Tag Archives: Review

Not sure which LEGO sets to pick up for yourself? Need ideas for that LEGO fan who already has more LEGO than he or she can possibly build with in a lifetime? Nervous about the quality of the custom accessories that tempted you at your last LEGO convention? Read our reviews of LEGO sets, books, accessories, and more right here on The Brothers Brick.

“Brick by Brick” by David C. Robertson [Review]

We recently received an advance copy of David C. Robertson‘s new book Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry.

There has been a lot of buzz about the LEGO Group in business circles for a number of years now. Much of this has been caused by the near-bankruptcy of the company and their stellar comeback, posting record profits yet again in 2012. Mr. Robertson’s book takes the reader on a journey deep inside the company and explains many of the internal workings that led to the rise, the fall, and the ultimate resurrection of LEGO. Mr. Robertson is a professor of innovation and product development, so some of the terminology was unfamiliar to me. However, his writing is accessible to the lay reader and the book gives a lot of insight into LEGO and their attempts at innovation, covering both their successes and failures. Some of the information may be familiar to the hard-core fan but I found that there was a lot of information regarding issues of which I was unaware. For instance, I knew that LEGO is an extremely insulated company and that the right hand often doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. What I didn’t know was that in the 90s they branched off into so many different markets and ventures that there were many divisions cut off from the main leadership and were never even asked to make sure their efforts were marketable, profitable or even if they had anything to do with LEGO.

Some of the points that Robertson explores are:
- How the leadership at LEGO in the 90s tried to incorporate the leading edge strategies of innovation strategies and nearly killed the company in doing so.
- The lose of control that the 90s leadership experienced by rapidly moving outside the company’s fields of expertise, not establishing any sort of reliable accountability or tracking of costs. As hard as it is to believe, the leadership didn’t even know which lines were making money and which weren’t.
- How the new leadership turned the company around by pulling back and innovating “inside the brick”…exploring innovations inside the realm of what they knew and could control.
- How and why certain innovations failed in such a spectacular fashion, such as LEGO Universe and Galidor, and why other innovations became overnight sensations, such as Ninjago, Mindstorms NXT, and the lines of LEGO video games and board games.

Overall, the book was quite interesting, easy to read, and gave me added insight into thought processes and decision-making that has gone on at LEGO. I would recommend it any LEGO fan.

Brick by Brick is available for pre-order from Amazon.com, and the book is due out on June 25th, 2013.

Brickmania M4 Sherman tank custom LEGO kit [Review]

This is my second review focusing on a custom Brickmania LEGO kit that’s similar to a LEGO model I designed myself — well, sort of, in this case. Read on…

The M4 Sherman is one of the most iconic and recognizable tanks of all time, with nearly 50,000 produced between 1942 and 1955. Because of its long production run, the tank served through most of the U.S. involvement in World War II and on through the Korean War.

The Sherman is an incredibly well-documented vehicle, and popular enough with plastic modelers that there’s a wealth of reference pictures available online and in books, from historical photos to detailed schematics and high-res close-ups of surviving tanks in museums. With so many production variants (animated GIF illustrating three of the most common ones on the right) and tank crews’ penchant for customizing their vehicles in the field, it’s also a great choice as inspiration for a LEGO model — you can definitely put your own spin on it.

After I’d tried my hand with LEGO World War II models with a couple of small Jeeps and a simple Higgins Boat for my Omaha Beach diorama, I knew I had to tackle a bigger vehicle, and I quickly settled on the M4A3 Sherman, which I included in my diorama depicting the liberation of Cherbourg.

Here’s my M4A3 (76)W Sherman variant on the right with Dan Siskind’s Brickmania M4 Sherman that I’ll be reviewing on the left.

It feels a little odd reviewing these two models as a comparison for two reasons. First, they’re very different variants. Dan’s M4 reflects earlier (initial M4 or M4A1), much more rounded hull design with a 75mm gun while mine is the mid/late-war M4A3 with an angular hull and the much-larger 76mm gun (with its correspondingly longer turret).

Side note: Remember how I said just how well-documented Shermans are? Prepare for this review to get occasionally technical about tank details. Bogies will be mentioned.

Second, I have to confess that I based many aspects of my M4A3 on Dan’s own M4A2. Or rather, I tried to reverse-engineer things like the front section and the suspension from his pictures (which I can’t find online today). You can definitely see the influence in details like the angled flags above the treads on the front. Given a bit of “shared DNA,” there is of course a lot more similarity between my M4A3(76)W and Dan’s current Brickmania M4A3(76)W kit. But back to the actual review…

Theoretically, both of these models are the same scale — Dan says he targets 1/35th, and that’s the same scale I used, based on schematics in World War II AFV Plans: American Armored Fighting Vehicles. But this next comparison photo shows how much larger mine is:

The problem with LEGO tanks is that they’re just plain huge — an issue I touched on in my review of the Brickmania WC54 ambulance: “The more ‘room’ you have to work with, the more details and functionality you can build into the model.” (Speaking of ridiculously huge, I hate the road wheels on my tank and will definitely be replacing them with smaller ones if/when I revisit my design.)

