LEGO Reviews

I'm going to take a detour here and review something that is not a set. It's the only item that I got this week for myself that's LEGO related. I want to talk with you about the book LEGO Star Wars: Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy by Vesa Lehtimaki. First, the technical information: TITLE: LEGO Star Wars: Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy AUTHOR: Vesa Lehtimaki FORMAT: Hardc

Preview of  10243-1 Parisian Restaurant Deciding to build the Parisian Restaurant was mainly due to the positive response it received in a Brickpicker forum topic. Many people chose the 10243-1 as their favourite Modular Building Series(MBS) set. I did not know a lot about it and what better way to build the set to see if those people had a point in picking this set. It was released in January 2014 and is still widely available at the moment of writing. The Parisian Restaurant is the ninth set

Preview of 31026-1 Bike Shop & Cafe It is with mixed feelings that I start the review about this set.  The set is a fairly new set (May 2014) and it's a part of the Creator series. It would fit in perfectly with a City setup and there is a possibility to use the parts for a MOC.  The MSRP is 79.99€ in Europe($89.99 in the US) and has 1023 pieces. The mixed feelings come from the fact that when I choose sets to review, I choose them on basis of display ability.  At first sight, it does not l

I like Super Hero sets. I think there's a lot of people who do. Well, ok not so much the sets. A lot of people like the minifigures. DC and Marvel Super Heroes sets by LEGO tend to be heavy on lame playsets or jets or bank trucks. There's also a lot of motorcycles. If it's a Batman set, there's almost never anything new. In76053 we get not one, but 2 Motorcycles. I kind of shake my head and try to figure out if it's worth doing a review. Well, let's just see, shall we? &

It's the holiday season, so pour a glass of eggnog and get your ginger snaps close at hand. Actually, are ginger snaps a holiday thing? I have no idea. Maybe I should just talk about the set. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 10245 Name: Santa's Workshop Theme: Creator (Winter Village) Parts: 883 Price: $69.99 Before we get to the build, let’s talk value. At $69.99 the price per piece works out to just under $.08 each. This is much better than th

Welcome back to another installment of For the Distinguished Lego Batman Collector!  Next on tap is a review of the three sets of DC Comics Mighty Micros: 76061 Batman vs. Catwoman, 76062 Robin vs. Bane, and 76063 The Flash vs. Captain Cold.  Full disclosure: I was pretty excited about grabbing these at my local Lego Store.  These chibi-style mini-builds are DC's version of Star Wars Microfighters and, as any distinguished Lego Batman collector might be, was excited to see chibis appear i

I am not a little girl. I know that may come as a surprise to some. I have never built a LEGO Friends, Elves or Princess set, but I have helped my daughter build a couple. With that in mind, I asked my little girl to help me with this set. I thought it might be valuable to get the insight of the target market for the Water Dragon Adventure set. She was excited to help me, and her younger sister tried to "help" as well. So, in this review, we're going to take a look at the stuff that inter

Let me start by explaining that this particular review focuses solely upon the physical contents of the LEGO Dimensions set 71204 Doctor Who Level pack. For those who do not know about LEGO Dimensions, it is the newest addition to the LEGO video game library. The game allows users to customize their gameplay by adding minifigures and minibuild objects. The Minifigure chips unlock characters with unique abilities. The minibuilds have 3 different modes that each have in game instructions. T

LEGO Elves was launched in March 2015. This set was released in a small second wave late that summer. I purchased this set at RRP a few days after release, but it has taken me until now to actually put it together. Below is my finished product:   SET DETAILS: Set #: 41078 Name: Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle Theme: LEGO Elves Parts: 808 Regular Retail Price: $79.99   BOX CONTENTS For this set, there are 7 numbered bags, one loose 6 X 12 dark sand beige

I have been excited for this set for a long time. Most of the time, LEGO keeps a tight lid on their upcoming products. You only officially get to know about what is coming out a month or so before it is released. This, however, is an Ideas set. LEGO implemented a program wherein they allow people to submit their ideas for consideration. The ideas need to be a fully completed MOC (My Own Creation). Public users of the site can browse all of the submissions and deci

LEGO Ideas sets are projects that were submitted by fans and voted on by other fans. If a project got 10,000 supporters, the LEGO Group brought it under review. In the review process, they decided if the project fit their standards, if there was a reasonable chance that the supporters would actually purchase it, and if the build itself was feasible. They make certain changes to the set to make it fit more appropriately within their standards and release only a small portion of those that

I remember that there was a weird point in the 90's when second string comic characters suddenly became popular. Inexplicably, guys like Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer and Moon Knight picked up in popularity and no one could explain it, so we all just sort of went along with it. Ever since then, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Ghost Rider. Possessed stunt rider Johnny Blaze or geeky teenager Danny Ketch transforming into the spirit of vengeance and riding a flaming motorcycle while flail

As much as I enjoy LEGO's super hero offerings, sometimes they put out characters that I just don't really care about. It's not that I don't like Doctor Strange, I just really never cared about him at all. When I first saw this set, I was struck with how interesting it looked. It's kind of like the Big Bang Theory set, but more interesting. You know, because of a giant Cthulu monster popping out of the wall. This set is exclusive to Target and to LEGO Shop at home, or LEGOLAND shops. This is the

REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 76067 Name: Tanker Truck Takedown Theme: Marvel Super Heroes Parts: 330 Price: $29.99 BOX CONTENTS Some people may wind up picking up a set that is open box or, want to verify the box contents before beginning a build. For this set, there are 3 numbered baggies, a sticker sheet, and 2 instruction books. BUILD AND EXECUTION: BAG 1: We Hawkeye: Hey Cap, I'm here for the big fight. Captain America: Oh, great Hawkeye, we're early, so you

The Avenjet Space Mission is yet another Super Heroes set, where some random vehicle is thrown in to give the LEGO Group something to hang a bunch of minifigures on. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad set, just that it may not be something that fans really care nothing about. I really badly wanted some of the minifigures with this set, so I went ahead and got it. I figured there would be some out there who wondered if this set was worth getting. Let's review. REVIEW: SET DE

I love Captain America. For over twenty years, if you asked me who my favorite super hero was, I'd tell you Cap. When Ed Brubaker introduced Winter Soldier it blew my mind, I loved Bucky as a character, which is something I never had done before. LEGO's Black Panther Pursuit has both of these characters. I was ecstatic when I heard about it.  There's something that people probably know about Super Heroes sets. Invariably they will contain some kind of plane, motorcycle, truck, or helicopter

I read Captain America comics for at least 20 years. Crossbones was an interesting character to me, a nutcase that idolized Red Skull. With the small number of villains that are not related to Spider-Man in some way, I doubted I'd see him anytime soon. LEGO threw me a curveball with Crossbones Hazard Heist and delivered Crossbones. I felt a lack when LEGO did nothing for Captain America: the Winter Soldier. We didn't get movie Falcon or Winter Soldier 2 years ago. They've made up for that

I couldn't really get behind the Mighty Micros sets. Something about the short legs and the goofy expressions didn't click with me. At least the Microfighters have normal sized minifigures. But I kept looking at those goofy expressions and I could sort of dig them. I like Captain America, and the idea of a Unique, goofy Captain America half appealed to me. I kept picking up Captain America Vs. Red Skull and putting it back because I didn't relish the thought of spending money on something soooo

I loved the Captain America: Civil War movie. I loved the chance to get Giant-Man, Agent 13 and War Machine. I felt lukewarm about the chance to add another Iron Man and Captain America to my collection. Here was my chance to recreate the epic airport battle between 3 iconic super heroes and the 9 second-stringers that they brought along. (I say that with love since I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Hawkeye, Winter Soldier and Black Widow.) Wait, the packaging conveys so much depth o

LEGO hasn't released much for one of the flagship titles of the Marvel comics universe. Marvel Super Heroes X-Men vs. Sentinel is only the second set featuring those popular mutants. 4 Popular characters, an iconic vehicle, and the most notorious instruments of government sponsored mass murder in the Marvel Universe should lead to one of the best sets that LEGO has produced for this theme. Let's take a look and see how well they accomplished  what should be an amazing set. Let's review.

Sometimes I get random sets if I find them cheap enough. Usually they are broken down for parts, and the minifigures are sold off to defray the costs. I don't usually think much about those sets if they don't fit in with the themes that I collect. My kids have taken to watching Ninjago over and over on Netflix. I happened to have a few Ninjago sets and let them have a couple. They love them. I thought I would take a moment to look at one of the remaining sets that I have. Are the builds fun? Is

In a previous review, I looked at an exclusive Star Wars LEGO set from Target, the Hailfire Droid 75085. This time I thought I would look at the one remaining exclusive set from Walmart, Anakin's Custom Jedi Starfighter. This is the ship that Anakin flew in Star Wars: Clone Wars. For those of you who don't know or don't remember, in 2003 between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, there was a short lived animated series called Clone Wars. This series was loved by some, hated by

I never had a LEGO system scale AT-ST. I got a UCS one from a comic shop, but that's not really the same. Even when I was a kid in the 80's, this was never my favorite vehicle. Now I look at my AT-AT and feel like it's missing something. The AT-AT is missing its little brother AT-ST. I was so excited to find out that this vehicle was coming for Rogue One. I really needed to fill out my display. It doesn't matter what minifigures are with it, as long as it fits with my Original Trilogy stuff. I d

The winter wave of Star Wars LEGO sets has begun to hit. The Force Awakens sets are front and center, just the way that should be expected weeks after the movie is released. Since they are here, it is time for a review. In this installment, we'll be looking at the set that is the turning point of the movie that brings our heroes and villains more firmly into their roles, the Battle on Takodana. REVIEW: SET DETAILS Set #: 75139 Name: Battle on Takodana Theme: Star

As a countdown to the Force Awakens, I will be writing at least one Star Wars review each week. This polybag was available for free with a $40 qualifying LEGO Star Wars purchase from Toys R Us. Some stores allowed buyers to purchase some for $3.99, but not every store did, and not even the same quantities. EDIT: Toys R Us appears to have shipped more of these to some stores and increased the price to $5.99. REVIEW: