Tag Archives: Reviews

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.

Castle: 70401 Gold Getaway [Review]

70401 Gold Getaway is the obligatory carriage/chase scene set from LEGO’s newly rebooted Castle line. With 199 pieces and a $20 USD price-point, it falls in the middle of the scale for LEGO’s carriage sets (Amazon actually has it for less at the time of writing).

LEGO has a long history of prisoner transport wagons, releasing them in 1985, 1990, 2005, 2007, 2010, and now 2013, with this one being one of the larger. Thematically, LEGO’s new castle line syncs with the Castle line from the “Fantasy Era” (circa 2007-2009), since the “CASTLE” logo remains the same, and the heraldry is identical to that of the Crown Knights, though this time there’s a lion emblem in addition to the crown badge.

I’m not sure what’s going on in this set narratively. The title “Gold Getaway” implies a heist of some sort, but the wagon is a prisoner transport wagon (which also carries gold). I would guess, then, that the Dragon Knights soldier has absconded with the Crown Knights’ wagon of gold, but the wagon is clearly in Dragon Knights’ colors. Perhaps the Crown Knights soldiers, which have traditionally been portrayed as the “good” guys, have taken a cue from Dennis Moore and gotten into the highway robbery business. That might explain the scowl on the Dragon Knights soldier’s face.

The box contains 2 numbered bags, the instructions, and no stickers or loose parts. With only 199 pieces, it’s a pretty simple build. Bag 1 constructs the 2 Crown Knights soldiers, the small structure, the ballista, and the horse and tack. The structure is hideous. I’m sure the intent of mixing the brown and grey pieces in the structure was to give it a mottled, weathered feel, but it just doesn’t work. It looks like there’s a piece missing on the top of the back side, although with a structure this small front and back have little meaning. I’m not sure what the structure is even supposed to be; there’s no place to put a figure on top, like a small tower, and the bottom is open, so it’s not a defensible structure. I thought perhaps the instructions would give a hint, but alas, no such luck. I suppose it’s simply a doorway for one of the knights to pop out and surprise the wagon. The ballista is better, however. For all my loathing of flick-fire missiles, I do have to admit that when placed properly, they can work quite well. A good finger flick on the missile piece here sends the missile flying several feet, once you get the hang of it. The ballista carries ammo for 3 shots.

Bag 2 completes the set, containing the pieces for the wagon and the Dragon Knight soldier. The wagon is an OK build, but uninspiring. It’s a single horse wagon, with an immobile grate on one side, and a barred-door on the other. It carries a treasure chest on the back. The base contains several hidden tiles. I thought as I was building it that this was to enable the prison section to be removed from the chassis to create a standalone structure. Upon completing the build though, I discovered this wasn’t the case, and the wagon is firmly built as one piece. The only other reason I can determine is that this particular arrangement of pieces means that there are no plates stuck completely within the underside of the larger grey plate where LEGO’s brick separator can’t remove them. I don’t recall LEGO being shy about this in the past, but as long as it doesn’t hamper ingenuity, I think it’s a good idea. The roof is removable, more as an access point than as a play feature. The red 1×1 “cheese” slopes on the roof look like an afterthought. The main play feature of the wagon, however, is the explosive bolt on the chain over the door. Push a Technic axle protruding on the opposite side, and a flick-fire missile to which the chain attaches flies out, “unlocking” the door. It works well, though I think the “lock” 1×1 round tile (which is a neat print) would be better placed on the chain than on the door, since it’s the chain that really unlocks. The unlocking mechanism, cool though it may be, isn’t really necessary though, since any prisoner can easily escape through the gaping hole in the back of the wagon. The wagon’s pearl dark grey wheels are a welcome change from 30 years of brown wheels, and are currently unique to this set. The horse tack is brick-built to take advantage of the new style horse’s ability to rear while in the harness, instead of using the classic harness piece. I thought that maybe with the new style horses, that classic piece might be phased out, but it appears in many sets that use the new horse. This was the first set I’ve gotten that includes the new style champron (that’s the armor piece that goes on a horse’s head). Here’s a comparison shot between the 3 styles of champrons LEGO has made. The two older styles only work on the old horses, and likewise the new one only works on the new horse. I like all 3, and I think they will all have their places. The chest on the back of the wagon contains 3 gems and 6 “coins,” which are 1×1 pearl gold round tiles. Now, I love the new 1×1 round tiles, so I’m always happy to get more of them, but they make lousy coins compared to the chrome ones LEGO has been using for years (and which they recently redesigned). Since the chrome coins do appear in other sets in this line, I’m guessing the substitution here was to shy away from using chrome parts, which are famously expensive.