My point about tank scale is best illustrated by this historic photo from Belgium in 1944, with soldiers conveniently walking alongside for scale:

The soldiers standing next to the Sherman show that the top of the tank treads come no higher than mid-chest, and the deck of the tank where the turret sits is just above the tallest soldier’s helmet. Granting that the minifig is horrible for scale, but assuming that height is an acceptable measure of dimension, it’s clear that just about every LEGO tank is far, far too tall. And thanks to the minifig’s impossibly wide hips, a LEGO Sherman’s width is also affected, if you want to include space for both a driver and a machine-gunner. Here’s Dan’s photo of his M4 Sherman, with three crewmen (not included in the set):

On my tank, the tread/suspension section is taller than a minifig. Dan has managed to shave at least two plates’ worth of height off the most-common LEGO Sherman designs, but at the expense of several details most other LEGO versions include, like the larger front drive sprocket compared to the smaller rear idler, and even the bogies (hey I warned you!).

Which brings me to the price for Dan’s kit. I won’t go into the price-for-value issue again in this post (read my WC54 post for that), but the kit I’m reviewing is $165 for 505 pieces. For $350, Dan also sells his M4A3(76)W Sherman as a “premium kit” built from 796 pieces that includes a 4-minifig crew.

The difference — both between Dan’s two Shermans and between his $165 version and my own — is a matter of scale versus detail. I think this more-basic Brickmania Sherman gets the scale closer to “right,” but by sacrificing many of the details in my version and Dan’s own M4A3. It’s not just an issue of price; I think it’s essentially the same tradeoff between scale and detail that Dan and I made in the opposite direction with our two rather different ambulance designs.

The scale-vs-detail point that I’ve belabored now in two separate posts isn’t a criticism in either direction — neither “Proper scale should always win over detail” nor “Certain details must never be left out.” And I won’t include a handy comparison table this time. I do want to point out several aspects of Dan’s “basic” M4 Sherman that I really like — all differences from mine.

The front section uses rounded bricks rather than straight slopes, similar to the even-more-rounded front that I first saw on Rumrunner’s M4A1 a couple years ago, but with much simpler parts (another good compromise).
The two front hatches close seamlessly.
Even with the hatches open, the turret can still rotate 360 degrees.
The road wheels are a logical, proper size that allow the tank to roll on its treads. (Mine are far too huge and don’t line up properly with the treads.)
The main gun raises and lowers (“fully posable” as Dan puts it). I think this is my favorite functional detail, and a design I’ll borrow should I revisit my tank again.

Even without some key details — like the bogies (and again!) — I really like the overall design, and this feels like a Sherman you could probably build a couple more of once you have your first copy, thanks to Dan’s instructions. Other than the bogies (last time, I promise), my biggest critique is the too-narrow treads — a single set of Technic chain links for each tread. Most Sherman designs use either LEGO’s wider tank treads or two parallel chains of Technic links. The single-chain treads work on smaller tanks (I’ll review one of them shortly), but as part of the overall shape, I can be convinced that it’s an acceptable compromise.

And for me, that’s ultimately why this is a positive review — that the design looks great at a lower price by leaving off a few details — and why I can heartily recommend the “plain” Brickmania M4 Sherman. It’s a fun little tank — and little is good when it comes to tanks. More importantly, it holds plenty of opportunity to make it your own with extra details and “field customizations” like hedge-cutters, applique armor, and equipment built from your own LEGO collection.

With enough M4 Shermans at your disposal, successful invasion of a Pacific island becomes a possibility:

Brickmania sent The Brothers Brick a copy of this set for review. There is no guarantee of coverage or a positive review by providing items to review. It helps when you have a good product, like Dan Siskind does with his Brickmania custom LEGO kits. We’ll have a couple more reviews next week.

Brickmania WC54 Ambulance custom LEGO kit [Review]

Dan Siskind of Brickmania and I recently decided that it might be interesting to review a few of his custom LEGO kits from the perspective of someone who’s designed their own version of the same iconic vehicles available in his store. Prepare for a series of reviews with a bit more personal focus than your average LEGO set review…

The Dodge WC54 was an ambulance used by the US Army throughout World War II, and for a few years afterward. You can see them lined up on the beach at Normandy and it features prominently in the TV show M*A*S*H. It’s a wonderful vehicle, with rounded corners and a beautiful purpose — bringing safety and hope in the midst of the horror and chaos of war. My late grandfather trained as a medic during World War II, and I can imagine that if he had been deployed to the invasion of Japan (thankfully, he wasn’t) he would have served in a Dodge WC54.

