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.

LEGO City 60204 City Hospital [Review]

Despite being one of the most fascinating and amiable places in many LEGO universes, LEGO City is notorious for its poor health services accessibility: Since the start of the modern theme in 2005, only two hospital buildings (in other words, hospital-themed LEGO sets) have been released. As a comparison, LEGO City can boast 9 police stations and 5 fire stations complete with numerous cars, motorcycles and aircraft. A modern medical center was long-awaited by many fans, and finally here is the first step towards healthier population: LEGO City 60204 City Hospital set. The set was revealed back in April and immediately kindled many fans’ interest.

It consists of 861 pieces, includes a little army of 12 minifigures and retails at $99.99 / €79.99. Jump under the cut to see our impressions of one of the main LEGO City sets of 2018!

Read the full review…

“LEGO House – Home of the Brick” on Netflix [Review]

This is a great year for LEGO-loving Netflix subscribers, with two LEGO documentaries being released less than a month apart from one another! You might remember the special LEGO episode of the Toys That Made Us, which we reviewed at its release in May. The second documentary to roll into Netflix’s lineup is LEGO House – Home of the Brick. LEGO House is the LEGO Group’s own museum of play, designed to highlight both the company’s history and creative possibilities of the brick. Seven years in the making, LEGO House was designed by the Danish firm BIG and opened in September 2017. Home of the Brick is a 47-minute documentary that chronicles the journey the LEGO House took from its conception to last year’s grand opening.

Click to read the full review

Surprises are in store within the LEGO City Arctic 60191 Arctic Exploration Team [Review]

The summer wave of LEGO City Arctic sets were released on June 1st, and we’ve already taken a look at the two highlights from the theme — the mammoth in 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base and the saber-tooth in 60196 Arctic Supply Plane. But are there other hidden treasures in this chilly series of LEGO sets? The smallest set is 60191 Arctic Exploration Team at only $9.99 ($12.99 in Canada | £9.99 in the UK). The set includes 70 pieces with three minifigures, plus a husky dog.

Read our hands-on review of 60191 Arctic Exploration Team

Take to the skies with the new LEGO Harry Potter 75956 Quidditch Match [Review]

We’ve been slightly giddy about the return of LEGO Harry Potter, especially after our chance to get a close-up look at the Fall Preview Event 2018 in New York. Well, now we’ve managed to get our hands on a copy of 75956 Quidditch Match and we’ll see if this set at least lives up to our high expectations of the returning line…

Read our hands-on review of the new LEGO Harry Potter 75956 Quidditch Match

The TBB Field Guide to LEGO Dinosaurs: A Jurassic World Compendium [Review and Infographics]

When the new wave of LEGO Jurassic World sets came out, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on the dinosaurs. The children in us immediately began stomping them around and making roaring noises. Here at The Brothers Brick, we are not ashamed to say we get giddy while playing with toy dinosaurs. We’re also not ashamed to say we are serious nerds. After our dino-dueling escapades, we began to wonder how accurate they are to the real things. As far as scientists can hypothesize, that is. So we did some not-so-archaeological digging — after all, it’s palaeontologists who study dinosaurs, not archaeologists, as Andrew our Editor-in-Chief (and resident archaeology buff) likes to remind everybody!

As it turns out, there is a vast amount of knowledge that scientists have obtained from the fossils of these creatures. That being said, there is a lot of information that they still don’t know, as well as much heated debate on the truth about each one. The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise has been both heavily criticized and applauded for its attempts at realism. But without getting too wrapped up in the debates, we’ll take a look at the best working knowledge of these dinosaurs. So put on your favorite leather vest or red bandana and paleontologist’s expedition hat, because away we go!

Read on to unlock the mysteries!

Saber-toothed cats join the hunt in LEGO City Arctic 60193 Arctic Air Transport [Review]

We’re continuing our expedition to the frozen tundra of the Arctic with more new LEGO sets from the LEGO City Arctic Expedition theme released on June 1st. In our review of 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base, we took a close look at the new woolly mammoth. 60193 Arctic Air Transport is the smallest set that includes the saber-toothed “tiger” at $39.99 in the US (49.99 CAD in Canada | £24.99 in the UK), with 277 pieces and 2 minifigures.

First, let’s get some taxonomy and nomenclature issues out of the way. While the mammoth is rather evidently a mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius or one of its close relatives), it’s less clear what the “saber-toothed ‘tigers'” in these new Arctic sets actually depict. From more than 40 million years ago until the last Ice Age barely 12,000 years ago, there was a broad range of carnivorous creatures with long canine teeth, none of which were closely related to modern tigers in Asia. As a result, most palaeontologists use the common name “saber-toothed cat” to refer to the true felines that had saber-shaped canine teeth (like the iconic and aptly named Smilodon fatalis from the La Brea Tarpits), and generically “saber-tooth” to refer to the full range of creatures across many orders, genera, and species who had such teeth — even including a few marsupial saber-tooths! Thus, we’ll be avoiding the term “tiger” in favor of saber-toothed “cat” or just saber-tooth. If your eyes haven’t completely glazed over yet due to all this taxonomic minutiae, we’ll return to this point when taking a close look at the saber-tooth in this LEGO set.

