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.

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

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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.

altBricks review

Many of you may have noticed some recent creations featuring leaves in colors that Lego doesn’t produce. They come from a custom vendor called altBricks, who sent me a sample of their products to review. The parts are inexpensive and are sold in bulk, but their reduced quality may be of concern to some. Check out the video review to see what I mean.

Swoop Bag makes clean up of “play LEGO” a snap [Review]

This review is about an unusual item, namely one made for storage of LEGO rather than building with it. Sarah Kirk, the owner of Swoop Bag, sent us one to check out some time ago. My apologies to Swoop Bag for the delay in reviewing it.

This is actually a rather interesting product. Similar to the play-mats that LEGO made back in the 70s, the Swoop Bag is a combination play-mat and storage bag, designed to transform from storage to play-space and back again.

It consists of a 44 inch, round canvas mat with a nylon draw-string encased in a sleeve around the edge. The sleeve doubles as a containment “wall” when the bag is in play-mat mode. Place a pile of LEGO in the middle of the mat and build away. When you are finished simply pull on the draw-string and the mat folds up around the brick and transforms into a handy storage bag. It makes picking up a pile of brick surprisingly easy and hung up on a hook, ready for the next build session.

Pros:
The bag is very sturdy and it can hold quite a bit of brick. I dumped in an 18 gallon bin of brick (unsorted, of course) and it held it just fine. My six year old son was able to operate the bag, open or closed, in about 20 seconds. The sleeve around the edge is a lot better than the old LEGO play-mats in that the cord is almost completely enclosed. The cords on the old mats got in the way and tripped kids up. It also comes in two sizes now. We only reviewed the larger one but the smaller one looks like it would ideal for travel. The bag is also machine-washable.

Cons:
It is designed for a child’s collection of brick. It is perfect for my kids’ collection of LEGO but doesn’t have much use in my collection. This isn’t really a “con” so much as a design limitation. The price may also turn off some buyers. The large bag is priced at $48 USD, which is a lot to pay for something to keep your kid-brick in. The smaller bag is $26 USD.

Overall, I really liked the Swoop Bag. It is sturdy, makes clean up of “play brick” a snap, and my kids can do it by themselves. Obviously a lot of time and thought went into the design of the bag and it shows. This is a high quality item that will last for years. While the price is high, the ease of cleanup makes it worth it. If you have “play brick” and it gets used on a regular basis I would recommend checking out the Swoop Bag.

LEGO Hobbit 79010 Goblin King Battle [Review]

After what seems like an eternity, I am finally getting to my review of 79010 The Goblin King Battle. I don’t like picture-heavy reviews so don’t expect any of my own. I will be talking about three aspects of this set: part selection, minifigs and set design.

To begin with, the part selection in this set is very good. I’m a castle builder at heart and this set is chock full of castle/fantasy goodness, as you would expect from a Lord of The Rings set (yes, it’s the Hobbit, but you know what I mean). There are tons of dark grey slopes and such, lots of brown bits and loads of decorative bits such as bones, books, weapons, jewels, etc. There were around twenty pieces that used stickers. The majority of those were tiles with various wood grains. I would have preferred that those were printed, but I know that LEGO is mostly going with stickers these days. The only piece that really suffers from the sticker use is the 2×2 tile/scroll that the Goblin Scribe is supposed to hold. If you actually have him hold it, his hand messes up the edge of the sticker. Printing would have been a much better choice for this piece. However, overall I was mostly very happy with the parts selection.