All of that is why I had to build one myself. After a couple iterations and some great feedback from Tim, I was pretty pleased with the results. It’s small, but it’s one of the models I’m proudest of, so I thought I’d first try the Brickmania WC54 Ambulance custom kit for my first comparative review.

My WC54 is on the left, and Dan’s is on the right:

Dan sells two versions of his WC54 design — a standard version with just the vehicle for $80 and a “bonus pack” version for $125 (which Dan was kind enough to send us). The bonus pack version includes a Citizen Brick US Army Ranger, printed BrickArms medic helmet to turn the ranger into a medic, a “Brickmania Medical Corps” T-shirt, and the whole thing comes in an olive drab medic satchel. The complete package is actually kind of awesome, even to this jaded, cynical reviewer.

The model itself includes 253 LEGO pieces. So, let’s just get this out of the way in our first review: $80 for 253 parts? These sets aren’t for someone building their collection of LEGO parts. I asked Dan about the prices of his custom LEGO kits, and he reminded me that he has to source his individual LEGO parts on the secondary market just like everyone else. Dan sells his custom kits in limited runs of fifty to a hundred (rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands of units that the LEGO Group moves), and his price has to account for the time he spends designing and redesigning the sets in a way that enables him to find enough parts in quantity to create a batch of custom kits. As someone who built a substantial portion of his World War II LEGO models from Bricklink orders, I can attest to the challenge of trying to assemble all the parts I need for a particular model from various BrickLink stores, much less attempting to source enough for dozens of the same model. No, custom Brickmania kits are not cheap, but I really do think you’re getting value for the money. Let’s move on…

The two main differences between my ambulance and Dan’s are in the overall size and the functionality. The Brickmania WC54 is one stud longer and two plates taller:

There is, of course, a natural interdependence between a larger scale and more functionality — the more “room” you have to work with, the more details and functionality you can build into the model. Here’s a table that compares the details and functionality between the two models:

Andrew’s WC54	Dan’s WC54
Opening cab doors	Opening cab doors Windshield wipers Indented spare tire Steering wheel Cab fits a minifig driver Rear fits a minifig on a stretcher Opening rear doors Removable roof for interior access

Because of the complicated SNOT and panel-style window on my cab, I have to remove a minifig’s arms and legs to put a driver in the cab. The half-stud offset transition from the six-wide rear to the five-wide cab means there’s no room in the back for much of anything. Plus, the rear doors don’t open, and ripping the roof off usually brings a bunch of other bricks with it.

I could go on.

In other words, Dan gains all that extra functionality and detail at very little “cost” (one stud longer and two plates taller) in terms of the model’s slightly over-sized scale. Dan says the same is true of his Jeep:

I have also given up trying to make a decent 1/35 scale Jeep. I did one that small for a couple of months and couldn’t stand all the compromises to playability in order to make it that small. My newer jeeps are over-sized but way sturdier, cheaper and more fun to play with!

Dan’s version is also a lot sturdier than mine. Our front grilles are virtually identical — contrary to popular belief, there is indeed a finite number of ways you can achieve a particular design with the limited palette of available LEGO elements. But I built my three/five-wide engine block with its seven-wide fenders in a way that only left a single stud for the grille to attach to. Dan’s has a solid three-stud connection across the whole front of the engine block.

Despite all the odd-width construction and a few non-traditional building techniques (like tires inside of other tires to achieve a more-realistic look), Dan’s WC54 is an AFOL-designed model I’d be comfortable handing over to an eight-year-old to zoom around the living room floor. I can’t say the same of all the LEGO models I’ve handled — and a few I’ve accidentally broken — at LEGO conventions and club meetings.

You’ll notice in the pictures (both mine and the product pictures on Brickmania.com) that Dan’s WC54 has quite a few stickers. Well, they’re not actually stickers. Dan says he’s trying out something new with the WC54 — custom static-cling decals. I think it’s actually a brilliant idea: The decals go on easily and have continued to stick nicely even as I handle the model over and over during this review. Most interestingly, they come off when I want them to without leaving any gluey residue. But the decals feel a little like a work in progress. There are some spots on the larger gray decal (the one on top of the cab) that look like they didn’t print quite right. When I asked Dan about it, he said:

The static cling decals in the ambulance are a one-of-a-kind experiment to see how we like them. They’re printed on one of the laser printers in our office and not professionally made. Our customers are by and large our product testers too, so feedback like yours is what determines if we’re going to further pursue an idea or not. If clings are something we’re going to do for future kits, we’ll plan ahead to have them done in a professional shop where nicer result should be expected.

My vote is that these do definitely work — all the benefits of stickers without the mess. I only had one sticker that wasn’t quite perfect, so I’m looking forward to what Dan and his team can achieve with professional printing.

My other minor complaint is that the crosses on the side of the Brickmania WC54 aren’t brick-built. To be fair, they’re more perfectly square than mine and have a nice, thin white border around the cross that you can’t achieve nearly as well with just bricks. I asked Dan why he chose not to brick-build the crosses, and he said that the original prototype did include crosses entirely constructed from LEGO. But by using the decals he was already including, he was able to reduce the cost of the kit by several dollars, with 3 LEGO parts per cross rather than 14. Fair enough — not really a consideration for the lone LEGO model built from the bricks in one’s own collection.

Minor nit-picking aside, the Brickmania WC54 is a wonderful model built as much to play with as it is to include in your next World War II diorama or collaborative display. The slight compromise on scale has enabled Dan to achieve a level of sturdiness, functionality, and detail lacking in mine.

At $80 for the basic kit, you get a gorgeous little ambulance that might teach you a thing or two about odd-width vehicle building techniques. For another $45, the “bonus pack” version (at $125) also includes a lot of fun value. I think the “Brickmania Medical Corps” T-shirt is my new favorite LEGO-themed shirt, and the presentation with the medic satchel is priceless — the perfect gift for the LEGO military builder or World War II history buff in your life.

Look for more reviews of custom Brickmania LEGO kits in the coming days.

Lone Ranger 79109: Colby City Showdown [Review]

Review of 79109 Colby City Showdown.

Colby City Showdown is the medium sized-set from the new Lone Ranger line, which is releasing tomorrow in North America and spans seven sets–a very large release for a new IP. Colby City is a small western town play-set, and the location of a dramatic action montage, judging by the play features. $49.99 USD may seem like a lot for two buildings, but with 587 pieces, it comes in well below that vaunted 10 cents-per-piece ratio that fans like to talk about. In fact, even without considering this is a licensed set, (which traditionally cost more per-piece than non-licensed sets) this set is a remarkably good deal.

The box contains four numbered bags, two booklet instruction manuals, a sticker sheet, and a loose 8×16 tan plate. The bags were packed pretty tightly into the box, and I applaud LEGO for their attempts to save cardboard with new, smaller box sizes. However, this only serves to highlight the necessity of packing the stickers with a stiff piece of cardboard, because again mine were a little worse for the wear. Ultimately, though, I decided not to even apply the stickers in this set, because I didn’t see myself re-using those pieces in my own creations with the stickers applied.

The first two bags build the sheriff’s office, and Tonto, the Lone Ranger, the outlaw Frank, and a shrubbery. I remember my brother having the old Sheriff’s Lock-Up set from the mid-90′s Western theme, and I was pleased to find many of the same fun features in the new Colby City version. The break-apart jail cell was a bit disappointing to me, though. The Sheriff’s Lock-Up cell had a cool little feature where you could insert the dynamite (a printed 1×2 tile) into a crack, and it would pop the back of the cell wall off. The new jail cell has a similar feature, but it’s simply lever activated, and you just clip the dynamite (now a molded piece) to the side of the building. On the other hand, the pop-down facade on the roof with a hidden cannon was definitely something the old set didn’t have. I’m not too certain I’d trust a rickety old timber-and-adobe building as an artillery platform, but you have to admit it makes a cool ambush. Like most LEGO buildings, both the sheriff’s office and the bank are facades, open in the back to allow easy access to the interior for play. The sheriff’s office comes equipped with two small tables, a chair, and a rifle rack, that oddly also holds a pair of handcuffs. Oh well, it’s LEGO.

The last two bags build Colby City’s bank, Sheriff Dan Reid, and Ray. This is a really fantastic little building. It’s built on a three-part base connected with hinges, and the design used some clever LEGO math to get the hinges to lock in place. This gives the building a lot more depth than a mere flat facade. The construction of the building reminds me of a miniature, budget version of one of the big modular sets, using lots of small pieces to create detailed walls, instead of resorting to larger prefabricated wall pieces. The interior space is small, of course, but it still manages to fit a teller station, so you can reenact a thrilling hold-up. Sadly, the set doesn’t include a frightened bank teller. I suppose a teller is somewhat unnecessary, though, since the Bank of Colby City has good faith in the local citizens, and therefore places the bank safe out in the lobby so it’s easily accessible to all. It’s a huge safe, too, definitely large enough to fit a minifigure. If walking inside the bank to access the safe proves too much effort, though, there’s a handy chunk of the outside wall that blows off directly behind the safe. There’s even a hand-cart included to truck away all your ill-gotten loot, which consists of two bars of silver and three $100 bills, as well as some green pieces to bulk out the stacks of cash.