The minifigs are all solid. LEGO has determined over the past few years that kids really identify with the minifigs, and that they are a strong selling point in any set, so they’ve been slowly working more detail into each figure, regardless of theme. All 3 minifigs have detailed front and rear torso printing. One of the Crown Knights soldiers is in full plate armor, while the other is wearing a tunic. The minifigs are definitely the highlight of this theme.

All in all, this set is very underwhelming. It’s just one example of many from this wave of Castle sets that shows that the general increase in the quality of construction we’ve seen in most sets for the last 6 years or so isn’t immune to hiccups. Compared to the preceding Kingdoms line, this wave of sets is a profound disappointment. This CASTLE line is reminiscent of Knights Kingdom I, which wasn’t the worst Castle line LEGO has produced, but it’s far from a compliment. The parts in this set are fair, and unlike the KK1 line, it isn’t full of large simple pieces. So ultimately, it’s a passable parts pack, and the minifigs are excellent, but I can’t recommend Gold Getaway as a set.

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Beautiful LEGO Book [Review]

A new fan-written Lego book called Beautiful LEGO recently hit the shelves. It’s author, Mike Doyle, is no stranger to the Lego community, having built the masterpiece seen on its cover. This is a book that shows pictures from most genres of Lego building and includes only scant text, serving the role of a coffee table book highlighting the inspiring creations by fans.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the book, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

Professionally re-touched photos by the author himself
Each creation is labeled with its title, builder, and year. Links to the builders’ galleries are included in the back of the book
The first of its kind book illustrating the wide variety of what fans are capable of building

Cons:

No coverage of trains and military creations!
Not many features on minifig-focused creations, greater emphasis placed on creatures, characters, and microscale instead.

This is a highly recommended Lego book for any builder or fan. For new builders, this will serve as a compilation of inspiring models at your fingertips, and for experienced builders, this is a perfect way to show friends what you do. A book like this doesn’t need words to explain itself, the creations will do all the talking and delight all who’s curious to open its covers. Despite a major flaw of overlooking trains and military builds, Mike still does a great job of covering most aspects of the diverse styles and themes. His professional re-editing of the backgrounds of many photos gives the book a consistent style. You can buy it now from Amazon.

City: 60025 Grand Prix Truck [Review]

Octan is LEGO’s fictional energy company, and is replete with its own gas stations, rail lines, trucks, and plenty of racing sponsorships. I’ve loved Octan ever since I got 6594 Gas Transit for Christmas when I was a kid, so I’d been looking for an excuse to pick up the new Grand Prix Truck, which is a Formula 1 racecar and transport truck decked out in Octan colors.

60025 Grand Prix Truck has 315 pieces, and retails for USD $30. Inside the box are 4 numbered bags and 3 instruction booklets, which seems a little excessive for a set with only 300 pieces, but it’s really of little consequence. As usual, my sticker sheet was crumpled pretty badly, but I didn’t plan on applying them anyway. There were also two loose large plates in the box, which are the top and bottom of the trailer.

The first bag builds the crew, the racecar, and the toolbox. The car is a pretty simple yet effective build, and I did like the sideways double slopes to make the cockpit sides, which is both efficient and looks great. The kit also makes great use of the Formula 1 car nose and front wings piece from the Disney Cars line. The tool set included here is also new, having changed from the basic set of 6 tools on a sprue wheel that has been standard for almost 20 years to a new set of 9 tools. I’ll miss the old tools, but the new ones are super cool, too. The lug wrench, in particular, looks extremely useful, since it’s basically an X-shaped rod. Some of the tools are almost unchanged, but other tools have been redesigned to fit with LEGO dimensions in subtly different ways, and there are a few new additions, like the adjustable wrench.

The second bag contains the pieces for the truck. The truck is pretty standard, though I do wish it had 3 axles instead of only 2. There are several nice SNOT segments, such as the grill and the gas tanks on the sides. The front of the cab contains some good uses of lesser known SNOT pieces. LEGO designers have become much more receptive to using SNOT over the last decade, which is great. The complexity and accuracy of models is growing immensely, contrary to what my non-LEGO-fan coworkers and friends lament about frequently: “LEGOs were better when I was a kid; there weren’t all these special pieces that make it

too easy.” Take a look at that Gas Truck that I had as a kid; the cab is essentially the same sort of vehicle as the one in the Grand Prix Truck, but the difference between the two is enormous.