Secondly, the minifigs are a fun assortment. Naturally LEGO dispersed the 13 dwarves throughout all the sets. In this one you get Ori, Dori and Nori. You also get Gandalf, the Goblin King and three goblins. The three dwarves all very decent figs. I really like their torsos. Ori’s hairpiece is a bit boring since it simply Ron’s hair from the Harry Potter line in brown. The other two are unique to these figs. Gandalf is the same as the one in the small cart set. LEGO lists it as different figure but the only difference is that this one has a sword. The three goblins are each unique. This surprised me. I was expecting all three to have the same torso. They have the same heads, headpiece and two have the same legs. The goblin scribe has stubby legs. That just leaves the Goblin King. He is obviously supposed to be the highlight of the set. I was rather under-whelmed by him. I am a fan of the giant trolls and such but the Goblin King leaves something to be desired. He is going to be hard to use for anything else. I hope someone does (and I have some plans myself) but there are some design elements that are really going to get in the way. The main issue is his crown. It doesn’t come off. You can remove the three spikes but the base of the crown is part of the figure and seriously limits the versatility. The snarling expression and printed hair down the back are also issues but they are easier to work around.

Read the rest of the review after the jump!

10937 Arkham Asylum Breakout [Review]

Here is a review of 10197 Arkham Asylum Breakout where I talk about the parts and the model while highlighting some interesting building techniques. In summary, while there are only a few new pieces in this set, it is well-designed and features noteworthy techniques such as the stained glass window, sliding jail doors and more.

Ninjago: 70502 Cole’s Earth Driller [Review]

When I was buying sets to review, I had wanted to purchase 70501 Warrior Bike, but unfortunately wasn’t able to get it, so I settled instead for 70502 Cole’s Earth Driller, which is similarly sized. Although I still want to get the Warrior Bike eventually, I’m happy I got Cole’s Earth Driller, because it turned out to have more interesting pieces than I’d thought. It has 171 pieces, and retails for USD $19.99.

The set consists of a lone bad guy, and the eponymous earth driller, driven by Cole, who always gets the black vehicles in the Ninjago color-coded universe. Inside the box are three bags (not numbered), the instruction book, and a sheet of stickers. Now, those who have read my previous reviews know I’m not a fan of stickers. But I applied all save one (the canopy sticker) of the stickers that came in this set. They were simply too cool and too useful for me not to apply (though I’d still rather have printing). The best of the lot was easily the big sand green sticker which goes just under the front of the cockpit. I’m not sure exactly how the designs on it and on the black stickers go with the aesthetic of the Ninjago world, but they look purpose-made for Steampunk builders. Bravo, I say. The earth driller is a good sized vehicle for a set of this price, being around 30 studs long, and of course has a huge drill on the front. It’s the same mechanism as was introduced in the Power Miners sets, with the larger black part spinning in counter-rotation to the pearl gold drill when the vehicle is driven forward. The whole car is built on a Technic frame, which makes it tremendously sturdy. Both the drill and the 4×4 circular plates in the rear wheels are new in pearl gold, and I’m always happy to get new pieces in that color.

The minifigs included are standard fair for this wave of Ninjago, but cool nonetheless. Cole is simply a black version of the red warrior Kai in the Fire Mech set (read my review here), though there are some subtle differences in the printing between the two, such as different logos and buckles. Likewise, the bad guy is very similar to the one in Kai’s Fire Mech, except that I guess this one is higher ranked, since he’s taller and sports pauldrons. He also has a different, cool blue mask for a face. The pauldrons are a new piece to this line, along with the ninjas’ super swords. Cole’s sword here is identical in shape to Kai’s yellow one, but Cole’s is trans-bright green with a trans-black infusion. Here are links to the inventory pages.

This seems a very solid set for the price, though I do wish it had at least one more play-feature, like rear suspension or a pop-up missile or something. It’s a very chunky, heavy vehicle with a huge drill on the front, which I suppose is precisely what you’d want on a real earth driller, but it leaves me wishing for something more. The minifigs are great, and I’ll definitely be getting more of the stickered pieces.

79103 Turtle Lair Attack [Review]

Here is a video review of 79103 Turtle Lair Attack. It was just made available from the Lego store and online. I enjoyed building this set and it has many colorful earth-toned bricks that may be useful. There are also several play features as I will show in the video. It’s a decent set and well rounded in all aspects.

76004 Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase [Review]

Here is a video review of 76004 Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase. It’s not particularly amazing in any aspect but features a cool building technique. The retail price is $19.99 and was available on Amazon before going temporarily out of stock.