I think a trade-off was made on this set, between having more buildings, or making the buildings more detailed. While I would have loved to have a longer boardwalk, maybe with a general store or a saloon, I think LEGO made the right decision paring this set down to the essential two structures, then spending more pieces bulking them up. The set as a whole has a good selection of pieces, with lots of dark green and brown/tan pieces. The five minifigures are terrific. Tonto and the Lone Ranger aren’t unique to this set in anyway, but the other three characters are. These figures have been very well designed, and all of them having printing on the front, rear, and legs, while avoiding using any flesh colored patches around the collar, meaning the translate well to use in yellow-minifigure land. There are three of the new pistols in the set, with two in pearl grey for the Lone Ranger, and another in dark pearl grey for Ray, plus I got an extra of each. If you get the entire line of Lone Ranger sets, you’ll be awash in the new pistols in no time. The new design of the cowboy hat for the Lone Ranger comes in black and white here. Really the only other piece here that’s new is Tonto’s hatchet. It’s a single mold piece with a two-tone injection, so it’s not painted. The head is slightly rubberized. It reminds me of the tools in the Collectible Minifigure line, and I’m not at all surprised to see that it’s in the series 10 collection.

All in all, it’s a very solid set. It doesn’t strike my fancy as much as the delightfully-oversized Stagecoach Escape did, but this is definitely not a filler set, and it looks ripe for customization by adding your own buildings to make a complete boardwalk. Be sure to read my review of the Stagecoach Escape from last week, if you missed it.

79109 Colby City Showdown is out now from Amazon.com and the LEGO Shop online.

Lone Ranger 79108: Stagecoach Escape [Review]

Review of 79108 Stagecoach Escape

The Lone Ranger sets are finally about to ride out to stores in a few weeks, so we’re bringing you a few reviews of them so you’ll have a keen eye when they appear. The first set up is 79108: Stagecoach Escape. It’s a complete action set, comprised entirely of a large stagecoach and a separate horse and rider. Despite having a retail price of $30 USD for what amounts to fancy wagon, it actually feels like quite a good value.

Inside the box are three numbered bags, the instruction manual, and a sticker sheet. Sadly, the notion of putting the sticker sheets and instructions in a bag with a piece of stiff cardboard for protection seems to have been a short-lived improvement. No such accommodations were made here, and the sticker sheet was distinctly worse for the wear, having been banged around between the bags a few too many times. All three bags build various sections of the coach, with the first giving the chassis, the other two making up the cabin. Obviously, almost all of the 279 pieces are in the coach itself, which is ludicrously out of scale with the minifigs. Of course, this is nothing new for LEGO vehicles, and it’s rarely a problem. This set takes advantage of the large scale to do some really good shaping on the coach, and still have a fully functioning interior. So despite being a solid 18 feet high (in minifig terms) it’s a really terrific looking stagecoach. The chassis is quite nifty, being a bit more advanced than the standard wagon wheel attachment. It cleverly uses struts to give some degree of suspension to the rear axle of the coach. The front axle also turns to provide a small amount of steering. Oddly, when it came time to attach the reigns to the horses, I noticed that my string had a knot tied in it. It seems a very intentional knot, but I can’t figure out why it’s there, as it’s not called for in the manual. Another weird thing I found was the base of the cabin, which calls for a brown 1×2 plate on each side, placed onto the boat hull piece that makes up the floor. A tan 4×4 plate is placed over this, but they don’t actually connect, which makes the tan plate a bit wobbly. I can only assume this is a mistake, though fortunately it’s an easily remedied one.

The completed stagecoach cuts a fine figure, and is plenty fun to play with. Each side of the cabin features two opening doors, and the roof pops off for easy access to the interior. The roof is also home to a mail bag, and a removable opening bank safe, with a solitary bar of silver. The silver, much to my chagrin, is painted silver and not chromed, since LEGO has almost entirely phased out chrome now. The rear luggage compartment has some sort of catapult to fling luggage at unsuspecting pursuers. This catapult doesn’t seem to work very well, but at least it’s not more flick-fire missiles.

The Stagecoach Escape comes with five minifigs and three horses, a very respectable number for a set of this size. All the horses are, of course, the new posable style, and it’s terrific to get two black and one brown horse with very generic tack in a single affordable set. The five minifigs are the Lone Ranger, Tonto, femme fatale Red Harrington, and then two characters named Jesus and Barret. It should be no surprise to anyone that all the figures are immaculately detailed, with front and rear prints all around. Only Tonto and Red have double sided heads, though, mostly likely because the revealing cowboy hats of the other three would make this unnerving. One cool feature is that Barret is given two cowboy hats, a black Lone Ranger-style for his good-guy persona, and a brown Indiana Jones-style for his outlaw mug. And speaking of the hats, the Lone Ranger hat is a marvelous addition to Western headgear. It’s generic enough to look great in colors besides the Lone Ranger’s distinctive white, and it has that classic Stetson curve. This line has really stepped up to the plate with Tonto and Red’s hairpieces. Recall, if you will, the hair-and-hat combos from the Pirates of the Caribbean line, which were molded as a single unit, and consequently pretty useless outside their original context. Not so, here. Both Tonto’s bird and Red’s hat are separate pieces from the hair, attaching with a mini-pin, just like the Friends dolls accessories. Tonto’s bird is a pretty sweet new piece, and I can’t wait to incorporate it into a creation. I’ve already got some ideas. Next there is the new pistol design. They look great for the scale, though I can’t help but be a bit saddened that they’ve given up some usefulness as construction elements in the pursuit of accuracy. There are three of the new pistols in pearl silver, and two in dark pearl silver, counting the “extras.” The classic western rifle looks out of place with the new pistol now, though. The old pistol and the rifle were a matched set, sharing the same styling cues, but now the difference is jarring.

