big bag filled with most of the parts. 1x Disclaimer note 1x Green 16x16 baseplate 1x Green 16x8 baseplate 1x Stickers sheet I wonder how HispaBricks customer service is?! Lucky for me, the set was 100% complete! The sticker sheet contains all the covers of the past magazines! How cool is that?! I do see a lot of familiar MOCs on those covers. I really love the one with that cool life sized Mindstorms Robot made by Jim from Eurobricks. Yeah, that's probably never going to happen SPECIAL PARTS The set contains three very special printed parts: The first HispaBrick Magazine printed, with the alien from the arvo brothers on the cover HispaBrick Minifig Torso HispaBrick 2x2 Tile PART LIST Here's the complete part list of all the bricks used in this set. Which more or less boils down to these parts: THE BUILD You start by building the kiosk booth, which shows a computer screen for the register and a wonderfully designed coffee machine. You can't read a great magazine without a great coffee to go along with it The roof of the kiosk is made by using an interesting building technique. You basically lay the two windows on the top of the building as a roof. They can be easily removed. There's a fresh coffee waiting for you on the counter. How about getting the latest edition of HispaBrick Magazine and reading it on the bench next to the kiosk. The backdoor of the kiosk...."Employees Only"! This lovely set doesn't consist of the kiosk alone. You can also rent a bike. And you don't even need to go to a front desk, it's fully automated. Connecting the bike to the rack is very cleverly done, using the Technic plate with hole to connect to the headlight part of the bike. COMPLETED MODEL Taddaaaa....the completed model. I haven't used the stickers on the two magazines, because I wanted to keep the sheet as new. The photographer is reading the latest edition... ...while the girls is fooling around with her skateboard. Isn't this the cutest set ever. I really like it and it will definitely look good in a bigger LEGO city display. One final shot of the set. CONCLUSION I like to express my special thanks Jetro and Lluis for sending me this set. I absolutely love it and I am very proud own it, and to have contributed to the the 10th Anniversary of HispaBrick Magazine. I wish you guys all the luck in the future and hopefully I will be writing another review in 5 or 10 years. Take care!

Latest up in the fourteen-year cycle of remakes of the original Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series is the BTL A4 Y-Wing Starfighter. I reviewed the 2004 original back in 2010; it suffered for being over-long but scored praise for the use of gruelling on the ship's exposed innards. We’ll see here if the new offering has addressed the issues of the earlier version and how it compares to the movie original. Review: 75181 UCS Y-Wing Starfighter Name: Y-Wing Starfighter Number: 75181 Pieces: 1967 Figures: 2 Year: 2018 Price: GBP £169.99 | USD $199.99 | EUR 199.99 | DKK 1799.99 The Box A dramatic view of the Y-Wing in the obligatory Death Star Trench setting makes for a bold and attractive front. The box has the same frontal dimensions as that of the set’s predecessor 10134 - shown behind - but somewhat surprisingly it is deeper that the earlier version. The ‘ULTIMATE COLLECTOR SERIES’ designation has returned to prominence; it disappeared from the boxes quite early in the series’s run, around 2002 if I remember. Normally Star Wars sets share a box logo with all contemporary merchandise, LEGO or otherwise; this set’s logo is currently shared only by the new UCS Millennium Falcon, possibly indicating that it is expected to have a longer run than the regular sets. We shall see if this trend continues, and if subsequent UCS sets use the same livery. For a square-on frontal image click here. The ship is shown from a similar angle on the back, though the angle is reversed: There is less drama here. The ship sits on its stand in what appears to be a hanger, though the ground looks suspiciously like floorboards; I’m surprised that more wasn’t made of the Y-Wing’s return to prominence in Rogue One. A few features are demonstrated in insets. It’s a smart-looking box, and understated, with minimal clutter; on the top is a line-drawing of the ship with dimensions and a photograph of the figures, but there’s little on the sides worthy of comment. Contents I was surprised to find a smaller box inside the outer carton, and very pleased to find this delightful line-drawing of the set gracing the front and extending to the bottom and sides. There is a further outline sketch on the bottom, this time showcasing the ship's underside: Whilst it is not unheard-of for larger sets to contain inner boxes, I've never seen one with decoration before - a nice touch, though I suspect fans would rather pay a little less for a plain box, or at least one that doesn't require destruction with thumb-tabs. Accompanying the inner box inside the outer are eight polybags - numbered 2 to 6, 8, 12 and 13; insider the inner are a further seven (1, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10, 11 - 9 and 10 are duplicated) and the large black tile for the stand. There doesn't seem to be much logic to the packaging, and you need to open the inner box to start building. Instructions Also in the outer box can be found the single instruction manual wrapped in plastic with the sticker sheet: The front view is a cut-down version of the box front, though they have managed to avoid cutting off parts of the ship. There's no cardboard backing, which seems no longer to be a thing, but the Perfect-bound manual has remained reassuringly crumple-free without it. Inside are some four double-pages of information not unlike the manual that comes with Architecture or Ideas sets. It opens with a foreword from the head of the Star Wars design team, Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, who I believe designed the earlier 2004 version. There follows a double-page spread of trivia about the Y-Wing itself: I'm not sure of the value of list of fictional statistics, but the schematics and cutaways, and Ralph McQuarrie concept art on the facing page are nice. The model shown bottom left in the picture shares several features with this LEGO version and I'm sure was used as a reference. Next follows an interview with set designer Jordan David Scott in which