Finally, the last two bags build the trailer. The trailer is a really straightforward build, except that the bottom is a train base plate, and the wheel carriage actually attaches via Technic pins. There are two compartments in the trailer. The aft compartment is accessed by double doors on both sides of the trailer, and is a tool and cargo storage area. The main section of the trailer, however, is where the racecar goes. There’s a huge door that swings open on the left side of the trailer, allowing full access to the inside. The tailgate of the trailer folds down to create a ramp for the car. Unfortunately, the ramp is way too steep for the car to traverse; LEGO ought to have designed a hinged-ramp that can fold out to provide a shallower assent; as it is, driving the car into the trailer is pretty much a useless play feature, but if the ramp actually worked it would be great fun. The inside of the trailer is completely bare, but this would the perfect spot for lots of customization like adding tool racks and posters.

This is a solid set. The Octan colors are fun and interesting, and the vehicles feel weighty. The $30 price point feels justified here. There aren’t many unique pieces here, but for once I think that’s a boon. I can easily imagine someone having a lot of fun using the instructions to build a whole fleet of these cars and trucks in different team colors and having an epic race day.

Exclusive Designer Interview & Review of Set 70008 Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker

Ever since I saw the preliminary photos from last year’s New York Toy Fair, I knew I was going to buy this set and do a review for the blog. I also immediately knew that this set had to be the work of Mark Stafford. I asked Mark if he would be willing to answer a few questions for me to include in the review. Not only did he graciously agree to do so, but he also gave me some exclusive development photos (see below).

So first the review and then I will get to the interview:

One word for this set, FUN. Whether you are a 32 year old man-kinder like myself, or a 6 year old LEGO maniac like my oldest son, chances are you are going to love this set. I am not even going to get into a lot of details in terms of price per part ratios, collectibility of the minifigs etc. Instead I am just going to say, “Buy this set!”

The build itself is rather brilliant, with a lot of clever techniques for achieving a robust mecha of a satisfying girth. There is also a great selection of parts in fresh colours like dark azure, and a whole shwack of brackets, which I seem to always be running out of. But in all honesty, I am going to find it hard to take this thing apart to steal bricks, it is simply too much fun to play with (as evidenced by the video below).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tromas/9927563856/

So long story short boys and girls; I highly recommend this set whether you want something to play with, or you want a good selection of highly useful parts. And don’t even get me started on how awesome the new Gorilla tribe weapons are!

Now on to the interview (& the exclusive design pics!):

TBB: What was your initial inspiration for this set? Apart from the obvious
gorilla influence, I must admit that the first thing that came to mind upon
seeing the images of the set was the Iron Mecha Challenge that you were a
part of in the Mecha Hub flickr group a couple years back, did that have any
impact on the design?

Mark Stafford: Wow, yeah, the Iron Mecha 2 challenge was a bit weird, at that point we were already into early Chima development and myself and Jordan Schwartz had made ourselves stop building ‘FabuForce’ MOCs because it was too similar an idea. But I had promised to source the inspiration picture for Iron Mecha and LEGO Designer Luis Castenda had told me he had a Mecha image from his portfolio I could use. I got it from him at the last minute – and it was Gorilla inspired! I almost called the whole thing off, but figured that would be even more suspicious, so we went ahead with it. I built almost exactly what was in Luis’s picture, no real exploration of Gorilla’s or anything too far from the original image as I knew that this might come up soon at work! Sure enough, though Gorilla’s were not in the first launch I was asked to make a Mecha for the summer releases and I still had a ton of ideas I hadn’t used ready to try out!

TBB: How and when did the Chima cartoon factor into the design process of these
sets (if at all)? Because when I saw those gorilla mechs in the final
battle scene, I thought you may have been behind them, so it came as no
surprise when I found out that you were the designer of this set.

Mark Stafford: We need to send images of the main vehicles through very early in the process, pictures are taken of our sketch models on a gridded background for the animation company to start building 3D interpretations of, and from that point on no matter how many pieces change on the model its overall shape and dimensions should remain roughly the same. Once the TV guys have started work it’s very time consuming for them to change things. There was only one major change with the Gorilla Striker in that the original sketch had a glass cockpit, but this was just too far from the look we had established for the rest of Chima and of course this meant a modification of the TV model needed to be made.