The Stagecoach Escape is a great set, and it’s destined to be one of my favorites of any of the Western themes. Despite the oversized scale, the coach looks awesome, and it’s highly playable. The minifigs are great, and easily recycled into more generic Western characters, and there are some good parts to boot. You can’t go wrong with this set.

79108 Stagecoach Escape is out on Amazon.com and the LEGO Shop online now.

79104 Shellraiser Street Chase [Review]

I sat down with my boys a while back to build the new LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 79104 Shellraiser Street Chase set. When I first heard that LEGO was coming out with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sets, to say that I was excited was an understatement. The Turtles were a favourite of mine when I was a kid, and actually it wasn’t until I heard of the LEGO sets that I knew there was a new cartoon on Nickelodeon.

I will start with my overall impressions, and then go into the finer points. The set has 620 pieces, retails for $59.99 USD ($74.99 CDN) and comes with a total of 5 minifigures. I would definitely recommend this set to any TMNT fan, and actually also for those looking for a parts pack…even with this being a licenced theme set the price point is very good for the amount of pieces you get. This is a very well-designed set in terms of playability and ruggedness. The finished product is a nicely sized Shellraiser with a fair amount of play features, and a small, but very cool bad-guy truck.

The Build

I will admit to using child labour for this part, as I pretty much let Tate build it for me. (Well honestly I don’t think he would have let me build it even if I wanted to). I did follow along with him the entire time, and apart from a few points where he had placed a few pieces incorrectly, he was able to build the entire set in about an hour and a half. He was able to follow the instructions very well, so clearly adult LEGO fans wouldn’t have any issues with them. The one thing that really stood out for me was the use of some nice building techniques. We aren’t talking blow your mind SNOT or anything, but there certainly were not any shortcuts taken. In particular with the bad-guy pizza delivery truck, as a secondary part of the set, I was actually surprised by how cool the little model ends up…it is exceedingly fun to zoom around!

The Parts

There was a total of 5 poly bags along with the sticker sheet, two tires and vehicle base. The minifigs were a highlight for both me and the boys. The turtles are so brilliantly designed, and I really love the fact that they used different shades of green for each of them. The baddies are also nothing to sneeze at, and are another example of ever-increasing quality of figure design and detail that LEGO has been churning out. The fact that Dog Pound has standard fig legs with the oversized torso works so perfectly, and does make me laugh a little bit too. Obviously the highlight of the bricks themselves are the new olive green ones. But there is a very nice selection of smaller pieces and commonly used parts that actually makes this set a pretty good choice for parting out. That being said, we have had the set for going on 2 months now and Tate still won’t let me strip it for pieces.

Final Thoughts

The set is an absolute hoot to play with. The Shellraiser has a tonne of neat play features: the roof is removable, there are flip-out computer panels and weapon racks, the rocket launcher on the roof, and the cherry on top is most definitely the adjustable wheels to allow it to roll on railroad (subway) track. After two months of being played with hard by my boys the set is still going strong, with only the red garbage can missing (Milo has a thing for garbage cans and won’t tell us where he put it). If you are a TMNT fan of any kind, you NEED to buy this set…and if you are just looking for parts, well, it is still a good choice.

It should also be noted the comic strip box art was done by TBB’s own Paul Lee.

Check out my full photoset for all the pictures.

And when you rush out to buy this, be sure to follow the links below and help out The Brothers Brick at the same time.

$59.99 from the LEGO Shop: 79104 The Shellraiser Street Chase
$54.86 from Amazon.com: 79104 The Shellraiser Street Chase

76006: Iron Man 3: Extremis Sea Port Battle [Review]

76006 Extremis Sea Port Battle is the last of the Iron Man 3 sets I’ll be reviewing. Be sure to also read my reviews of the Malibu Mansion Attack and the Ultimate Showdown sets, if you’ve missed them. The Extremis Sea Port Battle consists of an Extremis speedboat driven by badman Aldrich Killian, and Iron Man and War Machine to fight him. This set is what you’d expect from an MSRP $19.99 USD set: one large vehicle, and three minifigures, for a total of 195 pieces. The box contains two numbered bags, the instructions, a sticker sheet, and the same LEGO-style comic as the other two Iron Man 3 sets. The first bag builds the minifigs, and the bottom half of the boat, and the second finishes the boat and adds the buoy.