he is asked the question, 'How accurate is the LEGO Y-wing, compared to the real in-universe vehicle?' I will not spoil his answer, but will attempt to answer it myself during the review. There is also an interview with graphic designer Madison O'Neill, part of which is reprinted below: Mostly I showed this page for the further reference models; I will make reference to the top right picture later. The studio models (bottom right) appear to be in the process of being painted; they are largely coated in (presumably) a primer which looks to be a lovely sand blue colour: sand blue features quite prominently in this and the current System versions. The set construction is modular with two or three polybags per module, counting the engines separately, and a single bag for the stand; there are two pages demonstrating the modules so you can plan your build accordingly. The instructions are clear with call-outs and sub-builds (example), and I encountered no colour-differentiation issues. I felt it important to show that real starfighters wear pink, or at least contain pink as filler. I like the plain grey background, with white for the module header, blue for part call-outs and tan for sub-builds: smart and clear. The obligatory decal sheet isn't too terrifying this time, and unlike 10134 there isn't a large and fiddly cockpit canopy sticker - the sand-blue decals go on the cockpit sides, but the top and front are printed. The console is unfortunately stickered too (12 and 13). The information sticker contains similar information to 10134's, though rearranged somewhat, and it's a little less fussy. Parts The spread of parts is shown below in thumbnail form; you can click each for a close-up. They are divided according to module, which corresponds to polybags 1, 2, and 3; 4, 5, and 6; 7 and 8 respectively: I haven't found any parts which look new or especially rare; there are however a larger number of sand blue plates in 1x3 and 1x4 which I am pleased to see. There is a useful quantity of jumper plates, and some 80 1x1 round plates in flat silver, along with 22 grille tiles in the same colour. I like flat silver - it is an inexpensive way to make something look metallic when bluish grey won't cut it. There are also 26 light bley ingots, used to good effect here and useful for paving. Disappointingly, there are fewer pieces of flex-tubing than I would like (or expected, after the multitude of copper and long dark bley tubes of 10134); here there are only 6 in reddish brown, and most of the pipe-work is achieved with 3, 4, or 6L bars. Bags 9 and 10 are duplicated; one of each is shown here, along with bag 12: bag 11 is the same as 12 minus the figures. I wonder why they did that. The 6x6 round brick is new in light bluish grey and sand blue; it is previously available only in 2015's 60080 Spaceport. The corresponding 6x6 round plate is common but this is its first appearance in yellow. The large Viking Wagon Wheel is new in light bluish grey. The right-hand picture features bag 13 which builds the stand; of note here is only the four black 1x2 - 1x2 SNOT brackets; only two are necessary so you can easily pilfer two if you need to. Figs Two unique figures are included: a flat silver and dark bluish grey Astromech droid, and Gold Leader. The droid is unnamed in the manual, but the box top reveals him to be R2-BHD ('Tooby'), and who featured in and was created for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. His body is, I believe, the same as that of the droid R3-S1 who features in the latest System 75172 Y-Wing Starfighter, but the head is unique. Gold Leader, aka Dutch Vander, has a beautifully detailed torso with leg printing to match - vastly superior to the previous generic Rebel pilot torso, and the helmet is a thing of beauty with olive green printing on the top, crest, and even sides. No wonder he's grinning! He also has a scared face on the rear; his head also sports a detailed visor and microphone. The torso rear-printing is also an improvement over the older design, with a more detailed tabard and a buckle. He comes with a small blaster, not shown here. Here is Dutch (centre) next to his earlier incarnation from 9495 (left) and Jek Porkins from 9493 X-Wing fighter: I'm sure you will agree the new design is much more detailed and a great improvement over the older torso; whether it will remain unique and exclusive to this set remains to be seen. I'm still unsure whether I like minifigures in UCS sets, but they make nice extra collectors items, and in the case of this set you can actually seat the figure in the cockpit. Whether you should remains unanswered. Build Rather than an exhasutive trawl through the build process, I have selected a few pictures to demonstrate important features of the construction or interesting techniques; for a more complete set of pictures, see my flickr album. Like her older sister 10134, we start by building the main body of the ship. Here, midway through module 1, the large Technic block is lined with cross-axle bricks (green), and flanked with further Technic bricks; this will form the main receptacle for the wing pylons: Some greebling and an axle connector is left dangling at the front. Already some detail is added to the underside; the square hole will of course receive the stand, and some flat silver Technic connectors at the rear look like they should have some function, but they don't. Maybe they are bomb doors (it's a bomber, after all). See their construction here. It is not until module 2 that we start to add the serious greebling to the top of the body. The reddish-brown whip piece will fold forward and clip into two of the grey clippy tiles to make an interesting feature. Note the Ingots of Bley which are used instead of 1x2 tiles to add texture, and to good effect. Also note the 4x2 bley SNOT area at the side towards the front ... ... this is built on sideways to add bulk, with some nice usage of various SNOT parts: It is nothing ground-breaking, but adds interest to the build, and reflects the build-process in general which is never dull. You can also see here where the whip got clipped. Next we see how the wing pylons are attached: slotting into the Technic bricks on long axles and secured with pins: To see inside the pylon, click here. Much like 10134, the pylons are a sandwich of bricks inside plates, but the attachment with Technic