Read our hands-on review of the new LEGO City Arctic 60193 Arctic Air Transport

LEGO mammoths arrive with LEGO City 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base [Review]

We’ve been pretty excited about the new Pleistocene megafauna (large, extinct Ice Age animals like mammoths and saber-toothed cats) in the LEGO City Arctic sets released on June 1st, particularly after we had a chance to play with them during the Fall 2018 Preview event in New York City a couple weeks ago. With the sets now on store shelves, we’re digging in to bring you an even closer look at the new vehicles and creatures, starting with 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base, which includes 786 pieces, 6 minifigures, and a frozen mammoth and retails for $119.99 in the US (149.99 CAD in Canada | £84.99 in the UK).

Read our full, hands-on review of the new LEGO City 60195 Arctic Mobile Exploration Base

LEGO promo set 40291 Creative Personalities: Hans Christian Andersen [Review]

This months’ promotional set from the LEGO Shop is 40291 Creative Personalities, featuring the 19th-century Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. The set takes the form of a storybook and includes 307 pieces with two minifigs and is available for free with all purchases over $99 from June 4th through the 20th (or until supplies run out).

LEGO sent us a copy of the set ahead of its release, so let’s take a closer look.

Read our full review of the Hans Christian Andersen storybook set

LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron: the world’s most luxurious supercar now a premium LEGO set [Review + Video]

When you’re a kid playing with LEGO bricks, getting a new LEGO set for your birthday or Christmas is exciting beyond belief. There’s so much hidden play value trapped inside that colorful box–yellow, with the words LEGOLAND stamped on the front, if you grew up in the 80s–that you can’t wait to tear it open and begin building. Chances are, if you’re reading The Brothers Brick, you’re like me and still feverishly tear into new LEGO sets, no matter your age. But every once in awhile a set comes along that makes you slow down and just admire the box for a bit. Not that you’re less excited to build it, but rather that there’s something about this set that makes you want to savor it. Ask the butler to bring you some champagne. Settle into your yacht’s white leather couch, and pull up the Swarovski crystal coffee table. This set is going to be epic, and you can already feel it. LEGO’s second premium Technic set, 42083 Bugatti Chiron, is the best set of this kind yet. It’s based on the French ultra-luxury brand’s newest supercar, a 1,500 horsepower 2-seater that can rocket you to 261 miles per hour in pure comfort, provided you can afford the starting price of $2.7 million. The LEGO version is a bit more modest, however, including 3,599 pieces and retailing for $349.99 USD ($399.99 in Canada | £329.99 in the UK). It is available now.

Click to the read the full hands-on review of the Bugatti Chiron and watch the video

Hold on for a wild ride in LEGO Creator Expert 10261 Roller Coaster [Review]

As soon as rumors of Creator Expert 10261 Roller Coaster started flowing, there seemed to be a huge sigh of, “Finally!” that spread throughout the LEGO fan community. I’ll shamelessly admit that I was one of the ones bouncing up and down, shouting that it was about darn time. But even if you weren’t as excited as I was, I’m guessing that it at least piqued your interest, and perhaps that interest brought you here.

When we recently had the chance to go hands-on with the roller coaster at the 2018 Fall Preview event in New York, it was so much fun that we definitely couldn’t wait to do our own review. We anxiously awaited our copy from Billund and it’s finally here! So step right up! Let’s plunge in and see what the exclusive LEGO Creator Expert 10261 Roller Coaster has to offer!

Read our hands-on review, complete with a video of the motorized roller coaster

Netflix releases LEGO episode of The Toys That Made Us. Is it worth watching? [Review]

For Netflix-viewing LEGO fans, the LEGO episode of the The Toys That Made Us has finally made its debut. For those unfamiliar with The Toys That Made Us, it is an eight-part documentary series that delves into the histories of various toy lines including Barbie dolls and Star Wars action figures. Being an avid LEGO history buff, I have been eagerly anticipating the LEGO episode ever since the premiere of season one this past December, so I made sure to watch the episode as soon as it was available. Is it worth watching? Read on and decide for yourself!

Click to read the full review

Solo: A Star Wars Story – LEGO sets vs. the movie [Spoiler Review]

Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters today, but if you’re like many of us here at The Brothers Brick, you already saw it yesterday evening at an opening night event. With the movie now in theaters, we’re taking a look back at our reviews of the LEGO Star Wars sets that accompany the movie, comparing them with the real characters and vehicles.

Solo Movie LEGO Comparisons

Obviously, the nature of this follow-up analysis is that it will be full of spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, by all means go out and do that — it’s not a perfect movie, but it’s certainly a fun adventure in the broader Star Wars universe — before coming back and reading this.

Read our in-depth analysis of the LEGO Star Wars sets from the Han Solo movie