TBB: I recall you telling a story about how you and the others designers of the
Ninjago line would toss around ideas for character names (some rather
hilarious ones resulted if I remember correctly). I am picturing a similar
situation for the development of the banana cannon, any funny story behind
that, or is it simply a creative stroke of Stafford genius?

Mark Stafford: Oh yes, the one eyed snake I wasn’t allowed to call ‘Trowza’… though that was nothing compared to the two hour giggle fest meeting because every single suggestion for the names of Power Miners vehicles sounding like an innuendo!

I can’t remember who first suggested the banana cannon for Chima but once it was an idea there was no way it was not going to be on this model whoever got to build it! Plus I knew from Power Miners that bananas work for kids; I included a banana in the Crystal Sweeper set after a kids test where we couldn’t find a prototype dynamite element and I threw in a banana instead, the kids played for an hour with the rock monsters stealing it and the miners having to get it back. Something about a banana in a set triggered a lot of imagination. This Striker has seven! In an ammo belt! Genius? Far from it, but definitely fun to play with!

TBB: The new weapon elements for the Gorilla Tribe minifigs look quite amazing.
Were you directly behind or involved in the design in any way? I ask this
because these elements seem like they were designed with the intention of
them being highly useful in alternate builds as opposed to being strictly
minifig weaponry.

Mark Stafford: The part designer for both the Gorilla fist and the Hammer elements was Gabriel Sas, like all of our new elements they have to fit into the LEGO system. The entire Chima team had brainstormed weapon ideas, coming up with a Gorilla Hammer and power fists. Then later we get to give input into the parts and we made some suggestions for what would be nice to include, but time is tight with these parts and I think there are a couple of things I would change to make them even more usable as building elements if I had the chance now. That’s always the way though, and they are still very nice and they are going to be hugely useful for details and for microscale builders or minifigure character makers!

TBB: How many prototypes did you go through for this set, and was there any feature from
your initial prototype that you had to sacrifice that you wished you could
have included in the final design?

Mark Stafford: There were about five serious redesign loops on this mecha – and that’s not counting the sketch models some other designers did before I started. There’s this one by Maarten Simons which was the first built with the banana cannon idea included and this grey futuristic one is by Soren Dryhoj and I stole ideas from both for my version. One of the things I hated dropping was the Chi-crystal being in the chest instead of on the chest flap, but I just couldn’t find a way to have it that way around without the door knocking it out of place every time it was closed. I also kind of wish the final version had a closed cockpit over the pilot, but I guess it would look like he had a transparent skull!

TBB: As a LEGO set designer, we know that you have to work within design
constraints in terms of balancing pieces, price and playability. What part
of this design did you find the most challenging in that regard?

Mark Stafford: It was the Raven’s lookout post. It grew and shrank constantly throughout the design process as expense came and went from the Gorilla Striker. The final version is not the largest that it got to, but it’s far from the smallest, and I think it gives plenty of play value – and a few extra cool new parts/colour changes too.

TBB: Over the years you have designed a lot of fantastic sets. How does this
one stack up to you personally in terms of your own favourites?

Mark Stafford: This has a few touches I’m pretty proud of, the locking of the body around the arm sockets and the way everything fits in around and through each other in the torso for example, and I’m really happy with the beefiness of this one, I don’t think I can make a heavier two legged mecha either, or at least not without fully locking the legs. I’m also happy to get more Dark Azure out there, I really like this colour!

TBB: This set certainly has the largest amount of dark azure parts out
of all the Chima line, did you include this colour because you feel guilty
about killing teal? (sorry, couldn’t resist throwing a teal question in
there ;)

Mark Stafford: You can explain how I killed teal (*), (it was a colour I really liked, that’s why it hurt so much) but yes, the two new Azure blues are in a similar part of the colour wheel and I like them both a lot, particularly Dark Azure, so I’ll use them whenever I get the chance, if it makes sense for the model. I don’t feel guilty about teal though – after all I saved purple!

*Mark’s first set as a LEGO designer, was the Exo-Force Dark Panther. He had the choice of making it in either purple or teal, and whichever colour he chose, the other would be cut from the colour palette. Obviously he chose purple. Hence, Mark Stafford Killed Teal.