axles is much more secure in this version. They are stop-end axles, so they will stay in position if you want to dismantle the set. Removing the pylons from the body will however not be easy, because the join gets built on. Under the dark tan jumper plates and dark red grille tiles at the rear are several long 1-wide plates placed over the join: The jumper plates are used to good effect to add features to the top. The 1x3 double-inverted slope in the inset will be attached upside down into the centre jumper plate, using a 1x2 round tile with bar and pin holder as a stud reverser. Just in front of the centre jumper plate is a shield under an inverted 2x2 round tile with hole, attached via a clip in a technique similar to the headlights of the CREATOR Mini and VW Beetle. Every so often you have to flip the body to add details to the underside, and this is done gradually so that you're building on a flat, stable surface ... ... at least until you add the two 1x4 arches via SNOT bricks to make yet another interesting feature. This is not done until the end of module 2 - and it's a good thing, as this little add-on is somewhat fragile. Module 3 builds the cockpit section. The angled sides of the head are attached via hinge-plates at the rear, and skeleton arms at the front, to make a reasonably secure connection. The sudden appearance of some minor Technic here surprised me; the axle at the rear will insert into the dangling connector we met at the beginning. Note the brown and yellow double-headlight brick constructions, which produce some downwards-facing studs ... ... allowing the whole underside to attach, studs-down. This leaves only a few available connections on the top surface; the 2x3 white slope attached to only one stud on its base, but it will be secured with a tile on top. The engines are formed from a central stack of SNOT bricks and green cross-axle bricks, to which will be attached some side panels; note the use of headlight bricks to reinforce the connection on the sides with the green bricks. The clever part is that the engine needs to be rotated through forty-five degrees relative to the pylon attachment for the long axles to sit correctly, and this is achieved using a large 4x4 turntable at each end - a wonderfully simple solution; see here for more detail. At the end of the long engines, the Viking Wagon Wheels are attached using pneumatic T-pieces pushed into the little holes in the front, and marrying up to Technic crankshaft parts which allows a half-stud offset. The remaining point of the T-piece is used to attach a curved slope to neaten the join, though it remains rather flimsy. Note the flag pieces, which form the 'thrust vectrals': the instructions are very specific about placing the pole half-way into the upper clip (inset) - the free end of the pole needs to be long enough to insert into the centre holes of the wagon wheel. The construction of these thirst victuals seems rather inelegant, but we'll see how well it works later. Finally, some panels will add detail and texture to the sides of the engines. Panels 2 and 4 in the picture below sit higher on four 1x8 plates; these connect to the headlight bricks on the green cross-axle brick faces of the engine centre: the sides that will connect to the wing pylons. Panel 4 has a hole ready for the attachment; panel 3 has the landing gear. There now just remains the stand, and we're done. I thoroughly enjoyed this build; little details and surprises abound, and keep it interesting at every stage. Even the repetition of the engines isn't particularly tedious. On a personal note, I found the construction of the side panels of the engines and the SNOT underside of the cockpit reminded me greatly of building the Bullfrog all those years ago. The Complete Set First impressions: the set looks smart, which is no mean feat for a ship with all her innards on display. The colour scheme works well; the flashes of white, yellow and sand blue stand out against the grey, with pipework nicely picked out in brown. The shape is good, and looks about right, but we'll compare in more detail later. Incidentally, the stand can be attached in-line (as here) or transversely, and has two positions: upright - as here, although it doesn't lock in this position - and tilted to about 20 degrees. From the front, and slightly above - the ship almost disappears when viewed directly from the front - we can admire the shapely head, although I am not sure the shape is quite right, and should perhaps be two studs wider - compare to the reference picture I pointed out in the manual earlier. I'm also conscious that the wing pylons are a little fatter than they ought to be, though that may have been a compromise necessary for strength; I do like the use of 1x4 groove bricks to make a stripe at the front of the pylons. Perhaps my favourite angle is what I might call 'Darth Vader's view': Like the 2012 X-Wing, the ship's exhaust is (correctly) pinky-red. Here we get our first look at the thirsk victories on the rear of the engines, which seem to have come out quite well, but we'll look more closely later. I was looking forward to see if this set had addressed perhaps the biggest issue of her predecessor: the length of the engines. I am pleased to find that it has: they look about the right length. The smartness of the colour scheme again stands out in this view; note the sand blue stripe along the side of the cockpit. From the top, the relative proportions of body, pylons, and engine look pretty good: Compared to the schematics, the proportions seem about right, though the head still looks too small. The front of the engines should perhaps be more conical (I think they are parabolic in cross-section) rather than flattened hemispheres as the are here, but that's a minor point. I don't think I've ever seen so much detail on the underside of a set before: Hats off to the designer for going the extra mile here, and acknowledging that it's nice to have something that looks good even on the top shelf! You can also see that the landing gear sits unobtrusively when folded. Take a moment also to appreciate the smooth SNOT of the cockpit underside, seen more closely here. Here is the 'real thing' for comparison: Picture from starwars.wikia.com You can see here that the overall shape is good. The engines in LEGO's version should perhaps be a little fatter, but the length