The boat is fairly large at almost 27 studs long, and looks pretty snazzy with its dark green and yellow color-scheme. It’s one of the cooler LEGO speedboats I’ve seen in a while, and I really appreciated the little touches the designer added like the swept-back windshield. I do always find it odd when a LEGO model calls for numerous plates where a single larger one would do. In this case, the bottom deck of the boat is held together with a row of four tan 1×10 plates. Perhaps that’s to make it look more like planking, or perhaps a 4×10 plate would have put the set over-budget. Either way, there are no complaints from me; I’d rather have the smaller plates. There are two flick-fire missiles in the aft compartment of the boat. Unlike most flick-fire missiles which I find cumbersome to flick with your finger and ineffective for range, these fire via a small lever mechanism which works remarkably well, and blends in well with the design of the boat. The foredeck also pops off, allowing for a minifig to hide in there. Really, though, a sleek speedboat is its own play-feature in my book, and you don’t need too many gizmos added to it to make it fun. The bottom of the boat is, of course, covered in boat-tiles to make carpet-sailing an easy adventure. Next up is the buoy, which explodes when you press one side. It’s built sort of like a minifig-flinger, but I’m not certain it’s meant to be used like that. Spare parts were slightly nicer than usual, with an extra light-grey lightsabre handle, and some other typical pieces.

The Iron Man minifig here is in the same Mark 42 Armor that’s in the Malibu Mansion Attack set. War Machine is definitely the coolest of the minifigs in this lot, especially since we haven’t yet had a version of him, despite his role in Iron Man 2. Naturally, the helmet is the same as Iron Man’s, just with a different color scheme, and the shoulder cannon looks nice, even if a little simple. Despite being covered by the neck-bracket for the shoulder cannon most of the time, War Machine does have a detailed printing on the back of the torso. The two-tone silver printing on this minifig really looks gorgeous. Aldrich Killian is sporting a simple tan suit with front and rear prints, and the two-sided glow-in-the-dark head is almost, but not quite, identical to that of the Extremis Soldier in the Malibu Mansion Attack set.

All in all, this is a solid set. There’s nothing outstanding here, except for the exclusive War Machine minifig, but the speedboat is a satisfying build and looks good when it’s done. For those not wild about keeping the set built, here’s a look at the inventory pages. I’d say the set is a pretty fair source of pieces, with lots of easily useable pieces, and an abundance of slopes of all sizes.

Finally, since some of you seemed particularly interested in what’s happening with Iron Man on the box art of the Malibu Mansion Attack set, I’ve scanned part of the comic that’s included in all three sets, which expounds on that scene a little more. Here there be spoilers.

76008 Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown [Review]

76008 Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown is the smallest set of the trio of LEGO sets for the upcoming Iron Man 3 film. With only a vehicle and two minifigs, it’s clearly an action-based set. The box includes two un-numbered bags, the instructions, and the same 10-page comic as the other Iron Man 3 sets. The comic includes scenes from all three sets, and is really quite nice.

The vehicle seems to be some sort of flame-thrower armored car, and it’s driven by the big-bearded Mandarin, aka Iron Man’s new nemesis. The vehicle is pretty standard, with the flame-thrower stand holding two flick-fire missiles (where would we be without flick-fire missiles? Here’s a challenge: build a creation using only flick-fire missiles!) and being mounted on a 4×4 turntable. The rear of the vehicle does incorporate one of those multifaceted train slopes, which is a nifty under-utilized piece, so that’s cool. Beyond the missiles, though, there are no play-features in this set, so you’ll have to use your imagination. There are a few left-over pieces of the regular sort, and as usual, I’ve included a shot of the inventory page. I suspect the real reason that most people will buy this set, though, is for the minifigs. Both are exclusive to this set. Although a minifigure of the Mandarin appears in the Malibu Mansion Attack set, and naturally Iron Man is in all the sets, both are unique versions here. This Mandarin has a bedraggled look, with a kerchief covering whatever-that-is on his chest (here’s a picture comparing the versions). In fact, this torso looks terrific for making your own generic guerrilla fighter, since it doesn’t really have anything in the print that specifically ties it to the Mandarin or this theme. The Iron Man minifigure here is the star, though. This is my favorite of all the LEGO versions of Iron Man we’ve seen so far. This Iron Man features awesome blue eyes and a blue power circle on his chest (here’s a comparison photo between the two armor types).

With an MSRP of $12.99 USD, and 91 pieces, I would pass on this set, unless you want the minifigs. It’s not a great parts pack for those of you who aren’t enamored by the minifigs. On the other hand, a great many of you will thoroughly enjoy the minifigs in this set, and with the set price being so low, it’s probably cheaper to buy the whole set than attempt to buy just the minifigs on the secondary market.

Read my review of the Iron Man 3 Malibu Mansion Attack set here.