TBB: Thanks again!

Mark Stafford: No problem.

Buy @ Amazon.ca

Lego Star Wars 75017: Duel on Geonosis [Review]

75017 Duel on Geonosis is one of the sets from the summer wave of Lego Star Wars. The set contains 390 pieces and retails for $39.99, which you can buy from Amazon.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

Includes unique minifigs such as a new Yoda, Count Dooku, and Poggle the Lesser
Hard to find parts include dark brown cheese slopes and brown 2×2 round bricks with grille
Decent play features

Cons:

Limited display value

This is a well rounded set that has good parts, minifigs, play features, and an acceptable price per part ratio. It probably won’t look good sitting on a shelf and is more meant to be played with or parted into your collection. Luckily Amazon has a small discount on the set at the moment.

The Lord of the Rings 79007: The Battle at the Black Gate [Review]

The summer wave of Lord of the Rings sets are skewed towards the high end of the price-range, with 79007 The Battle at the Black Gate in the middle at $60 USD. It does have a nice price-to-parts ratio, with 656 pieces. Beyond the fact that it’s a Lord of the Rings set, which I admittedly love, I wasn’t too thrilled about this set. After all, LEGO’s Battle at the Black Gate consists of, well, a black gate. And not much of a battle.

The gate has been scaled down nicely enough, though compared to the monstrously large gate seen on the screen in The Return of the King, LEGO’s seems laughably small. Still, that’s forgivable, since I doubt many people would be interested in purchasing a true-to-scale version of what amounts to a big wall (or be able to afford it). The gate is paired with a small tower, and two stone outcroppings which take the place of the mountain shoulders the gate is nestled between.

Inside the box are 4 numbered bags, a bag containing the eagle, and a loose dark bluish grey 6×24 plate. The 2 instruction manuals were pretty crumpled, as usual. For a very brief period LEGO a year or two ago packaged instruction manuals in a bag with a stiff piece of cardboard, and it helped immensely. I don’t know why they decided not to roll that out permanently, as it can be very frustrating trying to follow instructions when the pages keep curling up. For the first time in a long while in a set of this size, though, I discovered that there is no sticker sheet. Since I’m not a fan of stickers, I was happy to see that. In fact, the only decorated pieces in this set are the minifigures and animals, which is also a bit of a rarity these days. All 3 of the named minifigs wear capes, and all 3 capes were packaged together. This decision is of no consequence to me, but it is the first time I recall seeing it. As with most recent, large sets, there’s also a brick separator included, which is a nice trend.

The 4 bags break down into two each for the tower and the gate. The tower has a small postern door in the base which raises vertically with a lever, like an old-fashioned garage door. Both the tower and the gate have a lot of texturing on their surfaces which is accomplished by using mostly small pieces. It reminded me a lot of the building style of many of the adult-fan oriented sets like the modular city buildings, except that here everything is black. The abundance of various 1×1 elements explains the high part count. It’s always nice to get more Studs-Not-On-Top pieces, and this set has plenty. In fact, the tower uses 1×1 Technic bricks in many places where a regular 1×1 brick would have sufficed. The tower is topped with a small single-piece catapult, the medieval equivalent of a flick-fire missile.

The gate is built on a large, almost completely tiled base. It’s two large gate pieces which swing outward; more of a moving castle wall than anything else. They are secured in the back with large latch on a knob. Beyond being covered in the castle-y version of greebles, there’s not a lot to this. The tower, gate, and rock pieces each clip to each other via Technic pins, so you can change the layout, but only slightly. The rock pieces have to go on the ends, so basically the tower can just be on the left or the right.

The Battle at the Black Gate includes 5 minifigs, 1 horse, and 1 eagle. There are two orcs, which are slightly different from one another. The creepy-as-can-be Mouth of Sauron is a natural choice for this set. His helmet is rubbery and packaged in a small bag. No doubt the head with no eyes and a freakishly large mouth will do service in many fans’ horror dioramas.