is about right; as you can see the wing pylons should be thinner and mounted towards the top of the engines rather than on their midline. Features Let's now take a closer look, starting with the head. No LEGO UCS ship would be complete without cockpit detail, though not much is possible at this scale; there are stickered panels, a seat back cleverly made from a flag piece, targeting computer, and I love the bucket handle control stick: And it will seat the figure! It shouldn't, of course; the scale is all wrong. The cockpit should also open sideways rather than backwards; no official LEGO Y-Wing has tried to correct this. There should ideally be more of a curve to the cockpit canopy, but this would be difficult to render with existing pieces. As it is, the cockpit comes out a little boxy - but the sand blue colour works well. There's a little surprise in the turret, which is otherwise similar to the System version. Remember the surprising Technic in the head section? It connects to the turret: Turning the turret moves the little 8-tooth gear in the neck; or, you can move the gear with your finger and the turret turns. It's not much, but I appreciate the little extra. The silver droid gets a little lost in amongst all the grey; and like all UCS ship droids he's still too small. However, let's not focus on him; as we move back, the greebling detail becomes quite impressive. The pipework steals the show here, but there are some small features at the side of the neck, and even the rear of the head section gets some greebling via a hinge brick sandwiched between two white flags. The flags don't quite line up with the slopes, but I can forgive this. Note the droid body forming some extra detail at the back of the neck. Now we come the really good bit. The use of various parts to form arcane equipment on the body of the ship is superb. I've taken guesses as to what it might do. Moving backwards from Tooby, there's a couple of bley ingots (battery?). Behind this, a couple of wheels on a Technic pin sit within some tan wall elements (starter motor), all a few layers deeper in the model. Behind this are two dark tan bucket handles sitting in corner wall elements, which look like switches or circuits and between them bley binoculars on a round tile with stud (distributor cap - you can see where I'm going with this). Over all of this runs the brown whip piece (HT cable); this passes rearward past a hinged grille tile (carburettor) and between an inverted ice skate (oil filler cap) and what looks like a cylinder head from a two-stroke engine to the shield-disc (air filter). I'll dispense with the lame analogy now. Moving ever-rearwards, you can admire the inverted double-slope, in front of a wheel hub and two binocular pieces sandwiched in. Either side of the flywheel are two mechanical claw parts best seen in the picture above, and another shield-disc behind. There is an incredible amount of detail covering every part of the body with barely a stud left exposed, and what is more, the height/depth of the features varies considerably: it is not simply a plate with lots of small parts stuck on. Round the back are two frames constructed from handlebars and fire hose nozzles, resembling rear-end bull bars; I hadn't noticed them on the real ship, but they are supposed to be there. Notice the vertical brown 4L pole on the right - there is space for one on the other side, but the instructions don't have you place one there. This is an opportunity to compare again to the 'real' ship, this time in the form of the Bandai 1/72 model: Looking towards the rear of this model, you can hopefully recognise several of the features I have pointed out on this LEGO version: the shield-disc, binoculars, flywheel, inverted double-slope, cylinder head, oil filler, carburettor etc. are all there in as much detail you could render in LEGO pieces. A splendid effort. I bet the Bandai model doesn't have landing gear. LEGO's does! It looks totally flimsy, but it is really quite sturdy, and does the job well. I don't recall any other UCS set having retractable landing gear; I'm sure I will be corrected if I'm wrong. The ski parts work well ... ... and the gear sits at a slant which looks better than the vertical stanchions you tend to see on System sets. As I have already shown, they fold quite neatly and are unobtrusive when folded; click here for a further picture. Now let's look again at the thrush vegetables, er, thrust vectrals: Despite the rather Heath Robinson construction, I think they work quite well. The curved slopes at the edge of the wheel are a little flimsy and easily knocked out of alignment, but the flag pieces are reasonably sturdy. I believe those parts are like rudders and should tilt around 'y' and 'z' axes rather than rotating around the long axis of the ship, but I can live with that - certainly a better solution than any other LEGO Y-Wing set. Comparison to 10134 I dug around in some boxes and rescued 10134 from retirement especially for this moment. The senior UCS Y-Wing was notable at the time for the extensive use of greebling, but when I reviewed her before I worried that the proportions were out. Principally, 10134's engines are far too long; 75181 gets it right here: I was surprised to the new set had used grey rather than white for the long engine struts, but I think this gives a smarter finish; they are attached more neatly to the nacelles too. The engine greebling on 75181 better resembles the original ... ... as does that of the body, and by a country mile: 10134's detailing is very much parts-stuck-on-a-plate, and there is minimal attention to accuracy; 75181 is the winner hands down ... ... as she is again on the underside: 75181's belly is remarkably detailed, almost pretty. Little effort was made on 10134 where plain plate undersides are all that is to be seen. Note also the colour schemes; again 75181's smart livery is a vast improvement over 10134's blocky, almost random colours. If there is one way in which 10134 edges it slightly over her younger sibling, it is the shape of the engine cones - closer to the real thing, though still not perfect. There isn't so much difference in the cockpit design, compared here without stickers. I prefer the tapered outline of the newer set, and the sand blue canopy, but if anything the scale is worse, going from a three stud to a two stud wide seat. Compare to