Every once in a while, a LEGO set is revealed and you just know it’s going to be an absolute banger. I’m not a Fortnite fan, but when I first spied LEGO Fortnite 77072 Peely Bone, I was in love! So admitting that initial bias, does the set actually hold up to my scrutiny, or will those good vibes slip away from me much like a banana peel? Available now for pre-order, and shipping on October 1st, LEGO Fortnite 77072 Peely Bone retails for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99 on the LEGO website. You may also be able to find it through third party vendors on Amazon or eBay.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
The unboxing
Unlike the other sets in this series, Peely Bone’s box is done up like other 18+ sets, with a black background and a stripe of dark pink brickwork along the bottom. The Fortnite logo stands in the lower right corner.
Flipping the box around, the container features a few alternate views of this figure, along with a wire-frame model showing its scale.
Popping out those two glorious thumb punches and dumping out the contents reveals a thick instruction book. The first several pages are dedicated to an explanation of the LEGO Fortnite game and our titular banana.
There is a sole sticker for this set, and it’s quite appropriate. For what would a banana be without the standard blue sticker upon its skin.
The box also contains 15 numbered bags, each made of paper. Instead of walking through the contents as we go, I’ve included shots of each opened bag in the gallery below.
The build
The build begins in an unexpected place. From the contents of bag 1 comes the Peely Pick. Nothing more than a rod with a banana stuck to the end, the design of this is wicked! It very much feels like something a LEGO fan would come up with, and not a LEGO designer. But I’m certainly not complaining.
Bag 2 begins work on Peely-proper. And that starts with the base and the skeletal right leg. It’s some excellent use of Technic bits, making for an extra-lanky and incredibly stable limb.
Bags 3 and 4 flesh out the rest of the base, beginning the rock that Peely’s left foot rests on and rounding out all the corners.
Bag 5 gives shape to the banana’s left foot and shin. Brackets and other parts with studs facing all directions allow for plenty of connections. And Technic is once again utilized, this time to provide the bend at Peely’s ankle while not sacrificing stability.
The rest of the leg comes into being with bag 6. The knee bends up into the thigh, and a smattering of plates and tiles are added to the exterior to provide some bulk. A pair of Technic bricks show where the hip attachment will be made at a later step.
At this point in the build process, I’m absolutely loving all the interesting techniques. This feels like a proper set for adults, requiring some skill to assemble, and already giving hints of its impressive final look. Almost sensing that things were going too well, bag 8 decided to ruin my day. As sometimes happens in LEGO sets, I had a part error. You see, instead of the yellow 2×2 hinge brick below, I got a white 2×8 plate with Technic holes and an extra 1×1 quarter tile. And before you let me have it in the comments, that quarter tile is in addition to the extra one I expected to get anyway like all other small parts.
This is the second time this year I’ve encountered this issue on a review set, the first being LEGO Creator 3-in-1 31154 Forest Animals: Red Fox. But unlike in 31154, this is the first set ever to have that hinge brick in yellow, so I’m not able to provide a replacement from my 35-year-old collection. Instead, you’ll have to suffer through my closest replacement in dark gray. And you can bet your buttons we’ll be talking about this again before the end of the review!
Getting back to the instructions, bag 8 throws together a central pillar of outward-facing studs for assembling the torso. There’s even a little more Technic embedded near the top, which will come in handy later on.
The banana side of this torso comes to life in bag 9, utilizing a healthy amount of yellow straight and curved slopes. The printed pieces are wonderful, providing some fruity blemishes to Peely’s skin.
Before sealing it up all the way, there’s a little Easter egg hidden in Peely Bone’s chest. His heart lives under a pair of the 23 curved slopes near the arm connection point.
The mirror side of Peely is handled in bag 10, creating a skull, collarbone and sternum for the haunted Cavendish. The eye prints here are exquisite, and I love the sculpting of the cranium with a wealth of curved white parts.
Bags 11 and 12 focuses on the other side of the torso, rounding it out and providing those much-needed hip connection points to attach the previously-built legs. On the banana-side covered by bag 11, this includes a bit of Mixel jointery to create an angle that matches Peely’s left leg, already attached to the base. It’s a thing of beauty, and something you’d only find in an 18+ set from LEGO.