Representing the forces of good are Aragorn in regal garb and Gandalf the White. Both of these versions are exclusive to this set, and I’d guess that fact will contribute heavily to the sales of this set. The Mouth of Sauron’s mount is a black horse. There is armor printed on the horse’s head, which between that and the beady red eyes will reduce its usefulness. Finally, there’s the giant eagle. The eagle comes in both this set and the $200 Tower of Orthanc, so many people simply wanting an eagle will do best to opt for this set at less than 1/3 the price. The eagle is 3 pieces: two wings and a body. Each of the individual elements are completely rigid and non-posable, though the wings connect to the body via LEGO’s standard clip system allowing them to be positioned. The single-piece body doesn’t do much for me, but I can’t wait to try out the giant wings in various MOCs.

In the end, this is a rather boring set. Despite the high piece count, the final model feels small for the price. The problem here is not one of LEGO’s making; they did an admirable job considering the source material. But when your source is a giant gate, there’s only so much you can do. The build-quality is great; it’s just a boring subject. And it’s hard to have a finale-worthy battle with only 5 minifigs, but I doubt LEGO could have feasibly pushed the price point any higher to accommodate more figs, and making the gate any smaller would have been disastrous. I doubt many people will be interested in buying this set because of the gate itself, so the minifigs are the real selling point here, and they are indeed very nice. If you’re interested in getting your hands on any of the rare or exclusive minifigs in this set, then it’s a must-have. Beyond that, I’d give this set a pass, unless you’re running low on your stock of small black pieces.

Lego Minecraft The Nether 21106 [Review]

Lego Minecraft The Nether is among the two new Lego Minecraft sets released in September. The set contains 466 pieces and retails for $34.99, which you can buy from Amazon.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

Lots of dark red 1×1 tiles and bricks, the gray and black tiles can also be useful.
The 1×1 bright light orange tiles are unique to the set

Cons:

There is limited modularity of the set compared to the other two Minecraft sets
The top surface does not have any notable features

This set is not as great as The Village. It has fewer features and modular components. I feel like this is the weakest of the 3 Minecraft sets. It’s a different story if you like dark red of the setting of The Nether. As with Minecraft sets stock can be unpredictable, so now is as good as any time to get it. It does not appear that Lego stores has them for sale.

Lego Minecraft The Village 21105 [Review]

Lego Minecraft The Village is among the two new Lego Minecraft sets released in September. The set contains 469 pieces and retails for $34.99, which you can buy from Amazon.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

Includes extra copies of the printed pieces on all 3 micro mob characters
Features 2 removable wall panels
The 1×1 dark green and dark tan tiles are unique to the set

Cons:

Nothing! Unless Lego Minecraft isn’t your cup of tea.

I recommend this set to both builders and Minecraft fans. It is an improvement over the first Lego Minecraft set with the addition of the removable walls. The currently exclusive dark green and dark tan tiles is a huge bonus for builders, and the extra printed parts for the micro mob characters means you’ll easily be able to make 2 of each with a few parts from your own collection. Don’t hesitate to pick up this set as stock can be unpredictable. It does not appear that Lego stores has them for sale either.

Amazing Vehicles LEGO Build-It Book [Review]

No Starch Press recently sent me a copy of one of their latest LEGO books, Amazing Vehicles, to review. It retails for $20 USD, though you can currently nab it over at Amazon for $15. Written by Nathanaël Kuipers and Mattia Zamboni, it’s a giant instruction manual in book form for building ten different vehicles. This is Volume 1, and the second volume is slated for release next month.

I’ve never been much interested in any of the unofficial build-it-yourself books, regardless of subject matter, because I always thought that if I’m going to build something that isn’t a set, I want to build my own model that I can claim. Additionally, I’m not much of a vehicle builder.

Nevertheless, since I wanted to give the book a proper review, I sat down to build one of the models. I chose to build number 9, the Street Rod. The book uses the same master set of parts for all of the vehicles, which are laid out on one of the first pages. If you’re just building a single model, though, like I was, you won’t need all of the pieces, and I found it annoying that each model didn’t have a page showing what parts are needed for it.

Instead, I gathered all of the parts for it the slow way, by manually going through each instruction step and finding the necessary pieces in my collection. While a lot of the parts are pretty common, unless you buy a lot of creator sets, chances are you won’t have all of the necessary pieces in the right colors. The book is quick to encourage builders to find substitutes, though. I found all but one red curved slope 2x4x2/3, which I substituted with a 1×4 tile and some cheese slopes (it goes on the rear bumper).

Instruction-ified The book is high quality, printed on heavy paper, and the instructions are crisp and clear.