this movie still (featured in the manual of the set): I think the System version is a better representative of the ship's size relative to a minifigure, and I would rather have had a wider cockpit on this UCS set and forego the figure altogether. Conclusion I confess I didn't have particularly high expectations for this set, mainly because the Y-Wing itself isn't the most interesting ship, but what 75181 lacks in functionality it certainly makes up in style and detail. The designer has gone to extraordinary lengths to recreate every mysterious lump or bump on the surface of the original in as much painstaking detail as possible with LEGO bricks, and for the most part has done a fantastic job. The colour scheme is smart, and attractive, and going by the various models around is close to the original; the scale of the LEGO version is much closer to the real ship than the older set, and it's a thousand times better overall. There remain some issues: some fixable, some less so; it may be difficult to render the thrust vectrals better, and the nacelle cones aren't perfect but probably optimal with the parts available; however, I would have traded in the new figure for a new side-opening cockpit mould, and I think the head shape could be better. Design & Accuracy 8 A great-looking set that is for the most part a faithful rendition of the original, with some wonderful detail. I remain uncomfortable with the scale, and I think the cockpit needs to be bigger; the shape of the entire head section isn't quite right. Build 9 An entertaining build process with minimal repetition and no frustration and several interesting techniques; it is well-structured allowing for you to pick up and leave off with ease. Parts & Figures 7 I don't think there are any new parts in this set, but there are older parts in new colours. The selection is all generically useful without being exciting. Some may be excited by the unique figures; they look great, but that's not why I buy UCS sets. Display & Function 8 The ship looks great on the shelf; it's one of those set that is a little tricky to tell from a distance that it is LEGO. There are a number of display options, with two stand orientations and two configurations; thanks to the landing gear, you can dispense with the stand altogether. The ship is well-balanced, sturdy, and reasonably swooshable; of course, there's also the turret function! Value 9 The older set 10134 cost £109 in 2004; that equates to about £165 now - for some 500 fewer pieces than 75181. £170 for 2000 pieces in a licensed set seems like good value; throw in a smart and informative manual and the price starts to look very good. Overall 41/50 (82%) This is an excellent rendition of the Y-Wing, good value, and a great addition to the collection. I wouldn't say it's a must-have, though sadly that's the problem with the Y-Wing herself - not perhaps the most sought-after of Star Wars ships. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the review. Comments welcome! Rufus With thanks to the LEGO Group for the review set. My flickr

Hello There! Yesterday, I went to my local Lego Store in Warsaw and... there were available new Lego Star Wars summer sets!!! Probably this is the first review of this set :) Price - 129 PLN in Poland, others should be 29.99 USD or 29.99 EUR. 355 pieces and 3 minifigures - Tobias Beckett, Enfys Nest and Weazel Check my full review with ENG subtitles: My opinion - 9/10!!! Great set and I recommend this!

Introduction: Thanks to @Jim the brand new Cargo Train has arrived early in LEGO City. Here a review of the set. I was very excited to get my hands on the set, not only because it offers a large potential but also because of the Powered Up system. Set Information: Number - 60198 Name – Cargo Train Theme – City (Trains) Year – 2018 Minifigs – 6 Pieces – 1226 Target age – 6+ (6 – 12) Price – €189.99, CA$ 269.99, $ 229.99, £ 179.99 Available from: July 1rst 2018 Links: Brickset - https://brickset.com/sets/60198-1/Cargo-Train Poll on the review: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GTQWQVX (suggestion: fill it in after you finished the review). LEGO Product Information Load up the powerful LEGO® City 60198 Cargo Train and deliver the goods on time! This cool LEGO City set features a motorized engine with 10-speed Bluetooth remote control, accessible driver’s cabin, a crane wagon with rotating and extendable boom arm, container wagon with 2 containers, and a log wagon, plus an armored truck with opening doors, and a forklift with opening roll cage and lifting forks. This cool LEGO train set also includes a full circular track with 16 curved rails, 16 straight rails and a railroad switch with lever, plus a control center with ladder and 2 buildable pallets with money bills, gold bar elements, a snow scooter and 6 LEGO minifigures. Includes 6 LEGO® minifigures: 4 train workers, a security officer and a crook. Features a motorized engine with 10-speed Bluetooth remote control, pantograph on the opening roof, and driver’s cabin with control panel. Also features a log wagon, crane wagon with rotating and extendable boom arm, and a container wagon with 2 containers with hooks on the roof for loading and space for pallets. Includes a control center with ladder and signal lights, a full circular toy train track with 16 curved rails, 16 straight rails and a railroad switch with lever, a money transport truck with opening doors, and a working forklift with opening roll cage. Accessory elements include a wrench, 12 gold bar elements and 4 money bills, plus 2 buildable pallets, 3 logs and snow scooter. Open the roof to access the engine car filled with cool details. Operate the cargo train with the 10-speed Bluetooth remote control. Lift and load logs onto the log wagon with the crane's rotating arm and hook. Push the lever on the railroad switch to drive the train to a different track for loading or unloading. Load pallets into the containers with the forklift before lifting them onto the container wagon with the crane. Set up the tracks in different configurations to load or offload cargo around your city. This product requires batteries (not included). Please refer to the product packaging for type and quantities. The included Bluetooth remote is not compatible with older infrared remote-controlled LEGO® train sets. Cargo Train in total measures over 4” (11cm) high, 