Various banana guts and viscera are added on the other side of the torso by bag 12. All the light pink macaroni tubing does a great job here, and nothing more than an axle hole is needed to affix the skeletal right leg from before.
Bag 13 assembles the top of Peely Bone’s head, a part of the anatomy that I didn’t realize had bones in a banana person. The opposite side appears peeled already, and the connection point is that bit of Technic added back when the torso was first started.
It’s also at bag 13 that we get the torso standing up on the base and legs. This torso has been “fleshed out” even more at this stage with a cage of ribs and some more banana guts. Here’s what’s been built thus far all together.
A pair of arms, one skeletal and the other yellow, arrive in bag 14. The right arm is built in the same milieu as the corresponding leg, and the same on the left. Each hand has a Technic pin inside, allowing Peely’s weapons to be attached.
Also in bag 14 is a bit of Backbling, the Banana Bag to be specific. Packed with potassium, this simple tan bag sports two bunches of bananas to assist in Peely’s… banana-balism? In any case, it’s a welcome detail. And so is that hanging bit of peel as well.
Finally we arrive at bag 15, ready to assemble the last bit of this build. And the bag will be focused around an orange Paint Launcher wielded by Peely. Judging from pictures from the game, this looks like a fairly faithful recreation in LEGO. And the printed 2×4 tiles are quite nice with plenty of potential uses. This, no doubt, was chosen as a non-violent gun option from Party Royale. When executed this well, it’s hard to complain. This bag also contains a nameplate for the front of the model.
The finished model
All said and done, Peely Bone is even bigger than I expected him to be! The model is incredibly stable, with poseable arms and removable accessories. There aren’t really any play features, but it’s clear that it’s meant as a display piece. When transporting, the only issue I’ve run into is trying to grip the model around those fragile ribs. But if you’re intentional about where you grab him, it’s not a problem.
Conclusions and recommendations
For the second time this year, I’m held back from declaring something a “perfect set” because of a parts mix-up in the package. And that’s really disappointing! I don’t want to have to rail against the appearance of degrading quality standards because this is happening to me more and more frequently (and far more frequently on review sets than the sets I buy for myself, which is the opposite of what should be happening). Instead, I want to talk about this absolutely gorgeous structure, the complex building techniques that allow the bent leg to rest atop a rock without sacrificing balance. I want to swoon over the solutions to difficult problems in tight spaces that were overcome to make that Peely Pick a reality, or the well-balanced nature of a build that’s mostly air on its right side. I want to get into the accuracy to the source material, and how this is unmistakably Peely Bone and nothing else. And I want to gush about how much this kind of set makes me want to give LEGO Fortnite a shot!
But I don’t have time for that now. Instead I’ve got to contact LEGO customer service and explain my situation, hoping they can help me remove that distracting gray splotch from what should be a perfect set. If you love Fortnite, if you love character builds, if you love amazing LEGO technique, then this is a wonderful set to buy and well worth its price. And when you do, you can use the following link: LEGO Help – Replacement Parts.
With 1,414 pieces and available on October 1st, LEGO Fortnite 77072 Peely Bone retails for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99, and is available for pre-order now. You may also be able to find it through third party vendors on Amazon or eBay.
Decreasing quality and increasing prices, name a more iconic duo
“banana-balism”
That is a *chef’s kiss* of a turn of phrase.
I think I speak for many LEGO consumers when I say that – even if I understand the (relative) i̶m̶p̶o̶r̶t̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ usefulness of reviews – I prefer seeing parts mix-ups in review sets obtained for free by a few, rather than seeing them in sets we buy for ourselves.
So yeah, I disagree when you claim that it’s the opposite of what should happen, as I prefer Lego to nail its mass-production rather than it’s first batch for review (although I’d prefer no mistakes to ever happen, they remain quite rare in my experience).
Tupperfan, I don’t think I was clear with my intent there, sorry. Based on volume, I should be seeing far more mistakes in the large number of sets I buy versus the handful I get to review for TBB, just based on the math. I don’t want to see parts mistakes anywhere, especially for those who spend their money on a LEGO product.
Fair enough and makes sense. Thanks for the reply!