The black pieces (notoriously hard to make out) were even easy to see. I did find the difference between white and tan to be frustratingly hard to see, and honestly I’m not even sure why the models need any tan: the entire book only calls for 3 pieces in tan, and they are mostly used in hidden places.

So I began building the car, and it started off pretty much the way you would expect a Creator-type car to start: some long plates for the base that you build up from. Immediately, though, I was surprised to find that the plates are actually facing upside down, and the entire car chassis is built studs-down. The direction reverses part-way up, and the hood and trunk are studs up.

The engine area was filled with a nifty bit of Studs Not On Top (SNOT) work, and some clever half-stud offsetting. The final model is a snappy looking little roadster, similar in size to the 150-200 piece official Creator vehicles. It’s definitely a lot larger than minifig scale, being 8 studs wide, although I don’t think minifigs would look terribly out of place in it (although, sadly, there’s no legroom for them). I was very impressed with the overall build quality, and I hope the rest of the vehicles in the book hold up to this standard. Seasoned LEGO builders who are used to working with SNOT techniques won’t find anything new here, but for someone who is just getting into using more advanced building techniques, there’s a lot to learn here. This book would have been a goldmine if I’d had it when I was a teenage builder.

MiniMi – A new LEGO minifig app

I was invited to try out the new minifig app, MiniMi, while it was still in beta. It is a fun, novelty app and I actually spent quite a bit of time trying different comibinations of figures, making myself, my family members and what-not. My kids absolutely loved it. Overall, it is well made and pretty intuitive to use. It’s an entertaining app, in and of itself. Also it is free to download, which is nice. There are also expansion packs, such as Space and Castle (yay!), which cost 99 cents each.

However, I think this app has the potential to really shine as a customizing tool. How so? Because it has the only minifig face generator of which I am aware (feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong). Switching hair, hats, torsos and colors in the app is pretty straightforward but the face generator is something unique. You can choose from a selection of eyes, eyebrows, mouths, facial hair, glasses and so forth to create unique faces that don’t actually exist on official minifigs. Because the app has built in share functions, you can export your fig image…isolate the face…resize and print it on decal or sticker paper.

Currently the number of elements in the app is limited but the expansion “packs” remedy this somewhat and the team is planning more. If they expand the library of facial elements, I think this app could be something really special. I would also like to see a feature added to where the user could resize and/or change the colors of the various facial features but this may come with time.

Download it here.

21103 Back to the Future DeLorean [Video Review]

To complement our previous DeLorean review by Andrew, I’m bringing you a video review of 21103 Back to the Future DeLorean. The set was released in August 2013 and retails at $34.99, with 401 pieces and 2 minifigs.

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below.

Pros:

2 new and popular minifigs
Nicer than usual packaging and bound instruction book
Includes extra parts for different versions of the DeLorean

Cons:

No new/rare parts used in the DeLorean besides the printed tiles
DeLorean hood design is not optimal
Car seats only 1 minifig

Overall, I would recommend this set more to fans of the movie and collectors than to builders. Even though the set has an above average price to parts ratio, buying this set for parts won’t add much to the diversity of your collection due to the lack of rare and new parts from this set. If you’re into collecting, then this set is a must-buy due to its novelty and popularity.

LEGO Star Wars 10236 Ewok Village [Review]

The highly anticipated new LEGO Star Wars set, 10236 Ewok Village, was just released in mid-August. It costs $249.99 for 1,990 parts and is the first Star Wars mega set that’s not a spacecraft. It is currently available in Lego stores and Lego Shop at Home for VIP members (free to sign up).

Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review video below. For those interested in the parts content, you can check out the parts review video here.

Pros:

Lots of foliage and earth tones such as dark brown parts. This is a great set for landscape builders
Plenty of play features add play value on top of looks
The 3 main trees are also modular and can be easily switched around.
16 minifigs — exclusives include Princess Leia, Luke, Han Solo, Wicket, Ewok warrior, and Teebo.

Cons:

A bit on the pricey side. $200 would be an ideal price.
Tube railings are difficult to bend into shape.
Instructions hard to read when distinguishing brown from dark brown

If you can afford this set, then there’s no other major reason not to get it. This is a very unique set that’s as good for play as it is for display. The abundant earth tones and the foliage make it suitable for landscape builders, and not many sets have this high ratio of landscape parts. It is unlikely that the price will drop soon, and you’ll be lucky to see it at 10% off in 2013, so I recommend buying it now and start enjoying this wonderful build.