32” (82cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide. Engine measures over 4” (11cm) high, 10” (27cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide. Log wagon measures over 1” (5cm) high, 5” (15cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide. Crane wagon measures over 4” (10cm) high, 8” (22cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide. Container wagon measures over 3” (9cm) high, 7” (18cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide. Armored truck measure over 2” (6cm) high, 6” (15cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide. Control center measures over 8” (21cm) high, 3” (8cm) wide and 4” (12cm) deep. Forklift measures over 2” (7cm) high, 2” (5cm) wide and 4” (12cm) deep. The Box: The box is huge, feels filled and heavy. This is the front of the box: and this is the back: They clearly mention that set is not compatible with older systems (read: Power Functions). They also promote the upcoming app(s) and the passenger train (+ the track sets). I found it a bit odd that they did not include the Bluetooth Low Energy logo and standard they use on the box. They mention Bluetooth but that could have meant Bluetooth Classic. Not too easy to see in the smaller resolution of the image, but they mention near the lightning bolt: "The Bluetooth technology is not compatible with older train products". For kids I think the box would be very appealing since they give a lot of hints on how to play with the set. Inside The Box: The box contains 12 numbered and additionally four unnumbered bags (three with tracks, train bases and a few other parts including the ladder, and then the PU train motor). Two stacks of four curved track sections and the PU controller and receiver came loose (interesting since the PF parts always came inside cardboard I think). The Instructions: The six booklets and the stickers came in a separate plastic sealed package, good thing since that keeps both stickers and booklets in much better condition of course: The Build: It is a massive set so I decided to take it on in a very structured way. Booklet 1/6: The Forklift The first pages of the forklift booklet contain some instruction on how to move forward bag by bag. It also explains the brick separator and scanning the QR code will even lead you to a tutorial video about the separator. Ok, well these are the parts of bag one: For the price of the set they really focused on money, so while you spend quite some money on the set, you also are rewarded with a lot of money related items. Some nice modern parts, a lot of familiar parts. They could have used the goldish version of the 'bars' (Piece 99563) but apparently they didn't (the piece was included in other 2018 sets though) and just used jumper and normal tiles. They have a lot of color variations, especially the jumpers, I thought that was a minor draw-back. At first I also found the "Bright Light Orange" parts looking somewhat poorly (reminded me of some clone bricks) but it worked out very well in the end. First one needs to build the minifig and the pallet. Here is what the figure and pallet look like. To the left the base of the forklift: Here is the final forklift together with the minifig and pallet full of cold uh, gold and banknotes. Here you can see for yourself that it wasn't a bad decision to make the forklift Bright Light Orange after all: Booklet 2/6: The Bank Truck Bags 2 and 3 are needed to build the bank truck. I guess they did this to make the set suitable for the 6 year olds. This is the heap of bag 2 after I structured it: Not that many special parts, really straight-forward. There was one interesting step: You build the driver seat / engine compartment as 'one piece'. The engine is place in the middle of the truck as it appears. I guess they looked at real car factories and their "Hochzeit"-moment (German for marriage) moment when the bottom of the car and the body are coming together. That is it for the first part of the truck. This pile represents the contents of bag 3. The left-hand corner is the finished first half from bag 2. I always build using 'heaps' but I must say restructuring the parts means one can build very fast so I would recommend it to kids from now on: I like these parts better then the base parts. They did a very neat job with the smooth nose of the vehicle: it is basically a four-wide car piece and integrates very well. No bulky 'Jack Stone'-era like parts, but still a smooth and very buildable truck. I thinks kids and T/AFOL's alike will enjoy building it! Here is what the truck looks like when completed. A really nice and easily accessible cargo bay, nice for the 'players', but they did in fact also include those nice doors at the back. So fortunately they did not save on details making the set also interesting for a more mature audience. As you can see the pallet with money and gold bars will fit right in! The only draw-back I could think of is when the bay is closed you can see the gaps on the top. Hope it doesn't rain in your LEGO city and the bank notes are water proof (well, they are made from ABS so I guess they are ;)). A view from the front: you see how smooth and detailed it is while still using relatively small pieces. I did not apply the stickers yet, later you'll see why (and a neat trick). I would advice that also for kids, wait till your have built everything and ask a 'pro' to apply your stickers. Booklet 3/6: A stopper, crossing and... Part one of the Locomotive! Finally, the first real train builds! First some 'battery management'. The set needs a staggering amount of ten AAA batteries! Four for the controller and another six for the receiver / motor controller. I did only have for when I started and the shops were already closed so you'd better prepare and get good deals on AAA batteries before you start your PU (Powered Up) adventures. You need to pair the Bluetooth devices first. The controller and receiver probably have some initialization periode where they are able to pair to each other. We will see how that works if we will power on more than one controller or receiver in the future :) Maybe they rely on the signal strength though and will only pair to the closest devices that just booted up, just speculation, we will need to see when PU parts become more readily available and further experiment with it. As Sariel showed, powering of is easy: The receiver