76007: Iron Man 3 Malibu Mansion Attack [Review]

76007 Malibu Mansion Attack is the largest of the current round of sets for the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie, which releases May 3rd. Since this set is based on a movie that’s not out yet, this review may contain mild spoilers for the film. The set consists of a piece of Tony Stark’s seaside palace, and the Mandarin’s attack helicopter. With only 364 pieces and a US price of $39.99, I suspect we’ll see a larger set down the road.

The box art matches the other Marvel Super Heroes sets we’ve already seen, including last year’s Avengers sets, this time simply using the Iron Man 3 logo. Inside are 3 numbered bags, a large and a small instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and an Iron Man 3 mini-comic in LEGO style. The first numbered baggie and small instruction book builds the Mandarin’s helicopter, as well as Mandarin and his accomplice. The helicopter is a pretty fantastic build, and I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the LEGO helicopters of similar size I’ve built. For several years now, LEGO has been getting increasingly more bold with their use of studs-out building, which is a terrific thing. This helicopter is a great example, being pretty much ringed-about with slopes pointing out. Of course, no set is complete without flick-fire missiles, and this heli should be able to take on even Iron Man, since it’s equipped with four. I did find it odd that both of the black lightsabre handles in the rotors point the same fixed direction, so that when they’re spun, one is always pointed “backwards.” Both minifigs here are pretty cool. The Mandarin has dark green robes with olive pants. Oddly, he has a double-sided face with two mouth expressions, but neither are visible underneath the bushy black beard. The accomplice has a glow in the dark head, and one side has blood vessels prominently outlined. I’m not sure exactly what’s that’s supposed to represent, but I have no doubt it will be clear once I’ve seen the movie.

Bag two isn’t terribly interesting on its own. It builds a piece of the mansion, as well as Tony Stark, Iron Man, Pepper Potts, and that robot. Now, if you’re wondering why there’s both a Tony Stark and an Iron Man, since they’re ostensibly one and the same, well, I think there are two answers. First, Tony’s mansion needs to include a non-suited-up Stark, but you also can’t have an Iron Man set without Iron Man. And secondly, according to the box art and the comic, that’s not Tony Stark in the Iron Man suit, that’s Pepper Potts. She’s apparently piloting the suit in that scene from the trailer where Mandarin blows Stark’s place sky-high. The suit also includes a plain-white head for use in it’s “off” mode, so you can have all your other minifigs complete to play with too. Also, it’s worth noting that this is a different Iron Man minifig than has been in any of the previous sets. This is presumably the upgraded armor, with a lot more gold, including pearly gold hands.

Bag three of course merely finishes out the mansion. The mansion is really quite nice. The designers have done a great job of capturing the look of the mansion without needing to get terribly large. The mansion includes a little kitchen area, and then some techy-goodness for Tony Stark to dabble with. There’s a little flinger bit, but I can’t figure out exactly what it’s suppose to do. I guess it’s just part of the mansion falling to pieces as Mandarin blows holes in it. Then there’s a window that pops out, which works quite nicely. And finally there’s a turn-table with cool displays on it for Stark to stand on and pretend he’s Tom Cruise in Minority Report. Sadly, all the displays are stickers, which I didn’t apply. In fact, the only printed pieces in the entire set are minifigs. I didn’t notice any new parts, and the only piece that was new to me was the 6×6 round plate, though Bricklink shows that’s been in a few other sets already. I’ve included a shot of the inventory pages, for those who are curious.

Overall, I think this is a very nice set. The part selection is a good mix between larger structural elements and small bits, and the five minifigs are a big draw. The helicopter is cool, and the mansion looks nice, and incorporates a lot of playability. The one thing I’d have liked is perhaps a little more of a roof to the mansion, or maybe a very small piece of cliff underneath it, to give the building more context. This is a good set for the price.

Review: Friends 41002 Emma’s Karate Class [Plus Bonus material!]

On a whim, I picked up 41002 Emma’s Karate Class. I’m so very not disappointed. I already have a particular fondness for the Friends line to start out with, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Anyway, this is a brief review for what is a small set. Overall, I really like the parts selection. The models are pretty simple and nothing really spectacular.

I’m not sold on the model with the screen. I get that the colors are to fit the overall scheme, but it just doesn’t work for me. Again, though, the parts. That glass is printed with that design.

I’m far more fond of the stand with the sword and display items on it. The tree’s cute, too. There are plenty of extra pieces.

Beyond this set, I picked up the polybag sets Squirrel’s Tree House and Turtle’s Little Oasis as well. These are too adorable. I mean, look at them!

I’m far happier with the design of these little models. The parts are great (of course!) and the squirrel and turtle elicit squeals of glee for their cuteness.

All are currently available on both the LEGO Shop and Amazon.com. Definitely go for the squirrel and turtle, though, since they’re marked to retire soon and make way for the next wave of pets for Heartlake City.

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The Build

The Parts

Final Thoughts

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