will apparently (from the video by Sariel) also power down after one presses the controller momentous switch for +5 seconds. Hope the troubleshooting guide will appear there around July 1rst, for now it does not exist (https://www.lego.com/themes/city/trains). Here are all the PU parts together: From top to bottom: - the receiver / battery box / motor controller combination - the remote control for two motor channels - the PU version of the train motor Now we should have started building the loop with the 'dead-end' behind the switch. The set comes with 16 straight and 16 curved tracks, and a (left hand side) turn out. Interesting to see that they included quite some straight track compared to older sets, but also that they did not include an extra curved track to make the 'dead' section behind the turn out in line with former LEGO guidelines that suggested us to always add a curved piece right after the diverted section of turn outs and never directly connect a straight section. B.t.w. booklets 3 and 4 show a yellow / orange tile on the turnout so you can remember that train will react to what side of the controller, but they included a green tile and correctly show you to add that green tile to the controller for 60198. Maybe they should have included a sticker that looked like 60198 for that tile as well but they didn't. You then are instructed to build the (unsafe) railroad crossing, more or less just like the one from the winter village station. There is also a rail stopper for the end of the dead section. Here are the parts for both builds: This is the rail stopper: The crossing is plain but effective: They could have added barriers for even more playability but I guess in freight shunt yards like this, have a crossing without barriers is most common. Bag five contains the first part of the engine. The baseplate is 6 x 28 which is very common for recent trains (see: BrickLink). The inside of the train is very colorful. I know from designers that they typically do this for sets targeting a younger age, I don't mind it since the outside is still very acceptable. You see already quite some typical Train parts, so the LEGO Train story just continues with this set. The engine is very much symmetric as you can see, I value this very much since for children it helps them to better understand concepts like symmetry (I'm a beta teacher after all). Here is the half way built engine, I actually made a mistake with the yellow 1 x 4 panels, they should have been facing towards the inside of the train. The head is more or less a fusion between typical US and EU trains. We all know of course that the leaked initial images very much looked like typical EU engines, I think this way the train appeals to a wider audience (remember Jamie Berards recents comments on trains). Since the nose is SNOTted, it would be very doable to modify it without a lot of problems to suit one's taste maybe even better. The tile on the front will be fitted with a 'cargo' instead of the typical Train ('Northern') logo (<-O->). That was the end of booklet 3. Booklet 4/6: The rest of the Locomotive Booklet 4 lets you start with bag 6. You need to add the buffers and the motor as well. Here you see the parts from bag 6: Yellow bogie plates this time. The green train windows are not unique but after all most parts would also be reusable for MOC's etc. Here you see the finished bogies, one with the new UP motor, the other entirely brick-built: The buffers for the locomotive are of the snowplow variety. After finishing bag 6 we have this: The cockpits are easily accessible and the battery bay is very spacious: we don't have an IR receiver anymore of course :) There are two train parts in bag 7 that I have never seen before: the new pantographs! They look really neat I think. Here is the finished train with the controller next to it: You can see that the vertical part of the panels are now facing the inside. The 1 x 3 panels on top make a the entire engine very sturdy while it is still very easy to remove the entire middle section, just remove the four panels and one can lift the entire thing. It looks very much like a real cargo engine after all I think (although it appears a fusion between a continental and US train as we already discussed earlier). The roof section acts like a lever (comparable to what we have seen in e.g. the yellow and red cargo locomotives) for the battery box. Booklet 5/6: Crooked trees and a female operated rail crane Bag 8 contains the crook with the rail car and lumber. Not spectacular, but they did a nice job. I like the dark tan 1 x 6 fences. Looks like the crook is up to no good! Here the finished lumber rail car. The lumber fits very well and won't fall off that easy. Apparently this car is also the crooks ideal place he can observe from. Bag 9 contains the base for the rail crane. We have seen quite some rail cranes already (1972, 1975, 1977, 1980, 2006 and 2015 (I might have forgotten one or two), I already owned one (set 7814) when I was 2,5 years old, but I think (arguably) that only set 4552 from the 9V era tops this one. These are the parts, another (6 x 24) train base, the typical train railings again. The female crane operator has the same uniform as the train driver. Here you can see the finished base: The stabilizers are fully retractible as you can see and have a sturdiness to it as needed for performing heavy lifts common in railroad situations. This is also true for the bogies, very compact, really appropriate for a genuine real crane I think. This is what the crane base looks like after being but on it's bogies: Bag 10 contains the crane itself: I like the large round turntable. Also those technic parts. A good starter for engaging youngsters in Technics. This is what the finished crane looks like: M(r)s operator is now totally ready for every conceivable heavy lifting duty. B.t.w. those 'stamps' that you see connected to the hook are also used as joysticks for the operator. Behind the 'container' doors on either side are 2 x 2 tiles that will get a human machine interface / operator panel (stickers). Booklet 6/6: Rail yard control tower and container rail car. The final booklet contains the instructions for a duo container rail car and the yard control tower. First up is bag 11 that contains the rail car, containers and even a snow scooter. All the parts for the train car and the containers. No very special parts but nice color variations. First we build the rail car itself. A very straight-forward open rail car with a somewhat heavy duty base. Then the bank container that also doubles as a safe. Wondering why the crook only has binoculars, maybe he wants to steal the combination? I guess no explosives this time :). The container has a hook so the rail crane can easily lift it. The 'money pallet' will fit in just like with the truck. The second container comes with a pallet that can fit a snow mobile. The back of booklet 4 already promoted the arctic explorer sets so I guess they wanted to link the set also to the arctic theme enthusiasts! The snow mobile next to the car and both containers. The last bag! Number 12 contains the following: There is one peculiar item that was new to me: It fits a cross axle to the side and can fit a 20482 part to both other sides. Although the signal tower might not be that realistic, it adds extra playability and is quite fun. We can always MOD it of course work more like the real deal. Initially I though, did they finally reintroduce the yellow helmet again to a train set after about 40 years, but alas, although the female hairpiece of the operator also looks very neat. The back of the tower has a knob so you can signal the train engine driver that he can start / stop shunting in the rail yard. So that was it for building. Here are most of the left-overs: There is also an extra small chain piece (from the lumber car). This is what the entire set looks like from a 'helicopter' vantage point: The Minifigures: Here is the line up of the minifigs: Having some diversity in the LEGO train world isn't that bad I would say. I like the uniforms, a lot of details in their prints. All torsos also have a printed back: Apart from the 1 x 4 train cockpit, 1 x 2 money tiles and these torsos all other artwork is done using stickers. Stickers, love them or hate them?! I think without the stickers the train would not look that great at all, but we have them so we can upgrade the looks of our set by applying them. Here they are: The artwork was done quite well, I like the metallics in the bank logo's. Nothing too complicated but nevertheless making the set much more appealing. The sticker paper does then to curl better put it somewhere safe till you are ready to apply the stickers. I obviously have a lot of experience applying stickers, my wife always ask me to help out on e.g. her technic sets for applying them, so do my cousins and nieces. But that does not mean that I never fail at applying the stickers just perfectly. Fortunately I know a trick and used that trick to apply the stickers on set 60198 as well. The solution: adding some drops of (mild) dishwashing soap to some water: You then moisturize your finger and apply the solution to the place where the sticker(s) need to be applied. The thin film soapy water prevents the sticker from immediately sticking to the ABS. You can then readjust the sticker till you are satisfied, squeeze a little to make the sticker stay in place and just let it dry. Applying the stickers makes all the difference don't you think? I just wanted to finish off with a last view from the yard tower: What a job, a great view... and: Even your own coffee maker: I just love that they added this detail! Summary: Playability: 10/10 Design: 7/10 Price: 6/10 Parts: 8/10 Minifigures: 9/10 Overall: 7/10 Wrap-up and some final notes: Hope you like the review, I did not have my photography tent / spots up and running at the moment so sorry about the differences in colors / shading, hope it wasn't too disturbing in the end. At my flickr page you can see more pictures I took while building the set. Now I just need some AAA batteries to start the engine! And remember: don't forget to fill in your opinions on the set: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GTQWQVX The quality of the video could be better but at least you get the idea I hope. One more thing: I have started a Powered Up review that includes a tear-down here. Hope many more will contribute to that! I'll do that in a separate topic since it is of course not only about set 60198.

Hello! :) There'll be a lot of reviews of new Elves sets soon, but I think it can't be too many of them anyway :) So I decided to make one again! I've build beautiful Aira's Airship of Elves 2017 and here's some pictures of it. Hope you like it too :) Overall impression reminds me split of two amazing sets from first wave - Naida's Adventure Ship and Pegasus Sleigh with all that fancy-styled details and pleasing color scheme. Ant that's great! Play features became less peaceful: while only weapon of team of Andventure ship was frying pan, heroes of new story have boomerang and disc shooter, and little goblin with flying backpack looks more menaceful than sea shell or little dragon's house :) Most intriguing part of the main building for me was wing mechanism. It have a lot intresting joints, even gear mechanism that keeps wings in raised position. Movement is enough tight, it's not very light and smooth, and needs a little effort. But anyway I really liked that it adds technic building expirience. Intresting parts: lots of gold makes happy my inner magpie! :D Book with air symbol is my favorite item here! I like Aira most of all characters, so I glad that here's new stuff with her symbols. Boomerang is also nice weapon for an intelligent character. Map is classical feature of this series. All theese pretty items may be storaged in pantry of the airship! Also there's box with ammo for disc-shooter. Goblin's fliyng box. I can't find out how this bolts shoot :( When I press them as shown in istruction, they just falls down, may be I make it wrong way. But I don't mind it, because I like boxes :) The goblin himself looks like an desperate person that can bring a lot of troubles for elves! :) And here's comparisions :) New amulet also fits good to regular lego minifig. There were two amulets on one mould, like golden keys from other sets. This old and respectable guy is honored to show it to you! :) (it's only minifig that saved from my former collection) Comparision with Naida's Adventure Ship from 2015. Three Airas! And last picture - Aira's airfleet, of Elvendale Airlines inc. =) Also here's my jetbike moc :) Thanks for watching! I hope this will attract more intrest for this beautilul series!